Leo is spending the final two days of his weeklong trip to Spain in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula that is a key point of entry for migrants smuggled from West Africa.

He is meeting with recently arrived migrants and representatives of the church and humanitarian organizations that care for them and work to integrate them into Spanish society.

Most poignantly, he will commemorate the thousands of lives lost at sea from a port that in 2020 became known as the “dock of shame” because of the squalid conditions migrants lived in when they came ashore during a spike in arrivals.

Spain’s Socialist-led government, which had been shamed by the 2020 crisis, has bucked a trend in Europe and the United States by defending immigration on economic and humanitarian grounds. It has launched a legalization push earlier this year for hundreds of thousands of immigrants without authorization.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has highlighted the benefits to the economy with an aging workforce and low birth rate.

A historic speech defends dignity of migrants

Leo has already called for strengthened international efforts to prevent human smuggling of migrants, the creation of safe pathways for them to move legally and development in countries of origin so more people can choose to stay home.

In a speech to the Spanish Parliament earlier this week, the first-ever by a pope, Leo demanded welcome and integration for those who do choose to flee, insisting on their inherent human dignity.

“The moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile,” Leo said in a speech that also upheld the inherent dignity of the unborn, the elderly and sick. He received a 7-minute standing ovation at the end.

A visit to the ‘dock of shame’

Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000, but have fallen dramatically, with just over 2,000 people landing there in the first four months of 2026.

Upon his arrival in Las Palmas, Leo was to head to Arguineguin, where in 2020 arrivals reached such numbers that migrants were forced to sleep in makeshift camps in the open air on a dock that became known as the “dock of shame.”

Many migrants were left to sleep for weeks with just a blanket and no showers. Potential asylum seekers had no proper access to legal advice and some people were held for weeks, much longer than the three days that the law allowed. The crisis shamed the government, which was forced by its ombudsman to shutter the makeshift camp and relocate the migrants.

Learning of the crisis, Francis had planned to visit the Canary Islands to bring his solidarity, but never managed the trip. Francis had made the plight of refugees a hallmark of his papacy, following the Gospel mandate to “welcome the stranger.”

Leo has followed suit, insisting especially on the dignity of migrants in his native United States amid the Trump administration’s crackdown and mass deportation program.

Next month, on July 4, the American pope will spend U.S. Independence Day on the island of Lampedusa, Sicily, another main point of entry for migrants smuggled from North Africa trying to reach Europe.

Francis had visited Lampedusa in 2013, on his first trip outside Rome, and tossed a wreath into the Mediterranean in honor of the thousands of migrants who died in the perilous crossing. It was on that trip that he coined a phrase that became a mantra during his pontificate denouncing the “globalization of indifference” that the world showed migrants.

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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 summit of some of the world's richest nations from June 15-17 in the French town of Evian-les-Bains on Lake Geneva is meant to discuss the Middle East, Ukraine and global economic imbalances.

In nearby Geneva, Switzerland, business owners and local leaders want to avoid a repeat of violent protests that smashed storefronts on the sidelines of the G8 summit in 2003, when Russia was in the club of nations.

Protests are nothing new around such elite gatherings. This time, activists want to demonstrate frustration with Trump’s leadership on issues as diverse as tariffs, the war in Iran and the climate, or even highlight his past ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Authorities in Geneva and activist groups including environmentalists, feminists and foes of capitalism are facing off over the right to protest and the right to protection from those who target symbols of corporate and political power.

“As the G7 meets in Evian, France, to plan the destruction of peoples, the exploitation of life and the domination of bodies, let us organize our resistance against fascism and imperialism,” the No G7 coalition of anti-capitalism groups said in its call for a “large-scale internationalist mobilization against this meeting.”

Businesses have been boarding up storefronts in Geneva, a center for United Nations offices, while some institutions like the World Trade Organization, which faced anti-capitalist protests in Seattle in the 1990s, are closing offices and instructing staff to work remotely.

Switzerland, a rich Alpine country, is not among the G7 membership that includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S.

G7 also brings airspace restrictions

France and Switzerland have struck a military cooperation agreement on G7 summit security. The arriving leaders will pass through the airport in Geneva, which is 95% surrounded by France and connected to the rest of Switzerland by a strip of land.

The Swiss government said the army will deploy some 4,000 personnel to support police. Operations will include airspace restrictions, patrols on Lake Geneva and roadway restrictions. Seven of the 35 roadway border crossings will remain open. Geneva also is closing a major park where activists wanted to congregate.

France will deploy more than 13,000 police and gendarmerie officers to ensure security in the summit area just over the border. Over 800 French border control officers will be active, up from about 60 normally.

France also has introduced special permits for residents of Evian, perhaps best known for its bottled water, and environs while cordoning off a zone around the Hotel Royal where the leaders will meet.

There is an authorized march on June 14. Public gatherings not previously planned are banned.

Cedric Dupont, a professor of international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said authorities were “overreacting” with such stringent security measures that will impact the economy and people, alluding to the long lines at the border during the COVID crisis.

“It seems that they have not learned the lesson,” he said, noting that protesters can find their way to Geneva by traveling from other parts of Switzerland. “It’s just creating more problems than actually solving them.”

Residents and businesses prepare for disruption

Over 110,000 cross-border workers commute daily from France to Geneva, France's Foreign Ministry says.

French authorities have advised people to postpone nonessential travel and work from home when possible.

Lake crossings by boat, also used by commuters, have been moved from Evian to other ferry landings outside restricted areas. Recreational water activities, including paddleboarding and swimming, will be allowed outside the summit area as the summer season begins, authorities said.

The Geneva canton, or state, has set up a 6 million Swiss franc ($7.6 million) fund for businesses that incur damage related to G7 protests.

“Unrest cannot be ruled out,” authorities have said.

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Corbet reported from Paris.

Italian prosecutors are investigating Montgomery, Alabama-based Caddell Construction, a major builder of U.S. diplomatic missions. Two of its managers in Italy were arrested this month on suspicion of labor exploitation, one while boarding a flight to leave the country and another planning to flee, prosecutors said.

The investigation is led by prosecutor Paolo Storari, who also has spearheaded probes into sweatshops supplying luxury brands. So far only Caddell has been named as a target, not any of its subcontractors.

The consulate probe was launched about six months ago and involves some 70 workers, mostly from India. Prosecutors allege Caddell illegally deducted room and board from wages and forced them to work 10-hour days, six days a week. Some were paid as little as 500 euros (less than $580) monthly after room and board were deducted, prosecutors said.

Caddell and the U.S. State Department said they are investigating the allegations and cooperating with Italian authorities.

The consulate project is part of a construction boom in Milan over the past two decades that has modernized the skyline and raised the international profile of Italy’s fashion and finance capital.

Workers describe unpaid wages and threats

The AP spoke to four workers from Kenya and one from India at a trade union center where officials were organizing assistance, including legal help and housing. The workers provided documentation and spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to protect the ongoing investigation.

The Kenyan workers said they had been hired by Caddell after working on a multi-million-dollar extension of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.

Two showed employment letters on Caddell stationery signed by a company representative promising annual salaries topping 25,000 euros (nearly $29,000).

They said they were not paid anything close to that and were threatened by human resources personnel at the job site after they questioned management.

“When you go to the office to ask any question, you are being told, ‘Either you work or you will be returned to your country. That’s the amount you are supposed to be paid,’’’ one Kenyan electrician said. He added that he was paid just 800 euros ($925) a month after being promised 2,300 euros ($2,660).

Another Kenyan electrician said he was threatened with defamation after presenting an AI summary of Italian labor law and was told the 25,000 euros in the employment letter was “for visa purposes,” not a promise of payment.

US government and Caddell say they are investigating

The State Department said it is investigating the allegations made by prosecutors and that U.S. law enforcement is working with Italian authorities.

“The U.S. government does not tolerate labor exploitation,” the department said in a statement.

Caddell said it was “fully cooperating” with Italian authorities and conducting its own “comprehensive inquiry into this matter to ensure all our global subcontractors and consultancies are in compliance with all labor standards and legal requirements.”

“Caddell is committed (to) treating and paying workers fairly. We will continue to work with authorities in good faith to ensure the welfare of those who work on this important project,” the company said in a statement.

More than a decade ago, Caddell paid millions to the U.S. government to settle allegations it made false claims to gain access to government incentives. Caddell did not reply to a request for comment on that case.

Fired workers seek help

All five of the workers who spoke to the AP, ranging in age from their late 20s to early 50s, said they were fired without cause this year. One of them said he returned from visiting family in Kenya to find that he no longer had a job or place to stay.

Four of the workers were trained electricians, including the Indian worker whose resume showed he had more than a decade of experience working for other companies in Persian Gulf countries.

The Indian worker said he was promised a monthly salary of 2,500 euros (nearly $3,000). Instead, he had a pay slip showing his actual pay amounted to around 500 euros (less than $580) per month. It listed an hourly wage of 1.55 euros ($1.80).

The Kenyans said they reached out to authorities after learning of the investigation.

“I believe in justice,” one said. “Also the workers there should not be afraid. They should come and speak up.”

Two said they are currently sleeping in parks, while one is staying with a friend. One said he had been offered a job at a Caddell site in another country but declined after his treatment in Milan.

Caddell is a major diplomatic contractor

Caddell became a leader in building U.S. diplomatic missions when the State Department launched a major security upgrade after the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya killed more than 250 people.

“Very few contractors can meet the strict requirements to even bid on secure work necessary for diplomatic facility projects,” Caddell said on its website marking its 40th anniversary in 2023. At that point, the firm counted 39 projects in its embassy portfolio valued at $7.4 billion. It has added four projects since then.

The Milan consulate campus is being built on a 10-acre (40,000-square meter) site at a former shooting range. The current U.S. Consulate is in a high-rise building designed by acclaimed Italian architect Gio Ponti.

Plans for the campus called for about 500 “locally employed workers,” according to the U.S. State Department. The project includes restoration of a century-old building, along with a five-story consulate building, restored gardens, a reflecting pool and a large outdoor gathering area.

Work is continuing under court supervision. Workers no longer have their room and board deducted. They are limited to 45 hours and guaranteed two days off a week.

Pay records appear to bolster allegations

The pay stubs presented by the workers listed apparent charges of 510 euros (around $590) a month for housing and more than 300 euros (around $350) monthly for food. But those deductions only account for a portion of the difference between the promised wages and actual pay.

Unions intend to seek damages for the workers to recover at least what they earned “through hard work and commitment,” said Laura Malguzzi, a labor representative at the Fillea Cgil union federation representing construction workers.

Malguzzi said she was surprised that the pay stubs presented by the workers appeared to document the alleged exploitation. Union experts are still studying the documents, which do not conform to Italian standards, and could not verify their origins.

“They probably had in their minds the absolute certainty that they were untouchable,’’ Malguzzi said.

The Kenyan workers said they begrudgingly accepted a $200 monthly salary in Nairobi, where unemployment is rampant. But they expected better from a U.S. company operating in Europe.

“They can just hire you, and you just go running,” one worker said of the company. “Because you are poor you have nothing. And you have nothing you can do.”

And make no mistake: Those 4 1/2 seconds will never be forgotten by the Knicks. Or by the San Antonio Spurs.

The situation: Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Knicks down by one in a game where they trailed by as many as 29 points. They call timeout with 5.7 seconds left, just as Jose Alvarado nearly committed a backcourt violation that would have cost the Knicks the basketball.

Here's how it happened.

5.7 seconds left ... the play begins

The timeout comes and New York's Josh Hart is distraught. He blamed himself for missing an assignment at the other end, which allowed San Antonio’s Stephon Castle to hit two free throws that put his team up 106-105.

“I’m sitting there just hoping my guys make a play,” Hart said.

OG Anunoby inbounds the ball for the Knicks. The Spurs elect to not have a defender impede his vision, using all five of their players to guard the four who were moving about for New York. Jalen Brunson shakes free of a couple of defenders, including the Spurs' Victor Wembanyama, the league's Defensive Player of the Year, and catches the inbounds pass near midcourt.

4.3 seconds left ... Brunson shoots

Brunson takes one dribble and lets a shot fly from about 31 feet, over Wembanyama's outstretched left arm. The shot, in the air for about 1.2 seconds, misses and hits the rim. It's short, and the ball bounces off the iron into the air.

Anunoby — with nobody in his path — sprints from the out-of-bounds spot into the lane, just in case.

“I just went and crashed,” Anunoby said. “Tried to get a tip-dunk or something. The ball went over my head, so I couldn’t really dunk it. So, I tried to tip it in softly.”

With 2.5 seconds left, Anunoby leaps. The Spurs have a few Knicks boxed out, including Karl-Anthony Towns. But Anunoby is unnoticed and gets in front of the Spurs' Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell.

“I was contesting the first shot,” Wembanyama said. “Turned around and saw him up there. That’s all I saw.”

2.0 seconds left ... Anunoby tips the ball

Anunoby throws his right arm into the air as he leaps, just out of the reach of the airborne Vassell. He gets his thumb and a couple of fingers on the ball, hoping to knock it back toward the rim — which he does.

“Right hand from God,” Towns called it.

Anunoby falls to the floor. The ball gets over the front of the rim. Brunson's fist goes into the air. The Garden waits.

1.2 seconds left ... ‘Bedlam here at The Garden!’

Announcer Mike Breen thought Brunson's 3-point shot would be good. In the end, Breen yelled “Bedlam here at the Garden! They can't believe it!” as Anunoby's shot went through the net.

Hart — who also missed a go-ahead layup in the final moments — will never be able to thank him enough.

“I’ve got a special shoutout for OG, man,” Hart said. “He saved me, at least for this game, a lifetime of regret.”

Had the rebound of Brunson's miss bounced in a different direction, Anunoby wouldn't have gotten there.

“Bounced off the rim the right way,” Harper said. “He tipped it in the right way. It went in. I could play, ‘Wish I could have did this, wish I could have did that.’ But at the end of the day, he tipped the ball, and it went in.”

The one-point lead matched the Knicks' biggest all night.

It was all they needed.

“That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I’m not you guys. You guys know better than me. But it was just unbelievable.”

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Reynolds reported from Miami.

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

The new U.S. assault across multiple Iranian cities came as efforts to negotiate an end the war again appeared stuck, with Iran insisting it would maintain its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted global energy supplies and sent oil prices higher. The American attack appeared more intense and wider than the day before, but Iran released little information on the extent of the damage.

Kuwait closed its airspace for several hours because of the Thursday morning attack, but did not elaborate on any damage. Jordan didn't acknowledge the attack, though the U.S. Embassy in Amman warned about it. And in Bahrain, its Interior Ministry said an 11-year-old girl had been hurt and cars and homes were damaged by “falling debris” from interceptions targeting the Iranian attack.

The third back-and-forth strikes this week have tested a two-month shaky ceasefire. The first were attacks between Iran and Israel on Sunday into Monday, followed by the two rounds of fire between America and Tehran.

Trump has urged Iran to sign a deal to end the war and suggested earlier this week that an agreement could be reached in days.

But Iran has proved resilient despite weeks of heavy bombing. It is betting that its ability to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial passageway for oil and natural gas — gives it a strong bargaining chip.

Still, both countries seem to be looking for a way to end the conflict — if they can manage to sell it as a win at home.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing goals that make compromise harder: the collapse of Iran’s theocratic government, the elimination of its nuclear program, and the destruction of the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

US strikes Iran and Iran fires back at Gulf States

The U.S. Central Command said its latest round of airstrikes ended just before sunrise Thursday in Iran. The military command said the strikes came “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression” and targeted “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites.” It did not elaborate on the damage done by the strikes, which it said were carried out by the U.S. Air Force, Marines and Navy.

Explosions from the strikes echoed around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard later said sites hit by the Americans included a manufacturing complex, a military barracks and a local Guard base outside of Tehran.

Iran responded by launching strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan for a second day.

Israel early Thursday also warned residents in the north to seek shelter after the detection of suspected incoming fire from Lebanon.

Trump says US is sneaking oil past the Strait of Hormuz

Since the U.S. and Israel started the war with Feb. 28 attacks on Iran, the conflict has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices and made food and other basics more expensive.

The international benchmark for crude oil traded above $93 a barrel on Wednesday, up more than 25% since the start of the war.

Trump said the U.S. military has since last month undertaken a “secret mission” to sneak oil shipments past Iran’s forces in the Strait of Hormuz. He said ships were slipping through at night, aided by the destruction of Iranian radar equipment.

Trump said as a result more than 100 million barrels of oil have evaded Iran’s chokehold on the strait. There was no immediate confirmation of that figure, which roughly equals five days of oil shipments through the waterway before the war began.

The military’s role was not immediately clear. The U.S. Central Command on Wednesday disputed Iran’s claims that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, saying commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out.

Big disagreements stand in the way of a quick peace deal

Wary of high gas prices in the run-up to midterm elections in November, Trump seems to be looking for a quick win. But he is also making demands that will be tough for Iran to swallow.

The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. While Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, that uranium is a short technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Iran is refusing to give up the uranium and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something Trump rejected.

Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting between its ally Hezbollah and Israel.

A Qatari diplomatic delegation, negotiating in coordination with the U.S., left Tehran on Thursday morning after holding talks, said an official with knowledge of the team who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the mediation.

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Price and Toropin reported from Washington. AP journalist Victoria Eastwood in Cairo contributed to this report.

The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake, one of the strongest to hit the Philippine archipelago in a half century, struck Monday off the southern province of Sarangani and has left at least 47 people dead and injured 688 with 31 still missing.

More than 45,000 people remained displaced, about half in emergency shelters, after the quake damaged more than 12,600 houses in farming towns and cities. Many were still too traumatized to return home due to aftershocks, provincial officials said.

Sarangani reported 20 dead from the quake, the highest toll from the affected provinces, mostly due to a landslide that buried houses in the coastal town of Glan, according to the government's Office of Civil Defense, which deals with major disasters.

Glan Mayor Victor James Yap said power has not been restored to his province and 10 of 31 villages in his town of more than 100,000 people remained inaccessible mostly due to landslides. He asked the government to immediately deploy air force helicopters to deliver food and other aid to the stricken areas.

“We need food and water but it’s difficult to transport them to some of our villages which remain isolated,” Yap told DZMM radio network. “Choppers are needed to transport food because people there are already very hungry.”

A key access road to the town has been reopened and will allow the delivery of fuel as early as Thursday, but the town remained without power and cellphone services were still spotty, according to Yap.

Most of the deaths from the quake were caused by falling debris from collapsed buildings and landslides in Sarangani, the coastal city of General Santos, and the outlying provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental.

Two swimmers drowned and one remained missing off General Santos after being swept out to sea shortly after the quake hit. Waves of up to 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) above tide level were measured in the country’s south and smaller waves washed ashore in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.

The earthquake was one of the strongest to hit the country since an 8.1 magnitude quake and tsunami on Aug. 17, 1976, that killed about 8,000 people.

The Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

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Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.

There's an argument to make for each — or perhaps all. To get to the bottom of it ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, The Associated Press asked a few of the performers behind World Cup songs past and present. It's a list that includes Shakira — who, alongside Afrobeats star Burna Boy, is responsible for the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem, “Dai Dai” — as well as Colombian singer J Balvin, Wyclef Jean and newcomer Nora Fatehi.

Shakira unites cultures

Before “Dai Dai,” the Colombian superstar co-wrote and performed “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” featuring Freshlyground, the official anthem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa.

“Fútbol is a thing that unites so many cultures and people of different walks of life,” she told the AP. “The big responsibility of making a World Cup song is that you’ve got to make a song that represents people’s feelings, emotions, and passion.”

“So you've got to write that song, in a way, understanding that it has to be global. It has to encompass so many cultures and represent so many in one tune,” Shakira continued. “That, in a way, has helped me craft those songs in the past.”

But beyond those conceptual ideas, Shakira has some specific sonic suggestions as well.

“I feel like a good World Cup song needs to definitely have rhythm. It has to be rhythmic. It has to make people want to dance. And it has to be an anthem as well. It has to make people want to sing along in unison, sing out loud at the top of their lungs. It also has that kind of energy,” she says. “That's a must.”

J Balvin makes the case for a hook

Colombian singer J Balvin is one-fourth of Coca-Cola’s official song for the FIFA World Cup 2026, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that also features drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai. He says any song — not just a World Cup anthem — must engage listeners right off the bat.

“Nowadays, with the music and every type of music — it doesn’t matter if it’s the World Cup, if it is a reggaeton or hip-hop (song) — you know, people’s attention (span) is only like five seconds. And that’s the reality. I’m not judging — you've just got to do it with all the love,” he says.

But a World Cup anthem specifically? That should match the intensity of a soccer game. “Fútbol brings us together, with all different highs and lows,” he says. “All these different emotions happen in one game.” The song should have the same energy.

Newcomer Nora Fatehi thinks World Cup anthems are for winners

The Canadian Moroccan singer-songwriter Nora Fatehi is featured on the official 2026 FIFA World Cup album with “Siir, Siir,” a collaboration with French artist Vegedream and Bangladeshi American DJ Sanjoy.

“It needs a great beat because we’re here to dance and we need to celebrate,” she says of a World Cup anthem.

But beyond that, Fatehi, who is best known for work in Bollywood films, says that when you hear it, “You feel like you’re winning, or you’re gonna win, or you won. That’s the emotion it needs to evoke.”

For “Siir, Siir,” she says, “what we were after was finding an emotion. So, the minute you hear that song, it should make you feel like you’ve conquered the world. It should make you feel motivated. It should be aspirational. That’s what it should feel like.”

Wyclef Jean aims for unity

Wyclef Jean, the Fugees multi-hyphenate, co-wrote and performed “Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)” for the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil, with guitar guru Santana, the late EDM icon Avicii and Brazil's beloved singer-songwriter Alexandre Pires.

“The topline? It has to electrify the stadium,” Jean says. “You literally have to feel the entire stadium shaking.” If you don't — the anthem won't fly.

“I don’t know any World Cup song that don’t have amazing rhythm and amazing movement,” he says.

Though many nations are represented in the identity of his song's performers — Brazil, Sweden, Haiti, Mexico and the U.S. — Jean says he doesn't “think like necessarily you need to have five different artists to make a global anthem.”

“Whether they come from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, America, any part of the world, the Caribbean — people gravitate towards culture,” he says. “And what I love best about World Cup is that before it has a language, it has an energy and a vibe. It has absolutely nothing to do with a language.”

A good hook, a strong melody that anyone can sing along to — that's what's key.

But “Dar um Jeito” has a strong message of unity, adding to its anthemic quality. “Resilience is a very important word,” he says of the song's message. Jean says it was written for “boys and girls all over the world,” particularly those in rural areas.

The aim was a Bob Marley-style “Get Up, Stand Up,” “where the messaging in the song is not being preachy, but it’s a message of hope,” he says. “If you keep fighting the good fight, you’re gonna get to that stadium. And ain’t nobody gonna stop you.”

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Some of them aren’t too enthusiastic.

“I think they’re all a waste of time,” said Shirley Prior on the choice of candidates in Makerfield, where a special election on June 18 has drawn interest from journalists around the world. That level of attention is all-but unheard of for a midterm by-election to fill one of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.

If Andy Burnham from the center-left Labour Party wins, there’s a strong chance he will replace embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer as leader of both party and country. He's up against Reform UK, a hard-right party hoping to prove that this longtime Labour stronghold is fertile ground for its anti-immigration message, with potentially seismic consequences for British democracy.

This district has elected Labour lawmakers for 120 years, but Burnham is not a shoo-in. Reform, led by the veteran anti-immigration politician Nigel Farage, won 24 of the 25 council seats up for grabs in local elections in this area last month.

“I always voted Labour because my dad, my grandad, everybody voted Labour then,” Prior said. “I’ve never done that for a lot, a lot of years.”

Immigration is a top issue

The election is taking place amid heightened tensions over immigration. A stabbing in Belfast this week, for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder, triggered violent protests in Northern Ireland in which cars and houses torched.

In the constituency’s main town of Ashton-in-Makerfield, 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of London, some voters echo Reform claims that recent arrivals are straining housing and public services.

“Immigration’s too high, all the services are being put under pressure and Labour just keep inviting more and more people into the country and it’s the taxpayer who has to pay for them,” said retiree Phil Arrowsmith.

Annual net migration to the U.K. reached more than 900,000 in 2023, under the previous Conservative government, before falling to 171,000 last year.

That decline has done little to boost a Labour government that has floundered since winning election in July 2024.

Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

A dismal performance in local elections last month sparked a clamor from Labour lawmakers for Starmer’s resignation. He has refused, but Cabinet minister Wes Streeting quit so he can run in a leadership contest that could come soon.

Burnham, the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, also harbors leadership ambitions, but needs a seat in Parliament if he wants to challenge Starmer. An opening emerged when Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker for Makerfield, stepped down to trigger a special election.

Burnham said he understands that voters are “fed up” and calls the large Reform UK vote “a cry for real change” that Labour must heed.

The ‘King of the North’ eyes power in London

The Makerfield constituency is a capsule of British history, a collection of former coal-mining communities turned commuter suburbs. The slag heaps and slum housing in the area described by George Orwell in his 1937 book “The Road to Wigan Pier” have been replaced by suburbs of tidy modern houses amid Victorian workers’ cottages, interspersed with farmers’ fields.

Though far from the city center, it is part of Greater Manchester, and Burnham gets honks and thumbs’ ups from passing drivers as he walks down the street in his smart-casual uniform of dark jeans with a navy blue shirt and jacket.

The 56-year-old has been mayor of the region of 3 million people since 2017, a period that has seen central Manchester boom, with skyscrapers blooming on postindustrial sites. Many residents praise him for championing the city, and for taking a piecemeal public transport system under municipal control as the Bee Network.

For a decade and a half before that he was a lawmaker in Parliament, and a minister in Labour governments. He doesn’t emphasize that part of his CV, preferring the outsider status that has seen him nicknamed the King of the North.

“What we’ve built in Greater Manchester needs to go national,” Burnham told reporters during a campaign event this week. “I know what it is to turn places around.”

Many predict a close contest

The campaign is an odd mix of the local and the international. Some voters cite immigration as a top concern. Others mention struggling main street shops, potholes and petty crime.

Burnham’s main rival is Reform UK candidate Rob Kenyon, a 41-year-old plumber and local councilor who came second to Labour here in the 2024 national election. He says he’s an unpolished regular bloke, though opponents have criticized him over crude, sexist and anti-vaccine comments on social media.

Reform voters are also being targeted by Restore, an even more hardline anti-immigration party.

Michael Poultney, a retired teacher and Labour supporter, thinks the unpopularity of Starmer’s government means Burnham faces a stiff challenge.

“Without his personal vote, I think we would struggle,” he said. “Keir Starmer has done reasonably well on the international stage, but the government are yet to be in control of the economy.”

Burnham insists he is running for the people of Makerfield, not his own ambition, and is not taking victory for granted.

“I am making no assumptions beyond the 18th of June,” Burnham said.

But he stressed that “this is a change byelection.”

“I will take the fight for the changes I want to see in politics as far as I can take it,” he said.

The U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis notified the court Wednesday that the Justice Department would not seek the death penalty against Vance Boelter in accordance with a proposed plea agreement. Boelter’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The court filing did not detail the terms of the plea agreement.

Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot by a man who came to their doors in the early hours of June 14, 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car. The Hortmans’ golden retriever was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized.

Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day after what prosecutors have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges. His state case has been on hold pending the resolution of his federal charges.

Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said the federal plea deal would not affect Boelter’s state charges.

While the Trump administration has pushed for greater use of capital punishment, there were questions about whether Boelter’s case would qualify for the death penalty under federal law.

Prosecutors have called the shootings political. When they announced the federal indictment in July, they released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the attacks. However, the letter didn’t make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans.

In some messages to media, Boelter referenced a vague and cryptic “investigation” he had been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary, who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.

John Hoffman said in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand likely would never fully recover, and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems.

Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, the lawsuit said, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was there and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.

A lawsuit brought by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez and other plaintiffs challenges the process used by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration to eliminate an income cap and co-pays for childcare assistance before the Legislature had a chance to weigh in or approve funding.

“This is executive overreach. The program was launched unlawfully,” said Rodriguez, who lost his party’s nomination in New Mexico’s recent primary.

The state’s childcare agency disputes that, arguing in court filings that lawmakers have since “expressly authorized” and funded the expansion, rendering the lawsuit moot. Lujan Grisham signed legislation in February enshrining the program into law provided state finances remain healthy.

District Judge Elaine Lujan could issue a ruling Thursday on whether the lawsuit can proceed. A potential pause to the program would put thousands of New Mexican families back on the hook for daycare payments and create a headache for businesses.

Ilene Harding, who runs seven daycare centers in the Albuquerque area, said the expansion has boosted enrollment and streamlined billing.

“We’ve always been financially solvent, but it’s given us stability,” Harding said.

The challenge comes as New Mexico looks to cement its place as the first U.S. state to cover all working families’ daycare bills regardless of income. But the stakes extend nationwide as policymakers from New York to California look for models to reduce costs for families and expand public investment in childcare.

New Mexico’s program, which is financed in large part on revenue from oil and gas production in the state, was among the nation's most generous before November’s expansion, waiving costs for families making up to 400% of the federal poverty rate or roughly $132,000 per year for a family of four.

Legislative analysts already have raised questions about the sustainability of New Mexico's expanded program, noting earlier this year that the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department started overspending just weeks into the November launch.

The state agency acknowledged at the time that enrollment grew faster than expected, leading to higher costs, but disputed that it was over budget.

Trump has doubled down on his temporary pick for director of national intelligence, federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, even though he has little experience for the job. Democrats say they won't support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, unless the president withdraws Pulte's appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

The House will try early Thursday to approve a short-term FISA extension, but passage is unlikely. The Senate may follow suit, hoping to prevent what could be an unprecedented lapse in the surveillance tool.

The impasse could soon result in limitations on what intelligence the U.S. government can collect abroad just as World Cup games begin in cities around the country and ahead of celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The law expires on Friday at midnight.

“We can’t let them extort us,” Trump said of Democrats.

Trump has stuck with Pulte as the acting head, rebuffing demands from lawmakers for a more qualified nominee. He asked Congress for a short-term extension of the law to “provide time for the selection and confirmation” of a permanent director. He said he wants Pulte to begin downsizing intelligence agencies.

The parties leveled blame for the potential interruption in what has been seen as an essential, if long-debated, surveillance program for keeping the country safe.

“We’re going to ask every member here to do the right thing,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “We cannot allow that to go dark.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said if Trump wants a shot at a short-term extension, he needs to pull the Pulte appointment. Pulte is a “disgraceful individual” and a “partisan political hack" who is deeply unqualified for the job, Jeffries said.

GOP leaders lobby the White House, to no avail

Congressional Republicans have lobbied Trump all week to quickly nominate a permanent replacement. But he said he needs more time to do so.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Republican leaders have “made our views known” to the White House.

Trump has said that he is interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently, after the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard.

