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Officials said Sunday that the 2-year-old beige Labrador named Gael is back with his MGPD handler.

According to police, someone called the department Sunday to report that he believed he spotted Gael in front of his home near North Miami Avenue and Northwest 191st Street.

Police said officers immediately responded to the area and confirmed the dog was Gael.

The K-9 was transported to VCA Animal Hospital “for treatment and evaluation and remained overnight for further observation,” the police department said in a press release. “Fortunately, Gael appears to be in good health and is continuing to be evaluated as a precaution.”

The positive update comes several days after the department issued a desperate plea to the public.

It started last Monday, Sept. 7, around 9:30 p.m. when officers said Gael jumped out of a police cruiser and ran across the street on Northwest Second Avenue.

Local 10 News obtained surveillance video showing Gael running down the street, sprinting past businesses.

The search throughout the week would be extensive, as Sky 10 captured the department’s mobile command trucks at the scene while officers went door to door, searching for their four-legged colleague.

“All of our canines are very special to our department,” Miami Gardens Police Spokeswoman Diana Delgado said at the time. “They’re all trained to the best of their capacity, and with the best trainers.”

Miami Gardens PD posted a thank you message to all the members of the public who called in tips and helped to locate Gael.

“The Miami Gardens Police Department is grateful for K-9 Gael’s safe recovery and extends its sincere appreciation to the concerned citizen whose attentiveness led to Gael being located,” MGPD said in a statement. “We also thank our law enforcement partners, community members, and everyone who assisted in the search, shared information, and remained vigilant throughout the past several days.

“We are pleased to welcome K-9 Gael home and are thankful for the outpouring of support from our community.”

The Dolphins had trouble protecting Willis throughout the game, with Raiders EDGE Maxx Crosby repeatedly creating pressure. Miami’s offense also was hurt by penalties and turnovers as the Raiders controlled much of the game physically.

Las Vegas scored on its opening possession after forcing Miami to punt, moving the ball with a combination of Ashton Jeanty’s running game and short passing from quarterback Kirk Cousins. The drive ended when Cousins found Jack Bech for a touchdown, giving the Raiders an early 7-0 lead.

A questionable taunting penalty on cornerback JuJu Brents after a hit by Dolphins safety Zayne Anderson extended another Las Vegas drive. The Raiders took advantage and eventually built a 10-0 lead.

The Dolphins struggled to sustain drives in the first half.

Back-to-back holding penalties on center Aaron Brewer and tackle Patrick Paul pushed Miami back, but Willis responded with a 25-yard completion on second-and-26 to set up a third-and-1. The Raiders stopped running back De’Von Achane on the next play, and Riley Patterson kicked a 35-yard field goal.

Cousins continued to rely on the short passing game, finding Jeanty in the flat for a touchdown that extended the Raiders’ lead.

Willis and Caleb Douglas then provided Miami with a much-needed spark. Willis found Douglas in the slot for a 30-yard gain, setting up Patterson’s second field goal of the game.

Douglas had four catches for 81 yards by halftime as Miami went into the break trailing 13-6.

The Dolphins defense gave the offense another opportunity early in the second half when rookie safety Michael Taaffe intercepted Cousins.

Willis then found rookie wide receiver Chris Bell for his first career catch, a 25-yard reception, before connecting with Douglas for another 13 yards.

Miami eventually reached the end zone when Willis scrambled to the left and rookie tight end Will Kacmarek led the way as Willis scored on a 14-yard run, cutting the Raiders’ lead to 17-13.

However, Las Vegas answered immediately.

Cousins connected with wide receiver Tre Tucker on a deep completion before finding Jeanty for another touchdown. Jeanty finished with 102 yards rushing and 147 all-purpose yards.

Willis later threw a deep pass toward the middle of the field for Douglas, but Raiders safety Treydan Stukes intercepted the pass.

Miami’s special teams nearly provided another opportunity when running back Jaylen Wright broke loose for a 79-yard kickoff return. The Dolphins couldn’t capitalize, however, as Patterson missed wide left on his third field-goal attempt.

The Dolphins defense came up with another turnover when safety Dante Trader Jr. intercepted Cousins after the Raiders quarterback double-clutched and threw his second turnover of the game.

Again, Miami couldn’t turn the takeaway into points.

Crosby got through tackle Austin Jackson on the right side of the Dolphins’ offensive line and recorded his second sack of the game. He later drew a hands-to-the-face penalty.

Crosby added another sack with just under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, bull-rushing through Paul after getting pressure up the middle.

Hafley said throughout training camp that he wanted to give Achane as many touches as possible, but the Pro Bowl running back was held in check for much of the afternoon, finishing with 11 carries for 36 yards and four catches for 30 yards. Miami’s offense struggled to create room against a physical Raiders defense.

Willis showed flashes as both a passer and runner but at times held onto the ball too long, allowing the Raiders’ pass rush to get home as Crosby led the way with two sacks in the game.

Douglas was one of the few consistent bright spots for Miami. The 2026 third-round pick finished his NFL debut with five catches for 94 yards.

Dolphins linebacker Jacob Rodriguez also had a strong showing, recording a game-high 14 tackles, including five solo stops, along with multiple tackles for loss. The Dolphins’ 2026 second-round pick also served as the team’s defensive playcaller.

Cornerback Chris Johnson struggled at nickel and gave up a touchdown reception to Jeanty. Johnson finished with 11 tackles, second on the team, but the high tackle total also reflected how often he was targeted in passing plays.

Miami’s offensive drought ended with another turnover when Malik Washington fumbled after taking a big hit from Raiders defensive back Jeremy Chinn.

Cousins finished with three touchdown passes and two interceptions, but his ability to sustain drives with short throws helped the Raiders control the game.

The Dolphins will need better play from their offensive line and more production from their playmakers beyond Douglas when they return to action next week.

Up next

The Dolphins (0-1) travel to face the San Francisco 49ers (1-0) next Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

The Raiders (1-0) visit the Los Angeles Chargers (0-1) at SoFi Stadium.

Cody Gray, 34, of Maitland, was taken into custody after the ship ― which authorities did not identify in an arrest report ― returned to PortMiami on Saturday.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Gray met the victim early Saturday morning at sea after she had had a drink at the club.

The report states that Gray gave the woman “three additional drinks” as they “socialized.”

Deputies said the victim told Gray that she did not want to have sex with him, but, while drunk, the two went back to Gray’s cabin, where authorities said he raped her.

“The victim was unconscious after the intercourse, when her parents were located and directed to (Gray’s) cabin,” the report states. “The victim advised the ship staff and her parents that she did not recall the details of what occurred inside (the) cabin but reiterated that she never consented to have any sexual activity with (Gray).”

Gray, appearing in bond court on Sunday, was ordered held without bond pending an additional hearing. In addition to the sexual battery charge, he also faces a charge of giving alcohol to a minor.

As of Monday, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

“Vamos a presentar un decreto ante la Asamblea Legislativa para ampliar el estado de excepción. Una comisión legislativa también ha presentado la misma solicitud”, anticipó el fin de semana el ministro de Gobierno, Marco Antonio Oviedo.

El presidente centroderechista Rodrigo Paz dictó la medida hace tres meses para frenar las duras protestas con cortes de rutas que por 53 días paralizaron gran parte del país entre junio y julio y que reclamaban su renuncia.

La Constitución establece que una vez finalizado el estado de excepción no puede declararse otro en un año, a menos que sea aprobado por La Asamblea.

La semana pasada una comisión de diputados oficialistas aprobó una resolución para ampliar la medida por 90 días ante anuncios de movilización de varios sectores y sindicatos por la escasez de combustible y dólares que están elevando los precios.

“No estamos de acuerdo en ampliar el estado de excepción. De nada sirve, el gobierno no soluciona los problemas de la gente”, dijo la diputada Elena Pachucute del bloque mayoritario de oposición.

“La gente necesita seguridad en las calles y seguridad jurídica para seguir trabajando. La ampliación es necesaria”, sostuvo la oficialista Claudia Bilbao.

Los gremios empresariales están demandando la prorroga de la medida y han planteado una ley contra el corte de rutas. Sólo la Asamblea Legislativa regional de Santa Cruz aprobó una norma contra los bloqueos para su jurisdicción. Transportistas, vendedores informales, maestros y cocaleros, entre otros, anticiparon movilizaciones.

Adiós al subsidio a los combustibles

De ampliarse la medida tendrá vigencia hasta fin de año, cuando el gobierno anunció que quitará totalmente el subsidio a los carburantes que tiene un alto costo fiscal y es una de las condiciones del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) para desembolsar un crédito de 1.900 millones de dólares. Hace nueve meses se levantó parcialmente el subsidio.

Paz heredó problemas acumulados de gobiernos anteriores como la caída en la producción de hidrocarburos, dificultades para importar combustibles y otros productos, escasez de divisas, inflación y un creciente malestar.

En casi un año de gobierno Paz no ha logrado resolver los problemas heredados y se ha visto salpicado por escándalos que mermaron más su credibilidad, según analistas.

“El gobierno usó el estado de excepción para desmovilizar a los sindicatos, pero no para resolver los problemas y ahora está en mayor fragilidad política”, opinó la analista Jimena Costa a radio Panamericana.

Brandon Vickers, 40, of Homestead, was identified by two witnesses as one of the shooters in the Oct. 21, 2024 incident, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

Investigators said the shootout between neighbors and several people in a passing vehicle happened at approximately 7:45 p.m. in front of 20151 SW 89th Ave., near Franjo Park.

According to the arrest report, Vickers and several other people arrived in two stolen vehicles with unassigned license plates and began firing multiple times toward the victims.

One victim was struck in the right thigh and another was shot in the right ankle, authorities said. Both were transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to Jackson South Medical Center.

Investigators said two witnesses identified Vickers as a shooter. The witnesses also recorded video of the vehicle Vickers was allegedly in as it fled the area.

The arrest report also states that Vickers had previously been involved in gang-related shootings connected to people with whom the victims were associated.

At the time of the shooting, residents told Local 10 News that a group of people had been having dinner outside shortly before 8 p.m. when the shooting occurred.

A children’s baseball game was also underway at nearby Franjo Park when gunfire erupted, sending families rushing to take cover.

Mickey Lopez, the head coach of one of the teams on the field, described the scene as “total chaos.”

“I don’t know how we ended up behind home plate, but that’s where we hunkered down with the kids — we threw our bodies over them,” Lopez said.

Authorities later found the two shooting victims at a nearby gas station, but said they refused to cooperate with the investigation.

A vehicle belonging to resident Jose Madrid was also struck by more than a dozen bullets.

“I could have lost my life there because look — 18 shots hit that car,” Madrid said.

According to the arrest report, investigators determined that Vickers had previous felony convictions dating to May 2017 for dealing in stolen property, providing false information to a pawn broker and possession of a controlled substance.

He now faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

As of Monday morning, Vickers was being held at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center.

The search continues for others involved in the shooting.

Anyone with information about their identities or whereabouts is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

“It said, ‘She’s a really talented actress,’” Eleazar says. “You suddenly feel this extra meta pressure: ‘Right, so I have to do the job. I also have to make sure I’m talented.’”

The good news: Eleazar is, and anyone who sees “Misty Green” will be immediately convinced of that fact. The 38-year-old British actor has been a standout on “Slow Horses” and on London stages. But in “Misty Green,” Eleazar’s first lead role in a film, she’s poised for a much bigger breakthrough.

In the film, which A24 will release Oct. 9, she plays the titular Misty, a well-known actor whose once meteoric rise in Hollywood is now in the distant past. Told to leave the apartment where she’s been crashing, a countdown runs through the film of Misty’s days to find somewhere to live. At the same time, she’s trying to land a part despite directors (Rock plays one) and agents (Topher Grace) who have mostly tired of the turmoil she brings with her. Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya and Anna Kendrick also co-star.

The result is plainly one of the best performances of the year, a scintillatingly complex portrait of Hollywood struggle, overflowing with rage and, yes, talent. When Misty, or Eleazar, auditions, we can see how good she is. After the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Eleazar was immediately hailed as a sure-fire best actress Oscar contender.

“Like in the movie, you never know,” she said in an interview the morning after the premiere. “Things just aren’t linear. I obviously hope people respond to it.”

‘Misty Green’ and ‘Slow Horses’ land simultaneously

Eleazar was also in Toronto with “Slow Horses,” in which she plays Slough House agent Louisa Guy, to debut its sixth season. On Monday, she was flying to Los Angeles for the Emmys, where the Apple TV series is nominated for nine awards.

“It’s been a mad four days,” she said, smiling.

Eleazar’s performance as Misty is impressive partly because she’s unlike her in so many ways. The London-born actor, whose mother is British and whose father is Ghanian, is bright, self-effacing and quick to laugh. To adopt Misty’s confident stride, she worked with a movement coach.

“I like to think I navigate life a little differently than her,” she says, laughing. “But I do empathize with how so many things are out of our control as an actor. You’re constantly on an emotional roller coaster. You think, ‘Am I going to get it?’ ‘No, down to the last two.’ It’s oscillating all the time between these extreme feelings.”

“It can be relentless to somehow find a way to keep yourself open and soft, because you’re an actor,” Eleazar adds. “But Misty has multiple layers of armor on her because she’s been burned. I get that.”

A ‘meta’ audition

Landing the role was, itself, the kind of audition process Misty might have gone through. Eleazar first did a Zoom audition and then got a callback. For the next Zoom audition, she went all out. She got her hair and makeup done and rented a studio. But 10 minutes before starting, live music started blaring from the studio next door. Five minutes beforehand, trains started going past. When she began, the Wi-Fi was glitchy.

“It was so meta,” Eleazar says, shaking her head. “I was so angry with how the whole thing was going, that was probably way better. Chris said it was better because I let it rip.”

After those technical troubles, Eleazar resolved to meet Rock in person. She flew herself to Los Angeles.

“I knew I was going to do whatever I could to get it,” she says. “Whatever was in my control.”

A quick but not overnight ascent

Eleazar’s first movie role was in Armando Iannucci’s 1999 film “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” Much of her rise has come on stage, including in Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Starry Messenger” and in “Uncle Vanya” at the National Theatre. Earlier this year, she breathed remarkable depth into a small role in Mark Jenkin’s “Rose of Nevada,” a bewildering time-travel drama shot on 16mm.

“When I was young, I was very shy,” Eleazar says. “I was always, like, in a corner and watching people. And I found people really fascinating. I experienced many different cultures growing up, and it was fascinating how different cultures communicated. I think I could have been very happy pursuing a career as a psychologist. In some ways for me, acting is that. I’m studying the human mind in 3D form. It’s a full-body experience.”

“I let go maybe more in acting than I do in my private life,” she adds. “Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to volatility.”

“Misty Green” was Eleazar’s first time atop the call sheet of a movie. At the movie’s TIFF premiere, where Eleazar’s mother joined her, she almost looked like Misty Green walking the red carpet. But not quite. She was more composed, humble and evidently happy.

“What drew me to her is that I find people who are seemingly unlovable fascinating,” says Eleazar. “I read this quote — it’s a bit cheesy — whilst I was in prep: ‘The children that need the most love in the world ask for it in the most unloving ways.’ That, to me, sums Misty up.”

Eleazar pauses and smiles. “Even now, I still think about her.”

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Miami police said Brickell Bay Drive is currently closed between Southeast 12th Street and Southeast 13th Street.

SKY 10 over piling rig collapse scene in Miami:

Witnesses told Local 10’s Samiar Nefzi that the rig collapsed onto three vehicles, sparking a fire.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials confirmed that four people were transported to local hospitals after a “complex rescue operation.”

According to MDFR Lt. Pete Sanchez, the victims included three workers, two of whom had to be cut out of a container and the rig operator, who jumped out as it was tipping over. The fourth victim was a woman who backed up her white BMW just enough as the rig was falling that she wasn’t killed.

Sanchez said the injured workers were 47, 27 and 29 years old. He said all 18 workers at the scene have been accounted for.

“I’ve been on the fire department for 28 years,” he said at a press conference after the collapse. “When you see the scene, it’s really impressive -- when you see that we had four victims and they were all able to be extricated or self-extricate with minor injuries, it’s a remarkable day for them.”

According to first responders, the injured workers were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with minor injuries. The woman was taken to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, also with minor injuries.

Drivers are being urged to avoid the area, use alternate routes and expect delays.

Drivers should use caution and follow the directions of officers at the scene, police said.

The cause of the rig collapse remains under investigation.

*Editor’s note: While first responders initially referred to the incident as a “crane collapse,” they later confirmed that the machinery was actually a piling rig, used to drill deep into the ground.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, the case revolves around Cesar Oriol Cardoso, who worked at Sunset Park Elementary School, located at 10235 SW 84th St. in the Kendall area.

The report states that Cardoso had at least five victims. Police said the investigation into the 53-year-old, who lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, began in mid-April. The M-DSPD report does not list what Cardoso’s position was at the time.

Police said he would pull girls from physical education, other classes, or lunch to come back to his classroom to “complete classwork if they were behind” and then show them “inappropriate images or videos.”

Many of the images showed naked women, according to the M-DSPD report. At least two students reported Cardoso showing them what they believed to be nude photos of himself, it states. Authorities said one image depicted child sexual abuse, showing a boy between 12 and 14 with a woman.

Cardoso is also accused of touching or slapping multiple girls on the buttocks or thighs and making inappropriate comments towards them, including one instance where he had his “hand over his clothing on his crotch” and asked a girl if she wanted to “squish it.”

Police said he also tried or expressed a desire to kiss at least two of them.

The girls’ ages weren’t listed; one of them, however, was identified as being in the third grade and said the behavior continued as she went into the fourth grade.

Police said that M-DSPD detectives interviewed Cardoso at their headquarters on Friday, where he invoked his right to remain silent.

He faces charges of offenses against students by authority figures, showing obscene material to a minor and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16.

As of Monday morning, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.

Cardoso’s arrest report lists his occupation as “hospitality,” so it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was still employed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools at the time of his arrest.

Local 10 News has contacted M-DCPS seeking comment on the arrest.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de las Escuelas de Miami-Dade, el caso gira en torno a Cesar Oriol Cardoso, quien trabajaba en Sunset Park Elementary School, ubicada en 10235 SW 84th St., en el área de Kendall.

El informe señala que Cardoso tuvo al menos cinco víctimas. La policía dijo que la investigación sobre el hombre de 53 años, quien vive en el vecindario Flagami de Miami, comenzó a mediados de abril. El informe de M-DSPD no indica qué puesto ocupaba Cardoso en ese momento.

La policía dijo que sacaba a las niñas de educación física, otras clases o del almuerzo para llevarlas de regreso a su salón de clases para “completar el trabajo de clase si estaban atrasadas” y luego les mostraba “imágenes o videos inapropiados”.

Muchas de las imágenes mostraban a mujeres desnudas, según el informe de M-DSPD. Al menos dos estudiantes reportaron que Cardoso les mostró lo que creían que eran fotos de él mismo desnudo, señala el informe. Las autoridades dijeron que una imagen mostraba abuso sexual infantil, en la que aparecía un niño de entre 12 y 14 años con una mujer.

Cardoso también está acusado de tocar o dar palmadas a varias niñas en los glúteos o muslos y hacerles comentarios inapropiados, incluido un incidente en el que tenía la “mano sobre la ropa en la entrepierna” y le preguntó a una niña si quería “apretarlo”.

La policía dijo que también intentó besar o expresó su deseo de besar al menos a dos de ellas.

No se indicaron las edades de las denunciantes; sin embargo, una de las niñas fue identificada como estudiante de tercer grado y dijo que el comportamiento continuó cuando pasó a cuarto grado.

La policía dijo que detectives de M-DSPD entrevistaron a Cardoso en su sede el viernes, donde invocó su derecho a permanecer en silencio.

Enfrenta cargos por delitos contra estudiantes cometidos por figuras de autoridad, mostrar material obsceno a un menor y conducta lasciva e indecente con un menor de 16 años.

Hasta la mañana del lunes, permanecía detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, según muestran los registros de la cárcel.

El informe de arresto de Cardoso indica que su ocupación es “hospitalidad”, por lo que no quedó claro de inmediato si todavía trabajaba para las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Miami-Dade al momento de su arresto.

Local 10 News se comunicó con M-DCPS para solicitar comentarios sobre el arresto.

La policía de Miami informó que Brickell Bay Drive está actualmente cerrada entre Southeast 12th Street y Southeast 13th Street.

SKY 10 EN VIVO sobre la escena del colapso de la grúa en Miami:

Witnesses told Local 10’s Samiar Nefzi that the crane collapsed onto three vehicles, sparking a fire.

Funcionarios de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmaron que cuatro personas fueron trasladadas al hospital después de una “compleja operación de rescate”.

Se recomienda a los conductores evitar el área, utilizar rutas alternas y anticipar demoras.

Los conductores deben tener precaución y seguir las indicaciones de los agentes en la escena, informó la policía.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Biólogos de la Comisión de Conservación de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de Florida (FWC) captaron a la familia de panteras con cámaras de rastreo en Babcock Ranch Preserve en marzo.

La pantera hembra y uno de sus cachorros fueron vistos nuevamente en julio.

Según la FWC, los avistamientos muestran que las panteras de Florida son capaces de ampliar su área de reproducción al norte del río Caloosahatchee.

Los funcionarios dijeron que esa expansión natural podría ser un paso importante para ayudar a recuperar la población de panteras de Florida.

El desarrollo excesivo y los atropellos de vehículos han mantenido a la especie al borde de la extinción durante décadas.

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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists captured the panther family on trail cameras at Babcock Ranch Preserve in March.

The female panther and one of her kittens were spotted again in July.

According to the FWC, the sightings show that Florida panthers are capable of expanding their breeding range north of the Caloosahatchee River.

Officials said that natural expansion could be an important step toward helping the Florida panther population recover.

Overdevelopment and vehicle strikes have kept the species close to extinction for decades.

Según la policía, la plaza está ubicada en 2209 N. University Drive.

“En este momento no hay preocupaciones activas de seguridad para el área circundante, pero una parte del estacionamiento de la plaza permanecerá cerrada temporalmente mientras investigamos”, publicó el departamento de policía en redes sociales.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Former youth counselor Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, faces allegations involving four boys held at the Youth Development Center in Manchester in the late 1990s. In the first of his cases to go to trial, he is charged with 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault involving David Meehan, who was 14 when he arrived at the facility now called the Sununu Youth Services Center in 1995.

Meehan filed the first of more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. His allegations led to the arrest of Buskey and another former worker in 2019, an unprecedented criminal investigation, nine additional arrests, and the establishment of a settlement fund to compensate victims.

During his civil trial, Meehan described Buskey's transformation from trusted father figure to horrific abuser, testifying that he gave him soda and snacks and let him play basketball with a local high school team before subjecting him to near daily rapes.

“It went from being somebody I trusted, that I thought was not just there to help me, but somebody I thought cared for me, to hurt,” he said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan has done. A jury awarded him $38 million in May of 2024, though that verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to reduce the amount to $475,000.

In a police interview transcript recently filed in court, Buskey couldn’t remember his home address from the 1990s and struggled to spell his then-fiancée’s last name, but brought up Meehan’s name unprompted. He denied abusing him, saying they had a “great relationship.”

“I was always nice to the kid, I was always trying to help him," he said.

The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller building in a new location.

In the other criminal cases, three men have been convicted: Bradley Asbury, Stanley Watson and James Woodlock. Jurors acquitted Jonathan Brand and deadlocked in the case of Victor Malavet, leading to a mistrial. Charges were dropped against Trevor Middleton; Frank Davis was declared incompetent to stand trial, and Gordon Searles died while awaiting trial. Stephen Murphy, who has pending charges, had one trial end in mistrial and another end with an acquittal on three charges and a hung jury on five others. Lucien Poulette is awaiting trial.

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According to police, the plaza is located at 2209 N. University Drive.

“At this time there are no active safety concerns for the surrounding area, but a portion of the plaza parking lot will be temporarily closed down while we investigate,” the police department posted on social media.

No other details were immediately released.

The broad area of low pressure – situated smack dab over the open subtropical Atlantic, an area of the basin we’ve featured in newsletters this season due to its advantageous positioning away from El Niño’s suppressing influence – was accompanied by disorganized storminess early Monday.

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NHC indicated low odds of development later this week as it moves toward an area of lighter and more conducive upper-level winds.

AI models versus legacy physics-based models

The newer machine learning-based AI camp of models have been gradually dialing up development odds for this area since late last week but their legacy physics-based counterparts – like the Euro and American GFS – have stayed notably silent.

As of early Monday the conventional Euro ensemble system showed only a handful of development outcomes of the 50 or so scenarios run, taking the under on NHC’s 30%.

In stark contrast, however, Google’s DeepMind machine learning-based ensemble system was taking a very aggressive stance toward development later this week, with odds above 70% for the week, most of which suggest the system could peak as a strong hurricane into early next week.

Though not as bullish on strengthening as DeepMind – perhaps due to a known systematic low-intensity bias that we detailed in our post last Thursday – the Euro AI ensembles are similarly aggressive on overall development odds this week.

The answer is probably somewhere in between but given the thunderstorm activity already building around the broad low-pressure area and the general setup ahead with some alley-oops from a series of jet-stream dips, I’d favor development in this instance.

It’s noteworthy that even in the few physics-based Euro scenarios that show development, the forecast intensities are strong which is likely indicative of an environment supportive of strengthening if a storm gets going.

Nevertheless, this will be an interesting case to see which of our modeling camps – the newer AI models or the conventional physics-based models – handle the potential development (or lack thereof) better.

Interests in Bermuda will want to monitor the progress of the system but otherwise it isn’t expected to pose a threat to land areas in the week ahead.

La amplia zona de baja presión, situada justo sobre el Atlántico subtropical abierto, una zona de la cuenca que hemos destacado en nuestros boletines informativos esta temporada debido a su ventajosa ubicación lejos de la influencia supresora de El Niño, estuvo acompañada de tormentas desorganizadas a primera hora del lunes.

El NHC indicó que hay pocas probabilidades de que se produzca un desarrollo a finales de esta semana, a medida que se desplaza hacia una zona de vientos en altura más suaves y favorables.

Modelos de IA frente a modelos tradicionales basados ​​en la física.

Los modelos de IA más recientes, basados ​​en el aprendizaje automático, han ido aumentando gradualmente las probabilidades de desarrollo en este ámbito desde finales de la semana pasada, pero sus homólogos tradicionales basados ​​en la física, como el GFS europeo y el estadounidense, se han mantenido notablemente en silencio.

A primera hora del lunes, el sistema de predicción convencional europeo mostraba solo un puñado de resultados de desarrollo de los aproximadamente 50 escenarios analizados, quedando por debajo del 30% previsto por el NHC.

En marcado contraste, sin embargo, el sistema de aprendizaje automático DeepMind de Google adoptó una postura muy agresiva respecto al desarrollo a finales de esta semana, con probabilidades superiores al 70% para la semana, la mayoría de las cuales sugieren que el sistema podría alcanzar su punto máximo como un fuerte huracán a principios de la próxima semana.

Aunque no son tan optimistas respecto al fortalecimiento como DeepMind —quizás debido a un conocido sesgo sistemático de baja intensidad que detallamos en nuestra publicación del jueves pasado—, los conjuntos de IA europeos se muestran igualmente agresivos en cuanto a las probabilidades de desarrollo general esta semana.

La respuesta probablemente se encuentre en algún punto intermedio, pero dada la actividad de tormentas eléctricas que ya se está gestando alrededor de la amplia zona de baja presión y la configuración general que se avecina, con algunos desvíos inesperados debido a una serie de descensos de la corriente en chorro, me inclinaría por el desarrollo en este caso.

Cabe destacar que, incluso en los pocos escenarios europeos basados ​​en la física que muestran desarrollo, las intensidades pronosticadas son elevadas, lo que probablemente indica un entorno propicio para el fortalecimiento de la tormenta si esta se desarrolla.

Sin embargo, será interesante observar cuál de nuestros enfoques de modelado —los modelos de IA más recientes o los modelos convencionales basados ​​en la física— maneja mejor el desarrollo potencial (o la falta del mismo).

Los interesados ​​en Bermudas querrán seguir de cerca el progreso del sistema, pero, por lo demás, no se espera que suponga una amenaza para las zonas terrestres durante la próxima semana.

Trump was pushing back against calls by tech leaders such as Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk to have greater government oversight of AI. Their goal is to ensure the technology is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability, feed economic growth, advance science and preserve national security.

The president maintained that his presence in the Oval Office should assuage any fears about AI, which has become a source of controversy after a series of hacks in recent months that showed AI agents could be working to deceive humans.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump specifically said that the administration has already stopped the AI company Anthropic “from doing bad, or potentially bad” things. Anthropic has endured an uncomfortable relationship with the Trump administration, with the Pentagon trying to label the company's models a security risk and a temporary ban of one of its more advanced models.

Amodei published a 3,800-word essay on Saturday that called for slower development of AI. Microsoft on Monday published its own code of conduct to ensure that humans control AI. The actions come after a series of warnings by AI experts about the technologies' capabilities and the July 2026 cyberattack by OpenAI models on the AI company Hugging Face.

But the president has opposed such efforts to constrain AI and claims that doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.

The president has long resisted efforts for greater government oversight of AI, embracing his philosophy going back to 2016 of “I alone can fix it.” He returned to the White House last year by revoking a Biden administration executive order on AI oversight and only providing a fuller order of his own more than 16 months later this past June.

The prospect of slower AI buildout led stocks to slip in Monday morning trading, as demand for advanced computer chips and construction materials for data centers could fall. But Trump's frustration comes as AI has also emerged as a political liability ahead of November's midterm elections, with many voters opposing the construction of additional data centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the education of children.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff, said on Saturday that the Anthropic CEO's essay was “an admission that we’re driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where’s President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again. It’s time to turn the lights on, put both hands on the wheel, and regain control before it’s too late.”

But the administration has repeatedly sought to minimize the risks being highlighted by AI companies.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Monday morning about AI, “I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything.”

Vance, speaking as he prepared to fly to Kansas for a midterm election campaign event, said that the Trump administration is concerned about AI but wants to make sure it is regulating the technology smartly, warning that the U.S. is in an AI arms race against China.

“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So, I think we just have to be careful about this.”

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Associated Press reporter Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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He never expected to be taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Pourrain, 34, an Argentine center midfielder for Miami United FC, a professional club in the United Premier Soccer League, is now back in South Florida, reliving what he calls some of the worst weeks of his life.

“It’s really a horrible situation, horrible situation,” Pourrain said.

