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Grieving father Andres Fernandez ― whose 17-year-old daughter, Lucy, was killed during a boating accident that led to a trial for now-acquitted real estate mogul George Pino ― spoke about the importance of boating safety during a press conference on Thursday.

“We want them to just recognize that it is a beautiful thing to do with friends and family, but they need to realize that there is danger, and that at a moment’s notice something could happen,” said Fernandez.

Fernandez played a major role in a comprehensive boating safety task force after his daughter’s death on Labor Day weekend in 2022.

The goal is to make having fun on the water a safer experience for all involved.

Fernandez said despite the passing of time, the hole in your heart doesn’t close.

“We never thought that this could happen to us and, you know, it’s living proof that it can,” said Fernandez. “We’re just so blessed that I get to say her name every day, and I love that.”

Some tips Fernandez listed were not drinking alcohol if you’re the captain and making sure there are life-jackets for everyone on board.

Fernandez was also a driving voice in the passing of Lucy’s Law, which was signed into law in June 2025, which increases penalties for people who are reckless while operating a vessel on the water.

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“Honestly it’s nice to see, bringing all these people together. At the end of the day that’s what we want to see,” a USMNT fan said.

The final seconds of the match triggered a wave of celebration across the park as fans erupted following the U.S. victory.

“It was absolutely beautiful to see everybody as a community, even tho the odds were stacked against us,” another said.

The match was marked by constant physical play, with Bosnia-Herzegovina pressuring U.S. attackers and using heavy challenges throughout the night.

U.S. fullbacks Sergiño Dest and Christian Pulisic were repeatedly checked and bumped when trying to push forward, while U.S. midfielders were frequently disrupted in tight spaces.

Striker Folarin Balogun was involved in the intensity on both sides — scoring during the match before later being shown a controversial red card in the 64th minute. Even after going down to 10 men, the United States managed to hold on and secure the win.

Fans filled Bayfront Park throughout the evening, gathering to watch the match on a large outdoor screen while waving flags, wearing jerseys and chanting in support of the U.S. team.

“This is a great opportunity for us to be together and support our team,” another fan said.

Some attendees said the atmosphere reflected both the excitement of the tournament and the unity of fans from different backgrounds.

Carlos Jarquin, of Palm Beach County, said, “I think we’re gonna do amazing. I think this is the strongest team we’ve had since I’ve been watching soccer.”

The event also featured pre-match entertainment as performers helped build energy inside the fan zone ahead of kickoff.

For many in attendance, the gathering extended beyond soccer, serving as a cultural celebration that brought together fans from across South Florida and beyond.

“Honestamente, es bonito ver a toda esta gente reunida. Al final del día, eso es lo que queremos ver”, dijo un aficionado de la selección masculina de Estados Unidos.

Los últimos segundos del partido desataron una ola de celebración en todo el parque, donde los aficionados estallaron de emoción tras la victoria de Estados Unidos.

“Fue absolutamente hermoso ver a toda la comunidad unida, incluso cuando todo parecía estar en nuestra contra”, dijo otro aficionado.

El partido estuvo marcado por un juego físico constante, con Bosnia-Herzegovina presionando a los atacantes estadounidenses y realizando fuertes entradas durante toda la noche.

Los laterales de Estados Unidos, Sergiño Dest y Christian Pulisic, fueron marcados y golpeados repetidamente cuando intentaban avanzar, mientras que los mediocampistas estadounidenses fueron constantemente presionados en espacios reducidos.

El delantero Folarin Balogun estuvo involucrado en la intensidad del encuentro por ambos lados: anotó un gol durante el partido, pero posteriormente recibió una polémica tarjeta roja en el minuto 64. Incluso con 10 jugadores, Estados Unidos logró mantener la ventaja y asegurar la victoria.

Los aficionados llenaron Bayfront Park durante toda la noche para ver el partido en una pantalla gigante al aire libre, mientras ondeaban banderas, vestían camisetas de la selección y coreaban cánticos de apoyo al equipo estadounidense.

“Esta es una gran oportunidad para estar juntos y apoyar a nuestro equipo”, dijo otro aficionado.

Algunos asistentes señalaron que el ambiente reflejaba tanto la emoción del torneo como la unión de aficionados de distintos orígenes.

Carlos Jarquín, del condado Palm Beach, dijo: “Creo que vamos a hacerlo increíble. Creo que este es el equipo más fuerte que hemos tenido desde que empecé a ver fútbol”.

El evento también contó con entretenimiento previo al partido, mientras varios artistas ayudaban a animar la zona de aficionados antes del inicio del encuentro.

Para muchos de los asistentes, la reunión fue más allá del fútbol y se convirtió en una celebración cultural que reunió a aficionados de todo el sur de Florida y de otras partes.

Watson, 42, appeared in Miami-Dade court as part of a plea agreement stemming from the incident at Elevation Fitness.

According to arrest documents, Watson told responding officers he was working out when the victim approached him and said he wanted to fight. Investigators say surveillance video captured Watson beating the victim with his weightlifting belt during the altercation.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors offered Watson a sentence of 21 months in prison, including time already served, followed by seven years of probation and mental health treatment.

During Thursday’s hearing, Watson’s attorney argued the circumstances leading up to the fight were unusual.

“There’s been a lot that’s been argued in this case about stand your ground,” defense attorney Eric Clemmon said. “What’s unique is you have an alleged victim that sought somebody out because of his presence online. This guy bought a plane ticket, came through New Jersey, showed up at the gym for the sole purpose of confronting Mr. Watson. That turned into something else.”

Watson is a convicted felon and is also facing multiple unrelated criminal charges in Broward County, including charges of felony battery, aggravated assault, witness tampering and allegations related to domestic violence involving his girlfriend.

Watson is scheduled to return to court on July 27 for sentencing in the Miami-Dade case.

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Wednesday marked the first day of Plastic Free July, a campaign encouraging people to reduce their use of plastics. Miami-Dade County is joining the effort with a new initiative.

Miami-Dade County unveiled its first Hope Hydration Station at the Government Center Metrorail station in downtown Miami, offering free cold, filtered water to anyone who wants to refill a reusable bottle.

“It’s going to really change culture. I’m sure we’re going to see more people utilizing this and saying no, refusing those plastic water bottles,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

The goal is to encourage people to switch to reusable bottles and refuse plastic ones to help curb the massive amount of plastic waste ending up in the environment.

“It’s super easy. Place your bottle, water comes out chilled, it’s filtered, it’s free, and our whole thesis is that if these are more accessible, more beautiful and easier to access, then everyone is going to be more sustainable. There’s no need for a plastic bottle if there are Hope stations everywhere,” said Cristina Gnecco, co-founder and COO of Hope Hydration.

Hope Hydration founder and CEO Jorge Richardson said the timing of the station’s unveiling ahead of Plastic Free July was intentional.

Plastic Free July is a global movement urging people to reduce their plastic waste one reusable choice at a time.

“We don’t need a few people doing this perfectly. We need a lot of people trying, and that’s how we will actually start to have this ripple effect impact,” said Maddie Kaufman, program director for Debris Free Oceans.

The idea is to start small by eliminating one plastic habit from daily life.

“It takes, like, two weeks to build a habit. So take two weeks to try to build a habit with one item,” Kaufman said.

The need for action has never been greater.

“It is a scary number. And yes, we are in crisis mode,” said Marcus Eriksen, co-founder and director of research for the 5 Gyres Institute.

Roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, adding to the more than 171 trillion plastic particles already there. Plastic production is projected to double over the next 25 years.

“We pick up 20,000-plus pounds of trash per day on International Coastal Cleanup Day. Our landfills are filling up with plastic. Our bodies are filling up with plastic,” Kaufman said.

Advocates say recycling alone will not solve the problem. Globally, only 9% of plastic is ever recycled, and they say the only way forward is to refuse plastic whenever possible.

“Recycling does not work. We cannot reasonably keep up with the plastic that’s produced now and will be in the future,” said Catherine Uden, senior field representative for Oceana South Florida.

With Florida law preventing local governments from regulating most single-use plastics, much of the responsibility falls on consumers.

Programs like Plastic Free Miami Beach and Plastic Free 305 help consumers make better choices by highlighting businesses that have significantly reduced their plastic packaging and single-use items.

“73% of visitors, tourists and consumers want to spend their money on sustainable businesses and their products,” said Cynthia Seymour of the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District.

Hope Hydration plans to install 15 more stations throughout Miami-Dade County at public parks and other county venues. The goal is to expand to 250 stations over the next year, making it easier, free and more convenient for people to stop buying bottled water in plastic containers and use refillable bottles instead.

El miércoles marcó el inicio de Julio sin Plástico, una campaña que anima a las personas a reducir el uso de plásticos. El condado Miami-Dade se une al esfuerzo con una nueva iniciativa.

El condado Miami-Dade inauguró su primera estación de hidratación Hope en la estación Government Center del Metrorail, en el centro de Miami, donde ofrece agua fría, filtrada y gratuita a cualquier persona que quiera rellenar una botella reutilizable.

“Esto realmente va a cambiar la cultura. Estoy segura de que veremos a más personas utilizando estas estaciones y diciendo no a las botellas de agua de plástico”, dijo la alcaldesa de Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava.

El objetivo es incentivar a las personas a cambiar a botellas reutilizables y rechazar las de plástico para ayudar a reducir la enorme cantidad de desechos plásticos que terminan en el medio ambiente.

“Es muy fácil. Colocas tu botella, sale agua fría, filtrada y gratuita. Toda nuestra idea es que, si estas estaciones son más accesibles, más atractivas y más fáciles de usar, todos serán más sostenibles. No hay necesidad de una botella de plástico si hay estaciones Hope en todas partes”, dijo Cristina Gnecco, cofundadora y directora de operaciones de Hope Hydration.

El fundador y director ejecutivo de Hope Hydration, Jorge Richardson, dijo que la inauguración de la estación antes del inicio de Julio sin Plástico fue intencional.

Julio sin Plástico es un movimiento mundial que anima a las personas a reducir sus desechos plásticos, una decisión reutilizable a la vez.

“No necesitamos que unas pocas personas lo hagan de manera perfecta. Necesitamos que muchas personas lo intenten, y así es como realmente comenzaremos a generar un efecto multiplicador”, dijo Maddie Kaufman, directora de programas de Debris Free Oceans.

La idea es comenzar con pequeños cambios, eliminando un hábito relacionado con el plástico de la vida diaria.

“Se necesitan unas dos semanas para crear un hábito. Así que dedica dos semanas a intentar crear un hábito con un solo artículo”, dijo Kaufman.

La necesidad de actuar nunca ha sido mayor.

“Es una cifra alarmante. Sí, estamos en modo de crisis”, dijo Marcus Eriksen, cofundador y director de investigación del Instituto 5 Gyres.

Cada año, aproximadamente ocho millones de toneladas métricas de plástico llegan al océano, sumándose a los más de 171 billones de partículas de plástico que ya existen allí. Se proyecta que la producción de plástico se duplicará durante los próximos 25 años.

“Recogemos más de 20,000 libras de basura por día durante el Día Internacional de Limpieza de Costas. Nuestros vertederos se están llenando de plástico. Nuestros cuerpos se están llenando de plástico”, dijo Kaufman.

Los defensores de esta causa afirman que el reciclaje, por sí solo, no resolverá el problema. A nivel mundial, solo el 9 % del plástico se recicla, y aseguran que la única solución es rechazar el plástico siempre que sea posible.

“El reciclaje no funciona. No podemos seguir el ritmo de la cantidad de plástico que se produce ahora ni de la que se producirá en el futuro”, dijo Catherine Uden, representante principal de campo de Oceana South Florida.

Debido a que la ley de Florida impide que los gobiernos locales regulen la mayoría de los plásticos de un solo uso, gran parte de la responsabilidad recae en los consumidores.

Programas como Plastic Free Miami Beach y Plastic Free 305 ayudan a los consumidores a tomar mejores decisiones al destacar a los negocios que han reducido significativamente el uso de envases plásticos y artículos desechables.

“El 73 % de los visitantes, turistas y consumidores quieren gastar su dinero en negocios sostenibles y en sus productos”, dijo Cynthia Seymour, del Distrito de Mejoramiento Comercial de Coconut Grove.

Hope Hydration planea instalar 15 estaciones más en todo el condado Miami-Dade, en parques públicos y otros espacios del condado. El objetivo es expandirse a 250 estaciones durante el próximo año, para que sea más fácil, gratuito y conveniente dejar de comprar agua embotellada en envases de plástico y utilizar botellas reutilizables.

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Tina, estimated to be about 1½ years old and weighing roughly 48 pounds, came into the shelter as a stray and is not expected to grow much larger, animal officials said.

Shelter staff described her as friendly, gentle and easygoing, noting that she quickly bonds with people and enjoys greeting everyone she meets. They also said she walks well on a leash and does not pull, making her a good fit for first-time dog owners.

As Independence Day approaches, animal services officials are also urging pet owners to take steps to keep animals safe during fireworks celebrations.

They recommend making sure pets are wearing updated ID tags and have current microchip information in case they become frightened and run off.

Shelter staff also advise keeping pets indoors during fireworks, providing a quiet and secure space away from crowds and noise, and walking dogs before festivities begin.

They added that fireworks can be overwhelming for animals, as they are often more sensitive to loud noises than humans.

For pets that experience anxiety, officials said calming aids or anxiety wraps may help, though effectiveness can vary by animal.

Animal services also suggested creating a calm environment inside the home, such as a quiet room or “safe space,” to help reduce stress during holiday celebrations.

More information on Tina and other adoptable pets is available at Miami-Dade Animal Services’ website.

Según las autoridades de bienestar animal, Tina, de aproximadamente un año y medio de edad y unas 48 libras de peso, llegó al refugio como una perra callejera y no se espera que crezca mucho más.

El personal del refugio la describió como amigable, dócil y tranquila, y destacó que crea vínculos rápidamente con las personas y disfruta saludar a todos los que conoce. También señalaron que camina bien con correa y no tira de ella, lo que la convierte en una buena opción para personas que tendrán un perro por primera vez.

A medida que se acerca el Día de la Independencia, las autoridades de bienestar animal también instan a los dueños de mascotas a tomar medidas para mantener a sus animales seguros durante las celebraciones con fuegos artificiales.

Recomiendan asegurarse de que las mascotas lleven placas de identificación actualizadas y que la información de su microchip esté al día, en caso de que se asusten y huyan.

El personal del refugio también aconseja mantener a las mascotas dentro de la casa durante los fuegos artificiales, proporcionarles un lugar tranquilo y seguro, alejado de las multitudes y el ruido, y sacar a pasear a los perros antes de que comiencen las celebraciones.

Agregaron que los fuegos artificiales pueden resultar abrumadores para los animales, ya que suelen ser más sensibles a los ruidos fuertes que los seres humanos.

Para las mascotas que experimentan ansiedad, las autoridades indicaron que los productos calmantes o los chalecos para la ansiedad pueden ayudar, aunque su eficacia puede variar según el animal.

Servicios para Animales también sugirió crear un ambiente tranquilo dentro del hogar, como una habitación silenciosa o un “espacio seguro”, para ayudar a reducir el estrés durante las celebraciones.

Puede encontrar más información sobre Tina y otras mascotas disponibles para adopción en el sitio web de Servicios para Animales de Miami-Dade.

Andrés Fernández, padre de Lucy Fernández, de 17 años, quien murió en un accidente de navegación que derivó en un juicio contra el magnate inmobiliario George Pino, posteriormente absuelto, habló el jueves durante una conferencia de prensa sobre la importancia de la seguridad náutica.

Fernández desempeñó un papel clave en la creación de un grupo de trabajo integral sobre seguridad náutica tras la muerte de su hija durante el fin de semana del Día del Trabajo en 2022.

El objetivo es hacer que disfrutar en el agua sea una experiencia más segura para todos.

Algunos de los consejos que compartió Fernández fueron no consumir alcohol si se es el capitán de la embarcación y asegurarse de que haya chalecos salvavidas para todas las personas a bordo.

Fernández también fue una de las principales voces impulsoras de la aprobación de la Ley de Lucy, promulgada en junio de 2025, que aumenta las sanciones para las personas que operan una embarcación de manera imprudente.

He spoke loudly with his bloody right foot at one of the biggest moments of the World Cup for the United States. Still feeling the affects of being stomped on by an opponent’s studs, Tillman scored the first free kick goal in a World Cup for the Americans in 32 years to seal a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night that sent the U.S. into the round of 16.

Tillman celebrated the biggest moment of his young career with a smile and a scream as he ran to celebrate with his teammates in front of the large contingent of American fans at Levi’s Stadium.

“I’m a different type of person on the pitch,” he said after the game. “Of course maybe you don’t really see my emotions, but then if you score a goal like this, I think also you guys saw my emotions. It’s a great feeling.”

Tillman showed off his bloody sock — perhaps the most famous in American sports lore since Curt Schilling's in the 2004 baseball playoffs for the Boston Red Sox — after the game, saying he was still in a bit of pain.

But the discomfort was lessened by pure joy as the U.S. now prepares to play Belgium on Monday night in Seattle with a chance to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.