And Johnson said the president has made it very clear that Pulte will serve a “very short term — a sort of renovation role” to help the Office of the Director of National Intelligence be “renovated and downsized.”

But Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee led by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said in a letter to the president that Pulte is a “uniquely poor choice” to serve even in the acting capacity.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers skeptical of Pulte have pointed to his lack of intelligence experience and also his record at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In the position, he has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve.

“He has distinguished himself only as someone who will do or say anything to stay in your good graces,” Himes and the other lawmakers wrote, "qualities that are precisely the opposite of what our nation needs.”

FISA will lapse at midnight Friday

Section 702 of FISA allows agencies such as the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.

While members of both parties who cite privacy issues have long wanted to limit the authority, there was broad bipartisan support to renew it, especially after Republicans and Democrats recently worked out a compromise bill.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has worked with Republicans on the compromise legislation to renew the authority. But he called Pulte’s appointment to replace Gabbard “a live hand grenade” disrupting the process.

Warner said the only way he’ll support a short-term extension of the surveillance law is if the principal deputy director of national intelligence, Aaron Lukas, is the acting leader during the duration of that extension.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have warned the administration that the spy tool is likely to lapse.

The administration should prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection,” they wrote in a letter.

Trump doesn't back down on Pulte

After bipartisan pushback to Pulte’s temporary appointment, Trump said last week that he would not permanently nominate him to the position. But Democrats, and some Republicans, want his appointment pulled immediately and for Trump to nominate a replacement that can be confirmed by the Senate.

On Tuesday, though, Trump announced that Pulte would not only take over as acting director — he'd also start earlier than expected, on June 19.

One of several possible replacements could be Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The White House has reached out to Hoekstra about the job and conversations are ongoing, according to a person familiar with the outreach who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

___

Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

This time, the contest was won by populist insurgent Randy Villegas. But what sets the outcome apart from similar primary battles is the stakes.

This wasn't a fight over a safe Democratic seat. Villegas will be the standard bearer against Republican Rep. David Valadao, one of the most promising targets for Democrats desperate to retake the U.S. House majority and slow down President Donald Trump.

The November race will test the theory, popular on the left, that voters will flock to progressive, anti-establishment candidates even in places that have traditionally favored Republicans.

“A populist message isn’t just for blue districts or certain parts of the country," said Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the Working Families Party, one of the progressive groups that backed Villegas. “It can win anywhere people feel like politics is not working for them.”

"More than ever, voters across the political spectrum want candidates who are willing to stand up to power,” Mangla said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed Villegas' chances, even though the state's Democratic leaders recently redrew the district to make it easier to flip this year.

“Democrats know Villegas can’t beat Congressman David Valadao, as he embraces the same failed policies that have made California more expensive, less safe, and harder for working families in the Central Valley," said spokesperson Christian Martinez.

Progressives want a shot in key races

The Villegas victory comes during an election season in which substantial parts of the Democratic base are rejecting the candidates that party bosses see as their best shot at winning power in Congress.

Graham Platner overwhelmingly won the Democratic Senate primary in Maine this week after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's preferred nominee, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out with lackluster support weeks before the election.

A combat veteran and oyster farmer, Platner has never held elected office before, and he's endured controversies over past relationships with women, inflammatory online posts and a since-covered tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol.

In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is entangled in a three-way contest for the Democratic Senate nomination against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed. The primary is Aug. 4, and El-Sayed recently scored a major endorsement from the United Auto Workers union, a political powerhouse in the state that is home to the U.S. auto industry.

And in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is in a fierce battle with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is backed by labor unions, LGBTQ groups and moderate Democrats ahead of the primary on Aug. 11.

Another test will come on June 30 in Colorado, where progressive Manny Rutinel faces establishment-backed Shannon Bird in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. Like Valadao, Evans is a top target for Democrats. And like the California race, the Colorado contest hinges on questions about who is most electable in November.

Democrats try to unite around their nominee

Valadao finished first and Villegas second in California's primary, in which the top two candidates move on to the general election.

When early voting began about a month before the primary, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the unusual step of publicly signaling support for Jasmeet Bains, a doctor and state Assembly member who had lined up support from a bevy of elected officials, unions and health care groups.

“Dr. Jasmeet Bains has fought on the frontlines of health crises and built a track record of delivering for the Central Valley," DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement at the time. She did not criticize Villegas, but the public support for his rival was a powerful signal to Democratic donors and activists that the party believed Bains was a stronger candidate. Congressional leaders and the party apparatus they control rarely wade overtly into contested primaries for open seats.

The decision to back Bains infuriated many on the left, who saw it as another example of Washington insiders being out of touch with both the Democratic base and disaffected voters who helped power Trump’s victories.

“I think the moderates are wrong. People don’t want status quo, pro-corporate candidates,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a progressive group that grew out of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. “They want people who are going to shake things up."

Now that Villegas won, Democrats in Washington now insist he's a strong candidate who is well-positioned to defeat Valadao. They point to the grassroots support that propelled him through the primary and the combined 59% that the Democrats got in the primary, significantly more than the 41% who voted for Valadao, though many more voters will turn out for the general election.

If the snub created tension between Villegas and his party, both sides buried it by Wednesday and presented a united front. California members of Congress, including some who had backed Bains, issued effusive statements, and he was magnanimous in return.

“We’re all in to elect Randy and flip this seat,” said Anna Elsasser, a spokesperson for the DCCC, the arm of the Democratic Party focused on winning House races. The district is “a must-win seat for the House majority, and we are confident in winning with Randy as the Democratic nominee,” she added.

The way the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar looks at it, when he's on the mound, his job is to throw the ball. It's up to the guys behind the plate to decide whether to challenge an umpire's call of a ball or a strike.

That deference might have cost Ohtani and the Dodgers in a stunning 9-8 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

Los Angeles was cruising when Ohtani went out for the seventh inning for just the third time this season. The Dodgers led by five thanks to Ryan Ward's first career grand slam, and Ohtani seemed poised to win his fifth straight start.

Then things unraveled, a rarity for the two-time defending world champions and the greatest player in the game.

Pirates rookie Tyler Callihan singled. Jake Mangum reached on a swinging bunt. Still, Ohtani and the blister on his right hand that is temporarily limiting the number of split-fingered fastballs he throws felt like he was in pretty good shape when Pittsburgh second baseman Brandon Lowe stepped to the plate.

Ohtani quickly fell behind 3-0, with the first and third pitches borderline calls on 98 mph fastballs that home plate umpire Felix Neon ruled balls. Catcher Dalton Rushing didn't challenge, and with just one challenge remaining, Ohtani decided it probably wasn't worth the risk.

Lowe quickly made Ohtani pay, turning on a fastball down the middle for a two-run double that ended Ohtani's night (on the mound anyway) and set the stage for a five-run rally against the Dodger bullpen in the eighth that gave the Pirates perhaps their most unlikely win of the season.

Ohtani, who allowed season highs in hits (six), runs (four) and earned runs (three), couldn't help but think afterward that he should have tapped the top of his cap earlier in the at-bat so the ABS system could take a look.

“I usually let the catchers make that determination," he said. “But looking back, I think situationally, how important it was that at-bat, looking back I think I could have done a few challenges.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called challenging pitches an “inexact science” and, like Ohtani, is fine leaving it in the hands of the players with the best view in the stadium. And, if the umpire's call was confirmed, it meant Los Angeles would be out of challenges heading into the final innings.

Besides, how often does Ohtani and the Los Angeles bullpen blow a five-run lead? Not often. Even after Lowe's double and an error by third baseman Max Muncy that allowed Lowe to score, the Dodgers were still up two heading into the eighth.

Los Angeles entered the night a tidy 36-3 when leading after seven. Callihan — who hit the first homer of his career earlier in the game with a 427-foot shot off Ohtani — gave the Pirates the lead with a three-run blast in the eighth. Spencer Horwitz then added a two-run homer to give Pittsburgh the kind of cushion it needed after Ohtani delivered a two-run home run of his own in the top of the ninth to cut the deficit to one.

“You’re not going to face too many guys like that,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “There’s one. It’s ridiculous what he’s able to do.”

Even if Ohtani showed small glimpses of vulnerability during his first-ever start at PNC Park. Ohtani acknowledged shaking off Rushing a few times, something he attributed to not working with the Los Angeles reserve catcher that often.

“It’s something you just have to have a conversation here and there and be on the same page,” Ohtani said.

The two could be working together more often in the near future after Roberts announced postgame that starter Will Smith is heading to the 10-day injured list with a neck injury.

Ohtani will have nearly a week off until his next scheduled turn in the rotation. Though the work never really stops. Roberts said the plan is for Ohtani to lead off as usual during Thursday's series finale rather than give him a break after — statistically anyway — his toughest day on the hill this season.

That's just the way Ohtani wants it.

“I’m always going to be prepared to play tomorrow,” he said.

___

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

The exchange came shortly after the U.S. launched a second round of airstrikes overnight Thursday. Bahrain is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The new assault across multiple Iranian cities came as efforts to negotiate an end the war appeared to have stalled, with Iran insisting it would maintain its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Talks have also faltered because of Israel's attacks against the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. On Monday, Iran and Israel targeted each other.

In a first exchange of missile fire from Iran and airstrikes by the U.S. on Wednesday, Iranian missiles were launched at missiles at Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Those came in the wake of American strikes in reprisal for the shooting down of a U.S. helicopter in the strait.

The U.S. Central Command said it completed its latest round of airstrikes just before the sun rose Thursday in Iran. It said the strikes targeted military surveillance, communications and air defense sites and were carried out by the U.S. Air Force, Marines and Navy. It did not elaborate on the damage done by the strikes.

Explosions from the strikes echoed around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as in the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the strait.

Here's the latest:

Kuwait closes its airspaces as it intercepts incoming fire

Kuwait says it has closed its airspace over ongoing Iranian attacks and said flights were being diverted to alternative airports, without elaborating.

Flights had been circling outside of Kuwait for some time before the announcement after it said its air defenses were firing.

Kuwait International Airport had taken a direct Iranian hit in recent days, which killed one person and wounded dozens.

Kuwaiti air defenses fire at incoming missiles, Bahrain sounds alerts

Kuwait's military said its air defenses were firing Thursday morning after Iran threatened retaliation for U.S. airstrikes overnight. Bahrain separately sounded its missile alert sirens in the island kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet headquarters.

Anthony Gordon and his girlfriend, Danette Young, appeared before a judge Wednesday after prosecutors said the case led to the largest drug seizure in the history of the Miami Gardens Police Department.

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Police officers arrested Gordon after detectives with a search warrant found $1.3 million in cash and about 42 kilograms of drugs at his home, according to the Miami Gardens Police Department.

“What began as a home invasion robbery investigation quickly revealed a major narcotics operation hidden in plain sight,” Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.

Police officers also arrested Danette Young shortly before 12:4 p.m. on Tuesday at the house along Northwest 174 Street, near 37 Avenue, according to a police officer’s arrest report.

The case stems from a deadly shooting at the couple’s Miami Gardens home. Police said a man attempted to rob Gordon. Investigators said Young ran to a neighbor for help, and that neighbor shot and killed the suspect.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Gordon, a convicted felon, and Young, 58, on Wednesday morning at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

Gordon, also known as “Peanut,” was last released from prison on Dec. 2, 2020, after seven convictions in Miami-Dade and one in Broward — all related to drug trafficking in 2013 and 2014, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Gordon faced 16 charges: Dealing in stolen property, cocaine trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, amphetamine trafficking, Oxycodone trafficking, illegal drugs trafficking while armed, 10 counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, and possession of drugs without a prescription.

Young faced eight charges: Cocaine trafficking, trafficking marijuana while armed, trafficking Oxycodone while armed, amphetamine trafficking, dealing in stolen property, fentanyl trafficking, illegal drugs trafficking while armed, and possession of drugs without a prescription.

Both Gordon and Young remained in jail Wednesday night.

Police have not identified the man who was killed or the neighbor who intervened.

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Authorities said the girl, who was identified by a family member as Janova Park, suffered gunshot wounds to her stomach and torso and was rushed to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, where she later died.

“We know that at the time of the shooting, there were three adults and two children, the victim who’s 5 years old, and her 4-year-old brother,” said MDSO Det. Angel Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the agency. “Detectives are going to be here for quite some time, taking part of this investigation. They’re going to make sure that no stone is left unturned, and right now we’re just asking for prayers for the community.”

The shooting happened inside a home on Northwest First Court.

Deputies said they were called to the home around 2 a.m. after shots were fired.

They also confirmed that Janova’s mother was among those inside the home at the time of the shooting, authorities said.

Detectives said they’re still trying to determine how Janova was shot, including whether she may have accessed the gun herself or whether another circumstance led to the shooting.

Local 10’s Hannah Yechivi spoke to Laticha Ellison, Janova’s grandmother, who said the shooting could’ve been prevented.

“My grandbaby is five years old,” Ellison said while in tears. “She’s only five. It makes me angry because nothing like this should be able to happen, especially in your home — carelessness.”

Ellison described her granddaughter as “smart and sassy.”

Investigators said a gun was recovered inside the home and that they “are not looking for any individuals that may pose a threat to the community.”

Crime scene tape remained up outside the home Wednesday morning as investigators continued to process the scene.

Authorities confirmed that MDSO detectives have taken over the investigation.

Supporters of the Florida Safe Seas Act say the goal is to make beaches safer for swimmers. Critics argue there is no scientific evidence to support that claim and warn the bill could jeopardize an industry that generates more than $300 million annually.

“It’s definitely concerning because shark ecotourism in this area is a very important part of our landscape here,” said Kristopher Lynn, owner and operator of Calypso Charters in Palm Beach County.

Lynn is one of about 25 South Florida dive operators who offer people an opportunity to see sharks up close.

“People being able to come out and responsibly and safely see these animals is really important, not just for shark conservation, but for ocean conservation,” said Dr. Michael Heithaus, a marine biologist and shark researcher.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Florida Safe Seas Act, which would prohibit shark feeding in U.S. waters for any purpose other than fishing or harvesting sharks.

“We’re using limited amounts of chum. We’re not putting a large amount of bait in the water to attract sharks. We’re just basically going down there and checking them out,” Lynn said.

The bill claims shark-feeding practices condition sharks to associate humans with food and increase the likelihood of shark encounters. Marine researchers and conservationists dispute that claim, saying there is no science proving a connection.

“This is a bill dressed as a conservation and safety effort, when in reality the only thing it is conserving is the pockets of the fishing industry,” said shark advocate and conservationist MJ Algarra.

For years, the fishing industry has reported a rise in depredation, when sharks eat a catch before an angler can bring the fish onto a boat.

“Probably 15 to 20 times a year that you’ll get chased, probably five to 10 times a year that you’ll get eaten. And that’s not something that would ever happen in the last five years,” said Capt. Dean Panos of Double D Charters.

Many anglers argue the shark diving industry is making the problem worse. Shark advocates contend that concern is the real motivation behind the bill.

“I don’t believe that this bill helps with safety, other than the safety of the fishermen trying to bring their catch onto the boat,” Algarra said.

Commercial shark dive charters operate more than three miles offshore in federal waters. Meanwhile, shark fishing from shore remains legal in Florida, and the bill would still allow baiting to harvest sharks.

Opponents of the legislation question why an activity taking place miles offshore would be restricted while an activity that could attract sharks closer to swimmers would remain legal.

“Obviously, the hotspot for convergence and conflict between swimmers and sharks would be right here on the beach, not three miles off the shore,” said Spencer Roberts, a shark researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School.

Roberts also criticized state opposition to local shark fishing restrictions, including a Miami Beach ordinance passed in February banning shark fishing from shore. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has said such ordinances conflict with state laws and regulations.

“If FWC is so concerned about the law, I hope that they will enforce their shark handling laws,” Roberts said.

Florida law prohibits removing certain shark species from the water or delaying their release for any reason, including taking photographs. Roberts claimed enforcement has been lacking.

“In 2025, FWC issued one citation across the whole state for illegal shark handling. My team of coders and shark biologists identified over 130 on Instagram in a random sample,” he said.

The debate has alarmed conservationists like Jim Abernathy, who has spent 44 years diving with sharks and advocating for their protection through education and conservation efforts.

“What’s at stake right now is the collapse of our ocean ecosystems. The shark’s role is to maintain the health and balance of the entire ocean,” Abernathy said.

“77% of all sharks and rays are listed with some type of endangerment, so in my eyes shark management has failed. We are in a last-ditch effort of preservation,” he added.

The Florida Safe Seas Act is now being considered by the Senate.

Meanwhile, another shark-related proposal, the SHARKED Act, sponsored by Florida Senator Rick Scott, is also drawing attention. The bill calls for research into reducing shark depredation incidents and does not rule out killing sharks as a management tool.

A group of activists met on Wednesday outside of the FIFA headquarters in Coral Gables to demand that organizers keep immigration law enforcement out.

“We don’t need the perception around the world of this place not being welcoming to tourists,” said Billy Corben, a documentary filmmaker.

Related report: Activists demonstrate outside Coral Gables FIFA office over potential of ICE at World Cup

Yareliz Mendez Zamora, an activist with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-founded organization, said she was afraid.

“My fear is that people end up separated from their families,” Mendez Zamora said.

The World Cup kicks off on Thursday with two Group A matches. Mexico plays against South Africa at 3 p.m., and South Korea plays the Czech Republic at 11 p.m.

On Friday, the Group B, Canada vs. Bosnia, match is at 3 p.m. and the Group D, U.S. vs. Paraguay, match is at 9 p.m.

FIFA Fan Festival Miami and games schedule

June 13: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are three matches: The Group B, Qatar vs. Switzerland, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Haiti vs. Scotland, game is at 9 p.m.

June 14: The fan festival opens from Noon to 10 p.m. There are five matches: The Group D, Australia vs. Turkey, game is at Midnight. The Group E, Germany vs. Curaçao, game is at 1 p.m. The Group F, The Netherlands vs. Japan, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Sweden vs. Tunisia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 15: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are four matches: The Group H, Spain vs. Cape Verde, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Egypt, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, Iran vs. New Zealand, game is at 9 p.m.

June 16: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are three matches: The Group I, France vs. Senegal, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Iraq vs. Norway, game is at 6 p.m. The Group J, Argentina vs. Algeria, game is at 9 p.m.

June 17: The fan festival opens from Noon to 10 p.m. There are five matches: The Group J, Austria vs. Jordan, game is at Midnight. The Group K, Portugal vs. Congo, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Croatia, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Ghana vs. Panama, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 18: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are four matches: The Group A match, The Czech Republic vs. South Africa, is at Noon. The Group B, Switzerland vs. Bosnia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Canada vs. Qatar, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A match, Mexico vs. South Korea, is at 9 p.m.

June 19: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are four matches: The Group D, U.S. vs. Australia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Haiti, game is at 8:30 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. Paraguay, game is at 11 p.m.

June 20: The fan festival opens from Noon to 11 p.m. There are three matches: The Group F, Netherlands vs. Sweden, game is at 1 p.m. The Group E, Germany vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Curaçao, game is at 8 p.m.

June 21: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are five matches: The Group F, Tunisia vs. Japan, game is at Midnight. The Group H, Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Iran, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Cape Verde, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Egypt, game is at 9 p.m.

June 22: The fan festival opens from Noon to 8 p.m. There are four matches: The Group J, Argentina vs. Austria, game is at 1 p.m. The Group I, France vs. Iraq, game is at 5 p.m. The Group I, Norway vs. Senegal, game is at 8 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Algeria, game is at 11 p.m.

June 23: The fan festival opens from Noon to 1 a.m. There are four matches: The Group K, Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Ghana, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Panama vs. Croatia, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Congo, game is at 10 p.m.

June 24: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. There are six matches: The Group B, Switzerland vs. Canada, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Bosnia vs. Qatar, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Morocco vs. Haiti, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Brazil, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A, South Africa vs. South Korea, game is at 9 p.m. The Group A, Czech Republic vs. Mexico, game is at 9 p.m.

June 25: The fan festival opens from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. There are six matches: The Group E, Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Germany, game is at 4 p.m. The Group F, Tunisia vs. Netherlands, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Japan vs. Sweden, game is at 7 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. U.S., game is at 10 p.m. The Group D, Paraguay vs. Australia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 26: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. There are six matches: The Group I, Norway vs. France, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Senegal vs. Iraq, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at 8 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Spain, game is at 8 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Belgium, game is at 11 p.m. The Group G, Egypt vs. Iran, game is at 11 p.m.

June 27: The fan festival opens from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. There are six matches: The Group L, Panama vs. England, game is at 5 p.m. The Group L, Croatia vs. Ghana, game is at 5 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Portugal, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group K, Congo vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group J, Algeria vs. Austria, game is at 10 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Argentina, game is at 10 p.m.

June 28: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 10 p.m. There is a match at 3 p.m.

June 29: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are three matches at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.

June 30: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are three matches at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m.

July 1: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. There are three matches at Noon, 4 p.m., and 9 p.m.

July 2: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. There are three matches at 3 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m.

July 3: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. There are three matches at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.

July 4: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are two matches at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

July 5: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. There are two matches at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 6: The fan festival is closed. There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 7: The fan festival is closed. There are two matches at Noon and 4 p.m.

July 8: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 9: The fan festival is closed. There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: The fan festival is closed. There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: The fan festival is closed. There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

July 12-13: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 14: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

July 15: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

July 16-17: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 18: The fan festival is closed. The third-place play-off match is at 5 p.m.

July 19: The fan festival is closed. The final match is at 3 p.m.

For more information about the festival, visit this page.

Related stories

• FIFA World Cup Fan Festival to open Saturday at Bayfront Park
• Feds warn against flying drones at stadium on 7 FIFA World Cup game days
• FBI director: Counterterrorism to be a top priority during FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A: Mexico to play opener on June 11

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Organizers said there is enough room for about 30,000 fans to enjoy watch parties at four massive screens at the park at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

“Everyone is welcome, all ages ... they will be able to watch the games for free, while they are enjoying the music, the dancing, the food,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Wednesday.

For security, there will be metal detectors, and there is an “only clear bags” policy. Bags larger than 12 inches by 6 inches are not allowed.

Vaping and smoking are also banned. Chairs, blankets, tents, scooters, air horns, laser pointers, and inflatables are all included in the list of prohibited items.

Except for baby food, outside food and beverages are not allowed. Organizers included a long line of food and drink vendors. The festival will open every day until July 5.

The matches start on Thursday when the Group A matches are at 3 p.m., Mexico vs. South Africa, and at 11 p.m., South Korea vs. Czech Republic.

On Friday, the Group B, Canada vs. Bosnia, match is at 3 p.m. and the Group D, U.S. vs. Paraguay, match is at 9 p.m.

Festival and games schedule

June 13: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are three matches: The Group B, Qatar vs. Switzerland, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Haiti vs. Scotland, game is at 9 p.m.

June 14: The fan festival opens from Noon to 10 p.m. There are five matches: The Group D, Australia vs. Turkey, game is at Midnight. The Group E, Germany vs. Curaçao, game is at 1 p.m. The Group F, The Netherlands vs. Japan, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Sweden vs. Tunisia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 15: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are four matches: The Group H, Spain vs. Cape Verde, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Egypt, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, Iran vs. New Zealand, game is at 9 p.m.

June 16: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are three matches: The Group I, France vs. Senegal, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Iraq vs. Norway, game is at 6 p.m. The Group J, Argentina vs. Algeria, game is at 9 p.m.

June 17: The fan festival opens from Noon to 10 p.m. There are five matches: The Group J, Austria vs. Jordan, game is at Midnight. The Group K, Portugal vs. Congo, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Croatia, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Ghana vs. Panama, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 18: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are four matches: The Group A match, The Czech Republic vs. South Africa, is at Noon. The Group B, Switzerland vs. Bosnia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Canada vs. Qatar, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A match, Mexico vs. South Korea, is at 9 p.m.

June 19: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight. There are four matches: The Group D, U.S. vs. Australia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Haiti, game is at 8:30 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. Paraguay, game is at 11 p.m.

June 20: The fan festival opens from Noon to 11 p.m. There are three matches: The Group F, Netherlands vs. Sweden, game is at 1 p.m. The Group E, Germany vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Curaçao, game is at 8 p.m.

June 21: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are five matches: The Group F, Tunisia vs. Japan, game is at Midnight. The Group H, Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Iran, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Cape Verde, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Egypt, game is at 9 p.m.

June 22: The fan festival opens from Noon to 8 p.m. There are four matches: The Group J, Argentina vs. Austria, game is at 1 p.m. The Group I, France vs. Iraq, game is at 5 p.m. The Group I, Norway vs. Senegal, game is at 8 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Algeria, game is at 11 p.m.

June 23: The fan festival opens from Noon to 1 a.m. There are four matches: The Group K, Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Ghana, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Panama vs. Croatia, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Congo, game is at 10 p.m.

June 24: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. There are six matches: The Group B, Switzerland vs. Canada, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Bosnia vs. Qatar, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Morocco vs. Haiti, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Brazil, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A, South Africa vs. South Korea, game is at 9 p.m. The Group A, Czech Republic vs. Mexico, game is at 9 p.m.

June 25: The fan festival opens from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. There are six matches: The Group E, Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Germany, game is at 4 p.m. The Group F, Tunisia vs. Netherlands, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Japan vs. Sweden, game is at 7 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. U.S., game is at 10 p.m. The Group D, Paraguay vs. Australia, game is at 10 p.m.

June 26: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. There are six matches: The Group I, Norway vs. France, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Senegal vs. Iraq, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at 8 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Spain, game is at 8 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Belgium, game is at 11 p.m. The Group G, Egypt vs. Iran, game is at 11 p.m.

June 27: The fan festival opens from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. There are six matches: The Group L, Panama vs. England, game is at 5 p.m. The Group L, Croatia vs. Ghana, game is at 5 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Portugal, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group K, Congo vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group J, Algeria vs. Austria, game is at 10 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Argentina, game is at 10 p.m.

June 28: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 10 p.m. There is a match at 3 p.m.

June 29: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are three matches at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.

June 30: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are three matches at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m.

July 1: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. There are three matches at Noon, 4 p.m., and 9 p.m.

July 2: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. There are three matches at 3 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m.

July 3: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. There are three matches at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.

July 4: The fan festival opens from Noon to midnight. There are two matches at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

July 5: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. There are two matches at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 6: The fan festival is closed. There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 7: The fan festival is closed. There are two matches at Noon and 4 p.m.

July 8: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 9: The fan festival is closed. There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: The fan festival is closed. There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: The fan festival is closed. There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

July 12-13: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 14: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

July 15: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

July 16-17: The fan festival is closed, and there aren’t any matches.

July 18: The fan festival is closed. The third-place play-off match is at 5 p.m.

July 19: The fan festival is closed. The final match is at 3 p.m.

For more information about the festival, visit this page.

Related stories

• Feds warn against flying drones at stadium on 7 FIFA World Cup game days
• FBI director: Counterterrorism to be a top priority during FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup 2026 Group A: Mexico to play opener on June 11

Track FIFA World Cup groups

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group K
• Group L

U.S. futures advanced and oil prices gained more than $1 a barrel.

Tokyo's Nikkei lost 0.5% to 63,878.60, while the Kospi in South Korea was also down 0.2%, at 7,720.75.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.2% higher, to 24,468.82, but the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% to 3,983.80.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 likewise shed 0.2% to 8,632.50.

Taiwan's Taiex slipped 0.4%.

On Wednesday, Wall Street’s former superstars continue to face heavy scrutiny.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% for its first back-to-back drop in three weeks. Closing at 7,266.99, it's back to where it was in early May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 953 points, or 1.9%, to 49,918.78. The Nasdaq composite led the market lower with a 2% slide, to 25,169.50.

Wall Street has been shaky since last week, when AI stocks went from roaring to records to suddenly turn lower. Among the worries is that their prices may have shot too high, too fast because of AI mania. The question now is whether the break lower has cleared out excessive optimism that may have built into their stock prices, or if it’s the start of a longer downturn.

Super Micro Computer, which sells AI servers, tumbled 28% after saying late Tuesday that it plans to raise $7 billion in cash by selling shares of stock and convertible preferred stock. Such moves raise the most money for companies when their stock prices are high, and they can dilute the ownership stakes of existing shareholders.

Micron Technology swung from an early loss of nearly 4% to a modest gain and back to a loss of 4.7%. It’s coming off a wild stretch where it sank 7.7% last Thursday, then plunged another 13.3% Friday and rallied 9.9% Monday. Despite all the swings, the computer memory maker’s stock is still up 212.5% for the year so far.

Nvidia, the chip company that’s grown into a nearly $4.9 trillion behemoth because of the AI boom, was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after falling 3.7%. The second heaviest was another AI winner, Broadcom, which fell 5.1%.

Some of the pressure on AI stocks could also be coming from investors pulling cash out to prepare for high-profile debuts on the U.S. stock market for several AI giants. SpaceX’s initial public offering could come later this week, for example.

Weakening stocks for companies with big fuel bills also pulled the market lower. United Airlines sank 6.2%, and cruise-operator Carnival fell 6.3% after oil prices rose due to the latest fighting in the war with Iran.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 1.8% to $93.10 on Wednesday after President Donald Trump warned Iran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations between the two on their war. The war has been keeping the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut to oil tankers, which has prevented the delivery of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

High oil prices have sent inflation higher, and a report on Wednesday showed that prices for U.S. consumers jumped in May at the highest speed in three years.

Traders are betting the Federal Reserve will have to hike its main interest rate at least once this year, given price pressures and the strength of the U.S. job market.

High yields can slow entire economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. They hit investments seen as the most expensive in particular, and some critics are calling AI a bubble where investment inflated too far.

Early Thursday, Brent crude oil was up $1.34 at $94.44 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.50 to $91.53 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 160.44 Japanese yen from 160.56 yen late Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.1555 from $1.1537.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The restart of No. 6 reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station earlier this year was meant to spur a movement to bring more nuclear reactors online. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is one of three plants whose cooling pools will be full in five years, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.

“Without solid (fuel management) plans, our power generation will stall sooner or later,” Kashiwazaki-Kariwa General Manager Takeyuki Inagaki said.

After decades of seeking permanent storage for highly radioactive spent fuel, the government is considering Minamitorishima, a remote Pacific island south of Tokyo. But the selection has faced skepticism and criticism stemming from Japan's arbitrary actions on spent fuel and radioactive waste management.

Only 15 of Japan’s 54 reactors have restarted since the March 2011 Fukushima disaster, when a 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast and a subsequent tsunami caused meltdowns at three reactors operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO. About 160,000 people fled from Fukushima and some areas remain unlivable.

Kashiazaki-Kariwa, also run by TEPCO, was shut down after the Fukushima disaster as part of a nationwide nuclear power stoppage.

The spent fuel in a cooling pool at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa No. 6 reactor, which is 88% filled, can be seen from a top-floor observation area. TEPCO has installed filtered venting systems and devices to prevent hydrogen explosions among additional safety measures based on lessons from Fukushima.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pushing to bring more nuclear plants online, resulting in more spent fuel. Without a viable permanent storage plan, there are worries that reactors will have to close when storage space runs out.