He spent more than three weeks in ICE custody across three different facilities, including one in Miramar that he described as having inhumane conditions.

“Miramar was the worst thing that happened to me in my life,” he said.

Pourrain has lived in South Florida since 2019. He said he has had a work permit for years and renewed his Florida driver’s license in July.

“It hurts because I love this country and I’ve lived here seven years,” he said. “I don’t deserve any of this. I never got any criminal records. I never had any kind of problem.”

On Aug. 6, Pourrain was flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a semifinal match in Los Angeles. After passing through security, he said ICE took him into custody.

At a detention facility in Miramar, Pourrain said he was shackled to a chair for the first 24 hours.

“Handcuffs on the hands and the feet. A chain all over my body here,” he said.

He said he was then moved into a small room that was overcrowded with inmates.

Pourrain said the food was moldy, so he did not eat for days.

“It was a little room. It was 68 of us inside there -- I couldn’t even move. I was just like this, trying to put my head on the wall, tried to sleep a little bit. There was no bed,” he said.

Eventually, Pourrain was moved to another facility in Florida and then to Texas.

He was released on a $20,000 bond on Aug. 28, more than three weeks after he was taken into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 that Pourrain only had permission to stay in the U.S. for six months and overstayed his welcome.

DHS also denied his claims of inhumane treatment.

“Claims that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the agency said in a statement.

For Pourrain, he said he knows what he saw and worries about those still inside.

“It’s inhumane what happens inside. They don’t deserve it either,” he said.

While his court proceedings continue, Pourrain is back training with his team and teaching kids soccer.

But the memories have not gone away.

“I think I’ll never forget about this. Because it was tough on me, it was tough on my wife,” he said.

Nunca esperó ser puesto bajo custodia del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE).

Pourrain, de 34 años, mediocampista central argentino del Miami United FC, un club profesional de la United Premier Soccer League, está ahora de regreso en el sur de Florida, reviviendo lo que describe como algunas de las peores semanas de su vida.

“Es realmente una situación horrible, una situación horrible”, dijo Pourrain.

Pasó más de tres semanas bajo custodia de ICE en tres instalaciones diferentes, incluida una en Miramar que describió como un lugar con condiciones inhumanas.

“Miramar fue lo peor que me ha pasado en la vida”, dijo.

Pourrain vive en el sur de Florida desde 2019. Dijo que ha tenido un permiso de trabajo durante años y renovó su licencia de conducir de Florida en julio.

“Duele porque amo este país y he vivido aquí siete años”, dijo. “No merezco nada de esto. Nunca he tenido antecedentes penales. Nunca tuve ningún tipo de problema”.

El 6 de agosto, Pourrain viajaba desde el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood para disputar un partido de semifinal en Los Ángeles. Después de pasar por seguridad, dijo que ICE lo puso bajo custodia.

En un centro de detención en Miramar, Pourrain dijo que estuvo encadenado a una silla durante las primeras 24 horas.

“Esposas en las manos y en los pies. Una cadena alrededor de todo mi cuerpo aquí”, dijo.

Dijo que luego fue trasladado a una pequeña habitación que estaba abarrotada de detenidos.

Pourrain dijo que la comida tenía moho, por lo que no comió durante días.

“Era una habitación pequeña. Éramos 68 allí adentro, ni siquiera podía moverme. Estaba así, tratando de apoyar la cabeza contra la pared, intentando dormir un poco. No había cama”, dijo.

Finalmente, Pourrain fue trasladado a otra instalación en Florida y luego a Texas.

Fue liberado tras pagar una fianza de $20,000 USD el 28 de agosto, más de tres semanas después de haber sido puesto bajo custodia.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) dijo a Local 10 que Pourrain solo tenía permiso para permanecer en Estados Unidos durante seis meses y permaneció en el país más tiempo del autorizado.

El DHS también negó sus afirmaciones de trato inhumano.

“Las afirmaciones de que existen condiciones deficientes en los centros de detención de ICE son FALSAS. ICE tiene estándares de detención más altos que la mayoría de las prisiones de Estados Unidos que albergan a ciudadanos estadounidenses. A todos los detenidos se les proporcionan tres comidas al día, agua potable, ropa, ropa de cama, duchas, jabón y artículos de aseo”, dijo la agencia en un comunicado.

Pourrain dijo que sabe lo que vio y que está preocupado por quienes todavía están adentro.

“Es inhumano lo que sucede adentro. Ellos tampoco lo merecen”, dijo.

Mientras continúan sus procedimientos judiciales, Pourrain volvió a entrenar con su equipo y a enseñar fútbol a niños.

Pero los recuerdos no han desaparecido.

“Creo que nunca olvidaré esto. Porque fue duro para mí, fue duro para mi esposa”, dijo.

Sherman Kemp desapareció el viernes después de un traslado desde el campamento satélite de la Institución Correccional Federal de Miami, ubicada en 15801 SW 137 Ave., según la Oficina Federal de Prisiones.

Kemp, quien ganó notoriedad con un video de “Stop [Expletive] Snitching” en Baltimore y fue condenado en Maryland y Pensilvania, debía llegar a las 9 p.m. del viernes a la FCI Jesup en Georgia, según la FBOP.

El Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos pidió a cualquier persona con información sobre el paradero de Kemp llamar al 786-433-6340.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 11 a.m. en el área de No Name Harbor, dentro del Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, en Key Biscayne.

Según las autoridades, un hombre estaba practicando esnórquel antes de ser encontrado inconsciente en el agua.

Equipos de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladaron a la víctima en helicóptero al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde permanece en estado crítico.

Las autoridades investigan las circunstancias que provocaron el incidente de casi ahogamiento.

Poco antes de las 9:30 p.m., Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue recibió múltiples llamadas al 911 reportando un incendio en una vivienda.

Las cuadrillas llegaron unos tres minutos después y encontraron una gran cantidad de humo y llamas saliendo de un lado de la vivienda unifamiliar cerca de la cuadra 1100 de Northwest 15th Street.

Las personas que estaban en el interior pudieron salir de manera segura por sus propios medios, según las autoridades.

Unos 20 minutos después de llegar, las cuadrillas habían controlado la mayor parte del incendio y trabajaban para ingresar al ático a través del techo, según los bomberos.

Un total de ocho residentes serán desplazados debido al incendio.

Un investigador de incendios determinará la causa del incendio.

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Just before 9:30 p.m., Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue received multiple 911 calls reporting a house fire.

Crews arrived about three minutes later and found heavy smoke and flames coming from one side of the single-family home near the 1100 block of Northwest 15th Street.

The people inside were able to get out safely on their own, according to authorities.

About 20 minutes after arriving, crews had knocked down most of the fire and were working to get into the attic through the roof, according to fire rescue.

A total of eight residents will be displaced because of the fire.

A fire investigator will determine the cause of the fire.

The rule change, proposed last year, could be announced as soon as Monday, according to two people familiar with the proposal, and represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

The rule, which is expected to face immediate legal challenges, also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the people familiar with the proposal said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the final rule had not yet been made public.

The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are hosting a G20 ministerial meeting on “energy abundance” in Houston, where the rule change is set to be announced. The site is both a nod to the important role the oil-rich state plays in the energy industry and a potential snub of European and other international allies in attendance who have pursued environmentally friendly policies that the Trump administration has moved to undo.

Republican President Donald Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” at a speech to the United Nations last year, and his administration withdrew the U.S. — for the second time — from the 2015 Paris climate accord that sets voluntary goals to curb planet-warming emissions.

Trump has boasted of U.S. energy abundance even as the Iran war continues to disrupt global fuel markets and gas prices top $4.31 a gallon, up more than a dollar from a year ago.

The plan to make the power plant rule final was first reported by the New York Times.

The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Trump’s repeated pledge to “ unleash American energy ” and make it easier for utilities to supply electricity for homes and businesses.

The power plant rule is among nearly three dozen environmental regulations that Zeldin targeted in early 2025 when he announced what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history.”

Zeldin said in proposing the new rules last year that they were meant to end the Biden and Obama administrations’ “war on so much of our U.S. domestic energy supply.”

Environmental and public health groups called the rollbacks dangerous and vowed to challenge the rules in court.

“Tearing down our national protections against climate pollution from power plants will have enormous costs for the health, safety and well-being of families across the country,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. “Americans everywhere are already suffering from record-breaking heat, more dangerous floods and storms, and skyrocketing insurance costs.”

The EPA has a legal responsibility to protect the public from harmful pollution, Patton said, adding that “clean, affordable and reliable technologies are widely available to power our homes and businesses.”

Coal, gas and oil-fired power plants are responsible for about one-quarter of the nation’s total climate pollution, second only to the transportation sector. Pollution from power plants is one of the largest sources of climate-changing pollution in the world.

The rules targeted by Trump’s EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination last year that included the agency’s own prior assessments and a wide range of other research.

Even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as smog, mercury and lead — and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems, the AP analysis found. It would also mean higher emissions of greenhouse gases, driving Earth’s warming to deadlier levels.

Biden, a Democrat, had made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency. Coal-fired power plants would have been forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a strict EPA rule issued in 2024. Those rules are now being upended.

In its proposal last year, the Trump EPA argued that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change and therefore do not meet a threshold under the Clean Air Act for regulatory action. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired plants “are a small and decreasing part of global emissions,″ the EPA said.

Zeldin, a Republican and former New York congressman, said the Biden-era rules were designed to “suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment,” with the intent to regulate the coal industry “out of existence” and make it “disappear.”

El accidente ocurrió en la cuadra 4000 de West Hillsboro Boulevard, en Deerfield Beach.

Según los investigadores de tránsito, un Nissan Sentra 2017 estaba realizando un giro en U en Hillsboro Boulevard cuando fue impactado por una motocicleta Suzuki GSX-R570 2022.

El impacto provocó que el Nissan volcara, informaron las autoridades.

Chuck Trice fue testigo del accidente.

“La motocicleta y él estaban debajo del auto y estaban sacando a los niños pequeños del vehículo”, dijo. “Los helicópteros estaban llegando para llevárselos y fue bastante grave”.

Según las autoridades, el conductor de la motocicleta, Maxwell Patel, murió en el lugar.

Una menor que viajaba en el Nissan fue trasladada de emergencia al Broward Health Medical Center, donde fue declarada muerta.

El conductor del Nissan y un menor fueron trasladados por los equipos de emergencia al Broward Health North. Posteriormente, el menor fue llevado en helicóptero al Broward Health Medical Center para recibir tratamiento adicional, dijeron las autoridades.

Otros tres pasajeros del Nissan, dos adultos y un menor, también fueron trasladados al Broward Health Medical Center, informaron las autoridades.

Los dos menores hospitalizados se encuentran en estado crítico, según las autoridades.

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The announcement comes as the investigation into the Sept. 6 crash continues and crews slowly begin dismantling the aircraft.

Flight 7598, a Boeing 767 operated by 21 Air, careened off the runway at MIA, striking a van with five people inside. Five people were killed and five others were injured.

The aircraft is believed to have been traveling too fast for a safe landing before going off the runway.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company decided to pause its operations with 21 Air after reviewing circumstances surrounding the crash.

“Safety has always been our top priority, whether in our own operations or when we’re working with partners,” the statement read. “After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598. We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”

Amazon has worked with the North Carolina-based company since 2024.

Lawsuits filed following crash

The announcement comes as lawsuits have begun to be filed in connection with the crash.

Local 10 News spoke with an attorney representing a surviving victim who has filed a civil complaint seeking damages for personal injuries.

“Many things have to go wrong to lead to such a terrible tragedy,” the attorney said. “So was there apparent errors on behalf of the pilots? Absolutely. Were there security lapses on behalf of 21? Apparently so.”

The attorney also spoke about what his client, Sebastian Perdomo Torres, experienced during the crash.

“You know, sometimes in these incidents, for better or worse, people lose consciousness. They have head injuries, things of that nature,” the attorney said. “Sebastian, Mr. Perdomo Torres, experienced the whole thing, every second of it.”

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash remains ongoing.

El anuncio se produce mientras continúa la investigación sobre el accidente del 6 de septiembre y las cuadrillas comienzan lentamente a desmantelar la aeronave.

El vuelo 7598, un Boeing 767 operado por 21 Air, se salió de la pista en MIA e impactó una camioneta con cinco personas en su interior. Cinco personas murieron y otras cinco resultaron heridas.

Se cree que la aeronave viajaba demasiado rápido para realizar un aterrizaje seguro antes de salirse de la pista.

En un comunicado, un portavoz de Amazon dijo que la compañía decidió suspender sus operaciones con 21 Air después de revisar las circunstancias en torno al accidente.

“La seguridad siempre ha sido nuestra principal prioridad, ya sea en nuestras propias operaciones o cuando trabajamos con socios”, señala el comunicado. “Después del trágico incidente del fin de semana pasado, hemos dedicado tiempo a apoyar la investigación y revisar algunas de las circunstancias en torno al accidente, y hemos decidido suspender nuestras operaciones con 21 Air, el operador del vuelo 7598. Continuaremos trabajando para apoyar la investigación y a todos los afectados”.

Amazon ha trabajado con la compañía con sede en Carolina del Norte desde 2024.

Demandas presentadas tras el accidente

El anuncio se produce mientras han comenzado a presentarse demandas relacionadas con el accidente.

Local 10 News habló con un abogado que representa a una víctima sobreviviente que presentó una demanda civil en busca de una indemnización por lesiones personales.

“Muchas cosas tienen que salir mal para provocar una tragedia tan terrible”, dijo el abogado. “Entonces, ¿hubo errores aparentes por parte de los pilotos? Absolutamente. ¿Hubo fallas de seguridad por parte de 21? Aparentemente sí”.

El abogado también habló sobre lo que su cliente, Sebastian Perdomo Torres, experimentó durante el accidente.

“Sabe, a veces en estos incidentes, para bien o para mal, las personas pierden el conocimiento. Sufren lesiones en la cabeza, cosas de esa naturaleza”, dijo el abogado. “Sebastian, el señor Perdomo Torres, experimentó todo, cada segundo”.

La investigación de la Junta Nacional de Seguridad en el Transporte sobre el accidente continúa en curso.

Simpson died of cancer Sunday at his home in Rome, his children said Monday.

During a 46-year AP career, Simpson covered many of the defining stories of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the 1967 Newark, New Jersey, race riots and war in the Middle East to the papacy of Pope John Paul II, whom he accompanied on dozens of trips.

A native New Yorker, Simpson joined the AP in Newark in 1967, where he wrote an award-winning series on organized crime. He transferred to the General Desk in 1968, editing top domestic stories, and then to the Foreign Desk in 1970.

He was assigned to Rome as news editor in 1972, where he promptly met his future wife, Daniela Petroff, who became a distinguished AP fashion and Vatican correspondent. She died in February at age 80.

He became Rome bureau chief in 2005. Simpson previously worked for the Hackensack (New Jersey) Record.

“Victor had an extraordinary life and career, and built a lasting legacy at the AP," said AP Executive Editor Julie Pace. "Years after his retirement, he still comes up regularly in stories and conversations in AP bureaus around the world — a testament to the impact he had on generations of AP journalists. I know that legacy will endure for many years to come.”

Simpson loved to regale listeners about his journalistic feats, which included a private dinner conversation on the papal plane with John Paul and an interview with Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. He secured the scoop by showing up at Alliluyeva's door in Princeton, New Jersey, where she lived after defecting from the USSR.

“He put a lasting mark on AP, from his days as a feisty young staffer in our Newark bureau, through years as an energetic mainstay on our central news desk in New York, and then during a storied career in Rome,” said retired AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi, who called him “one of a kind.”

His life was marked by tragedy

Simpson’s life was marked by two devastating personal tragedies: the shooting death of his father during a robbery in 1964, and the killing of his 11-year-old daughter, Natasha, by Palestinian militants who attacked Rome’s airport on Dec. 27, 1985.

Simpson was preparing to fly to the United States with his family when the militants stormed the airport, throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. Natasha was among more than a dozen people killed. Simpson and the couple's 9-year-old son, Michael, were both wounded.

Natasha’s killing “was a tragedy that affected us all deeply,” Boccardi recalled.

Two years later, Simpson and Petroff welcomed another daughter, Debbie. The pope called the family to congratulate them.

In announcing his death, his children, Michael and Debbie, said the pain he carried over Natasha’s killing “has finally evaporated, leaving only love behind.”

When Simpson was 22, his father, Leonard P. Simpson, a well-known New York lawyer, was shot and killed in the elevator of the family's apartment building. He was 63.

“The murder was considered yet more proof of New York’s degradation,” Simpson wrote in his 2024 memoir “Life of a Reporter.”

He described how an “exuberant” Jimmy Breslin interviewed the family for a story about the difficulties of the middle class in the crime-ridden era. The experience taught him an important lesson in journalism about being considerate and sensitive with the victims of tragedy.

Simpson’s optimism and devotion to family and work sustained him through the tragedies.

He was the unofficial dean of the Rome press corps

He was born May 11, 1942, and raised in a Jewish family. He said that while religion wasn’t a centerpiece, “tolerance was considered a precious value.” He graduated from Hobart College in 1963 and briefly served in the U.S. Army.

Simpson kept his extended family close, making overseas trips for weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. “It meant a huge amount to me,” said his niece, Catherine Simpson Bueker.

Simpson was the unofficial dean of the Rome press corps and a first stop for new correspondents. Decades covering the Holy See made him one of the longest-serving Vatican correspondents of his generation, including 92 trips with John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI.

Simpson had a special bond with John Paul II

It was on one of those flights in 1986 that Simpson was invited to dine with John Paul on the final leg following a two-week tour of Asia and the Pacific.

Simpson, in a rumpled safari jacket detested by his fashion-writer wife, apologized to the pontiff for wearing “my working clothes.” The pope put him at ease, gripping his white robes and saying, “These are my working clothes.”

One of his biggest exclusives came on a 1988 flight to Uruguay when he asked John Paul about the Solidarity strikes challenging the communist government in his native Poland. John Paul responded with full papal support for the strikes.

“Here we are touching the heart of the problem,” the pope said. “It is not easy to bring democracy to a system that is by definition dictatorial and totalitarian.”

The remarks made front pages around the world and were later viewed as a landmark in the pope’s role in communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe.

Philip Pullella, longtime Vatican reporter for United Press International and then Reuters, said Simpson’s Jewish background allowed him to cover the Vatican with some distance without falling into “false awe” of the institutional pomp.

“He was the gold standard. I don’t think he was ever intimidated by the Vatican. He saw it as an institution that needed to be covered in an impartial way,” Pullella said.

Simpson’s assignments included the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Israel, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His early Rome years focused heavily on domestic and international violence by militants, famous kidnappings and enduring mysteries like the 1980 Ustica air disaster that killed 81 people.

He loved tennis and reported from the Italian Open for years and once from Wimbledon.

A papal resignation changes his retirement plans

Simpson had planned to retire on Feb. 28, 2013, but Benedict stunned the world by announcing he would become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, effective the same date as Simpson’s departure.

Simpson always wondered if he had given the idea of retirement to the German pope. He had had a brief private conversation with Benedict while returning from Lebanon in September 2012 on what was to be Simpson's last papal flight before retirement.

“When I told him that I had covered the Vatican for more than 30 years, he looked surprised. He sounded wistful as he said my retirement 'is much deserved,'” Simpson recalled in a tribute after Benedict died.

Simpson stayed to cover one final papal transition, the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.

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AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed.

The second half of the week turns more active as a storm system moves in from the Atlantic. This will not develop into anything tropical, but it will work to enhance our thunderstorm chances after Wednesday. These systems are also known for producing some severe weather, so we will monitor that potential as the week progresses.

It brings to mind visions of cars the size of boats, the glory days before seat-belt laws and pit stops at the world's largest fill-in-the-blank. It has been memorialized in books like Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and satirized in movies like “National Lampoon’s Vacation."

It primarily consists of hours upon hours of driving that should be boring — but somehow isn't? Maybe it's the anticipation of getting to some mythical destination — the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Death Valley. Or maybe it's the unexpected sights along the way. Tumbleweeds! They're real!

Americans love the idea of a road trip, but we often opt for reaching our destination as quickly as possible instead. The rise of cheap airfare has made it easy to travel without the hassle of driving. When we do drive, we’re likely to stick to the interstates, blasting past the small towns we idealize at 70-plus miles per hour. These options are faster and, for some, safer.

But in gaining convenience, what have we lost?

The decades after World War II were the golden age of the family road trip

As far back as 1921, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. wrote of a road trip he took with his new wife from New York City to Hot Springs, Virginia. “We had heard people say in muffled tones that the roads would be impassable and that it was foolish to even think of trying them,” he wrote. “But within four days after leaving New York we reached Hot Springs, none the worse for wear and a great deal happier for the experience.”

Long-distance travel dipped with the Great Depression and then rationing during World War II, but it came roaring back as the veterans returned home and started families.

In “Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations,” historian Susan Rugh argues that the period after World War II and before the oil crisis of the 1970s was the apex of the family road trip. More Americans were rising into the middle class, many had paid vacation for the first time, car ownership was increasing rapidly, and the federal government was investing in highways that allowed for more comfortable long-distance travel.

Many veterans, having traveled to Europe for the war, were eager to show their children what they had been fighting to preserve. One popular destination was Washington, D.C., where the Allied victory had enhanced the importance of the city as the capital of the free world. Families also visited historic monuments, homes and battlefields.

In the West, the nation's majestic national parks, which belong to the people, were both a tourist destination and a symbol of American democracy. Attendance surged, increasing by more than 650% between 1946 and 1966 as the government pumped in more than a billion dollars to upgrade facilities, Rugh writes.

Traveling together to see America both strengthened family bonds and “provided a way to educate children as citizens,” she writes.

It wasn’t a golden age for everyone

The open road did not signal freedom for all Americans. Black families in particular often had to deal with segregated facilities, even outside of the South.

“The experience is totally different,” says Allen Pietrobon, a professor at Trinity University in Washington, D.C., who teaches a course on road trips. “It’s not carefree. You can’t just, whenever you need gas, stop wherever you want because the gas station may not serve you.”

The National Parks, being run by the federal government, were not supposed to discriminate, but some still did — with separate campgrounds for Black families, for instance. The problem was so systemic that there were guidebooks, like the well known Green Book, specifically made for Black travelers, listing hotels and restaurants where they'd be welcomed.

The obstacles of the vacationing Black family even played a role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Rugh writes. Today the protests of college students going on Freedom Rides and organizing lunch counter sit-ins are recognized as the motivating forces behind the Act’s desegregation of public accommodations. But in Congress at the time, the Senate Committee of Commerce was hearing stories like that of a Black business owner turned away from a motel in St. Petersburg, Florida, even after he offered to pay twice the normal rate. The exhausted family, including two children, had to try to sleep in the car as best they could.

Narratives like these helped engender sympathy for the civil rights struggle among lawmakers.

“In the face of Jim Crow laws in the South and persistent racial discrimination in the rest of the nation, the cultural icon of the family vacation was offered as persuasive evidence of the need for a federal law to ensure the rights of all citizens,” Rugh writes.

The highways were magnets for American entrepreneurs of all stripes

It wasn’t just the national parks that needed more facilities as Americans took to the roads. Vacationers needed lodging, restaurants and service stations along the way.

Some entrepreneurs competed with one another to make their accommodations stand out from the crowd, like Wigwam Village, where the motel rooms are giant concrete teepees. Others saw the opportunity to develop roadside attractions like the world’s largest nutcracker.

“Americans are hucksters," Rugh says. “And if somebody has an attraction, somebody else is gonna serve lemonade or hamburgers right by it.”

One highway that was filled with attractions was Route 66, which turned 100 this year.

Commissioned in 1926 and fully paved by the late 1930s, the highway between Chicago and Los Angeles catered to a mid-century craze for the Old West of the 1880s. A group of business owners promoted the road, dubbing it the “Main Street of America,” but Bobby Troupe’s 1946 hit song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” first recorded by Nat King Cole has had more staying power than any advertisement.

Like so many other things Americans claim to love, the highway that John Steinbeck dubbed the "Mother Road" was victim of a competing American paragon — progress.

The construction of the interstates diverted much of the traffic away from communities, and many businesses closed. Entire small towns disappeared. But a movement is afoot to preserve portions of this iconic highway, and people still come from around the world to experience its neon lights and kitschy Western-themed attractions.

Sometimes it's the bad things that we remember most fondly

Richard Ratay calls himself the King of the Road Trip.

His book “Don't Make Me Pull Over! An Informal History of the Family Road Trip” opens with a harrowing scene of waking up as a child in the backseat of the family car as it is spinning off an icy road and down an embankment. The car was stuck along with dozens of others, and the family had to wait hours in the cold before being towed out.

“Years later," he writes, “we'd all agree it was the best start to a family road trip ever.”

It’s counterintuitive, but sometimes it's the hardships and unexpected bumps in the road that make a vacation memorable.

Pietrobon recalls a story from a coworker who got into a car accident in a tiny town in Nevada.

“It was a Saturday afternoon, everything’s closed. No rental cars available till Tuesday. And so they’re just stuck in this place. And they actually ended up having a really amazing experience,” he says. “The whole purpose now of higher end travel is to eliminate any friction whatsoever. And we do lose something in that, I think.”

Modern travel is all about the destination, not the journey

Before the interstates, the highway system was really just the main street of towns, connected by highways. Someone stopping for the night or even just a meal would participate in the life of that town.

″In meeting so many folks from different places, it gave families traveling by car the opportunity to realize that Americans in different areas of the country may talk a little different, they may dress a little differently, they may eat different foods, but when all is said and done, we aren’t that different after all," Ratay said in an interview.

Today’s interstates mostly bypass these towns, providing chain-store gas, food and lodging right off the exit. This makes driving faster and more convenient, but also less distinctive. Airplane travel elides even the minimal local interaction that the interstates provide.

“We traded the the opportunity to make unexpected discoveries and encounter and engage with small-town America,” Ratay says. “We traded those experiences for the speed and convenience of getting to our final destinations.”

Although many small roadside motels, restaurants and attractions folded when the interstates were built, some have managed to stick around. It's still possible to take the slower road, stopping to talk to locals and soaking in the experience, along with its little inconveniences.

“Get on one of those old highways anywhere,” Rugh says. “Go through Illinois and go on the Lincoln Highway, cross the Midwest on the Lincoln Highway. Go from Arizona to Canada on Highway 89, Highway 1 in California.”

In older travel narratives, Pietrobon says, the destination is almost irrelevant. "I think about who’s going to be the next Jack Kerouac where, you know, the journey is what he’s writing about, not just the snapshots of when you stop for the day."

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Part of a recurring series of stories marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more, click here. For a presentation of objects that have changed the nation, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

The Vatican published a papal decree repealing 2021 salary cuts that Pope Francis had imposed on many Vatican employees as part of the Holy See’s COVID-19 cost-saving measures.

In the decree, Leo said the salary-containing measures “can now be overcome, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State will continue, through various means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability.”

The unpopular salary cuts had included a 10% cut on pay for cardinals and smaller percentage salary cuts for office heads and lower-ranking priests and nuns. Biennial pay raises were frozen for senior lay employees, though lower-ranking lay employees continued to receive raises.

Francis had reasoned at the time that the cuts were necessary to save jobs, given the Holy See was also facing a structural deficit, estimated then at around 70 million euros, and a 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall.

The pandemic closed the Vatican Museums for months, depriving the Holy See of one of its main sources of revenue. The Vatican’s coffers also suffered from investment and currency fluctuations.

Leo, a math major and former superior general of his Augustinian religious order, is known to be adept at financial matters and reading balance sheets. His brother, John Prevost, recently told Italian broadcaster Mediaset that the pope helped him out recently with a question he had about filing his taxes.

Soon after he was elected, Leo said the Vatican’s financial situation wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought and that Francis had made some important reforms. However, Leo has spent much of his early pontificate amending or outright reversing some of Francis’ financial decisions.

In another decree published Monday, Leo canceled Francis’ plans to move some of the Vatican’s secret archives and library holdings out of the city state and onto the grounds of a pontifical university across town. Francis had decided on the move because the material was outgrowing its current storage spaces, which include a vast underground bunker.

Leo said “unprecedented opportunities have arisen to create new spaces” within Vatican City itself. He ordered the construction of a new building on a current parking lot to house the material, which includes ancient manuscripts and entire archival collections from past popes, religious congregations and benefactors.

Leo visited the Vatican Apostolic Library on Monday, and noted that it was particularly fitting to be celebrating his birthday with its staff since his mother was a librarian.

“I’d just like to say that God, in His providence — and sometimes with a touch of humor — always reminds us that he is with us,” Leo told the staff. “Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today I’m here on my birthday specifically to say hello to all of you.”

The library and archive are open to scholars and researchers for study. A small exhibition space is also open on a weekly basis to the general public in the library, with reservation and pre-purchased tickets.

Leo was at the library Monday to inaugurate an exhibition about water, the first installment in a new five-year cycle entitled “Catastrophe and Marvel.” It features a giant design of a wave attached by scaffolding to the library's facade by the French artist JR.

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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.

The primaries will set the stage for the November general election, when Republicans will try to break a Democratic lock on Delaware’s statewide offices against the backdrop of a midterm election cycle that tends to punish the president’s party. This is the last state primary scheduled before November.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons faces three primary opponents in his bid for a third full term. His challengers are University of Delaware history professor Jeff Appelhans, naval architect Mary Louve, and former business executive Eric Hansen. Hansen was the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in 2024. He is now running as a Democrat and will appear on the ballot under the name “E. No-Trump Hansen.”

Coons reported raising about $6.9 million for his campaign, compared to about $1,500 for Appelhans. Neither Hansen nor Louve has filed any campaign fundraising reports this cycle.

Former state Sen. Michael Katz and U.S. Army Reserves Col. John Shulli are competing for the Republican nomination. Katz has raised about $159,000 for the campaign, compared with about $118,000 for Shulli.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride is unopposed in her primary as she seeks a second term as Delaware's sole representative in the U.S. House. Republicans Joseph Arminio, Earl Cooper and John Whalen are competing to face her in November.

State Attorney General Kathy Jennings faces primary challenges from attorney Dwayne Bensing and Patty Rickman, an advocate for victims of domestic violence. Republican David Graham is unopposed for his party’s nomination.

In the race for state treasurer, the incumbent, Democrat Colleen Davis, is not seeking a third term, creating the state’s only open seat for statewide office this year. Investment manager Ted Lauzen, business owner Mike Miller and economist Michael Smith are competing for the Democratic nomination. Former state Rep. Michael Ramone is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

About half of Delaware’s 21 state Senate seats and all 41 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Democrats hold roughly 2-to-1 majorities in both chambers.