Tillman's goal came with the U.S. protecting a one-goal lead and down a man after Folarin Balogun was sent off with a red card early in the second half. Balogun scored his third goal of the tournament in the first half but Tillman delivered the game-sealer in the highlight of what has already been a productive World Cup for the 24-year-old.

“Obviously he’s been playing so well,” captain Tim Ream said. “I’d argue he’s, other than Balo’s goals, he’s one of our best players. Everywhere on the field, doing the dirty things, making the hard things easy. I think it is just that. He just wanted to feel like he had a place. He’s a quiet kid, but he’s just come on leaps and bounds.”

Tillman is the son of an American serviceman and German mother and grew up in Germany playing on the Bayern Munich youth squad and the German national youth team before making the switch to the U.S. team in 2022.

His big moment came last summer in the Gold Cup when he scored two goals against Trinidad and Tobago and another against Haiti in the group stage. He then missed a penalty kick in the first half of the quarterfinals against Costa Rica before making one in the penalty shootout that sent the U.S. to the semifinals.

“The Gold Cup was really huge for him,” Ream said. “I think the adversity of the Costa Rica game, the penalty was really big for him. Now you look at him and he looks like he’s just playing such an easy game. It’s incredible to see. He’s had that in him all this time. It was just a matter of him finding the confidence and him believing in himself.”

This past year wasn’t easy for him after he moved from PSV Eindhoven to Bayer Leverkusen in a transfer worth a reported $41 million. He had six goals and one assist in 29 games in the Bundesliga and scoring two more in the Champions League.

His biggest goal came Wednesday night when he became the first American man to score off a free kick in a World Cup since Eric Wynalda in the 1994 opener against Switzerland.

“It was amazing,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “I think Malik is an amazing player, full of talent. We knew that he has the talent to do what he did. I’m so happy for him. Tough season for him in Leverkusen but I think now he’s enjoying and we are enjoying and the fans are enjoying his football.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

El vuelo con destino a Caracas, Venezuela, es la primera misión humanitaria de la aerolínea hacia ese país sudamericano desde los mortales terremotos.

El piloto Cristóbal Orsini, originario de Venezuela, ha volado un avión en innumerables ocasiones. Pero dijo que ningún viaje había sido tan personal como este.

“Estoy muy feliz y agradecido de poder formar parte de este vuelo humanitario”, dijo.

“Conozco a muchas personas que murieron”, agregó. “Murieron muchos pilotos. Murieron muchos auxiliares de vuelo, personas que conocía, personas con las que trabajé”.

JC Lascano, vicepresidente sénior de American, dijo que el avión “transportará 7,000 libras de suministros de ayuda: medicinas, alimentos, productos perecederos, cosas que son absolutamente necesarias en este momento, no solo para nuestro equipo, sino para quienes viven en el país”.

La aerolínea se ha asociado con Global Empowerment Mission, en Doral, donde cientos de voluntarios han trabajado día y noche para clasificar, empacar y enviar suministros que salvan vidas.

Aunque los terremotos provocaron una enorme devastación en el país, nunca sacudieron la compasión de quienes están decididos a ayudar a reconstruirlo.

Lista útil: Lugares para entregar ayuda en el sur de Florida

Más información sobre cómo ayudar a Venezuela.

• La organización sin fines de lucro GEM, con sede en Doral, envía más de 1 millón de dólares en ayuda de la comunidad.

• Inter Miami, Marlins y Dolphins se suman a los esfuerzos de ayuda.
• Una estrella de la NFL se une al equipo de Global Empowerment Mission; su mensaje para los habitantes del sur de Florida es: “Hagan lo que puedan”.
• Más de 100 venezolanos que fueron deportados de Estados Unidos horas antes de los terremotos están desaparecidos.

• Food for the Poor celebra las inversiones en reconstrucción.
• Médicos del condado de Miami-Dade recolectan donaciones de suministros médicos cerca de Doral.
• Les presentamos al capitán German Leal del Departamento de Bomberos y Rescate de Miami-Dade.

• Agentes de policía de Pembroke Pines anuncian una campaña de recolección de donaciones.
• Airbnb se asocia con la organización sin fines de lucro CADENA para proporcionar alojamiento de emergencia.
• Hogar Bambi tiene como objetivo proteger a los niños vulnerables.

• El equipo de la Fundación Grey Bull Rescue llega a Caracas.
• Las autoridades clausuran La Guaira y exigen que los voluntarios se registren en Caracas.
• Amazon realiza donaciones a Airlink para ayudar a organizaciones benéficas con la logística.

• El equipo de búsqueda y rescate de Miami se prepara para desplegarse.
• Centro Comunitario AFE organiza campaña de recolección en Miami-Dade
• Una organización benéfica con sede en Weston se asocia con una farmacia local.

• El proyecto DYNAMO, liderado por veteranos, entrega 20.000 libras de ayuda en las primeras 48 horas.
• El altruismo en El Arepazo alimenta el esfuerzo del equipo de Global Empowerment Mission.
• Rescatistas salvadoreños trabajan para liberar a un sobreviviente de 15 años en Caraballeda.

• Food For The Poor incluye en sus kits de ayuda humanitaria notas escritas a mano con mensajes de esperanza.
• El Comando Sur de Estados Unidos se centra en los daños en los aeropuertos.
• El Departamento de Estado despliega un equipo de búsqueda y rescate en Miami-Dade.

• Miami Beach abre 4 nuevos puntos de entrega de ayuda.
• Miramar mantendrá abiertos 6 puntos de entrega de ayuda las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana.
• El recaudador de impuestos de Miami-Dade abre 11 puntos de entrega.
• Doral abre 4 puntos de entrega de ayuda.

• Se abre un punto de entrega de ayuda en Homestead.
• Starlink ofrece servicio gratuito hasta el 25 de julio, pero un kit cuesta 470 dólares.
• International Medical Corps despliega personal y necesita donaciones.
• Save The Children solicita donaciones para su fondo de emergencia.

• Samaritan’s Purse se centra en los “hospitales de campaña de emergencia”.
• La Cruz Roja solicita donaciones para su Fondo de Emergencia para la Respuesta ante Desastres.
• La ONU solicita donaciones para un programa infantil que carece de fondos suficientes.

• World Vision solicita donaciones para su “fondo de ayuda en casos de desastre”.
• World Central Kitchen solicita donaciones para comidas frescas.
• United Way Miami lanza la ‘Operación Manos Amigas’.

The virus causing this outbreak, called Bundibugyo, is less common than others that cause Ebola disease and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it. Already more than 1,400 people have been diagnosed and 438 have died, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

Standard supportive care, especially if started early, can help and the WHO says more than 200 people have recovered. But there’s an urgent need for better options.

The trial “offers real hope that we can deliver concrete results for – and with – the communities at the heart of the outbreak,” Tedros said in a statement.

Researchers will be testing if two drugs could improve survival. One is Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, a broad-acting antiviral approved to treat COVID-19 but that has shown some hints in lab tests that it may help fight the currently spreading virus. The other is Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s experimental MBP134, antibodies engineered to target Ebola viruses including Bundibugyo.

All patients enrolled in the trial would receive today’s best standard care and be randomly assigned to also receive remdesivir, MBP134, both or neither, said WHO research adviser Dr. Vasee Moorthy. Survival will be tracked for 28 days after starting treatment.

It could take months and possibly as many as 1,000 study participants to tell if either drug works, Moorthy cautioned, explaining that scientists could tell more quickly, and with fewer patients, if one or the other turns out to be highly effective.

Currently the study is being offered only in one Ebola treatment center in Congo’s Ituri province. The region has been hit hard by violence, including toward healthcare workers trying to fight a virus spread by contact with sick patients’ bodily fluids. Officials plan to expand to other locations once it is safe to do so.

Moorthy said enough of each drug had been donated by Gilead and the U.S. government, which has funded MBP134 research and owns those doses, for the trial. If either proves effective, the next step would be ensuring patients can continue to access the treatment outside the study.

The WHO-supported trial is a collaboration between Congo’s national biomedical research institute INRB, Britain’s Oxford University, Antwerp's Institute of Tropical Medicine and other international health groups.

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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.

The application — for a “Special Event at MSG" — was approved Wednesday night by New York City’s permitting office, according to a spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Multiple people familiar with the plans have confirmed to the AP that the application is tied to the wedding between the superstar singer and the football player.

The permit shows 100 guests will begin arriving at Madison Square Garden on Thursday for a “pre party celebration” at 6:30 p.m., which officials described as an intimate rehearsal dinner.

A full street closure will then go into effect near the Manhattan arena overnight as crews erect multiple entrance and drive through tents, according to the permit.

The “main event” will begin at 5 p.m. Friday, the permit shows, and can continue until 4 a.m. the next morning.

Swift’s representative has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

The people who confirmed the wedding to The Associated Press spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the events.

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The flight, to Caracas, Venezuela, is the airline’s first humanitarian trip to the South American country since the deadly earthquakes.

Pilot Cristobal Orsini, originally from Venezuela, has flown a plane countless times. But a trip has never felt so personal until now.

He said, “I’m very happy and grateful that I am able to be a part of this humanitarian flight.”

“I know many people that have died,” he said. “A lot of pilots died. A lot of flight attendants, people that I knew, people that I used to work with.”

JC Liscano, a senior vice president with American, said that the airplane “is going to carry 7,000 pounds of relief supplies: medicine, food, perishables, things that are absolutely needed right now ― not just by our team, but those (who) live in the country."

The airline is partnering with the Global Empowerment Mission in Doral, where hundreds of volunteers have worked around the clock to sort, pack and ship life-saving supplies.

Even though the earthquakes brought tremendous devastation to the country, they never shook the compassion of those determined to help put it back together.

Helpful list: Aid drop-off locations in South Florida

More on HELPING VENEZUELA

• Doral-based nonprofit GEM dispatches over $1 million in aid from community

• Inter Miami, Marlins, Dolphins join relief efforts
• NFL star joins Global Empowerment Mission’s team; his message to South Floridians, ‘Do what you can’
• More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US hours before the earthquakes are missing

• Food for the Poor welcomes investments in reconstruction
• Physicians in Miami-Dade collect donations of medical supplies near Doral
• Meet Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. German Leal

• Pembroke Pines police officers announce collection drive
• Airbnb partners with nonprofit CADENA for emergency housing
• Hogar Bambi aims to protect vulnerable children

• Grey Bull Rescue Foundation team arrives at Caracas
• Officials close La Guaira, require volunteers to register in Caracas
• Amazon donates to Airlink to help charities with logistics

• Miami search-and-rescue team prepares to deploy
• Centro Comunitario AFE hosts collection drive in Miami-Dade
• Weston-based charity partners with local pharmacy

• Veteran-led Project DYNAMO delivers 20,000 pounds of aid in 1st 48 hours
• Altruism at El Arepazo feeds Global Empowerment Mission’s team effort
• Salvadoran rescuers work to free 15-year-old survivor in Caraballeda

• Food For The Poor packs disaster relief kits with ‘hopeful’ hand-written notes
• U.S. Southern Command focuses on airport damage
• State Department deploys Miami-Dade search-and-rescue team

• Miami Beach opens 4 new aid drop-off locations
• Miramar to keep 6 aid drop-off locations open 24/7
• Miami-Dade’s tax collector opens 11 drop-off locations
• Doral opens 4 aid drop-off locations

• Aid drop-off location opens in Homestead
• Starlink offers free service through July 25, but a kit is $470
• International Medical Corps deploys staff, needs donations
• Save The Children asks for emergency fund donations

• Samaritan’s Purse focuses on ‘emergency field hospital’
• Red Cross asks for Disaster Response Emergency Fund donations
• UN asks for donations for ‘underfunded’ program for kids

• World Vision asks for ‘disaster relief fund’ donations
• World Central Kitchen asks for donations for fresh meals
• United Way Miami launches ‘Operation Helping Hands’

Owner Chip Ganassi announced Thursday that Dixon recently informed the team he would not return in 2027.

“Scott has meant so much to CGR over the past 24 years,” Ganassi said. “Together we’ve shared championships, many victories and countless moments that have helped define this organization."

Ganassi said he believed the 45-year-old Dixon’s contract gave him an opportunity to end his career with the team.

“We respect that he’s chosen a different path and wish him nothing but continued success,” Ganassi said. “Scott will always be a special part of this team’s history, and we’re grateful for everything we’ve accomplished together.”

Dixon, who won the 2008 Indianapolis 500, is the defending champion at IndyCar's next race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday. He is 10th in points this season with one top-five finish.

“Our focus now is on finishing this season strong with the No. 9 PNC team while also preparing for the future at Chip Ganassi Racing," Ganassi said.

Dixon won karting titles in Australia and New Zealand before moving to the United States where he raced in Indy Lights and CART series before moving to IndyCar in 2003.

He won series championships in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020 and has 59 career victories, trailing only A.J. Foyt.

Dixon was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2024 and was awarded a knighthood last December in New Zealand. He was born in Australia to New Zealand-born parents who later returned to live in Auckland.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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When we talk about Cuba, we usually concentrate on their centralized political and economic system. However, we fail to recognize that individuals that have lived under totalitarian regimes have had to survive under a culture of fear. Such system of government creates a psychological set of attitudes and values that help define the daily behavior in order to align the people’s wants and needs to the restrictions imposed by the government.

To break such behaviors could take years of psychological training and change. Therefore, transitioning a totalitarian state to support a transition to some form of a Democratic government could take time.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez’s June updates can be viewed by clicking here.

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.

As officials carried body bags and stacked caskets in the port city of Catia La Mar, joy briefly broke through the pervading misery that has blanketed Venezuela's northern La Guaira on Thursday morning when rescue teams pulled a 43-year-old man out of the rubble he was buried under for nearly eight days.

Rescuers from across the Americas had worked for about 100 hours to pull Hernán Alberto Gil Flores from the collapsed shopping mall under which he was buried. Trapped in an air pocket, he'd survived on the water and sustenance rescuers passed him through the rubble. He was pulled out of the ruins on a stretcher and was carried to an ambulance as throngs of people cheered in a rare moment of victory.

Thousands more did not make it that far.

Venezuela's government said as of Wednesday that at least 2,295 were killed and more than 11,000 were wounded. Thousands more were sleeping in crowded shelters or outside, or remained missing as family members searched the rubble. The aftermath has left medics worried that the fallout could pave the way for a widening medical crisis of untreated injuries and infectious diseases in a healthcare system already on the brink.

U.S. support of a government under fire

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez continued to face mounting criticisms by Venezuelans over the government's inadequate handling of the earthquakes — civilian and international rescue efforts have far overshadowed the Venezuelan government response.

The criticism came just a day before the extension of Rodríguez’s 180-day mandate as acting leader was set to expire. Rodríguez served as deputy to former President Nicolás Maduro until he was ousted by the United States in January and she became interim leader with the backing of the Trump administration.

With little transparency by Venezuelan officials, it was unclear what would happen once the deadline passes Thursday.

Under Venezuela’s constitution, temporary absences are to be filled by the vice president — which was Rodríguez’s former role — for up to 90 days. These interim appointments can be extended by the national assembly for an additional 90 days.

The Venezuelan leader has strong support from lawmakers and the Trump administration. The National Assembly, controlled by Rodríguez’s party, can trigger a snap election if lawmakers declare the post permanently vacant.

The U.S. continued to throw support behind her government Wednesday in the face of criticism, and officials said there were 900 military personnel currently on the ground to support relief and rescue operations.

John M. Barrett, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Venezuela, pushed back against accusations that Rodríguez was politicizing response efforts.

During a call with reporters, Barrett said the U.S. response “does require a high level of coordination with local authorities to be successful.”

“And what I can say with confidence is that the local authorities have fully complied with our requests and have accelerated this massive humanitarian response,” Barrett said.

Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, added during the call that “decades of poor investment in the people of Venezuela” had “made this even more challenging for the current government.”

“It is a big problem for any leader to deal with a challenge of this magnitude,” Donovan said.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalist Ben Finley contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

Cuando hablamos de Cuba, por lo general nos concentramos en su sistema político y económico centralizado. Sin embargo, no logramos reconocer que las personas que han vivido bajo regímenes totalitarios han tenido que sobrevivir bajo una cultura del miedo. Ese sistema de gobierno crea un conjunto de actitudes y valores psicológicos que ayudan a definir el comportamiento cotidiano con el fin de alinear los deseos y las necesidades de la población con las restricciones impuestas por el gobierno.

Romper con esos comportamientos podría tomar años de entrenamiento y cambios psicológicos. Por lo tanto, la transición de un Estado totalitario hacia alguna forma de gobierno democrático podría tomar tiempo.

Las actualizaciones de junio del Dr. Andy S. Gómez pueden consultarse haciendo clic aquí.

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.

Some swear that turning off the AC when they’re gone for a few hours is the most energy-efficient, cost-saving method. Others say it’s better to leave it running continuously, preventing the system from straining to rapidly cool the house down after the home has gotten warmer throughout the day.

Three experts interviewed by The Associated Press agreed that setting the thermostat a few degrees higher than normal while you’re away is generally the best way to balance energy efficiency against comfort and humidity.