Fuel recycling plan has stalled

There are two options for dealing with spent nuclear fuel: direct disposal as waste or recycling to extract plutonium and uranium for reuse.

Japan insists on recycling, saying it will help the resource-poor nation's energy needs while reducing the toxicity and volume of radioactive waste. But a reactor designed for plutonium reuse, a key part of the recycling, has failed. Reprocessing also won’t be able to handle all the spent fuel, adding to a plutonium stockpile that already is large enough to arm thousands of atomic bombs.

Experts say Japan should also consider the direct disposal option.

As of December 2025, cooling pools at 17 Japanese nuclear power plants held more than 17,000 tons (15,422 metric tons) of spent fuel, using nearly 80% of total storage capacity, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Beyond the large amount of radioactive waste from normal reactors, Japan also “has to deal with massive and largely unknown high-level nuclear waste from the Fukushima disaster,” said Lila Okamura, a Senshu University professor and expert on environmental politics and nuclear waste management.

Choosing a final disposal site for spent fuel and building a facility would require 100 years and tens of thousands of years to monitor the storage deep underground. For a generations-long project, Japan should plan carefully and not rush the current plan that is full of uncertainties, Okamura said.

A remote island is a possibility

Weeks after Kashiwazaki-Kariwa's No. 6 reactor came back online for the first time in 14 years since the Fukushima disaster, Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa approached Ogasawara village to request a feasibility study for a high-level radioactive waste site on Minamitorishima, an island administered by Ogasawara, which is part of Tokyo.

“With a lot of spent fuel accumulating at nuclear power plants across the country, a final disposal of radioactive waste is a crucial challenge that must be resolved,” Akazawa said in a letter to Ogasawara Mayor Masaaki Shibuya.

The government-owned Minamitorishima, about 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) south of Tokyo, has no permanent residents. The Japanese army is constructing a firing range for long-range, surface-to-ship missiles as a deterrent to China. The island also has deep sea deposits rich with rare earth minerals.

“The move seems political,” said Satoshi Takano, a member of a government panel looking at final disposal of spent fuel. “There will be little opposition from a government-owned remote island.”

Some experts say the island, which sits on a geologically stable tectonic plate, could be suitable. Many residents on Ogasawara and two nearby islands raised concerns about safety and tourism.

“I was baffled when I heard about the plan,” Ogasawara assembly member Yusuke Hirano told an assembly meeting. “I think nuclear waste is incompatible with islands that are a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.”

Struggling to find a final disposal site

Finding a community willing to host a highly radioactive dump site has been difficult, even with a raft of financial enticements. Minamitorishima is the fourth location to have a feasibility study since the government started looking in the early 2000s.

The whole review process will take about two decades. Municipalities participating in the first stage can receive up to 2 billion yen ($12.8 million) in government subsidies. The next stage would bring up to 7 billion yen ($44.7 million). Funding details for a final study haven't been disclosed.

The world’s first final disposal site for spent nuclear fuel is set to open in Finland later this year. Britain, Germany and the United States have abandoned reprocessing largely because of high costs and technical challenges, while several other countries are discussing plans for direct disposal sites.

Inagaki, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa general manager, said TEPCO is transferring spent fuel from No. 6 reactor to other reactors at the plant with more space, but the utility hopes to resume shipments to a dry cask storage in northern Japan as a near-term solution. Other utilities with nearly full pools have announced plans to build dry-cask storage at their plants.

Many residents worry about Japan's growing stockpile because high-density storage of spent fuel could also increase overheating risks.

Mie Kuwabara, a civil activist in Niigata, wondered “where will it go next?”

“It's irresponsible to accelerate restarts and produce more spent fuel without deciding its final destination,” said Kuwabara, who also is skeptical about using Minamitorishima.

“It's like saying that it's OK to put a facility there because nobody is around to complain if there is a problem,” Kuwabara said. “It's scary.”

Swift wore a blue T-shirt with “Stevie Knicks” printed in orange lettering and was seated courtside on Wednesday night next to Ben Stiller. She attended along with singers Este and Alana Haim, who also had Knicks-related references on their shirts: “Knickole Kidman” and “Knickleback.”

They were joined midway through by third Haim sister Daniella, and the quartet witnessed the biggest comeback in finals history as the Knicks rallied from a 29-point deficit to win 107-106 on OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds left.

Swift jumped around in celebration, waving a rally towel after leaving the court for the bowels of the Garden. She may be back soon.

Less than a year after their August engagement announcement, reports of Swift and Kelce’s impending nuptials have reached a crescendo. TMZ and the New York Post’s Page Six recently started insisting Swift and Kelce will marry at the Garden in early July, despite their close connections to everywhere from Kansas City, Missouri, and Nashville, Tennessee, to Cleveland and Rhode Island.

Swift and the Haim sisters were among several celebrities in the house, including Tate McRae and Hailey Bieber, and regulars like Timothée Chalamet and Spike Lee. Swift and Kelce attended Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Cavaliers, not far from where the Kansas City Chiefs tight end is from in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

This is the latest sporting event for Swift, who along with Kelce also attended a game during the NHL's Stanley Cup Final a year ago in Sunrise, Florida.

The Madison Square Garden wedding reports remain unconfirmed, and a spokesperson for Swift has not responded to The Associated Press’ requests for comment about the wedding plans. The arena’s calendar of upcoming events lists nothing from June 29-July 6.

Swift first performed at Madison Square Garden in 2009, during her “Fearless” tour, and she celebrated her 30th birthday at the arena 10 years later as part of iHeartRadio’s “Jingle Ball.” She has since graduated to larger venues when she swings through the New York area; her Eras tour shows were just across the river at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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AP Entertainment Editor Mallika Sen contributed to this report.

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

Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson must also pay $1.17 million in punitive damages.

That is in addition to the $176 million in damages for wrongful death and emotional distress that jurors ordered Grossman and Erickson to pay parents Nancy and Karim Iskander last week, after finding them negligent in the deaths of Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8.

“This verdict sends a clear message that everyone must be held accountable when their selfish actions put innocent lives at risk,” Brian Panish, the Iskander family's attorney, said in a statement Wednesday.

Erickson's attorney, Jeff Braun, said they respected the verdict.

“In the coming days, we will review the verdict with our client and discuss the appropriate path forward,” Braun said in a statement. “Today, however, our focus is on acknowledging the extraordinary loss the Iskander family has endured. We extend our sincere condolences to them and continue to keep them in our thoughts.”

Grossman's attorney, Esther Holm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Grossman was sentenced in 2024 to serve 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving in a separate criminal trial. She is a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the wife of a prominent burn doctor.

The boys’ parents also filed lawsuits in civil court against both Grossman and Erickson, who was driving ahead of her when the Iskander brothers were killed. That trial began in April.

The deadly crash occurred on the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, in Westlake Village, a city on the western edge of Los Angeles County.

Panish, the Iskander family’s attorney, argued that Grossman and Erickson were both driving recklessly after drinking margaritas together. The two were dating at a time when Grossman and her husband were separated.

Panish said Grossman was driving 73 mph (117 kph) when her car struck the boys in a crosswalk on a road where the posted speed limit was 45 mph (72 kph).

He said Grossman was following Erickson, who was also speeding and narrowly missed the family.

Holm, Grossman's attorney, denied that her client was intoxicated. She said Grossman was distracted when she saw the boys’ mother dive out of the way of Erickson’s vehicle.

Braun, Erickson's attorney, called the boys’ deaths a tragedy but emphasized that the vehicle he was driving “made no contact with the children.”

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Prosecutors allege Pino, a South Florida real estate developer, was operating a 29-foot boat when it struck a channel marker near Boca Chita Key during Labor Day weekend in 2022, killing 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez and seriously injuring two other teens.

On Wednesday, Cecilia Pino, the wife of the 55-year-old, took the stand.

“(Lucy Fernandez) died because your husband crashed into that channel marker, right?” said Laura Adams during her direct examination.

After a pause, Cecilia Pino defied Adams by resisting her framing of the incident in her response: “She died because there was an accident.”

She told jurors she wasn’t looking when Pino drove the boat at nearly 50 mph into the channel marker.

“I was looking at my phone, trying to send a text to the moms ― a video, the video of the girls dancing,” Cecilia Pino said.

Pino was not asked whether her husband consumed alcohol the day of the crash, but did say she filled an insulated Yeti cup with prosecco and Chambord, a berry liqueur, for herself.

When asked how many of those she had consumed, she answered “one or two”. She was not cross examined by the defense.

A body camera worn by a marine patrol officer with what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department showed chaos unfolding at golden hour: Pino and teens who were thrown from the vessel were picked up by a good Samaritan. Two of them lay unconscious. By then, Fernandez was on another vessel. Pino could be seen in pink and white trunks.

Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Deputy Robert Brutto said he saw Pino later that night with a bandage on his head. He told the defense he didn’t notice any signs of impairment.

Brutto said he also traveled nearly 50 miles an hour down Cutter Bank that day. The state pointed out critical differences, however, between the deputy’s actions and Pino’s.

“Were your emergency lights activated as you were heading up to Boca Chita?” prosecutor Laura Adams asked.

“Yes,” Brutto replied.

Adams followed up, “Did you have teenagers who had been drinking on your police boat with you?”

“No, we did not,” he replied.

Adams asked, “Did you have two beers while you were on your shift that day?”

“No, I did not,” the deputy said.

More body camera footage was played, including that of Fernandez after she was pulled from beneath Pino’s vessel and brought onto a good Samaritan boat. The sight of her on a backboard being worked on by first responders was difficult for members of Fernandez’s family to look at. Some were seen crying or covering their eyes as the video played in court.

Jurors on Thursday are set to take a field trip to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission site where they will be able to look at the damaged boat.

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On Tuesday, jurors heard from multiple witnesses, including the victim’s father, Andy Fernandez, who described hugging his daughter for the last time before what he called a “beautiful afternoon” turned tragic.

Testimony also included a passenger on the boat, who described the vessel capsizing and the chaotic aftermath in the water, as well as a civil attorney who referenced prior statements tied to the crash investigation.

Jurors were sent home late Tuesday afternoon and were scheduled to return Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct two misquotes. The word “right” was mistakenly attributed to Cecilia Pino, rather than the prosecutor, and a quote from Brutto regarding emergency lights has been corrected to note that he responded affirmatively.

The event is part of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, and is scheduled for the weekend with the main attraction — seven mixed martial arts matches — on Sunday.

That is, if a judge doesn't halt the proceedings, which is sought by two Virginia residents in a federal lawsuit against the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn.

The agency filed a rebuff of the request Tuesday in court, and, in it, laid out the operations for the event.

“Well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended,” the document read, adding that the money came from the UFC and groups affiliated with it.

The octagon

It's the eight-sided cage that surrounds the sometimes bloodied combatants and sits at the center of the constructed arena on the South Lawn.

It's expected to hold 4,000 spectators, with another 120,000 visitors — who swung tickets from an online lottery — anticipated to watch from the nearby Ellipse.

The installation began on May 20, and the Secret Service worked with the UFC to screen between 20 and 30 trucks of equipment — as well as between “700 and 900” staff — that came in daily for the installation.

The document does not specify the extent of government resources spent on the project, but said that seven agencies, including Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration, have “allocated significant resources and manpower."

The schedule

It’ll kick off Saturday with a ceremonial weigh-in at the Ellipse, and then on Saturday, there will be a concert by the country group, Zac Brown Band.

A UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest will be ongoing through the weekend, with “interactive experiences,” live shows, celebrity appearances, “exclusive on-stage moments,” meet and greets, live music and interviews with the athletes.

Sunday night is when the seven bouts kick off. At the close, Trump is scheduled to fly to France for the G7 summit.

Disassembly of the installations will begin the next day, and is expected to be entirely removed by June 23.

The athletes' Epsom salt baths

There are fourteen athletes competing, and their training is rigorous.

Preparations start months in advance, working toward more intense weight cutting and diet alteration in the final week that can include fasting, extreme sauna use and hot Epsom salt baths.

They could be shaving as many as 20 pounds before weigh-ins, which is designed to keep the competition fair between similarly weighted combatants.

Lawsuit calls it ‘corrupt’

It was filed on Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of the two Virginia residents and argues that Trump’s authorization of the event violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands.

One of the attorneys, Brendan Ballou, characterized it as a “corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain."

The National Park Service pushed back on that claim, but also detailed the event's preparations to make a point.

“All these hopes could be dashed at the very last moment," it read, "by the whim of two people who believe they have superior taste and want to spoil the event for everyone else.”

San Francisco trailed 9-1 before rallying for five runs in the eighth and five more in the ninth to stun the Nationals and avert a three-game sweep.

Big league teams trailing by at least eight runs in the eighth inning or later had lost 4,291 consecutive games since Cleveland stormed back from 10-2 down to beat Tampa Bay 11-10 on May 29, 2009, per Sportradar.

Matt Chapman had four hits, including two home runs — his second coming as part of back-to-back homers with Rafael Devers in the eighth to set up the comeback.

Jung Hoo Lee singled to extend his hitting streak to 18 games for the Giants, the longest active stretch in the majors.

Luis Arraez and Chapman hit consecutive doubles to begin the ninth. Devers walked and Lee singled to load the bases before Eldridge, who grew up a Nationals fan in Northern Virginia, drove a 2-0 slider from Mitchell Parker (2-3) into the right-field arcade for the rookie's fourth home run.

Lee raised his arms in celebration before the ball went over the wall.

James Wood hit his 18th home run for Washington. Daylen Lile added four hits, and Curtis Mead also homered on a day when every Nationals starter had a hit while seven players drove in at least one run.

Washington, which had already clinched its fifth consecutive road series win, was on the verge of finishing a 5-1 trip before collapsing in the ninth.

Reiver Sanmartin (1-0) retired six batters to earn the win. He gave up Mead's leadoff homer in the ninth that made it 10-6, but that insurance run wasn't enough for Washington.

Wood got the Nationals going in the third when he crushed a high 3-1 fastball from starter Robbie Ray and sent it over the center-field fence.

Washington scored three runs in the sixth and added three more in the seventh before the Giants rallied.

Ray allowed five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Up next

Nationals: RHP Zack Littell (6-4, 4.76 ERA) faces the Seattle Mariners on Friday.

Giants: Had not announced a scheduled starter for Friday’s home game against the Chicago Cubs.

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

Montgomery capped a 2-for-5 night with a game-ending, two-run homer in the 10th inning to lift the Chicago White Sox to a 6-5 win over Atlanta Braves. He became the fifth player in MLB history to hit a walk-off homer in his debut, joining Billy Parker (1971), Josh Bard (2002), Miguel Cabrera (2015) and Carlos Pérez (2023).

Montgomery was still buzzing hours after his 343-foot, opposite-field shot cleared the fence in left field.

“I don't know if I would be considered calmed down at this point,” Montgomery said. “Just been enjoying it, sharing it with my family.”

White Sox manager Will Venable said he isn't worried about the 23-year-old getting ahead of himself after one game.

“We haven't had anybody with a debut like that, but I think he's as grounded as they come,” Venable said. “This is a guy that has really high expectations of himself. I'm sure he envisioned himself doing this, what he did last night. To be honest, his idea of what he can do in this league is as high as anybody else's. It was exactly what he expected.”

Montgomery didn't slow down Wednesday night, hitting two doubles and scoring the first run in a 2-1 win over the Braves.

“He just goes up there with extreme confidence, putting really good swings on pitches,” Venable said. “I think his swing decisions have been great. He's a very talented hitter and for him to come up and be so comfortable and be locked in and show what he's able to do early has been awesome.”

Montgomery spent the start of his second day of his big league career responding to the text messages he continues to receive — “The number shrinks and grows as I answer them, but more come in,” Montgomery said — and spending time with his parents and family, who were sitting behind home plate Wednesday night.

His mother, Gretchen Montgomery Willock, posted a video of the family celebration in the stands that went viral on social media. On Wednesday, she posted, “Let me tell you about a dream I had last night.”

“It's not really something you can imagine,” Montgomery said. “You just kind of go into it with your expectations and do whatever the game brings.”

One of the top prospects in the White Sox organization, acquired from the Red Sox in the December 2024 trade that sent Garrett Crochet to Boston, Montgomery was hitting .315 for Triple-A Charlotte. He became the 12th White Sox rookie to debut this season, the second-highest total before the All-Star break since the 1944 Cincinnati Reds had 13, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The influx of youth has helped the White Sox go 29-18 since April 17, second only to the New York Yankees (30-17), despite injuries to Munetaka Murakami and Everson Pereira. among others. The White Sox are 5-4 since Murakami, a rookie from Japan who leads the team with 20 homers, injured his right hamstring on May 29.

Colson Montgomery joined that list Tuesday. He is day to day with a sore back and was not in the lineup Wednesday. The second-year shortstop, a relative veteran of 135 MLB games, said his younger teammates are feeding off each other to pick up the slack.

“You get up here, and it's like, these are my boys, my teammates, this is nothing new,” Colson Montgomery said. “That's why a lot of our young rookie guys are coming up here and they're thriving because they're just being themselves and they know they can be themselves. ... We have a lot of guys in the minor leagues who are coming up and they’re ready to show their impact.”

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

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Hegseth was at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, where he met with U.S. service members who are stationed there.

The Department of Defense shared video of Hegseth meeting with troops.

“We are taking back our hemisphere,” he said. “Look at Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro, who thought he could flaunt the United States of America. He found out in about 45 minutes in the middle of the night.”

Officials said he also plans to pay a visit to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, which is also home to a large Cuban American community.

Hegseth’s presence in Cuba comes amid the U.S. calling for dramatic changes on the island and the indictment of Raul Castro in connection to the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue plane shootdown.

The U.S. has blocked oil from reaching Cuba following threats by President Donald Trump to remove the country’s leadership regime by force.

Hegseth told troops that the future of Cuba is in the hands of Trump and Cuban leadership.

“Be prepared for whatever our commander in chief asks us to do on behalf of defending the American people,” he said.

Last month, a U.S. aircraft carrier and its strike group of fighter jets and radar-jamming equipment entered the southern Caribbean and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency visited Cuban officials in Havana.

At the time, Local 10’s Cuba analyst, Andy Gomez, said his contacts on the island confirmed they had access to drones for “defensive purposes.”

That came as Southcom posted on social media that it has established a new “autonomous warfare command”, displaying a military exercise in Key West earlier this year of its autonomous, semi-autonomous and unmanned systems used, they say, to counter threats in the region.

Now, Gomez said it seems to him the U.S. might be trying to follow what he called the “Venezuela plan.”

“The period of time for Venezuela is going to be very different from Cuba, so we have to wait and see,” he said.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that America’s “maximum pressure” campaign, which has included blocking oil access to the communist island, is leading to a humanitarian crisis.

But U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has blamed economic weakening and growing unrest on what he has described as the island’s long legacy of greed, mismanagement and corrupt leadership, calling attention to a Cuban military-operated conglomerate which he said is starving the people from access to the money needed to address food shortages and crumbling infrastructure.

It’s an emerging technology that is becoming increasingly popular. AI chatbots can help with certain tasks, but they also come with concerns.

“The new models are very powerful. The problem with that is that it increases the risk,” said Dr. William Leever, a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Leever said newer AI chatbots are more unpredictable and more engaging than past models.

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that about one in five people in the United States between the ages of 12 and 21 reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice.

Among those who sought advice from AI chatbots, nearly 43% did so at least monthly, and about 92% said the advice was somewhat or very helpful.

“It feels like they’re being supported. It feels like they’re being understood because these models are very good at mimicking human empathy,” Leever said. “But in reality, they’re just pattern recognition robots.”

Leever said artificial intelligence can be harmful when it replaces real help and human connection.

He said parents and caregivers need to talk openly about mental health and practice what he calls “co-prompting,” where they work through AI interactions alongside their teens to help interpret and verify the information.

He also said it’s important to set boundaries.

“You can let them use the AI with the direct guidance and supervision they need to actually understand what they’re dealing with,” Leever said.

The warning comes at a critical time. According to a new survey from Common Sense Media, nearly half of all children have not had conversations with their parents about AI safety.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida says it bagged more than four tons of invasive Burmese pythons during the recent snake breeding season; its biologists removed 177 pythons from a 200-square-mile area in Collier County from November 2025 to this April.

The seized snakes weighed a combined 8,080 pounds.

“This was our first four-ton removal season. Our tagged scout snakes helped us locate large breeding snakes deep in the landscape before they had a chance to lay eggs,” Ian Bartoszek, the organization’s wildlife biologist and conservancy science project manager, said.

The team also removed 4,100 Burmese python eggs.

“These science-based management efforts are suppressing local python reproduction. With continued pressure, we hope to see these removal numbers decline over time,” Bartoszek added.

Burmese pythons have been decimating Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve for years.

The largest documented snake caught in Florida was a 19-foot, 125-pound female Burmese python captured in the Big Cypress National Preserve in July 2023 by hunters Jake Waleri and Stephen Gauta.

In December 2021, Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists bagged a 215-pound female Burmese python, the heaviest snake ever caught in Florida.

Tower cranes up to 320 feet tall, forklifts, concrete pump systems and other equipment would be needed to build the arch, which would be more than twice as high as the Lincoln Memorial. Work would occur year-round in two 10-hour shifts per day, the Park Service report said.

The 24-page assessment by NPS staff was released last week as a part of a fast-tracked historic preservation review that began Friday. The park service oversees the land where the administration wants to build the arch.

The National Capital Planning Commission voted last week to seek more information from the Interior Department, which oversees the park service. The vote essentially kept the project alive as officials study how the arch could potentially impact air travel, as well as other specifics on construction and traffic in the area.

The June 4 vote came after nearly three hours of public comment from about 20 members of the public, some representing historic and architectural organizations, and most of whom expressed concerns about the arch that is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing to leave his imprint on Washington.

Preliminary surveys and testing of the arch site began last month, and other approvals are underway. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts — which only oversees designs and has no role in the actual construction or funding of the arch or any other project it considers — has approved the arch’s design.

Concerns over arch's height

The capital planning commission is seeking more information justifying the proposed height of the towering arch, as well as additional details about lighting, management of storm water and how traffic and parking would be regulated for visitors.

The planned site for the arch, across the Potomac River from the memorial, is on a flight path near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it is reviewing whether the project’s planned height poses a risk to airplane travel in the area. An American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided a year ago in crowded skies near the airport, killing 67 people.

The FAA review “found no adverse impacts to operations” at Reagan Airport from the proposed arch. but determined that the top of the structure would need to be lit with red obstruction lights -- a common safety tool, spokesman Donnell Evans said. The FAA will conduct a full aeronautical study in coordination with the National Park Service, he said.

The park service, in its report, said aviation-required safety lighting would be incorporated into the arch design “using the least intrusive technology available, ensuring compliance with aircraft visibility requirements while limiting unnecessary light emission."

Will Scharf, who has served as Trump’s White House staff secretary, heads the commission and has said he believes a federal law limiting building heights for new construction in Washington should not apply to the arch. The law restricts most construction in Washington to a maximum height of 130 feet.

The arch faces a legal challenge

Critics have argued that the arch would dominate the skyline and disrupt carefully designed views between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. It would be more than twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet (30 meters), and close to half the height of the Washington Monument, which is about 555 feet (169 meters).

Trump has pushed for the 250-foot-tall arch to mark America’s 250th anniversary, and has said the project could be paid for with private donations left over from the project to build a new White House ballroom. The White House East Wing was demolished to make way for a large ballroom.

A cost estimate for the arch is still being calculated, but a mix of taxpayer and private funds is expected to pay for it. A group of veterans and a historian have sued the Trump administration in federal court to block the project over concerns about disruptions to the sightline.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut criticized the administration about what he called its “persistent lack of transparency” in its efforts to advance Trump’s Washington-area construction projects. Besides the planned ballroom, Trump also is renovating the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool and rebuilding a public golf course along the Potomac River. None of projects have gone through usual legal reviews or Congress.

“Your disregard for legal process and public interest has been apparent in projects ranging from the construction of a White House Ballroom and triumphal arch to the resealing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool," Blumenthal wrote in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting park service director Jessica Bowron.

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Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard and Josh Funk contributed to this story.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., are planning to sit down with Cheng Li-wun, leader of the Kuomingtang Party, who has supported a peaceful reunification of Taiwan with Beijing.

Mast, in an interview, said he didn’t have specific expectations for his meeting with Cheng but said as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, “I take intelligence from anywhere I can get.”

A spokesperson for Kim, who leads a subcommittee overseeing East Asia policy, said the lawmaker plans to encourage Cheng and her party to support more defense spending because it would be an “important demonstration of Taiwan’s commitment to self-defense and deterrence.”

Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature last month passed a $25 billion special defense budget to fund major U.S. arms purchases. Trump administration officials expressed disappointment that the approved amount is a significant reduction from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's original $40 billion proposal.

Kim also wants to discuss Cheng’s meeting in April with Chinese President Xi Jinping and “seek greater clarity on the substance of those discussions,” said Ellie Gilchrist, the lawmaker’s spokesperson.

Cheng’s visit to Washington comes as President Donald Trump publicly floats the prospect that he could have a direct call with his Taiwanese counterpart.

The U.S. president had indicated he wanted to speak with Lai as his administration considers whether to go ahead with a $14 billion arms sale for Taipei that Congress approved earlier this year but that has since been on hold.

Trump said last month as he returned to the U.S. from China that he intends to speak with Lai, which would be the first direct dialogue between sitting U.S. and Taiwanese presidents in decades. China has urged against it.

“I’ll always talk to him,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday when asked whether he is still considering a phone call with Lai.

Thursday will offer a sun/cloud mix and a continuation of east-southeast winds, sustained 5 to 10 mph. A stray, mid-morning shower is not completely out of the question. Afternoon showers and storms will tend to favor inland and southwest South Florida. Temperatures are forecast to peak in the upper 80s, that’s seasonable!

That line of political attack was striking coming from a president who himself has been accused of misconduct with women, was once caught on audio bragging about grabbing women by the genitals and was found liable by a New York jury for sexual abuse.

Trump also has endorsed a parade of Republicans with their own personal baggage — but that didn't stop him from faulting the other side for doing the same.

“He’s a thug, and they’re trying to make excuses for him,” Trump said of top Democrats. “I mean, he’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office, probably.”

The criticism follows Platner's decisive primary victory

Platner, who clinched the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night, has faced criticism over numerous issues, including past inflammatory online posts, a tattoo he had covered up that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol and sexually explicit texts he sent to women after getting married. He will face five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the November election.

Asked about Trump's comments, Platner's campaign said the candidate remained focused on issues facing Maine.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in response, issued a statement focused on Collins, who is considered one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection this year.

“Susan Collins is facing backlash in Maine after voting with Trump 96 percent of the time, being the decisive vote for the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and selling out to the special interests that fund her campaigns after three decades in the Senate, and that’s why Trump praised her today in the Oval Office,” spokesperson Josh Marcus-Blank said in a statement.

The White House defended Trump's comments by noting Platner's past social media posts.

“Graham Platner proudly referred to himself as a ‘communist,’ called all police ‘bastards,’ and said rural White Americans ‘actually are’ racist and stupid. President Trump is absolutely correct that Platner is both a thug and a pig. Attempting to compare President Trump to Graham Platner is exactly why trust in legacy media outlets like the failing Associated Press is at an all-time low,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.

‘Can you imagine if the Republicans had him?’

Trump, when speaking about Platner to reporters at the White House during an event to sign an immigration and deportation funding bill, said, “Nobody’s ever had a record like that.”

“He’s like a pig,” the president said, adding that perhaps “pigs would be very upset” to be associated with Platner, drawing laughter from assorted Republican lawmakers in the Oval Office with him.

Trump then brought up another scandal that has swirled around him dating back to his first term as president: his former friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump sought to paint Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer as a hypocrite, saying he “goes crazy over this or that or Epstein, Epstein, Epstein” but instead should be concerned about Platner.

Later, Trump offered, “Can you imagine if the Republicans had him?”

Setting aside the allegations Trump has faced over the years, Republicans have had candidates who were accused of serious misconduct who nonetheless won Trump's backing.

The president this year endorsed Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton over incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn, though Paxton had faced state and federal corruption investigations and a 2023 state impeachment trial in which he was acquitted but publicly exposed his extramarital affair. Paxton has said allegations of wrongdoing were politically motivated.

Trump also didn't back away from endorsing 2017 Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades earlier. Trump, at the time, noted Moore’s denials and said his vote was needed for Republican priorities. Moore's eventual loss gave way to the first Alabama Democratic senator in a quarter-century.

He endorsed 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson and declined to rescind the backing after CNN reported that the candidate had made lewd and racist comments on a pornography website — though he did try to distance himself. Robinson, who later acknowledged making the posts, handily lost the general election in the swing state.

He similarly decided not to revoke his support for Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales this year after the congressman acknowledged an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. Gonzales ended his reelection bid, and Trump later endorsed someone else.

Trump also picked officials for his second-term Cabinet and other key offices who had been accused of some form of sexual misconduct.

That includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was accused of sexual assault and denied it, and Trump’s initial choice for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who faced a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation and a House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct.

Gaetz denied wrongdoing and withdrew his name from consideration. The DOJ investigation ended without federal charges against him.

The fire started in the unit of Tavaras Calvin. Fortunately, neither Calvin, his wife nor their children were home at the time.

“Thankfully we weren’t home,” Calvin said. “Obviously the material things we’re not concerned about. Everything can be replaced. It’s just a disheartening feeling to see what you do call home go up in flames.”

Calvin said fire marshals believe the battery from his son’s Power Wheels toy car may have sparked the fire.

“The fire inspector said because we don’t have anything electronic out here. That as literally the only thing. And it wasn’t even connected to actually toy. But the power wheel battery they’ve been known to be faulty and catch fire and trigger something. He said it possibly could have been the heat we don’t know,” he said.

According to Calvin, the fire shattered the patio window before spreading quickly through the inside of the two-bedroom unit, burning everything in its path.

Calvin, his wife and their four children -- ages 9, 6, 5 and 3 -- recently booked a hotel room so they could reunite as a family after spending the last week living apart to stay close to work.

“I’m just thankful we weren’t home and no one got hurt and we’re all safe,” Calvin said. “That’s the most important thing.”

The American Red Cross Broward County chapter has been helping the family. Calvin said the organization has provided financial assistance.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The defendant, Vance Boelter, was scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing Thursday morning in federal court in Minneapolis.

“The Attorney General has authorized and directed the government not to seek the death penalty against Defendant Vance Luther Boelter in accordance with the terms delineated in a proposed plea agreement,” assistant U.S. attorneys Bradley M. Endicott and Matthew D. Forbes wrote in a letter to the court Wednesday.

The Justice Department had said earlier in the week that it decided not to pursue the death penalty. While the Trump administration has pushed for greater use of capital punishment, there were questions about whether Boelter’s case would qualify for it.

Boelter’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The court filing did not detail the terms of the plea agreement.

Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot by a man who came to their doors in the early hours of June 14, 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car. The Hortmans' golden retriever was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized.

Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day after what prosecutors have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges. His state case has been on hold pending the resolution of his federal charges.

Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case.

Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said the federal plea deal would not affect Boelter's state charges.

Under federal law, to obtain the death penalty against Boelter, prosecutors would have to show he committed the killings during another “crime of violence.” Boelter's underlying charge was that he stalked the victims.

A federal judge in New York earlier this year barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, ruling that stalking doesn’t count as a violent crime.

Prosecutors have called the attacks on the Minnesota politicians political. When they announced the federal indictment in July, they released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the shootings. However, the letter didn’t make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans.

In some messages to media, Boelter referenced a vague and cryptic “investigation” he had been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary, who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.

When Minnesota's legislative session convened in February, Hoffman got a warm welcome as he walked up the stairs into the Senate chamber. He said in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand likely would never fully recover, and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems.

Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, the lawsuit said, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was there and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.

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Johnson reported from Seattle. Former AP reporter Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed.

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It’s part of a proposal aimed at overhauling how the district handles school boundaries, school choice and future school planning.

The discussion comes as Miami-Dade County Public Schools faces a new reality. For the first time in generations, the district now has more school seats than students.

District leaders say declining enrollment and changing demographics are forcing them to re-evaluate how school buildings are being used.

Four schools are currently under consideration for closure: Lenora Braynon Smith Elementary School, located at 4700 NW 12th Ave. in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood; Miami Springs Middle School, located at 150 S. Royal Poinciana Blvd.; Pine Villa Elementary School, located at 21799 SW 117th Court in the unincorporated Goulds area; and Richmond Heights Middle School, located at 15015 SW 103rd Ave. in the unincorporated area of the same name.

Board member Luisa Santos, who is sponsoring the planning item, said the board’s goal is to make future school planning decisions more transparent and give families more input before changes are made.

“For 45 years we’ve had a method for families to participate when any kind of school closures, mergers, or even school openings are going to happen. But our landscape has changed completely,” she said. “Sixty-five-percent of students are not attending their neighborhood school. They’re attending a magnet or a choice program. And so we have to modernize the process. And that’s what we’re doing. We brought an item to modernize timelines and make sure that we take into account the realities of students and families today.”

No final action will be taken until a full school board meeting next Wednesday.

La medida forma parte de una propuesta destinada a reformar la manera en que el distrito maneja los límites escolares, la elección de escuelas y la planificación futura de los planteles.

La discusión surge mientras las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Miami-Dade enfrentan una nueva realidad. Por primera vez en generaciones, el distrito cuenta con más espacios escolares que estudiantes.

Los líderes del distrito afirman que la disminución de la matrícula y los cambios demográficos los están obligando a reevaluar cómo se utilizan los edificios escolares.

Actualmente, cuatro escuelas están siendo consideradas para cierre: la Escuela Primaria Lenora Braynon Smith, ubicada en 4700 NW 12th Ave. en el vecindario Liberty City de Miami; la Escuela Intermedia Miami Springs, ubicada en 150 S. Royal Poinciana Blvd.; la Escuela Primaria Pine Villa, ubicada en 21799 SW 117th Court en el área no incorporada de Goulds; y la Escuela Intermedia Richmond Heights, ubicada en 15015 SW 103rd Ave. en el área no incorporada del mismo nombre.

La miembro de la junta Luisa Santos, quien impulsa la propuesta, dijo que el objetivo es hacer que las futuras decisiones sobre planificación escolar sean más transparentes y permitir que las familias tengan mayor participación antes de que se implementen cambios.

“Durante 45 años hemos tenido un método para que las familias participen cuando se producen cierres, fusiones o incluso aperturas de escuelas. Pero nuestro panorama ha cambiado por completo”, dijo. “El 65% de los estudiantes no asiste a su escuela del vecindario. Asisten a programas magnet o de libre elección. Por eso tenemos que modernizar el proceso. Eso es lo que estamos haciendo. Presentamos una propuesta para modernizar los plazos y asegurarnos de tomar en cuenta las realidades actuales de los estudiantes y las familias”.

No se tomará ninguna decisión final hasta la reunión completa de la Junta Escolar programada para el próximo miércoles.

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But on Sunday, something was missing: a referee’s uniform.

Police said the uniform was stolen by Jordan Martinez, a security guard at the hotel, and the theft was caught on camera.

According to police, Martinez was brought into an interview room where he confessed to taking laundry bags that contained FIFA referee uniforms.

Police said Martinez told investigators that when he realized the bags contained official FIFA referee uniforms, he decided to keep them because he is a big soccer fan and wanted to wear one after the game.

“That’s insane,” one tourist from Iowa said. “I’m not even from here, I’m from Iowa. I don’t know why he’ll steal a jersey from a referee.”

Investigators said equipment and property belonging to two FIFA officials were stolen.

The motive remains unclear.

“That’s kind of odd. Maybe he’s trying to sell it. I have no idea,” the tourist said.

Police did not provide further details about what Martinez planned to do with the referee’s uniform.

Authorities quickly arrested Martinez. Instead of wearing a referee’s uniform, he now faces a charge of third-degree grand theft.

Pero el domingo faltaba algo: el uniforme de un árbitro.

La policía informó que el uniforme fue robado por Jordan Martinez, un guardia de seguridad del hotel, y que el robo quedó captado en video.

Según la policía, Martinez fue llevado a una sala de entrevistas donde confesó haber tomado bolsas de lavandería que contenían uniformes de árbitros de la FIFA.

La policía indicó que Martinez dijo a los investigadores que cuando se dio cuenta de que las bolsas contenían uniformes oficiales de árbitros de la FIFA, decidió quedárselos porque es un gran aficionado al fútbol y quería usar uno después del partido.

“Eso es una locura”, dijo un turista de Iowa. “Ni siquiera soy de aquí, soy de Iowa. No sé por qué robaría una camiseta de un árbitro”.

Los investigadores informaron que fueron robados equipos y pertenencias de dos funcionarios de la FIFA.

El motivo sigue sin estar claro.

“Eso es algo extraño. Tal vez intenta venderlo. No tengo idea”, dijo el turista.

La policía no proporcionó más detalles sobre lo que Martinez planeaba hacer con el uniforme de árbitro.

Las autoridades arrestaron rápidamente a Martinez. En lugar de vestir un uniforme de árbitro, ahora enfrenta un cargo de hurto mayor en tercer grado.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Miami and center Aaron Brewer came to an agreement on a three-year contract extension.

The deal is worth a total of $52.5 million, including $37 million guaranteed, according to Schefter.

That would make Brewer the third-highest paid center in the NFL, behind Las Vegas’ Tyler Lindenbaum and Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey.

Last season was Brewer’s second with Miami. He started 16 games and was named second-team All-Pro.

Undrafted out of Texas State, Brewer has been in the NFL since signing with the Tennessee Titans in 2020.

But the judge ended a hearing by issuing a “fair warning” to President Donald Trump's administration: “Don’t play possum with this court,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told a government attorney.

Leon ruled from the bench in favor of the administration, which argued that the watchdog's lawsuit is moot because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress earlier this month that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he accepts Blanche's representation for now.

The judge's refusal to issue a temporary restraining order isn't the final word on the fate of the government’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund." Leon said he will consider a separate request by the plaintiffs — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — for a preliminary injunction that would block payouts from the fund on a more permanent basis.

A different federal judge, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, already has temporarily blocked the fund's operations. However, that order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is due to expire Friday unless she extends it after a hearing on the same day.

The administration created the fund last month to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department hasn’t formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria, so there has been no money paid out nor claims accepted.

The fund has generated a fierce bipartisan backlash. Even many of the Republican president's allies are opposed to compensating rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. During a May 19 congressional hearing, Blanche wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police at the Capitol could be eligible for fund payouts.

Later, during a House hearing on June 2, Blanche said, “We are not moving forward with the fund, period."

“Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.

“Correct,” Blanche answered.

Leon asked Justice Department attorney Andrew Block why Blanche doesn't formally rescind his May 18 order establishing the fund.

“I don't know the reason for that,” Block said.

Block said Blanche's statements to Congress are sufficient to moot the watchdog's claims. He also argued that the group doesn't have the legal standing to bring them.

Plaintiffs' attorney Nikhel Sus noted that Trump himself contradicted Blanche's testimony. During an interview on June 3, a day after Blanche's House testimony, Trump expressed support for continuing with the fund despite the Virginia judge's ruling against it.

“On paper, the fund is still a legally operating entity," Sus said. “Nothing has changed.”

A federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Trump’s attorneys to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until Friday to respond in writing to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the “victim of a fraud.”

In Virginia, attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The plaintiffs in the Virginia case include a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest.

The kingdom slapped a ban on Lebanese fruits and vegetables in 2021, saying they were being used to smuggle drugs. In one notable case, Saudi Arabia announced it had seized over 5 million pills of the amphetamine drug Captagon hidden in a shipment of pomegranates coming from Lebanon.

Months later, the wealthy Gulf country extended the ban to all Lebanese products after Lebanon's then- Information Minister George Kordahi publicly criticized Saudi Arabia's war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.

At the root of the diplomatic crisis was Saudi Arabia's regional rivalry with Iran and its displeasure with the influence of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. The ban came at a time when Lebanon's economy was already reeling from a major financial crisis and the collapse of its currency.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the reversal of the ban at the order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came as a result of “positive steps taken by the Lebanese state.”

It did not specify what those steps were, but over the past year, the Lebanese government has announced plans to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah. Before the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, the Lebanese army had made progress on implementing the plan in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a statement thanked bin Salman for the decision, which he said “will contribute tangibly to reviving the national economy and providing support to broad segments of Lebanese producers and exporters.”

The current government of Lebanon, which came to power last year with promises of reform, has sought to rebuild ties with the Gulf countries. Before the outbreak of the latest war, Lebanese officials were courting Gulf tourists to return to the country in hopes of reviving the economy, and some Gulf countries had lifted travel bans preventing their citizens from visiting Lebanon.

Hegseth estuvo en la Estación Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo, donde se reunió con miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos destacados en la base.

Funcionarios informaron que también planea visitar el Comando Central de Estados Unidos en Tampa, que además alberga una gran comunidad cubanoamericana.

La presencia de Hegseth en Cuba se produce mientras Estados Unidos exige cambios drásticos en la isla y tras la acusación contra Raúl Castro en relación con el derribo de las avionetas de Hermanos al Rescate en 1996.

Estados Unidos ha bloqueado el suministro de petróleo hacia Cuba tras las amenazas del presidente Donald Trump de remover por la fuerza al régimen gobernante del país.

El mes pasado, un portaaviones estadounidense y su grupo de ataque, compuesto por aviones de combate y equipos de interferencia de radar, ingresaron al sur del Caribe, y el director de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA) visitó a funcionarios cubanos en La Habana.

En ese momento, el analista de Cuba de Local 10, Andy Gómez, dijo que sus contactos en la isla confirmaron que tenían acceso a drones con fines “defensivos”.

Eso ocurrió mientras el Comando Sur publicaba en redes sociales que había establecido un nuevo “comando de guerra autónoma”, mostrando un ejercicio militar realizado este año en Key West con sistemas autónomos, semiautónomos y no tripulados que, según indicó, se utilizan para contrarrestar amenazas en la región.

El lunes, el alto comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, Volker Türk, advirtió que la campaña de “máxima presión” de Estados Unidos, que ha incluido bloquear el acceso al petróleo para la isla comunista, está provocando una crisis humanitaria.

Sin embargo, el secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, atribuyó el debilitamiento económico y el creciente descontento a lo que describió como el largo legado de codicia, mala gestión y liderazgo corrupto en la isla, destacando además un conglomerado operado por las Fuerzas Armadas cubanas que, según dijo, priva a la población del acceso a los recursos necesarios para enfrentar la escasez de alimentos y el deterioro de la infraestructura.

Las autoridades informaron que la niña, identificada por un familiar como Janova Park, sufrió heridas de bala en el estómago y el torso y fue trasladada de urgencia al Hospital HCA Florida Kendall, donde posteriormente murió.

“Sabemos que al momento de la balacera había tres adultos y dos niños, la víctima, que tenía 5 años, y su hermano de 4 años”, dijo el detective de la MDSO Angel Rodriguez, portavoz de la agencia. “Los detectives estarán aquí durante bastante tiempo como parte de esta investigación. Se asegurarán de no dejar ningún detalle sin investigar y, en este momento, solo pedimos oraciones para la comunidad”.

La balacera ocurrió dentro de una vivienda en Northwest First Court.

Los agentes informaron que fueron llamados a la vivienda alrededor de las 2 a.m. después de que se realizaron disparos.

Las autoridades también confirmaron que la madre de Janova estaba entre las personas que se encontraban dentro de la vivienda al momento de la balacera.

Los detectives dijeron que aún intentan determinar cómo Janova recibió el disparo, incluido si pudo haber tenido acceso al arma por sí misma o si otra circunstancia provocó la balacera.

Hannah Yechivi, de Local 10, habló con Laticha Ellison, abuela de Janova, quien dijo que la balacera pudo haberse evitado.

“Mi nietecita tiene cinco años”, dijo Ellison entre lágrimas. “Solo tiene cinco años. Me da rabia porque algo así no debería poder ocurrir, especialmente en tu propia casa; es negligencia”.

Las autoridades informaron que se recuperó un arma de fuego dentro de la vivienda.

La cinta de la escena del crimen permanecía colocada alrededor de la vivienda la mañana del miércoles mientras los investigadores continuaban procesando la escena.

Las autoridades confirmaron que los detectives de la MDSO asumieron la investigación.

Attorneys for voters who sued had argued that the new congressional districts violate a state constitutional prohibition on partisan gerrymandering, and that the court should order the state to continue using the same districts as in the previous election. The Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, denied their request for a temporary injunction without ruling on the merits of the case. The judges said they lacked jurisdiction to intervene while the lawsuit gradually plays out in the lower courts.

Republicans already hold 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats. The new voting districts signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after a swift two-day special legislative session could improve the GOP’s chances to win four additional seats this year.

The court's decision provides some certainty for prospective congressional candidates, who face a Friday deadline to qualify for the state's Aug. 18 primaries.

Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier, who defended the new districts in court, declared “complete and total victory” in a social media post.

Opponents express outrage while vowing to continue the court fight, even though it may stretch into the 2028 election cycle.

“The Florida Supreme Court's failure to stop this brazen partisan power grab is not only an assault on democracy, but an abdication of its duty to the people of Florida,” said Genesis Robinson, executive director of Equal Ground, a community organizing group that sued.

The new districts are “a pretty clear partisan gerrymander,” said Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida. “We’re going to do everything we can to prevent this map from impacting further, future elections.”

Florida's map is part of a national GOP effort

Florida is one of several Republican-led states that have undertaken mid-decade redistricting as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a slim House majority in November by reshaping voting district boundaries to the GOP’s advantage.

Florida’s legislature approved the new House map on April 29 — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities while striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana. Since then, several Southern states have taken steps to try to eliminate minority districts that have elected Democrats.

DeSantis had called lawmakers into a special session before the high court’s ruling, but he had anticipated the eventual outcome. DeSantis’ office asserted that no racial data was used for the map he presented to the Legislature. The new map, among other things, redraws a southeastern Florida district that DeSantis’ office said was created to help elect a Black representative in an attempt to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

In addition to barring partisan gerrymandering, a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in 2010 also prohibits districts from being drawn to deny or diminish the ability of racial or language minorities to elect the representatives of their choice. It further requires districts to be compact and, where feasible, use existing political and geographic boundaries.

Republicans assert that redistricting restrictions are invalid

In a memo to lawmakers, DeSantis’ General Counsel David Axelman asserted that the racial redistricting provision of Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment violates the U.S. Constitution. If one element is invalid, Axelman wrote, then the entire 2010 amendment is void, including provisions barring partisan gerrymandering.

Attorneys representing state officials made similar arguments to the Florida Supreme Court, after a lower court judge last month declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the new map. They also argued it was too late in the election season to revert to the previous maps.

In a filing with the Florida Supreme Court, attorneys representing state officials said the new map was “cause for celebration” during America’s 250th anniversary. “Perhaps for the first time in Florida’s history, the State has a truly colorblind map; a map that refuses to assault the dignity of men and women by color-coding them,” their court filing said.

Attorneys who sued on behalf of voters argued the new districts were crafted with political favoritism. They argued in documents filed with the state Supreme Court that the new congressional districts are “among the most extreme partisan gerrymanders enacted in any state over the past half-century.”

Under the new House map, 82% of voters in districts represented by Republicans remain in the same districts as under the previous map, said attorney Chris Shenton, who represented Common Cause and other groups challenging the map. Just 41% of voters in districts represented by Democrats are kept in their same districts, he said.

The 13 websites purported to be affiliated with consulting companies that advertised job openings for current and former holders of security clearances. But the companies were all fakes and the job postings were a sham, officials said.

The internet domain seizure is part of a broader effort by Western law enforcement and intelligence agencies to sound the alarm about alleged Chinese government plots to recruit workers who can be duped into disclosing sensitive information.

Last week, for instance, the English-speaking Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. — issued a bulletin warning that China is targeting personnel from those countries on job websites to get access to classified or sensitive information.

The bulletin said spies for Chinese military intelligence have been posing as workers acting on behalf of private businesses or think tanks, advertising for bogus jobs such as foreign policy or defense analysts and pressuring candidates to provide “non-public” information.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the website seizure, the fake websites relied on fraudulent or stolen identities and AI-generated photographs to give them the appearance of legitimacy, and advertised generic “consulting” jobs geared toward current or former U.S. government employees.

“These websites are often linked or referenced within the entities’ job postings on LinkedIn and other hiring platforms,” the affidavit said.

Applicants and recruits were offered money for reports related to their work and for sensitive information, the Justice Department said. The operators of the plot, who officials allege to be tied to Chinese intelligence services, used cryptocurrency and online payment systems to hide their real identities, officials said.

Law enforcement officials identified the websites through information from targets who came forward to report what they believed to be suspicious interactions.

“A lot of this information came from doing interviews, interviews with people who came forward that something didn’t seem right,” Dan Wierzbicki, the special agent in charge of the counterintelligence and cyber division of the FBI’s Washington field office, said in an interview.

“They provided information and said, ‘Hey, this is kind of weird, we’re kind of getting paid by a cryptocurrency or an online payment system that’s not typical,'” he added.

He said the FBI believes there are other websites serving a similar purpose and is seeking the public's help in identifying them.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington called allegations of Chinese espionage “entirely fabricated” and “malicious slander.”

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Associated Press writer Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

The Chiefs and the two-time MVP agreed to a restructured contract Wednesday that adds two years to his deal and pushes the total compensation past a half-billion dollars, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Chiefs do not disclose financial terms of their contracts.

The Chiefs later posted a photo of Mahomes signing his extension on social media.

Mahomes signed a 10-year, $450 million contract in 2020 that set a benchmark not only for the quarterback position but for any football player. The latest extension ties the two-time MVP to the Chiefs through the 2033 season, when Mahomes will be 38, and it comes in at $504.75 million, with incentives and escalators that could push the value $522.25 million.

“Over the last decade, Patrick has become one of the most iconic, beloved sports figures of all time,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. "He has helped lead our franchise to five Super Bowl appearances and three championships, he has been instrumental in shaping the Chiefs brand and putting Kansas City on the world stage, and on top of it all he has been an outstanding role model.

“Patrick is a generational talent and an elite human being and I'm so excited he will continue to lead our team into the future.”

The Chiefs and Mahomes regularly rework his contract in the offseason, giving the team the financial flexibility to surround him with enough talent to compete for championships. The latest deal, though, includes a massive pay increase after recent deals done for other quarterbacks — among them Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen — had reset the QB market.

Prescott's four-year deal included a league-leading average of $60 million per year. Mahomes will now average $63.1 million.

“The magic continues,” his agency, Equity Sports, and its chief executive Chris Cabott wrote on social media Wednesday.

Mahomes underwent season-ending surgery last December after tearing ligaments in his left knee in the waning minutes of a loss to the Chargers. He has spent the entire offseason rehabbing the injury in Kansas City, and he has been on the field for the entirety of the Chiefs' offseason program, which concludes Thursday with the final day of their mandatory three-day minicamp.

“I like what I've seen. He's working hard,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said earlier in offseason workouts. “This is good for him, I mean getting out there and throwing. It’s good rehab as he continues to rehab, so he keeps the feel with the wide receivers. Or he’s doing partial practice and — but it’s important that he keeps his timing up. He’s busting his tail to put himself in this position.”

Mahomes has insisted ever since his injury that his goal was to be ready for Week 1 of the coming season.

The Chiefs play their preseason opener against the Rams on Aug. 15, but their regular-season opener is not until Sept. 14, when they face defending AFC West champion Denver in a marquee Monday night matchup at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I want to be out there with my guys,” Mahomes said recently, "but I know that’s still a long ways away, and so all I can do is execute the day and do whatever I can do to be better that day. We’ve done that up until now, and we’ve set these checkpoints and these goals of where I want to be at, and I’ve gotten to those. So now I just have to continue to do that at the right pace.”

Mahomes has been shattering records ever since the Chiefs made him their starter for the 2018 season. He has thrown for nearly 36,000 yards, earned six Pro Bowl nods and won three Super Bowl titles in five trips to the championship game.

The Chiefs had been to three straight Super Bowls before finishing a disappointing 6-11 last season. Mahomes was on injured reserve for the final three games, all of them losses, while the Chiefs turned their attention toward the coming season.

“As a competitor and as a football player, I want to be there,” Mahomes said. “I can’t predict the future. All I can do is be great today and then continue to be great tomorrow, but I’ve gotten to where I’ve gotten to because of that mindset and the goal at the end — the very far end — is to be ready and to be able to go out there and play with the guys Week 1.”

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Alongside new policy proposals from the maker of the Claude chatbot, Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei published an essay on his personal website that expanded on his position that the government should promise economic support for those financially impacted by AI. The technology could produce much larger disruptions to the labor market than previous technological advancements, Amodei wrote, and those disruptions could last longer.

“The key challenge in such a world won’t be incentivizing growth, but finding a way for everyone to share in the benefits,” Amodei wrote.

The announcement comes on the heels of Anthropic rival OpenAI on Monday outlining goals that included ensuring gains from the technology are “widely shared.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently met with Sen. Bernie Sanders to discuss a plan for the public to take an ownership stake in artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, using their stock to create a public wealth fund that would spread the fortune generated by AI behemoths.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he will soon meet with executives from several leading AI companies to discuss “giving back” to the public.

"We’re talking about giving back ​something to the public, and if we do that, the ⁠public will become very rich,” Trump said. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make ​it very popular.”

In his essay, Amodei said he has warned of job displacement not because he is “trying to be a ‘prophet of doom’” but because he wants “both policymakers and the private sector to have the best chance to adapt and respond.” He proposed better data collection to track AI job displacement, pro-employment policy incentives to slow or reduce displacement and “mechanisms such as universal basic income” if job displacement more permanently drives down labor demand.

That universal basic income could be financed through taxes on "relevant companies” or by raising the capital gains tax, Amodei wrote.

Scant details were available Wednesday about the $200 million commitment from Anthropic, but the company said it will go to what it calls an Economic Futures Research Fund that will back research trials and “program evaluation” on public policies it deems promising. The company is also establishing a $150 million national fellowship program it says will help early-career professionals “extend the benefits of AI to communities across America.”

Anthropic and OpenAI each recently announced they were moving toward initial public offerings of shares, following Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, which is pitching itself as an AI-focused space company as it prepares to go public.

The economic policy framework Anthropic proposed Wednesday set recommendations for how the U.S. government could respond to three levels of economic disruption caused by AI: one in which the national unemployment rate reaches 5%, 10% and an unspecified, “unprecedented” level. The latest unemployment rate, reported last week, was 4.3%.

In the “unprecedented” scenario, the company wrote that more permanent support will be necessary, and it listed several ways to generate and share revenue broadly, including basic income, sovereign wealth models and equity-sharing mechanisms. This would be “novel economic territory,” the company wrote.

The company's proposals also outlined several suggestions for mitigating safety and security risks. Anthropic is known for its emphasis on safety and building reliable, “steerable” AI systems, with Amodei and its co-founders splitting off from OpenAI to form the new company in 2021.

The proposals add that the government should be able to “block or deter” the rollout of AI models that “pose a significant risk of catastrophic harms.”

Amodei wrote that AI regulations should match the rigor of Federal Aviation Administration regulations in that AI models would be required to go through technical testing and auditing like airplanes. They wouldn’t be released if they didn’t meet high safety standards.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order on AI oversight that established a framework for the government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.

Amodei added existing regulations for aircraft, automobiles and drugs should serve as models for regulating AI. They are all “powerful technologies essential to the modern economy,” he wrote, “but capable of killing large numbers of people if designed or operated poorly.”

La policía informó que Mohamed Kazim Latiff, de 51 años, y Tomas Julio Matom Gallego, de 23, fueron detenidos tras el operativo realizado el martes antes de la Copa Mundial.

Según los informes de arresto, el operativo se llevó a cabo en un hotel no revelado de Homestead.

La policía de Homestead, junto con investigadores de la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade y otras agencias federales, estatales y locales de orden público, montaron un operativo en el que detectives se hicieron pasar por una madre que prostituía a sus dos hijas a través de internet.

Las autoridades informaron que los hombres acordaron pagar por actividades sexuales con una o ambas menores y fueron arrestados después de presentarse en el hotel.

Cada uno enfrenta tres cargos graves, incluido tráfico humano de una persona menor de 18 años. Matom también enfrenta un cargo de resistencia al arresto.

Hasta el miércoles, tanto Latiff, ciudadano de Guyana, como Matom, ciudadano de Guatemala, permanecían detenidos sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según muestran los registros en línea.

El martes, los miembros del jurado escucharon a múltiples testigos, incluido el padre de la víctima, Andy Fernandez, quien describió haber abrazado a su hija por última vez antes de lo que calificó como una “hermosa tarde” que terminó en tragedia.

Los fiscales alegan que Pino, un desarrollador inmobiliario del sur de Florida, operaba una embarcación de 29 pies cuando chocó contra una baliza de canal cerca de Boca Chita Key durante el fin de semana del Día del Trabajo de 2022, causando la muerte de Lucy Fernandez, de 17 años, y dejando gravemente heridos a otros dos adolescentes.

Los testimonios también incluyeron a un pasajero de la embarcación, quien describió cómo la nave se volcó y el caótico desenlace en el agua, así como a un abogado civil que hizo referencia a declaraciones previas relacionadas con la investigación del accidente.

Los miembros del jurado fueron enviados a casa la tarde del martes y tenían previsto regresar la mañana del miércoles.

Leer en español

One of the two victims ended up dumped off the side of the road in the Weston area after faking a seizure in a successful attempt to spook the kidnappers, authorities said in a newly-unsealed federal criminal complaint.

Authorities identified the suspects, all facing charges in Fort Lauderdale federal court of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, as:

• Saul Alfonso Fajardo, 19, of Hollywood
• Anthony Teruel Hernandez, 18, of Miami
• Weilen Hernandez, 20, of Miami
• Amari Tamire Hill, 21, of Sunrise
• Justin Phihoang Le, 20, of Miramar
• Marikevies McNichols Jr., 19, of Homestead

Authorities said they were joined by a 17-year-old girl, not identified in court documents, in committing the crime. Court documents do not outline a specific motive, though they state the victims knew at least some of the men.

Margaritaville encounter

According to investigators, the series of events began the night of May 26, with Fajardo, known to the victims as “Gordo,” “pressuring” one of the victims and a witness to meet them at a car show at the West Broward Boat Ramp, off U.S. 27 in a remote part of the county.

Authorities said after the second victim got off work at a hotel on Hollywood Beach, the victims and the witness began walking on the Broadwalk towards Margaritaville. Fajardo and the teenage girl approached them and asked if they wanted to go to his car in the Margaritaville garage, at 1111 N. Ocean Drive, “to smoke weed;” they agreed.

The complaint states that one of the victims began smoking marijuana in Fajardo’s Hyundai while the other victim and witness were standing outside. Then, a blue Cadillac with four suspects pulled up. Authorities said the victim was able to identify three of them: Le, known as “Chino;” Hill, known as “Black;” and McNichols, known as “Keeve” or “Agent.”

Authorities said they later identified the other suspect as Weilen Hernandez. All were armed with semi-automatic weapons, wearing “shiesty” masks and had latex gloves on, agents said.

Anthony Hernandez was seen on surveillance driving a third vehicle, a Honda Accord, the complaint states.

Authorities said Hill rushed the first victim, slammed him onto the hood of Fajardo’s car, pistol-whipped and punched him. Fajardo said, “Chill out, not on my car,” according to the complaint.

Journey to ‘The Spot’

The complaint states that one victim was eventually forced into the Hyundai while the other was forced into the Honda.

The suspects in the Accord held the victim at gunpoint, agents said, while the victim in the Elantra was forced to call friends seeking money for his release.

According to the complaint, Le, in the Hyundai, told the victim, “If I don’t get my money, every ten minutes I’m going to take one of your fingernails.”

The victim “observed a pair of pliers inside the car and believed they were going to pull his fingernails off, so he continued calling people in an attempt to get money,” the complaint states.

Eventually, both victims were taken to a location known “The Spot,” later identified through GPS data as the West Broward Boat Ramp.

Torture, robbery allegations

Investigators said both victims were forced to kneel at gunpoint. While on their knees, the complaint states that one of the victims was held down to expose his racing flag tattoo.

According to the complaint, Le approached with a blowtorch and told the victim ― who had a cloth stuffed into his mouth ― “I’m gonna burn the tattoo off of you, you don’t deserve to have it. I’m going to torture you.”

Le burned the victim, telling him, “Don’t cry,” authorities said, and told him “I will kill your family if you go to the police. We are not done.”

Authorities said the group ordered the two to strip to their underwear at gunpoint and continued to demand money. Hill, the complaint states, fired a round into the air while on a video call “in an attempt to let the person on the phone know they were serious.”

“We’re not playing,” he said, according to the FBI.

Authorities said the two were robbed of jewelry, phones, clothing and other personal belongings and subjected to further threats and violence.

One of the victims had also been forced to send $400 through Zelle, according to the complaint.

FBI: Suspects spooked by one victim’s ankle monitor, other’s fake seizure

According to the complaint, the suspects became concerned that the second victim’s ankle monitor could reveal their location. They took him away in one of the cars, authorities said, and after being asked his address, the victim intentionally gave a false location and had them drop him off at a subdivision at Flamingo Road and West Lake Boulevard in Cooper City.

The victim told investigators that “he walked to a relative’s residence in nothing but his underwear” and summoned help.

Meanwhile, authorities said the other victim was lying in the grass at the boat ramp and saw the suspects “burning something,” hearing someone say, “We have to burn the evidence.”

According to the complaint, the victim, “in fear for his life” and thinking he was about to be killed, “began faking a seizure.”

Agents said the suspects got nervous and said Hill “checking his pulse to make sure he was still alive.” According to the complaint, they loaded the victim into one of the cars, drove for about 10 minutes while checking his pulse, before one of the kidnappers “began to panic,” leading them to throw him out of the car.