Although control of the U.S. Senate and House may come down to just a small handful of competitive races, the seats in Delaware are expected to remain firmly in the Democratic column. Once a reliable bellwether in presidential races, Delaware has shifted heavily Democratic since the 1990s. Republicans have not won the governorship since 1988, a U.S. Senate seat since 1994 or the U.S. House seat since 2008.

New Castle County is the most populous of Delaware’s three counties and is the largest prize in statewide contests. It includes Wilmington, the state’s largest city, and Newark, home to the University of Delaware.

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

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

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

Who gets to vote?

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

How many voters are there?

As of Sept. 1, there were about 808,000 registered voters in Delaware, including about 331,000 registered Democrats and about 199,000 registered Republicans.

How many people actually vote?

About 86,000 Democratic primary votes and about 37,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2024 state primaries for governor.

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

About 26% of Democratic primary voters and about 23% of Republican primary voters cast their ballots early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 30,800 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, including about 22,200 from Democrats and about 8,500 from Republicans.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All three Delaware counties release almost all of their results from early in-person and mail voting in their first vote updates of the night, before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary election, the AP first reported results at 8:22 p.m. ET, or 22 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:30 p.m. ET with 100% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

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

How do recounts work?

Automatic recounts are triggered in statewide primaries if the vote margin is less than 1,000 votes. For all other offices, such as state legislative and county-level races, automatic recounts are triggered if the margin is less than 1,000 votes or less than 0.5% of the total vote, whichever is less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 49 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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

And another federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to stop implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail balloting as the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in. The ruling late Sunday adds another obstacle to Trump’s effort to rewrite election rules as Americans prepare to vote.

Here's the Latest:

US average price of diesel sets a new record, AAA says

So far, the jump in oil prices has helped send the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Monday’s average price of diesel across the U.S. jumped to a record $6.23, the organization reported.

Oil prices jump again as hopes for ending Iran war dim

Oil industry stocks are up, including a 1.3% gain for ExxonMobil, following another jump in oil prices. Brent crude was up 4.2% Monday to $109.05 as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil.

An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.

While the prospect of a de-escalation of war in Iran may have dimmed, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote Monday that the situation remains fluid and “sizable” volumes of oil have been exiting the strait.

AI stocks are sliding worldwide as leaders join calls for a safety slowdown

Artificial-intelligence stocks have been pressured by worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. Those concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that a deliberate and global slowdown in AI development is needed for safety.

Amodei said there’s a risk that AI could lead a swarm of agents capable of taking over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

Nvidia, whose profits have soared because its chips are helping to train AI models, sank 3.5% and was the heaviest weight on the market because of its massive size.

SpaceX, which gets a chunk of its business from AI, fell 1.7% after Elon Musk said he agrees with Amodei. Softbank Group, the Japanese giant that is a major investor of OpenAI, lost 10.7% in Tokyo after OpenAI’s Sam Altman likewise supported the concept of a slowdown and would likely delay its planned IPO.

Trump EPA is to eliminate limits on power plants’ planet-warming gas emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to repeal limits on planet-warming air pollution from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Administrator Lee Zeldin has said this would remove billions of dollars in costs for the industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The rule change, proposed last year, could be announced as soon as Monday, according to two people familiar with the proposal, and represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

The rule, which is expected to face immediate legal challenges, also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the people familiar with the proposal said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the rule had not yet been made final.

The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— By Matthew Daly

Trump says he alone is enough to contain rogue AI

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.

The president specifically said his administration has already stopped the AI company Anthropic “from doing bad, or potentially bad” things.

Trump pushed back against calls by tech leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft and others to have greater regulation of AI to ensure it is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability and preserve national security. He’s opposed such efforts and claims doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI development.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.

Congress races to address questions over AI

House Speaker Mike Johnson says it’s time for Trump to “summon everyone together” and take the lead at the White House, rather than Congress.

“I think we need to go in a big room, close the door, and sort this out,” Johnson said over the weekend on CNN.

The Republican speaker is close to Trump, who has downplayed the risks over AI, and Johnson shied from Congress taking action.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party puts a “high priority” on action and will address the bipartisan proposal for a so-called AI “Kill Switch” during their Tuesday caucus meeting.

“We should take decisive action now,” Jeffries said on ABC.

JD Vance says Americans should not be scared of AI

The vice president told reporters Monday morning that there are risks to any technology, but “I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything.”

Vance said the Trump administration is concerned about AI but wants to make sure it’s regulating the technology smartly.

“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So I think we just have to be careful about this.”

Schumer asks Trump administration for classified briefing on AI risks

As technology leaders have issued warnings in recent days, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says Congress should get a “full accounting” of how the Trump administration is working to put guardrails around testing for AI models, what it is doing to prevent American technology from flowing to China and how the U.S. would defend itself against the potential for increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks.

“Warning bells are ringing louder than they ever have – and the Trump administration is looking the other way,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. If the Trump administration does not act, “then Congress must.”

White House calls Trump’s actions on voting common sense

“The only ‘fears’ Americans have about our elections are being fueled by extreme liberal Democrats who refuse to support commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections and other basic election security measures like Voter ID,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Litigation about election rules has reached such a pitch that the National Bar Association announced a hotline to help voters who encounter trouble casting ballots amid last-minute changes.

Every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations of attorneys, staffers and volunteers to monitor polling places and ballot counting. The Republican National Committee said it’s already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“We’ve built the largest election integrity operation in Republican Party history because our mission is simple: secure every legal vote and ensure Americans can trust the outcome of our elections,” RNC spokeswoman Ally Triolo said.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of reasons to organize a resistance

Law professor Rick Hasen, who directs UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, said it’s important not to unduly scare voters about what might happen, but it’s “hard to walk the line between alarmism and complacency.”

During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to overturn the vote, only to be defied by career officials and more establishment Republicans. He’s stocked his second administration with people who helped his 2020 efforts, used the federal government to target his political enemies and pardoned more than 1,000 people prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was intended to halt the certification of Biden’s win.

Trump demanded Republicans redraw House maps to create more safe seats for themselves, held last week’s unusual midterm convention and has tried to change election rules even as states begin to send out ballots.

Democrats, activist groups plan response to midterms interference

Democratic state parties announced their “New Battlefield Project” on Monday, an effort to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in case armed federal officers show up.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges how to respond if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to Trump’s equally unprecedented moves to interfere with voting this year, including attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements and directing the Postal Service to decide which voters should get a mail ballot.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

▶ Read more

The secret ballot, an article of faith in US elections, is being tested in Georgia

Security researchers say rapid advances in artificial intelligence can exploit a flaw in voting equipment in Georgia to allow voters’ choices to be exposed after their ballots have been cast.

Election security advocates are criticizing state election officials for failing to fix the system’s vulnerability before the November elections. Election officials say they’ve taken steps to address the potential harm, but some advocates say it’s not enough.

The vulnerability does not allow votes to be changed, but it could match voters to their choices, violating the fundamental right of ballot secrecy and potentially creating an opening for legal challenges.

Other jurisdictions across the country use the same voting system. But many have applied a software fix and some states don’t allow the release of records needed to exploit the flaw. Georgia is the only state where the machines are used by nearly all in-person voters.

▶ Read more

Trump says he’ll consider releasing 9/11 records after families’ request

Trump said Sunday that he will look into requests from families of Sept. 11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.

Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the Saudi government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

The families have asked Trump to declassify and release the relevant records. Asked about it Sunday during his trip to Ireland, the president said he would consider it.

“I’m going to look at it when I get back,” Trump said just before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington after a weekend in Ireland. “I know they asked me Friday.”

The relatives of 9/11 victims have been engaged in a lengthy legal battle against the Saudis. One of them, Terry Strada, called on Trump during the remembrance in New York City on Friday to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.”

▶ Read more

Trump agrees to new bipartisan ethics provision in massive crypto bill, Republican senators say

Trump has agreed to a significant portion of a stringent ethics proposal that is part of broader cryptocurrency legislation headed for a key vote this week, according to three of the bill’s main Republican authors.

The bill initially had just a provision included that would bar all federally elected officials and their spouses, as well as federal judges, from issuing digital assets.

A core group of Democrats, as well as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that didn’t go far enough to address conflict-of-interest issues they had with Trump’s crypto wealth. Their votes would be needed to advance the bill in a key vote this Tuesday.

Tillis and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., along with several other Democrats, had demanded language that would allow state attorneys general to step in and enforce the law in addition to the Justice Department.

In private, White House officials had raised concerns about giving state attorneys general the power to enforce the law. But a senior GOP aide said the president had agreed to “about 80%” of the proposal from Tillis and Gallego, pointing mainly to the state attorneys general provision.

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Trump says he’s lifting a 10% tariff on Irish whiskey because ‘everybody’s been bugging me’

Trump announced on Sunday at the close of a golf tournament in Ireland that he plans to remove a 10% tariff on Irish whiskey.

Trump said during the trophy ceremony for the Irish Open that he had been asked about the issue by everyone, including Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin and even some of the golfers. Irish Open winner Shane Lowry was among them, Trump said.

“Everybody’s been bugging me” to do it, the Republican president said. “And I said, ‘On behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off’” of Irish whiskey.

Irish whiskey currently faces the standard tariff imposed by Trump on most imports from the European Union, which was reduced from 15% to 10% in July.

Trump announced in April that he was lifting certain tariffs on U.K. whiskey, which includes Scotch and spirits made in Northern Ireland, creating an imbalance with Ireland.

Trump’s surprise announcement was met with loud whistling and cheers from the crowd of spectators. Details on how soon the tariff would be lifted were not immediately available.

▶ Read more

Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he doesn’t want to cede edge to China

Trump on Sunday played down the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about ceding America’s edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology.

While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to “negative forces” he did not identify, though industry pioneers have raised such concerns.

“We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” Trump told reporters during a weekend trip to Ireland. “But whoever wins with AI wins.”

The Republican president spoke a day after Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, said the industry should put the brakes on its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Other tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, publicly agreed with Amodei.

▶ Read more

2nd federal judge freezes Trump mail ballot order with Supreme Court poised to rule

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service on Sunday to stop implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail balloting, adding another obstacle to the administration’s effort to rewrite election rules as the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in.

The nation’s highest court already is considering the administration’s appeal of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston prohibiting the Postal Service from enforcing its new rule on mail voting before this year’s midterm elections.

Late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C., handed down a similar hold on the rule.

Nichols had refused to issue an injunction in May, ruling at the time that a lawsuit was brought too early. That was the high court’s reasoning late last month when it lifted an earlier freeze by Talwani. Then the administration issued its rule to move ahead with Trump’s plan and the plaintiffs in Boston and Washington, D.C., refiled their lawsuits.

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“You could use this technology as a visual, immersive experience to allow people to go deeper for themselves and walk away with a sense of awe and wonder about what it means to be alive,” the media mogul, whose empire was built largely by inspiring viewers of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” told The Associated Press. “I know that there’s more, and the more could really help people see themselves differently. It has the potential to be an incredible experience of magnificent wonder.”

That initial thought became “Oprah Winfrey's AHA,” taking place April 2-4 at the Sphere, the $2.3 billion state-of-the-art Las Vegas arena that has hosted performances by The Backstreet Boys, Phish, the Eagles and No Doubt — and a popular “The Wizard of Oz” film experience.

The two-hour live event will feature Winfrey with special guests and performances, including multiple Grammy winner Jacob Collier, poet and author Ocean Vuong, musician Ajeet and gospel singer Wintley Phipps. Among all-star collaborators crafting the experience with Winfrey are Oscar-nominated composer Max Richter, Grammy-nominated musicians Jason White and Jon Hopkins, playwright and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Tarell Alvin McCraney and Es Devlin, the stage designer for Beyoncé's “Formation” and “Renaissance” world tours. Tickets go on sale to the general public Sept. 25.

It’s been 15 years since Winfrey ended her iconic talk show, which last week celebrated its 40th anniversary of reaching U.S. syndication. She has stayed busy with her podcast, her CEO duties for her namesake OWN TV network, and various tours and live events. At 72, when many are embracing retirement, Winfrey isn't ready to slow down completely.

“I thought about sitting behind the gate and picking roses,” Winfrey joked. “The truth is, I got another strong decade. I feel the urgency of time, and I feel like I have something to say … and using all of these collaborators to help me say it in a more forceful and phenomenal and immersive way is my offering for this remaining decade.”

Though she no longer greets millions of TV viewers daily, Winfrey’s influence remains massive. Her book club is still a bucket list aspiration for authors, products appearing on her “Favorite Things” list can change a company’s fortune, and politicians still court her support.

“I think that I’ve been given this opportunity because you know I know how to use it, I know what to do with it. But I keep asking this question: Why have I been given it? I realize it’s such a huge opportunity that I’m not supposed to take it for granted,” said the philanthropist, who still writes daily in a journal filled with gratitude entries about all she has accomplished. She hopes “AHA” attendees will be inspired to take advantage of their own opportunities as well.

“Maya Angelou says, ‘Baby, I can see why you are where you are because you have been obedient to the call,’” she said, recalling conversations with the poet and literary giant. “That’s my message to everybody: Everybody has the call. If you are obedient to the call, if you surrender to the call, you will be led to higher ground than you ever even imagined.”

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Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

The outlet cited multiple law enforcement sources, who they said confirmed that Panettiere “had a ‘long time drug dealer’ in Los Angeles, who was providing her several black-market prescription drugs, including oxycodone.”

TMZ reported that the actress is believed to have taken several drugs the day before her death and the oxycodone pill the morning she died.

“We’re told the DEA in Los Angeles is actively piecing together the relationship between Hayden and her drug dealer, attempting to trace the fatal pill back to him,” TMZ reported.

The day of her death

Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson were at the South Carolina apartment where the actor died on Aug. 16, according to a police report.

A Greenville police officer who responded to the residence was met by the brothers and then observed paramedics performing CPR on the actress, who was unresponsive, the report states.

“The patient did not seem to have any obvious physical reasons to be unresponsive,” the officer notes. After attempting lifesaving measures, the emergency workers declared Panettiere dead at 2:31 p.m.

Panettiere’s death remains under investigation. An autopsy found no signs of trauma, and police said officers saw no signs of foul play.

The onetime child star, who soared to fame in the TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville” while enduring struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, would have turned 37 days after her death.

Tumultuous relationship

Panettiere and Brian Hickerson had been in a tumultuous relationship for years, with allegations the 37-year-old aspiring actor physically abused her.

He was charged in 2020 with multiple counts of felony abuse, and he pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served a short time in jail due to the case. He was sentenced to four years of probation and anger management and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.

He completed the terms and recently asked a judge to reduce his conviction to misdemeanors; that request was denied last month by a Los Angeles judge.

Panettiere wrote of Hickerson’s time behind bars, and how she hoped it would change him, in her memoir, “This Is Me,” which came out in May.

“I wanted Brian to be in jail just long enough to scare him, but not long enough where’d he become a worse person,” she wrote. “I needed him to admit his wrongs and change because of them, but I didn’t want to traumatize him in an irreversible way.”

She wrote about her decision to “let go of my resentment” and try to forgive Hickerson, who she’d met at a West Hollywood restaurant in 2018 after noticing his “charming smile.”

Police report has redactions

The police report, which is heavily redacted, said the responding officer first spoke with Zach Hickerson, who said the unresponsive woman was his brother’s girlfriend.

“I observed Zach to be very emotional while EMS were working on Hayden. Brian did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased,” the officer said.

After she was declared dead, the officer escorted the brothers out of the apartment. The officer spoke with Brian “more in depth,” but the details of that conversation are redacted in the police report.

Also redacted is a list that of medications that Panettiere had been taking.

She had been open about addiction issues

In her book, Panettiere described lifelong scars from her early fame, and acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and enduring postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

Panettiere’s daughter, now 11, began living with Klitschko full-time in Ukraine when she was 2. At the time, the actor was struggling with mental health and addiction. She entered rehab in 2015, while filming “Nashville.”

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

In a statement Tuesday, Klitschko said he will make sure their daughter always remembers her mother.

“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives,” Klitschko said on Instagram.

Panettiere had endured numerous family struggles, and tragedy. Her parents’ marriage was strained, and eventually ended. Her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.

Started out as a child actor

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

“Is it any wonder why I’ve faced so many real struggles in my life?” she wrote.

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

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

Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on country charts, spawned U.S. tours and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations.

The two rituals have unfolded in parallel since the Christian church's pastor, Sarah Lucas, preached a sermon condemning Arapaho ceremonial ways.

The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes that share the reservation have made clear that Lucas is no longer welcome. Lucas, who is not Native American but owns the land under her church, says she isn't going anywhere. The standoff tests the boundaries of religious freedom and the right of a tribal nation to govern according to its own values and protocols.

The conflict stems from a video that circulated in July as Arapaho people surfaced from their weeklong sundance ceremony. In it, Lucas called that cornerstone of Arapaho spiritual life “idol worship.”

“Jesus is the chain breaker. He is the only God that we should be praying to,” Lucas said.

Lucas says her words reflect her interpretation of the Bible and are constitutionally protected. Many Arapaho people say she took aim at something central to who they are, reopening wounds from a not-so-distant era of religious assimilation and abuse.

With the smell of coffee and sweetgrass swirling, regular Sunday demonstrators were recently joined by activists from the American Indian Movement and Arapaho Chairman Keenan Groesbeck as they marched past ranchland and scattered homes toward the church.

“We brought in our ceremonial elders. We heard them loud and clear,” said Groesbeck. “They don’t want them here no more.”

Lucas condemned the highest Arapaho ceremony

The sundance marks a time of connection, offering and collective renewal. As Arapaho people closed this year's ceremony and welcomed a new year according to their traditions, Lucas and her smaller-than-usual congregation prayed for them.

“You have generations, centuries of people doing this offering, going in and making vows to change,” Lucas said. “Father God, we see no fruit.”

Many Arapahos were stunned to hear an outsider not only disparage the ceremony but talk about closely held details that aren't meant to be discussed openly.

Big Wind Carpenter, who was among the protesters, said Lucas couldn't have chosen a more painful target.

“There's nothing I could say to make non-Arapahos understand,” Carpenter said.

Lucas said she regrets her sharp delivery captured in clips that went viral but not the message itself. Since founding her church nine years ago, she said she has had “hard conversations” urging Native congregants to renounce sundance, sweat lodges and burning cedar during prayer, traditions she equates to idolatry.

“The Bible makes it very clear to only worship one God,” Lucas said.

Some members of her mixed Native and white congregation were unaware of her stance. Lucas said Sunday turnout is down half from 150. Some weeks, the protest crowd has rivaled church attendance.

Arapaho congregant Tearany Black, who considers Lucas a stand-in parent, said she agrees Native Christians should turn away from ceremony but found the tone of the sermon racist.

“She cares for our people,” said Black. “I just don’t think she understands where we’re coming from.”

On Wind River, ceremony and Christianity coexist

DJ Gardner grew up praying in sweat lodges and reading the Bible. He joined Lucas' congregation last year and didn't anticipate being asked to choose.

“I thought they accepted us,” Gardner said. “In my view, why else would you be on a reservation?”

The 28-year-old, who has walked away from Foundations for Nations, associates Lucas' rhetoric with assimilationist boarding schools like the one his grandfather survived.

In part to repair that dark history, the Episcopal and Catholic missions that have been active on Wind River since the late 1800s now embrace ceremonial practices.

“It’s an irony of colonialism, the degree to which Native people have remade Christianity according to their own values,” said Michael McNally, a professor of religious studies at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Lucas interprets the Bible differently.

“I don't believe you can have mixture,” she said.

Foundations for Nations grew through community aid

Mary Rose Goggles was struggling with the costs of raising her grandchildren in 2017 when Lucas knocked on her door and warmly invited her to join her new church.

Goggles, who practices Arapaho ceremonial ways but dabbles in Christianity, liked the worship band and activities that kept her grandchildren busy. As Foundations for Nations grew, she visited its food bank, clothing giveaways and events like a fall harvest festival.

“It was good to see the kids enjoying themselves. It was good to see my relations getting help,” Goggles said.

Lucas built relationships on Wind River by filling gaps. Her church offers free after-school and summer day camps. Visiting missionaries fill tribal members’ gas tanks and replace their sagging roofs.

Foundations for Nations' website solicits outside donations to “revive, raise up and restore” Wind River, listing grim statistics about addiction, sexual assault and unemployment. The Associated Press found those numbers were pulled from national studies not specific to the reservation or could not be traced to a verifiable source.

A page asking donors to “sponsor” a child in exchange for photos and letters was recently removed.

Goggles left Foundations for Nations several years ago after moving away but thought warmly of the church until seeing Lucas' sermon, which she said left her “heartbroken.”

Jenea Mandan has cycled through feelings of anger and shame about sending her children to the church's summer camp. An Arapaho traditionalist, Mandan had misgivings about the Christian program but needed childcare help.

“At that time I was a single mom, I was in a low-income situation,” Mandan said. “It feels like they took advantage of that.”

The church sits on private land. The tribe still wants it gone

Lucas believes God called her to Wind River. But she deliberately built her church on private property within the reservation's boundaries rather than tribal land where, she said, the tribes would effectively be her landlords.

Foundations for Nations is located amid a patchwork of federal, tribal and private property — the legacy of 19th century federal policies designed to eliminate tribes by breaking up collective land bases.

“That era has cascading effects that are devastating for tribal sovereignty,” said Jessica Shoemaker, a professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law.

Shoemaker said tribes have broad civil authority over non-Natives on tribal land, including to banish them. But jurisdiction over private property within reservations is litigated case-by-case.

Lucas and her attorneys with the Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal organization, assert that her ownership of the property shields her from banishment.

In July, the Arapaho and Shoshone councils passed ordinances requiring religious groups to seek their approval before operating on Wind River.

“That’s the law of the land on our reservation,” said Groesbeck.

That has forced Foundations for Nations to suspend youth programming since it is now prohibited from picking up and dropping off children on the reservation.

In an Aug. 31 memo, the Arapaho council acknowledged that “jurisdictional limits” likely prevent it from regulating church activity on private land. And any tribal court enforcement of those ordinances could face federal review, where there's a high bar for proving non-Native conduct threatens tribal well-being.

Meanwhile, the 21,000 square-foot (1,950 square-meter), steel-sided building that houses Foundations for Nations’ sanctuary, community spaces and indoor playground has been unusually quiet. Construction on a neighboring youth center continues.

“God would not have us build this and provided all of it to empty it out,” Lucas said.

Gardner has returned to the Catholic church of his childhood, where Arapaho geometric motifs adorn the sanctuary and he is welcome to burn cedar.

He has been praying for guidance on forgiveness.

“In order for me to strive to be like Jesus, I would have to forgive,” Gardner said. “But there are some lines you just don’t cross.” ___

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

But when it comes to transgender girls and women in sports, particularly at the school level, the Democrat said he largely agrees with the Republican president. Newsom, one of his party's leading White House prospects, believes it's “deeply unfair” for people who are assigned male at birth to compete against girls.

“I don’t want to be on that side of it, but I’m being honest — I’d be lying to you if I said differently,” Newsom told The Associated Press as he was campaigning recently in South Carolina. "I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it fair from my perspective.”

Newsom is not alone.

While most Democratic officials remain steadfast supporters of the transgender community, an increasing number in red and blue states are distancing themselves from their party’s unflinching support for the transgender community’s policy priorities, such as allowing athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity. The shift follows years of conservative attacks against Democrats on the divisive issue, which affects a relatively small number of transgender people and their families, but has emerged as one of Republicans' most potent political weapons in the Trump era.

Soul searching over transgender issues is one facet of a sprawling identity crisis that Democrats are confronting during the midterms and before the next presidential election. Although they risk a backlash from their progressive base, there is also a sense in some corners that the party must evolve on an issue where the overwhelming majority of voters — even many Democrats — agree with Trump.

The issue was a central theme for Trump and his Republican allies on the main stage at their midterm convention in Dallas last week, where the president said he hoped Democrats would continue to stand up for transgender girls and women who want to compete in girls' and women's sports.

“I’m petrified that they’ll change,” he said. “That will really hurt us.”

Republicans are already replaying some of the same political attacks that they used against Kamala Harris in the presidential campaign two years ago, when they said she's “for they/them, not you.” On Friday, they released a new advertisement targeting James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, with the same phrase.

Democrats confront difficult political terrain

A political group backed by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk has begun running digital ads targeting Democrats in key Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Alaska, accusing them of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

In Texas’ pivotal Senate contest, the new ad from Musk’s America PAC opens with a video clip of Talarico saying that “God is nonbinary."

Talarico began to distance himself from those positions months ago. He went further in a Fox News interview last week, saying he would vote in favor of a national ban for gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors, which are rare.

“I’ve missed the mark on some of my past statements. I will be the first to admit it,” Talarico said in an interview near the Republican convention site. “I think the reason that politicians in that convention center across the street want to talk about six sexes is because they don’t want to talk about $6 diesel."

In Iowa, State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, has spoken out against transgender athletes competing in women's sports as a matter of fairness. Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton has taken a similar position, although she has drawn criticism from the left for adopting Trump's language after saying she opposed “boys playing in girls’ sports."

And in deep-blue Massachusetts, transgender rights became a defining campaign issue during the state's recent Democratic U.S. Senate primary, illustrating the potential backlash that party members can face.

Sen. Ed Markey, 80, secured the nomination and later credited his win to not shying away from advocating for transgender rights. He used the issue to attack his Democratic opponent, Rep. Seth Moulton, who had said he wouldn't want his daughters to play against transgender athletes.

Moulton apologized for his comments, which drew outrage from some progressives, but the damage was done.

While Moulton lost his primary, his position — not Markey's — is in line with the majority of voters nationally.

A June poll from Quinnipiac University found that about 7 in 10 registered voters think that transgender women and girls should not be allowed to play on women’s and girls' sports teams. About one-quarter think they should. Democrats are divided, with about half saying transgender women and girls should be allowed and about half saying they should not.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted last year found that just over half, 55%, of Democrats would be “not too” or “not at all” comfortable with athletes playing on teams that don’t match their sex at birth, while 21% said they were “somewhat” comfortable and only 23% said they were “extremely” or “very” comfortable with this.

There's division among activists

Markey’s public commitment to transgender rights stood out because Democratic politicians are increasingly running away from the issue, said Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, which is dedicated to electing supporters of transgender rights to federal office.

“The reality of being a transgender person in America in 2026 is that on election nights, while other folks are talking about who had a good night and who had a bad night, sometimes you are quietly wondering, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” Hack said.

At the same time, even transgender activists are divided over supporting Democrats who have positions that are unfriendly to transgender people.

Erin Reed, an advocate and independent journalist covering transgender issues, this month put out a guide flagging Democratic candidates who she accused of taking anti-transgender positions. She highlighted 15 states that have such Democrats, saying that she would not vote for the “worst offenders” even if it means a Republican wins.

She doesn’t want Democrats to see that “throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy.”

“One seat can be won back,” Reed wrote. “A party cannot.”

Meanwhile, Hack would probably vote for a Democrat even if that candidate supports some policies the Christopher Street Project opposes, in hopes that the party can take control of Congress. However, those candidates shouldn't expect the organization's endorsement.

“While I hope many of them win, I think they can do it without our resources and without our support," Hack said.

Laws are changing around the country

The political debate is evolving as transgender people increasingly become the target of conservative backlash through state laws and the Trump administration.

Sports participation has become one of the main fronts in a political battle over transgender rights, although most Republican-controlled states have also implemented policies that affect a bigger slice of the population. There are bans on some gender-affirming health care for transgender young people and rules barring transgender people from using the bathrooms that match their gender identity in schools and occasionally other public places.

At least 25 states are now enforcing laws or policies banning transgender women and girls from competing in at least some women’s and girls' sports and three others have adopted laws but have enforcement blocked by the courts.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls from school teams.

Transgender athletes make up a small portion of team rosters. NCAA president Charlie Baker testified in 2024 that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes out of more than 500,000 total.

The debate is a preview for 2028

The debate within the Democratic Party heading into the 2026 midterms offers a preview for those Democrats contemplating presidential bids in 2028.

Newsom, who is considered a frontrunner in the shadow primary, highlighted his long record of supporting LGBTQ+ priorities, including sanctioning same-sex marriage as the San Francisco mayor decades ago and later appointing the first trans judge in California history.

But in sports, he thinks it's unfair to allow people assigned as males at birth to compete against girls.

“It’s a hard issue. I struggle with it,” Newsom said. “I think people know where my heart is, my soul is. I have a trans godson.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another likely Democratic presidential contender, has taken the opposite position.

He has consistently criticized state-level bans and restrictions on transgender athletes, calling them “bullying” and a “setback for equality.” Following the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld state bans on transgender athletes, Pritzker, whose cousin is transgender, reaffirmed his position on social media.

“There’s a place for you in Illinois,” he wrote.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro opposes bans on transgender athletes in school sports, which he's called cruel and designed to discriminate. He argues that athletic participation and eligibility should not be dictated by politicians, but rather handled by local athletic organizations — a stance in line with several LGBTQ+ groups.

He's also raised questions of fairness, however.

“Look, I think it’s a tough deal being born into the wrong body. And I don’t think these kids deserve to be persecuted and bullied by the president of the United States," Shapiro told The Atlantic last year. "I also don’t think they deserve an unfair advantage on the playing field.” Research has been mixed on whether transgender women have advantages in sports, and it depends partly on whether they went through puberty as boys.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay and a potential presidential contender, said on Fox earlier in the year that he takes people seriously on both sides of the debate “whether you’re talking about parents who are wondering what this means for fairness for their kids competing, or parents who want to make sure that their kids aren’t being discriminated against and get a chance to participate.”

“But I also have to tell you,” he added, “I would be surprised if this is a top three or even a top 10 voter issue in the midterms this year." ___

Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed.

The strikes “close to NATO territory” show Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” Rutte said at NATO’s political headquarters in Brussels. “Russia is growing increasingly reckless as it continues its terrible war against Ukraine.”

Rutte pledged to increase support for Ukraine and bolster the 32-nation alliance’s own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia.

“He thinks that he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong,” the NATO chief said of Putin.

Sunday’s strikes near the Polish border are the latest in a string of incidents that officials say point to a deliberate pattern of escalation by Putin, as Moscow tests NATO’s response while pressing its offensive in Ukraine.