While turning an AC unit off for several hours and turning it back on can save money and energy compared to continuously running it, that approach can lead to mold problems in humid environments as well as wear and tear that can cause more frequent repairs. The equation can also vary depending on other factors including comfort level, AC unit type and building insulation.

Air conditioning strategies differ in humid or dry climates

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, adjusting your thermostat by 7-10 degrees Fahrenheit (4-6 degrees Celsius) for eight hours a day can save up to 10% a year on heating and cooling.

Experts say there are a lot of factors to consider when deciding what AC habits save the most energy and money.

“If you’re gone for like 15 minutes to go to the grocery store, you don’t get any gain" by turning off your AC, said Elizabeth Hewitt, professor and urban planning expert at Stony Brook University.

But as a general rule, “if you’re going for your work day, say for eight hours or so, you’ll almost always save more energy and money by turning things off," she said.

In some climates, however, turning off the AC might not be feasible, so residents can set back their AC a few degrees instead of blasting cold air all day.

In dry places like Arizona, you can let the home warm up more by raising the thermostat a few degrees higher. But in humid climates like Florida, air inside the home can become damp and harder to cool, and turning the AC off for long periods can increase the risk of mold since the system helps control indoor moisture.

Bumping up the thermostat by 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) yields about a 3% savings in cooling costs, said Patrick Phelan, mechanical engineering professor at Arizona State University.

Phelan also said leaving your AC off for hours and then turning it back on could lead to wear that results in more frequent repairs. That is because it can take AC systems 15 to 30 minutes after they are turned on to perform most efficiently.

How much energy and money you can save depends on the kind of home you live in, said Gregor Henze, an architectural engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Homes built with heavy materials like concrete or brick hold in cool air longer, while older, draftier houses heat up faster. In less insulated homes, Henze said, it makes sense to adjust the thermostat even if you’re stepping out for just a few hours, because the indoor temperature can rise quickly.

Some AC units save more energy than others

Whether you have a window unit, a smart thermometer or central air could influence your savings.

Window units are generally less efficient because they’re installed in an open window, making it difficult to seal out hot air completely, said Hewitt. She added that spraying “cheap foam spray insulation in open windows or areas that are drafty is a really low-hanging fruit that doesn’t cost a lot of money and really helps retain the indoor temperature in your home.”

Phelan says smart thermostats are a handy tool to remove the mental burden of tinkering with your manual thermostat multiple times a day. Smart thermostats “learn” by monitoring the occupancy with a sensor and raise the temperature when no one is home to conserve energy and lower it when people return.

“If you’re going from just an ordinary manual thermostat to installing a smart one like a Nest, then you can expect something like 10% savings," said Phelan.

How to cool your home without air conditioning

Each expert said simple steps like blocking sunlight can go a long way in keeping homes cool.

Henze pointed to “time-honored strategies” such as opening windows at night when it’s cooler. In dry climates, that night air doesn’t add much moisture, but in humid regions it can bring in dampness the AC will later need to remove.

Hewitt added that closing your blinds can make a difference of several degrees.

Phelan also noted that some blinds are designed to reflect sunlight and said tinted window films are another option.

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O'Malley is a former Associated Press reporter.

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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.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 6.43% from 6.49% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.67%.

The average rate has been mostly hovering around 6.5% in the months since the war between the U.S. and Iran began in late February, disrupting the flow of crude oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. That’s sent oil prices sharply higher, helping drive up inflation, bond yields and mortgage rates.

Despite the modest decline from last week, the average rate is now at its lowest level since May 14, when it was 6.36%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also declined this week. That average rate fell to 5.79% from 5.84% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.8%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.46% at midday Thursday on the bond market, down from 4.48% late Wednesday.

Hope that the United States and Iran may ultimately end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers delivering crude has helped lower oil prices, helping ease some of the pressure on bond yields.

Bond yields remain elevated, though. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.97% in late February.

As recently as late February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had slipped just under 6% for the first time since late 2022. It’s hasn’t fallen below that threshold since. Five weeks ago, it reached 6.53%, its highest level since Aug. 28.

While average long-term mortgage rates remain lower than they were at this time last year, uncertainty about their trajectory amid the war with Iran kept many would-be homebuyers on the sideline.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined in the first three months of the year compared to a year earlier, extending a nationwide housing slump that dates back to 2022 when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales were essentially flat in April, but accelerated in May to their fastest pace since December.

Still, sales of existing U.S. homes continue to hovering close to a 4-million annual pace, far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million.

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According to police, the incident happened around 10:15 p.m. when the individual was captured on camera walking up to a residence in Miami Shores.

Investigators said the culprit, described as a white male wearing a baseball cap and an unknown-colored shirt and shorts, appeared to be carrying what looked like a long gun.

Surveillance video shows the man approaching the front door, ringing the doorbell and waiting about 15 seconds before leaving the area and walking southbound, police said.

They said the resident told investigators they did not recognize the individual and had never seen him before.

Anyone with information about the man’s identity or whereabouts is urged to contact the Miami Shores Police Department at 305-759-2468.

Según la Policía, el incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 10:15 p.m., cuando el individuo fue captado por una cámara mientras se acercaba a una vivienda en Miami Shores.

Los investigadores dijeron que el sospechoso, descrito como un hombre blanco que vestía una gorra de béisbol, una camiseta de color desconocido y pantalones cortos, parecía portar lo que aparentaba ser un arma larga.

El video de vigilancia muestra al hombre acercándose a la puerta principal, tocando el timbre y esperando unos 15 segundos antes de retirarse del lugar y caminar en dirección sur, informó la Policía.

Indicaron que el residente dijo a los investigadores que no reconocía al individuo y que nunca lo había visto antes.

Cualquier persona con información sobre la identidad o el paradero del hombre debe comunicarse con el Departamento de Policía de Miami Shores al 305-759-2468.

Instead, in varied ways, they are tuning into their own personal concepts of America the Beautiful.

In Associated Press interviews with citizens in the days before the Fourth, auto technician Joe Fuqua-Bejarano, in Topeka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awesome” as a people. It's clearly not the politics, in his view, but rather resilience.

“We’ve just all got to find unity somewhere, whether that’s in laughter or perseverance, and keep everybody cool,” he said from the fireworks stand where he's doing a booming business as a side hustle.

The world's long-running image of Americans as a brash and confident (if not boastful and jingoistic) lot did not square easily with the tempered enthusiasms and trepidations expressed by many of the people AP interviewed.

“There are lots of points of contention going around,” noted one of them, Christina Zhou, a 25-year-old research assistant from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet “there are still a lot of beautiful things that are happening.”

“What I’m trying to do is think about just things that are happening locally,” she added. “It feels a little bit more like within our own personal control.”

‘We’re just happy Americans'

In Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, farmer Mindy Dean, 50, and her family will be milking their goats Saturday and maybe taking in some local fireworks. Or maybe not. The 250th hoopla has been mostly lost on her. “We’re just happy Americans,” she said. “We kinda do our own thing and just enjoy our freedom as Americans.”

In contrast, the goat-free Neil Casey, an 81-year-old retiree from Nashua, New Hampshire, and his friend Maureen Regan, who lives in Cambridge, are free-range celebrants. They're roaming Boston's historical sites, like Paul Revere's house, and as many of the city's Fourth events as they can manage. They, too, are plugging their ears to discord.

“I’m very much aware of our country and what we’ve been through, you know, so I’m just trying to immerse myself in the atmosphere of the 250th," Casey said. Regan took heart in all the soccer fans who poured into the country for the World Cup and praised what they experienced.

“They love everything we have," she said, ”and I want people to not forget that and remember how lucky we are." Her advice to compatriots: "Just enjoy the moment. Enjoy that we’ve been here for 250 years.”

Still, for some, it is nearly impossible to separate holiday patriotism from steps by President Donald Trump to bend the celebrations toward himself, as with the Fourth of July festivities on the National Mall that he said will culminate in a Trump rally Saturday.

When patriotism feels ‘Republican’

"When you’re celebrating the Fourth of July right now, it feels like that’s like a Republican thing to do,” said Madeline Capodilupo, 26, a special-education teacher who lives in Boston. She'll spend the weekend with her fiancé's family at their Maine beach house.

“It’s just hard to celebrate something when it doesn’t feel like we should be celebrating anything," she said.

What celebrants are celebrating, exactly, is diverse and personal.

Ronald Hall spent 18 months in the Air Force toward the end of the Vietnam War. His wife, Karen, served two years in the Army and took part in Operation Desert Storm during the first Gulf War. While they shopped for vegetables at Detroit's Eastern Market this week, Ronald said he's spent a lifetime celebrating American ideals, which might be distinct from reality.

As a Black man, he said, America's promise of freedom and equality was at the core. “I grew up remembering the promise,” he said. “That’s what we celebrated: the promise, not the country.”

Old warriors find their faith tested

Veterans are always front and center in America's big occasions and the 250th is no different. At the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton, residents are looking forward to a community celebration in the coming days that will feature a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter, a World War II ambulance, food trucks, music and even Uncle Sam on stilts.

The old warriors are keeping the faith. But that faith is being tested.

“I believe this country is the greatest that ever existed,” said Leo LeClerc, 83, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam. “Our democracy is strong and it will continue to be strong as long as people participate in it.”

But, he said. “I don’t like what’s going on in this country" and “I don’t feel very good about the 250th.” An independent who voted for Trump in 2016, he now believes a “cult of personality has taken over" around the president.

Tom Gaumont, 74, an Army veteran and former history teacher, remembered the 1976 bicentennial as a more hopeful time, despite the aftershocks of President Richard Nixon's resignation under threat of impeachment.

“I’m kinda sad at this point with what I anticipate,” Gaumont said. “I’ve seen and taught about how these things kind of crumble, so I’m concerned.”

“We’ve lasted this long," he added, "and this is a very existential time in our history.”

Allan Bailey, 83, a Republican who also served in Vietnam and later owned a motel, voiced similar pessimism.

“I’m worried about how the country is going, I really am,” he said. "I don’t know what we’re going to leave our children, and that bothers me a lot.”

A security guard works to ‘make the USA the greatest’

In Dearborn, Michigan, Nabeel Mawari, 38, sounded a more hopeful note. On Saturday, he'll be working his security guard job while his wife and two young sons celebrate the holiday with relatives. An immigrant from Yemen, now a U.S. citizen, Mawari spoke from his backyard about life in the United States.

“My life is here,” Mawari said. “We try to make the U.S.A. the greatest. That’s why I’m here. I love this country. The Fourth of July, it is very important.”

Then there's the man who, for perhaps very understandable reasons, wanted to stay far away from the political fray.

Gary MacGrath, 77, has been a caricaturist at a suburban Philadelphia fair for 14 years. This year, McGrath’s booth was sandwiched right between the local Democratic and Republican Party clubs. Talk about a rock and a hard place. He said he learned as a bartender earlier in life to “never talk about religion or politics" and was heeding that lesson now.

But he did permit himself this: “It’s 250 years," he said. “Let’s keep democracy going.”

___

Ramer reported from Bedford and Tilton, N.H. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Mike Catalini in Southampton, Pa., Michael Casey in Cambridge, Mass., and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

The recent devastating earthquakes in Venezuela have put on pause any serious conversations between Washington, D.C. and Cuba. However, the question remains: how long can Cuba hold on as their economic situation worsens and social unrest increases each day?

The Cuban government is trying to find ways to implement the recently approved 176 reforms. But even Cuban economists inside the island agree that they might be too late to save Cuba from a total economic collapse.

June 24 update: US Supreme Court allows claim by Exxon Mobil against the government of Cuba to proceed

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-to-3 decision that the claim by Exxon Mobil against the government of Cuba for confiscating their properties in the early 1960’s can proceed under the Helms-Burton law.

This clearly sets a precedent for the other 5,913 registered American companies to file legal procedures against the Cuban government.

June 22 update: Ramiro Valdes, one of the original Comandantes of the Cuban Revolution, dies

Ramiro Valdes, one of the original Comandantes of the Cuban Revolution, died in Cuba Sunday at the age of 94. He was the founder of the Ministry of the Interior, known for its repressive measures against the Cuban people. Valdes is credited for killing numerous Cubans who opposed the regime from the early days of the revolution. Most recently, he was responsible for training the security police in Venezuela.

June 19 update: Cuba approves 176 new economic measures

The National Assembly of the Cuban government approved 176 new economic measures Thursday to help jumpstart their moribund economy. Similar economic reforms were introduced when Raul Castro took over power from his brother, Fidel, but they failed because the government’s infrastructure could not implement them. Are these measures in time to save Cuba from a total economic disaster? Many economists even inside the island have come out and said that they are a bit too late.

On Thursday, the European Parliament approved a resolution sanctioning Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the leaders of the Cuban economic military conglomerate, GAESA. Finally, it suspended the existing agreement between the EU and Cuba.

June 17 update: Can President Trump afford another conflict?

Now that the U.S. and Iran have reached an agreement to stop the war, can President Donald Trump politically afford another conflict? This time it will be with Cuba -- a nation that will offer little military resistance to the U.S., but can also be a political trap for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s future run for the U.S. presidency.

June 11 update: Rubio announces sanctioning of CUPET:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday afternoon the sanctioning of Cuba’s oil and gas company, Union Cuba Petroleo (CUPET). This company had been confiscated from American owners at the start of the revolution.

This is a sign that Cuba’s government has not shown any willingness to negotiate with the U.S. This action further chokes the regime who is running out of options as the socio-economic problems get worse each day that passes.

June 10 update: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visits Guantanamo Bay for operational briefings

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.

Dangerous, record-breaking heat will continue across much of the central and eastern U.S. through Friday and will continue along the East Coast through the weekend, the National Weather Service said Thursday. Temperatures in the high 90s Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) were forecast for the Northeast; Philadelphia and Boston could top 100. Humidity is expected to make it feel even hotter, all but ensuring that sweat will dampen spirits at many celebrations marking 250 years of American independence.

“Anywhere you go in southern New England, you will be dealing with dangerous heat today, tomorrow and Saturday,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service.

In Boston, entrance to the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular will start at 4 p.m. instead of noon on Saturday because of the heat. In Philadelphia, officials shortened the route of a Thursday morning parade, canceled an afternoon all-American Block Party back the start times of an evening picnic and concert at Independence Mall.

In Lower Windsor Township, Pennsylvania, an America 250 celebration including food trucks, games and the highway department's dump truck has been rescheduled for July 8. In Norristown, Pennsylvania, officials canceled a parade set for Saturday, citing the safety of residents, participants and first responders, though evening fireworks and an afternoon party featuring games, food, and music will go on as scheduled.

“The parade is one of our community’s most beloved traditions, and we share in the disappointment of its cancellation, especially as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday,” Interim Municipal Administrator Jayne Musonye said.

Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania moved outdoor events indoors. Amtrak, meanwhile, canceled some train routes due to the heat Thursday, including the Acela between Boston and Washington, and said others may operate with reduced speeds resulting in delays through Saturday.

A heat dome — high-pressure systems above a region that trap heat and humidity — has been smothering parts of the U.S., from the Midwest to the East Coast. Beyond the holiday festivities, officials in many communities are taking steps to keep residents safe, including opening cooling centers. In Boston, several air-conditioned museums are offering free admission to city residents, and in Providence, Rhode Island, city pools and waterparks have extended their hours.

As the heat bore down on New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged people conserve energy by setting their air conditionings to 78 degrees — a step previous mayors, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have advised — in order to avoid stressing the power grid. Nevertheless, the request drew a round of jeers from the Democratic mayor’s conservative critics online.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who pokes at the mayor often on social media, responded on X “Is this what was meant by the warmth of collectivism?,” spinning a phrase the democratic socialist employed in his inaugural address back at Mamdani.

The operators of the electric grids in New York state, New England and one stretching across 13 mid-Atlantic and midwestern states all projected that electricity demand would peak on Thursday before falling back slightly on Friday. They have not issued emergency calls to reduce consumption, however, and industry analysts say system planners prepare for such circumstances.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the grid that serves 65 million people from New Jersey to Illinois, said Thursday’s projected peak would set an all-time high for summer electricity demand, last set in 2006. That peak is well above what PJM had projected it would see this summer, but it said it had a cushion of energy capacity above that peak.

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in New York, Michael Casey in Boston and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

But even as temperatures soared this week, Castle, 82, said she won't be filling the pool — not with the data center behind her house buzzing with the sound of its industrial air conditioners and its backup diesel generators belching fumes at unexpected times.

“I think about the air quality, the water, what effects it has on the kids in the area,” she said on her front stoop as children whirred past on bicycles.

Hot weather of the kind sweeping the eastern U.S. drives up electricity demand for data centers, adding to their strain on power grids and worsening air quality for surrounding areas. The impact on communities like the racially diverse Sacred Heart neighborhood in Lowell, Massachusetts underscores why the artificial intelligence industry is feeling so much heat over the fast-sprouting facilities.

Around the country, data centers have been blamed increasingly for a host of environmental ills. Some tech industry figures say the facilities have become lightning rods for concerns over broader economic and societal changes posed by the AI boom.

But on sweltering days, it's hard not to see the effects on Castle's neighborhood, which the state government has designated as facing higher environmental and health risks because of a population that's been historically excluded from political decision-making.