The victim eventually made his way to a Weston neighborhood and asked two people he saw out walking to call the police, the complaint. The Broward Sheriff’s Office responded and medics took him to Broward Health Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries from the pistol-whipping and blow torch burn.

Investigation

Authorities said surveillance video tied the suspects to the crime and investigators recovered burned clothing and other items belonging to the victims at the boat ramp.

Authorities said Anthony Hernandez and the 17-year-old girl later gave statements to Hollywood police and attempted to minimize their involvement in the crime. However, they said text messages found on the girl’s phone, between her and Fajardo, confirmed that the first victim was assaulted and there was video evidence.

Agents said text messages additionally showed Fajardo telling the girl to delete any messages about the victim.

“He got jump injuries,” one of the messages allegedly read. Another allegedly read, “DELETE INSTA.”

The complaint states that when Hollywood police later spotted Weilen Hernandez and his Cadillac, he “admitted to being a driver and being present at ‘The Spot,’ he denied involvement in the assault but admitted to being outside the car and observing (the victim) being assaulted.”

Jail records show that all of the adult suspects would be taken into custody over a five-day period beginning on June 1.

What’s next

Records show that as of Wednesday, all were being held in BSO’s Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Federal court records show five of the six suspects ― sans Hill ― have detention hearings scheduled in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Monday. All have arraignment dates ranging from next Tuesday through June 23.

It’s unclear whether the 17-year-old girl was in custody or charged. She is referred to in the complaint as the “minor suspect.”

Una de las dos víctimas terminó abandonada al borde de una carretera en el área de Weston después de fingir una convulsión en un intento exitoso por asustar a los secuestradores, según las autoridades en una denuncia penal federal recientemente desclasificada.

Las autoridades identificaron a los sospechosos, todos acusados en el tribunal federal de Fort Lauderdale de secuestro y conspiración para cometer secuestro, como:

• Saul Alfonso Fajardo, de 19 años, de Hollywood
• Anthony Teruel Hernandez, de 18 años, de Miami
• Weilen Hernandez, de 20 años, de Miami
• Amari Tamire Hill, de 21 años, de Sunrise
• Justin Phihoang Le, de 20 años, de Miramar
• Marikevies McNichols Jr., de 19 años, de Homestead

Las autoridades informaron que una adolescente de 17 años, cuya identidad no fue divulgada en los documentos judiciales, participó en el crimen. Los documentos no detallan un motivo específico, aunque indican que las víctimas conocían al menos a algunos de los acusados.

Encuentro en Margaritaville

Según los investigadores, la serie de acontecimientos comenzó la noche del 26 de mayo, cuando Fajardo, conocido por las víctimas como “Gordo”, presionó a una de las víctimas y a un testigo para que se reunieran con él en una exhibición de autos en la rampa para botes de West Broward, ubicada junto a la carretera U.S. 27 en una zona remota del condado.

Las autoridades informaron que después de que la segunda víctima terminara su turno en un hotel de Hollywood Beach, las víctimas y el testigo comenzaron a caminar por el Broadwalk en dirección a Margaritaville. Fajardo y la adolescente se acercaron y les preguntaron si querían ir a su vehículo en el estacionamiento de Margaritaville, ubicado en 1111 N. Ocean Drive, para fumar marihuana. Ellos aceptaron.

La denuncia señala que una de las víctimas comenzó a fumar marihuana dentro del Hyundai de Fajardo mientras la otra víctima y el testigo permanecían afuera. Entonces llegó un Cadillac azul con cuatro sospechosos. Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima pudo identificar a tres de ellos: Le, conocido como “Chino”; Hill, conocido como “Black”; y McNichols, conocido como “Keeve” o “Agent”.

Las autoridades dijeron que posteriormente identificaron al cuarto sospechoso como Weilen Hernandez. Todos estaban armados con armas semiautomáticas, utilizaban máscaras tipo “shiesty” y llevaban guantes de látex, según los agentes.

Anthony Hernandez fue captado por cámaras de vigilancia conduciendo un tercer vehículo, un Honda Accord, según la denuncia.

Las autoridades dijeron que Hill se abalanzó sobre la primera víctima, la lanzó sobre el capó del vehículo de Fajardo y la golpeó con una pistola y con los puños. Según la denuncia, Fajardo dijo: “Tranquilo, no sobre mi carro”.

Camino hacia “The Spot”

La denuncia indica que una víctima fue obligada a subir al Hyundai y la otra al Honda.

Los sospechosos en el Accord mantuvieron a una víctima apuntándole con armas de fuego, dijeron los agentes, mientras que la víctima en el Hyundai fue obligada a llamar a amigos para conseguir dinero para su liberación.

Según la denuncia, Le le dijo a la víctima: “Si no recibo mi dinero, cada diez minutos te voy a arrancar una uña”.

La víctima observó unos alicates dentro del vehículo y creyó que le arrancarían las uñas, por lo que continuó llamando a personas para intentar conseguir dinero, señala la denuncia.

Finalmente, ambas víctimas fueron llevadas a un lugar conocido como “The Spot”, identificado posteriormente mediante datos de GPS como la rampa para botes de West Broward.

Acusaciones de tortura y robo

Los investigadores informaron que ambas víctimas fueron obligadas a arrodillarse bajo amenaza de armas de fuego. Mientras estaban de rodillas, una fue sujetada para exponer un tatuaje de una bandera de carreras.

Según la denuncia, Le se acercó con un soplete y le dijo a la víctima, que tenía un trapo metido en la boca: “Voy a quemarte ese tatuaje, no mereces tenerlo. Voy a torturarte”.

Las autoridades dijeron que quemó a la víctima mientras le decía: “No llores”, y además le advirtió: “Mataré a tu familia si vas a la policía. No hemos terminado”.

Las autoridades informaron que el grupo obligó a las dos víctimas a quedarse en ropa interior bajo amenaza de armas y continuó exigiendo dinero. Según la denuncia, Hill disparó una vez al aire durante una videollamada “para hacerle saber a la persona al teléfono que hablaban en serio”.

“No estamos jugando”, dijo, según el FBI.

Las autoridades informaron que a las víctimas les robaron joyas, teléfonos, ropa y otras pertenencias personales, además de someterlas a más amenazas y violencia.

Según la denuncia, una de las víctimas también fue obligada a enviar $400 USD mediante Zelle.

FBI: Sospechosos se alarmaron por el monitor electrónico de una de las víctimas y la falsa convulsión de la otra

De acuerdo con la denuncia, los sospechosos comenzaron a preocuparse porque el monitor electrónico en el tobillo de una de las víctimas pudiera revelar su ubicación. Las autoridades dijeron que la llevaron en uno de los vehículos y, después de preguntarle su dirección, la víctima proporcionó intencionalmente una ubicación falsa y logró que la dejaran en una urbanización cerca de Flamingo Road y West Lake Boulevard en Cooper City.

La víctima dijo a los investigadores que caminó hasta la vivienda de un familiar vistiendo únicamente ropa interior y pidió ayuda.

Mientras tanto, las autoridades informaron que la otra víctima permanecía acostada sobre la hierba en la rampa para botes y observó a los sospechosos quemando algo, mientras escuchaba a alguien decir: “Tenemos que quemar la evidencia”.

Según la denuncia, la víctima, temiendo por su vida y creyendo que iba a ser asesinada, comenzó a fingir una convulsión.

Los agentes dijeron que los sospechosos se pusieron nerviosos y que Hill verificó su pulso para asegurarse de que seguía viva. Según la denuncia, la subieron a uno de los vehículos y condujeron durante unos 10 minutos mientras seguían revisando su pulso, hasta que uno de los secuestradores entró en pánico, lo que provocó que lo arrojaran fuera del vehículo.

La víctima logró llegar a un vecindario de Weston y pidió a dos personas que caminaban por el lugar que llamaran a la policía. La Oficina del Sheriff de Broward respondió y los paramédicos la trasladaron al Broward Health Medical Center, donde recibió tratamiento por las lesiones causadas por los golpes con la pistola y las quemaduras provocadas por el soplete.

Investigación

Las autoridades informaron que videos de vigilancia vincularon a los sospechosos con el crimen y que los investigadores recuperaron ropa quemada y otros objetos pertenecientes a las víctimas en la rampa para botes.

Las autoridades dijeron que Anthony Hernandez y la adolescente de 17 años posteriormente rindieron declaraciones a la policía de Hollywood e intentaron minimizar su participación en el crimen. Sin embargo, indicaron que mensajes de texto encontrados en el teléfono de la menor, intercambiados entre ella y Fajardo, confirmaban que la primera víctima había sido agredida y que existía evidencia en video.

Los agentes dijeron que los mensajes también mostraban que Fajardo le indicó a la adolescente que eliminara cualquier mensaje relacionado con la víctima.

“Él tiene lesiones por la golpiza”, decía presuntamente uno de los mensajes. Otro decía supuestamente: “BORRA INSTA”.

La denuncia señala que cuando la policía de Hollywood localizó posteriormente a Weilen Hernandez y su Cadillac, este admitió haber sido conductor y haber estado presente en “The Spot”. Negó haber participado en la agresión, pero admitió que estaba fuera del vehículo y observó cómo la víctima era atacada.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que todos los sospechosos adultos fueron detenidos durante un período de cinco días a partir del 1 de junio.

¿Qué sigue?

Los registros indican que hasta este miércoles todos permanecían detenidos en el Centro de Detención Paul Rein de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward en Pompano Beach, bajo custodia del Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos.

Los registros judiciales federales muestran que cinco de los seis sospechosos, excepto Hill, tienen audiencias de detención programadas para el lunes en el tribunal federal de Fort Lauderdale. Todos tienen fechas de lectura de cargos programadas entre el próximo martes y el 23 de junio.

No está claro si la adolescente de 17 años se encuentra detenida o si ha sido acusada formalmente. En la denuncia se le identifica como la “sospechosa menor de edad”.

Asked about the new report that the consumer price index in May had jumped 4.2% over the last year, the president took a surprisingly optimistic tack with the challenging news. Trump didn't dismiss the affordability issue as a “hoax” that was started by Democrats, as he has done previously. Nor did he claim that he was bringing down the cost of living.

Instead, after the government said that inflation spiked to the highest level since April 2023, Trump praised the numbers.

“You know what I really love?" Trump said. "I love the inflation.”

It was an unexpected take given that voters ahead of the November midterm elections have ranked the economy as a top concern — and have given Trump low marks on that issue. Within minutes of his on-camera comment, Democrats quickly rushed to promote it on social media.

Trump had pledged in his 2024 campaign to quickly vanquish inflation, but his argument now is that higher prices are solely a function of the Iran war raising energy costs. On Wednesday, he claimed that relief is already on its way because of a secret military operation that had ferried what he said was 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the primary shipping channel for 20% of the world’s global oil supply that has been effectively closed by the war since late February.

“Trump really said, ‘I love the inflation.’ On camera. For all of America to hear,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer quickly posted on X. “His contempt for you knows no bounds.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X that with Trump's stated love of inflation, "We finally found something that Donald Trump loves as much as he loves himself."

Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, quickly pressed Energy Secretary Chris Wright at a hearing about whether he, too, loved inflation.

“Do you love inflation?” Sykes asked.

“I love ending Iran’s ability to have a nuclear weapon,” Wright answered. He only conceded after being pressed: “No, I would prefer lower inflation.”

When asked about Trump's specific comments, Wright said, “He's an entertaining, hyperbolic guy who's done tremendous leadership.”

Trump claimed the secretive shipments were why oil prices had fallen below $90 a barrel, after surpassing $110 at the start of April.

“I'm just announcing today for the first time, but we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night,” Trump said.

On social media, the president said the mission began last month and had “resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.” There was no immediate data available to back up that total, and it was not immediately clear what role the U.S. military had played.

To put that figure into context, a daily average of 20 million barrels of oil had gone through the strait before the war, which would mean that Trump's mission had resulted in the equivalent of five days' worth of normal oil shipments.

Responding to the new inflation report, the White House pointed out that some expenses had dropped in May relative to the previous month: the price of new vehicles, prescription drugs and auto insurance, for example. But when the overall inflation number is paired with the change in hourly wages, there is a bleak sign that people's spending power relative to their earnings has declined.

“President Trump has consistently maintained that oil and gas prices — and thus overall inflation — will plummet once the Iran situation is resolved, and the administration will continue pushing our affordability agenda to enable Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email.

But the financial markets were cautious about Trump's claims that he was lowering prices by getting oil tankers through the strait — claims that came as the United States also launched airstrikes against Iran, and as Tehran fired back at countries in the region.

U.S. crude oil futures climbed roughly 4% on Wednesday, closing at nearly $92 a barrel.

But as the team hosts its first NBA Finals games in 27 years, the city is restricting spontaneous gatherings outside the famed arena.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his police department have cited a range of reasons for the ban, including President Donald Trump’s attendance at Monday’s game.

Ahead of Game 4 on Wednesday, the NYPD announced it would again prevent fans from gathering around MSG, unless they were going to the game or had “business specific to that area.”

Instead, the city said it had approved a permit to allow 1,000 fans access to a watch party outside the Garden — a scaled-down version of previous viewing parties, which the NYPD had sought to have canceled for rowdiness, before later reversing course.

Otherwise, fans need an “authorized reason” to be inside a security perimeter that stretches for several blocks around the arena. While bars and restaurants will stay open, they were subject to “strict capacity limits,” police said.

Hours before the game on Wednesday, Knicks owner James Dolan indicated the watch party wouldn’t go forward, saying that he had never agreed to the city’s restrictions.

A statement released by the Madison Square Garden Co. also accused Mamdani of transforming the streets around the arena into a “police state” in order to “freeze out fans from celebrating.”

The measures have also enraged nearby restaurants and bars, as well as civil liberties groups.

“It’s ruining my business,” said Angela Reilly, the owner of Molly Wee, an Irish pub near the arena. “I haven’t seen anything like this level of security in 46 years.”

Molly Biklen, the legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, agreed the tactics seemed heavy-handed. “Crowd control for major events is reasonable, but historic moments are not carte blanche for overpolicing or excessive NYPD responses,” Biklen said.

The conflict has also focused attention once again on the shaky alliance between the mayor and his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. To some, the security restrictions appeared at odds with Mamdani's broader agenda, which included improving access to public spaces and limiting how the NYPD polices major events.

“The NYPD is historically extremely risk-averse to disorderly behavior by crowds, whether they be celebratory or protesting,” said Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia University who studies policing. “The mayor now faces a difficult calculus between the strong emotions of Knicks fans and the political risks if crowd control isn’t airtight.”

In recent days, members of Mamdani’s administration have pressed Tisch to allow some version of the watch parties to go forward outside Madison Square Garden, according to two people familiar with the meetings, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the meetings.

Tisch, meanwhile, has advocated for the security perimeter, citing the need to control against crowds that have at times become violent and unruly. Some recent fan gatherings in Manhattan have led to dozens of arrests and several injuries to police officers.

Following the Knicks′ loss Monday, at least 21 people were taken into custody. The NYPD also said it is currently searching for members of a group that ripped a San Antonio Spurs jersey off a man while punching and kicking him.

Shaun Geddes, a Knicks fan who runs a popular podcast about the team, said he had celebrated multiple series-clinching victories outside the arena and found the vast majority of fans were respectful.

“Then there’s a small group of people out there cosplaying as Knicks fans and doing performative things to go viral on TikTok,” Geddes added. “But being passionate as a Knicks fan doesn’t mean assaulting anyone.”

In response to criticism about the closure, city officials have noted there isn’t a recent precedent for the position in which they now find themselves. The Knicks have not been to an NBA Finals since 1999. Most of the city’s other major sports teams play in the less-crowded outer boroughs or in New Jersey.

But when the New York Rangers — who also play in the Garden— last won the Stanley Cup, in 1994, the NYPD took another approach to managing elated fans.

Ahead of the game, police announced they would clear the area around the arena of potential projectiles, like metal trash cans or debris, but would allow fans to move freely.

“We expect the fans to be extremely vocal,” Allen Hoehl, an NYPD chief at the time, said at a 1994 news conference. “If they want to go from here to there, we’ll escort them in any direction.”

Leer en español

According to arrest reports, the sting took place at an undisclosed hotel in Homestead.

Homestead police, along with investigators from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office’s Human Trafficking Task Force, plus other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, set up a sting in which detectives posed as a mother prostituting her two daughters online.

Authorities said the men arranged to pay for sexual activities with one or both of the girls and were arrested after showing up at the hotel.

Authorities identified the suspects as:

• Melvin Eucedia Ruiz, 27, of southwest Miami-Dade
• Cesar Jordan, 42, of southwest Miami-Dade
• Mohamed Kazim Latiff, 51, of Homestead
• Cristobal Lopez-Lorenzo, 29, of Homestead
• Zachary James Martell, 35, of Palmetto Bay
• Armando Martinez, 49, of Florida City
• Tomas Julio Matom Gallego, 23, of Homestead
• Pantaleon Mendez Ortega, 41, of southwest Miami-Dade
• Alex Alberto Pastor-Perez, 22, of Homestead
• Nicolas Diego Roselin, 24, of Homestead
• Daniel Rubio-Pelcaster, 46, of southwest Miami-Dade
• Mariolensky Solon, 22, of southwest Miami-Dade

They face felony charges, including human trafficking of a person under 18.

“Estoy sin descansar. Me siento muy agotada, no tengo fuerzas para nada”, dijo a The Associated Press Delcy Pérez, una residente de 78 años de la barriada de Centro Habana. “Espero que esto se arregle porque no resistiremos”, agregó.

Los trabajadores que no están en receso estas semanas, incluidos los de oficinas diplomáticas, se vieron obligados a trabajar con luces de emergencia o salir con sus escritorios a pasillos y áreas iluminadas naturalmente en La Habana y las principales ciudades.

Ese fue el caso del consulado de España, en el emblemático edificio de la Lonja del Comercio, que procesa miles de solicitudes de ciudadanía ibérica para descendientes de españoles, constató AP.

La estatal Unión Eléctrica informó que durante la hora pico, generalmente al anochecer cuando las personas se encuentran en sus hogares, se producirá una demanda de unos 3.000 megavatios y el déficit alcanzará los 2.040 megavatios.

Los apagones, comunes en Cuba por la crisis económica y energética que atraviesa desde hace cinco años, se han intensificado desde que en enero el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump advirtió que sancionaría a los países que le vendan petróleo a la isla.

La nación caribeña demanda unos 100.000 barriles de petróleo diarios, pero sólo produce unos 40.000. Muchas de las plantas termoeléctricas de la isla usan combustible para funcionar.

Según expertos, la red energética de Cuba no ha recibido el mantenimiento adecuado y la antigüedad de su infraestructura está muy por encima de su vida útil.

La vendedora de alimentos Yamilé Rodríguez Febré, de 47 años, también lleva días sin dormir. “Hay que adaptarse. Sabemos que el país está pasando situaciones" difíciles, comentó a la AP.

Rodríguez, madre de cuatro hijos y residente en la vecina provincia de Mayabeque —desde donde viene esporádicamente a vender a La Habana— indicó que en su localidad llevan jornadas sin electricidad.

En las últimas semanas los vecinos de varios barrios de La Habana han hecho sonar sus cacerolas en protesta por la falta de energía.

Durante una presentación televisiva la noche del martes la viceministra de Salud, Carilda Peña García, informó que hay unos 100.000 pacientes con cirugías pendientes que no se pudieron realizar por falta de energía, entre ellos unos 5.000 pacientes oncológicos.

Mientras aumenta el calor a medida que se aproxima el verano boreal, la ministra de Educación, Naima Trujillo, informó que se adelantaría el final de las clases para entre el 15 y el 30 de junio.

“Un cambio es lo que necesita este país”, dijo Lázaro Javier Gómez, de 22 años y estudiante de cultura física y deportes.

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La corresponsal Milexsy Durán contribuyó con este reporte

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Siga a Andrea Rodríguez en X: https://x.com/ARodriguezAP

Sánchez, de Juntos por el Perú, sumaba 50.020% de los sufragios, mientras que Fujimori, de Fuerza Popular, lograba 49.980% de apoyo y acortaba la distancia con su rival, según el conteo preliminar de la Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE), la organizadora de los comicios del pasado domingo.

La ajustada ventaja que Fujimori mostraba ese día se revirtió el lunes. Pero luego, conforme los votos desde el extranjero han comenzado a llegar a Perú, la candidata empezó a recuperarse. Apenas más de 7.000 votos la separan ahora de Sánchez, cuando antes la diferencia era de casi 50.000.

“Es importante recordar que los resultados oficiales solo podrán determinarse una vez concluidas las etapas de cómputo y de justicia electoral establecidas por la normativa”, dijo el máximo tribunal electoral en un comunicado.

La declaración se produjo luego de que la víspera manifestantes de Juntos por el Perú protestaron frente al Jurado gritando “¡El voto se defiende en las urnas y las calles!”.

Sánchez dijo el miércoles a la prensa que la manifestación de sus seguidores “es un derecho constitucional” que constituye la "defensa de una victoria popular y del voto". Añadió que “la gente tiene el derecho" a manifestarse de forma pacífica.

El Jurado estimó el domingo que el resultado final estaría listo en un mes, aproximadamente el 7 de julio.

No es una sorpresa el lento conteo de votos en Perú. El cómputo final de la primera vuelta del 12 de abril fue anunciado más de un mes después de los comicios. Lo mismo ocurrió en las elecciones presidenciales de 2021.

Fujimori, hija del fallecido expresidente Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), recalcó el miércoles a periodistas que hay que actuar “con mucha responsabilidad” y que las instituciones electorales son las que darán “el veredicto”. Agregó que lo “más importante es lo que señalan las actas, que la voluntad popular se respete”.

Hace cinco años, tras el balotaje presidencial del 6 de junio de 2021 en el que Pedro Castillo la derrotó por escaso margen, Fujimori aseguró que halló indicios de "fraude en mesa". Pidió anular 200.000 votos que favorecían a Castillo mientras que seguidores fujimoristas marcharon por calles de Lima vistiendo camisetas de la selección peruana de fútbol y protestando frente al Jurado y la casa de su titular.

Fujimori nunca probó el supuesto fraude y Castillo ganó las elecciones por apenas 44.000 votos.

La demora en el conteo de los resultados finales se debe a una ley electoral que exige que cada cédula de votación y cada acta —que resume los votos de cada mesa— deben ser transportadas hasta más de un centenar de oficinas para su conteo. También deben llegar a Lima, desde 63 países, las cédulas y actas de quienes votaron en el exterior. A eso se suma el reconteo de votos y la resolución de impugnaciones.

El aumento de la delincuencia, en particular la extorsión, fue la principal preocupación de los votantes. Los expertos atribuyen el creciente poder del crimen organizado a los beneficios cada vez mayores que genera la extracción ilegal de oro en los Andes y la Amazonía.

El ganador de la segunda vuelta tomará posesión de su cargo el 28 de julio para un mandato de cinco años.

Los agentes de policía arrestaron a Anthony Gordon después de que detectives, con una orden de registro, encontraran $1.4 millones USD en efectivo y aproximadamente $5 millones USD en narcóticos en su vivienda, según el Departamento de Policía de Miami Gardens.

Correccionales de Miami-Dade registró el ingreso de Gordon, un delincuente convicto en Florida, poco después de las 7 a.m. del miércoles en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según registros de reclusos.

Gordon, también conocido como “Peanut”, fue liberado por última vez de prisión el 2 de diciembre de 2020, después de siete condenas en Miami-Dade y una en Broward, todas relacionadas con tráfico de drogas en 2013 y 2014, según el Departamento de Correcciones de Florida.

Gordon enfrenta 16 cargos: tráfico de propiedad robada, tráfico de cocaína, tráfico de fentanilo, tráfico de anfetaminas, tráfico de oxicodona, tráfico de drogas ilegales mientras estaba armado, 10 cargos de posesión de arma de fuego o municiones por un delincuente convicto y posesión de drogas sin receta médica.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

After clanking his shot off the rim at the buzzer on what would have been the Game 2 winner, Wembanyama did the same on two key free throws late in Game 4 on Wednesday night. With the chance to put his team up by three with 1:47 left, he instead went 0 for 2, and the New York Knicks took the lead and went on to win 107-106 on OG Anunoby's tip-in with 1.2 seconds left.

“It's just a shot,” Wembanyama said. “You might work on your form hours and hours. At the end of the day it's just a shot, so you need to shoot it the normal way.”

Wembanyama and the Spurs are now on the brink of elimination, down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. It mattered little that the 7-foot-4 big man from France scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds.

It mattered more that the Knicks held Wembanyama to eight points in the second half on the way to rallying from 29 points down, the largest comeback in finals history. Game 5 is Saturday night San Antonio.

“It’s going to go one of two ways,” Wembanyama said. “One of two ways, a bad one and a good one. The bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. I know this is what we’re going to do.”

Wembanyama enters Game 5 on the edge of possible discipline after being called for a flagrant foul early in the second half for a right elbow to Karl-Anthony Towns' chin. Because of the NBA's flagrant foul point system, he now has three and is one more away from an automatic one-game suspension.

“Of course I'm going to be a little more careful, but it’s not going to change much,” Wembanyama said.

An officiating decision in the aftermath of Game 3 going the other way would have put him in danger of already staring down a suspension. The NBA acknowledged officials missed Wembanyama striking Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the head but did not retroactively make it a flagrant.

“The league’s going to do what they’re going to do,” New York coach Mike Brown said before Game 4. “They aren’t going to listen to me. They aren’t going to listen to nobody else.”

Wembanyama early in Game 4 looked to be getting under the skin of his opponents. After scoring on Mitchell Robinson and letting him hear about it while going back down the court late in the first quarter, he took a forearm to the face and appeared to say, “I'm in your head, bro,” while pointing to his right temple.

A similar play happened early in the second, when 6-foot guard Jose Alvarado jostled with Wembanyama before ultimately pushing the 7-4 big man's right leg to get him to the ground.

Things changed after halftime. San Antonio had its biggest lead of the night at 81-52 when Wembanyama elbowed Towns, and the Knicks outscored the Spurs 55-25 the rest of the way.

Wembanyama played all but three minutes of the first half, which coach Mitch Johnson called normal. Johnson said Wembanyama, who ended up playing nearly 44 minutes, got a little more playing time to try to close it out.

“With two days after this, what was at stake, we wanted to win the game and try to put it away,” Johnson said.

Asked if that caused him to wear down as the game went on, Wembanyama responded: “Substitution patterns, I don’t know. It’s not really my expertise. But, yeah, I guess I did.”

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

Infantino spoke with reporters during a rare question-and-answer session on the eve of the opening match of an expanded 48-nation, 104-game World Cup tournament. He defended record ticket prices, said FIFA was powerless to get the U.S. government to admit a Somali referee, and praised his ability to get Iran's national soccer team into the United States.

FIFA priced tickets starting at $140 for group-stage games, but regular seats for the July 19 final outside New York were listed at up to $8,680 and hospitality seats at up to $73,200. It raised prices for the final to $10,990 and then $32,970.

After much criticism, FIFA offered $60 tickets to national federations for their regular supporters. Infantino said 130,000 tickets were offered in that category.

Four years ago at the tournament in Qatar, prices ranged from $69 to $1,607.

“If you sell it at a lower price point,” he said, “in this particular market it would have gone — which is perfectly legal in this country ... in secondary markets at much, much, much higher prices and where would the money go then? Well, to those who organize secondary markets or black market activities and not to football.”

Infantino said the average ticket price was below $500 for the tournament and was comparable to other U.S. sports during their playoffs, a claim that while true for resale prices does not appear to be accurate for list prices. Major League Baseball's average World Series ticket price has been $350 to $400 in recent years and NFL prices last season averaged $230 for the wild-card round, $320 for divisional games, $450 for conference championships and $3,300 for the Super Bowl.

Infantino said he was unconcerned about ticket probes by attorneys general in California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

“When it comes to these legal investigations or complaints that were made in some states in the U.S.,” he said, "we are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell 6 and a half or 7 million tickets we check what we do with the best lawyers, with the best experts. If we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong, as well.”

Infantino pointed to the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs as an example of how other major American sporting events are experiencing a similar surge in prices.

The get-in price on FIFA's resale site for the World Cup final is $9,805. The NBA Finals have had wildly varied get-in prices, ranging from a minimum of about $500 for the first two games in San Antonio to about $10,000 for Game 3 in New York. Game 4 in New York was much less, dropping to about $4,000 on Wednesday.

The Stanley Cup Final this year between teams in Las Vegas and Raleigh, North Carolina, has included a get-in price of at least $600 for each of the first four games of the best-of-seven series.

“We welcome every investigation,” Infantino said. “We are happy to present everything, and we are happy to make our case.”

Infantino says FIFA is powerless to get US entry for denied Somali referee

Infantino said it was unfortunate Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry to the U.S.

“We don’t control everything. We try. We’ll discuss, we will speak, we’ll see. Maybe sometimes it’s good as well to just chill, relax,” he said. “We try to solve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don’t believe me if you don’t want, but we try always to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces.”

Set to become the first Somali referee at a World Cup, Artan was denied entry to the U.S. at Miami International Airport on Saturday over unspecified “vetting concerns,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, without giving details of the concerns.

“Our world is a very aggressive world and security goes above everything and you need to respect the decisions which are taken," Infantino said. “We are working behind the scenes.”

Infantino thinks FIFA deserves credit for ensuring Iran’s participation

Infantino praised FIFA for working through details that allow Iran to play in the tournament at a time the U.S. is at war with that country. The Iranian team moved its training camp from the U.S. to Mexico and will fly to the United States just before matches.

“I think it has already been successful to bring Iran to play in America," he said. “I don’t know who would have managed to do that. And of course everyone here believes it’s the right thing to do. But, again, we don’t live on the moon. We live on planet Earth and you have to deal with different situations.”

Infantino claimed the tournament will be “the biggest event probably in the history of mankind.”

Infantino claims tournament could not have taken place without Donald Trump

“Without his engagement and his involvement I think it would have been impossible — as simple as that, it would’ve been impossible to organize a World Cup in the United States,” Infantino said. “He understood immediately the magnitude of the World Cup, the impact of the World Cup.”

Infantino says FIFA could make far more money with more broadcast sales to pay services

FIFA is projecting $11 billion in revenue for the tournament, and Infantino said the governing body could have generated far more.

“We could put everything on pay. We would generate $30 billion revenues, probably," he said. "But then you have billions of people in the world who would not be able to watch the World Cup.”

This news conference went smoother than Infantino’s opening comments in Qatar

Four years ago, Infantino scolded critics during a news conference ahead of the opening match in Qatar. He lectured Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record during a bizarre appearance in which he claimed to feel gay, like a woman and a migrant worker, among other odd claims.

Now 56, Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and intends to seek another term next year that runs through 2031.

Infantino kept an empty seat at the news conference for Christophe Gleizes, a French freelance reporter given a seven-year prison sentence in Algeria last year over an interview with a soccer official accused of ties to a banned separatist movement.