Poland and Ukraine increase security cooperation along border

Rutte's comments came as Poland pledged increased security along its border with Ukraine after a wave of Russian drone strikes near the frontier, including two that landed within kilometers of Polish territory.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Sunday that Moscow appears poised to intensify its campaign against Ukraine’s borders with European countries. Ukraine is under mounting pressure from Russia’s intensifying air campaign that uses ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce defenses.

“These coming weeks and months will be a time of very intensified actions on the Russian side, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory,” Tusk said Sunday after a governmental security briefing in Warsaw. He issued a similar warning on Thursday.

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Monday in a post on X that the Polish army recovered what was believed to be a Russian military drone from the Baltic Sea near the coastal village of Jaroslawiec.

Polish officials said intelligence reports, including a CIA briefing last week, suggested Russia was likely to attack border points and intensify sabotage actions inside European countries as part of its efforts to discourage partners from supporting Ukraine.

Tusk said he would consult NATO allies on preparing a potential joint response.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski underscored the alliance’s military edge in a social media post, saying that in the event of Russian aggression against NATO, European NATO air forces, without U.S. participation, would be capable of destroying half of Russia’s oil refineries faster than Ukraine.

Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk described Sunday’s drone strikes as a serious escalation from Russia. He told broadcaster TVN24 on Monday that any spillover into European countries could take the form of sabotage or a sharp intensification of hybrid warfare “on a scale that we have not seen before,” or other actions along NATO’s borders.

The warnings followed a strike Sunday on a train near the Ukraine-Poland border, minutes after a diplomatic delegation that included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had passed through the same station, according to Ukraine’s state rail operator. A second strike hit near a separate border crossing point between Poland and Ukraine.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said Monday that the drone attacks near Poland's border were “clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine.”

“We should show that we are there for Ukraine and we are not scared,” she said.

Kremlin says Russia will continue strikes throughout Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked Monday about the strike on the train near the Polish border, said Russian forces were operating “across the entire territory of Ukraine and continues to do so — and will continue to do so.”

Peskov noted the potential role of Global South nations in a settlement, saying “any country can use its influence on the Kyiv regime to encourage it to show greater flexibility.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi each expressed willingness to help broker a settlement during recent meetings with Putin, who briefed them on the situation in Ukraine, Peskov said.

Peskov also addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel fuel facilities, saying “any call on the Kyiv regime to stop strikes on civilian economic infrastructure can only be welcomed.”

Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage. He spoke after diesel prices in the U.S. hit a record on Friday, soaring past an average of $6 per gallon.

___

Morton reported from London. Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

___

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

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It happened around 11 a.m. in the area of No Name Harbor inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne.

According to authorities, a man was snorkeling before he was found unresponsive in the water.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews took the victim by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where they said he remains in critical condition.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to the near drowning.

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Local 10 News cameras captured the Fort Lauderdale Grand Hotel’s front overhang, with a large piece of it appearing to have fallen on the ground.

The area outside the hotel was blocked off by yellow police tape and parking cones.

Fire rescue crews said they responded to the scene on Sunday morning.

Officials said there were no reported injuries.

There is no word on the cause of the damage or what measures will be taken to repair it.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a reported shooting at about 2 p.m. near Southwest 173rd Street and 100th Court.

Deputies arriving at the scene said they found a man suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said they transported him to Jackson South Medical Center in critical condition.

The subject fled the scene in an unknown direction, according to deputies.

Detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office General Investigations Unit have taken over the investigation.

No further information was immediately available.

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It was located in the northbound express lanes of I-95 near the exit for Northwest 125th Street in North Miami, officials said.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, several vehicles were involved in the crash.

Two people were rushed to nearby trauma facilities for treatment, rescue officials said.

There has been no word on what caused the crash.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges what they should do if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to President Donald Trump's equally unprecedented moves to interfere in this year's midterm elections, which include attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote and directing the Postal Service to play a central role in deciding which voters should get a mail ballot.

The anxious contingency planning as voting gets underway has become a marker for how fraught democracy has become in the country that once stood as an example to the world.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of reasons to organize a resistance

Democrats say they have reason to plan for doomsday scenarios. During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to overturn the vote, only to be defied by career officials and more establishment Republicans. Upon returning to power, Trump has stocked his administration with those who helped his 2020 efforts, has used the federal government to target his political enemies and pardoned more than 1,000 people prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was intended to halt the certification of Biden's win.

Incumbent presidents' parties usually lose ground in the midterms, but Trump has pulled out the stops to try to keep that from happening this time. He's demanded Republicans redraw maps to create more safe seats for themselves in the House of Representatives, held last week's unusual midterm convention and tried to change election rules even as states begin to send out ballots.

The advice for judges asked to approve search warrants for ballots, for example, was inspired by the Trump administration's seizure of 2020 ballots and other election records in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta, based on old, disproven conspiracy theories.

Rick Hasen, a UCLA Law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project who helped write the guidance on responding to voting machine seizures, noted that Trump has expressed regret that he didn’t take more aggressive action to overturn the 2020 results, such as ordering voting machines to be seized.

“All these things take what was off the wall and put it on the wall,” Hasen said. He said that while it is important not to unduly scare voters about what might happen, it's "hard to walk the line between alarmism and complacency.”

Trump's actions worry Democrats. Administration calls them common sense

Last year, Democrats worried that Trump might intervene in off-year elections in California, Virginia and elsewhere, only to have voting go smoothly with no clashes with the federal government.

“The only ‘fears’ Americans have about our elections are being fueled by extreme liberal Democrats who refuse to support commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections and other basic election security measures like Voter ID,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Still, the stakes are far higher in the midterms, which will determine whether Republicans continue to control both houses of Congress. So far Trump has been unable to change voting procedures before the midterms.

Courts halted Trump's first attempt to reshape election rules via executive order last year. The president backed a bill in Congress to make even more sweeping changes but it's stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.

Then Trump tried to limit mail voting by executive order, but the courts again blocked it, saying the changes couldn't happen before the midterms. That case is before the Supreme Court. Election officials warn that it would be impossible to implement Trump's requirements in time for this election.

Litigation about election rules has reached such a pitch that the National Bar Association last week announced an initiative to help voters of both parties understand last-minute election rule changes and to create a hotline for those who encounter trouble casting ballots.

Concerns that polling places will become targets for immigration agents

Every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations of attorneys, staffers and volunteers to monitor polling places and ballot counting. The Republican National Committee said it's already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“The RNC has spent this entire cycle preparing not just to defy history in November, but to protect it,” spokeswoman Ally Triolo said. “We’ve built the largest election integrity operation in Republican Party history because our mission is simple: secure every legal vote and ensure Americans can trust the outcome of our elections.”

Democrats also have expanded their operations, and the Association of State Democratic Committees is adding to that effort with its “battlefield” recruitment project. That also will include a network to share information about online threats and manipulation, said Jane Kleeb, the chair of the group and of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

“If they're saying they're going to put armed people outside polling places, we should put friendly people outside polling locations to film them,” Kleeb said in an interview. “There's a whole new battlefield we have now.”

Kleeb was referring to widespread fears among Democrats that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be deployed to the polls, something that multiple administration officials for months have denied will happen. There have been scattered instances of ICE officers at polling places over the past year, usually saying they're in pursuit of or investigating a specific person. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this month it's possible that could happen again in November.

In an indication of the distrust of the administration's reassurances, civil rights groups and the city of Denver last week filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to formally bar ICE from polling places. They cited a law dating to the Civil War era prohibiting armed federal agents at election sites.

“This administration is basically using the rhetoric that undocumented citizens are voting and that they’re going to have DHS and ICE at the polls to try and intimidate and suppress the Latino vote,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the plaintiffs.

Activists see Minneapolis immigration protests as a midterms model

A staple of the election buildup is a series of tabletop exercises in which each side runs hypothetical scenarios to practice its response. As part of that, Democrats and civil rights groups are rehearsing for the possible deployment of ICE agents or the National Guard to polling sites, although the Pentagon has said it has no plans to deploy troops to the polls.

Levin, of Indivisible, said his group has run 17 different scenarios preparing for what could happen in November. But the first priority, he said, is to boost turnout.

The No Kings network, which has spearheaded large anti-Trump protests over the president's second term and includes Indivisible, is launching a campaign encouraging early voting that will peak with rallies Oct. 17.

Others are organizing among both left-wing and more traditional groups to push back if the administration is aggressive in November. Some look to the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis as a possible model.

Two activists were shot and killed by ICE agents during those January demonstrations, and the administration eventually backed off the aggressive crackdown the president had launched against the city.

“We recognize there might be a similar moment in November, where Trump attempts to do that again, where everyday working people and students need to band together and say, ‘Actually, no, this is our country, you don’t get to decide who gets elected or who gets to take office,'” said Kidus Girma of the left-wing Sunrise Movement.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the White House spokeswoman to Lauren Bis, not Lauren Blis, and the name of the organization to the Association of State Democratic Committees, not Association of State Democratic Parties.

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It happened along the 4000 block of West Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach.

According to traffic investigators, a 2017 Nissan Sentra was making a U-turn on Hillsboro Boulevard when it was struck by a 2022 Suzuki GSX-R570 motorcycle.

The impact caused the Nissan to flip over, officials said.

Witness Chuck Trice watched the crash happen in front of him.

“The motorcycle and him were under the car and they were pulling the little kids out of the car,” he said. “The helicopters were flying in to get them and it was pretty bad.”

According to authorities, the driver of the motorcycle, Maxwell Patel, died at the scene.

A girl who was inside the Nissan was rushed to Broward Health Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The driver of the Nissan and a boy were both taken to Broward Health North by first responders, with the boy later being taken by helicopter to Broward Health Medical Center for additional treatment, authorities said.

Officials said three other passengers in the Nissan, two adults and a child, were also taken to Broward Health Medical Center.

Both hospitalized juveniles are listed in critical condition, authorities said.

A GoFundMe page set up to help with medical and funeral costs for the victims identified them and said they were on their way to dinner when the crash occurred.

“Kristi, Yamila, Karla, Gisselle, and 8-year-old Abraham were on their way to Cicis Pizza in Deerfield Beach when a motorcyclist reportedly traveling over 100 mph hit their car, leaving it overturned,” the creator of the GoFundMe page stated. “Kristi passed away, while Yamila and Abraham are in medically induced comas and two children are receiving life-saving surgery.”

Meanwhile, repairs to a crucial Saudi Arabia oil pipeline that was struck in an attack last week could last three to five weeks, putting it mostly out of service, two regional officials said.

Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Houthis gain ground as oil prices face more pressure

Houthi officials said Monday that rebels had taken over the two islands just as Saudi-backed government forces tried to claw back territory from the rebels' swift advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transits in peacetime — in the opening days of the war. The Saudis have since used Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads out of the Red Sea, for crude oil exports.

The Houthis’ latest takeover, following the seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island last week, puts more pressure on Saudi shipments and, in turn, global oil supplies and prices.

This could give Iran additional leverage in its war with the United States.

Oil might only partially move through damaged line

Saudi Arabia relies on the East-West Pipeline to move its crude production from Gulf ports to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.

Two officials who have been briefed on the matter said repairing damage from an attack last Thursday could take weeks, including at a major pumping facility.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. One said the line may work partially while teams carry out the repairs.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo

China ‘deeply concerned’ about Houthi attacks

China, a major Middle East oil importer, on Monday called Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure “unacceptable” and said that it was “deeply concerned” about further escalations by the rebels against Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that “attacks on civilian infrastructure that is important to people’s livelihoods are unacceptable.”

He called on all sides to exercise restraint and resolve disputes through dialogue.

Iran says Saudi Arabia behind postponed meeting on Hormuz

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday that Saudi Arabia had “demanded" that a meeting bringing together Iran with other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz be scrapped “for the time being.”

Baghaei called the meeting, which was to be hosted by Oman, a “proper opportunity” to restore security in the region.

The spokesman said that an agreement between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz has been finalized and it will be announced later.

Saudi Arabia had submitted amendments to the agreement, citing concerns that it could have lasting implications for the Strait of Hormuz, negatively impacting other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a Gulf official familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran condemns Austria's visa refusal for its nuclear chief

Iran denounced on Monday the refusal by Austria to issue visas to the Iranian nuclear chief and other delegation members for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference in Vienna, calling the decision “completely unjustified.”

Baghaei said that Tehran summoned the Austrian chargé d’affaires, saying Austria was obligated as the host country to issue the visas.

Baghaei accused Western countries of denying Iran an opportunity to defend itself and blamed the U.S. for pressuring Austria to deny the visas.

The refusal is part of U.N. sanctions on Iran, reinstated last year, that include a travel ban on Iranian officials.

Iran fails to live up to nuclear obligations, US official says

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday criticized Iran’s failure to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Wright was particularly critical of Tehran’s denial to grant U.N. inspectors access to Iran’s nuclear sites affected by the war. He said that Iran had “ample time to address its egregious negligence" toward its obligations "but that time is up.”

Speaking at the IAEA general conference in Vienna, Wright said that giving Iran more time "only delays overdue accountability.”

Wright repeated the Trump administration’s mantra that Iran “must never develop or obtain a nuclear weapon.”

US-Saudi deal contains ‘rigorous’ clauses to prevent proliferation

Wright said that additional safeguards contained in a U.S.-Saudi nuclear accord include “absolutely rigorous” terms against proliferation. He told the IAEA general conference that the U.N. nuclear agency "was part of it all along.”

The U.S.-Saudi accord, signed in July, could potentially provide the kingdom the capability to enrich uranium for its civilian nuclear program.

Wright was responding to a question from media about why the U.S. requested Iran to sign an Additional Protocol and not Saudi Arabia. The Additional Protocol is an agreement between the IAEA and a country that grants agency inspectors increased access to nuclear sites.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 1

Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that strikes hit Gaza City, Zawaida in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza. One person was killed and several were wounded.

The Israeli military confirmed four strikes targeting militants. It said that more information would be provided later.

While the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas has subsided since a ceasefire took effect in October, Israeli fire has killed more than 1,360 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the territory.

Israel accused of dismantling ‘Palestinian existence’ in West Bank

The B’Tselem human rights group said Monday Israel is carrying out a systematic and accelerated project aimed at “dismantling the foundations of Palestinian existence” in the occupied West Bank.

The group said in a new report that Israeli actions against Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers and the military are designed to undermine Palestinian collective life “while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy” across the territory.

Settler violence has surged under the ultranationalist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rights groups say the military frequently turns a blind eye to the violence, and that when it intervenes it often focuses on protecting the settlers.

The B’Tselem report also says that Israeli actions rely heavily on open cooperation between state authorities and armed settlers who attack Palestinian communities using weapons and vehicles supplied by the state, while the military either fails to prevent the violence or, in some cases, participates in it.

Saudi ruler holds talks with top US Mideast military commander

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia met Monday with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, in the coastal city of Jeddah, according to the Saudi state-run news agency.

Bin Salman, who is the kingdom’s de facto ruler, discussed with Cooper “bilateral relations and the latest regional developments,” SPA reported, without providing further details.

The meeting came as Saudi Arabia has been squeezed with attacks from the Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq. The Iranian proxies have recently struck oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

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

“It means that the novels, although they can be read entirely alone and independently, have this web of connections between them,” the author said during a recent interview at a cafe on Manhattan's Upper East Side. “I think it’s fair to say that I have certain interests and I’ll build on that and build on that and build on that over time.”

Artists have been known to say that a given work is the culmination of what preceded it, and Mandel's latest, “Exit Party,” gathers characters and themes that readers of “Station Eleven,” “Sea of Tranquility” and other novels will recognize. Her narrative weaves together two genres she has long been known for, crime fiction and science fiction, and continues Mandel's explorations of chaos, identity, impermanence and transcendence.

Like “Station Eleven,” the new book is set in a post-traumatic future. Mandel begins in Los Angeles in 2031, when Ari Waker (previously seen in Mandel's 2010 novel “The Singer's Gun”) has been released from prison and the United States has broken apart. The story continues over the succeeding decades, as alternative lives are revealed and the rules of society blur to the point where Mandel writes that being a criminal or joining the police are “two sides of the same coin.”

Mandel’s own life at times seems recorded in stereo. She has dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship, lives in New York and Los Angeles with her wife Laura Barisonzi (she was previously married to Kevin Mandel) and is active as a novelist and screenwriter. (She is working on adaptations of “Last Night in Montreal” and “Exit Party.”)

Born Emily St. John Fairbanks, the 47-year-old author has been imagining alternate and faraway worlds for much of her life, an impulse she attributes in part to growing up for years in a small community on Canada's Denman Island. Unlike so many of her peers, she never formally studied literature or even took a creative writing course. Her education falls just short of graduating high school; she dropped out to pursue her first career choice, dance, at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

“Nothing on paper points to this life, but here we are,” she says.

Mandel had published three novels before “Station Eleven,” which came out in 2014 and found her switching publishers from the independent Unbridled Books to the Penguin Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf. Jenny Jackson, Mandel’s editor at Knopf, remembers hearing about the author and the following she had developed among booksellers well before Mandel’s agent sent her the manuscript for “Station Eleven” and told her it was “much bigger” than anything she had done before.

“I loved the book,” Jackson says. “Here was this author who already had grassroots support and I knew she was poised to break out.”

Mandel's futuristic story of a world ravaged by a lethal flu virus was already a bestseller and National Book Award finalist six years before the coronavirus pandemic gave it the unwanted status of prophecy. “Station Eleven” has sold more than 1 million copies, was adapted into an HBO miniseries and ranked in a New York Times author survey as among the 21st century's best books.

During her interview, Mandel discussed a few turning points in her life, the appeal of recurring characters and why she finds hope even when conceiving the worst.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: What made you decide to bring back some of the characters from “The Singer’s Gun” and other earlier books for “Exit Party”?

MANDEL: I feel like I've become a better writer. “The Singer’s Gun” was so long ago and I was much more likely to question myself, not wanting to go too far out of literary or noir lines. At this point in my career, I feel a real sense of freedom. I feel like I can write in whatever genre I want.

AP: You write a lot about alternate paths, the life you might have led.

MANDEL: It’s an idea I’ve loved for a while, the life you didn’t live, where you married a different person, went to a different school, took a different job. So over the passage of time, that would turn you into a somewhat different person. Look, I trained as a dancer. It’s easy to imagine a version of my life where I kept dancing and stayed in Canada.

AP: What made you choose to become a writer?

MANDEL: I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, since I was 9. I loved it, but I saw it as a hobby. I had this ridiculous situation where I came from a very working class family, and I took a nondegree conservatory program in contemporary dance. So I graduated with a mountain of student loans, and it’s like a worst-case scenario, very poor planning on my part.

I didn’t want to work in retail forever. I was working in the back room of a store (in Montreal), just putting stickers on martini glasses for 15 hours. That wasn’t something I exactly wanted to do. So I thought, “Well, what comes next?” And I thought, “Maybe I should start writing.”

AP: Before you wrote “Station Eleven,” you were mostly writing crime novels/thrillers (“The Singer's Gun,” “The Lola Quartet”).

What made you decide to start writing science fiction?

MANDEL: I was afraid of being pigeonholed. To be clear, I have huge respect for crime writers, but I didn't want to get pigeonholed.

AP: Do you worry about being pigeonholed as someone who's always going on about disaster?

MANDEL: Yeah, I think my next book needs to not be speculative fiction.

AP: It seems inevitable that when someone says they're writing a book about the future, it's going to be apocalyptic.

MANDEL: I think there will be multiple ruptures and lots of pleasant interludes in between.

AP: In “Station Eleven” you write “What was lost in the co

llapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.” Then in “Exit Party” you write that “the light is gorgeous while it lasts.”

MANDEL: Yeah, can you find beauty in impermanence? That's what I’m trying to drive toward. We need to find peace with the idea that nothing lasts forever.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI governance, among other topics, at a meeting planned on Sept. 24.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a lengthy essay published on Saturday warned that a “Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world.” He called for continuing restrictions on sales of cutting-edge AI chips and chipmaking equipment to China in order to keep the U.S.’s AI edge.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a question about Amodei's essay by saying that all parties should work together on AI.

“Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance which serves no one’s interest,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press conference on Monday.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump downplayed calls for his administration to step in to slow down AI development, saying that the U.S. was leading China on AI and that “whoever wins AI, wins.”

Amodei also predicted that a swarm of AI “agents” could be able to take over the internet in six to 12 months unless researchers agree to slow down. He said that “global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities.”

Trump and Xi could discuss AI governance at summit

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to discuss topics including AI governance with Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting planned for late September.

Chinese companies have developed powerful AI models that are often cheaper to use than advanced models from U.S.-based companies, even as by some measures, they are just as capable.

China’s Xi has called for the setting up of a global AI governance framework among Global South, while pitching China as a pioneer in establishing an open-source AI community.

The head of China’s Ministry of State Security has also called for “accelerating the establishment of a system for preventing and managing AI security risks” in a recent article.

Beijing accuses US of trying to hold it back

In an editorial published Sunday, China’s state-run Global Times newspaper dismissed Amodei’s essay as a veiled call to “contain” China. It said that Amodei’s essay may appear on the surface to be focused on global AI security, but, that it is “packed with containment provisions targeting China and is, in essence, a ‘Cold War playbook’ for the AI sector.”

Amodei’s essay was published a few days after the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory last week, saying Chinese AI developers had engaged in “aggressive, malicious” efforts in extracting, or “distilling,” capabilities from some of the most advanced AI models in the U.S. like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT.

China’s Commerce Ministry dismissed the U.S. claims as groundless and said “distillation” has been commonly used by many AI companies. It also said that the U.S. was pursuing a “monopoly of the AI industry.”

Both China and the U.S. want “to make sure the other side cannot establish a tech chokepoint over them,” said Lizzi C. Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

“So from Beijing’s perspective, there is an obvious question: if the U.S. wants China to cooperate on frontier safety while also restricting its access to frontier compute, what exactly does that cooperation look like?” Lee said.

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Chan reported from Hong Kong.

Dangote, Africa's richest man, dubbed the IPO one "for the people” and said he wants everyone to be able to own a share. Retail investors can buy shares in the sprawling Lagos-based refinery for 5,250 naira ($4) per share with a minimum purchase of 10 shares. Dangote retains 87% ownership of the refinery, Africa's largest.

The refinery's scale and potential returns, especially at a time when global oil prices have risen following the U.S.-Iran war, have generated excitement among retail investors.

“I will be a fool not to partake in it and see how it goes. I am placing a lot of emphasis on his name and on the refinery being the biggest in Africa,” Titi Adetoye, an Abuja-based operations manager who hopes to buy up to 1,000 shares, told The Associated Press.

Bamboo, a Nigerian digital investment platform, reported user difficulty in accessing its platform due to “higher than expected traffic trying to get into the Dangote IPO.”

Nigeria has relied for many decades on foreign refining of its oil due to decrepit state-run refineries, many of which operate below capacity or have remained stagnant for years due to poor maintenance.

But when the $19 billion refinery began production in 2024, it transformed the energy-rich country of more than 210 million people from an importer of refined oil into an exporter.

“It is going to be a game-changing IPO for Nigeria’s markets,” said Mohammed Saidu, head of research and investment analysis at Lagos-based TrustBanc. Saidu said he predicted there would be millions of new investors from the IPO.

The IPO has raised questions about Dangote retaining significant ownership and the refinery's purported valuation after the offering. At $49 billion, the valuation is more than twice what it cost to build it. The refinery's officials have denied that its valuation is inflated.

“It is not something someone can classify as people-driven if you still own 87% of the refinery and there are many ways that narrative breaks down,” Joachim McEbong, a senior West Africa analyst at Control Risks, said.

The IPO also has its skeptics. Abdulkabeer Tijani, a Lagos-based researcher who invests regularly in Nigerian stocks, said that, priced at 525 naira ($0.40) per share, it might already be too expensive.

“(The share price) puts a bigger duty on the refinery, which suggests that to justify an even higher valuation from the roughly 47 trillion naira ($49 billion), the refinery needs to generate very substantial profits and cash flow consistently,” Tijani said.

The Dangote refinery reached its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day earlier this year. Dangote announced plans last year to increase capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day, a move its officials say will make it the world's largest refinery by surpassing India’s Jamnagar plant.

Dangote has also set out to expand into East Africa, and has proposed building a refinery in Kenya by 2030.

It’s been nearly a quarter century since no member of the Big Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — appeared in the top 10 of the men’s tennis rankings.

With the 39-year-old Djokovic — the last member of the trio still competing — dropping from No. 5 to No. 12 when the latest rankings were released on Monday, it's the first time since October 2002 that neither him, Federer nor Nadal appear in the first 10 entries of the list.

Federer and Nadal retired in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Federer was 41 when he stopped and Nadal was 38.

Lleyton Hewitt was No. 1 in October 2002 and — in a measure of just how much time has passed — his son, 17-year-old Cruz Hewitt, is now a rising professional.

Djokovic was beaten in the first round of the U.S. Open by Mariano Navone 15 days ago.

It was Djokovic’s earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades — dating back to the 2006 Australian Open — and the first time ever that he lost his opener at the U.S. Open.

“I’ve been very proud of all the achievements in the past, but now is now,” Djokovic said after the loss in New York.

Djokovic’s 24 major titles are two more than Nadal’s 22 and four more than Federer’s 20.

Record ranking runs

Federer made his first appearance in the top 10 later in October 2002 and remained there until the end of 2016 – during which time he had a record run of 237 weeks as No. 1.

Nadal entered the top 10 in April of 2005, during his breakout run as an 18-year-old on Europe’s clay courts. The Spaniard remained there for a record 912 consecutive weeks until 2023.

Djokovic was the last of the Big Three to enter the top 10 in 2007. He's had a record of 428 total weeks at No. 1.

Alcaraz considers taking more breaks

With current top players Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both missing majors this year due to injury and Alcaraz having said he plans to take more breaks during future seasons, it’s unclear yet if the current generation will have as much staying power as the Big Three.

“I’m proud of the fact that I was able to play from January to November throughout. I never really missed indoor season or Australia or any of the American swings,” Federer said ahead of his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame last month.

“I kind of showed up everywhere,” Federer added. “I never really wanted to make it all about the Slams. I remember Pistol (Pete Sampras) talked a lot about how it was Slams only for him toward the end of the career, and I didn’t like the fact that was going to be my case. I liked too many other tournaments and I love the ATP Tour. So from that standpoint, I really tried to keep everything a priority.”

Zverev was the most consistent this year

Already, this year has been quite different from last year in terms of men’s finals at the Grand Slams.

After Sinner and Alcaraz met in three of the four major finals last year, they didn’t meet in any in 2026.

Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon due to a right wrist injury and Sinner withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a right knee injury.

While both Alcaraz (Australian Open) and Sinner (Wimbledon) won majors this year, the most consistent performer on the men’s side was Alexander Zverev, who won the French Open and the U.S. Open, lost in the Wimbledon final and reached the semifinals in Australia.

Still, Zverev wasn’t about to declare himself the best.

“If everyone is healthy, I think Jannik is still ahead,” Zverev said after beating Ben Shelton for the U.S. Open title on Sunday. “It’s as simple as that.”

In the new rankings, Sinner, Zverev and Alcaraz remained 1-2-3, respectively, while U.S. Open finalist Ben Shelton jumped five spots to No. 4.

Rybakina replaces Sabalenka at No. 1

The picture was a bit clearer on the women’s side, where Elena Rybakina won two of the four Grand Slams this year, at the Australian Open and U.S. Open.

Rybakina’s run in New York enabled her to climb to No. 1 in the rankings, ending Aryna Sabalenka’s 99-week run at the top.

“Her serve is amazing,” Sabalenka said after Rybakina cranked out 12 aces against her in the U.S. Open final. “The way she (is) able to step in and overpower you on court and especially if it’s a U.S. Open court where it’s super fast, definitely huge advantage for her.”

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AP Sports Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

The crash on Sunday night in the Western Cape Province took place between the small towns of Prince Albert and Leeu-Gamka, around 380 kilometers (235 miles) east of Cape Town, according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, or RTMC, the national traffic agency.

The collision involved two Toyota minibus taxis and a Suzuki sport utility vehicle, police spokesperson Warrant Officer Christopher Spies said.

Eighteen people were declared dead at the scene. Three others were declared dead after being taken to a hospital, bringing the toll to 21, Spies said. Four other people were seriously injured, the Western Cape Mobility Department.

The death toll “may change as emergency services and authorities in the Western Cape continue their assessment of the scene,” RTMC said.

The N1 highway was closed at the crash scene. Police opened a culpable homicide case, and the cause of the collision remained under investigation, Spies said. RTMC also sent investigators to the scene.

The Western Cape collision was one of two major crashes that killed at least 29 people across South Africa over the weekend, the government said in a statement. Eight people were killed in a separate crash near Ermelo in Mpumalanga province early Sunday.

Minibus taxis are the main mode of public transport for millions of people in South Africa and are often involved in fatal collisions. Two separate crashes involving minibus taxis in January left at least 25 people dead, including 14 children.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

British long jumper Jazmin Sawyers took second in her event over the weekend, so she did not get a medal (nobody did) or a trophy (only winners did) or the first prize, $150,000.

She did get $75,000, though, which for the majority of track and field athletes, can make a huge difference.

“I look at the next year now, and I don’t need to necessarily worry about being able to train full-time,” Sawyers said.

A 32-year-old with five national titles in Britain, Sawyers said she came into the season ranked in the 30s and climbed her way into the top 10.

Injuries suffered by the two top-ranked jumpers, Tara Davis-Woodhall and Malaika Mihambo, landed Sawyers in the Ultimate Championships and she took advantage.

She said she’s aware that $150,000 or $75,000 isn’t life-changing for every athlete here. But for some, it is. Suddenly, Sawyers can see a pathway to making her third Olympics.

“I will buy myself something. I’m going to upgrade my sewing machine,” she said. “Aside from that, I’m excited to know there won’t be a scramble to be able to train the way I want to be able to train for the next two years.”

Jefferson-Wooden puts the world on world-record watch (again)

About this time in the last Olympic cycle, it seemed a matter of when, not if, Florence Griffith Joyner’s decades-old world records of 10.49 in the 100 and 21.34 in the 200 would fall.

Then, injuries to two Jamaican sprinters, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson, put that talk on hold and led to a reshuffling of the deck in women’s sprints.

Coming out on top: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who added the 100 and 200 titles at Ultimate to her world championships from last year. More impressive were her times. She ran 10.62 in the 100 — where she is the fourth woman ever in that event — then followed it up with a 21.47 in the 200 that even she did not expect.

The 21.47 made her the third-fastest woman ever in that event behind Flo Jo and Jackson.