“It’s majority low-income and working family, family members who are working hard every day to just try to put food on the table,” said state Rep. Tara Hong, a Democrat who represents a heavily Cambodian American district in Lowell, a city of about 115,000 people northwest of Boston.

“It’s an inclusive place there and that data center is just smack in the middle of everything,” Hong said.

Data centers require more resources to cope with heat waves

A heat wave is “almost the worst situation for data center operation,” said Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has studied AI’s environmental toll. A data center’s racks of computer servers run hot and pose a power grid challenge and a water system challenge, Ren said.

There are two ways to keep data centers running without interruption, Ren said: refrigeration-based cooling, which is energy-intensive, and evaporative cooling, which is water-intensive.

Some data centers will turn to backup diesel generators as a “preventative measure” to mitigate the likelihood of an outage, Ren said. If the grid is highly stressed, grid operators will sometimes request that data center operators turn on their generators as “the last line of defense,” Ren said.

Diesel emissions can have harmful effects on human health, even with short-term exposure. If too many diesel generators are fired up to supply the electricity during heat waves, Ren said that could be "a disaster for the local air quality.″

The operator of the Lowell data center, the Markley Group, said it has planted more than 2,000 trees nearby to improve air quality. CEO Jeff Markley said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has switched on generators in an emergency only a handful of times.

“They are not run proactively or continuously; they engage only during an actual power disruption to keep critical systems online, plus brief weekly testing of about five minutes per unit, run one generator at a time,” he said.

A data center sprouted where a pasta factory made spaghetti

Markley said he chose Lowell because of its abundant water for cooling — supplied by the same Merrimack River that powered 19th century cotton mills in the Industrial Revolution. He said the Lowell facility uses about 118,000 gallons of water per day at the peak of summer, a small fraction of the city's daily consumption.

Castle, a lifelong resident, was among those who welcomed the Markley Group a decade ago when it first started building on the site of an abandoned Prince spaghetti factory that had employed generations of neighbors from 1939 to 1997. But about two years ago, when the Markley Group plopped its second cooling tank behind her above-ground swimming pool, along with a growing number of surveillance cameras, the relationship had soured.

In response to growing opposition, Lowell's City Council voted 10-0 in February to pass a moratorium that blocks further data center expansion for a year.

Data center electricity use has grown in the last few years, said Jonathan Koomey, a researcher who has been studying the computing warehouses for 30 years. But it’s “very much a local phenomenon,” he said. On a national scale, Koomey said demand growth has been moderate in recent years and he doesn't expect that to change.

“This is not a national crisis. It’s not explosive growth nationally,” he said. But in communities surrounding data centers, there are environmental costs, local economic costs, traffic and other concerns that need to be accounted for, Koomey added.

When temperatures climb into triple digits — as they’re expected to this week in New England — it’s harder to push heat out of a data center. Keeping it cool then requires more power, as is true of commercial buildings and homes. That can put a strain on power grids and can pose a “real risk” of power outages, Koomey said.

That strain looks different from the typical summer AC rush. In those instances, systems operators are dealing with “a lot of small loads” that are “not 100% coordinated” when individuals turn on their home air conditioners, which is to the power system's benefit, Koomey said.

“One of the challenges that the data center operators face is that these data centers are pretty big loads. They are big enough that they have to think about how to coordinate them and make sure that they’re not all cutting off at the same time or coming on at the same time,″ he said.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit that develops and enforces standards for the utility industry, recently issued an alert about the “unprecedented challenges from a surge in large power consumers” and developed guidelines to mitigate the "immediate risks posed″ by AI data centers.

As servers heat up, so do community data center tensions

Tensions ran so high in Lowell this week that police officers temporarily detained a 14-year-old girl who spoke out of turn at a city-led community forum fielding input on data center zoning.

“I’m not hurting anyone,” the girl shouted Monday evening after police officers escorted her from a middle school auditorium. “We just don’t want data centers!”

A coalition of data center opponents is increasingly clashing with electricians employed by Markley and other data center backers who say the facility boosts Lowell's ties to the tech industry.

Criticized for calling police to the contentious meeting and later asking an officer to remove the girl, Lowell Mayor Erik Gitschier, whose office is nonpartisan, told local talk radio station WCAP he didn't know her age at the time and defended his efforts to try to bring decorum to a topic he said deserves debate.

“It was warm out," he said. "You had people who had definite, passionate positions and they were screaming.”

___

Huamani contributed from New York.

The CT scanner at Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, the country’s leading hospital, is broken. Doctors have told her that, because of a lack of resources, they cannot operate on her again in Cuba, she said.

“I feel like my life is in danger,” Tristá, 34, a mother of a 13-year-old from Batabanó, a town 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Havana, told The Associated Press. “I don’t know if it has grown. We have no way of knowing,” she said.

Cuba’s once-vaunted system of free universal healthcare has deteriorated sharply. The crisis, say analysts, has been compounded by fuel shortages they attribute to tightened U.S. sanctions on the island’s energy sector, worsening an economy that had already been struggling for years.

The Trump administration is pressuring Cuba’s socialist government to implement major economic reforms and change its way of governance in return for a lifting of sanctions.

Hospitals across the island face shortages of supplies including syringes, gauze, vaccines and anesthetics. They also lack spare parts to repair equipment such as hemodialysis and CT scan machines, leaving patients like Tristá without critical care. Food shortages have also made it difficult for her to follow the diet prescribed by her doctors.

Medical specialists and technicians have left the country in large numbers.

Children among the hardest hit

Cuba was already grappling with an economic crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic and the tightening of U.S. sanctions. The situation worsened after U.S. authorities captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January, depriving Cuba of one of its staunchest allies. The White House then threatened countries that sold fuel to the island and stepped up pressure on foreign companies and individuals to stop doing business with Havana.

The result was persistent power outages lasting more than 20 hours, gasoline rationing and declines in industrial and food production, among other effects.

For Cuba, a country with health indicators comparable to those of developed nations — including low mortality, high life expectancy, broad vaccination coverage and widespread prenatal care — the situation “is shocking,” said Mario Cruz Peñate, the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization representative in the island.

Cruz Peñate said the fuel shortages have caused “quite large” disruptions to health services, affecting not only the service itself, but the entire process around the continuity of care.

He added that PAHO and the WHO themselves also faced difficulties in distributing humanitarian aid. The United Nations, on which they depend, launched a $94 million emergency plan in March to address the foreseeable humanitarian crisis resulting from the energy blockade.

A government report released in June said the survival rate for children with cancer had fallen to 65% from 85% before the energy restrictions began in January.

“We have had children die. Two so far this year,” said Yolainy Romero, a specialist at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology in Havana, during a tour of the pediatric ward. “This situation is terrible.”

Romero said some children, particularly those from distant provinces, must return to the hospital every 21 days for treatment.

“Sometimes a week or even 15 days go by before they can come because of the fuel shortage,” she said.

“It’s very hard,” said Adriana Felipe García, whose 4-year-old daughter, Nashly Zerquera, is being treated at the hospital. They traveled about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from their home in Sancti Spíritus, east of Havana, for her treatment.

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

Seis de ellos eran del condado de Broward y el séptimo del vecino condado de Palm Beach.

Según los informes de detención, los detectives utilizaron varios sitios web y aplicaciones en los que se hicieron pasar por chicos o chicas adolescentes, o, en un sitio web, por un “primo mayor” que explotaba sexualmente a una niña de 15 años.

Según los informes, a los hombres con los que conversaron se les indicó que se dirigieran a un hotel en Dania Beach.

Ryan Thorpe Walker, de cincuenta años, cuya dirección figura como una oficina de correos y centro de distribución en Oakland Park, está acusado de intentar reunirse con un adolescente, mientras que Marco Ramirez Linares, de 22 años y residente de Hollywood, está acusado de ofrecer 100 dólares a cambio de sexo con una adolescente.

Según los detectives, algunos de los sospechosos mintieron sobre su edad.

Según los agentes, Zubaer Ashar, de 27 años y residente de Greenacres, dijo tener 17 años y le preguntó a su supuesto “primo” si una chica de 15 años a la que le ofrecía 150 dólares por tener relaciones sexuales con ella “tomaba anticonceptivos”.

Kyle Andrew Rosenthal, de 32 años y residente de Coral Springs, declaró que tenía 30 años cuando intentó reunirse con quien creía que era una niña de 14 años, según la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward (BSO).

Según los informes de detención, al menos dos de los sospechosos reconocieron que lo que estaban haciendo podría llevarlos a la cárcel.

Los agentes dijeron que cuando Grant Ryan Werner, de 25 años y residente de Dania Beach, se dio cuenta de que estaba chateando con quien creía que era un chico de 15 años, dijo: “No sé, jajaja, en el fondo no me molesta, pero no quiero meterme en problemas”.

Las autoridades dijeron que Werner también le dijo al supuesto adolescente, antes del encuentro planeado, “sí, jaja, básicamente puedo ser acusado de pedófilo (sic) lol”.

Según los agentes, Luis Chifundo Ortiz, de 23 años y residente de Pembroke Pines, le dijo a quien creía que era un chico de 15 años: “Recuerda que no eres mayor de edad” y “No tienes 18 años o más, así que tengo que tenerlo en cuenta”.

Un comunicado de prensa de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward (BSO, por sus siglas en inglés) indica que los hombres arrestados enfrentan diversos cargos, entre ellos “trata de personas de un menor, viajar para encontrarse con un menor, solicitar servicios sexuales a un menor, posesión de MDMA e incumplimiento de la libertad condicional”.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward (BSO, por sus siglas en inglés), los agentes también indicaron que durante la operación, “diez víctimas fueron rescatadas y conectadas con recursos esenciales como refugio, atención médica y asesoramiento para ayudarlas a reconstruir sus vidas”.

“Además, una de las víctimas fue identificada como una adolescente que se había escapado de casa y provenía de otra ciudad”, indica el comunicado de prensa de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward (BSO). “Se reunió con su familia y se le ofrecieron amplios servicios de apoyo”.

Operaciones similares también tuvieron lugar recientemente en el condado de Miami-Dade .

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Six of them were from Broward County and the seventh was from neighboring Palm Beach County.

According to arrest reports, detectives used various websites and apps in which they posed as teenage boys or girls, or, on one website, an “older cousin” pimping a 15-year-old girl.

The men they chatted with were directed to go to a hotel in Dania Beach, the reports state.

Fifty-year-old Ryan Thorpe Walker, whose address is listed as a post office and distribution facility in Oakland Park, is accused of trying meet a teenage boy, while Marco Ramirez Linares, 22, of Hollywood, is accused of offering $100 for sex with a teenage girl.

Some of the suspects lied about their ages, detectives said.

Deputies said Zubaer Ashar, 27, of Greenacres, said he was 17 and asked the purported “cousin” whether a 15-year-old girl he was offering $150 for sex with was “on birth control.”

Kyle Andrew Rosenthal, 32, of Coral Springs, said he was 30 when attempting to meet up with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, according to BSO.

At least two of the suspects acknowledged what they were doing could land them in jail, arrest reports state.

Deputies said when Grant Ryan Werner, 25, of Dania Beach, found out he was chatting with who he thought was a 15-year-old boy, he said, “Idkkk lol I’m low key ok with it but I don’t want to get in trouble.”

Authorities said Werner also told the purported teen, before the planned meetup, “yea haha I can Basically be charged as a pedofile (sic) lol.”

Deputies said Luis Chifundo Ortiz, 23, of Pembroke Pines, told who he thought was a 15-year-old boy, “Remember that you’re not legal” and, “You’re not 18+, so I have to be aware of that.”

A BSO news release states that the men arrested all face various charges, including “human trafficking of a minor, traveling to meet a minor, solicitation of a minor, possession of MDMA and violation of probation.”

According to BSO, deputies additionally said that during their operation, “ten victims were rescued and connected to critical resources such as shelter, medical care and counseling to help them rebuild their lives.”

“Additionally, one of the victims was identified as a teenage runaway from out of town,” the BSO news release states. “She was reunited with her family and offered extensive support services.”

Similar stings also recently took place in Miami-Dade County.

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In recordkeeping that extends back to pre-Civil War days, we’ve only documented two tropical storms and one hurricane landfall on the 4th of July in the U.S. Two of those storms happened more than a century ago.

The only Independence Day hurricane strike on record was Hurricane Arthur back in 2014, which scraped quickly over North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a Category 2 hurricane during the pre-dawn hours of July 4th. Although Arthur technically made landfall at 11:15 PM local on July 3rd just west of Cape Lookout, the eye of the hurricane was still over Pamlico Sound and lashing the North Carolina coastline after midnight on July 4th.

Even so, Arthur was accelerating away from North Carolina by daybreak on July 4th, 2014, with peeks of sunshine even reaching the sands of North Carolina’s battered beaches later that morning.

Why so few U.S. landfalls on the 4th?

The Independence Day holiday falls in the early part of the hurricane season when hurricanes and tropical storms are generally less common. Roughly 94 percent of named storms, 97 percent of hurricanes, and 99.5 percent of all major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricanes form after July 4th. Only about one in eight named storms to hit the U.S. happens before July 5.

But July 4th has something more working in its favor. As we’ve written about extensively in this newsletter over the years, storms begin forming farther away from the U.S. in July, which means we have fewer “homegrown” or “homebrewed” systems.

Because of this, we actually see a dip in the number of U.S. storms in July, with July falling second only to November for the lowest number of U.S. named storm landfalls of any month of the 6-month hurricane season.

So while we can never guarantee a hurricane-free holiday from June through November, July 4th is probably the closest you’ll get before Thanksgiving.

All about the extreme heat this July 4th

Even in the years when storms don’t strike on July 4th, we can see issues from the tropics, such as the tropical-laden air that contributed to the horrific central Texas floods last year and killed nearly 140 people.

This Independence Day, however, it won’t be flooding but excessive heat that poses the biggest threat weatherwise. A dangerous heatwave gripping the central and eastern U.S. will pose major health-related issues for those underneath the massive heat dome in the days ahead.

The National Weather Service has a wide swath of the eastern U.S. under extreme heat risk for the holiday weekend, with dozens of daily temperature records threatened, as feels-like temperatures touch 115 degrees in parts of the mid-Atlantic and northeast.

For those affected by the heatwave, remember to limit your time outdoors, stay hydrated, and ensure you have easy access to A/C or cooling centers.

The tropics should remain quiet for at least the first few weeks of July.

En los registros que se remontan a la época anterior a la Guerra Civil, solo hemos documentado dos tormentas tropicales y un huracán que tocaron tierra el 4 de julio en Estados Unidos. Dos de esas tormentas ocurrieron hace más de un siglo.

El único huracán que azotó el Día de la Independencia del que se tiene constancia fue el huracán Arthur en 2014, que pasó rápidamente por los Outer Banks de Carolina del Norte como huracán de categoría 2 durante las primeras horas de la madrugada del 4 de julio. Aunque técnicamente Arthur tocó tierra a las 23:15 hora local del 3 de julio, justo al oeste de Cape Lookout, el ojo del huracán todavía se encontraba sobre Pamlico Sound y azotaba la costa de Carolina del Norte después de la medianoche del 4 de julio.

Aun así, Arthur se alejaba a toda velocidad de Carolina del Norte al amanecer del 4 de julio de 2014, e incluso algunos rayos de sol llegaron a las arenas de las castigadas playas de Carolina del Norte más tarde esa misma mañana.

¿Por qué tan pocos impactos en tierra en Estados Unidos el día 4?

El Día de la Independencia cae al comienzo de la temporada de huracanes, cuando estos y las tormentas tropicales suelen ser menos frecuentes. Aproximadamente el 94 % de las tormentas con nombre, el 97 % de los huracanes y el 99,5 % de todos los huracanes importantes (categoría 3 o superior) se forman después del 4 de julio. Solo alrededor de una de cada ocho tormentas con nombre que azotan Estados Unidos ocurre antes del 5 de julio.

Pero el 4 de julio tiene algo más a su favor. Como hemos comentado extensamente en este boletín a lo largo de los años, las tormentas comienzan a formarse más lejos de Estados Unidos en julio, lo que significa que tenemos menos sistemas “locales” o “de origen local”.

Debido a esto, en realidad vemos una disminución en el número de tormentas en Estados Unidos durante julio, siendo julio el segundo mes con menor número de tormentas con nombre que tocan tierra en Estados Unidos durante la temporada de huracanes de 6 meses, solo superado por noviembre.

Si bien nunca podemos garantizar unas vacaciones sin huracanes entre junio y noviembre, el 4 de julio es probablemente lo más parecido que tendrás antes del Día de Acción de Gracias.

Todo sobre el calor extremo de este 4 de julio.

Incluso en los años en que no hay tormentas el 4 de julio, podemos observar problemas derivados de los trópicos, como la atmósfera cargada de precipitaciones tropicales que contribuyó a las terribles inundaciones del centro de Texas el año pasado y que causaron la muerte de casi 140 personas.

Este Día de la Independencia, sin embargo, la mayor amenaza meteorológica no serán las inundaciones, sino el calor extremo. Una peligrosa ola de calor que azota el centro y el este de Estados Unidos provocará graves problemas de salud a quienes se encuentren bajo esta intensa ola de calor en los próximos días.