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AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Trump has doubled down on his temporary pick for director of national intelligence, federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, even though he has little experience for the job. Democrats say they won't support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, unless he withdraws Pulte's appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

The impasse could soon result in limitations on what intelligence the U.S. government can collect abroad just as World Cup games begin in cities around the country and ahead of celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The law expires on Friday at midnight.

Trump on Wednesday asked Congress for a short-term extension of the law to “provide time for the selection and confirmation" of a permanent director.” But he stuck with Pulte as the acting head and said he wants to begin downsizing intelligence agencies.

“We can't let them extort us,” Trump said of Democrats.

Senate Republicans floated an short-term extension of the law after Trump's request, but it was immediately rejected by Democrats who argued that it's up to the president to replace Pulte.

As the bill stalled in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House would hold a vote Thursday on a stopgap to keep the program running through July 2 even as the chances of passage appeared slim.

“We’re going to ask every member here to do the right thing,” Johnson said. “We cannot allow that to go dark.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said if Trump wants a shot at a short-term extension, he needs to pull the Pulte appointment. Pulte is a “disgraceful individual” and a “partisan political hack" who is deeply unqualified for the job, Jeffries said.

GOP leaders lobby the White House, to no avail

Congressional Republicans have lobbied Trump all week to quickly nominate a permanent replacement. But he said he needs more time to do so.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that Republican leaders have “made our views known” to the White House about the easiest way to get the bill passed, and “we’re just doing what we can here to ensure that the White House understands what will be necessary in order to make that happen.”

Trump said on Friday that he is interviewing five candidates for his pick to lead the agency permanently and that all have a national security background.

“It’s an important position and one that I think will be filled by a highly qualified person,” said Johnson, who met with Trump twice this week to talk about the FISA impasse.

Trump made it very clear, Johnson said, that Pulte will serve a “very short term — a sort of renovation role” to help the Office of the Director of National Intelligence be “renovated and downsized.”

To unlock votes for FISA, the pick would have to be soon — and Trump's choice would have to satisfy both Republicans and Democrats.

One of several possible replacements could be Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The White House has reached out to Hoekstra about the job and conversations are ongoing, according to a person familiar with the outreach who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

FISA will lapse at midnight Friday

Section 702 of FISA allows agencies such as the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.

While members of both parties who cite privacy issues have long wanted to limit the authority, there was broad bipartisan support to renew it, especially after Republicans and Democrats recently worked out a compromise bill.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has worked with Republicans on the compromise legislation to renew the authority. But he called Pulte’s appointment to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard “a live hand grenade” as they were trying to pass it. Republican leaders tried to start the process last week, but seven Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in blocking a long-term extension after Pulte was appointed. (

Warner said Wednesday that the only way he’ll support a short-term extension of the surveillance law is if the principal deputy director of national intelligence, Aaron Lukas, is the acting leader during the duration of that extension.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have warned the administration that the spy tool is likely to lapse.

The administration should prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection,” they wrote in a letter.

Trump doesn't back down on Pulte

After bipartisan pushback to Pulte’s temporary appointment, Trump said last week that he would not permanently nominate him to the position. But Democrats, and some Republicans, want his appointment pulled immediately and for Trump to nominate a replacement that can be confirmed by the Senate.

On Tuesday, though, Trump announced that Pulte would not only take over as acting director — he'd also start earlier than expected, on June 19.

And he stuck with Pulte on Wednesday, posting that he needed more time to find a permanent replacement and telling reporters that the agencies need to be downsized.

Both Republican and Democratic senators skeptical of Pulte have pointed to his lack of intelligence experience and also his record at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In the position, the Trump loyalist has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve.

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Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

1. Mexico (15)
2. South Africa (61)
3. South Korea (22)
4. The Czech Republic (41)

June 11: Day 1 of Group A matches

Mexico’s opener against South Africa is at 3 p.m. on June 11 in Mexico City.

South Korea plays the winner of Czech Republic at 10 p.m. on June 11 in Guadalajara.

June 18: Day 2 of Group A matches

The Czech Republic plays South Africa at Noon on June 18 in Atlanta.

Mexico plays South Korea at 9 p.m. on June 18 in Guadalajara.

June 24: Day 3 of Group A matches

The Czech Republic plays against Mexico at 9 p.m. on June 24 in Mexico City.

South Africa plays against South Korea at 9 p.m. on June 24 in Monterrey.

Track the groups

• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group K
• Group L

Speaking to fans and boosters at the Houston Touchdown Club, coach Joey McGuire acknowledged the “rage” surrounding the situation, with athletic directors across college football saying that the NCAA ban on players who gamble should remain sacrosanct and a court order won this week by Sorsby to restore his eligibility crossed a line that should never be crossed.

“For some reason, as a society, we’ve been OK with other things that happen and allowing players to play, and this has been the one thing that has united people, that they were against,” McGuire said. “It’s crazy because it’s not murder, it’s not beating somebody -- so there’s a lot of things that we’re working through. None of this is OK.”

Texas Tech officials canceled a news conference that was scheduled for before the luncheon. After his speech, McGuire said he'd only take questions from “Red Raider fans” and answered them for about 10 minutes.

According to court filingss earlier this year, Sorsby made thousands of impermissible bets on college and pro sports that were worth at least $90,000 while at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. Those bets include the ones he made while a freshman with the Hoosiers in 2022, though none were on games in which he played. Sorsby sought the injunction against the NCAA in a lawsuit filed May 18, the same day Texas Tech ruled him ineligible, a necessary step before the school could pursue his reinstatement — an effort twice denied by the NCAA.

Three top Texas Tech leaders go on the offensive

Cody Campbell, the billionaire Texas Tech booster and chairman of its board of regents, issued a statement and so did athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who said he wanted to “offer a few facts that seem to be getting lost in the noise" and noting the school is not part of Sorsby's lawsuit against the NCAA.

“A young man in treatment for a clinically diagnosed addiction exercised his legal right to seek a remedy in court and a judge agreed with him,” Hocutt said. “Our role has been to support his recovery, not to engineer his eligibility.”

Under the court order, Sorsby will be suspended for the first two games of the season. The NCAA plans to appeal the ruling, with President Charlie Baker telling reporters in Las Vegas that the case illustrated “a new low” in college sports.

McGuire likened Sorsby recovering from his addiction to fellow Texas Tech quarterback Will Hammond’s recovery from knee surgery. Both he and Hocutt said Sorsby would be evaluated — “his recovery, compliance and readiness," the athletic director said — before he would be cleared to play in Week 3 against Houston on Sept. 18 in the team's Big 12 opener.

“I’ve sat down with this young man multiple times and the things that he is going through and what he’s been through, it’s serious," McGuire said. “And I have a number of people in my family that were addicted to different stuff and so I’ve seen what addiction does to people.”

Billionaire booster says boycotting Texas Tech could lead to legal action

Campbell, a key figure in helping Texas Tech land top players over the past two years, took a far more aggressive and defiant stance on a podcast appearance with Dan Dakich.

“As it stands right now, the kid is eligible, so we don’t have a whole lot of choice but to play him," he said. "Not only on a legal grounds, but ethically and morally. We told him we were going to back him up and support him, and Texas Tech does what it says it’s going to do and keeps the promises it makes.”

He also addressed reports that schools have been talking about boycotting Texas Tech in light of the ruling, suggesting that could lead to legal action.

“I love when the Big Ten or the K-State AD comes out and says we’ve all gotten together and we’ve talked about how we’re not going to play Tech, because guess what? That’s collusion,” he said. "That’s an antitrust violation. So have fun with that one, guys. You can’t do that.”

Hocutt also struck back at those who questioned what this does to the integrity of college football.

“The integrity of sport matters,” he said, “So does the integrity of how we treat a 22-year-old who sought help, entered residential treatment, and is working every day toward recovery. Those two things don’t have to be in conflict.”

McGuire was adamant that the most important thing in this story is supporting Sorsby in his “darkest times.”

“He’s the first person to tell you it was his fault,” McGuire said. “He chose to do this, but when you know anything about addiction, there’s a point that you choose it and then all of a sudden you don’t choose it anymore. There’s not something that you can do by yourself to get past where you’re at. So I wasn’t going to turn my back on him.”

McGuire added that Sorsby was “back in the building” after spending some time away from the facilities while he was dealing with his issues.

“Do I see a different person? I know it sounds crazy, but I do,” McGuire said. “I see a kid that feels like he’s got 1,000 pounds of weight lifted off of him. He’s made the statement that he feels like this is a moment that can actually change his life.”

Sorsby may soon explain himself to fans, critics

The coach also said that Sorsby wants to address fans of his new school.

“At some point soon, I would expect Red Raiders will hear from Brendan Sorsby because I think it’s really important,” McGuire said. “And I will tell you, he thinks it’s really important for him to get everybody to understand exactly where he’s at.”

The injunction comes with conditions that Sorsby must continue counseling for his gambling and to participate in peer support through Gamblers Anonymous or a similar group. He also must continue treatment to address “the underlying anxiety that served as the primary driver of (his) gambling behavior.”

McGuire said Sorsby is working through many things right now and provided more details on restrictions that will be put in place for the quarterback in his return. He said that there will be technology on any device he has “for us to know everything that’s going on.” Sorsby, who reportedly signed a multimillion-dollar deal to join the Red Raiders after two years at Cincinnati and two years at Indiana, will have a person that will account for “every single penny that he has.”

“The proper steps are in place to get for him to get to the point where we can get him playing,” McGuire said. “There’s a lot of stuff to go through.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Leer en español

Sunrise police said officers responded around 12:18 a.m. to reports of gunfire on Sunrise Lakes Boulevard near Pine Island Road and Oakland Park Boulevard.

Police said that when officers arrived, they found a 70-year-old man dead at the scene.

Investigators later revealed the victim was an amputee who used a wheelchair.

Police said the suspect, who has not yet been identified, was apprehended in Dania Beach with assistance from the Broward Sheriff’s Office after fleeing the area following the shooting.

Authorities said the suspect is facing one count each of murder with a dangerous, depraved mind without premeditation, fleeing and eluding, and resisting arrest.

On Wednesday morning, a Local 10 News crew observed Sunrise police detaining a man who was allegedly arguing with officers. That man identified himself as the caretaker of the victim, though it was not immediately clear whether he faces charges.

About 13 miles away in Dania Beach, a Local 10 News crew spotted Sunrise police surrounding a purple Chevrolet sedan. Police sources told Local 10 News the vehicle was connected to the shooting as investigators tracked down the suspect before the arrest.

Police said the incident appears to be isolated and there is no ongoing threat to the public.

No other details about the shooting were immediately released.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

La policía de Sunrise informó que los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 12:18 a.m. a reportes de disparos en Sunrise Lakes Boulevard, cerca de Pine Island Road y Oakland Park Boulevard.

La policía dijo a Saira Anwer, de Local 10, que cuando los agentes llegaron encontraron a un hombre muerto en la escena.

Los residentes dijeron a los investigadores que la víctima era un hombre mayor, de aproximadamente 70 años, aunque la policía aún no ha confirmado su identidad.

La policía informó que un sospechoso fue detenido poco después de la balacera.

Indicaron que la información preliminar señala que el incidente parece ser aislado y que no existe una amenaza activa para el público.

En la escena, un equipo de Local 10 News observó a la policía de Sunrise reteniendo a un hombre. El hombre se identificó como el cuidador de la víctima, aunque no estaba claro de inmediato si enfrenta cargos.

Los investigadores también fueron vistos en una segunda escena en Dania Beach, cerca de un sedán Chevrolet morado.

La policía no ha confirmado si ambas escenas están relacionadas, pero los investigadores trabajan para determinar si el vehículo está vinculado con la balacera o con la detención del sospechoso.

Las autoridades no han divulgado los nombres de la víctima ni del sospechoso.

No se dieron a conocer de inmediato más detalles sobre la balacera.

Cualquier persona con información sobre cualquiera de los casos debe llamar a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

But the situations are notably different.

Vegas had home-ice advantage against Utah and Anaheim, winning both series in six games after they were each 2-2. Now the Golden Knights have to figure out a way to win two of the next three games in the Stanley Cup Final with the possibility that two will be at Carolina, including what would be a winner-take-all Game 7.

Game 5 is there Thursday night.

But the Golden Knights have more issues to confront against the Hurricanes than trying to sneak out a win in one of the NHL's most daunting atmospheres. Whether the Golden Knights address these issues will go a long way toward determining whether they hoist the Cup for the second time in four seasons or rue the missed opportunities of what could have been.

Eichel struggling to score

Jack Eichel has 20 points in the postseason, second only in the NHL to teammate Mitch Marner's 29.

But Eichel has scored just two goals in the playoffs and none in the past six games going back to the Western Conference Final against Colorado. He always has been a pass-first player, but even there Eichel has just two assists against the Hurricanes.

If it's true the stars have to be a team's best players in the playoffs, the Golden Knights badly need Eichel to get back on the scoresheet. He almost did in Tuesday night's 5-3 loss, hitting the puck just over the crossbar on what would have been the tying goal late in the third period. If that had gone in, Vegas might be heading to Carolina for a potential closeout game.

“I know Jack doesn’t have the goals,” Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said after the game. “He was close tonight. He had the game on his stick on the faceoff there, just missed, hit the crossbar, one-timer. I think they’re developing chances, but we do need to finish when we have some opportunities.”

Hart no longer looking so dominant

It’s not all on goalie Carter Hart, who was lights out in the first three rounds. He has been the victim of numerous defensive breakdowns in front of him.

But it’s still hard to dispute the numbers.

Hart was 12-4 with a .924 save percentage and 2.22 goals-against average before the final. He was in the conversation for the Conn Smythe Trophy that goes to the top player in the postseason before allowing four goals in each of the first four games of the final.

Against the Hurricanes, he has an .861 save percentage and 3.60 GAA.

Hart has shined at times. His play in double overtime in Game 3 in which he turned back some dangerous chances was critical in helping the Golden Knights win. But Hart also has given up goals in bunches at times when his team could use at least one big save to minimize the damage.

And some help from the defense would be timely. The Golden Knights had just 12 blocked shots on Tuesday, tying their lowest this postseason.

“Just trust our system, trust each other to step up, block shots, make plays and win our battles,” center Colton Sissons said. “Hartsy will be there when we need him.”

Special teams not so special

Vegas entered the final converting on 23.9% of its power plays, part of a special teams unit that was largely responsible for winning the West. But against the Hurricanes, that number is 8.3%.

On one power play Tuesday, the Golden Knights spent a minute and a half in the offensive zone passing the puck looking for the perfect shot that never came. That did the Hurricanes' work for them.

It's the same on the penalty kill. Carolina entered this series by converting on 12.5% of is power plays, but that number is 36.4% against the Golden Knights.

What makes it even more surprising is the Golden Knights' penalty kill was humming before facing Carolina, working at an 87.5% clip and with a league-best four short-handed goals.

The Hurricanes technically had one power-play goal in Game 4, but another came right after time expired.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Briscoe died Sunday at an assisted living facility in Kapolei, Hawaii, said his wife, Leonor Briscoe. He was diagnosed in April with amyloidosis, a disorder in which protein buildup can lead to organ damage.

In a career spanning decades and continents, Briscoe brought a reporter’s curiosity to his native Utah, to Washington and to Hawaii. But it was his perch in Manila that put him at the center of his biggest story.

Taking the helm as bureau chief in 1980, Briscoe charted the waning years of Ferdinand Marcos’ authoritarian regime and the turmoil unleashed by the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. He and his staff fanned out across the country in chartered planes, rented jeeps and, at least once, a horse-drawn cart. They covered a relentless stretch of investigations, hearings and a presidential campaign so improbable it seemed scripted, with a reluctant widow thrust by tragedy to the forefront of a democratic movement.

That thrilling conclusion, with Corazon Aquino ascending to the presidency and Marcos dramatically driven into exile, would stay with Briscoe forever. He recalled searing images “of nuns kneeling in front of military tanks” and “soldiers and civilians crying in each other’s arms.”

“I expect to witness or cover no greater event in my life,” he wrote in AP World, an in-house magazine, in 1986, recounting his coverage of the upheaval.

A love affair with the Philippines

David Chesley Briscoe was born July 30, 1943, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a union steward father and a homemaker mother who raised her two sons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew interested in journalism at the University of Utah, writing for the student paper and eventually getting hired at the Deseret News, where editors handed him obituary assignments and pieces on standout local students.

After two years there, Briscoe signed up for the Peace Corps and was assigned to Paracale, and then Naga City, in the Philippines, where he taught English. For a young man who had scarcely left Utah in his youth, every corner seemed to be a revelation, of water buffalo shimmering from mud baths and children running down dirt roads.

He was smitten with his new home. When his Peace Corps tour ended, Briscoe bristled at the idea of leaving. He found work at a local newspaper, and while staffing an event in which Marcos was to speak, he met the former Leonor Aureus, editor of a rival paper. The two were soon walking down an aisle they lined with copies of The Naga Times and the Bicol Mail.

A dramatic revolution unfolds

Briscoe was hired by the AP in Manila in 1970, covering a deadly earthquake that rocked the capital, an assassination attempt on Pope Paul VI and the hijacking of a plane. By the next year, though, AP said he’d have to spend some time working in the U.S. He returned to Salt Lake, hoping fate might someday bring him back to the Philippines.

In his hometown, he found ties with his faith were fraying. His wife says he was disciplined by the church after discussing its exclusion of Black men from its priesthood in a class he taught. Briscoe opposed the ban. The church later lifted the restriction.

He also found himself at odds with the church over a three-part series he wrote with a colleague, Bill Beecham, examining its intricate web of business interests and tithing by its members that the reporters estimated brought in more than $1 billion a year. No Utah newspaper dared to run the stories, the pair said.

Briscoe spent nine years in Salt Lake before his bosses dangled a chance to return to Manila as bureau chief. He rushed to phone his wife with the news.

“Noree, are you sitting down?” she remembered him asking.

From Washington back to the Pacific

After his six-year stint running the AP’s office in the Philippines, Briscoe moved in 1986 to Washington, where he focused on international affairs. He was bureau chief in Honolulu from 2001 until retiring in 2009.

There, dressed in aloha shirts and bathed in a tropical sun, Briscoe could again call a Pacific island home. He spoke of being “halfway back.”

To his final days, he cherished his time in the Philippines. As the end neared, his family gathered around him and prayed. He grabbed his wife's hand, told her he loved her, and asked her to let him go.

The family plans to hire a boat and scatter Briscoe’s ashes in the waters of the Pacific, hoping the currents take his remains back to his adopted home.

“The land that David learned to love,” his wife said, “and where he met the love of his life.”

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

The immunization schedule is specifically for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women. It aligns with prior recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before changes were made under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists withdrew from a CDC advisory committee on vaccines because of those changes, which have spawned legal challenges.

“So now for the first time, ACOG has made the decision to formally release its own immunization schedule to provide and communicate clear evidence-based guidance and to address the growing vaccine misinformation that is circulating,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, the OB-GYN group’s chief of clinical practice.

The new schedule has been endorsed by 13 other professional and medical societies. Some other groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have also put out vaccine schedules this year that differ from the CDC's.

Here’s what you need to know about the OB-GYN group's advice.

What does the OB-GYN group advise?

Four immunizations are routinely recommended during pregnancy:

— The flu vaccine, which can be taken any trimester, at any time of year, although it’s best to get it in early fall.

— The COVID-19 shot, which can be taken during any trimester at any time of year, although it’s best to receive it as soon as possible during pregnancy.

— A tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) shot, preferably as early as possible between 27 and 36 weeks.

— A respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy in your first pregnancy, during September through January in most parts of the U.S. If you had the RSV vaccine during a previous pregnancy, you do not need to get it again, the group says, but your baby should get an antibody shot after birth. Your baby can also get that shot instead of you receiving the maternal vaccine.

Other vaccines –- pneumococcal, meningococcal, hepatitis A and hepatitis B –- may be needed for women with certain risk factors. The group recommends talking with your doctor about them.

Three others are recommended before pregnancy or after birth, protecting against human papillomavirus; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.

How do these recommendations differ from CDC advice?

The biggest difference involves the COVID-19 vaccine.

Last May, Kennedy announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy pregnant women and children — a move immediately questioned by several public health experts.

Spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Are health care providers seeing pushback on vaccines?

Yes. Several spoke at an event announcing the new guidelines.

“Vaccine hesitancy is huge in this country right now," said Carol Hayes of the American College of Nurse Midwives. “Patients come in all the time saying I’ve done my own research, and sadly, they’re doing research and they’re getting information that is not scientifically based.”

Sarah Vaillancourt of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health said her organization’s members are seeing much the same. Some of the confusion is being fueled by social media, she said.

In such a landscape, she said, it’s “really useful” for the OB-GYN group to provide accurate information for patients.

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

These big coastal floods happen when high tides and storm surges — the amount above normal tide level — combine with seas that are already rising. Those pile on top of natural climate patterns and other human influence.

Climate change has strengthened storms like Hurricane Ian, which caused significant flooding in 2022, scientists say. Flooding threatens hundreds of millions of people each year in low-lying coastal areas across the globe. It also causes billions of dollars in damage and can be deadly.

Floods that historically had a 1% chance of striking a coastline in a year are now about 12 times more likely, on average, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Wednesday. Those events have become about four times more likely due to human-driven climate change, the research shows.

Researchers looked at how often extreme sea level events — which cause coastal flooding — happen by considering long-term records from tide gauges at more than 100 sites, as well as using climate modeling. The study looked at the increase from 1900 to 2005. It was limited through 2005 because after that, there weren't enough models that could point to instances of human-driven climate change. The researchers said their findings likely understate today's risk, because human contributions to changes in coastal extremes have only increased since then.

Researchers looked at which changes were caused by human activity, natural forces or shifts in the landscape. Although sea level changes earlier in the 20th century could mostly be chalked up to natural forces, the scientists found that since the 1960s, human-caused warming was the main reason sea levels are going up.

A separate study published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday also supports the idea that extreme ocean heights come from climate change, specifically around 58% of the days with big floods from 2000 to 2018. Climate change has also, on average, nearly tripled the number of days where the sea tops extreme flood levels since the 1970s, according to that study.

“Essentially every coastal flood today has human fingerprints on it through climate change,” said Ben Strauss, chief scientist at Climate Central and a co-author of the Science Advances study. “Without the extra bit of sea level rise caused by global heating, most of these events would not have reached the status of flood.”

The research in Nature Climate Change didn't fully examine individual human factors, said Sönke Dangendorf, the lead author, but he noted greenhouse gases — the result of burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal — are the most significant.

“Since the 1970s, it’s by far the dominating factor, and this is of course not good news,” said Dangendorf, also an associate professor at Tulane University. He said the threat is growing, and communities need to do more to prepare.

Jeff Williams, a retired United States Geological Survey oceanographer who wasn’t part of either study, said the research shows that planners need to take the growing threats into account. They should also think about how much money they'll need to increase coastal protection, he said, and figure out who pays for it.

The current protections for New Orleans, for instance, “will likely not be adequate beyond the next couple decades,” Williams said.

Nations across the globe are increasingly using renewable energies like solar and wind. Last year, clean power generation exceeded overall global electricity demand growth, and the share of renewables hit more than one-third of the world’s electricity mix for the first time.

Even in the United States, where the Trump administration has boosted fossil fuels, solar is growing as coal power declines. As such, scientists have recently said the world is no longer on track for the worst case scenario for warming — but it's also not on track to the best case, either.

“The impacts, even of a relatively little sea level rise, can be pretty impactful on our coasts,” Dangendorf, the Tulane author, said.

“There is a silver lining because we have control about how much we emit, right?” he said. “So we can stop that development, at least to some degree.”

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Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, will host four World Cup matches including South Korea against Czech Republic on the opening day Thursday. Mexico is co-hosting the tournament with the United States and Canada.

Local officials say visitors have nothing to worry about despite the outbreak in violence in February following the Mexican military’s killing of the country’s most powerful cartel boss. The operation and waves of violence killed 70 people as cartel gunmen set fire to cars to block streets and fought with Mexican forces.

“It’s important to remember that normalcy returned to the state in less than 48 hours after what happened in February,” Alfonso Briseño, the security coordinator in Jalisco told The Associated Press in the run-up to the World Cup. “I invite all tourists, all citizens of other countries, especially those who will be playing here in Guadalajara... They will be welcome. The Mexican government and the state of Jalisco guarantee their safety.”

Briseño stressed that Jalisco has not faced any security issues recently and that a resurgence of trouble was not expected. He said local authorities were prepared to react quickly if anything happened again.

Nearly 15,000 security personnel have been deployed in the region, including National Guard officers with assault rifles and vehicle-mounted machine guns near the stadium where the games will be played.

“We are feeling very safe. We are not concerned about the same issues that we had a few months ago,” said Rodolfo Valencia, a 22-year-old resident of Guadalajara. “You can see a lot more police on the streets and there is a sense that there won’t be any problems around here. Having the World Cup here has helped because the authorities had to take action and make sure that everything goes well.”

Jalisco state is the central hub of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, whose leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” was killed in a capture attempt by the military in February.

Security in Guadalajara will be a special concern for the June 26 match between Spain and Uruguay, when Spain's King Felipe VI is expected to attend.

Mexico has stepped up security countrywide

More than 100,000 soldiers, marines, National Guard and police officers were expected to be deployed across the three Mexican host cities — Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey — as well as in major tourist destinations during the World Cup.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday the “the opening ceremony is guaranteed” and “the World Cup will be enjoyed.”

Anti-drone teams, surveillance-camera networks, special crowd management units and military and police patrols will operate during the duration of the tournament at Mexican stadiums, fan fests, airports, national-team camps and other strategic facilities in coordination with FIFA.

Cartel violence may be less of an issue than street protests by groups trying to capitalize on the World Cup spotlight to cause unrest, traffic disruptions and bringing central parts of the city to a standstill.

Demonstrators recently knocked down figures of World Cup soccer players, broke into a government building and even played a soccer match on a blockaded street.

Teachers, families of Mexico’s 130,000 missing people, animal rights groups and a range of other social movements in Mexico were trying to put pressure on authorities and make demands.

The U.S. Embassy on Tuesday reiterated its travel advisory for Americans to reconsider going to Jalisco. It also advised visitors to exercise extreme caution in Mexico City and Nuevo León, where Monterrey is located.

Briseño dismissed concerns about security in the region.

“We are prepared for any contingency,” he said in Guadalajara. “We are going to be the best venue, the most Mexican, the most hospitable, and the safest.”

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Associated Press writer María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Sean O'Malley earned American style points for dressing in red — his hair and suit — and blue — dress shirt, tie and, well, hair again — and Michael Chandler visualized accessorizing his fight night walk-out before he dished out a patriotic pounding draped in an American flag.

“For me to walk from the White House to the octagon to represent America, to represent myself, to represent just who I am and what this country means to me,” Chandler said, “it’s just a dream come true.”

The usual foul-mouthed fight hype from UFC's American fighters ahead of their prime-time debut Sunday on the White House grounds largely yielded to bursts of national pride Wednesday.

O'Malley, known as much for his cornucopia of colors that turn his locks into rainbows or cotton candy tops as his fight skills, tried to downplay the week and called it business as usual. In the next breath, O'Malley confessed fighting on a UFC card on the South Lawn was indeed “epic.”

Hokit, meanwhile, wasn't about to modify his style on the microphone just because he will fight in the mixed martial arts show timed to coincide with President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

"You'll never see me apologize for anything I do,” Hokit said.

Well, the heavyweight is in the right city for that declaration. He was one of several fighters who added a dash of brashness and boldness in the nation's capital just four days before the surreal juxtaposition of pummeling and patriotism set for Trump and UFC boss Dana White's big-fight vision of UFC Freedom 250.

Forget the Washington Monument. The claw, the temporary arena structure that houses the eight-sided cage, is the buzziest landmark this week in DC.

Weather is a slight concern for fight night

Umbrellas were a necessary accessory around Washington early Wednesday and the threat of heavier rain later in the week, which could dampen both a scheduled press conference at the Lincoln Memorial as well as fight night, was the only true concern ahead of the fight card.

White, who helped launch UFC into a global sports empire, insisted inclement weather will not keep the spectacle from proceeding as scheduled.

“We're going to be good on Sunday,” White said this week. “I don't care if it snows, rains, we're going. Even lightning. You guys all played sports when you were growing up. Whenever there was lightning, you'd sit the lightning out. When it was over, you played. That's what we'll do.”

Two titles at stake on the South Lawn

While the South Lawn setting normally reserved for low-contact events like the annual Easter Egg Roll is the real star of the show, there are two championship fights set for the Paramount+ show.

In a card that has been panned by fans online as underwhelming, Brazil’s Alex Pereira will meet France’s Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Then Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion Ilia Topuria takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje, one of just two Americans who currently hold even a share of the UFC’s 11 championship belts.

Middleweight Bo Nickal was a three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Penn State who was awed when he met Trump in 2019 at the White House during a ceremony for collegiate national champions.

"The president said hello to all the teams,” Nickal said Wednesday. “When he got to us, he was all excited because he likes wrestlers. He talked to us for maybe 10, 15 minutes because he likes chatting.”

Nickal is set to fight on the main card Sunday against Philadelphia fighter Kyle Daukaus. Nickal called fighting on the show a “massive opportunity,” and one he may have manifested back in that 2019 meeting.

“I told him at that time in 2019 that I was going to fight at UFC,” Nickal said. “He asked if I needed an agent. He’s put in a good word for me, obviously, getting on this card.”

The bulk of UFC's roster seemingly threw their names on the ballot and hoped to get the call they would fight in front of the president.

Chandler, the 40-year-old Missouri native, laughed when he said he would feel “as high as kite in the best way possible” on his way to the cage. He was thrilled when he earned a lightweight bout against Mauricio Ruffy.

“Even if you're not watching, you've heard about this card, whether you like to admit it or not,” Chandler said.

White not fazed by federal lawsuit

Not everyone is on board with fighters commandeering the same South Lawn where Dwight D. Eisenhower once put in a putting green.

A federal lawsuit filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of two Virginia residents contends the Trump administration’s authorization of the event was unlawful. The lawsuit says such approval violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, Congress did not consent to the towering arch overlooking the event space and no environmental review was conducted before the construction.

White, a long-time friend and former business associate of Trump's from the days when Boardwalk cards at Trump Taj Mahal lifted UFC into relevancy, brushed off the idea the lawsuit could halt the fight card.

“We were expecting a lawsuit,” White said. “We expected everything coming into this event. We thought it would be sooner. We knew it was going to come. We didn't know who or how, but we knew it was going to come.”

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

It means AI agents can not only recommend products but complete the purchase on the user’s behalf at potentially any merchant that accepts Visa. The payment network's previous attempts at this technological leap were confined to a single retailer or a small set of enrolled merchants.

It is not OpenAI’s first attempt at e-commerce. The company late last year announced Instant Checkout, which allowed ChatGPT to scour the internet for a specific item like a digital personal shopper. But the process was prone to errors and was not widely adopted by merchants due to the fee that OpenAI was charging merchants. The company retired Instant Checkout in March.