It was the fastest time ever run into a headwind and, maybe most impressively, it came 24 hours after her 100-meter win. She’ll have far more rest between events when she hits the track for her next shot at the 100-200 double, next year at worlds in Beijing.

“It’s insane,” she said. “I can’t wait to go back and look at the race. It’s like one of those things where, you don’t know until you know.”

Bolt applauds new sense of mystery about who will win sprints

When Usain Bolt was on the track, the drama almost always had to do with whether he would set a record, not who would win the race.

For years, the mystery that was absent was a price worth paying because of the show the Jamaican great put on before, during and after all those sprints.

He’s nearing 10 years in retirement and now watching a sport where, in so many cases, nobody knows who’s going to win the sprints.

As a sign of how long it's been, Bolt, who was in Budapest for the meet, was cheering wildly for Kenny Bednarek as Bednarek cruised to his 200-meter victory Sunday night in 19.52. Afterward, Bolt caught up with Bednarek to offer congratulations.

“It was the first time I'd actually met him in person,” said the 27-year-old Bednarek, who is 13 years younger than Bolt. “I've looked up to him since I was a kid.”

Who will Bolt congratulate next? Hard to know.

Over the last three years, Noah Lyles (Paris), Oblique Seville (Tokyo) and Bednarek (Budapest) have won the biggest 100-meter races of the year. The 200s have gone to Letsile Tebogo (Paris), Lyles (Tokyo) and Bednarek.

“To see different people winning makes it more exciting,” Bolt said. “Now, you show up on the day and you don’t know who’s going to win. I think that’s good for the sport.”

Dalilah Muhammad's barrier-breaking run comes to an end

Before a teenager named Sydney McLaughlin started setting world records and winning everything there was to win in the 400-meter hurdles, Dalilah Muhammad gave her and everyone else a preview of what was possible.

Muhammad, the American who broke a 16-year-old world record in 2019 that eventually led to McLaughlin's lowering of the mark to 50.37 over the next five years, bid adieu to competitive track Sunday night.

Muhammad finished fourth with a season-best time of 53.11, which made for a $25,000 payday, though that was hardly the point of the evening for her.

“I think just being one of the leaders in this event and pushing what was possible in the event,” Muhammad said when asked what she wants to be remembered for.

Though she had been a four-time All-American at USC from 2009-12, she was almost an afterthought by the time she won the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

She set the record in 2019 (52.20), then lowered it with a .07-second win over McLaughlin at world championships three months later. That helped light a fire under McLaughlin, who switched coaches, to Bobby Kersee, knowing if she couldn’t handle Muhammad, she’d never be the best.

McLaughlin, now married and with a 2-month-old daughter, has lowered the record that once belonged to her rival six times since those world championships. Muhammad won a silver medal behind McLaughlin at the Tokyo Games, a bronze at worlds in 2022 and leaves as one of the greats of the event.

“I think you had that motivation knowing this high school kid is coming into college and she’s going to be the one to beat,” Muhammad said. “I’m just truly honored to be a person who’s been part of her journey.”

Next edition of Ultimate will come during an Olympic year

Among the biggest tests for the future of the Ultimate Championship is whether World Athletics will get as much buy-in from athletes when it holds the event around two months after the LA Olympics in 2028.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said he's more impressed with the deep talent pool across events in track and field than he is concerned over the sport's awkward calendar.

American pole vaulter Sandi Morris, who pocketed $150,000 for her win over the weekend, might have summed it up best for a sport where the majority of athletes still need paychecks and sponsors to pay for their training.

“I mean, they put the stakes out there and athletes are going to compete,” she said.

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Oil prices gained more than 2% amid growing worries about global petroleum supplies as the new developments strained efforts by Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter, to get its crude to market. The Iran war has forced the kingdom to shift its exports away from the Persian Gulf, since Iranian attacks have stifled shipping through the gulf's sole exit, the Strait of Hormuz.

So the kingdom has relied on the East-West Pipeline, which runs 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) across the breadth of the country, to move its crude production from Gulf ports to ports on the Red Sea. From there it can be put on tankers for export. But authorities were forced to shut down the pipeline after an attack Thursday that Saudi Arabia blamed on drones from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Repairing the damage, including at a major pumping facility, could take three to five weeks, the officials, who have been briefed on the matter, told The Associated Press. The line may work partially during the repairs, one of the officials said, but they could not say how much oil might get through.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media.

The pipeline appeared to be moving about 4 million barrels of oil a day, about 4% of total world oil supplies, based on the amount being exported per day from its Red Sea outlet, the port of Yanbu, according to a report earlier this year by Allison Minor, director of the Atlantic Council’s Project for Middle East Integration. The pipeline has a total capacity of up to 7 million barrels per day.

The Saudi oil company Aramco, which operates the pipeline, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The government-run Center for International Communication, which oversees foreign media in the kingdom, said it was looking into an AP inquiry about how long it will take to repair the pipeline.

Houthis' grab of islands strengthens hold on a key outlet from the Red Sea

Meanwhile, Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continued to expand their threat to Saudi shipping routes out of the Red Sea by capturing the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish, government and Houthi officials said Monday.

The islands lie 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is a choke point that connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and Saudi Arabia's key Asian markets.

The Houthis’ advance also puts them just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

For more than a month, the Houthis have been striking Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, stepping up pressure on global oil prices and boosting Iran’s leverage in its war with the United States.

The Houthi advances have seemed to come with little resistance from Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. The rebels deployed on the Hanish islands after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago, according to two government officials and a Houthi official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

Last week, the rebels seized the port city of Mokha and the island of Mayun, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Government forces are now attempting to rally and fight back. On Sunday, the military said it launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and elsewhere in Taiz province.

Houthi cross-border attacks continue

A rebel spokesman said the Houthis fired dozens of missiles and drones at the King Khalid Air Base in the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, targeting hangars, radar installations and ammunition depots. The statement on Monday by Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree did not specify when the attack took place, but the Houthis often take hours or days to claim responsibility for attacks.

Saudi authorities sounded sirens in Khamis Mushait and the nearby city of Abha on Sunday afternoon, warning residents to take shelter from potential incoming fire. Both areas, near the border with Yemen, were repeatedly attacked by the Houthis in recent weeks. One projectile hit in an area near the border close to the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque, Saudi civil defense said.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the Houthi claim of striking the base.

Thousands of Yemenis are fleeing the fighting

The fighting in Yemen is pushing the impoverished nation back into full-fledged civil war, after a truce that largely maintained quiet since 2022. Even as they advance along the Red Sea, the Houthis have waged an offensive farther inland, particularly in the longtime battleground province of Taiz.

Some 150 civilians have been killed in fighting since Sept. 3, including a pregnant woman killed Saturday in a village in Taiz province, the government’s Human Rights Ministry said. More than 200 civilians have been wounded, it said.

Thousands of families have fled their homes in Taiz and nearby provinces in the past day, said Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, a charity that operates in the area.

“Many of them don’t have enough food or water as they had to flee with whatever they could carry. In some areas, whole villages have reportedly emptied,” he said.

The United Nations has estimated that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including over 2,000 people who fled by boat to Djibouti.

The fighting threatens to reignite a war that for more than a decade brought disaster to Yemen, killing more than 150,000 people and driving the country to the brink of famine. Since 2014, the Houthis have controlled the north, including the capital, Sanaa, and much of the western heartland of the country where most of the population is located.

The internationally recognized government, backed by an array of disparate militias, controls the south and east, including the key southern port of Aden.

For years, Saudi Arabia waged a destructive air campaign against the Houthis, while backing the government and allied militias. But it has appeared reluctant to throw itself fully back into the war, despite the Houthi attacks on oil infrastructure and shipping.

The Americans' fifth championship in a row came Sunday in a 97-79 victory over France. It wasn't as easy as the previous four, with the U.S. showing some vulnerability throughout the tournament.

A three-point win over Italy in group play gave other teams hope. A tight game against Spain in the semifinals also raised some eyebrows.

France held a 14-point first-half lead in the title game — the biggest deficit the Americans had faced since their last loss in a major competition when Russia beat them in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup.

But the U.S. was calm and not worried. The game ended the same way the previous 35 had for the Americans, with a victory.

“We are the standard,” said Breanna Stewart, who scored 22 points and earned MVP honors of the tournament for a record second time. “USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat. We want to make sure that we continue to build on that standard and everybody else knows it.”

Missed opportunity for the U.S. challengers

This might have been the best chance for someone to beat the U.S.. They were missing four-time MVP A'ja Wilson and the roster was full of newcomers, including Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. Kara Lawson was coaching and getting better acquainted with the second-youngest American squad in the past 40-plus years.

Clark, Reese and Bueckers gained valuable experience and will be integral for the U.S. to continue its success over the next decade.

France, which lost to the U.S. by a point in the Paris Olympics gold medal game two years ago, thought it could be the team to end the Americans' two decades of dominance. For nearly a half they had it going.

There was no panic though on the U.S. side, thanks in part to the ultimate winner Stewart, who has two World Cup MVPs now — the first player to ever accomplish that. She's only 32 years old and has four World Cup championships on her resume.

The Americans calmly rallied within two points at the half as Clark's 3-pointer just before the buzzer capped the rally. The U.S. then put it away in the third quarter.

“I think we felt really good about where we were at,” said Clark, who finished with 12 points. “I think France was 8 for 14 (from 3-point range). We dug ourself a hole, but we climbed out of it, and I felt like we were never rattled by anything.”

U.S. will be tested again at 2028 Olympics

With Stewart and Wilson most likely leading the way at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, teams will be hard-pressed to end this run by the Americans. Besides their World Cup success, they also haven't lost an Olympic game in 34 years.

While the U.S. will be favored to capture gold at home, there are teams on the rise that will challenge them.

France has a really good core led by Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga. The French looked dominant throughout the World Cup blowing past opponents by an average of 35.6 points. They kept that momentum going at the start against the U.S. before falling short once again.

Still, the silver medal finish was the country's best in the history of the event. Spain, which won the bronze medal, has a really talented young nucleus with Iyana Martin and Awa Fam, who are both 20.

Change in World Cup dates

One of the biggest weaknesses for the U.S. is just a lack of training time. The team got together as a whole group for the first time a few days before the World Cup began. That won't be a problem in 2030 when the tournament will be played in Japan. FIBA shifted the dates of it to late November and early December. That means the Americans will have ample time after the WNBA season is over to get together to train.

FIBA also said that there won't be any more back-to-back games with rest days for each team between group games as well as a day between the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. In Berlin, the semis and finals were on consecutive days.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

He's not ready to call himself the best player in tennis though.

Ben Shelton seemed willing to at least consider it after Zverev beat him 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday in the U.S. Open final to add that trophy to the French Open title he won in June.

“You’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year,” Shelton told Zverev during the trophy presentation.

This year, of course, was different than last year.

Alcaraz and Sinner were injured at times during the majors

Carlos Alcaraz won the Australian Open title, but then had to miss the French Open and Wimbledon with a right wrist injury, getting hurt in April and then not playing again until the U.S. Open. Jannik Sinner beat Zverev in the Wimbledon final, but then the top-ranked player in men's tennis couldn't play in New York because of a knee injury.

Sinner and Alcaraz met in the last three Grand Slam finals in 2025.

Zverev took all that into consideration when asked if he considered himself the best player in men's tennis.

“With Jannik Sinner being injured and Carlos Alcaraz coming back from injury after four months, right now, this moment, probably yes. Both of them healthy and both of them at the top of their game, maybe not,” Zverev said.

“But if we say right now with Jannik being injured and Carlos coming back from injury, maybe. I mean, four, five months ago when both of them were healthy, I wasn’t. I was losing to Jannik all the time. So if everyone is healthy, I think Jannik is still ahead. It’s as simple as that.”

Zverev did his job in the majors by beating the players who were there.

He went 25-2 in the four biggest tournaments and was the only man to reach the semifinals of all four. Forced to play five-setters in each of the first two rounds of the U.S. Open, the first No. 1-seeded man to do that in the Open era that dates to 1968, he didn't drop another set until the final.

Shelton, who can fire serves at more than 140 mph, said Zverev had the best serve on tour.

“I think you combine that with as good as he is as a tennis player outside the serve, you know how complete he is, he’s gotten so much better at the net,” Shelton said. “He’s an elite mover at 6-7. He’s got a lot of length, so he returns really well. Solid from the baseline and one of the fittest guys on tour, too. Yeah, he’s a tough guy to play, 100%.”

Hard work pays off for Zverev in 2026

Shelton also said Zverev works harder than anyone he knew, and the German seemed more willing to agree with that assessment than the one about being the best player.

“I think I’m up there, for sure, because I’ve said it before, I don’t think I’m the most talented in any way. I don’t think I’m a God-given talent like some other guys are,” Zverev said. “I think most of my tennis is through hard work, through a lot of hours spent on the court, and through a lot of hours spent in the gym and on the track. That’s how I play tennis.”

The hard work helped him climb back toward the top after a severe ankle injury he sustained in the French Open semifinals in 2022, and finally to win the U.S. Open trophy he thought he should have had two years earlier.

Zverev won the first two sets against Dominic Thiem and got within two points of victory before becoming the first man to blow a two-set lead and lose in the final since 1949. That loss became easier to stomach once he finally broke through in Paris, even more so after he added another trophy and the $5.5 million winner's check Sunday.

“I think the scars of the 2020 final, they kind of disappeared after I won in Paris,” Zverev said. "I said it in Wimbledon. Even though I lost the final, I enjoyed the match, I enjoyed being in the Grand Slam final, I enjoyed playing on Centre Court, I enjoyed playing in front of an amazing crowd, in front of some celebrities and all that. I enjoyed doing that.

“Whereas before winning in Paris, I felt a lot of stress all the time, because there was always a question mark: Will I ever win one? What I think now is just more of a joy to play those kind of finals.”

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Here's a quick rundown of baseball's remaining unresolved races:

In the American League

The New York Yankees and Boston are almost certain to join Tampa Bay in the playoffs out of the AL East. The Rays have a comfortable four-game lead in the division over the Yankees, and they're likely to have the tiebreaker over New York, but that race isn't completely over since the two teams face each other in a four-game series in the final week of the regular season.

The Red Sox can plan on being the second wild card.

That leaves three spots up for grabs: the AL Central title, the AL West title and the third wild card. The Chicago White Sox lead Cleveland by a half-game for the AL Central, with the Guardians holding a one-game lead over Toronto for the final wild card. Houston leads Texas by one game for the AL West, and the Rangers are also two behind Cleveland for the last wild card. Everyone else is at least four behind Cleveland.

Head to head: White Sox at Cleveland (Sept. 14-16), Toronto at Texas (Sept. 18-20).

Other key tiebreakers that have been determined: White Sox over Blue Jays and Rangers; Astros over White Sox, Guardians and Rangers; Blue Jays over Guardians; Rangers over Blue Jays and Guardians.

There's also a tight race brewing between the AL Central and AL West leaders for the second of the AL's two first-round byes. Right now Chicago leads Houston by 1 1/2 games for that.

In the National League

The Brewers, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Dodgers all have substantial leads in their divisions. Milwaukee (93-57) seems pretty safe for a first-round bye. Los Angeles (90-59) leads Atlanta (88-62) in the race for the other one.

The wild-card race is basically four teams fighting for three spots — the Chicago Cubs (83-67), Philadelphia (83-67), San Diego (81-68) and Arizona (79-71). San Diego hosts Arizona in the final three games of the season Sept. 25-27.

Tiebreakers: Braves over Dodgers; Cubs over Phillies, Padres and Diamondbacks; Phillies over Padres.

Trivia time

Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has a chance to finish the season in double digits in the FanGraphs version of wins above replacement. That's been done a few times in recent years by the likes of Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Mookie Betts and Mike Trout, but no National Leaguer has accomplished the feat since Barry Bonds had 11.9 fWAR in 2004.

Who was the last NL player to do it besides Bonds?

Performance of the week

Philadelphia's Jesús Luzardo struck out 12 in a two-hit shutout of Atlanta on Monday. The Phillies won 1-0 thanks to Kyle Schwarber's eighth-inning homer, salvaging a split of a four-game series with the Braves in a game that took 1 hour, 51 minutes.

But Philadelphia probably needed more to stay in the NL East race. Atlanta is now five games up.

Comeback of the week

Down 6-1, San Francisco stormed back with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat St. Louis 7-6 on Wednesday. All those runs came with two outs.

Bryce Eldridge hit a bases-loaded single to bring home two runs. Then Jonah Cox hit an RBI single and Jung Hoo Lee tied it with a two-run double. Shay Whitcomb's double made it 7-6. After the second out, the Giants had a win probability of 1.1% according to Baseball Savant.

Team of the week

San Diego went 6-0 to jump ahead of Arizona in the playoff race. The Padres have won seven in row overall, four of which were by one run and only one of which was by more than two. Mason Miller has four saves during the streak.

Trivia answer

In 1998, Kevin Brown finished with 10.0 fWAR, going 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA in 257 innings for San Diego. That pitching performance was actually worth just 9.6 fWAR, but Brown also got a small amount of credit for his batting.

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Arévalo dijo que su gobierno ha visto a “otros actores aprovecharse del malestar ciudadano para provocar bloqueos y acciones violentas” que lejos de ser manifestaciones pacíficas "buscan sembrar el caos y el desorden".

“Por ejemplo en Río Hondo, (departamento de) Zacapa políticos locales se han coludido con actores del narcotráfico para pagarle a los participantes en los bloqueos, o (los municipios de) Cuyotenango (en Suchitepéquez al sur del país) y Villa Nueva (de la capital), donde actores políticos espurios, pandilleros en unos casos y crimen organizado en otros, se han asociado para montar los bloqueos”, dijo Arévalo y agregó que tales acciones pretendían desestabilizar a su gobierno.

Las tensiones se elevaron la semana pasada cuando trasportistas organizados y otros grupos bloquearon carreteras, incendiaron vehículos, atacaron con armas a policías y provocaron destrozos en varios puntos del país, principalmente en la capital guatemalteca.

En su mensaje, el presidente dijo que trabaja con el Congreso para crear medidas complementarias en las próximas semanas para abordar los efectos del alza al combustible, que también ha encarecido los productos de la canasta básica.

El martes, el Congreso guatemalteco aprobó una ley para poner tope al precio del diésel y la gasolina que establece que el consumidor pagará un máximo de 39 quetzales (unos cinco dólares) por galón (3,8 litros) de diésel y gasolina regular, y 41 quetzales (unos cinco dólares con 40 centavos) por galón de gasolina superior.

En caso de que el precio de los combustibles rebase el tope establecido, entonces entrará vigencia un subsidio por parte del gobierno que irá a los importadores del material.

Sin embargo, la ley no ha entrado en vigencia debido a que el diputado Allan Estuardo Rodríguez Reyes, electo por el partido VAMOS, del expresidente Alejandro Giammattei, pidió revisiones a la Ley, lo que hace imposible publicarla y que entre en vigencia.

“Esta semana también vimos que hay políticos que quieren aprovecharse del dolor de las familias, como un diputado que ha obstaculizado la entrada en vigencia de la ley ya aprobada, retrasando la reducción de precios y obligando que miles de guatemaltecos sigamos pagando altos montos”, dijo Arévalo.

El ministro de Gobernación, Marco Villeda, dijo el sábado tras los disturbios que dos policías fueron heridos de bala, 14 personas fueron detenidas y se incautaron unos ocho vehículos usados para bloquear carreteras.

The nation's highest court already is considering the administration's appeal of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston prohibiting the Postal Service from enforcing its new rule on mail voting before this year's midterm elections.

Late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C., handed down a similar hold on the rule, which was issued Aug. 21.

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections,” Nichols wrote in issuing the preliminary injunction. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen.”

Nichols in May had refused to issue an injunction because he ruled the lawsuit seeking one was brought too early. That was the high court's reasoning late last month when it lifted an earlier freeze by Talwani. But because the administration had just issued its rule to move ahead with Trump's plan, the plaintiffs in Boston and Washington, D.C., refiled their lawsuits.

Talwani was nominated by former President Barack Obama and Nichols was nominated by Trump.

The new Postal Service regulations stem from an executive order Trump issued earlier this year. Election officials say it would be impossible to implement the changes this close to a general election.

The regulations would require all ballot envelope designs to be pre-approved by the Postal Service and that states upload the identities of those who are to receive them into a still-inactive online portal. Mail ballots already are being sent out in at least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin — and more states are preparing to distribute mail ballots this week.

A whistleblower report to Congress warned that millions of people would be disenfranchised if the rule was allowed to take effect for the midterms. The union representing U.S. Postal Service workers has pushed back against the executive order, saying it is not the job of postal workers to verify voter eligibility.

Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, who has falsely blamed it for his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and claimed it is a pathway to fraud despite his own use of the voting method.

Despite all the downers, though, gains for many stocks outside AI helped limit Wall Street's losses. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, and more stocks rose within the index than fell. The Nasdaq composite, which has many more tech stocks, dropped a market-leading 0.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 159 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time.

AI stocks have been under pressure a while because of worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. The concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after one of the industry’s leading voices, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called for a deliberate and global slowdown in the development of AI.

He cited safety issues, including the risk that AI becomes capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

Nvidia, whose profits have soared because its chips are helping to train AI models, sank 3.5% and was the heaviest weight on the market because of its massive size.

SpaceX, which gets a chunk of its business from AI, fell 1.7% after Elon Musk said over the weekend that he agrees with Amodei. Softbank Group, the Japanese giant that is a major investor of OpenAI, lost 10.7% in Tokyo after OpenAI’s Sam Altman likewise supported the concept of a slowdown.

Altman also said in an interview with Fortune published on Saturday that OpenAI would likely wait until next year for a sale of its stock on Wall Street, potentially delaying a potential gusher of cash for Softbank and other early investors in OpenAI.

In South Korea, the Kospi index dropped 3.3% due to losses for its two most influential stocks, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

President Donald Trump played down the need for his administration to check the development of AI, saying he worried about ceding America’s edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology.

He said on his social media network Monday that the only guardrail AI needs “is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

Helping to limit Wall Street's losses on Monday were several software companies that tumbled earlier this year on worries that AI-powered competitors would undercut their businesses. Intuit, the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks, rose 4.8%. Autodesk, whose software helps designers, climbed 4.4%, and Adobe added 2.8%.

Stocks in the oil industry also rose, including a 1.3% gain for ExxonMobil, following another jump in crude prices.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 4.2% to $109.05 as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil.

An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.

Brent has jumped from less than $72 in early July as doubts rise that the United States and Iran can come to an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf through the strait again.

While the prospect of a de-escalation of war in Iran may have dimmed, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary on Monday that the situation is still fluid and “sizable” volumes of oil have still been moving through the strait.

So far, the jump in oil prices has helped send the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Such upward pressure on inflation has much of Wall Street expecting the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate on Wednesday at the end of its next meeting.

That’s the traditional way the Fed tries to rein in high inflation. Such a move then filters out through the rest of the bond market, makes it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, slows the overall economy and undercuts prices for investments. That hopefully would remove some of inflation’s fuel, though Trump has been lobbying for lower interest rates instead of higher.

Besides high inflation, worries about rising debt for the U.S. and other governments have helped send longer-term Treasury yields to their highest levels in years.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.00% from 4.96% late Friday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began in February.

The jump has already made it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow, including the highest average long-term mortgage rate in more than 14 months.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

“Casi la mitad del presupuesto dependerá de la plata prestada”, afirmó el mandatario en una declaración nocturna a través de redes sociales. No detalló las fuentes específicas de financiamiento interno y externo a las que acudirá.

El denominado “presupuesto de la verdad” para 2027 asciende a 635 billones de pesos (206.131 millones de dólares). De estos, indicó el mandatario, 281 billones (91.217 millones de dólares), es decir, el 44% provienen de deuda, lo que “muestra con toda claridad la gravedad de lo que recibimos”.

El gobierno anterior “acudió de manera irresponsable al endeudamiento”, acusó el jefe de Estado y afirmó que “año tras año se gastó sobre ingresos que no existían”. El resultado, “es un estado con más obligaciones, más deuda y menos capacidad para responder cuando el país más lo necesita”, reprochó.

El expresidente Gustavo Petro, el primer gobernante de izquierda en el país andino, no se pronunció de inmediato sobre las afirmaciones de su sucesor, pero ha defendido en anteriores ocasiones su gestión financiera y lo que denominó una reducción “histórica” de la pobreza y la deuda externa.

“Tenemos menos deuda externa que antes, pagamos completo el crédito del FMI (Fondo Monetario Internacional) por USD $5.000 millones y pagamos otros USD $5.000 millones más”, había señalado Petro en su cuenta de X, cuando aún ocupaba la presidencia.

Más de 30 días después de asumir el gobierno, De la Espriella anunció que se adoptarán medidas de austeridad para reducir el gasto en 17,4 billones de pesos (5.630 millones de dólares). Esto incluye la disminución en compras de bienes y servicios y en proyectos de inversión, dijo.

“No vamos a seguir gastando por gastar”, declaró el gobernante.

El Congreso colombiano tiene hasta el 20 de octubre para aprobar o modificar el presupuesto remitido por el Ejecutivo. De no hacerlo entrará en vigor la propuesta gubernamental.

De la Espriella declaró hace poco una emergencia económica que le permite recaudar impuestos temporales para orientarlos a la recuperación de las zonas afectadas, tras el devastador terremoto de magnitud 7.4 que sacudió gran parte del país en agosto.

In his first public comments since the NBA announced a sweeping punishment against the Clippers this month, Ballmer said in a statement posted online Sunday night that the team would comply with the penalties handed down by the league.

The league suspended Ballmer for one year, fined the team $30 million and forced it to forfeit five first-round draft picks.

Ballmer said the team has paid the fine.

“While there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report, this is not where I want to focus,” he said. “Team owners should support, not distract.”

Ballmer apologized to Clippers fans, employees and his fellow owners for the “distraction and distress” caused by the investigation that found the team violated salary cap circumvention rules involving Kawhi Leonard.

“This has been a very difficult time for everybody associated with the Clippers, and for that, I have sincere regrets,” Ballmer wrote. “I want to apologize to our fans, employees, and fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused, for which I accept responsibility as principal owner.”

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm. The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.

After the penalties were announced, the team said it “vehemently” rejected the NBA’s findings and called it “a heavily biased investigation.”

The Clippers also released a letter from Ballmer’s attorney David Kelley to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in which he described the investigation as “a witch hunt” and the subsequent penalties as a “gross injustice.”

The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy last year — broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.

The league said Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income deals, approved a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard, and for failing to create conditions under which his team followed league rules.

Ballmer said the team is “committed to putting this chapter behind us.”

“The challenges ahead of us are significant, but so is our resolve,” he said. “We will continue to build our team and invest in our community. The confidence of our fans is our priority. With our talented roster, outstanding staff and clear vision, I am certain that we will compete at the highest level and be an organization our fans can be proud of.”

Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors has been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. The Raptors have said they still want Leonard, and he apparently is just as eager to return to the team where he won an NBA title and was Finals MVP in 2019.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Mariska Hargitay, the longtime “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star and a three-time Emmy winner, will host the show on NBC, which has rolled out a peacock blue carpet for the occasion, a nod to the network's 100th anniversary.

The ceremony will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the 50th anniversary of “Charlie's Angels,” with cast members among the presenters.

How to watch the Emmy Awards

The Emmys telecast rotates between the broadcast networks, and this year it’s airing live on NBC and streaming live on Peacock at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific.

“Live from E!: Countdown to the Emmys” will show stars arriving beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on YouTube and Peacock. The Associated Press will also have a delayed feed of celebrity arrivals on YouTube.

‘The Pitt,’ ‘Widow’s Bay' and ‘Hacks’ will compete for the top prizes

HBO Max's real-time emergency room drama “The Pitt” was a rookie upstart a year ago when it won best drama, best actor for star Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Now an esteemed veteran, the show is expected to repeat in all three categories and could win three more, with Wyle himself up for three trophies. The show's ensemble got four nominations in the supporting actress category and three more for supporting actor.

“Hacks” got the most nominations of any comedy for its fifth and final season on HBO Max, and star Jean Smart is a virtual lock to make it 5-for-5 with yet another win for best actress in a comedy.

But the Apple TV horror comedy “Widow's Bay” may spoil the “Hacks” send-off. It comes into the evening with eight wins at earlier ceremonies where most of the well over 100 Emmys categories are awarded.

The show can add up to six more Monday. If it does, it will break the record of 13 Emmys for a comedy in a season set last year by “The Studio.”

“Widow's Bay” star Matthew Rhys is a favorite to win best actor in a comedy, and the show's breakout star Kate O'Flynn is a strong candidate for best supporting actress.

Rhea Seehorn, Harrison Ford and Zendaya are also in the mix

Rhea Seehorn plays the lone central character on Apple TV's “Pluribus,” and she could ride the role to her first Emmy for best actress in a drama.

Seehorn's competition includes Zendaya, who won for the first two seasons of “Euphoria” in 2020 and 2022, and is nominated for its third and final season.

The night could also bring the first Emmy — and first major competitive Hollywood award of any kind — to 84-year-old Harrison Ford, who is among the favorites for best supporting actor in a comedy for playing a therapist coping with Parkinson's disease on “Shrinking.”

For many people, the way a menu item or packaged snack feels in the mouth has become as big a draw as flavor, although consumers don't always recognize the part texture plays in their cravings for crispier takeout, frothier coffees and juicier candies, according to industry experts.

The importance of “mouthfeel,” a food science term for oral sensation, has inspired new products like Starbucks’ Aerocano, an air-whipped iced espresso; PowerCrunch, a wafer-like protein bar; and Trolli Gummi Popz, which are frozen but still soft and chewy.

Texture “has evolved from a complementary feature to a defining aspect of food quality,” Puratos, a Belgian company that develops commercial-grade ingredients for chocolate and baked goods, says. “It is reshaping how consumers evaluate food and make purchasing decisions.”

The trend is a global one. Stretchy yogurt is a fast-growing trend in China, while Swedish confectioner Cloetta just released Sprinkled Foamies, which have a crunchy coating and a marshmallow center. Parisian bakers are experimenting with new pastries like the crookie, a crispy croissant with a melty chocolate chip cookie inside.

“It’s not just about flavor anymore. People are thinking about the whole experience,” said Tana Davila, the chief marketing officer at Dutch Bros Coffee. The drive-thru U.S. beverage chain lets customers customize their drinks with toppings like a sweet and creamy whipped foam and juice-filled balls that pop when bitten into.