El Servicio Meteorológico Nacional ha advertido de un riesgo extremo de calor en una amplia zona del este de Estados Unidos durante el fin de semana festivo, con docenas de récords de temperatura diarios amenazados, ya que la sensación térmica alcanzará los 115 grados en partes del Atlántico medio y el noreste.

Para quienes se vean afectados por la ola de calor, recuerden limitar el tiempo que pasan al aire libre, mantenerse hidratados y asegurarse de tener fácil acceso a aire acondicionado o centros de refrigeración.

Se prevé que la actividad tropical se mantenga tranquila al menos durante las primeras semanas de julio.

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The suspects were identified in an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office as 27-year-old Kelton Abston and 42-year-old Mari Carmen Zelaya.

According to the report, the incident happened just before 4 a.m. on May 31 at the IHOP at 18860 S. Dixie Highway.

Deputies said Abston and Zelaya became involved in an argument with two men inside the restaurant over the victims “being too loud.”

According to the report, Abston then walked outside and, while leaving the restaurant, told the victims he was “going to kill them.”

The report states Abston pulled a gun from his vehicle while outside as Zelaya “began to wave and dare the victims to go outside.”

Deputies said Abston then began banging the front window of the IHOP with the gun.

As the victims remained inside, the pair returned to the restaurant, where an argument continued between one of the victims and Zelaya, according to deputies.

The report states one of the victims pushed Zelaya during the argument, prompting Abston to punch that victim in the face.

Deputies said during the ensuing fight, Abston pulled out a gun while falling into a booth and fired several rounds, striking both victims in the chest.

According to the report, Abston and Zelaya then ran outside, with Zelaya getting into the driver’s seat and Abston in the passenger seat before they fled the scene.

Deputies said that after several weeks of reviewing surveillance video, they located Zelaya Wednesday at a Burger King at 11400 SW 186th St., where she was taken into custody.

They said Abston arrived at the restaurant in a different vehicle while deputies were making the arrest and was also taken into custody.

According to the report, Abston was read his Miranda rights and made a statement that was redacted from the publicly released report before refusing to speak further.

Jail records show Abston faces two counts of attempted felony murder with a firearm causing injury and one count of battery, while Zelaya faces one count of accessory after the fact.

As of Thursday, both suspects were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where their bonds were listed as “to be set.”

Los sospechosos fueron identificados en un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO) como Kelton Abston, de 27 años, y Mari Carmen Zelaya, de 42.

Según el informe, el incidente ocurrió poco antes de las 4 a.m. del 31 de mayo en el IHOP ubicado en el 18860 de S. Dixie Highway.

Los agentes indicaron que Abston y Zelaya se involucraron en una discusión con dos hombres dentro del restaurante porque las víctimas “estaban haciendo demasiado ruido”.

Según el informe, Abston salió del restaurante y, mientras se retiraba, les dijo a las víctimas que “iba a matarlas”.

El informe indica que Abston sacó un arma de su vehículo mientras estaba afuera, al mismo tiempo que Zelaya “comenzó a hacer señas y a desafiar a las víctimas para que salieran”.

Los agentes dijeron que Abston comenzó a golpear con el arma la ventana frontal del IHOP.

Mientras las víctimas permanecían dentro, la pareja regresó al restaurante, donde continuó una discusión entre una de las víctimas y Zelaya, según los agentes.

El informe señala que una de las víctimas empujó a Zelaya durante la discusión, lo que provocó que Abston golpeara a esa víctima en el rostro.

Los agentes indicaron que, durante la pelea que siguió, Abston sacó un arma mientras caía sobre un asiento del restaurante y disparó varias veces, hiriendo a ambas víctimas en el pecho.

Según el informe, Abston y Zelaya salieron corriendo del restaurante. Zelaya se sentó al volante y Abston en el asiento del pasajero antes de huir del lugar.

Los agentes dijeron que, tras varias semanas revisando videos de vigilancia, localizaron a Zelaya el miércoles en un Burger King ubicado en el 11400 de SW 186th St., donde fue arrestada.

Indicaron que Abston llegó al restaurante en otro vehículo mientras los agentes realizaban el arresto y también fue detenido.

Según el informe, a Abston le leyeron sus derechos Miranda e hizo una declaración que fue censurada en la versión pública del informe antes de negarse a seguir hablando.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Abston enfrenta dos cargos de intento de asesinato durante la comisión de un delito grave con un arma de fuego que causó lesiones y un cargo de agresión, mientras que Zelaya enfrenta un cargo de encubrimiento después del hecho.

Hasta el jueves, ambos sospechosos permanecían detenidos en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde sus fianzas figuraban como “pendientes de ser fijadas”.

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The banner read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”

The incident happened around noon Wednesday and local news outlets reported that the observation deck was later cleared.

According to various news outlets, the two began descending from the top of the building at about 12:35 p.m., and at one point, the man appeared to propose to the woman, who then removed her mask and kissed him.

The couple has since been identified as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus who star in Netflix’s “Skywalkers A love Story” and have performed similar stunts.

Both were arrested after they descended the skyscraper.

At 1,454 feet tall, the Empire State Building is the eighth tallest building in New York City. The tallest building is One World Trade Center, which stands at 1,776 feet tall.

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According to an arrest report from the City of Miami Police Department, the incident occurred shortly after 11 a.m. Monday in the 2300 block of West Flagler Street.

Police said the victim claimed that as she was walking through the parking lot of a Burger King, on her way to school, the suspect, later identified by police as Keldon Figueroa, hit her on her buttocks, grabbed her by the wrist and asked her a few times, “Do you want to f***?”

The victim told police that the man was holding a key between his fingers and she feared that he would use it as a weapon.

According to the report, the victim said she “had to act clueless,” and the man eventually let her go and fled in the opposite direction.

Figueroa and the victim do not know each other, authorities confirmed.

Police said surveillance footage from the Burger King captured part of the incident.

According to the report, Figueroa was located the next day at work and was arrested.

Police said he was on probation in connection with a separate case and his GPS monitor placed him at the scene of Monday’s crime.

He now faces charges of attempted kidnapping and battery.

As of Thursday morning, Figueroa was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He was expected to appear in bond court sometime Thursday.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de la Ciudad de Miami, el incidente ocurrió poco después de las 11 a.m. del lunes en la cuadra 2300 de West Flagler Street.

La Policía informó que la víctima aseguró que, mientras caminaba por el estacionamiento de un Burger King rumbo a la escuela, el sospechoso, identificado posteriormente como Keldon Figueroa, le golpeó los glúteos, la sujetó por la muñeca y le preguntó varias veces: “¿Quieres coger?”

La víctima dijo a la Policía que el hombre sostenía una llave entre los dedos y que temía que la usara como arma.

Según el informe, la víctima dijo que “tuvo que hacerse la desentendida”, y que el hombre finalmente la soltó y huyó en dirección contraria.

Las autoridades confirmaron que Figueroa y la víctima no se conocían.

La Policía informó que las cámaras de vigilancia del Burger King captaron parte del incidente.

Según el informe, Figueroa fue localizado al día siguiente en su lugar de trabajo y fue arrestado.

La Policía indicó que estaba bajo libertad condicional por un caso separado y que el monitor GPS que llevaba lo ubicó en la escena del crimen ocurrido el lunes.

Ahora enfrenta cargos de intento de secuestro y agresión.

Hasta la mañana del jueves, Figueroa permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Se esperaba que compareciera ante un juez para la audiencia de fianza en algún momento del jueves.

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First off, the Main Development Region of the tropical Atlantic – where most our strongest hurricanes form during the season – just recorded its coolest June in 5 years.

The warmth of the eastern part of the Main Development Region – the band of waters between Africa and the Caribbean – is one of our most reliable predictors for seasonal hurricane activity. The cooler the waters, the lower tropical activity we should expect.

While waters here are still slightly above the 30-year average, the trend is down, and the easterly trade winds – prevailing winds that blow from Africa toward the Caribbean throughout the year – that help to regulate the Atlantic’s temperature are forecast to be much stronger than average through at least mid-July. The stronger east-to-west flowing winds mix up the Atlantic and cool it, so I don’t see the Atlantic rebounding to a warmer place as August approaches.

The other bellwether we look to in July for what the cards might hold for August and September is the amount of wind shear through the Caribbean Sea. While wind shear – the change in wind strength and direction with altitude – doesn’t tell us much in June, come July it tends to be one of our best predictors for future hurricane activity.

For June, shear was running well above average, but more importantly, the trend for above-average wind shear across the Caribbean is headed even higher for July courtesy of an increasingly strong El Nino in the eastern Pacific.

Higher wind shear suggests would-be storms will have a tougher time organizing, and it’s the Caribbean and western Atlantic that are most affected during El Niño years like this one.

Lastly, we look to global upper-air patterns to assess the health of the Atlantic basin. One of the telltale signs of a healthy Atlantic are global circulation patterns supporting rising air over the North Indian Ocean and sinking air over the eastern and central Pacific. This year, we have the exact opposite pattern, with impressive subsidence, or sinking air, centered squarely over the North Indian Ocean, and reams of rising air over the Pacific, indicating things just aren’t right in the Atlantic.

The upshot is the tropical Atlantic isn’t looking ripe for a big storm season. That of course doesn’t mean we can’t (and won’t) see strong hurricanes this year, but they’ll be fewer and have a much tougher time than in any year since at least 2015. We’ll be looking more to the subtropics – the region to the north of the traditional tropical belt that runs from Africa through the Caribbean – for activity this season than in seasons of the recent past. We’ll also not want to sleep on the Gulf, which is running well above average, for tropical seedlings that might slip through the shear-laced cracks this fall.

But for now, the Atlantic is fast asleep. The low pressure area we’ve been tracking off the Carolina coast is nothing but an innocuous low-level cloud swirl absent any thunderstorms, and development isn’t expected anywhere across the Atlantic basin for at least the first few weeks of July.

Police fired tear gas and pepper spray at protesters who were pelting them with rocks, eggs and other objects. Authorities said 12 police officers were injured and 18 protesters were detained.

The gathering was part of daily protests, dubbed the “ flamingo revolution,” that began more than a month ago in opposition to plans for a luxury coastal development project linked to Kushner.

While the protests stemmed from environmental issues related to the development project, they have morphed into more general political demonstrations voicing opposition against the government and Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in recent weeks, blowing whistles and holding cardboard cut-outs of flamingos — one of the protected migratory bird species whose habitats could be threatened by the proposed resort on the Adriatic coast.

The government says the development at Narta Lagoon would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership. But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of Rama’s government.

On Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Albanian parliament in Tirana, demanding the prime minister's resignation and chanting “Rama has to go to jail.”

Some hurled rocks, eggs and plastic bottles at police, and used part of a metal barrier to smash the windows of a police car. Police used tear gas, pepper spray and a water cannon to disperse the crowd.

“The protesters want their voice to be heard inside (the parliament), as the prime minister for so many days has not heard them and has ignored them,” said protester Agustela Thoma. “But enough is enough.”

Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari condemned “the acts of vandalism and criminal violence" against the police.

“Police officers are public servants, citizens of the Republic, and family members just like everyone else. They serve the law, public order, and the safety of every citizen, without distinction. An attack against them is an attack against the state,” the minister added.

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Cimili reported from Pristina, Kosovo

La oficina de prensa de la Santa Sede indicó que durante las conversaciones se prestó "especial atención a las repercusiones de los conflictos, a la delincuencia organizada internacional y al cambio climático”.

Además, fue expresada la “satisfacción por las buenas relaciones entre Colombia y la Santa Sede”, especialmente en favor de la “promoción de la paz, la reconciliación y la unidad nacional”.

Tras encontrarse con el papa León XIV, Petro se reunió con el cardenal Pietro Parolin, secretario de Estado, acompañado de monseñor Daniel Pacho, subsecretario para el sector multilateral de la Sección para las Relaciones con los Estados y Organismos Internacionales.

El progresista Petro acudió a la audiencia cuando le resta poco más de un mes para dejar el poder. El 7 de agosto asumirá como presidente De la Espriella, abogado y empresario apoyado por el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, quien promete dar un giro conservador en Colombia.

Petro aseguró en la red social X que solicitó al papa “ayudarnos a proteger a las comunidades campesinas beneficiarias de la reforma agraria".

En su gobierno Petro avanzó en la entrega de tierras para los campesinos que sufrieron el despojo en años pasados como víctimas del conflicto armado colombiano. En adelante, dijo Petro, las tierras estarían en peligro porque “algunos de los allegados” de las “mafias” que quieren volver a tomar poder de las tierras buscan “dirigir de nuevo el Ministerio de Agricultura” en el próximo gobierno.

A su llegada a Italia el lunes Petro dijo que vería al papa para “dialogar del peligro de ocultar la verdad”, sin dar detalles sobre esa afirmación en X, donde también reprochó que “ningún funcionario del gobierno italiano” lo recibió en el aeropuerto.

La primera ministra italiana Giorgia Meloni felicitó en X a De la Espriella por su triunfo en las urnas luego de la segunda vuelta presidencial en Colombia y dijo estar lista para desarrollar las relaciones bilaterales y fortalecer la cooperación en la lucha contra el narcotráfico y las organizaciones criminales transnacionales.

Justices were at times bitterly divided — and critical of one another — in rulings that winnowed key provisions of a landmark voting rights law, allowed the government to revoke protections for some immigrants and even challenged the historic understanding of birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants.

The decisions come at a moment when long-standing debates over race and identity have turned toward immigration, increasing racial diversity and the fairness of policies meant to prevent and redress discrimination.

“This term, we saw a Supreme Court that is moving quickly to eradicate legal protections in ways that will leave vulnerable communities exposed to the harsh winds of discrimination and hatred that we continue to see across the country today,” Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP and the former head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Biden administration, told The Associated Press.

Here is a breakdown of the latest decisions involving race and what they may mean going forward:

The temporary protected status case

The court allowed the government to end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians in the U.S. who have fled violence and natural disaster. President Donald Trump's administration revoked the temporary protected status last year.

With the president's more than decadelong track record of denigrating developing nations and immigrants who come to the U.S. from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, attorneys for some affected migrants contended that the government could not cancel the designations, in part because Trump's comments about immigrants were racist.

“The true reason for the termination is the president’s racial animus towards non-white immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians in particular,” Geoffrey Pipoly, an attorney for the Haitian nationals in the case, said during April oral arguments in the case, Mullin v. Doe. The attorneys noted that, during his second presidential campaign, Trump claimed immigrants “are poisoning the blood of our country" and suggested in another instance that migrants have “bad genes.”

Federal authorities denied prejudice played a role in the decision and argued that TPS was supposed to end but has lasted more than a decade in some cases.

In writing for the 6-3 conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said none of the cited statements was “overtly racial,” reasoning that any of Trump's actions could have been taken without racial animus and attributing his anti-immigrant comments to “political discourse."

That's not how the court's liberal minority saw the situation.

“The references — of filth, disease, and primitiveness — are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes. It is hard to imagine the statements being made today of any White community,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.

The birthright citizenship case

In one of the highest-profile cases of the term, the court reaffirmed that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means all people born in the U.S. are citizens.

On his first day in office last year, Trump signed an executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship to the children of U.S. citizens, a move that civil rights groups challenged as unconstitutional and racist.

In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts traced the arc of birthright citizenship — a principle that all people born on U.S. soil are citizens — from its origins in English common law to its codification in the 14th Amendment.

Roberts noted that race and citizenship had been fiercely debated in courts, speeches, Congress and battlefields because of Black Americans’ fight for freedom from slavery.

Freed Black Americans did not receive citizenship as a “reward,” Roberts wrote, but because “the Amendment recognized their rightful claim to birthright citizenship simply and solely by virtue of their having been born on American soil.”

The 6-3 ruling was a blow to the Trump administration, which has made restricting immigration its central goal.

“The clause does not extend citizenship to the children of temporary visa holders or illegal aliens,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued before the court in April.

Justice Clarence Thomas agreed and wrote in his dissent that African descendants of enslaved people in the U.S. are a unique case separate from the children of tourists or people in the country illegally.

“Blacks were entitled to citizenship because they were Americans. They had no other homeland, owed no allegiance to any foreign power, and were subject to no other authority,” Thomas wrote.

In a stark move, liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor directly criticized Thomas' claim in a joint opinion.

“The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery,” they wrote.

The voting rights case

The Supreme Court handed down a decision in April that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act meant to remedy efforts to disenfranchise minority voters. Among the methods the law permitted to stop voting discrimination in states was the creation of majority-minority congressional districts.

In the majority opinion, Alito found that because race and partisan voting behavior were so intertwined, it was unfair to conclude that a partisan gerrymander of a state's congressional districts could be racist, given there may be other reasons for the map's results.

Alito reasoned that “in a state where both parties have substantial support and where race is often correlated with party preference,” partisan actors can “easily exploit” laws meant to protect minority political participation for disingenuous reasons.

The liberal justices balked at the logic and criticized the conservative majority for harming minority representation in politics and culture. They believed that the law's provisions were still necessary to prevent discrimination by states and worried about the fallout from its removal.

“The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave," Kagan wrote in her dissent. “Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter. In the states where that law continues to matter — the states still marked by residential segregation and racially polarized voting — minority voters can now be cracked out of the electoral process.”