Visa’s collaboration is different from OpenAI’s previous attempts, as it will allow users to link their Visa cards to ChatGPT to shop and make it easier for merchants to accept transactions initiated by agents.

OpenAI will provide the technology to allow agents to interact, make decisions and initiate purchases through ChatGPT. Visa, the world’s largest payment network outside of China, will provide the payment authorization and fraud monitoring needed to do this at scale.

“As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa’s focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure and seamless,” said Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer at Visa.

ChatGPT as a personal shopper

Speaking at a company event Wednesday in San Francisco, Forestell gave an example of a customer telling ChatGPT they're looking for a pair of wireless headphones under $150. The chatbot would find a pair for sale under those parameters and buy it on behalf of the customer.

“I think we're generally at a place where most people are very comfortable with the shopping aspects of it and have discovered this as a superior discovery experience,” Forestell said in an interview. But, he added, making the leap from having AI agents recommend what to buy to doing the purchasing “just requires a whole different level of trust.”

“But that all comes from the underlying infrastructure, the process, the security that we build into it and the rules,” he said.

Visa and OpenAI did not disclose the financial terms of the collaboration and did not give details on the fees merchants or customers would have to pay.

Instant Checkout charged merchants 4% of the transaction's value, which merchants saw as being too expensive.

Guardrails include spending limits, approvals

Allowing AI agents to buy products on behalf of a consumer raises concerns for both banks and retailers. A customer could overspend, or the agent buys the wrong item, or the customer claims they did not authorize that transaction. Banks have been concerned about potential fraud claims that could occur when an agent uses a bank customer’s credit or debit card.

Visa says the feature will have guardrails like spending limits, required approval steps and approved merchants for shopping in order to protect consumers and minimize fraud.

Forestell said Visa will handle disputes with the same essential rules it uses for any other transaction: Did the consumer really intend to make the purchase and did the merchant process it the correct way? Where it might change, he added, is if both the consumer intent and the merchant processing were done the right way, but “something happened in the middle that caused a problem.”

“And that’s why we’re modifying our whole token framework and data capture process with Visa Intelligent Commerce to make sure that problem doesn’t happen,” Forestell said.

Retailers have introduced shopping assistants powered by AI that can recommend products and personalize the customer's shopping experience, with the earliest iterations of those experiments being Amazon’s Alexa. But Alexa could only shop on Amazon, and OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature was limited to select merchants.

Visa’s biggest competitor, Mastercard, has also been introducing its own AI-shopping features to its payment network on a smaller scale.

Mastercard announced that AI agents will have the capability to procure services on behalf of a business. For example, a coffee shop wants to start an advertising campaign as part of a launch, so it gives an AI agent the authorization to purchase services from web and ad providers in order for the coffee shop to build out its campaign.

It will take time for people to fully trust AI agents to do their shopping, Forestell acknowledged. At first, Visa expects the majority of transactions to still loop in humans, with AI agents sending a notification for consumers to approve the actual purchase.

“Now, imagine you do that a thousand times over the course of some period of time,” he said. “And then your agent says, ‘Do you want me to just not check?’”

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Sweet reported from New York.

Long considered among the best actors to never win one, the eight-time nominee will get an honorary Academy Award along with director Ridley Scott and animator Floyd Norman at the annual Governors Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.

“Throughout her extraordinary body of work, Glenn Close’s unparalleled emotional range has brought to life some of the most complex characters in cinema,” the academy said in a statement. “Floyd Norman is the legendary animator who has broken barriers and inspired generations of artists over his remarkable career. Sir Ridley Scott is a true visionary whose decades-long legacy has left an immeasurable impact on global cinema and culture.”

Nominations for the 79-year-old Close date back to 1983, when she got her first nod for “The World According to Garp.” She was also nominated for her blockbuster turn as a rabbit-slaying stalker in 1987's “Fatal Attraction” and was most recently up for a statuette for 2020's “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Her eight nominations tie her with Peter O'Toole for the most for an actor without a win.

She has won virtually every other major award within reach, including three Emmys, three Tonys, three Grammys and three Golden Globes.

The Governors Awards often go to artists with extraordinary careers, but no competitive Oscar. Tom Cruise, a recipient last year, is a case in point.

Scott, the 88-year-old director of “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator” whose epic decades of work have blended popular success and prestige like few others, has also never won despite four nominations, including best director nods for “Thelma & Louise” and “Black Hawk Down.”

Norman’s 65-year career began in 1956 when he became the first Black animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios, contributing to “Sleeping Beauty,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book” and Robin Hood.” Decades later, he would work on “Mulan,” “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.”

Producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler will get the academy's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production,” the academy said.

Vachon and Koffler co-founded the New York-based indie production hub Killer Films in 1995. Their credits as producers include “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” One Hour Photo” and “May December.” Both were nominated for best picture Oscars for “Past Lives” in 2024. Killer Films' output includes “Velvet Goldmine,” “Happiness,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Far from Heaven” and “Carol.”

The academy statement says the two “play a central role in American independent cinema, championing bold, ambitious and distinctive storytelling.”

All the winners will be honored at a ceremony on Nov. 15 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood, the same complex that hosts the main Oscars ceremony. Along with luminaries who worked with the honorees, the event has been increasingly packed with young stars as it has become the unofficial kickoff to Hollywood's award season campaigning.

The Governors Awards, named for the academy's board of governors and not the leader of the state, honor “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences in any discipline, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

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Latifah Marie Thompson, 32, of West Perrine, was arrested by deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and remains held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Wednesday, jail records show.

According to an arrest report, deputies responded around 10:30 a.m. Saturday to the area of Southwest 174th Street and 102nd Avenue after receiving reports of a stabbing.

Deputies said after arriving at the scene, they found a man suffering from lacerations to the top and back of his head.

They said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue medics treated him at the scene before transporting him to Jackson South Medical Center.

A witness told investigators that Thompson struck the victim several times in the head with what she believed was a Sawzall power tool before fleeing the area, according to the report.

Investigators later interviewed the victim, who identified Thompson as the person who attacked him, the report states. Medical staff said the victim suffered head lacerations and a fractured spine.

Records show Thompson was charged in that case with attempted felony murder causing injury.

Less than four hours later, at approximately 3 p.m., deputies said they responded to the area of 10230 Southwest 176th St. regarding another stabbing.

Deputies said they found a woman suffering from a stab wound to her back. She was treated at the scene and taken to Jackson South Medical Center for further treatment.

They said the victim told investigators she had been involved in an altercation with Thompson when Thompson allegedly produced a knife and stabbed her in the back. The victim identified Thompson as her attacker, the report states.

Deputies located Thompson the following day near Southwest 172nd Street and Southwest 102nd Avenue after a resident alerted an officer that she had been seen in the area, according to the report.

Thompson was taken into custody and faces one count of attempted felony murder causing injury and one count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm with a deadly weapon in connection with both incidents, according to jail records.

A motive for both stabbings wasn’t immediately released.

Latifah Marie Thompson, de 32 años y residente de West Perrine, fue arrestada por agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade y permanece detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight hasta el miércoles, según registros de la cárcel.

Según un informe de arresto, los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 10:30 a.m. del sábado al área de Southwest 174th Street y 102nd Avenue tras recibir reportes de un apuñalamiento.

Los agentes informaron que al llegar a la escena encontraron a un hombre con laceraciones en la parte superior y posterior de la cabeza.

Indicaron que paramédicos de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue lo atendieron en el lugar antes de trasladarlo al Centro Médico Jackson South.

Una testigo dijo a los investigadores que Thompson golpeó varias veces a la víctima en la cabeza con lo que creía era una herramienta eléctrica Sawzall antes de huir del área, según el informe.

Posteriormente, los investigadores entrevistaron a la víctima, quien identificó a Thompson como la persona que lo atacó, señala el informe. El personal médico indicó que la víctima sufrió laceraciones en la cabeza y una fractura en la columna vertebral.

Los registros muestran que Thompson fue acusada en ese caso de intento de asesinato grave con lesiones.

Menos de cuatro horas después, aproximadamente a las 3 p.m., los agentes respondieron al área de 10230 Southwest 176th St. por otro apuñalamiento.

Los agentes informaron que encontraron a una mujer con una herida de arma blanca en la espalda. Fue atendida en la escena y trasladada al Centro Médico Jackson South para recibir tratamiento adicional.

Indicaron que la víctima dijo a los investigadores que había estado involucrada en un altercado con Thompson cuando esta presuntamente sacó un cuchillo y la apuñaló por la espalda. La víctima identificó a Thompson como su agresora, señala el informe.

Los agentes localizaron a Thompson al día siguiente cerca de Southwest 172nd Street y Southwest 102nd Avenue después de que una residente alertara a un oficial de que había sido vista en el área, según el informe.

Thompson fue detenida y enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato grave con lesiones y un cargo de agresión agravada que causó lesiones corporales graves con un arma mortal en relación con ambos incidentes, según los registros de la cárcel.

No se divulgó de inmediato un motivo para ambos apuñalamientos.

Los manifestantes intentaron ingresar a la plaza central de La Paz donde se encuentra el Palacio de Gobierno lanzando piedras y dinamita, pero la policía los dispersó. Al poco tiempo de la actuación policial, las calles de la ciudad estaban más tranquilas.

“Es el clamor del pueblo; al presidente le quedan dos caminos: la renuncia voluntaria o la convulsión”, había dicho con anterioridad el dirigente campesino Vicente Salazar a los periodistas durante la marcha que partió desde la vecina ciudad de El Alto hacia el centro de La Paz, donde se concentran los poderes Ejecutivo y Legislativo.

Horas después, la Federación Departamental de Campesinos Túpac Katari que encabeza Salazar dijo que este último había sido detenido por la policía y exigió su liberación. El ministro de Trabajo Williams Bascopé negó el arresto, pero luego el vocero presidencial José Luis Gálvez confirmó que el dirigente fue detenido y más tarde liberado porque tenía vigente una “acción de libertad” que frena una orden de detención.

Protestas que no cesan

Las protestas cumplen 40 días. Los cortes de ruta han afectado principalmente a La Paz y El Alto dejándolas con escasez de oxígeno medicinal, alimentos y otros productos. En medio de los bloqueos se reportaron 10 fallecidos en el periodo que comprende desde inicios de mayo al 2 de junio, según un informe de la Defensoría del Pueblo.

Los bloqueos se extendieron a seis de las nueve regiones del país, aunque en los últimos días se redujeron de 95 a 80 puntos, indicó la Administradora Boliviana de Caminos (ABC).

Campesinos y sindicatos de gremios que representan, entre otros, a maestros y mineros se quejan de que el gobierno no atendió a tiempo sus demandas salariales. Además exigen que las autoridades garanticen la calidad de la gasolina y cesen la detención de sus dirigentes.

La protesta del miércoles se reforzó con la llegada de indígenas quechuas de la sureña región de Potosí portando palos y de campesinos de la central Cochabamba afines al expresidente Evo Morales (2006-2019), a quien el gobierno acusa de promover las movilizaciones.

Desde su feudo en el Chapare, en el centro, Morales manifestó su apoyo a los sindicatos cocaleros y campesinos durante una concentración popular en la ciudad de Chimoré denominada “Para salvar Bolivia” y desafió a Paz a que “si es machito” vaya a su región "para hablar de los temas sociales”.

“Que venga. No solo vamos a hablar de reivindicaciones, vamos a enseñar cómo se gobierna”, afirmó. El exgobernante está refugiado en el Chapare desde octubre de 2024 para evitar declarar sobre una denuncia por el presunto abuso a una menor.

Paz intenta buscar salidas

En un intento por aplacar el malestar, Paz tomó juramento a Erick Sanjinés como nuevo ministro de Educación en reemplazo de Beatriz García, quien renunció en medio de las protestas. Sanjinés prometió profundizar el diálogo con los maestros públicos.

Además Paz firmó un acuerdo con el alcalde de El Alto, Eliser Roca, para la construcción de carreteras y otras obras. Durante un discurso, el mandatario señaló que aparecieron “personajes” ajenos a El Alto “que obligan o se quedan a bloquear perjudicando el desarrollo”. Asimismo, manifestó que estos sectores “quieren imponer una visión política que solo satisface los intereses tanto de la extrema izquierdacomo de la extrema derecha”, sin identificarlos directamente.

“Hay un desgaste; están trayendo gente más radicalizada para levantar las protestas que se están diluyendo”, afirmó la diputada Cecilia Requena, de la alianza Unidad, fuerza cercana al oficialismo.

Las presiones a Paz aumentan para que logre una solución y declare un estado de excepción. Los sindicatos rechazaron esa última medida.

El vocero presidencial afirmó que cualquier “información sobre la seguridad del Estado será manejada con discreción". "Vamos a actuar y luego informar, venimos trabajando para poner en orden el país y lo vamos a conseguir”, agregó en referencia a las vías de diálogo abiertas.

Salazar afirmó que el gobierno está cometiendo el error de entablar contacto únicamente con dirigentes no reconocidos por las bases de movilizados.

Por su parte, los sectores productivos señalan que las pérdidas económicas por los bloqueos y protestas ya ascienden a 2.000 millones de dólares.

En tanto, la Fuerza Naval de Bolivia informó el miércoles que en medio de las labores en un corredor humanitario se produjo un accidente lacustre que cobró la vida de dos suboficiales de dicha institución y de dos civiles. Indicó que el percance se debió a que la embarcación fue afectada por ráfagas de viento y por el fuerte oleaje registrado en el lago Titicaca —considerado el lago navegable más cercano del cielo, a casi 4.000 metros de altitud— que comparten Bolivia y Perú.

This year's tournament — which is hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico — was expanded to 48 teams that will play in 16 stadiums in a record 104 matches over the 39-day tournament.

Mexico gets the World Cup started Thursday and will be a heavy favorite when it hosts South Africa in Mexico City. The second game of the day will be between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico. All four teams are part of Group A.

Canada and the United States will host their first games Friday. The Canadians will play Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto while the Americans face Paraguay in Inglewood, California.

What to watch June 11

Fox is the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of the World Cup with all 104 matches in English on Fox or FS1. All matches are also available on the Fox One app. Telemundo and Universo will broadcast all of the matches in Spanish. Peacock is the streaming home for Spanish language broadcasts while Telemundo also has an app that includes all the matches.

1. Mexico’s opening ceremony, 1:30 p.m. ET in Mexico City (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock) 2. Mexico vs. South Africa, 3 p.m. ET in Mexico City (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock) 3. South Korea vs. Czechia, 10 p.m. ET in Guadalajara, Mexico (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

Mexico is a heavy favorite against South Africa

Boosted by a home crowd and a star-studded opening ceremony with performances that include Andrea Bocelli and homegrown talent like Alejandro Fernández and Maná, Mexico hopes to play better in this World Cup than in 2022, when it failed to advance out of the group stage for the first time since 1978. El Tri will be led by veteran Raúl Jiménez and 17-year-old midfielder Gilberto Mora. Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa will be competing in the World Cup for a record sixth time. South Africa is playing in its fourth World Cup and first since it hosted the tournament in 2010.

The games in Mexico will be played at high elevation. The Azteca stadium in Mexico City is at roughly 7,300 feet while Guadalajara sits at 5,138 feet, meaning visiting teams will have to make a significant adjustment to the altitude.

South Korea hopes to build on '22 World Cup success vs. Czechia

South Korea is one of the best teams in Asia and has qualified for 11 tournaments in a row since 1986. The Koreans made it to the round of 16 in 2022 before losing to Brazil. Son Hueng-min, 33, is the captain and might be playing in his last World Cup. The Czech Republic is back in soccer's biggest showcase for the first time in 20 years.

World Cup sticker shock with sky-high prices

FIFA has faced pressure for sky-high World Cup ticket prices and sales tactics that fans say left them with worse deals than they wanted.

The attorneys general in New York and New Jersey, which is hosting eight World Cup matches including the final, announced last month that they are investigating whether FIFA’s ticketing practices violated consumer protection laws.

Some seats for the July 19 final are going for nearly $33,000.

In the U.S., bipartisan skepticism of Infantino, FIFA

In the deeply polarized U.S., few things unite elected leaders outside the White House quite like skepticism of Gianni Infantino and FIFA, the governing body for the world’s most popular sport.

It’s a sentiment that cuts across the divide and spans from Washington to state capitals and city halls.

There are mayors like Zohran Mamdani of New York and Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Democrats who’ve balked at ticket prices. Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who played Division 1 soccer at the U.S. Naval Academy, said FIFA has been “detached from regular people around the world.”

More World Cup news

4. World Cup by the numbers: 104 matches, 48 teams and 3 countries make this the largest ever 5. Iran’s World Cup players wear pins for victims of deadly strike on school as they arrive in Mexico 6. Somali soccer referee denied entry to US for World Cup is welcomed home as a hero 7. Celebrations clash with social tensions in Mexico on the eve of the World Cup 8. Bettors taking a chance on the longshot US in World Cup, though France and Spain remain favorites 9. Pochettino says no Americans among top 100 players yet US can win World Cup

Stats of the day

10. Only eight countries have won the World Cup, with six of those teams winning multiple titles led by Brazil’s five. The only first-time winners in the last 11 Cups came in 1998 when France won the first of its two titles and in 2010 with Spain. 11. There have been six defending champions who failed to make it out of the group stage, including in three of the last four editions. France made it back to the final in 2022 but Italy (2010), Spain (2014) and Germany (2018) all get eliminated before the knockout rounds. 12. South Korea's Son is one of the most accomplished players in the national team's history. His 144 caps rank first while he needs just two goals to match Cha Bum-kun's career record of 58. 13. At just 17 years old, Mexico's Gilberto Mora is the youngest player among the rosters of the 48 teams playing at the tournament. He could become the second-youngest player to score a goal in World Cup history behind Brazil legend Pelé, who was 17 years, 239 days old when he scored in 1958. Here's a look at some of the up-and-coming teenagers in this year's tournament.

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The indictment also describes vandalism against some companies that operate in Michigan and against the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

“In America, we rule by law not by fear. These alleged threats and attempts to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation are anti-American. We will counter intimidation with justice," said U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr.

The document highlights several incidents that made headlines in the past few years, including fake bloody corpses that were placed on an elected university board member's lawn and the spray-painting of anti-Israel messages at the home of the school's president at the time, Santa Ono.

“They marked their victims with threatening symbols used by Hamas, including red inverted triangles and red handprints,” the indictment states. “They used the internet and social media to broadcast their message to ensure their threats and commitment to continuing criminal activity were heard by their victims and others who support Israel.”

Six of the eight people named in the indictment were expected to make initial appearances Wednesday in federal court in Detroit. One person was arrested in Wisconsin and another was not in custody, said Gina Balaya of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The Associated Press couldn't immediately reach any of the defendants or their attorneys for comment.

Since the Israel-Hamas war, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded that the University of Michigan’s endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. But the university has insisted it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel. That’s less than 0.1% of the total endowment.

In 2024, a pro-Palestinian camp on campus was cleared by police after a month. The university said it was a threat to public safety.

The amendment would tighten existing restrictions in the Southern Baptist Convention, which already has a faith statement opposing women pastors.

The vote was 6,028 to 2,026 — a 3-to-1 margin — which easily exceeded the required two-thirds majority. It will require a similar two-thirds vote at next year's meeting to become part of the constitution.

The two-day meeting concluded Wednesday after bringing more than 11,000 delegates, or messengers, to a cavernous convention center in Orlando, Florida.

Typical of the SBC’s annual meetings, the gathering carries the feel of a town hall with a cast of thousands. It mixes worship and sermons with numerous motions and resolutions governed by parliamentary procedure, where the sacred and the arcane are debated with equal fervor. A debate Wednesday over the location of a future SBC annual meeting took longer than the debate over women pastors.

Albert Mohler, who sponsored the amendment on women pastors, said it addressed a defining issue.

“This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to speak in truth, in unity, in conviction,” said Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

“There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue,” he said. “The trajectory of liberal denominations is clear.”

There was only brief debate — and none of it contained support for women pastors.

The sole opposition came from South Carolina pastor Doug Mize. He said the measure wasn’t necessary because the denomination already has a mechanism to expel churches with women in senior pastoral positions, and it’s done so multiple times.

“What we have already works,” he said.

Southern Baptist leaders cite biblical passages that limit pastors to men. Advocates for women’s ministry cite biblical passages that proclaim men and women as equal under God and where women are called to proclaim the gospel.

Southern Baptists can expel churches

While the SBC can't tell its self-governing churches what to do, it does have the power to expel churches from convention membership, declaring them not in “friendly cooperation.”

There’s already wide agreement within the denomination that its belief statement — the Baptist Faith and Message — rejects the appointment of women as senior pastors who lead churches. Debate has persisted regarding churches with women serving in assistant pastoral or preaching roles.

“We need constitutional clarity on this issue,” Mohler said. He had a lead role in drafting the Baptist Faith and Message, which passed in 2000.

The amendment's language requires the exclusion of any church that acts “to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”

Churches were removed in recent years for having women pastors

In the previous three annual meetings, a majority of representatives voted to amend the SBC constitution to ban churches with women in any pastoral role. But only in one of those years did the measure get the needed two-thirds supermajority, so the matter languished.

The denomination has expelled churches with women in senior pastoral roles, including the large Saddleback Church of California, on the grounds of an existing clause in the constitution barring churches whose “faith and practice” was out of harmony with the denomination’s.

The SBC debate stands in stark contrast to the practices of numerous historic, more liberal Protestant denominations, which ordain women and have opened their highest offices to them. Practices vary widely in conservative, evangelical denominations — particularly in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, where prominent women pastors include Paula White-Cain, head of President Donald Trump’s White House Faith Office.

But other, more conservative Protestant groups do not ordain women as clergy. And the Catholic and Orthodox churches — the world’s two largest Christian communions — ordain only men to the priesthood.

Some Baptists disagree on women's roles

The organization Baptist Women in Ministry, which works with female ministers in various Baptist denominations, issued a statement lamenting the vote.

“We express our solidarity with the women in ministry who have been harmed by this vote, the hateful rhetoric and propaganda leading up to the vote, and the damaging theology the vote represents,” it said. “Women in ministry deserve affirmation, respect, and the opportunity to follow God’s call. We are heartbroken that they have been denied those fundamental freedoms in the process of this vote.”

Baptists say the Bible places high value on both men and women as created in the image of God while assigning them different roles in churches and homes. The Baptist Faith and Message not only asserts a male-only office of pastor but also the “servant leadership” of husbands over wives.

“I realize that in our egalitarian society, that runs against the grain,” Mohler said afterward. But he said Southern Baptists have a “pricelessly high view of the role of women and even the necessity of the gifts and contribution and work of women in every sphere of life.”

Resolutions passed on immigration and political violence

Later Wednesday, SBC messengers approved a resolutions denouncing political violence and hateful speech. They approved another that called for humane treatment of immigrants while affirming the legitimacy of immigration enforcement and rejecting nativistic and dehumanizing rhetoric.

They also approved a resolution denouncing antisemitic violence and conspiracy theories, notably those arising during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

At the same time, the resolution affirms Southern Baptists’ hope for Jews’ conversion to Christianity. In 1996, an SBC resolution called for the evangelization of Jews, prompting major Jewish leaders to call it a setback for interfaith relations.

On Tuesday, delegates elected Florida pastor Willy Rice to be its next president. He won 58% of the votes over South Carolina pastor Josh Powell.

Rice supported the amendment barring churches with women pastors, as did Powell and the SBC's departing president, Clint Pressley.

Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, drew support from advocacy groups such as the Center for Baptist Leadership, which have argued SBC leadership has gone “woke” on issues ranging from race to gender to immigration.

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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.

Wagner’s four-opera epic “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” approaching the 150th anniversary of its premiere in 1876, has been reinterpreted and deconstructed by directors finding various meanings in the conflicts among gods, humans, giants and dwarfs.

While most new recordings are on video, Luisi led his Dallas Symphony Orchestra in concert performances that were released on 13 compact discs by Delos on May 22 and are available on streaming services.

“Wagner conceived this as a total immersion in visual and acoustic, but I could focus really only on the music, and this was the point actually — not to be distracted by staging and not to have to cope with maybe strange ideas of staging,” Luisi said. “I think the music tells everything.”

Luisi became DSO music director in 2020 and broached the idea while dining two years later with Morton H. Meyerson, a longtime board member.

“Fabio came back from lunch sort of giddy but sort of sheepishly saying: `Do you think that this would ever be possible?” recalled Kim Noltemy, the Dallas CEO at the time. “So, I said, well, let’s give it a try. So, we called around to see if there were people who wanted to support it and did a budget.”

After securing a waiver from the orchestra allowing for the needed rehearsals and performance length, recordings were made during four concerts from May 1-5 and six more from Oct. 5-20. Each opera was performed two or three times.

Americans in cast fill big roles

American singers featured prominently, with Mark Delavan as Wotan, Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde and Sara Jakubiak as Sieglinde, part of a cast that included Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Daniel Johansson (Siegfried), Deniz Uzun (Fricka), Tómas Tómasson (Alberich), Michael Laurenz (Mime) and Stephen Milling (Hagen).

Delavan sang Wotan at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2013 after Luisi took over from an ailing James Levine in Robert Lepage’s much-maligned production staged on a 45-ton set of 24 rotating planks.

“We’re accessible and they know that we’re hungry and we have a chip on our shoulders,” Delavan said. “What conductors like about American singers is their technique is sound. Even a European conductor would say: Well, I’m going to give up some of the communication skills, only one degree of separation with the language, but I’m going to get a solid technique, and I’m going to get pretty good acting chops.”

Lindstrom has been in Atlanta to sing in its production of “Götterdämmerung,” the concluding night of the tetralogy, leading to what is being billed as the first complete Ring Cycles in the America South in 2029.

“The wonderful thing about it is the intimacy between the orchestra and us, because we’re not separated by a chunk of stage or a chunk a scenery or a chunk of concept,” she said of the Dallas performances. “And for people like me, who have had the opportunity to perform the role before, I have all those iterations to rely on for my portrayal that I can sort of filter myself through.”

A younger Luisi listened to famous renditions

Luisi, 67, first heard a Ring recording in Georg Solti’s famous studio set with the Vienna Philharmonic from 1958-65. He also admires Karl Böhm’s live recording from the 1967 Bayreuth Festival and Marek Janowski’s 1980-83 studio version with the Staatskapelle Dresden.

He first conducted Ring when he was music director of Dresden’s Semperoper from 2007-10. Luisi’s Dallas performances include more legato and softer sound than his rendition a decade earlier at the Met. He tries to keep an arc from the first notes of “Das Rheingold” to the final strains of “Götterdämmerung.”

“I have a deeper understanding about the meaning of this piece,” he said. “I consider the ring to be a big Bruckner symphony. So we have the introduction, then we have the first movement, this is “Walküre,” which happens to be a slow movement, and then we have the scherzo, which is “Siegfried,” of course, and then the long, long, last movement. There is a unity.”

Los organizadores indicaron que hay espacio suficiente para que unos 30.000 aficionados disfruten de las proyecciones en cuatro pantallas gigantes en el parque ubicado en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

“Todos son bienvenidos, de todas las edades... podrán ver los partidos gratis, mientras disfrutan de la música, el baile y la comida”, dijo el miércoles la alcaldesa de Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava.

Por motivos de seguridad, habrá detectores de metales y solo se permitirán bolsos transparentes. No se permiten bolsos de más de 30 cm x 15 cm.

También está prohibido vapear y fumar. Sillas, mantas, tiendas de campaña, patinetes, bocinas de aire comprimido, punteros láser e hinchables están incluidos en la lista de artículos prohibidos .

Excepto la comida para bebés, no se permite la entrada de alimentos ni bebidas del exterior. Los organizadores instalaron una larga fila de puestos de comida y bebida. El festival estará abierto todos los días hasta el 5 de julio.

Programa del festival

13 de junio : El festival para aficionados abre sus puertas de 14:00 a 24:00. Los partidos del Grupo A se juegan a las 15:00 (México contra Sudáfrica) y a las 23:00 (Corea del Sur contra la República Checa).

14 de junio : El festival de aficionados abre de 12:00 a 22:00. El partido del Grupo B , Canadá vs. Bosnia, es a las 15:00 y el partido del Grupo D , EE. UU. vs. Paraguay, es a las 21:00.

15 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 11:00 a 21:00.

16 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 14:00 a 24:00.

17 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 12:00 a 22:00.

18 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 11:00 a 21:00.

19 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 14:00 a 24:00.

20 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 12:00 a 23:00.

21 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 11:00 a 21:00.

22 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 12:00 a 20:00.

23 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 12:00 a 13:00.

24 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 14:00 a 21:00.

25 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 15:00 a 01:00.

26 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas de 14:00 a 23:00.

27 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 16:00 a 01:00.

28 de junio: El festival de fans abre de 13:00 a 22:00.

29 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche.

30 de junio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche.

1 de julio: El festival de fans abre de 11:00 a 23:00.

2 de julio: El festival de fans abre de 14:00 a 22:00.

3 de julio: El festival de fans abre de 13:00 a 21:00.

4 de julio: El festival de fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche.

5 de julio: El festival de fans abre de 15:00 a 23:00.

Para obtener más información sobre el festival, visite esta página.

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Seguimiento de los grupos de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA

• Grupo A
• Grupo B
• Grupo C
• Grupo D
• Grupo E
• Grupo F
• Grupo G
• Grupo H
• Grupo I
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A heat wave may be the most obvious health threat. But infectious diseases can spread in a crowd, and experts are set to scrutinize wastewater, hospital visits, even social media for any signs that an outbreak might be brewing.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, is among the top concerns, sparking a warning this week from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO. With a nearly six-week stretch of packed stadiums, bars and tourist sites in 16 cities, officials are on the lookout for a long list of infections, from the stomach bug norovirus to mosquito-borne dengue fever.

“This is truly a marathon,” said Palak Raval-Nelson, Philadelphia's health commissioner.

The mass gatherings come at a tense moment for budget-strapped health agencies in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hit hard by Trump administration staffing cuts, already was grappling with a growing Ebola outbreak in central Africa and a cruise ship hantavirus outbreak. While CDC officials have advised state and local health departments behind the scenes, its expected World Cup disease surveillance dashboard still was “in final development” days before games began, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Our public health professionals are pretty stretched,” said global health specialist Rebecca Katz of Georgetown University, who is leading an unusual new hub to help.

At the Health Security Operations Center, a joint effort between Georgetown and MedStar Health, workers are analyzing data from around the country so they can alert health authorities, even emergency rooms, to any early signs of trouble. The center is issuing daily “situation reports” about disease trends around World Cup host cities and team base camps to several hundred local and federal public health groups, emergency management and hospital officials and others who’ve signed up.

“It's important that we don't become alarmist,” said MedStar emergency medicine specialist Dr. Shane Kappler. “We're trying to be the insurance policy.”

Measles is a top concern for potential World Cup spread

Already more than 2,000 people in the U.S. have come down with measles this year, nearly as many as during all of last year, according to the CDC. Patients can spread measles before the rash appears and they realize they're sick. Not too long ago, the U.S. seldom saw measles except from international travel by unvaccinated people.