Interest in texture goes back centuries and extends beyond food

Texture is so integral to the act of eating that people often describe how a food feels when they’re asked how it tastes, said Patrick Kalotis, the executive vice president of texture and healthful solutions at Ingredion, an Illinois-based ingredient provider.

“You know, ‘This drink is fizzy’ or ‘I love the creaminess of the yogurt,’” Kalotis said. “They think they’re talking about taste, and of course the texture helps propagate the taste, but they’re actually describing texture.”

Food makers have long played with consistency. Pillowy Japanese mochi and stretchy Turkish ice cream date back centuries. Bubble tea, with its chewy tapioca boba pearls, was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. In the 1990s, high-end European restaurants whipped up culinary foams flavored with things like truffle oil or lobster broth.

But interest in texture has exploded in recent years, said Jenny Zegler, the principal strategist for food and drink at market research company Mintel. It's reflected in toys like squishy NeeDoh cubes and beauty products like jelly cleansers. With food, qualities like chewy, soft, gooey and melt-in-the-mouth are seeing fast-rising demand in online product searches, according to Mintel data.

Zegler thinks the craze around the Cronut — a doughnut-shaped pastry with a crispy fried outside and an airy, buttery inside like a croissant — started a fascination with food textures about a decade ago. Multilayered products like Dubai chocolate and sound-enhanced social media videos of influencers breaking crackly peanut brittle and slurping creamy noodles heightened the interest.

“Consumers are gaining new expectations for the experience of a product, and texture is the perfect way to deliver that,” Zegler said.

Nerds Gummy Clusters and the pandemic led to more complicated candy

The coronavirus pandemic elevated interest in texture because COVID-19 caused many people to temporarily lose their sense of smell and taste, said Shannon Weiner, senior director of consumer insights at candy company Ferrara. In 2020, the Chicago-based company debuted Nerds Gummy Clusters, a sweet round gummy coated in crunchy Nerds candy.

The hit product led to other innovations in the candy aisle, like crispy freeze-dried Skittles. Gummi Popz, chewy bite-sized squares filled with fizzing candy, went on sale earlier this year. Ferrara-owned Brach’s plans to introduce jelly beans with a crunchy exterior for Easter next year.

Weiner said layers of texture create contrasts, which heighten people’s perceptions of indulgence and quality and encourage them to pay closer attention to what they're eating.

“It’s a world of overstimulation that we’re living in, right?” Weiner said. “Oftentimes, if consumers are snacking as they’re scrolling or going through these mindless activities, texture can help break through and help stimulate and offer a sensory engagement.”

Delivered meals and a desire for healthier foods are expected to keep texture in focus

Meeting consumers’ texture demands and preferences is a growing challenge for the food industry. McDonald’s, which released new McCrispy chicken strips in May 2025, changed the recipe this year after customers said the strips weren’t crispy enough.

The rise of meal delivery has left restaurants searching for ways to ensure food retains its texture while it’s in transit, Kalotis said. Ingredion has developed potato starch-based coatings that can keep french fries crispy for 30 minutes; it’s working on extending the time to 45 minutes, he said.

Food companies are trying to find ways to make products healthier or more affordable by changing ingredients without disturbing familiar textures. For example, Ingredion makes additives that help keep reduced-sugar yogurt creamy.

Zegler, at Mintel, sees a lot of innovation ahead for texture. She expects companies to explore the texture needs of different populations, like older people. Snack foods will keep getting more layers, she said. Ferrara last year brought out Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters, which added a liquid center to the original two-layer candy.

In the meantime, Kalotis said, food companies need to do a better job of illustrating and explaining textures on product packaging. Mintel found that 59% of packaged foods introduced in the U.S. this year had no textural claims on their labels despite customers actively seeking out foods with novel physical properties.

“In a lot of ways, texture is one of the most powerful and yet somehow underrated parts of the food experience,” Kalotis said. “It makes a snack more satisfying.”

The CEO of Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind Claude, said he thought the industry needed to reduce the speed of its work, cautioning Saturday that a swarm of AI agents might be able to take over the internet in six months to a year unless companies devoted more time to putting safeguards in place.

Days after two former Anthropic safety researchers publicly aired concerns that the existential threats AI might poste to humanity were receiving too little attention, Dario Amodei outlined a plan for companies like his and governments around the world to ensure that increasingly capable AI models remain aligned with the commands and values of responsible people.

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, said this weekend that companies should start coordinating on AI safety without waiting for the government to introduce legislation. The “pacing" of AI development doesn't mean stopping it, Altman wrote on X. “But it should be slower than it otherwise could be."

Here’s what to know about the recent dire predictions and whether any brakes might be put on AI advancement:

AI models are becoming more powerful

Concerns over the potential risks of the technology are rising as new AI models become more powerful, heightening both the potential for misuse by people with criminal aims, such as creating and spreading a disease that kills most of the world's population, and the risk of AI systems going rogue in a dangerous way.

Anthropic disclosed last week that it blocked efforts by bad actors to use its AI models for malicious activity, such as cyberattacks, surveillance and research that could have led to biological weapons.

The company said it put stronger safeguards in its latest models to restrict biological research that could be used to make weapons but noted that “as models become increasingly capable, their risks will increase, unless AI developers and society’s defenders act to make them safer.”

Last year, Anthropic reported that hackers used the company’s AI in a cyberattack targeting about 30 companies and government agencies around the world. It said the hackers were very likely part of a Chinese state-sponsored group.

Multiple AI models have acted on their own

When an AI agent “goes rogue,” it means the AI has taken action beyond the task it was asked to perform. Both Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said in July that their AI models had acted on their own.

Anthropic disclosed that three AI models — Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5 and an internal research test model — hacked into three other organizations during testing, just days after OpenAI revealed that its AI system hacked into the servers of AI startup Hugging Face.

OpenAI described the intrusion by a combination of models, including its newly released GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable” model that was still being tested internally, as a “significant security incident.”

Meta followed suit in early August with a similar case of an AI model finding ways around another company's digital security.

Although some observers noted that people had disabled some guardrails in the OpenAI and Anthropic cases, the episodes seemed to reflect one of the biggest fears around AI: that if models achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a loosely defined term for AI that can match or surpass human abilities across a broad range of intellectual tasks, the technology could cause an irreversible catastrophic event or subjugate the human race.

How or when AI might cause a catastrophe is debated

Doomsday scenarios generally fall into two categories: An AI that achieves self-improving superintelligence and controls people instead of vice versa, or AI used by a rogue state or nefarious actors.

Worries that artificial intelligence might overcome human limits on its reach or actions are not new.

Alan Turing, a British mathematician widely regarded as one of the earliest authorities on artificial intelligence, predicted in 1951 that AI would eventually take control from humans. Less than a decade later, Norbert Wiener, another mathematician, warned intelligent machines would seek to accomplish their own objectives and humans would not be able to stop them.

In 2026, how reasonable are fears that AI, either by escaping human control or through misuse by unscrupulous people, could cause a cataclysmic event or the downfall of civilization?

No one knows.

Experts across computer science, philosophy and other fields have envisioned numerous routes by which a future AI system might cause a global catastrophe, either by escaping human control or in the hands of an unscrupulous people. They range from deploying weapons and identifying a lethal pathogen to manipulating governments into conflict or disrupting the food, energy and communications networks societies rely on to function.

There is no widely accepted estimate for how soon any of these scenarios might happen and no consensus on their likelihood.

In 2023, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety issued a statement cosigned by more than 350 researchers and technology executives, including Anthropic's Amodei and OpenAI's Altman, saying: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.”

The 2026 International AI Safety Report, written with guidance from more than 100 independent experts, says current systems show early signs of some relevant capabilities but not at levels that could enable a loss of control, and describes the risk’s likelihood, nature and timing as “unusually ambiguous.”

Some are stressing the need for AI safeguards before it's too late

An Anthropic researcher said last week he was resigning from the company over concerns that neither the company nor its competitors were acting responsibly in developing the technology. In social media posts, Jacob Coxon estimated a 10% chance of AI causing human extinction within the next decade and said both Anthropic and OpenAI “are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

Researchers have called for a slowdown of AI development and warned for years that the technology could pose existential risks to humanity.

Following the recent incidents, experts called for improved testing by AI companies and more dialogue between the U.S. and China to come up with shared solutions.

But AI is growing so fast that government and evaluation systems are struggling to keep pace with the technology. Countries are cobbling together their own laws, some conflicting.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned at a conference in July of the need to keep AI from evading human control. The Trump administration initially demonstrated reluctance to regulate AI but has become more keen to reduce cybersecurity risks.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump downplayed the necessity for his administration to check AI development, but acknowledged the need for some regulation.

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AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed from London

The Boeing 767 came in fast on Sept. 6 and then barreled roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway and smashed into a van carrying workers at a plane cleaning company. All five people who died were in the van. Five others were hurt.

“After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement. “We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”

The National Transportation Safety Board will examine everything that might have contributed to the crash to determine what caused it. That will include the actions of the pilots and air traffic controllers as well as the jet's maintenance history, the airline's practices and the stormy weather at the time of the crash.

The North Carolina carrier had flown packages for Amazon since 2024. The company also flies packages for DHL, which didn't immediately respond Monday morning to questions about whether it will continue to use 21 Air.

“We remain focused on supporting the families and loved ones who were impacted by this accident, as well as working closely with the NTSB and all our partners, like Amazon, as the investigation continues," 21 Air said in a statement. "We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training.”

Flight information released by the NTSB on Sept. 9 revealed one of the pilots warned his counterpart they were going too fast as they approached for landing and after touchdown.

The plane was unsteady as it came in and didn't touch down until it was well beyond where it was supposed to on the runway, which limited the amount of space it had to stop. A tail wind may have helped propel the plane further.

The cockpit audio recordings also captured a series of automated warnings from the plane about the speed of descent and the approaching terrain. The full transcript of the cockpit conversation won’t be released until later in the investigation.

The 32-year-old Boeing was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

"It is very sad to leave Russia,” he said in the southern city of Krasnodar before heading for the border with Georgia.

He blamed “the political situation” in Russia and complications over authorities restricting internet access as his reasons for leaving. Otherwise, “I never would have left for more than several months,” he told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

He is one of a number of people who either left or are contemplating a move amid recent Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia and persistent rumors of a coming mobilization of troops for the 4 1/2-year-old war.

The attacks this summer caused an unprecedented fuel crisis and dealt crippling blows to the booming e-commerce sector. Since last year, the government has cited the attacks to justify harsh restrictions on connecting to the internet.

The exodus is nowhere near as large as in 2022, when hundreds of thousands fled in the first year of the full-scale invasion. Still, a group that helps citizens who flee abroad said it received nearly eight times more queries last month than it had in May.

“It doesn’t mean that there is a huge number of people right now at the borders,” said Anastasia Burakova, the founder of Kovcheg, which means “ark” in Russian. “But we’re seeing that people are preparing to emigrate, we’re seeing that people are looking into what options are there.”

On social media, Russians talk of moving abroad

The current numbers are hard to gauge. Unlike 2022, when droves of men fled a partial call-up for the military, there are no lines at border crossings or shortages of plane tickets to visa-free destinations like Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey at the moment.

At the same time, AP found numerous social media videos from all over Russia of people saying they had decided to leave, citing war-related reasons. Others were worried about the declining economy, an uncertain future and shrinking freedoms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials in Kyiv have said Russia is planning another mobilization after the State Duma election that concludes Sunday — claims the Kremlin has repeatedly and vehemently rejected.

Yan Slovizki, a human rights activist and emergency assistance coordinator for Kovcheg, described “a panicked wave” of emigration since mid-July linked to mobilization fears, the fuel crisis and internet restrictions.

A Moscow-based diplomat told AP about “a palpable rise in public anxiety this summer,” and pointed to “anecdotal evidence of higher than usual numbers of Russians appearing in neighboring Georgia and Armenia, possibly fearing another mobilization after the Duma elections.” The diplomat was not authorized to comment publicly and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

Alen Simonyan, secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, told independent Russian TV channel Dozhd last month that his country “will not interfere in any way, and if necessary, will help” Russians who are moving there to avoid being drafted.

That drew a sharp rebuke from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called Simonyan’s remark “provocative.”

Russian lawmaker Viktor Sobolev told the RTVI channel that the country doesn’t need people who “don’t love their Motherland so much that they leave because of rumors,” adding: "Let them leave.”

Some emigres seek to avoid military service

The digital content marketer, who describes himself as a pacifist, says this was his second attempt at emigrating.

He left Russia in 2022 to avoid the partial call-up of 300,000 new troops, an announcement by President Vladimir Putin that shocked the nation.

He said he isn’t technically eligible for military service in peacetime due to a hip ailment, but felt it was safer to leave because he didn’t know what to expect from authorities.

Some officials in 2022 said such men could legally be drafted in a mobilization, as did some rights groups helping conscripts. Others said martial law had to be declared for it to be legal. Russia has not formally declared war on Ukraine, and the Kremlin only imposed martial law in the four Ukrainian regions it illegally annexed in 2022 but doesn't fully control.

The digital content marketer returned to his hometown of Ulyanovsk in 2025 and worked remotely for clients in other countries. But Russia’s unrelenting clampdown on thousands of internet platforms, sites and services made it harder for him to do his job, he said, having to switch virtual private network servers to find one allowing him to get around the restrictions.

Another factor was the rumored new mobilization. “You never know what will happen tomorrow,” he said from an apartment in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where he settled.

A 23-year-old Muscovite who left Russia last month also cited the persistent mobilization rumors and fears that her husband might end up in the military.

The woman, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said her father narrowly escaped being drafted in 2022 by fleeing the country. This year, her husband learned he would no longer have a deferment from military service after getting his master’s degree.

“A person can figure anything out, but we were really afraid that (my husband) could end up in the army, because at this point it is a one-way ticket,” she said.

Ivan Nazarov, a new university graduate who moved to the Armenian capital of Yerevan, echoed her sentiment.

He said he was aware of reports of conscripts in mandatory service who are not supposed to be deployed to Ukraine being forced to sign contracts that send them to the battlefield.

“For me, it is a question of survival,” Nazarov added, speaking at a gathering organized by Kovcheg in Yerevan for new immigrants.

Other Russians cite shrinking freedoms

Queer activist Daniil Neonov left Russia this summer after a series of detentions and a 10-day jail term on charges of displaying extremist symbols — a photo featuring a T-shirt with a rainbow-colored print on it he posted on social media.

Russian authorities have outlawed what they call “the international LGBT movement” as extremist, leading sometimes to misdemeanor charges for carrying items with a rainbow on them.

Neonov told AP in Yerevan that he feared a criminal case would be brought against him.

He said he knows other people who left Russia after being detained for gathering outside the Supreme Court last month to support the opposition Yabloko party when the court struck it from the parliamentary election ballot. Yabloko was the only party on the ballot that openly opposed the war.

“The police came to them and filed reports. I know several people who, after they were held in detention, also left. I mean, I’m not the only one,” Neonov said.

A 35-year-old Russian told AP he was preparing for leaving the country because he doesn't want to live in a land without free speech, where the economy is on a downward spiral and where schoolchildren have to listen to propaganda touting war, normalizing violence and promoting isolation from the rest of the world.

The man, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said he had been thinking about leaving Russia for over a decade but still had hope that “everything would work out.”

Now, he said, Russians “live in a huge digital jail. You can’t say anything, you can’t do anything. You have absolutely no rights."

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Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ani Khachatryan in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed.

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This version changes the transliteration of the last name for Yan Slovitsky, the emergency assistance coordinator for Kovcheg.

“The players will now work directly with the Grand Slams to establish the council, through which players themselves will be directly consulted and able to negotiate on an ongoing basis,” a statement from the players’ representatives said Monday.

The Grand Slam Player Advisory Council was announced last month by the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

“Now that a formal council exists to carry this work forward, the public phase of the campaign led by the unified group of top players comes to a close,” the players' statement said. “Players reserve the right to re-start the campaign should the council fail to deliver on these aims.”

Besides a bigger cut of revenues, the players have also sought better representation, health options and pensions. Some limited their media appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon as a protest, with Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff among the stars who even threatened a potential boycott of the Slams before play began in Paris if they didn’t start receiving more compensation.

The players had asked for 22% of tournament revenues.

“While the Grand Slams have not yet reached this figure or committed to formal revenue sharing agreements, all have increased prize money significantly beyond their long-term trend prior to the campaign, over the past 18 months,” the players’ statement said.

“Since the players’ formal proposal was submitted on 31 July 2025, prize money across these Grand Slam tournaments — the 2025 and 2026 US Open and the 2026 Australian Open, Wimbledon and Roland Garros — has grown to $415.6 million in total, with players estimating that more than $30 million of that reflects incremental gains above the rate of growth in the years before the campaign began.”

The Australian Open, French Open and U.S. Open are operated by nonprofit governing bodies. Wimbledon is run by the private All England Club.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

First, Trump agreed to a measure that would bar him and his wife from issuing the types of meme coins that they swiftly launched as he prepared to return to the White House for a second time. And then another concession came late Sunday, when Republicans said Trump consented to a tougher ethics proposal that several key senators had demanded.

Now, a pivotal Senate vote on the cryptocurrency bill on Tuesday could mark a watershed moment for the $2.3 trillion market — but it hinges mainly on whether those sign-offs from Trump go far enough. That vote could determine whether Washington cements crypto legitimacy into law or whether a frustrated, deep-pocketed industry could unleash even more campaign cash in the midterm elections.

“A vote against the Clarity Act isn’t a principled stand against President Trump," Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., the lead author of the crypto bill, told The Associated Press. "It’s a vote against implementing tough restrictions on politicians for crypto investments.”

Crypto bill's fate hangs on Trump-focused ethics fight

The president has amassed significant amounts of crypto wealth while in office, complicating dynamics for senators drafting legislation to try to bring the fledgling digital assets industry into the mainstream.

With that in mind, Lummis and Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, went to the White House for a meeting in mid-July and told Trump that he would have to abide by conflict-of-interest restrictions to get key Democrats on board with the bill.

The president agreed — with surprisingly little pushback, according to two people with knowledge of the Oval Office discussion, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

The language presented in that meeting by Lummis, a longtime crypto backer steeped in the intricacies of digital asset policy, and Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur and luxury car dealer known for his persuasive sales pitch, would bar all federally elected officials and their spouses, as well as federal judges, from issuing digital assets. That would mean Trump would no longer be able to sponsor the type of meme coin he launched on the cusp of his second inauguration last January, nor would his wife, first lady Melania Trump, who also has a token.

But Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., then presented an additional proposal to the White House that went further. It would require the president to put his crypto holdings in a blind trust, and divest when those holdings reach a certain value, according to two other people with direct knowledge of the language. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

It would also allow state attorneys general to step in and enforce the law in addition to the Justice Department — a critical provision for Democrats who say they would not be able to trust a Trump-appointed attorney general to enforce any conflict-of-interest provision against the president.

That proposal could, in theory, force Trump to divest from ventures such as World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture that his sons launched in 2024. Trump reported more than $500 million in revenue from World Liberty Financial sales of crypto products, including “governance tokens,” in his annual disclosure report filed with the Office of Government Ethics — a significant share of the more than $1.4 billion that the president reported from crypto businesses last year.

White House warms to Democrats' ethics idea after initial skepticism

In private, White House officials had raised concerns about giving state attorneys general the power to enforce the law, arguing that Democratic state lawyers could use it as a political weapon against the president and other GOP officials — and that it could be used by Republican attorneys general against elected Democrats, according to the two people familiar with the July Oval Office discussion.

Still, Trump agreed to language that includes a “meaningful role” for state attorneys general to play in enforcing the crypto measure should it become law, according to a Sunday night statement from Lummis and Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., the bill's main authors.

A senior GOP aide, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the president had agreed to “about 80%” of the proposal from Tillis and Gallego, pointing mainly to the state attorneys general provision. An updated version of the bill released Sunday also includes a requirement to either divest or place in a blind trust any “significant” financial interest in an entity that issues cryptocurrencies.

Gallego and Tillis, the senators who had pushed for additional measures, did not immediately comment on the development late Sunday.

Trump also agreed to language that would allow state attorneys general to sue a crypto exchange if they list a digital asset that would be barred in the overall bill, according to the aide. Trump had been persuaded in part after a slew of conversations about the importance of passing the crypto measure, including with industry officials, the aide said.

For Democrats, an enforcement mechanism involving state attorneys general had been a red line.

“We need the state attorneys general to also have the power to prosecute if the Department of Justice refuses to,” said Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, among the Democrats seen as vital swing votes on Tuesday. “I have been very clear about the fact that I will not vote for any legislation that does not cover ethics," she said.

Presidents aren't always covered by federal ethics laws

Presidents have often been exempt from federal conflict-of-interest laws, though some other modern presidents voluntarily put assets in blind trusts. While Cabinet officials subject to the laws can recuse themselves or divest holdings to address specific issues under their jurisdiction, it was seen as much more difficult for presidents who oversee the entire government to do the same.

A measure enacted into law last year regulating stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency, barred members of Congress and their families from profiting off them, but it did not extend to Trump or his family.

“It is true that conflict-of-interest provisions do not commonly apply to the president because of their whole-of-government responsibilities,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “That said, we have seen such unprecedented corruption and conflict of interest from this administration and Trump in particular, that we need a different rubric.”

The White House has maintained that the president stays out of family business decisions administered by his sons.

Trump is a relatively recent convert to crypto

In his first term, the president said that he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrency, saying it was “highly volatile and based on thin air.”

But Trump has since become a convert, persuaded by his sons’ interest in the business — and by its appeal to Black voters and younger voters, who could play a crucial role in close campaigns.

Crypto has served as more than just a political boon for Trump. The $1.2 billion in Trump’s crypto revenues also included more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face through the crypto business CIC Digital LLC.

Last May, the president hosted top investors in his $TRUMP meme coin for a dinner at his northern Virginia golf club, an example of how Trump was mixing his presidential duties with his business ventures despite the White House saying Trump attended the event “in his personal time.”

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Associated Press writer Steven Sloan in Mountain Lake Park, Md., contributed to this report.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade respondieron a un reporte de tiroteo alrededor de las 2:00 p.m. cerca de Southwest 173rd Street y 100th Court.

Al llegar al lugar, los agentes dijeron que encontraron a un hombre con aparentes heridas de bala. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue informó que fue trasladado al Jackson South Medical Center en estado crítico.

Según los agentes, el sospechoso huyó del lugar en una dirección desconocida.

Detectives de la Unidad de Investigaciones Generales de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade se hicieron cargo de la investigación.

No se proporcionó información adicional.

Cámaras de Local 10 News captaron el voladizo frontal del Fort Lauderdale Grand Hotel, con un gran fragmento de la estructura aparentemente caído sobre el suelo.

El área exterior del hotel fue acordonada con cinta amarilla y conos de estacionamiento.

Equipos de bomberos y rescate informaron que acudieron al lugar el domingo por la mañana.

Las autoridades dijeron que no se reportaron personas heridas.

Hasta el momento se desconoce qué causó los daños o qué medidas se tomarán para reparar la estructura.

The bodies of six passengers and 108 were rescued Sunday by search teams, which increased to 655 personnel on Monday, National Search and Rescue Agency chief Mohammad Syafii said.

Authorities deployed specialized underwater teams and underwater thermal drones operated by the navy to strengthen the search effort and speed up the evacuation of victims, he said.

“We remain hopeful of finding more survivors,” Syafii said in a video briefing.

The Virgo Transport 8 was carrying more than 240 people when its captain issued a distress call on Sunday, saying the ship was listing in rough seas with waves of up to 3 meters (10 feet) while traveling from Surabaya in East Java province to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo Island.

Contact was lost with the ferry at about 2 a.m. Sunday and about two hours later authorities learned the vessel had overturned in the Java Sea’s Masalembo waters, about 148 kilometers (92 miles) from Banjarmasin.

Videos released by the search and rescue agency after a helicopter search operation Sunday showed the overturned ferry floating in choppy waters.

Survivors recount harrowing moments

The manifest said the ship carried 243 people including 213 passengers and 30 crew members, although it is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers to differ from the manifest. The 119-meter (390-foot) ferry, which was built in Japan in 1987, also was transporting 89 vehicles.

Authorities have not determined the cause of the accident.

A survivor, Ahmad Saudi, said the ferry appeared overcrowded, with many passengers forced to sleep in hallways and common areas because the cabins were full.

Saudi, a bus driver traveling with a vehicle he was transporting, recalled how the ferry suddenly listed without warning, triggering panic among passengers as rough seas battered the vessel in the Java Sea.

Passengers initially tried to hold on before scrambling to the higher side of the ship as it tilted further, he said, speculating the ferry’s balance may have been affected by trucks loaded on one side.

“The women staying in the economy-class cabins likely didn’t survive because the ferry listed so quickly,” Saudi said. “There were no alarms or announcements warning passengers about what was happening, many people in the cabins may not have had enough time to get out.”

Faisal, another survivor who goes by one name, said he and 14 other passengers clung to a section of the overturned ferry that remained above water after it capsized.

“After the ship listed, people panicked and rushed to the upper deck, but eventually the ferry rolled over completely,” he said. “Fourteen of us were left stranded there.”

The group repeatedly recited the Islamic call to prayer, or adhan, while battling exhaustion and rough seas as awaiting rescue. A wave later swept Faisal toward a lifeboat, helping him survive, he said.

Capsized ship is the third major ferry accident in a week

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. Ferries are a common method of travel and accidents occur regularly, in part due to weak enforcement of safety standards.

At least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire last month in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one person was found dead and four others remained missing.

The fire happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry caught fire off the main island of Java, with the loss of at least five people.

Sunday's accident was the Asia-Pacific region's third involving a ferry in less than a week, underscoring maritime transport safety concerns in an area heavily dependent on sea travel.

On Sept. 9, a fire onboard a Philippines passenger ferry killed at least 76 people and left 13 missing. On Sept. 11, a ferry sank near Vanuatu, leaving more than 30 people missing.

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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Las autoridades informaron el domingo que Gael, un labrador beige de 2 años, está de regreso con su manejador de la Policía de Miami Gardens (MGPD).

La buena noticia llega varios días después de que el departamento hiciera un llamado urgente al público para ayudar a encontrarlo.

Todo comenzó el lunes alrededor de las 9:30 p.m., cuando los agentes dijeron que Gael saltó de una patrulla y cruzó corriendo la calle en Northwest Second Avenue.

Local 10 News obtuvo un video de vigilancia que muestra a Gael corriendo por la calle y pasando a toda velocidad frente a varios negocios.

La búsqueda durante toda la semana fue exhaustiva. SKY 10 captó los vehículos del centro de comando móvil del departamento en el lugar, mientras los agentes recorrían la zona puerta por puerta en busca de su compañero de cuatro patas.

“Todos nuestros perros son muy especiales para nuestro departamento”, dijo en ese momento Diana Delgado, portavoz de la Policía de Miami Gardens. “Todos están entrenados al máximo de sus capacidades y por los mejores entrenadores”.

La Policía de Miami Gardens publicó un mensaje de agradecimiento a todas las personas que llamaron para proporcionar información y ayudaron a localizar a Gael.

Aún no se han dado a conocer los detalles sobre cómo ni dónde fue encontrado Gael.

It took one game to accomplish that feat.

Jaxson Dart connected with Isaiah Likely for two touchdowns and Devin Singletary on another, Cam Skattebo ran for one in his first game back from injury and the Giants opened the season by rolling over Dallas 28-20 on Sunday night in Harbaugh's New York debut. It's just one victory, but it was a promising start of a new era.

“We took steps in that direction,” Harbaugh said. “I think we’re on our way.”

Dart made one smart throw after another, mixing in a series of well-timed runs to keep the defense off balance. He finished 23 of 29 for 230 yards passing, plus 54 rushing, including a couple of slides and a dive to avoid the unnecessary hits that punctuated his rookie year.

“Just seeing his arm talent, just seeing how he takes over the game — using his legs, making the right decisions, knowing the coverages,” No. 1 receiver Malik Nabers said. “He was not backing down. He was not going to lose, and I was right behind him.”

Likely made eight catches on eight targets for 78 yards in his New York debut after following Harbaugh from Baltimore, extending the training camp trend when he was consistently Dart's top option. Nabers, playing for the first time since going down with a torn ACL in his right knee 350 days ago, had six catches for 69 yards.

“He's just a guy where no matter what the coverage is, no matter who they put out there on him, you have all the confidence in the world that he's going to make a play,” Dart said.

Back on the field more than 10 months since breaking his right fibula and dislocating his right ankle in gruesome fashion, Skattebo rumbled for 81 yards on 18 carries. After getting in hot water for doing a backflip earlier this summer, Skattebo brought back his signature celebration after running into the end zone untouched for the Giants' first points of the season.

Dak Prescott threw a costly interception just before halftime but otherwise played well for Dallas, completing 22 of 34 passes for 175 yards and TD tosses to CeeDee Lamb and Javonte Williams, who also ran for a touchdown. Dallas benefitted from a series of defensive pass interference calls that extended drives.

The Cowboys hurt themselves with penalties — eight of them for 85 yards, not counting an early intentional delay of game. That included a taunting call on Williams after he scored that contributed to Brandon Aubrey missing the ensuing extra point from farther out and a face-masking flag on Donovan Ezeiruaku just before the two-minute warning.

“It comes down to discipline, and we had some self-inflicted wounds," coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “I own that, and they own that.”

Their defense also did not look as improved on defense as they had hoped, at least in Week 1. After allowing the most points in the NFL last season at 30.1 a game, this was not far off, despite a new coordinator and some additional talent.

“Overall as a football team, we were pretty poor,” Schottenheimer said. “That’s certainly not our standard. We certainly didn’t come out of the gate fast enough on either side of the ball. This is a humbling business, and we got humbled.”

Fumblin', bumblin', recoverin'

The Giants fumbled four times but only lost one: by Tyrone Tracy, who also put the ball on the ground during the preseason and missed a block that got Dart hit to go into Harbaugh's doghouse. Fullback Patrick Ricard fell on Likely's in the first quarter, guard Jon Runyan caught Dart's in the second and Skattebo recovered his own in the fourth.

Harbaugh makes a hat switch

The Giants honored 9/11 victims 25 years later in a pregame ceremony, and Harbaugh paid tribute on the sideline. He wore an NYPD hat in the first half, then switched to an FDNY cap for the second.

Injuries

Cowboys: Safety Malik Hooker hurt a forearm making a tackle on the final play of the third quarter. ... Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown left with a hamstring injury early in the fourth.

Giants: Cornerback Deonte Banks was in and out during the second half while cramping up. ... Fellow cornerback Greg Newsome was evaluated for a concussion and cleared.