The decision has had profound impact on the political landscape, with nearly a dozen Southern states immediately taking steps to redistrict and eliminate majority-Black districts.

New polling from Ipsos Sports, provided exclusively to The Associated Press, shows that the World Cup has excited soccer fans and piqued many Americans’ interest, even as the sport faces an uphill climb to reach mainstream popularity in the United States.

Despite that challenge, many U.S. adults were excited about the United States making it to the knockout round of the World Cup. Most soccer fans in the U.S. have been pleased by the U.S. men’s national team performance, and the overwhelming majority are excited for the rest of the World Cup.

The poll was conducted June 26-28, after the United States advanced from the group stage but before they won against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first knockout round.

Soccer fans are excited by the USMNT's performance

About 6 in 10 soccer fans were “extremely” or “very” excited about the U.S. advancing to the knockout round, much higher than the 25% of Americans overall who said the same.

The United States has historically lost once they reached the knockout rounds. Before Wednesday, they had last won a knockout game in 2002.

Though this poll was conducted before the United States' victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina, fans were already giving the U.S. men’s team credit for having a strong showing in the group stage. Most soccer fans, 55%, said the U.S. team's performance was going “extremely well” or “very well.” One-quarter, roughly, believed it was going “somewhat well.”

Similarly, about half of soccer fans say the United States’ role in co-hosting the World Cup is going at least “very” well.

There's less enthusiasm for FIFA's role in managing the World Cup. Only about one-third of soccer fans in the U.S. say that's going “extremely” or “very” well. During the tournament, FIFA has faced criticism for enforcing mandated hydration breaks that some say ruin the momentum of games, as well as cooperating with travel restrictions and visa refusals against Iran.

The poll found Americans and soccer fans alike are about evenly split on whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of FIFA. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults have a positive view of FIFA, while 25% have a negative one. Most Americans — 55% — don't have an opinion.

Will this be the moment Americans turn to soccer? Probably not

It’s not easy to get Americans to care about soccer, even with the World Cup in their backyard.

Only about 2 in 10 Americans consider themselves fans of international or U.S. soccer, far behind the share who root for professional football, basketball or baseball. And roughly one-third of U.S. adults say they have heard or read “a lot” about the World Cup, though most have heard at least “a little.”

Roughly 2 in 10 U.S. adults — 17% — say they are “extremely” or “very” excited about the rest of the World Cup. That’s up a smidge from Ipsos polling in May, but points to the challenge that comes with trying to turn America into a soccer nation.

Most Americans expect that the World Cup will increase other Americans’ interest in soccer, but relatively few say they have personally gotten more interested in the sport. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults think Americans in general will get more into soccer because of the World Cup, while 24% say they personally have.

Soccer fans are especially optimistic, though. About three-quarters of soccer fans in the U.S. expect this year’s World Cup will increase Americans’ general interest in soccer, compared to about half of non-soccer fans. And roughly half of soccer fans say the World Cup has increased their own interest in the sport, even if only 17% of non-fans say the same.

Many Americans will watch games or follow on social media

Outside of watching games, there are other ways for people to engage with the World Cup.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults — including about half of soccer fans — say they have used social media to keep up with teams and players.

Roughly one-quarter of Americans have gone to a restaurant or bar to watch a game or plan to do so, and about 2 in 10 have gone to a World Cup watch party. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults — and 33% of soccer fans in the U.S. — say they have bought official merchandise like team jerseys, posters or scarves.

As sportsbooks note how World Cup betting has exceeded expectations amid the USMNT's success, about 1 in 10 Americans in the poll say they have placed an official bet on the games. About 5% say they have traded on game outcomes using a prediction market.

And with official and unofficial watch parties popping up in host cities across the United States, 8% say they have watched a game from a host city.

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The Ipsos Sports poll of 1,027 adults was conducted June 26-28 using a sample drawn from the Ipsos probability-based KnowledgePanel. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

State data and experts who study voting trends suggest those efforts have made no significant improvement in participation, even as California's drawn-out tabulating has put it in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and made it a target of those who promote unfounded election conspiracy theories.

Turnout hit 40.8% in the June primary, according to preliminary figures from the secretary of state's office, with counties required to complete their counting by Thursday. While that was an increase over the previous two primary elections, it was below participation levels in several other primaries stretching back to 2000 and nowhere near participation in the 1970s, when primary turnout sometimes topped 70%.

Wide gaps also remain in participation by younger voters and voters of color, according to the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research group. The state's most consistent voters remain older, white, more affluent homeowners.

The state appears to have seen only incremental progress from its voting changes over the past decade or more, said the center's director, Mindy Romero.

“We haven’t seen significant jumps in turnout,” she said. “We still have very significant disparity in turnout with race and ethnicity. The numbers don’t lie.”

Extensive changes have mostly led to longer vote counting

Over the years, heavily Democratic California has ushered in a series of changes aimed at driving up voter participation. Those changes have sometimes come with a price, lengthening the time it takes to count ballots.

Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still be counted, provided the envelope is postmarked by Election Day. Residents also can sign up to vote on Election Day if they missed the registration deadline or had not updated their voter registration information. Those ballots are counted once their registration is verified.

Each envelope containing a mail ballot must match the signature on file, and that takes time. If a signature does not match, election officials are required to give those voters a chance to come in and prove their identity so the ballot will count, further delaying a final tally.

In that sense, California’s unusually long vote tally is the result of its own doing. In a report released last month, the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation found that the percentage of California’s ballots counted within two days of Election Day has generally declined over time, from 81% in 2004 to 66% in 2024.

That period loosely tracked a steady expansion of mail voting in the state. In a special statewide election last year, nearly 9 of every 10 voters used a mail ballot.

Florida, Texas and other big states quickly wrap up vote counting. California is a national laggard, with the outcome in close races sometimes taking weeks to decide.

While election officials insist they are focused on accuracy, the extended tabulating period has opened the door for candidates who see their lead slip away to suggest something nefarious is at work. After the June primary, Trump seized on California’s reputation as the national slowpoke in vote counting to renew his long-standing criticism of the state's elections, while the Republican's Department of Justice launched an investigation into Los Angeles County's elections.

Even Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has lamented the glacial pace of counting. The state’s newly enacted budget includes $29 million to help speed up the state’s long count.

“We wish the votes were counted faster, too,” Newsom's press office wrote on the social platform X last month.

Turnout hardly budged after California passed a major participation law

One of the most prominent changes came in 2016, with the passage of what was called the Voter’s Choice Act. It was intended to make voting more convenient and increase turnout, especially among younger voters of color.

The law set a path toward statewide vote-by-mail and, in some counties, replaced traditional neighborhood polling places with community voting centers and ballot drop boxes. The goal was to free voters from being tied to a single polling location or day.

It does not appear the law has had the intended impact.

Elections two decades apart give a stark illustration: Turnout for the 2024 presidential election in California was 71%, 5 percentage points lower than turnout for the 2004 presidential election. The 2022 midterms turnout was 51%, the same rate as the midterm election 20 years earlier.

A 2025 study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California concluded that “turnout did not consistently improve or worsen for any racial or ethnic group.”

“The effects of the (act) have generally fallen short of the reform’s original goal of a larger and more representative electorate,” the study said.

In separate 2025 research, the institute found that whites make up 36% of California’s adult population but comprise 50% of the state’s likely voters. Latinos make up 38% of the adult population but 29% of likely voters. Black residents make up 5% of adults and 4% of likely voters.

“You can’t definitely, clearly say the (act) had an overall, positive impact on turnout,” said Romero, the voting researcher, who added that more study was needed.

Legislative changes can go only so far to boost turnout

There appears to be an emerging consensus that more needs to be done to connect with and motivate infrequent voters, many of them people of color who are often overlooked by campaigns.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat who was the state’s chief elections officer when the Voter’s Choice Act was signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, said in a statement that while the state is a leader in voting access “candidates and political parties must do more to motivate voters to get out and vote.”

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said part of California’s challenge is simply contending with the scale of voting. California has 23 million-plus registered voters, more than any other state. That number has increased steadily over two decades, even as turnout has not jumped significantly.

The state has at least made gains registering new voters — nearly 85% of eligible voters are registered, compared with 70% two decades ago. That also means more votes to count, another challenge to the timeliness of results. The state has about 7.5 million more voters than it did in 2006.

Alexander said a voter’s decision to turn in a ballot can turn on multiple considerations. Primary elections can be seen as optional, with the general election coming in the fall. Even California’s notoriously complex ballots with dozens of races overlapping with state and local ballot initiatives can be a turnoff, she said, overwhelming some would-be voters.

Despite all the state's changes, how people vote can be less important than what motivates them to vote.

“The public’s level of trust in government and institutions, who and what’s on the ballot and how well-financed their get-out-the-vote campaigns are, have a much greater impact on voter participation than the election model used,” said Bob Page, Orange County's registrar of voters.

A diferencia de lo que muchas personas creen, el icónico faro no recibe fondos del gobierno federal ni de la Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos. En cambio, es mantenido por la Sociedad para la Preservación del Faro de Hillsboro, una organización sin fines de lucro que depende casi por completo de actividades de recaudación de fondos, membresías y recorridos públicos para cubrir los costos de mantenimiento y restauración.

“No recibimos ni un dólar de la Guardia Costera. No recibimos ni un dólar del gobierno”, dijo Ralph Krugler, historiador de la Sociedad para la Preservación del Faro de Hillsboro. “La mayor parte del dinero proviene de los eventos de recaudación de fondos y de los recorridos públicos que realizamos para generar ingresos. Por eso está tomando tanto tiempo”.

El faro comenzó a operar el 8 de marzo de 1907 y se ha convertido en uno de los monumentos más reconocibles del sur de Florida. Krugler, quien dirige muchos de los recorridos mensuales de la organización, afirma que los visitantes suelen quedar cautivados por las vistas panorámicas desde la cima de la estructura de 11 pisos.

Pero la subida también deja ver el desgaste que más de un siglo de exposición al aire salino ha causado en el faro.

El óxido ha deteriorado componentes originales de hierro y se pueden observar grietas y corrosión en varias partes de la estructura.

“Es por el aire salino”, dijo Krugler. “El ambiente es muy agresivo para el hierro”.

Actualmente, los trabajadores están retirando el material dañado, aplicando nuevos recubrimientos protectores y planean reemplazar las piezas de hierro deterioradas por acero inoxidable, que se espera resista mejor las duras condiciones costeras del sur de Florida durante las próximas décadas.

Se espera que el proyecto completo de restauración cueste hasta $2 millones USD.

Hasta ahora, la sociedad de preservación solo ha recaudado una fracción de lo necesario.

“Nos ha tomado unos 10 años reunir $400,000 USD”, dijo Krugler.

Para ayudar a acelerar la recaudación de fondos, la organización se ha asociado con la influencer local del mundo de la navegación Camilla Pavan, quien creó la campaña en redes sociales “Save the Lighthouse” y una página en GoFundMe.

Pavan dijo que pasa regularmente frente al faro mientras navega y creyó que las redes sociales podrían ayudar a atraer más atención al esfuerzo de preservación.

“Sabía que se volvería viral”, dijo.

También afirmó que la sociedad de preservación tenía muy poca presencia en redes sociales antes de que ella se involucrara.

“Honestamente, la Asociación del Faro estaba un poco desactualizada cuando se trataba de donaciones y redes sociales”, dijo Pavan. “Fue entonces cuando decidí intervenir e intentar ayudar”.

La campaña en internet ya ha recaudado miles de dólares, lo que da esperanza a los responsables de la preservación de que podrán generar el impulso suficiente para completar la restauración antes de que los daños empeoren.

“Estamos tratando de aumentar nuestra presencia y lograr que más personas se den cuenta de que este es parte de la comunidad”, dijo Krugler. “Si de verdad quieren que permanezca aquí, ¿pueden ayudarnos?”.

El Faro de Hillsboro Inlet solo es accesible por barco. Para obtener información sobre los recorridos o las oportunidades de membresía, haga clic aquí.

Grupos de derechos de los inmigrantes y organizaciones religiosas han denunciado las condiciones en esta instalación durante años y organizaron las protestas del miércoles. Según los manifestantes, los detenidos están sujetos a hacinamiento y temperaturas excesivas.

El manifestante Luis Rivera dijo que tiene un amigo cercano de la familia que tenía una cita obligatoria en la oficina. Afirmó sentirse asustado y preocupado.

“Tienes personas —tu familia, tus amigos— a quienes quieres”, dijo. “Es difícil.”

Arianne Betancourt contó que su padre estuvo detenido en la instalación durante seis meses. Ahora trabaja a tiempo completo para asegurarse de que las personas tengan condiciones humanas durante su detención.

“Van a extender la crueldad”, afirmó.

Betancourt añadió: “Hablo con personas que me dicen que antes de llegar al ‘Alcatraz de los Caimanes’ (en el Condado de Collier) podían caminar, y ahora necesitan silla de ruedas. En estos centros no dan sillas de ruedas, así que estos ancianos ahora están postrados en cama.”

Un equipo de Local 10 News presenció cómo un camión de bomberos y una ambulancia ingresaron a la instalación y fueron escoltados fuera por las autoridades.

Rivera dijo que quiere proteger la identidad de su amigo, pero lo describió como un joven de 20 años que llegó a Estados Unidos hace tres años.

Dijo que su amigo está bien “por el momento, pero continuó en la fila, así que no sé si cuando entre le van a quitar el teléfono.”

Rivera explicó que ambos viven en Orlando, pero que llevó a su amigo hasta la oficina de Miramar porque ahí era su cita.

Los manifestantes dijeron que planean continuar con las protestas semanales.

Un portavoz de ICE emitió el siguiente comunicado a Local 10 News:

“La instalación de Miramar funciona como un lugar de registro para personas incluidas en una lista de casos sin detención y sirve como centro de procesamiento para arrestos operativos diarios. La cantidad de personas retenidas temporalmente en la instalación varía según las necesidades operativas. Después del procesamiento, las personas son trasladadas a centros de detención locales.

“Estar en detención es una decisión. Alentamos a todos los extranjeros que se encuentran ilegalmente en el país a tomar el control de su salida utilizando la aplicación CBP Home. Estados Unidos está ofreciendo a los extranjeros que están ilegalmente en el país $2,600 USD y un vuelo gratuito para que se autodeporten ahora. Alentamos a todas las personas que se encuentran aquí ilegalmente a aprovechar esta oferta y conservar la oportunidad de regresar a Estados Unidos por la vía legal para vivir el sueño americano. De lo contrario, serán arrestados y deportados sin posibilidad de regresar.

“ICE garantiza que todas las personas que esperan para registrarse en la instalación de Miramar tengan acceso a baños y agua. Hay baños y bebederos disponibles en el vestíbulo, y las personas solo tienen que solicitar acceso. Las afirmaciones de que las personas que esperan en la fila no tienen acceso a agua o baños son totalmente falsas.”

Portavoz de ICE

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Unlike many people assume, the iconic lighthouse is not funded by the federal government or the U.S. Coast Guard. Instead, it is maintained by the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization that relies almost entirely on fundraising, memberships and public tours to pay for maintenance and restoration.

“We get zero dollars from the Coast Guard. We get zero dollars from the government,” said Ralph Krugler, historian for the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society. “It’s mostly what we do with fundraising events and public tours in order to generate money. That’s why it’s taking so long.”

The lighthouse first went into service on March 8, 1907, and has become one of South Florida’s most recognizable landmarks. Krugler, who leads many of the organization’s monthly tours, says visitors are often captivated by the sweeping views from the top of the 11-story structure.

But the climb also reveals the toll more than a century of salt air has taken on the lighthouse.

Rust has eaten away at original iron components, and cracks and corrosion are visible throughout portions of the structure.

“Because of the salt air,” Krugler said. “The environment is just so hard on iron.”

Workers are now removing damaged material, applying new protective coatings and planning to replace deteriorating iron pieces with stainless steel, which is expected to better withstand South Florida’s harsh coastal conditions for decades to come.

The full restoration project is expected to cost as much as $2 million.

So far, the preservation society has raised only a fraction of what is needed.

“It’s taken us like 10 years to get $400,000,” Krugler said.

To help accelerate fundraising, the organization has partnered with local boating influencer Camilla Pavan, who created the “Save the Lighthouse” social media campaign and a GoFundMe page.

Pavan said she regularly passes the lighthouse while boating and believed social media could help bring more attention to the preservation effort.

“I knew it would go viral,” she said.

She said the preservation society had little social media presence before she became involved.

“Honestly, the Lighthouse Association was kind of not up to date when it came to donations and social media,” Pavan said. “So that’s when I kind of stepped in and tried to help.”

The online campaign has already raised thousands of dollars, giving preservation leaders hope they can build enough momentum to complete the restoration before the damage worsens.

“We’re trying to up our presence and get more people to realize that, hey, this is part of the community,” Krugler said. “If you really want it to stick around, can you help us out?”

The Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse is accessible only by boat. For information about tours or membership opportunities, click here.