Now with frequent U.S. outbreaks, "actually a lot of our international partners are worried about measles being exported to them after the games,” said Georgetown’s Katz.

Measles is spreading in Canada, too, and has exceeded 11,000 cases in Mexico, according to PAHO. It’s urging soccer fans to be sure they’re vaccinated, with a health campaign saying a single measles patient can spread the virus to up to 18 unprotected people.

Is Ebola a concern at the World Cup?

Brown University’s Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived Ebola while working in the West Africa outbreak over a decade ago, said he’s repeatedly asked about the risk of Ebola during the World Cup — but “for me, Ebola is not the No. 1 or No. 2 or even No. 3 threat.”

“I am concerned about importation of measles, I am much more concerned about the importation of other infectious threats that may not seem as scary to us as Ebola,” Spencer said.

Many health experts agree that the risk of Ebola spreading in the U.S. is very low. That’s partly because of government travel screenings and restrictions on people recently in outbreak-affected areas. Moreover, Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids from someone showing symptoms, not through the air like measles or respiratory viruses.

“One fortunate thing about this virus is you’re most contagious when you’re really quite ill. It’s not like COVID, where you could be sitting next to someone who doesn’t even know they’re infected and perhaps contract the virus,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown’s Pandemic Center.

How to spot brewing diseases

There’s precedent for germs invading major sporting events. Canadian scientists linked a community measles outbreak to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and clusters of norovirus had to be contained during the Olympics this year in Milan and in 2018 in South Korea.

One way to detect signs of trouble: People with certain viral or bacterial infections shed genetic material that sophisticated testing of wastewater can spot. For example, measles can appear in wastewater days before an emergency room sees its first patients.

This week's surveillance reports from Katz's center note that wastewater testing recently found diarrhea-causing rotavirus, hepatitis A and norovirus in some parts of the U.S., something to watch as soccer crowds arrive.

In Dallas, officials ramped up wastewater screening including at the international airport, casting a wide net rather than looking for specific illnesses, said Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

His team also is enhancing the usual mosquito testing, checking not just for West Nile virus that regularly spreads in the U.S. but for viruses more common in other countries like dengue and chikungunya.

Public health officials have been preparing for months, said Philadelphia’s Raval-Nelson, including with mock emergency drills and communications with counterparts around the country.

“I don’t want to send a message that there’s one key thing," she said. “We have the frameworks in place to carry out what we need to.”

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

Unveiled by Ian McKellen, the plaque at 22 Lupus Street in Pimlico marks the place where Olivier began acting as a child.

“For those of us who were lucky enough to have seen him in the theater, it’s of course quite right that, because he was the leader of our profession for so many years, it’s appropriate that this should be put up," McKellen told The Associated Press after the event. “Actors go out of fashion very quickly, but I've a feeling that this man's name will never be forgotten, and perhaps because of this plaque."

Olivier lived at Lupus Street between the ages of 6 and 11. While there, he reportedly transformed a wooden box and blue curtains into a makeshift stage where he sang, danced, and acted for hours at a time.

Olivier was venerated as a Shakespearean actor, playing many iconic protagonists in London including Hamlet, Henry V, Macbeth and, controversially, Othello. For his role as Hamlet, Olivier won his only Academy Award for best actor in 1949. Other famous screen roles include ones in “Rebecca," "Wuthering Heights"," "Marathon Man" and "Sleuth."

London owes much to Olivier, who died at age 82 in 1989.

He campaigned for the establishment of the National Theatre. The building that now houses the theatre officially opened in 1976 and its largest auditorium is named after Olivier.

“Laurence Olivier transformed British theater and film through the brilliance, range and intensity of his performances," said English Heritage senior historian Howard Spencer. "The plaque celebrates the formative home where one of Britain’s greatest cultural figures first found his voice as an actor.”

The Olivier Awards, which celebrate London's theater scene, were named in his honor.

The London blue plaque program began more than 150 years ago. The plaques commemorate notable people who made London their home at some point. There are more than 900 official plaques in the capital.

The first plaque commemorated the poet Lord Byron in 1867 but the house was later demolished. The oldest surviving plaque commemorates France’s final emperor, Napoleon III.

Victoria Mboko, the American star's doubles partner, retired from her singles match against Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday after sustaining a knee injury in the second set.

Williams and Mboko had won their opening doubles match Tuesday — in the 44-year-old Williams' return to professional tennis after nearly four years away from the sport — and are scheduled to play again Thursday.

As of Wednesday night, Mboko and Williams remained on Thursday's schedule to face Leylah Fernandez and Laura Siegemund in the quarterfinals. It's set to be the last match of the day at the HSBC Championships.

While trying to return a shot against Pliskova, the 19-year-old Canadian slipped behind the baseline and immediately grabbed her left knee. Mboko had lost the first set 6-2 and was up 4-3 in the second against the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, who was facing a break point.

Mboko got up on her own but then told a physiotherapist there was “no stability right now."

She walked gingerly to her bench and put a towel to her face as she sat down. Minutes later, she retired from the match.

Williams had previously announced that she will also play doubles at the Berlin Open next week.

On Tuesday, Williams and Mboko beat third-seeded duo Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6 (2), 6-2 in Williams’ first professional match since the 2022 U.S. Open.

Mboko is ranked No. 9 in singles.

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

The warrant signed by a federal judge last week approved the seizure of documents and records related to the “storage, use, or disposal” of methyl methacrylate, the chemical inside the affected tank.

“Samples of the substance within any tank, tote, drum, vat, vessel, or container suspected of containing or having previously contained methyl methacrylate and/or any hazardous substance” were also sought, according to the warrant.

The warrant also orders agents to seize records related to “any cooling equipment or other equipment used to control or regulate the temperature of methyl methacrylate.”

The FBI confirmed its agents were searching GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems in the Orange County city of Garden Grove. Multiple vehicles and several federal agents were seen outside the facility Wednesday morning.

Company says it's cooperating with authorities

GKN Aerospace makes cockpit windows, canopies and windshields. The tank that overheated contained 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, which is highly flammable. The liquid is used in the manufacturing of plastics and coatings, such as Plexiglas and dental prosthetics.

Exposure to the chemical can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological issues and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The chemical that overheated is still in the holding tank, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency, which is leading the site cleanup and waste removal efforts.

The agency had planned to pump the neutralized methyl methacrylate from the storage tanks into sealed trucks for transport and disposal starting at the end of last week, according to a press release on the agency’s website. But on Friday, they said the removal didn’t happen “due to unavailable resources.”

Once a new date is confirmed, they will provide advance notice to the community.

Responding to a request for comment on the FBI investigation, a GKN spokesperson told the AP on Wednesday morning: “We are cooperating with authorities at our Garden Grove facility and will continue to do so.”

GKN Aerospace’s Steve Carlin spoke at a community meeting Tuesday evening. He thanked the firefighters and local leaders who responded to the incident at the plant that employs more than 500 people, and apologized to the community.

“On behalf of GKN and the Garden Grove plant I want to say that I’m sorry that this event and this incident occurred. I understand and I realized sitting here tonight what a disruptive event it was and how unsettling it is to the greater community. Particularly unsettling to us at GKN because of the long history that we have with Garden Grove and how connected we are to this community.”

Garden Grove city leaders and residents urged GKN Aerospace to consider moving these tanks of methyl methacrylate off of the Garden Grove plant, so the chemical would be far away from residents and businesses. But Carlin said it is very early in the investigation into what happened, so it is too soon to decide what the company might do in response to the incident. He promised to be transparent with the community about the investigation.

Overheating tank risked a catastrophic explosion

The incident was reported on May 21 and evacuations began the next day. The tank overheated because a valve on the cooling system that kept it at 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) failed, officials said.

Crews sprayed water on the tank until the interior temperature stabilized to 92 F (33.3 C), down from 100 F (37.7 C). A sprinkler system was used to douse the tank, and the company said its technical specialists and firefighters removed insulation from the tank to help cool it.

A crack that formed by chance on the tank relieved pressure and helped avert a catastrophic explosion, allowing most evacuees to return home over the Memorial Day weekend. Authorities announced they were lifting the final orders after the temperature on the tank remained stable for four hours without intervention from sprinklers.

Separately, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office also is conducting a criminal investigation into the GKN Aerospace plant, according to DA spokesperson Kimberly Edds.

“We have sent a preservation letter to GKN directing them not to modify or destroy any evidence, which the company’s outside counsel confirmed receipt,” Edds told The Associated Press in an email.

Lawyers in federal lawsuits welcome the FBI's involvement

About a dozen people and businesses that were among the 50,000 evacuated during the chemical emergency have filed lawsuits against the company. Some residents reported strong odors, respiratory irritation, headaches and dizziness. They question why the chemical plant was allowed to operate so close to homes.

Lawyer Rickard McCune represents Big Rob’s Pizzeria and Fruit Caboose Concessions in a federal lawsuit claiming GKN Aerospace and parent company Melrose Industries were negligent and put the surrounding communities at risk. He said they’re pleased the federal government is investigating. The FBI’s involvement will help bring justice to those who were harmed, he said.

Another lawyer, Alex Wheeler, represents Dinh Tran and Drippys Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwiches and said they’re relieved that the FBI is using its resources to investigate potential criminal acts.

“As more information becomes public, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the risk to our community posed by GKN’s operation of the Garden Grove facility may require a long term and lasting solution,” Wheeler said.

GKN did not immediately respond to the allegations in the lawsuits.

Orange County health officials assured residents that no contamination or fumes were released, and that they would keep monitoring the air for several months and checking the sewer and storm drains.

The California incident was the first of two major hazardous chemical emergencies on the West Coast within a week of each other. Five days after the GKN Aerospace situation began, a large tank containing a corrosive chemical at a Longview, Washington paper mill ruptured and imploded, killing 11 people.

___

Bellisle reported from Seattle. Associated Press journalist Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.

The drivers wore white “Stop Ebola” T-shirts and displayed public health messages and illustrations on how to prevent the disease as they rode through the streets of Bunia and Rwampara, two towns in Congo's eastern province of Ituri at the heart of the outbreak.

The province accounts for more than 90% of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, as well as a handful across the border in Uganda.

There have been 115 confirmed deaths from the disease, out of at least 598 cases confirmed so far, according to a report by Congolese authorities late Tuesday.

Still the outbreak has been met with skepticism and misinformation among communities where residents sometimes deny there is an outbreak or strongly oppose the strict measures imposed by health workers on burials of the bodies of victims to minimize the spread of the disease.

Residents in Ituri province have launched at least three attacks on health centers when demanding the bodies of deceased patients. Overall, more than 520 incidents impacting the work of health professionals have been reported, according to Marie Roseline Darnycka Belizaire, WHO’s emergency director for Africa.

Taxi drivers can help spread the word that medical workers are just trying to stop the spread, said Jacques Maliro, the World Health Organization’s Risk Communication and Community Engagement Officer, one of the organizers of the caravan.

“Response teams have been attacked in some areas, and that is one reason why we chose to involve motorcycle taxi drivers. They are an important group because they transport both sick and healthy people, so they too need to be informed and engaged,” Maliro said.

Misinformation spreading in the communities of Ituri have discouraged residents from adhering to health warnings or seeking medical help, health officials say. At the onset of the outbreak, some churches told their congregations that the outbreak is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.

“Those who do not believe in it need to understand that it is real,” said Josue Mbabona, a motorcycle taxi driver from the caravan, adding that he has already lost three family members to Ebola.

Front-line health workers, who labor with little pay or rest, have also been unable to reach some communities cut off by conflict involving armed rebels.

Eastern Congo has for years seen attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some of them with links to neighboring Rwanda or the extremist Islamic State group.

The response has also been hampered by shortages of essential supplies. Residents and local officials in Bunia on Wednesday cited a shortage of water needed for the frequent handwashing recommended to curb the spread of the virus.

The current Ebola outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which does not have an approved vaccine or treatment unlike the “Zaire virus,” responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

“The vaccine needs to be available so that we can protect ourselves, move forward, and return to normal life,” David Kasimwa, a student participating in the caravan said. “This disease has disrupted many activities: We are no longer able to travel freely because we are afraid,” he added.

Three vaccine candidates are currently in development. Africa’s top public health agency said last month it aims to have a vaccine and treatment against Bundibugyo virus available by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, several countries have imposed travel restrictions or enhanced screening measures for travelers arriving from Ebola-affected areas, though WHO have not recommended broad travel bans.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urged European countries to tighten travel restrictions on people arriving from Ebola-affected countries in Africa, warning that failure to do so could lead to stricter U.S. travel measures for arrivals from Europe, including during the World Cup.

There are relatively few direct flights between Africa and the United State per day but more than 300 direct daily flights between Europe and the United States.

—-

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo contributed.

Attorneys presented opening statements in the trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, who has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Whether prosecutors can prove to jurors that Rinderknecht, 29, started a fire in Los Angeles on Jan. 1, 2025, and that it then turned into the Palisades Fire will be at the center of the trial.

Prosecutors say the Jan. 1 fire burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up on Jan. 7. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt O'Brien told jurors that security camera footage shows where and when the fire ignited atop a hill, and investigators were able to place Rinderknecht nearby because he called 911 for help 16 times in quick succession on the evening of Jan. 1.

O'Brien said that Rinderknecht was the only person there that evening. He said that after firefighters arrived, Rinderknecht followed them up the hill to take videos of them putting out the blaze. Investigators later seized a barbecue lighter from his car that he admitted to having with him on the trail.

Defense attorney Steve Haney said Rinderknecht was on the hilltop near the fire's ignition that night, but only to watch the fireworks after dropping off Uber passengers nearby. Haney said multiple witnesses as well as first responders will testify that they heard fireworks in the area around the time the fire ignited.

“When all the evidence is in, there will be one thing missing: proof that Jonathan Rinderknecht started that fire on Jan. 1,” Haney told jurors.

The Palisades Fire ultimately killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes as it incinerated hillside neighborhoods in Pacific Palisades and the city of Malibu. Rinderknecht faces at least five years in prison if convicted of charges that also include malicious destruction by means of a fire.

O'Brien, in his opening, painted a picture for the jury of a troubled young man who was lonely and angry at the world after a recent breakup.

“He wanted revenge — revenge against society because he blamed society for all his troubles,” he said.

O'Brien also showed jurors a prompt that Rinderknecht had entered into ChatGPT six months earlier. “So on the far left, we're going to have a burning forest and then you have a bunch of people running away from that,” the prompt began.

Haney reminded jurors it didn't matter if they liked his client or “approve of the way Jonathan uses his computer.” He said Rinderknecht’s behavior after the fire, from calling 911 to cooperating with investigators, demonstrated his innocence.

Haney played an audio recording of Rinderknecht’s conversation with a 911 operator during which he reported a fire in the Pacific Palisades.

When federal investigators knocked on Rinderknecht's door, he didn’t hide or refuse to answer, Haney said. Rinderknecht even agreed to drive back to the Palisades to help investigators pinpoint the start of the fire.

“It’s the voice and actions of a man who was trying to stop the fire,” Haney said.

Leading up to the trial, Haney has argued that Rinderknecht is being made as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the Jan. 1 blaze.

Judge Anne Hwang has ruled that the defense can’t introduce evidence or arguments about alleged negligence by the Fire Department, saying it was irrelevant and could confuse the jury. Defense attorneys had planned to include testimony from a firefighter that the fire was visibly smoldering when first responders left before it reignited days later.

Prosecutors began presenting their case by calling witnesses with California State Parks and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to establish that the fire affected areas with federal jurisdiction.

They also called Special Agent Michael Montevidoni with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, one of the lead investigators in the case.

Montevidoni spent hours on the stand explaining to jurors how investigators gathered evidence and interviewed more than 100 of Rinderknecht's friends, family and acquaintances.

Prosecutors also introduced a multitude of digital records into evidence obtained from his phone, email, Uber, OpenAI and various social media accounts.

Montevidoni said he reviewed thousands of conversations between Rinderknecht and ChatGPT, during which Rinderknecht lamented wealth disparity and climate change in the world and his inability to do anything about it.

These conversations led up to early hours of Dec. 31, 2024, during which Rinderknecht sent angry messages to a woman that he had a prior romantic relationship with. At the same time, he vented to ChatGPT, Montevidoni said.

“It was consistently showing anger and frustration,” Montevidoni said.

“Look, everyone's working hard to make sure the bridge is open as soon as possible. There is no big drama. If it takes a little longer it will take a little bit longer, but this will benefit Canadians, Americans, business, tourists, residents for decades and decades to come,” Carney said on his way into Parliament.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, jointly owned by Canada and the U.S. state of Michigan, is set to take place on Friday, while the bridge itself may not open to traffic immediately.

Carney said Tuesday that the second bridge between Windsor and Detroit would “be open at the end of the week.”

Friday's ceremony will take place following a recent conversation between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

In February, Trump demanded that Canada turn over at least half the ownership of the bridge to the U.S. federal government and agree to other unspecified demands in one of his many salvos over cross-border trade issues.

The bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, would be a vital economic artery between Canada and the United States. It is named after the late Canadian hockey great who spent 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.

The building project was negotiated by Rick Snyder, the former Republican governor of Michigan, and paid for by Canada to help ease congestion at the existing Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Work has been underway since 2018.

Trump threatened the bridge as the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement is up for review this year, and Trump has been taking a hard-line position before those talks, including by issuing new tariff threats.

_______

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.

Elsewhere, users will get to see parts of matches live on YouTube and TikTok for the first time.

Forget about the exclusivity of traditional over-the-air networks: The World Cup will be watched differently this time.

As FIFA pushes to engage a new generation of fans, younger audiences will have more options to access soccer’s showcase event thanks to what soccer's governing body describes as a record number of deals with broadcast partners that carry digital-only platforms. Creators’ perspectives will be brought to the forefront and user experiences worldwide will be enhanced thanks to what FIFA is calling “game-changing” partnerships.

The goal is to grab viewers' attention, effectively giving them an appetizer that will encourage them to go back and watch the games on traditional channels.

Co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, this year's World Cup — the biggest ever, with 48 teams — begins Thursday and will run through July 19.

Brazil’s CazéTV has the rights to all games

Brazil historically has been one of the countries with the most engagement on social media and digital platforms.

FIFA took notice, and four years ago did a type of a test run with popular streamer Casimiro Miguel, now 32, who had shown success engaging with younger sports fans on his Twitch channel. For the 2022 Qatar World Cup, FIFA reached a deal with him — and his partner LiveMode — to broadcast 22 matches on the CazéTV YouTube channel.

With a more informal and conversational approach to the broadcast, along with increased fan engagement and the participation of content creators as commentators, the trial was considered a resounding success. It led to an expanded deal for the tournament this year, with CazéTV becoming the only channel — digital or traditional — with rights to all 104 games in Brazil. The network Globo, the home of soccer in Brazil for decades, will show 55 games.

“FIFA is always looking at innovative ways about how to enhance the broadcast coverage of our flagship competitions and the deal with CazéTV is an example of such, which will ensure football fans in Brazil will be able to watch all 104 games, while also helping to reach new audiences and demographics,” the governing body told The Associated Press in a statement.

A Cristiano Ronaldo connection

LiveMode, the Brazilian company that has CazéTV under its umbrella and broadcasts matches with content creators, announced last month that it had launched an international broadcast arm of the company and that Cristiano Ronaldo was one of its shareholders.

LiveMode's channel in Portugal will broadcast one game per day during the World Cup, including all of Portugal's matches and the final. The 41-year-old Ronaldo, one of soccer's all-time greats, is making his sixth World Cup appearance with the national team.

“There is an audience that connects with digital first, and digital allows us to bring this new audience to follow major sporting events,” LiveMode co-founder Sergio Lopes told the AP. “Generally, this audience is younger and doesn’t just want to watch a match. They want to participate in the conversation, interact in real time, and feel like they are part of a community.”

YouTube and TikTok deals

FIFA earlier this year picked TikTok as the first “preferred platform” for video content on social media at the World Cup, giving creators access to content. World Cup broadcast rights holders can livestream parts of the 104 games at a dedicated hub on the TikTok app. Then in March, FIFA reached a deal with YouTube to also allow rights-holding broadcasters to stream game action live on the video platform. Rights holders will be allowed to broadcast the first 10 minutes of games.

“YouTube is where global sports fans tune in before, during, and after the game. That is what makes our preferred partnership with FIFA for World Cup 2026 so unique,” said Angela Courtin, YouTube's vice president of entertainment and sports marketing. “Between the incredible reach of our creator cohort and providing FIFA’s media partners with a pathway to upload more premium content to their YouTube channels, plus our live YouTube FIFA Creator Cup in New York City this July, we are ushering in the next generation of soccer fans for years to come.”

Taking aim at world records

With the new deals, FIFA expects the 2026 World Cup to break all records related to digital and streaming audiences.

In 2022, FIFA reported 5 billion total engagements during the tournament in Qatar, with 2.7 billion coming through digital and streaming services, and 2.9 from linear television. Nearly 1.5 billion people watched the final won by Argentina, with 237 million of them being digital-only viewers, according to FIFA.

In the U.S., Fox holds the rights for the 2026 World Cup, and there were no exclusive deals by FIFA with digital platforms, though the network will have every match streaming live and on-demand within its apps. Streaming giant Netflix has secured the U.S. broadcasting rights to the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031, in the most significant deal FIFA has signed with a streaming service for a major tournament.

“We are seeing that sport needs to occupy all screens, engage with all audiences to grow,” LiveModeTV co-founder Lopes said. “New audiences expect authenticity, interaction and different ways to follow an event. The World Cup continues to be the greatest sporting spectacle on the planet, but the way to experience it is also becoming more social, more participatory, more accessible, and more connected to the digital habits of each generation.”

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The request followed reports that the Oilers expressed interest in hiring Babcock. Both people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

It was not clear whether the league had resumed or restarted an investigation of the veteran coach who has drawn criticism in recent years for his approach with players. All coaching hires are subject to league approval.

Babcock resigned from the Blue Jackets in September 2023, less than three months after taking the job. At the time, Babcock's requests for personal photos from players in an attempt to get to know them drew criticism as an invasion of privacy.

“Our players deserve to be treated with respect in the workplace,” NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said then. “Unfortunately, that was not the case in Columbus. The club’s decision to move forward with a new head coach is the appropriate course of action.”

The union reviewed the situation, but the NHL dropped its planned investigation of the situation when Babcock stepped down.

Babcock, who turned 63 on April 29, has not coached a game in the league since being fired by Toronto 23 games into the 2019-20 season. He coached Detroit to the Stanley Cup in 2008, reached the final with the Red Wings in '09 and Anaheim in ’03, and helped Canada win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and '14.

Once considered one of the best in the profession, former players have spoken out about Babcock's old-school tendencies that some say can be considered bullying.

A report surfaced after the Maple Leafs fired Babcock that he had asked a player to share his ranking of teammates from hardest- to least-hardest working and then shared that with the rest of the group. Former Red Wings player Johan Franzen told a Swedish outlet that Babcock was the worst person he had ever met and said at one point he was terrified to go to the rink.

The Oilers are looking for a replacement for Kris Knoblauch after firing him following their first-round playoff exit, despite back-to-back trips to the final before that. They asked Vegas for permission to speak to recently fired coach Bruce Cassidy, but the Golden Knights rejected that request because he remains under contract through next season.

The NHL Coaches' Association expressed dissatisfaction over the matter. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly last week said Vegas was not in violation of any rules for denying permission.

“We don’t find it unreasonable because we’re allowing it to happen,” he said. “I do think Vegas is clearly within their contractual rights to do what they’re doing."

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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Petro, whose term ends on Aug. 7, was in New York on Wednesday to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

The Coalition of Latin American Legislators Against Antisemitism had already condemned Petro’s use of references to Nazism.

Petro defended his use of the Nazi salute on Sunday writing that it was meant to reference the “fascist phrases” in an op-ed that newspaper El Espectador published on Sunday.

“Using Nazi slogans is a disgraceful low from which there is no coming back,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, wrote on X.

The op-ed was in support of Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing presidential candidate who is running against Iván Cepeda, whom Petro has endorsed as his left-wing successor.

“It is absolutely disgusting to use that phrase,” Rep. Carlos A. Giménez wrote to Petro on X.

The runoff election is on June 21.

Related social media

Heil Hitler https://t.co/IbRBgwUY3N

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 7, 2026

Petro, cuyo mandato termina el 7 de agosto, se encontraba en Nueva York el miércoles para presidir una reunión del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas.

Petro defendió su uso de la frase nazi como respuesta a las “frases fascistas” en una columna de opinión publicada el domingo en apoyo de Abelardo de la Espriella, candidato presidencial de derecha.

El presidente saliente ha respaldado a Iván Cepeda, candidato de izquierda, como su sucesor. La segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales será el 21 de junio.

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Pompano Beach Fire Rescue officials said firefighters responded after calls reported a mother duck circling a storm drain.

That’s when firefighters discovered about a dozen ducklings trapped in the water below.

Fire rescue crews removed the drain cover and used a net to safely lift each duckling to safety.

Moments later, crews watched as the mother duck rushed in to reunite with her babies.

Local 10 viewers can watch the delicate rescue in the video at the top of this page.

Funcionarios de Pompano Beach Fire Rescue informaron que los bomberos respondieron después de recibir llamadas que reportaban a una pata dando vueltas alrededor de una alcantarilla pluvial.

Fue entonces cuando los bomberos descubrieron a aproximadamente una docena de patitos atrapados en el agua debajo de la alcantarilla.

Los equipos de rescate retiraron la tapa de la alcantarilla y utilizaron una red para sacar de manera segura a cada patito.

Momentos después, los rescatistas observaron cómo la pata acudió rápidamente para reunirse con sus crías.

Los televidentes de Local 10 pueden ver el delicado rescate en el video que aparece al inicio de esta página.

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The fire happened near the 1300 block of Southwest 10th Street, just west of Brickell, according to Miami Fire Rescue officials.

Sky 10 flew over the scene and captured firefighters battling flames and thick smoke coming from the structure around 10:15 a.m.

Lt. Pete Sanchez, a MFR spokesperson, said operations were underway at the “vacant structure.”

A spokesperson with the Miami Police Department told Local 10 News on Wednesday afternoon that one person was detained in connection with the house fire.

Sanchez said no injuries have been reported at this time.

No other details about the fire or culprit were immediately released.

The bill provides $38 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $26 billion for the Border Patrol. An additional $5 billion would cover unforeseen costs, according to the White House.

Trump signed the legislation in the Oval Office a day after House Republicans pushed the measure through by a 214-212 vote over the objections of Democrats. His signature ended a nearly six-month fight over Department of Homeland Security funding that began with shooting deaths of deaths of two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, in January during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.

Democrats began demanding changes to immigration enforcement after the shootings, creating an impasse — and resulting in the longest agency in history — that ultimately led Republicans to go it alone on the funding.

The agencies will be funded through the next three years. The new law front-loads routine annual funding, ensuring a virtually uninterrupted flow of money as the Trump administration seeks to deport some 1 million people per year.

The legislation had become sidetracked over $1 billion for White House security, including for Trump’s new ballroom, and a $1.8 billion fund to compensate his allies who claim to be victims of political prosecution. Both proposals became politically toxic and were scrapped.

The bill as passed focused exclusively on immigration enforcement, a topic that Republicans have treated as a defining issue between the two major political parties and one the GOP hopes will carry it to victory in November's midterm elections.

Raúl Castro, ex presidente de Cuba, cumple 95 años este miércoles bajo la sombra de una acusación penal de Estados Unidos y un futuro incierto para Cuba, cargando sobre sus hombros el legado de su hermano, Fidel Castro.

Actualización del 1 de junio: Mirando al futuro: ¿Deberían los cubanoamericanos invertir en Cuba?

Hace algunos meses, el viceministro de Cuba, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, sobrino nieto de Raúl Castro, invitó a los cubanoamericanos en el exilio a invertir en Cuba.

En 2019, el gobierno cubano modificó su Constitución para permitir la inversión extranjera. Sin embargo, no cambió sus leyes para proteger esas inversiones.

Por lo tanto, los riesgos de invertir en Cuba siguen siendo mayores que las oportunidades.

El Dr. Andy S. Gómez es el analista sobre Cuba de Local 10. Gómez es considerado uno de los principales expertos sobre Cuba. Trabajó en la educación superior durante 32 años antes de retirarse de la Universidad de Miami en 2012.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on Wednesday to receive updates and operational briefings on the base’s mission, according to the Pentagon.

According to Reuters, Hegseth flew into the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, marking the latest visit by a senior American official to the communist-led island as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to increase pressure on the Cuban government.

His trip comes less than two weeks after General Francis Donovan, the top U.S. military commander for Latin America, visited Guantanamo Bay and held discussions with a senior Cuban military official near the base’s perimeter.

Hegseth is the third high-ranking U.S. official to visit Cuba in recent months, highlighting Washington’s continued focus on the island amid ongoing tensions between the two countries.

June 8 update: What will be brought up during any future negotiations?

One of the issues that will certainly come up during any future negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba will be the 5,913 American companies, as well as Cuban-American properties, that were confiscated by the Cuban Revolution in the early 1960’s.

According to Mauricio Tamargo, former chairman of the Foreign Claims Office in the U.S. Department of Justice, the estimated values of these properties are in the billions.

June 3 update: Raúl Castro turns 95

Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba, turns 95 years old Wednesday under the shadow of a criminal indictment from the U.S. and an uncertain future for Cuba with the legacy of his brother, Fidel Castro, on his shoulders.

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June 1 update: Looking to the future: Should Cuban Americans invest in Cuba?

A few months ago, Cuba’s Vice Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, who is the grand-nephew of Raúl Castro, invited Cuban Americans in exile to invest in Cuba.

In 2019, the Cuban government amended their constitution to allow foreign investment. However, they did not change their laws to protect the investments.

Therefore, the risks to invest in Cuba remain greater than the opportunities.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

In a statement, Patel said the FBI was partnering with other law enforcement agencies during the 78 matches at 11 cities, including Miami.

“Extremists have used major global sporting events in the past to do harm and spread their twisted ideologies,” Patel said. “We are totally determined to head off any potential incidents.”

The FBI has 200 multi-agency Joint Terrorism Task Forces, including bomb technicians and divers at the ready, according to Patel.

“Our experts are outfitting and staffing event operations centers, intelligence operations centers, and mobile command posts designed to stay on top of threats,” Patel said.

Analysts will be performing background checks to produce numerous intelligence reports, according to Patel, who asked the public to “stay alert, and report any suspicious activity.”

Related stories

• Feds warn against flying drones at stadium on 7 FIFA World Cup game days
• After troubled World Cup lead-in, UN human rights chief urges ‘rethink’ of US immigration policy

Related social media post

June 10: Preventing terrorism during the 2026 FIFA World Cup

For the FBI and its partners, preventing terrorist attacks is job #1 during the upcoming 2026 @FIFAWorldCup

Extremists have used major global sporting events in the past to do harm and spread their twisted…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 10, 2026