Up next

Cowboys: Host Washington next Sunday.

Giants: Visit the Los Angeles Rams on Monday, Sept. 21.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The sweeping bill initially had just a provision included that would bar all federally elected officials and their spouses, as well as federal judges, from issuing digital assets.

A core group of Democrats, as well as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said that didn’t go far enough to address conflict-of-interest issues they had with Trump’s crypto wealth. Their votes would be needed to advance the bill in a key vote this Tuesday.

Tillis and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., along with several other Democrats, had demanded language that would allow state attorneys general to step in and enforce the law in addition to the Justice Department.

In announcing Trump’s agreement, Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Boozman of Arkansas said it includes a “meaningful role” for state attorneys general to play in enforcing the crypto measure should it become law.

“At every step of the way during the Clarity Act negotiations, the White House and Senate Republicans have been responsive to Democrats’ stated policy objectives,” White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said on X Sunday night. “After more than a year’s worth of negotiations, it’s time to pass this bipartisan bill.”

In private, White House officials had raised concerns about giving state attorneys general the power to enforce the law, arguing that Democratic state lawyers could use it as a political weapon against the president and other GOP officials — and that it could be used by Republican attorneys general against elected Democrats, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

But a senior GOP aide, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Sunday night, said the president had agreed to “about 80%” of the proposal from Tillis and Gallego, pointing mainly to the state attorneys general provision. An updated version of the bill being released later Sunday will include a requirement to either divest or place in a blind trust any “significant” financial interest in an entity that issues cryptocurrencies, the senior GOP aide said.

Trump also agreed to language that would allow state attorneys general to sue a crypto exchange if they list a digital asset that would be barred in the overall bill, according to the aide.

Aides to Gallego and Tillis did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday night.

Hosts waited until the show's end to acknowledge that anything different was going on.

While speaking about the claim that there is a narrow window to make artificial intelligence safe for humanity, an announcer segued into the topics of journalism and “60 Minutes”: “For almost 60 years it has meant the same thing — journalism you can trust. Where we’re headed we’re going to need it,” the announcer said at the end of the show.

He also noted that there were going to be “new faces” on the show this season.

CBS News leader Bari Weiss has said that the news show would take a “new approach.” That included firing the top producer and two correspondents, among others, and installing a new chief with no TV broadcast experience. One of the show’s most famous and enduring faces, Scott Pelley, was absent, fired after a tense confrontation with bosses earlier this year.

Two other correspondents were dismissed and Anderson Cooper left of his own accord.

Pelley has leveled unsettling accusations against the organization's leaders. “New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” the correspondent and former evening news anchor contended in June. CBS denied that.

Turmoil has been evident at “60 Minutes” for more than a year, after President Donald Trump sued the show over its editing of a 2024 interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. It became part of a broader upheaval at CBS News after Weiss was named to the new role of editor-in-chief by parent company Paramount late last year following the arrival of David Ellison as the network’s corporate leader.

Weiss appointed Nick Bilton, a former technology columnist and documentarian, as executive producer earlier this year, replacing Tanya Simon, a 30-year veteran of the show who’d been in the top job about a year.

Also let go were correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment about Trump administration deportees in a Salvadoran prison was abruptly pulled by Weiss before running a month later, and Cecilia Vega.

Biomass power, predominantly generated by burning wood, is growing globally as countries accelerate their transition to use cleaner energy.

“The biomass industry has become a new driver of deforestation in Indonesia,” said Timer Manurung, director of Indonesia-based organization Auriga Nusantara, which contributed to the new analysis. “And most of the biomass product is for export, with Japan as the biggest destination.”

As Japan’s demand for Indonesian wood pellets skyrockets in an effort to meet its own renewable energy goals, critics say continued subsidies and weak oversight of the supply chain are likely to allow continued razing of pristine Indonesian forests.

Global biomass demand is growing, but some experts reject its use

Worldwide bioenergy use has increased by over 55% between 2015 and 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. In Japan, it accounts for a small but growing share of electricity generation — less than 6% in 2024, according to the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies.

Environmentalists and scientists warn that continued rise in international demand coupled with weak domestic regulation will continue to accelerate deforestation.

At the same time, critics say that using biomass to co-fire, instead of transitioning directly to clean energy, simply prolongs the use of highly polluting fossil fuels. Biomass is organic material like plants, wood and waste, and many coal-fired power plants can be easily modified to burn it alongside coal to make energy.

Experts including the IEA say it’s important to meet the demand for biomass in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residue rather than converting forest land to grow bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages biodiverse areas, threatens wildlife and humans who rely on the forest, and intensifies disasters from extreme weather.

And many scientists and environmentalists have rejected the use of biomass altogether. They say burning wood-based biomass can emit more carbon than coal, and tree-cutting greatly reduces forests’ ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Increased biomass production is felling Indonesia's forests

In Indonesia, biomass production is already felling forests, with the growing demand threatening even greater loss, according to new analysis from environmental organizations Earth Insight, Auriga Nusantara and the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago.

Manurung said while there are only a few biomass mills currently in operation in Indonesia, there is a growing trend of concession permits for biomass across the country, with at least 45 concessions granted, covering over 750,000 hectares (1.85 million acres) of natural forest.

Indigenous communities living in the concession areas that rely on the forest will be affected, including the isolated Polahi community, said Manurung.

“It will totally erase all the natural cover which provide a living and is an integral part of the culture to the Polahi people,” he said.

The organizations' research also found that expanding deforestation linked to biomass production could impact undisturbed forests that serve as critical habitats for vulnerable and endangered species such as tarsiers, endemic buffalo and pigs.

Indonesia’s ministries of Environment and Forestry; Energy and Mineral Resources did not respond to requests for comment.

Japan's demand for Indonesian wood pellets has surged

Resource-poor Japan imports virtually all its oil and has been working for years to build alternative, more sustainable sources of energy.

Japan's demand for wood pellets has skyrocketed. The country imported a record 8.64 million tons of wood pellets in 2025, a 35% increase compared to 2024, according to the Global Trade Algorithmic Intelligence Center

Wood pellet imports from Indonesia have surged by over 500%, from 66,460 tons in 2023 to 402,310 tons in 2025.

Japan has also provided millions of dollars of financial support toward the development of biomass in Indonesia through research, policy, construction and other support, according to a review of publicly available business and government agreements by The Associated Press.

While Japan has stopped subsidies for future large-scale biomass projects, projects already certified will continue receiving subsidies for up to 20 years after operation begins, said Katsuhiro Suzushima, an environmental researcher at the Global Environmental Forum, based in Japan.

Loopholes in Japan's due diligence policies will likely allow wood pellets linked to deforestation to enter its market for years to come, said Sayoko Iinuma, a forestry specialist and researcher at the Global Environmental Forum.

“We are very frustrated,” said Iinuma. “We've asked for due diligence many times.”

Japan's Forestry Agency, the part of the government overseeing the promotion of biomass use, declined to comment on the link between biomass imported from Indonesia and deforestation. It did not reply to questions about Japan's policies to ensure imported biomass was not linked to deforestation.

South Korea was previously the largest importer of wood pellets from Indonesia until the government drastically reduced subsidies for biomass energy after rising domestic and international criticism of its link to deforestation.

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Associated Press journalist Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

___

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

The test included firing different types of weapons simultaneously, likely aiming at developing the ability to overwhelm South Korean and U.S. air defenses.

Experts say North Korea is not slowing its testing activities even after U.S. President Donald Trump recently scaled back a military exercise with South Korea in an apparent effort to revive diplomacy with leader Kim Jong Un.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday's drill was meant to practice the operations of an integrated weapons control system. South Korea’s military earlier said it detected short-range ballistic missile launches from North Korea’s eastern coastal Wonsan area on Saturday morning.

After observing the firing drill, North Korean Marshal Pak Jong Chon said the drill would “improve the level of specialization to bring down the enemy’s armed forces organizationally and structurally once an order is issued.” He added that the weapons systems mobilized demonstrated “the huge destructive power of concentrated fire,” according to KCNA.

It’s extremely difficult to independently verify North Korean claims on its weapons tests. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several missiles fired Saturday each flew about 250 kilometers (155 miles) toward North Korea’s eastern waters. The flight distances signal that the weapons are designed to strike targets in South Korea including U.S. military bases.

The firing drill, which included North Korea’s first public ballistic missile launches in about three weeks, came a day after the United States, South Korea and Japan wrapped up a trilateral military exercise that North Korea views as a provocation.

In August, Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” a major bilateral military exercise with South Korea, citing what he called a good relationship with Kim. But North Korea rebuffed Trump’s overture, saying that shortening the drill didn't change its “provocative, aggressive nature.” The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise eventually ended six days earlier than originally scheduled.

Buoyed by his advancing nuclear arsenal and deepened ties with Russia and China, experts say Kim likely thinks he has greater leverage in possible diplomacy with the U.S. than when he first met Trump in 2018-2019.

Kim said earlier this year that he could return to talks if the U.S. drops its “hostile policy” against his country and respects what he calls the North’s status as a nuclear state.

If the Bears can put together more weeks like their opener, that goal will be within reach.

Chicago scored eight touchdowns in a 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. It was the most points in a season opener in the Bears' long, proud history and tied for the second-most points by a team in Week 1, behind only the 1973 Falcons, who put up 62 on the Saints.

And here's the funny thing: The Bears were far from perfect.

They started the game with a fumble, had some costly penalties and even turned the ball over on downs deep in their own territory. Still, they put up 552 yards — including 291 on the ground — and scored two touchdowns in every quarter.

D'Andre Swift paced the running game with 124 yards and three touchdowns.

“That’s amazing,” Swift said of the team's scoring output. “But to come out of a game like that and have so much to clean up. ... I mean, yeah, we’ll take the win, and 59 points is amazing, but it should have been worse.”

That's the mentality Johnson has instilled in his team: They truly think they're going to score on every possession. Before the season, he told The Athletic his goal is “to have the highest-scoring offense ever.”

That's why none of his players were surprised when Johnson went for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 21 in the second quarter with the Bears leading 21-14. It backfired as Caleb Williams came up short on a quarterback sneak, and the Panthers capitalized with a touchdown.

Johnson wouldn't call it a mistake. When asked if he would do it again, he said it depended on the situation.

The Bears seem to thrive off Johnson's aggressive mentality.

Williams, who threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 65 yards and two more scores, wasn’t surprised Johnson went for it — and hopes he tries it again.

“Yeah, we got to go get it (the first down) — that's what it says to us,” Williams said. “As players on the field, when coach has that belief, when coach has that trust, when coach has that faith and all of that in us, we have to go get it as players when he calls it. It doesn’t matter what the play is. It’s a mentality play when you’re fourth-and-1. That’s what it comes down to.”

After the game, Johnson didn't back down from his stated aspirations.

“Listen, that will always be the goal — we want to be the highest-scoring, we want to have the most wins, we want to win Super Bowls,” Johnson said. “Like, that’s what we do. We didn’t get into this profession trying to be mediocre, average.”

The 2013 Denver Broncos, led by MVP Peyton Manning, scored the most points in an NFL season with 603, an average of 37.6 points per game.

That was when the NFL played a 16-game season. Teams now play 17.

Johnson said he expects Sunday's game will be the Bears' worst of the season. He expects them to get better each week.

But he was encouraged by how his players handled the early adversity of turning the ball over on their first possession.

“We talked about weathering the storm there early on,” Johnson said. “We had some adversity on that first drive, and yet no one blinks. No one bats an eye. And so that’s probably what I’m most proud of there.”

The players know all about Johnson's goal of becoming the league's most prolific offense.

“That's what we're striving for,” receiver Rome Odonze said. “We have heard the head of the snake, Ben Johnson, say he wants to be the most prolific offense in history and that takes that attention to detail. .. So we are all bought in to that and trying to accomplish that.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Mohammad Eslami’s exclusion from the IAEA conference is another sign of rapidly deteriorating relations between Iran and the West. The United States and Iran have resumed fighting, on and off, after a fragile ceasefire collapsed in July.

Austria sought a waiver of the travel ban on Eslami with the U.N. sanctions committee but it was not granted, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

As host of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria can request exemptions from travel bans to enable sanctioned officials to attend international conferences at the U.N.

Since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June 2025, Iran hasn’t given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that were affected by the strikes — even though Tehran is legally obliged to cooperate with the watchdog under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The IAEA has also been unable to verify the status of a stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing. According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iran says it’s not pursuing nuclear weapons and its program is entirely peaceful.

Last year France, Britain and Germany triggered the so-called snapback mechanism that automatically reimposed all United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The three European countries said that Iran willfully departed from the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures.

The U.N. sanctions that were reinstated include a travel ban, a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development, asset freezes and a ban on producing nuclear-related technology.

Despite the official saying Eslami was not expected to attend the conference, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported Saturday that Eslami left Tehran for Vienna to take part in the IAEA conference and to meet representatives from various countries. He has regularly attended and addressed the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna since being appointed head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization in 2021.

Senior officials from member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency are due to assemble Monday until Friday for the General Conference at the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s headquarters in Vienna. They will consider and approve the agency’s budget and discuss other policy issues, including nuclear safeguards in the Middle East.

___ The Associated Press 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.

Larson, the defending series champion, took his No. 5 Chevrolet to Victory Lane for the first time since May 2025 at Kansas Speedway after defending the lead on three restarts in the final two laps of regulation and seven laps of overtime.

The track formerly known as Gateway was the only regular stop on the series where Hendrick hadn’t won.

“It takes a lot more than just having the fastest car to win a Cup Series race,” said Larson, acknowledging Joey Logano had the best car. “You still have to execute a day from start to finish with good pit stops, good restarts, good strategy, and we had that today.”

The second race in NASCAR's new postseason Chase format gave significant boosts to the championship hopes for Larson and Logano, a three-time Cup Series champion who finished third and added 19 stage points.

“When you have an opportunity like that and you have a car like that, you need to win,” said Logano, who won the pole and led a race-high 96 laps, 16 more than Larson.

What was supposed to be a 240-lap race in suburban St. Louis featured a season-high and track-record 18 cautions. It was marked by dramatic brake failures and several spinouts without any contact between cars.

After several Chase contenders were involved in late crashes, the race was red-flagged with 11 laps to go, just after Larson swiped the lead from Logano, and again with two left in regulation.

Larson benefited from his crew's decision on Lap 202 to put four tires on while Logano took two to maintain track position.

Hendrick's William Byron, who was last in the 16-driver Chase field, finished fourth and was followed by Ross Chastain.

Denny Hamlin, the defending race champion, placed ninth to maintain his points lead. Larson racked up 73 points in the race to jump from seventh to second in the Chase standings, nine behind Hamlin.

Christopher Bell, the winner of last week’s Southern 500, is another nine points back in third place after two of 10 postseason races.

“I think we are so fortunate,” Hamlin said. “We were strong last week, and this week we were not strong, and still, we maintained the lead.”

Crashes impact Chase competitors

A series of final-stage crashes had significant Chase implications.

On Lap 141, Bubba Wallace dove under Chase Briscoe's No. 19 Toyota going into Turn 1, creating four-wide traffic on Gateway's tighter series of turns. Briscoe had no room to move up the track, and Wallace spun around after he was forced onto the curb. Briscoe also went sideways, and Byron slammed into Wallace's spinning No. 23 Toyota.

The three — each of them in the 16-driver Chase field — dropped into positions 29-31 on the restart, and the impacts could have reached even further. Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Ty Gibbs were also racing in the same pack, and Chase Elliott was able to squeeze under Wallace as he whirled around entering the backstretch.

On Lap 213, Elliott had an apparent brake issue and collected Briscoe as both crashed into the wall in Turn 1. Both were knocked out of the race.

“I stepped on the brakes and, yeah, exploded a rotor, and that was that was about it, so I was kind of hanging on,” Elliott said “Really unfortunate. Thought we were yeah having a really solid day, honestly. I was kind of right there around the top five.”

Contenders who escaped danger earlier got caught up in another collision on Lap 222. Wallace and Josh Berry made contact in Turn 1, and Tyler Reddick slammed into Berry as Christopher Bell got bumped into the wall.

On the ensuing restart, Chase contenders Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez sustained damage in a wreck on the backstretch that also involved AJ Allmendinger.

Blaney's brakes break

Blaney, who was third in the Chase entering the race, had a catastrophic brake failure at the finish line on Lap 155 while he was running in sixth place.

Blaney's brakes exploded on the frontstretch, and he rode his No. 12 Ford into the wall heading into Turn 1.

Blaney finished 35th but earned 14 points from ending each of the first two stages in fourth place.

“It’s a shame,” Blaney said. “I thought we did a great job today running up towards the front and doing really good in the stages and was looking forward to seeing how that last run played out.”

Chris Buescher, who was 11th in the standings, had his brakes fail on Lap 237.

No revenge for Keselowski

Despite failing to qualify for the postseason, Keselowski found himself in the spotlight after indicating he’d seek out retribution against Chase contender Carson Hocevar, who spun him out in last week’s Southern 500.

The two played nice while running in second and third place in the final stage of the race, and Keselowski ended up in the lead when he decided not to pit with 38 laps to go before finishing 12th. Hocevar was eighth.

Up next

The third race of the Chase is Saturday night on the half-mile track in Bristol, Tennessee. Gibbs won the Bristol spring race in overtime, edging Blaney by 0.055 seconds. Blaney led a race-high 190 laps. Christopher Bell is the defending champion of the night race. ___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established under a 2014 peace deal in which the largest Muslim rebel group gave up its goal of a separate Muslim state in the south of the largely Roman Catholic country in exchange for broader autonomy. The group’s 40,000 fighters promised to demobilize and join civilian life.

4 killed in violence

Officials said that the election was largely peaceful despite a person being killed following commotion in a polling station in the main city of Cotabato on Monday. Some supporters of a political party also damaged two vehicles belonging to a rival politician using steel bars.

Three people were killed late Sunday and 15 others were wounded in a shooting in Cotabato, which houses the Bangsamoro regional government offices, including the local parliament.

Meanwhile, the town of Maluso on Basilan Island was put under the control of the Commission on Elections after preshaded ballots were found in 36 out of 68 precincts. Commission Chairman Erwin Garcia said that he immediately ordered the reprinting of ballots and that voting will be delayed there. He said those responsible will be held accountable.

As of early Monday, 98.1% of the region’s polling stations were open to voters, according to the commission.

“Whoever wins, hopefully we will see change,” said Sittie Ashuya L. H. Omar, a 22-year-old voter from the city of Marawi. “Hopefully they can implement their promises”

Eighty seats are at stake in the election, which will determine regional members of parliament. The region comprises five provinces, three cities and 63 villages with nearly 2.4 million voters. Election officials said they expected an 80% turnout. after polling was postponed for several years.

The region’s chief minister, who heads the executive branch, will be elected by parliament in its first session.

“The elections stand on generations of Bangsamoro struggle for homeland, identity, and self-determination, in the face of dispossession, marginalization, conflict and sacrifice,” Garcia said in an earlier statement

Mindanao used to be a battlefield between militants and troops

In May 2017, Islamic State group-linked militants laid siege to Marawi, triggering five months of ground assaults and airstrikes that left more than 1,100 people, mostly militants, dead and destroyed the mosque-studded city’s commercial and residential districts.

Since the 1970s, about 150,000 combatants and civilians have died in the southern Philippines, while development was stunted in the country’s poorest region. Western and Asian governments feared the tenacious insurgencies could help foster Islamic extremism in Southeast Asia. With bombing attacks and kidnappings, Mindanao used to be a haven for al-Qaida and IS before a U.S.-backed Philippine offensive weakened the militants.

More than 20,000 soldiers and police forces were deployed for the election, while troops patrolled roads.

Monday's vote ended at 7 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), except in areas where voting was delayed, extending the closing time.

Candidates running unopposed are expected to be declared winners late Monday.

High pressure to the north, over portions of Georgia, Mississippi and the Carolinas, will continue to funnel in winds out of the northeast off the Atlantic. This will keep us in an active weather pattern. By the end of the week, an upper-level low will swing in and keep rain chances elevated.

The 40-year-old woman died Saturday, Jefferson County Coroner Greg Furlong said in a Facebook post in which he called the death “measles-related.”

The post did not identify the woman other than as a resident of Jefferson County, a rural area about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Furlong said in the post.

The post did not say whether the woman was vaccinated against measles. No more information about the case would be released, it stated.

Pennsylvania's two previous measles-related deaths involved infants. Both occurred in August and a coroner reported that the virus itself caused one of the deaths.

One infant, a boy, died shortly after birth of a ruptured spleen. The boy had measles that did not contribute to the rupture, according to Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni.

Rather, measles was listed as a “significant condition” at the time of death.

The other infant, a 6-week-old girl with a genetic defect that left her highly vulnerable to infection, died due to measles, Diamantoni told The Associated Press.

The girl was born with a condition called Amish lethal microcephaly that causes an unusually small head and underdeveloped brain. Children with the condition typically live 6 months or less.

The first dose of measles vaccine is typically given to infants around 1 year old, meaning neither infant was old enough to be vaccinated.

As of Friday, Pennsylvania had 676 measles cases in 37 of the state's 67 counties. Of those cases, 124 involved hospitalizations and four people who were vaccinated against measles, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The three measles-related deaths reported by state and local officials as of Sunday did not square with figures of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed no such deaths this year.

"The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause," read the CDC website Sunday.

Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, and Republican President Donald Trump’s administration have clashed over details of the two previous deaths in the state.

Las sospechas expuestas en la decisión del juez Flávio Dino podrían complicar aún más la situación del senador Flávio Bolsonaro, cuando faltan pocas semanas para que se enfrente al presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva en las elecciones nacionales de octubre.

El senador Bolsonaro, el hijo mayor del exmandatario, está siendo investigado por corrupción, lavado de dinero y evasión fiscal por recibir millones de dólares de un desacreditado banquero para financiar la película biográfica sobre su padre, titulada “Dark Horse” ("Caballo Negro").

Dino, quien fue designado al cargo por Lula y actualmente supervisa una de las investigaciones en torno a la película, afirmó que se había reforzado la hipótesis de la existencia de un sofisticado plan de asignación y desvío de fondos públicos —que involucraba enmiendas al presupuesto del Congreso federal y al gobierno municipal de Sao Paulo.

La policía federal de Brasil realizó el jueves un operativo contra el legislador federal y aliado de Bolsonaro, Mário Frias.

La policía incautó documentos relacionados con la productora de la película y de Frias, quien envió cerca de 2 millones de reales (400.000 dólares) a una organización sin fines de lucro vinculada al filme. Sospechan que una organización criminal canalizó los fondos a empresas que fueron subcontratadas de manera irregular, sin evidencia de que se hayan prestado los servicios contratados.

El juez indicó el domingo que había fuertes indicios de que Frias, quien ocupó un cargo en el gabinete de Bolsonaro, desempeñó un papel clave dentro de la presunta red criminal.

La red también podría tener vínculos con la organización criminal Primer Comando de la Capital, o PCC, indicó Dino. El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, declaró a dicha agrupación como una organización terrorista extranjera a principios de este año.

Frias niega haber cometido irregularidad alguna. “Nunca asigné ningún fondo del presupuesto del Congreso para financiar o beneficiar de alguna manera la producción de la película”, afirmó el domingo en redes sociales. Previamente se había referido al operativo del jueves como una “cortina de humo”.

El Supremo Tribunal Federal de Brasil se ha visto envuelto en turbulencias en las últimas semanas, con sospechas de sobornos, sesgo político e interferencia policial que se ciernen sobre varios de sus integrantes.

Dino tuvo desacuerdos públicos recientes con el juez André Mendonca, quien fue designado al banco por Bolsonaro. Mendonca ordenó el martes la destitución del director general de la policía federal, Andrei Rodrigues, y del director de inteligencia de la fuerza, Leandro Almada, por supuestamente encabezar investigaciones ilegales contra Mendonca.

Dino revocó el miércoles la decisión de su colega y restituyó en el cargo a los dos mandos policiales. El presidente del tribunal, Edson Fachin, suspendió posteriormente las decisiones contrapuestas.

El caos se origina del colapso de Banco Master, el cual cuenta con activos valorados en hasta 16.000 millones de dólares y que fue cerrado en noviembre pasado luego de una amplia investigación relacionada con un esquema de fraude que involucraba miles de millones de reales.

El exdirector ejecutivo de Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, fue arrestado a principios de este año. Desde entonces se ha revelado que tenía vínculos con muchos políticos de alto rango —incluido el senador Bolsonaro—, pero también con varios jueces del Supremo Tribunal Federal, entre ellos Alexandre de Moraes, quien presidió el caso en el que Jair Bolsonaro fue condenado a 27 años de prisión por intento de golpe de Estado.

“Atravesamos la peor crisis en la historia del Supremo Tribunal Federal y ciertamente una de las más graves en nuestra turbulenta historia como república”, dijeron el domingo exministros, economistas, ejecutivos y los presidentes de federaciones sindicales, en una carta dirigida a Fachin y publicada por medios locales.

“Investigar los hechos y exigir responsabilidades a quienes puedan haber violado la ley y la dignidad de sus cargos es esencial para que podamos recuperar la confianza en las instituciones y preservar nuestra democracia”, añadieron.

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

Carson Wentz filled in after Murray was ruled out for the rest of the game with a concussion and helped the Vikings rally for a 39-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Wentz might need to play again next week when the Vikings visit another NFC North rival, the Chicago Bears.

Murray was walking around and talking with teammates in the locker room afterward, but concussions are unpredictable and delicate injuries so the Vikings had no update on his status or timetable for his return.

“Take it day by day and see how he comes in tomorrow,” coach Kevin O'Connell said in his postgame news conference. “I did just see him and he seemed to be doing pretty well.”

Murray took off on a third-and-7 play from the Vikings 33 and ran around the right end, leaning forward to avoid contact as Packers outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness got his hand on Murray's helmet at the end of his pursuit. Cornerback Javon Bullard arrived a split-second later and slammed his shoulder into the side of Murray's exposed head, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty as the quarterback's helmet popped off.

Vikings right tackle Brian O'Neill and left guard Donovan Jackson immediately turned toward the sideline to motion for the medical team, with Murray lying on his side and his legs kicking back and forth. The eighth-year player, who spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Arizona Cardinals, eventually walked off the field under his own power with athletic trainers by his side.

“It’s tough. It almost puts me in a bad head space in a way, because you never want to see anybody get hit, especially when somebody’s posturing on the field. That’s when it’s scary,” Vikings running back Aaron Jones said. “We know what we signed up for, but at the same time you never want to see it happen and you hope it’s never one of your teammates or you. So we’re praying for him. It takes something from you a little bit.”

Wentz entered the game at quarterback and led the Vikings to a field goal on that drive. Wentz was pegged as the primary backup ahead of J.J. McCarthy, the 2024 first-round draft pick who started 10 games last season for Minnesota. McCarthy was inactive on Sunday as the emergency quarterback, meaning he could only enter the game if Wentz were also injured.

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The Lions had to defend a 2-point conversion to hold on for the victory. They blew a three-touchdown lead in the third quarter. And, a review went their way that overturned a touchdown for the Saints.

“Football is a weird game,” Jared Goff said.

Indeed.

The Saints had a chance to score a touchdown in overtime to extend the game and Tyler Shough connected with Noah Fant for an 8-yard throw in the end zone.

After coach Kellen Moore chose to go for the win instead of tying the game with time on the clock, Shough threw an incomplete pass in the end zone on a 2-point attempt.

“The Lions have a great offense, and I didn’t want to give them 1:34 to try to make a play and beat us," Moore said.

Detroit was at its best with the ball when Jahmyr Gibbs had it.

Gibbs finished with a career-high 29 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns along with five catches for 30 yards.

“That guy is our hot hand,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said.

New Orleans rallied from a 21-0 deficit and pulled into a 24-all tie on Shough's 9-yard touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson with 1:07 left in the game.

Detroit went three and out on offense on the subsequent drive, giving the Saints the ball with a chance to win it but Ryan Wright missed a 62-yard field goal attempt as time expired.

“We hung in there and made the last play to win and that’s the most important thing,” Campbell said.

Goff was 26 of 39 for 206 yards with two touchdown passes without turning it over and that proved to be a difference in the game.

Shough, coming off a promising rookie year, threw two interceptions and lost a fumble before closing strong to finish 35 of 56 for 410 yards and three scores.

“Our defense did a lot of good things in the first half to keep us in the game,” Moore said. “We just couldn’t find a rhythm on offense.”

The Saints suddenly showed signs of life on offense late in the third, scoring two touchdowns on Kendre Miller’s 8-yard run and Slough’s 1-yard pass to a fully extended Devaughn Vele to pull within a touchdown.

Trailing by seven late in the game, Shough converted a fourth-and-12 from his 23 with a 15-yard pass to rookie receiver Bryce Lance. Three snaps later, he threw a 43-yard pass to Chris Olave to set up the touchdown pass to Johnson.

The Lions advanced to the New Orleans 1 late in the fourth with a chance to seal the victory, but a holding penalty pushed them back and led to a field goal for a 24-17 lead with 2:32 left.

Pivotal call

The Saints had a touchdown overturned by video review early in the second quarter.

“I’ll be the first to say, I thought we lost that one," Campbell said.

Goff dropped back to pass and was sacked by Chase Young, forcing what appeared to be a fumble that was scooped up for a defensive touchdown.

The veteran quarterback said he didn't know why the rule went in his favor.

“I was trying to figure it out on the fly," Goff said.

While it looked like a fumble, the call on the field was changed by review because Goff started his throwing motion to make it an incomplete pass.

“It’s unfortunate, but we know what the rule says,” Moore said. “Once the arm starts forward it doesn’t matter where the ball ends up.”

Injury report

Saints: RB Alvin Kamara (knee) and DE Cameron Jordan (ankle) were inactive.

Lions: Starting OG Christian Mahogany injured his right knee early in the game and was carted off the field.

Up next

Saints: Play at Baltimore on Sept. 20.

Lions: Play at Buffalo on Sept. 17.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Chicago's coach had good instincts.

Williams, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, looked like a league MVP candidate on Sunday, throwing for 269 yards and two touchdowns and running for 65 yards and two more scores as the Bears trounced the Carolina Panthers 59-37 in the highest-scoring season opener in NFL history.

“I could kind of tell (Saturday) night when we did our quarterback meeting one last time that he was just on top of it,” Johnson said. “Everything he was rattling out, like where my eyes need to be and what I’m thinking. ... So I went to bed and just slept really well.”