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We’ve rounded up some of the biggest fireworks shows, live entertainment and festivities happening across the region so you can plan your holiday celebration.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Doral: Doral Central Park

3005 NW 92nd Avenue

Event is from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and will include a 25-minute fireworks show to close out the night. In addition to fireworks, there will be live entertainment, interactive inflatables, food vendors, and more.

City of Miami: Bayfront Park

301 N Biscayne Blvd.

America’s 250th Celebration at Bayfront Park -- a free event -- will be held from 1 p.m. to midnight and will feature concerts, food, cocktails and family-friendly activities. Performances will be held by Ashanti and Ja Rule, 112 featuring Slim and Mike, The Fray, Orlando Mendez, Shaggy and Willy Chirino.

The event also includes a FIFA World Cup Fan Zone with match viewing on a large screen.

City of Miami: Charles Hadley Park

1350 NW 50th Street

Event is from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. In addition to a fireworks show, the event will feature free food for kids and seniors on a first come, first served basis, along with rides, games, bounce houses and live music.

City of Miami: Gerry Curtis Park

1901 NW 24th Avenue

Event is from 1 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event will feature live performances by Oro Sólido, Nia Skyfer, and Aron Luix; FIFA Club World Cup match viewings; family activities; local food vendors and a fireworks show.

Miami Lakes: Veterans Park

15151 NW 82nd Ave

Event begins at 6:30 p.m., with fireworks at 9 p.m. There will also be live entertainment, food trucks and a kids zone.

BROWARD COUNTY

Coconut Creek: Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

5550 NW 40th Street

The event kicks off at 7 p.m. with live entertainment and food trucks. Fireworks are expected to begin at 9 p.m.

Fort Lauderdale: Las Olas Oceanside Park

3000 E Las Olas Blvd.

The 4th of July Spectacular at Las Olas Oceanside Park will be held from noon to 9:15 p.m. and features live entertainment, a kids zone, beach games, contests, family activities, and a dazzling fireworks display. At 8:45 p.m., a spectacular drone show will be held prior to fireworks.

Pembroke Pines: Charles F. Dodge City Center

601 City Center Way

The Independence Day & Fireworks Celebration includes live music, food trucks, a kids’ zone, and a fireworks show. The picnic grounds will be opened at 7 p.m. with fireworks at 9 p.m. The event will be open to Pembroke Pines residents ONLY and tickets will be required to enter the picnic area.

Click here for more information.

Pompano Beach: Fisher Family Pier

222 N Pompano Beach Blvd.

The annual July 4th Fireworks Extravaganza will take place at the Fisher Family Pier starting at 5 p.m., with a live DJ and the fireworks spectacular illuminating the oceanfront at 9 p.m.

Sunrise: Amerant Bank Arena

1 Panther Parkway

The Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free outdoor celebration starting at 6 p.m. with live concerts by the Higher Ground Band and Light Balance, a kids’ fun zone, a drone show and fireworks.

Tamarac: Tamarac Community Center

8601 W Commercial Blvd.

The All-American Celebration at the Tamarac Community Center begins at 6:30 p.m. and features live music, food trucks, family activities and a fireworks display.

MONROE COUNTY

Islamorada: Founders Park

87000 Overseas Hwy

The free event starts at 5 p.m. and features family activities, food vendors and a fireworks display at nightfall.

Key Largo: Rowell’s Waterfront Park

104550 Overseas Hwy

At 10 a.m., a parade will be held at mile marker 98.2, near Anthony’s Clothing Store, followed by a community picnic.

The main fireworks display launches around 9:15 p.m. at Rowell’s Waterfront Park.

Key West: Edward B. Knight Pier

White Street

The Rotary Club of Key West is hosting a fireworks show at 9 p.m. There will also be food and drinks to purchase, the proceeds of which will benefit local scholarships.

Marathon: Sombrero Beach

Located at Mile Marker 50

A parade will start from Marathon High School at 11 a.m., leading to beachside festivities that will last all day, and a fireworks display at about 9 p.m.

Hemos reunido algunos de los espectáculos de fuegos artificiales, presentaciones en vivo y festividades más importantes que se llevarán a cabo en toda la región para que puedas planificar tu celebración.

CONDADO MIAMI-DADE

Doral: Doral Central Park

3005 NW 92nd Avenue

El evento será de 2 p.m. a 11:30 p.m. e incluirá un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales de 25 minutos para cerrar la noche. Además de los fuegos artificiales, habrá entretenimiento en vivo, inflables interactivos, vendedores de comida y mucho más.

Ciudad de Miami: Bayfront Park

301 N Biscayne Blvd.

La celebración de los 250 años de Estados Unidos en Bayfront Park, un evento gratuito, se realizará de 1 p.m. a la medianoche e incluirá conciertos, comida, cocteles y actividades para toda la familia. Se presentarán Ashanti y Ja Rule, 112 con Slim y Mike, The Fray, Orlando Mendez, Shaggy y Willy Chirino.

El evento también contará con una zona para aficionados de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, donde los partidos podrán verse en una pantalla gigante.

Ciudad de Miami: Charles Hadley Park

1350 NW 50th Street

El evento será de 4 p.m. a 9 p.m. Además del espectáculo de fuegos artificiales, habrá comida gratuita para niños y adultos mayores, hasta agotar existencias, así como atracciones, juegos, casas inflables y música en vivo.

Ciudad de Miami: Gerry Curtis Park

1901 NW 24th Avenue

El evento será de 1 p.m. a 9:30 p.m. e incluirá presentaciones en vivo de Oro Sólido, Nia Skyfer y Aron Luix; transmisiones de los partidos de la Copa Mundial de Clubes de la FIFA; actividades familiares; vendedores locales de comida y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales.

Miami Lakes: Veterans Park

15151 NW 82nd Ave

El evento comenzará a las 6:30 p.m. y los fuegos artificiales serán a las 9 p.m. También habrá entretenimiento en vivo, camiones de comida y una zona para niños.

CONDADO BROWARD

Coconut Creek: Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

5550 NW 40th Street

El evento comenzará a las 7 p.m. con entretenimiento en vivo y camiones de comida. Se espera que los fuegos artificiales comiencen a las 9 p.m.

Fort Lauderdale: Las Olas Oceanside Park

3000 E Las Olas Blvd.

El evento “4th of July Spectacular” en Las Olas Oceanside Park se llevará a cabo de mediodía a 9:15 p.m. e incluirá entretenimiento en vivo, una zona para niños, juegos de playa, concursos, actividades familiares y un espectacular show de fuegos artificiales. A las 8:45 p.m. se realizará un espectáculo de drones antes de los fuegos artificiales.

Pembroke Pines: Charles F. Dodge City Center

601 City Center Way

La celebración del Día de la Independencia y fuegos artificiales incluirá música en vivo, camiones de comida, una zona para niños y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales. El área de picnic abrirá a las 7 p.m. y los fuegos artificiales comenzarán a las 9 p.m. El evento será exclusivo para residentes de Pembroke Pines y será necesario presentar boletos para ingresar al área de picnic.

Haga clic aquí para obtener más información.

Pompano Beach: Fisher Family Pier

222 N Pompano Beach Blvd.

El espectáculo anual de fuegos artificiales del 4 de Julio se llevará a cabo en el Fisher Family Pier a partir de las 5 p.m., con un DJ en vivo y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales que iluminará la costa a las 9 p.m.

Sunrise: Amerant Bank Arena

1 Panther Parkway

El Amerant Bank Arena organizará una celebración gratuita al aire libre a partir de las 6 p.m. con conciertos en vivo de Higher Ground Band y Light Balance, una zona de diversión para niños, un espectáculo de drones y fuegos artificiales.

Tamarac: Tamarac Community Center

8601 W Commercial Blvd.

La celebración “All-American Celebration” en el Tamarac Community Center comenzará a las 6:30 p.m. e incluirá música en vivo, camiones de comida, actividades familiares y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales.

CONDADO MONROE

Islamorada: Founders Park

87000 Overseas Hwy

El evento gratuito comenzará a las 5 p.m. e incluirá actividades familiares, vendedores de comida y un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales al anochecer.

Key Largo: Rowell’s Waterfront Park

104550 Overseas Hwy

A las 10 a.m. se realizará un desfile en el marcador de la milla 98.2, cerca de Anthony’s Clothing Store, seguido de un picnic comunitario.

El principal espectáculo de fuegos artificiales comenzará alrededor de las 9:15 p.m. en Rowell’s Waterfront Park.

Key West: Edward B. Knight Pier

White Street

El Rotary Club de Key West organizará un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales a las 9 p.m. También habrá comida y bebidas a la venta, cuyos ingresos beneficiarán becas locales.

Marathon: Sombrero Beach

Ubicada en el marcador de la milla 50

Un desfile partirá de Marathon High School a las 11 a.m. y dará paso a las festividades en la playa durante todo el día, con un espectáculo de fuegos artificiales alrededor de las 9 p.m.

Leer en español

Awab Metwally, who is an international student and champion swimmer from Egypt, said he didn’t hesitate when it sounded like someone was in danger.

“I was like flying because I know there’s something going on,” Metwally said. “There was, like, an emergency, so I have to act.”

Video shows Metwally running from behind the cameraman before jumping into the water to rescue a man who couldn’t hold onto a ring buoy that had been thrown to him.

“That guy, he was sinking. He was dropping into the water,” Metwally said.

He said watching others throw a lifesaver without jumping in convinced him he needed to act.

“Nobody is doing anything. They’re just throwing to him a lifesaver. Nobody jumped. Nobody did anything. So I said, ‘This guy is going to die,’” he said.

Metwally said it wasn’t easy pushing the man to the back end of the yacht.

“It was hard for me to grab him and to push him all the way to the top of the water, but I did my best,” he said.

Metwally said he started swimming at a very young age in Egypt.

“Thanks to my mom and dad, they put me in swimming training since I was a kid. That paid off today,” he said.

Those lessons have earned him the title of Good Samaritan.

“So if I see somebody, I will do it for sure again. I get goosebumps really bad, but I will do it,” he said.

Metwally said paramedics performed life-saving measures on the man before taking him to a hospital. First responders have not released any information about the man’s condition.

Awab Metwally, estudiante internacional y nadador campeón de Egipto, dijo que no dudó cuando le pareció que alguien estaba en peligro.

“Fue como si estuviera volando porque sabía que algo estaba pasando”, dijo Metwally. “Había una emergencia, así que tenía que actuar”.

Un video muestra a Metwally corriendo desde detrás de la persona que grababa antes de lanzarse al agua para rescatar a un hombre que no podía sujetarse a un salvavidas circular que le habían lanzado.

“Ese hombre se estaba hundiendo. Se estaba yendo hacia el fondo”, dijo Metwally.

Dijo que ver a otras personas lanzar un salvavidas sin meterse al agua lo convenció de que tenía que actuar.

“Nadie estaba haciendo nada. Solo le estaban lanzando un salvavidas. Nadie se lanzó. Nadie hizo nada. Entonces dije: “Este hombre va a morir””, afirmó.

Metwally dijo que no fue fácil empujar al hombre hasta la parte trasera del yate.

“Fue difícil para mí sujetarlo y empujarlo hasta mantenerlo en la superficie del agua, pero hice mi mejor esfuerzo”, dijo.

Metwally contó que comenzó a nadar desde muy pequeño en Egipto.

“Gracias a mi mamá y a mi papá, me inscribieron en entrenamiento de natación desde que era un niño. Eso dio resultados hoy”, dijo.

Esas lecciones le han valido el reconocimiento como un buen samaritano.

“Si veo a alguien, sin duda lo volveré a hacer. Me da muchísimos escalofríos, pero lo haré”, dijo.

Metwally dijo que los paramédicos realizaron maniobras para salvarle la vida al hombre antes de trasladarlo a un hospital. Los equipos de primera respuesta no han divulgado información sobre el estado de salud del hombre.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, de 43 años, fue rescatado sano y salvo tras permanecer atrapado durante más de una semana bajo los escombros del estacionamiento del centro comercial Galerías Playa Grande en la ciudad de Catia La Mar, en el estado costero de La Guaira.

Equipos con banderas de todo el mundo vitorearon mientras los rescatistas trasladaban a Gil Flores, con una máscara de oxígeno, en una camilla cubierta con una lona naranja hasta una ambulancia de la Cruz Roja.

Un grupo de hombres con uniformes rojos de la Cruz Roja de Costa Rica se abrazaron y rieron aliviados, mientras otros estallaron en aplausos.

El rescate fue considerado un pequeño milagro en medio de la tragedia. Gracias a que los equipos le proporcionaron comida y agua mientras excavaban el hormigón, lograron mantener a Gil Flores con vida mucho más allá del plazo de 48 a 72 horas que suelen dar la mayoría de las operaciones de rescate para encontrar a sobrevivientes de desastres.

En su cuenta de X, la presidenta encargada Delcy Rodríguez publicó: “Celebramos la grandeza del ser humano cuando se une por un solo fin: salvar a otro”.

Gil Flores, quien trabajaba como guardia nocturno en el complejo, se encontraba de servicio dentro de su pequeña caseta de seguridad cuando se produjo el primer temblor el 24 de junio. Aunque la estructura de concreto circundante se derrumbó a su alrededor, su caseta se mantuvo en pie, creando una burbuja de aire.

“Cuando lo encontramos nos pidió que no le dijéramos a su esposa que estaba vivo por si acaso no lo lograba”, declaró a The Associated Press Minyar Collado, rescatista de la Cruz Roja de Costa Rica.

El derrumbe del edificio fue provocado por los dos terremotos consecutivos de magnitudes de 7,2 y 7,5. Los violentos temblores dañaron o destruyeron cientos de edificios en el norte de Venezuela y causaron la muerte de al menos 2.295 personas y heridas a más de 11.200. El estado de La Guaira fue la región más afectada del país.

“Fueron días de tristeza, dolor y desesperación porque no lo encontraba, pero cuando me enteré que estaba vivo ya ví un rayito de luz en la oscuridad”, dijo a AP su esposa Gusbimar González. La pareja tiene dos hijos de 8 y 10 años.

La compleja y arriesgada operación de rescate duró más de 100 horas después de que un equipo especializado de la Cruz Roja de Costa Rica detectara señales de vida y estableciera contacto con él el domingo.

El operativo fue coordinado por el equipo de búsqueda y rescate urbano de bomberos de Chile, que trabajó sin descanso con equipos especializados de Costa Rica, Estados Unidos, Portugal, México, El Salvador y Venezuela.

Junto a un contingente de personal de emergencia integrado por decenas, incluida una unidad humanitaria especializada de El Salvador, los rescatistas sortearon condiciones estructurales muy inestables, lluvias torrenciales y réplicas persistentes para excavar un túnel hasta Gil Flores.

Los equipos utilizaron una cámara telescópica para mantener contacto constante con él y le hicieron llegar agua y nutrientes líquidos a través de un estrecho conducto para mantenerlo hidratado.

María Paz Campos, bombera veterana de Chile, fue quien lo acompañó durante toda la operación de rescate. Ella vigiló a Gil Flores a través de la cámara y lo guió a un lugar seguro mientras lo tranquilizaba.

En un video publicado por los bomberos chilenos se vio a Gil Flores dibujando, aparentemente para pasar el tiempo, mientras Campos le indicaba con delicadeza que mirara a la cámara y se pusiera unas gafas protectoras.

“Los lentes necesito que los mantengas puestos por las pequeñas partículas que están cayendo, no te caiga ninguna en el ojo que ya tienes dañado”, le dijo Campos mientras él miraba a la cámara con un visible derrame en uno de sus ojos.

————-

Los videoreporteros Andry Rincón y Brayan Antequero contribuyeron en este reporte.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores emerged to safety covered in dust atop a stretcher surrounded by helmet-clad rescue workers after being trapped since June 24 under rubble in the basement of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town in La Guaira.

Rescuers, who initially made contact with Gil Flores over the weekend, worked more than 100 hours to free him — navigating a highly unstable structure, torrential rain and persistent aftershocks to tunnel down to the survivor.

Teams carrying flags from around the world cheered as rescuers carried Gil Flores, wearing an oxygen mask and covered in an orange tarp, through throngs of people to an ambulance where they methodically checked his vital signs.

One Chilean rescuer carrying his stretcher pumped his fist in joy. A group of men in red Costa Rican Red Cross uniforms embraced and laughed in relief. Others broke out into applause.

“When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Costa Rican Red Cross rescuer Minyar Collado told The Associated Press, but she added “We were never going to leave him here.”

The rescue was considered a small miracle cutting through a week of tragedy. By supplying Gil Flores with food and water while they excavated the concrete, rescue teams were able to keep him alive far longer than the 48- to 72-hour threshold most operations give to find survivors in disasters.

Gil Flores, who worked as a night-shift security guard at the complex, was inside his small security cabin when the first violent tremor struck. While the surrounding concrete structure collapsed around him, his cabin held ground, shielding him from crushing debris and creating a vital pocket of air.

A specialized team from the Costa Rican Red Cross first detected signs of life and established contact with him Sunday.

His wife, Gusbimar González, told the AP that she grappled with despair for days before hearing that rescuers made contact.

“When I learned he was alive, I saw a ray of light in the darkness," she said. The couple has two children, ages 8 and 10.