Johnson's prolific Bears broke a franchise record for points in an opener, a mark that had stood since 1948, when Chicago hung 45 points on Green Bay at Wrigley Field.

The 59 points were the most allowed by the Panthers since they began play as an expansion team in 1995.

D'Andre Swift, who received a $33.75 million contract extension earlier this week, paid immediate dividends for the Bears, rushing for 124 yards on 18 carries with three touchdowns, while Kyle Monangai had 100 yards on the ground, including a 61-yard touchdown burst in the second half.

“He's had a good week, huh?” Johnson said of Swift. “He earned (the contract), every step of it. We really value what he brings to the table. He has had a great spring and I don't think anybody in our camp is surprised he is out of the gate in strong fashion.”

It was the fourth-most points in Bears history. The most came in their notorious 73-0 win over Washington in the 1940 NFL title game.

“That's how we want to look each week,” Williams said. “That's who we want to be each week.”

Chicago and Carolina scored eight more points than the previous record of 88 set in Tampa Bay’s 48-40 win over New Orleans in 2018.

Although Carolina's Bryce Young fell to 0-4 in openers, it was by far the best season debut of his career. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a score.

Jalen Coker, who emerged as Carolina's No. 2 receiver last year, had eight catches for a career-high 138 yards and two TDs.

But the Panthers were done in three turnovers — a muffed punt by Jimmy Horn, a fumble by Tetairoa McMillan fumble and a pick by Young — and a leaky defense that committed untimely penalties.

The Bears put up 552 yards on offense and had 26 first downs. They were 10 of 14 on third-down conversions.

“It was an incredible day by the Bears,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “There were some things that we did to give a really good offense more opportunities. They don’t need any more opportunities. They were already creating their own.”

The Bears turned the ball over on their first possession, but quickly recovered and scored seven touchdowns on their next 12 drives, including the final four possessions to close the game.

Williams showed pure command, completing several pinpoint passes while racking up 196 yards through the air in the first half, including a perfectly placed 22-yard touchdown strike to Cole Kmet.

“He couldn't have put ball in a better spot and Cole made a heck of a catch there, too,” Johnson said.

He also showed the elusiveness that makes him hard to contain. He ran for 52 yards and two TDs — including a 29-yard scamper — before the break as the Bears took a 31-24 lead into the locker room.

Bears shrug off a fourth-down try that went wrong

Chicago's lead might have been bigger had it not been for a questionable decision by Johnson.

With the Bears leading 21-14, Johnson went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Chicago 21, but Williams came up short on a QB sneak.

“I felt pretty about the call,” Johnson said.

In the end, it didn't matter. Mistakes ended the Panthers' hopes in the second half.

After Chuba Hubbard scored his second TD to tie the game at 31-all, Carolina defensive end Derrick Brown was flagged for a late hit on Williams, allowing a drive to continue. That led to Swift's 1-yard TD run.

The Panthers went for it on fourth down near midfield on their next possession but Young couldn't connect with McMillan on a lofted pass down the left sideline. Chicago cashed in on the next play as Monangai broke through a hole in the middle and raced 61 yards for a 45-31 lead — a play that Williams called his favorite of the game.

“That's a crushing thing when you're in that situation when you are midfield and you get a downhill run like that,” Williams said.

On Carolina's next drive, McMillan fumbled, giving the Bears the ball back. Williams cashed in with a scoring strike to a wide-open Jahdea Walker for a 52-31 lead with 6:27 remaining.

Injuries

Bears: LT Braxton Jones left late in the third quarter with an upper-body injury. CB Tyrique Stevenson injured his shoulder. Neither appeared to be serious.

Panthers: DT Bobby Brown left in the second half with a back injury.

Up next

Bears: Host Minnesota next Sunday.

Panthers: At Atlanta next Sunday.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

“We do like Reliant Stadium,” he said with a big smile. “Woo.”

Allen threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Palmer with 1:36 remaining to lift the Bills to a 36-31 victory in a back-and-forth game.

Allen had 334 yards passing with two touchdowns and ran for two more scores after losing his previous four games at Reliant Stadium.

“It feels good to start the season off right,” Allen said.

It was the Bills' first win at Houston since Nov. 19, 2006.

The Texans led 31-30 when Allen split two defenders to find Palmer. The 2-point conversion failed.

One play earlier, Houston's Kamari Lassiter got his hands on a pass from Allen in the end zone but couldn’t grab the interception.

“We got lucky,” Palmer said. “He dropped it. Next play I caught it.”

The Texans had a chance to win in the closing seconds, but Greg Rousseau had his second strip-sack of the day, taking down C.J. Stroud at the Buffalo 28. Terrel Bernard recovered to seal the victory.

It was a disappointing outing for Houston's vaunted defense, which led the NFL in yards allowed and ranked second in points allowed last season.

“We had multiple opportunities to make plays, had chances to make plays on the football and we didn’t make plays,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said.

Houston allowed its most points since a 36-22 loss to Cleveland on Dec. 24, 2023.

“We’ve got to do a better job, especially closing out the game,” defensive end Will Anderson said. “It just wasn’t our standard. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we want to be as a defense. ”

Dalton Kincaid had five receptions for 130 yards and DJ Moore had five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown in his Buffalo debut after a trade from Chicago.

Buffalo's Joe Brady started his head coaching career with a win after he was promoted from offensive coordinator following Sean McDermott’s firing after nine seasons.

“You saw a lot of the conviction, everything we sort of talk about,” Brady said. “We didn’t care how pretty. There’s no such thing as an ugly win.”

David Montgomery, who was traded from Detroit this offseason, had a three-TD day in his Houston debut. He had scoring runs of 1 and 18 yards in the first half and his 7-yard touchdown reception put Houston up 28-27 early in the fourth.

Stroud threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns but lost two fumbles.

Tyler Bass' 33-yard field goal made it 30-28 Buffalo with 10 1/2 minutes to go.

Ka'imi Fairbairn’s 58-yard field goal put Houston back ahead with about seven minutes remaining before Allen’s game-winning drive.

Buffalo went up 10-7 when Allen scrambled for a 21-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.

Montgomery’s second score came when he scampered 18 yards untouched to make it 14-10 with about five minutes left in the first half.

Lassiter was flagged for pass interference on Moore in the end zone to give the Bills the ball on the 1 on their next drive. Allen’s scoring dive two plays later put Buffalo up 17-14.

Moore grabbed a ball in front of a diving Reed Blankenship and dashed 43 yards to the end zone later in the second to push the lead to 24-14.

A 12-yard touchdown reception by Nico Collins cut the lead to three at halftime.

Rousseau sacked Stroud on Houston’s first drive, causing a fumble that Ed Oliver recovered on the Houston 32. That led to Bass' 46-yard field goal.

A 1-yard run by Montgomery put the Texans up 7-3 near the end of the first quarter. The score was set up by a 25-yard reception by Collins three plays earlier.

Bills' receiving duo puts up big numbers

Moore and Kincaid gave the Bills just the second game in franchise history where a tight end and a receiver both had 100 yards receiving. The first time it happened was when Andre Reed had 144 yards receiving and Pete Metzelaars added 122 in Week 2 of the 1992 season.

Brady raved about what Moore brings to the team.

“He opens it up for everybody,” Brady said. “He opens it up for Dalton Kincaid, for the run game and James Cook. He opens it up for Keon Coleman... and Josh Palmer. And then on big-play opportunities, he made them. We’re so much better with him.”

Injuries

Houston LB Jake Hummel left in the second half with an abdominal injury.

Up next

Bills: Host Detroit on Thursday night in their first game at their new stadium.

Texans: Host Cincinnati next Sunday.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The suspicions laid out in Justice Flávio Dino’s decision may complicate matters further for Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, only weeks before October’s national elections in which he will challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Sen. Bolsonaro, the ex-leader's eldest son, is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion for receiving millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance the biopic about his father, titled “Dark Horse.”

Dino, a Lula appointee who oversees one of the investigations into the film, said the hypothesis that there existed a sophisticated scheme for the allocation and diversion of public funds involving federal congressional budget amendments and the Sao Paulo city government had strengthened.

On Thursday, Brazil’s federal police targeted federal lawmaker and Bolsonaro ally Mário Frias in an operation.

Police seized documents from the film’s production company and from Frias, who sent about 2 million reais ($400,000) to a nonprofit linked to the film. They suspect a criminal organization channeled funds to companies that were irregularly subcontracted, without evidence that the contracted services were provided.

The judge said Sunday that there were strong indications that Frias, who held a cabinet position during Bolsonaro’s term, played a central role within the alleged criminal network.

The network may also have links to the criminal organization the First Command of the Capital, or PCC, Dino said. U.S. President Donald Trump declared the group a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.

Frias denies wrongdoing. “I never allocated any congressional budget funds to finance or benefice the production of the film in any way,” Frias said Sunday in a post. He had previously described Thursday’s operation as a “smoke screen.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court has been embroiled in turmoil these past few weeks, with suspicions of graft, political bias and police interference looming over several of its members.

Dino recently clashed with Justice André Mendonca, who was appointed by Bolsonaro. On Tuesday, Mendonca removed federal police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and the force’s intelligence director, Leandro Almada, for allegedly leading illegal investigations against Mendonca.

Then on Wednesday, Dino overruled his colleague and restored the two senior police officials to their posts. Chief Justice Edson Fachin later suspended their opposing decisions.

The chaos gripping the court stems from the collapse of Banco Master, a mid-sized bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, which was shut down last November after a sprawling investigation into a fraud scheme involving billions of reais.

Banco Master’s former CEO Daniel Vorcaro was arrested earlier this year. It has since emerged that he had links with many high-ranking politicians. They include Sen. Bolsonaro but also several Supreme Court justices, including Alexandre de Moraes who oversaw the case in which Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup.

“We are experiencing the most serious crisis in the history of the Supreme Court and certainly one of the most serious in our turbulent republican history,” said former ministers, economists, executives and the presidents of trade union federations on Sunday in a letter to Fachin published by local media.

“Investigating the facts and holding accountable those who may have violated the law and the dignity of their positions are essential so that we can regain confidence in the institutions and preserve our democracy,” they added.

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The U.S. captain delivered again and the Americans continued their domination of international play, winning a fifth straight women's FIBA World Cup title with a 97-79 victory over France on Sunday.

The Americans have won 36 straight World Cup games, dating to the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup, where they lost to Russia.

“We are the standard,” said Stewart, who scored 22 points in the victory and earned MVP honors of the tournament for the second time. “USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat. We want to make sure that we continue to build on that standard and everybody else knows it.”

Despite the final score, this game wasn’t easy; the Americans faced their biggest deficit in the tournament since that loss to Russia when they were down 14 points in the first half to France. They calmly rallied behind Stewart and Jackie Young to get within two at halftime, with Caitlin Clark hitting a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

“I think we felt really good about where we were at,” said Clark, who finished with 12 points. “I think France was 8 for 14 (from 3-point range). We dug ourself a hole, but we climbed out of it, and I felt like we were never rattled by anything.”

The U.S. dominated in the second half, starting the third quarter with a 11-2 run to go up 54-47. Stewart, who has now four World Cup titles to her name, had four points during the game-changing burst.

France was able to get within 55-51, but the Americans used a 16-3 spurt that included two unsportsmanlike fouls against France on the same play. The Americans were up 73-57 heading into the fourth quarter, and France never was able to close the gap.

“I’m really happy with the way that we let the rest of the world know that our goal is always gold,” Stewart said. “Just really proud.”

The U.S. improved to 9-0 in gold-medal games since finishing second in 1983 to the Soviet Union.

This was the second-youngest team the Americans have sent to a World Cup. There were many newcomers on the roster including Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, who were playing for the national team for the first time. But it was the veterans who carried the team to the victory.

The Americans had looked more vulnerable in this tournament than at any time during their remarkable run. A three-point win over Italy in pool play was the closest a team has come to the U.S. in group stage in 50 years. The 10-point victory over Spain was the closest semifinal contest during the streak. The Americans had been winning by an average of 26 points over the past four medal-round games.

None of that matter in the end as the Americans finished the same way they had the previous four World Cup tournaments — as champions.

The loss nevertheless gave France its best finish ever in the event. The French were hoping for the top prize after they came close against the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympic gold-medal game two years ago. That one-point loss still stung two years later.

Dominique Malonga scored 21 points and Gabby Williams added 20 for France.

"Of course we’re disappointed right now, but I think we’re showing little by little, France is a basketball country,” Williams said. “That was my goal, when I joined this team, was to change the culture. Obviously we have higher expectations, but we’ll get there.”

France got off to a strong start. The U.S. trailed 20-17 after the first quarter and the French scored the first 11 points of the second, capped by Williams’ 3-pointer, to take a 31-17 lead. But the Americans rallied and trailed 45-43 at the half on Clark’s 3 just before the buzzer.

Spain topped host Germany to win the bronze medal.

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This one won’t help them forget the previous one, a three-point loss to Buffalo in the first round of the playoffs. But it was the best possible way to begin one of the most anticipated seasons in franchise history.

Lawrence threw for 245 yards and four touchdowns, opening the season much like he closed last year, and the Jaguars routed rebuilding Cleveland 34-10 on Sunday to spoil the debut of new Browns coach Todd Monken.

“It was a great first step for where we're trying to get to,” Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said.

Jacksonville scored on six of its first seven possessions, with Lawrence connecting with Parker Washington, rookie Josh Cameron, Brenton Strange and Jakobi Meyers for touchdowns. Three of four targets were wide open.

Lawrence completed 18 of 23 passes and finished with a career-high rating of 150.6. He was one of the best quarterbacks in the league down the stretch in 2025 while leading the Jaguars to the AFC South title.

His play under coach Liam Coen was a main reason Jacksonville entered this fall as a trendy pick to return to the postseason and maybe reach its first Super Bowl. The opener was a solid start.

“It was awesome,” Lawrence said. “Guys were ready to play.”

Washington, a pending free agent who’s in contract negotiations with Jacksonville, made a diving catch on Lawrence's first TD pass and flashed a “pay me” sign to the 42,000 in attendance inside a venue being fully renovated.

Lawrence made it look easy all afternoon against a defense that traded five-time All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett in the offseason and was entering its first season under new defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg.

Cleveland had equally troubling issues on the other side of the ball.

Deshaun Watson, making his first start in nearly two years, threw an interception on the opening drive.

“We did exactly what we wanted to start the game,” Monken said. “We’re going to try to put them on their heels and then we turn it over. And then we couldn’t get a first down to get our defense off the field. That is a recipe to get run out of the arena.”

Watson nearly threw another pick on the team’s second possession and later recovered his own fumble to avoid a turnover.

It was a stark contrast to his previous outings against the Jags. Watson had been undefeated in seven starts against Jacksonville, winning at home, on the road, in London with a swollen eye, in tight games, blowouts and even once while recovering from a broken rib and a bruised lung.

But he was overwhelmed Sunday, getting sacked five times and hit way more often.

Rookie receiver KC Concepcion Jr. also fumbled, and the Browns were penalized 11 times for 75 yards. They also went just 1 for 8 on third down and failed to score a touchdown on two trips inside the 20-yard line.

Cleveland finished with 272 yards and two highlights: Raheim Sanders returned a kickoff 74 yards to set up a 26-yard field goal in the third quarter, and Watson connected with Denzel Boston for a 46-yard TD with 1:52 remaining.

“We were hoping for a ‘W.’ We put in so much work, especially myself, to come in and be successful,” Watson said. “But it's the NFL; it doesn't go that way all the time. You play and you learn. ... The NFL, it's a hard league. You got to be week to week and try to be better each and every time.”

Key injuries

Browns: RB Dylan Sampson (knee) was ruled out in the first half. LG Zion Johnson (left knee) left in the first half but later returned.

Jaguars: DE B.J. Green (elbow) was ruled out at halftime. WR Brian Thomas Jr. (shoulder) went to the locker room in the second quarter but returned for the final series of the first half.

Van Lanen returns 8 months after knee surgery

Jaguars right tackle Cole Van Lanen started the opener eight months after knee surgery. Van Lanen tore a ligament in his right knee in the regular-season finale, missed most of training camp and didn’t play a down in the preseason. But he managed to make it back in time for the Browns.

He played the first half before giving way to backup Walker Little. It was a fairly quick return for a 312-pound lineman.

Up next

Browns play at Tampa Bay next Sunday.

Jaguars play at Denver next Sunday.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the Saudi government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

The families have asked Trump to declassify and release the relevant records. Asked about it Sunday during his trip to Ireland, the president said he would consider it.

“I’m going to look at it when I get back,” Trump said just before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington after a weekend in Ireland. “I know they asked me Friday.”

The relatives of 9/11 victims have been engaged in a lengthy legal battle against the Saudis. One of them, Terry Strada, called on Trump during the remembrance in New York City on Friday to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.”

Strada, who lost her husband Tom Strada on 9/11, said U.S. presidents had chosen “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.”

Strada, who was one of the 9/11 family members who read aloud the names of victims at this year’s remembrance, added that the current administration should “stand with the families, stand with the survivors.”

“It has been one betrayal after another,” she said. “President Trump can still change that.”

Captain Angela Stanford wishes there were more of them.

“I think we just didn’t make enough putts,” Stanford said. “And if you listen to everything I’ve ever said, Europeans always putt better. I don’t know why.”

That strength on the greens led Europe to a 15-13 victory on Sunday after three days at Bernardus Golf.

Jennifer Kupcho stunned Europe fans with two huge putts — totaling 120 feet — on Nos. 17 and 18 late Saturday to snatch an unlikely point for the Americans from the last match of the day and tie the score at 8-8 after four sessions.

The team broke out a crate of Dutch beer on the bus to celebrate.

“Had to pull out some bottles for Jen,” the team said on its official X account.

But despite that high, Stanford said her team didn't come to terms with the speed — or lack of it — of the greens at Bernardus Golf.

“Even when we showed up in July here, they were faster," she said, adding that she didn't think that recent rain — and heavy downpours on Sunday — were to blame.

“We don’t play on greens as slow usually,” she added.

Stanford shouldered the blame for not preparing her players better for the conditions.

“This is the one thing I am kicking myself is that I just didn’t keep pushing, you know, we got to figure out how to hit our putts a little bit harder, which is really difficult ... to change the way you putt,” she said.

It wasn't just quick greens the Americans missed.

The support in the Netherlands was also a factor, specifically the loud European fans hugely outnumbering and out-singing the Americans who made the trip across the Atlantic.

"Our Americans were there, but they weren’t as rambunctious as ... we’re used to,” said one of Stanford’s assistants, Paula Creamer.

“We are very momentum people and with our fans it’s important that we can feed off and get that energy from them," she added.

They should have that support in two years at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

“The good news is they can show back up in Kentucky in a couple of years and make it right,” Stanford said.

What's not yet clear is whether Stanford will be leading the team there.

On the last green, shortly after the defeat, she wasn't immediately ready to commit to another edition.

“Well, we have a pretty good pipeline. There are a lot of captains in line on the American side, a lot of good ones coming," she said. "So, yeah, I think we have a lot lined up ready to go.”

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

The National Weather Service said the hardest-hit areas appeared to be northern New Jersey, parts of New York’s Westchester County and a swath of coastal Connecticut along Interstate 95. The service issued flash flood warnings across the region for much of the morning Sunday as rain fell at a rate of 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) an hour in places.

Metro-North and Amtrak said their rail lines to New Haven, which serve Norwalk, Bridgeport and other major Connecticut communities, were experiencing delays and cancellations due to flooding impacts.

Tweed New Haven Airport also closed its departures terminal due to local flash flooding. Airport officials in a Facebook post said travelers with flights departing Sunday should not come until further notice.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and other state officials, meanwhile, urged drivers to avoid flooded roadways and not to attempt to drive through standing water.

Water rescues conducted in Connecticut coastal cities

The coastal stretch from Norwalk to Westport was among the most impacted in the state, receiving 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 centimeters) of rain Sunday morning, with rainfall rates reaching 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) per hour.

In Westport, emergency responders conducted 13 rescues of people trapped in vehicles by floodwaters, according to the fire department. Photos and videos shared on social media showed downtown businesses inundated.

“Even as the rain subsides, standing water and other hazards may remain,” the department cautioned on Facebook. “Residents should continue to avoid flooded roads, never drive around barricades, and give emergency crews room to work.”

In Bridgeport, the fire department said in a social media post it answered “call after call” on Sunday, including deploying boats “to rescue residents from flooded areas and bring them to safety.” Photos shared by the department showed residents being helped into a boat from the door of a house, with rescuers standing in knee-deep water outside.

The heavy rains also forced multiple road closures and some water rescues in White Plains and other major communities in New York's Westchester County.

In New Jersey, Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said emergency crews rescued about 20 people from rapidly rising floodwaters, including a woman who fell out of her wheelchair and ended up floating in the street.

Sayegh said there were no immediate reports of any deaths or severe injuries from the deluge, even as video shared on social media showed parked cars submerged nearly up to their windows on some roads.

As the rains tapered off and the skies cleared, Paterson's annual Dominican parade stepped off Sunday afternoon, though with a slight delay.

“The rain won’t stop us from celebrating our culture, pride, and community!” organizers wrote on Facebook.

Se trató de la cuarta edición anual de la carrera Kennedy Kids 5K, dedicada a la salud mental de los adolescentes y la prevención del suicidio.

La carrera de 5K se realizó en Barry University, en Miami Shores.

Los organizadores describieron el evento como una actividad familiar, con camiones de comida, música y vendedores locales de la comunidad.

Aunque la carrera estuvo marcada por un ambiente de celebración, el motivo detrás del evento tiene un tono solemne.

La actividad se realiza en honor de Kennedy Bailey, una adolescente que se quitó la vida durante esta misma semana hace cuatro años.

Kennedy era una apasionada corredora, por lo que el evento celebra lo que más amaba, pero también se ha convertido en una fuente de fortaleza para familias de todo el país.

Entre ellas está Gaby Galeas, quien corrió el domingo en honor de su hijo, Brandon Lainer, quien se quitó la vida hace siete años.

“Perdí a mi hijo Brandon en 2019 por suicidio, y estoy aquí por esa razón, y por todos aquellos que han perdido la vida y también por quienes están luchando”, dijo mientras sostenía una fotografía de su hijo. “Él siempre está con nosotros, y eso es lo que me mantiene adelante, además de querer crear conciencia y hablar sobre algo de lo que muchas personas no quieren hablar, que es la salud mental y el suicidio, y ayudar a quienes están atravesando dificultades”.

El evento también es oportuno porque septiembre es el Mes Nacional de la Prevención del Suicidio.

Los organizadores recordaron que existen recursos gratuitos para las personas que necesitan apoyo y que hay ayuda disponible las 24 horas del día, los siete días de la semana, llamando al 988.

Todo lo recaudado durante el evento del domingo beneficiará a la Kennedy Kids Foundation, que apoya a adolescentes y sus familias que enfrentan problemas de salud mental.

Her shock came after she saw those winning numbers — “21.47” — shining back at her after the 200-meter run Sunday at track's Ultimate Championship.

It was the fourth fastest time in history. It also was a time that wrapped up the 100-200 double in Budapest, banked her another $150,000 to go with the $150K she won the night before, beat her old personal best by .21 and locked in her status as the fastest woman in the sprint game with 22 months left before the LA Olympics.

“Shocked the heck out of me," Jefferson-Wooden said. "Honestly, I wanted to PB. I was thinking, like, 21.6-low, 21.5. But I skipped all over 21.5 and went 21.4. I did not know 21.4 was in the scope of things tonight.”

The only three faster times were a pair by two-time Jamaican world champion Shericka Jackson — who ran one of those, a 21.41, three years ago on this very track in Budapest; and the world record, set by Florence Griffith Joyner. which has stood at 21.34 since 1988.

Jefferson-Wooden sped to her win minutes after another American, Kenny Bednarek, who trains with her down in Florida, ran a personal-best 19.52 to also complete the 100-200 double.

“For me, this year was about applying the pressure and letting them know, like, ‘Hey, I’m not here to play games,'” Bednarek said.

His biggest threat, Noah Lyles, pulled out of this meet last week with a nagging injury he suffered back at U.S. Nationals in July. Bednarek's $300,000 will still spend well.

Bednarek's wins — this one by a .24-second margin over Olympic champ Letsile Tebogo — give track and field a year to dissect what could be a good matchup between Americans who have long gotten past their brief shoving match at the end of the 200-meter finals at nationals last year.

For anyone to shove Jefferson-Wooden, they'd have had to get much closer than they did Sunday.

In a sign that Flo-Jo's record might be in jeopardy, Jefferson-Wooden’s 21.47 came on a cool evening and into a headwind (0.6 meters per second). None of the other three fastest times did. It was also part of a frenetic schedule in which she ran four races — two 100s and two 200s — in the span of about 26 hours, which is not normal in any track meet.

“No, I did not see that one coming,” said Gabby Thomas, the reigning Olympic champion who finished second in 21.77. “I think it's really impressive. I'd love to get up there and compete at that level. Gives me something to shoot for.”

Kerr adds Ultimate title and shares a moment with Ingebrigtsen

Among those congratulating Josh Kerr after his latest victory — this one in the 1,500 at Ultimate — was Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian champion who has been going back and forth with Kerr about race tactics, schedules and other topics over the past two years.

“Just talkin' (expletive),” Kerr said with a laugh. “No, he congratulated me on my performance, said it was very impressive. I told him he's walking the line with some words. I think he regrets (some words) that he said. But that's life. Competition's going to continue in 2027.”

Kerr won in 3 minutes, 29.35 seconds to add to titles he won this year at world indoors in the 3,000 meters and the Commonwealth Games in the mile. He also broke Hicham El Guerrouj's 27-year-old world record in the mile earlier this summer.

Olympic champion Cole Hocker, also part of the ongoing drama in this event, finished fourth with his season-best time of 3:30.74. Ingebrigtsen won the 5,000 on opening night but withdrew from the shorter race, saying his fitness wasn't good enough for two races so close together in the wake of Achilles surgery earlier this year.

Kerr said he had no problem being part of what, at times, feels like a soap opera interrupted occasionally by running.

“I believe I'm the best in the world, other people think they are, as well, and that's what creates a rivalry," he said. "I don't really care what they're going to say in a post-race interview. I need to go out there and race them.”

Dos Santos gets the win while Rai Benjamin cashes in for $150K anyway

Brazil's Alison dos Santos closed out his dominant season in style. Two weeks after setting the world record in the 400 hurdles, he cracked the 46-second mark again, finishing in 45.98.

It was only the third-ever sub-46 mark; the other belongs to Karsten Warholm (45.94) at the Tokyo Olympics. Dos Santos ran 45.80 on Aug. 27 in Zurich.

America's Rai Benjamin finished a distant second, but this felt like a win of sorts. Though much has been made of the $150,000 top prizes at Ultimate, Benjamin earned $75,000 for second to go with the $75,000 he won the night before, where he also finished a distant second in the 400 flat.

“I feel like a lot of chatter online was, ‘He’s crazy, he's not going to medal, he won't do good in either event,'” Benjamin said. “But I believe in myself and I knew I could come out here and do something great. And I got the 150 anyway.”

US completes the mixed relay double

Jacory Patterson opened up a nearly .4-second lead on the third lap and Aaliyah Butler widened it to help the Americans cruise to a win in the 4x400 mixed relay, giving them a sweep of the team events. The four winners split an $80,000 first prize.

And in probably the most effervescent victory of the meet, Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi danced, clapped and leaped his way to victory in the high jump. Tamberi, injured much of the year, needed a special invitation to make it to Ultimate. He cleared 2.37 meters (7 feet, 9 1/4 inches), the highest jump of the year, to win the $150K.

“Now I can say to everyone, never stop believing in your dreams, never put a limit on yourself,” he said.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Trump made the unusual pitch at the party's midterm convention in Dallas last week, promising a “Trump Dividend” if voters keep the GOP in power on Capitol Hill. The president later told CBS News Texas that he did not think Congress would need to authorize the payments, though he did not specify how he could spend more than $1 trillion without lawmakers' authorization.

But Johnson, R-La., said congressional approval is needed. “I would assume, yes, he'd need Congress to act, and that's a creative idea,” he said.

A few hours later, Trump said he would deliver on his promise. “The 5,000’s going to happen, 100%,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Ireland, where he attended a pro golf tournament at his resort.

Johnson, meanwhile, said he would work to get Trump's proposal through Congress despite a small Republican margin.

“He’s the big ideas president. We’re going to try to implement everything we can,” he said. "I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that like they have to do everything else.”

The dubious election-year gambit could cost more than $1 trillion, putting further strains on the country's nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and exacerbating concerns of inflation. The economy is confronted by persistent inflation and increasing interest rates, a tough combination for governing Republicans as they seek to hold on to control of Congress.

The president argues that payments would be possible because of the strong economy, but consumer sentiment is weak as gasoline prices rise because of the war with Iran and wages struggle to keep pace with inflation.

Trump told reporters earlier Sunday that the payments would be “easy enough” because the United States has a strong economy.

“We can easily handle that because we're taking in so much money,” he said. “We've never done better.”

Just one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, according to a July poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That compares with 37% in June and 42% who approved of his work when he took office. Majorities also disapprove of his handling of the economy and immigration, issues that were central to Trump’s election in 2024.

On Sunday, Trump said the gas price will “drop like a rock” but indicated no deal any time soon with Iran to end the conflicts and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

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Johnson appeared on CNN's “State of the Union” and NBC's “Meet the Press.”

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It was the 4th annual Kennedy Kids 5K Race for teen mental health and suicide.

The 5K was held at Barry University in Miami Shores.

Organizers described the event as family-friendly, featuring food trucks, music and local vendors from the community.

Though the race was met with celebration, the reason behind the run comes with a somber tone.

It’s in honor of a young teenage girl, Kennedy Bailey, who took her own life on this very week four years ago.

She was a passionate runner, so the event celebrates what she loved most, but it also has become a source of strength for families across the country.

That includes Gaby Galeas, who was running Sunday in honor of her son, Brandon Lainer, who took his own life seven years ago.

“I lost my son Brandon in 2019 to suicide, and I’m here for that reason, and for all those who have lost their life and that are struggling as well,” she said while holding a picture of her son. “He’s always with us, and that’s what keeps me going, and also wanting to raise awareness and talk about this thing that a lot of people don’t like to talk about, which is mental health and suicide, and to help those that are struggling.”

The event is also timely because September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

Organizers are reminding everyone that there’s free resources available for people in need of support, and help is available 24/7 by dialing 9-8-8.

All proceeds collected at Sunday’s event will benefit the Kennedy Kids Foundation that supports teens and their families struggling with mental health issues.