The operation was coordinated by an urban search and rescue team of Chilean firefighters, who worked around the clock with specialized teams from the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez celebrated the rescue on social media at a time that her government has come under fire for what many Venezuelans say has been an inadequate crisis response.

“We celebrate the greatness of humanity, when it is united for a single purpose: to save another. Thank you to our rescuers and to the support of the international rescuers,” she wrote on a post on X.

Teams used a telescopic camera to help maintain constant contact with Gil Flores, passing water and liquid nutrients through a narrow shaft to keep him hydrated during the final three days of the rescue.

María Paz Campos, a veteran firefighter from Chile, talked him through the entire operation and kept him calm during the final excruciating hours Thursday.

In a video published by Chilean firefighters in the hours before the rescue, Gil Flores is seen drawing, seemingly to pass the time. Campos then gently tells him to look at the camera and to wear protective goggles.

“I need you to keep the goggles on, for the small particles that are falling, to avoid them getting into your eye,” Campos told the survivor.

The collapse of the building was triggered by two back-to-back earthquakes on June 24 that registered magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, respectively. The shallow, violent tremors damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings across northern Venezuela, killing more than 2,200 people, injuring over 11,000 and leaving La Guaira state as the hardest-hit region in the country.

___

Associated Press video journalists Andry Rincón and Brayan Antequero contributed to this report.

Las autoridades informaron que Milagros De La Caridad Navarro, de 35 años, fue arrestada el martes por el Departamento de Policía de Miami Gardens después de entregarse en relación con la balacera del 22 de febrero.

Según el informe de arresto, los agentes respondieron a la cuadra 100 de Northwest 202nd Terrace poco después de la 1 a.m. de ese día tras recibir reportes sobre una balacera.

La Policía de Miami Gardens informó que aproximadamente 30 minutos después fue notificada de que una víctima de un disparo había llegado al Hospital HCA Florida Aventura.

El informe indica que la conductora que llevó a la víctima al hospital les dijo a los agentes que no conocía el área porque estaba de visita desde Georgia.

La conductora dijo que escuchó múltiples disparos mientras conducía antes de darse cuenta de que su suegra había sido alcanzada por un disparo y luego la llevó al hospital más cercano, según el informe.

La conductora les dijo a los investigadores que no sabía quién era responsable de la balacera, según el informe.

Los investigadores informaron que posteriormente entrevistaron a la víctima después de que le retiraran el tubo de respiración.

Según el informe, la víctima tenía dificultades para hablar y recordar los hechos, pero recordó haber salido de Hollywood Beach con otra mujer, regresar a casa para bañarse y cocinar, y posteriormente salir de una vivienda donde estaba presente una mujer identificada como “Caridad”.

El informe indica que la víctima les dijo a los detectives que su siguiente recuerdo fue despertar en el hospital.

La Policía informó que la investigación incluyó entrevistas con testigos, ruedas de reconocimiento fotográfico y videos de vigilancia.

Según el informe, un testigo identificó a Navarro durante una rueda de reconocimiento fotográfico realizada el 3 de marzo. Posteriormente, otro testigo identificó a Navarro en una rueda de reconocimiento distinta después de decirles a los investigadores que había dejado su casa al cuidado de Navarro mientras estaba fuera, según el informe.

Los detectives también obtuvieron un video de vigilancia de un vecino que, según el informe de arresto, muestra a Navarro “disparando múltiples veces en dirección de la víctima”.

Los investigadores informaron que otro testigo les dijo posteriormente que vio a Navarro sacar una pistola de una riñonera negra antes de que el grupo subiera a un vehículo. Indicaron que ese testigo afirmó que no vio cuando se disparó el arma, pero sí vio a Navarro sosteniendo la pistola en la mano derecha mientras se alejaban en el vehículo.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Navarro enfrenta dos cargos de agresión agravada con un arma mortal y un cargo de agresión agravada con un arma que causó lesiones corporales graves.

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

Por el momento, el motivo de la balacera sigue sin estar claro.

Un equipo formado por donantes, voluntarios y personal de GEM trasladó unos 235.000 libras de donaciones en una operación logística compleja que incluyó dos almacenes en Doral y Valencia, que funcionaban como centro de distribución.

“Es el peor desastre que jamás hayamos vivido”, dijo Rafael Pineyro, concejal de Doral y voluntario de GEM, nacido en Caracas.

GEM contó con el apoyo del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU., la agencia a la que el presidente Donald Trump encargó la respuesta estadounidense en Venezuela. El Comando Sur de EE. UU. desplegó todas las ramas de las fuerzas armadas.

El Departamento de Estado también activó los grupos de trabajo de Florida, procedentes de Miami y del condado de Miami-Dade. Estos se unieron a otros dos equipos de búsqueda y rescate altamente capacitados de Fairfax, Virginia, y California.

Hassel Mendoza, un ingeniero venezolano que vive en Tampa, viajó a La Guaira para buscar a su madre, hermana, sobrino y cuñado entre las ruinas de un edificio de apartamentos de nueve pisos que se derrumbó.

“Perdimos mucho tiempo tratando de encontrar nuevas herramientas para una actividad específica, como cortar acero”, dijo Mendoza a CNN , y agregó que los equipos gubernamentales y los voluntarios no contaban con equipos como taladros o sensores.

El martes, Diosdado Cabello, un ex oficial militar venezolano que funge como ministro de Justicia, anunció la detención de miembros de las fuerzas del orden acusados ​​de saqueo en La Guaira.

Cabello, buscado en Estados Unidos por narcotráfico, identificó a los cuatro sospechosos como Maya Aguilar Reyes, una oficial; Fredy Rafael Lugo Oliveros, Roger Andrés Omaña y Josue Jhonatan Burgos Sánchez.

Un testigo grabó y compartió un video que se hizo viral. En él se veía a Aguilar Reyes, su identificación y a una mujer llorando que lo confrontó, le quitó una bolsa llena de dólares estadounidenses y rompió los billetes en pedazos sobre los escombros cerca de un edificio derrumbado.

“Sé que muchos venezolanos sienten dolor y frustración; comparto profundamente esos sentimientos”, dijo Delcy Rodríguez , presidenta interina de Venezuela desde que el ejército estadounidense capturó a Nicolás Maduro.

El hermano de Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, anunció el miércoles que el número de muertos había aumentado a 2.295.

El Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos estima que el número de víctimas mortales asciende a decenas de miles, y las Naciones Unidas anunciaron la adquisición de 10.000 bolsas para cadáveres.

El personal y los colaboradores de GEM solicitan donaciones en efectivo al público a través de esta página web . El almacén de GEM, ubicado en 1850 NW 84th Ave., en Doral, aún necesita voluntarios para clasificar y empacar las donaciones. Para inscribirse, hay una página web disponible.

El almacén, abierto todos los días de 9:00 a 17:00, era uno de los muchos puntos de recogida en el sur de Florida. Entre las necesidades prioritarias se encontraban productos de higiene, alimentos no perecederos y artículos de primeros auxilios.

Lista útil: Lugares para entregar ayuda en el sur de Florida

Más información sobre cómo ayudar a Venezuela.

• Inter Miami, Marlins y Dolphins se suman a los esfuerzos de ayuda.
• Una estrella de la NFL se une al equipo de Global Empowerment Mission; su mensaje para los habitantes del sur de Florida es: “Hagan lo que puedan”.
• Más de 100 venezolanos que fueron deportados de Estados Unidos horas antes de los terremotos están desaparecidos.

• Food for the Poor celebra las inversiones en reconstrucción.
• Médicos del condado de Miami-Dade recolectan donaciones de suministros médicos cerca de Doral.
• Les presentamos al capitán German Leal del Departamento de Bomberos y Rescate de Miami-Dade.

• Agentes de policía de Pembroke Pines anuncian una campaña de recolección de donaciones.
• Airbnb se asocia con la organización sin fines de lucro CADENA para proporcionar alojamiento de emergencia.
• Hogar Bambi tiene como objetivo proteger a los niños vulnerables.

• El equipo de la Fundación Grey Bull Rescue llega a Caracas.
• Las autoridades clausuran La Guaira y exigen que los voluntarios se registren en Caracas.
• Amazon realiza donaciones a Airlink para ayudar a organizaciones benéficas con la logística.

• El equipo de búsqueda y rescate de Miami se prepara para desplegarse.
• Centro Comunitario AFE organiza campaña de recolección en Miami-Dade
• Una organización benéfica con sede en Weston se asocia con una farmacia local.

• El proyecto DYNAMO, liderado por veteranos, entrega 20.000 libras de ayuda en las primeras 48 horas.
• El altruismo en El Arepazo alimenta el esfuerzo del equipo de Global Empowerment Mission.
• Rescatistas salvadoreños trabajan para liberar a un sobreviviente de 15 años en Caraballeda.

• Food For The Poor incluye en sus kits de ayuda humanitaria notas escritas a mano con mensajes de esperanza.
• El Comando Sur de Estados Unidos se centra en los daños en los aeropuertos.
• El Departamento de Estado despliega un equipo de búsqueda y rescate en Miami-Dade.

• Miami Beach abre 4 nuevos puntos de entrega de ayuda.
• Miramar mantendrá abiertos 6 puntos de entrega de ayuda las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana.
• El recaudador de impuestos de Miami-Dade abre 11 puntos de entrega.
• Doral abre 4 puntos de entrega de ayuda.

• Se abre un punto de entrega de ayuda en Homestead.
• Starlink ofrece servicio gratuito hasta el 25 de julio, pero un kit cuesta 470 dólares.
• International Medical Corps despliega personal y necesita donaciones.
• Save The Children solicita donaciones para su fondo de emergencia.

• Samaritan’s Purse se centra en los “hospitales de campaña de emergencia”.
• La Cruz Roja solicita donaciones para su Fondo de Emergencia para la Respuesta ante Desastres.
• La ONU solicita donaciones para un programa infantil que carece de fondos suficientes.

• World Vision solicita donaciones para su “fondo de ayuda en casos de desastre”.
• World Central Kitchen solicita donaciones para comidas frescas.
• United Way Miami lanza la ‘Operación Manos Amigas’.

The electric vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that it delivered 480,126 cars to customers, a jump of 25% over the 384,122 figure a year ago when many Europeans refused to buy his cars because of his embrace of far-right political candidates there.

The second-quarter sales, the second straight gain in a row, also came in much higher than the 401,000 that Wall Street analysts had been expecting, according to a FactSet survey.

It's a big turnaround from just a few months ago when Tesla reported sales had fallen in 2025 for a second year in a row and it had to yield its crown as the world's largest EV maker to China's BYD.

Tesla’s stock fell sharply in midday trading Thursday, down 6%, an odd development that Seth Goldstein of Morningstar attributed possibly to profit-taking by investors after a recent run-up in its shares.

For the second-quarter figures, the company didn't break out results by country, but an earlier report from European trade groups reported big sales increases in Europe in May, including a 300% rise in Germany.

The Austin, Texas, company introduced cheaper Model Y and Model 3 models last year in hopes of boosting sales. In Europe, it also cut the cost of leasing and loans. Sales were also helped by a surge of EV buying in general on the continent as gas and diesel prices have risen due to the Iran war.

For future quarters, Tesla hopes to lure even more Europeans as countries approve use of its driver assistance feature, available in the U.S., called Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The Netherlands approved the system in April, followed by Estonia, Greece and Lithuania.

Sales fell last year amid protests at showrooms in Europe and the U.S., a Musk figure burned effigy in Milan and vandalism against Tesla drivers. Customers were angry about him publicly supporting far-right political candidates in elections. In the U.S., too, many of Tesla's traditional buyers stopped buying because of Musk's work heading a Trump administration group cutting government spending.

Tesla was also hurt in the U.S. by the elimination of a tax break for buying electric vehicles in the fall last year, which added as much as $7,500 to EV costs. That is still keeping EV buyers away even as gas prices have risen.

Tesla sales in the U.S. weren't broken out in the latest report, but research firm Cox Automotive estimates they are still falling fast, down 20% in the second quarter from the year earlier period.

Amid Tesla struggles last year, Musk managed to shift the narrative about Tesla's future away from its car business to its robots, automated driving system and self-driving robotaxis.

Judging from the stock price, investors approve. Shares have fully recovered from a deep dive early last year, rocketing more than 40% in the past 12 months.

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Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

La Oficina del Sheriff de Broward identificó al hombre como Bart Diguglielmo, de Lauderhill.

Según la BSO, la balacera fue reportada poco antes de las 12:30 p.m. del martes en el estacionamiento del Walmart, ubicado en el 7900 de West McNab Road.

Agentes y paramédicos de North Lauderdale Fire Rescue respondieron al lugar y encontraron a Diguglielmo con una herida de bala, informaron las autoridades.

Los agentes informaron que los paramédicos trasladaron a Diguglielmo al Broward Health Medical Center, donde murió.

Según la BSO, Diguglielmo y una mujer habían discutido por un espacio de estacionamiento antes de la balacera.

Los agentes informaron que la mujer permaneció en el lugar después de la balacera y aseguró que le disparó a Diguglielmo en defensa propia.

Los detectives confirmaron que la mujer fue detenida para ser interrogada y que está cooperando con la investigación.

Indicaron que, una vez concluya la investigación, el caso será presentado ante la Fiscalía Estatal del Condado Broward para determinar si se presentarán cargos penales contra la mujer.

La identidad de la mujer no ha sido divulgada.

Fritz's white blazer and NBA-style warmup pants for his walk-on at No. 2 Court drew attention but his play wasn't bad either — he fired 19 aces and avoided getting pushed into a fourth set.

The sixth-seeded American, a semifinalist last year, emphatically pumped his right fist when he broke Kypson to convert his fourth match point.

“I'm really happy that I was able to just get the break there, avoid going to a tiebreaker, avoid going to a fourth, just get it done in three,” Fritz said in an on-court interview.

Fritz also won his opener in straight sets and had worn a similar outfit with tear-away warmup pants.

“I'm a bit more low-key so it's definitely something different for me walking out with the whole fit,” the 28-year-old Californian said.

“The first round I actually kind of struggled getting the thing off. I saw a video of Frances (Tiafoe) the other day just going full rip-off,” Fritz added. “I tried to copy him today.”

Fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur also advanced in straight sets, beating Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

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

Northrop Grumman ’s rocket-launching plane took off from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific on Thursday, following weather delays all week. While in flight, the team observed a warning in the stream of data and decided against releasing the Pegasus rocket strapped to the plane’s belly, the company said. It was not immediately clear whether the warning came from the rocket or the plane.

The rocket holds a three-armed robotic spacecraft built by Katalyst Space Technologies to capture the Swift Observatory, which will come crashing down by October if no help arrives. No new launch date has been set.

NASA paused Swift's science operations earlier this year to preserve its orbit as long as possible. It has detected thousands of gamma ray bursts and exploding stars since its launch in 2004, tipping off other telescopes for more detailed observations.

Anxious to continue Swift's scanning of the universe, the space agency hired Katalyst Space last September for the $30 million salvage operation.

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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.

The pattern is on repeat for tomorrow and the holiday weekend. Expect midday heat and humidity followed by spotty thunderstorms. They will be focused on the afternoon, so I’m hopeful that by fireworks time we will have plenty of dry weather.

The rule would apply to hospitals that serve low-income patients under what is known as the 340B program, which lets hospitals buy outpatient prescription drugs at discounted prices. But in many cases, hospitals can bill insurers at rates that exceed those costs, allowing hospitals to keep the difference and resulting in higher costs to patients.

Under the proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would change the formula for what hospitals participating in the program can get reimbursed, in an effort to cut costs for patients.

The Republican administration has sought to show during an election year that it is tackling the challenges of affordability for U.S. families at a time when rising healthcare costs are driving financial strains for households and the government alike. While the administration has taken several steps it says will save money on medical treatment, it is unclear how much savings might ultimately materialize based on the complexity of the country's healthcare system.

The American Hospital Association said the proposed rule would compound the financial pressures its members face.

“These proposals will undermine the ability of hospitals to maintain essential services and protect affordable access to care for those who depend on the 340B program,” said Ashley Thompson, the group's senior vice president for public policy analysis and development.

There is the risk that hospital systems could see their revenues decrease, which could have consequences in the communities they serve. The 340B program was initially designed as a way for healthcare providers to stretch scarce federal resources to better serve more patients. But it has long been at the center of a lobbying battle between hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, with each side attempting to enlist lawmakers in maintaining or changing the benefit.

The agency estimates that the average older adult with Medicare Part B coverage who is administered one of these drugs would save $800 a year in co-payments. That would work out to a total savings of $1.1 billion for everyone with that coverage.

The savings over 10 years could total about $20 billion, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the rule before the official announcement. The official said the proposed rule was not previewed for hospital groups before the release.

In a policy draft of the rule, the administration gave a specific example of how the current system works for the prostate cancer drug Lupron Depot. Hospitals under the 340B program can acquire a dose for roughly $700, but they can receive about $4,000 in Medicare reimbursement for administering it and an additional $1,000 from the patient co-payment.

The proposed rule would cut by roughly 40% that amount that hospitals in the discounted drug program could be paid through Medicare programs. If approved, the rule would go into effect at the start of next year.

In 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term, his administration tried to enact this same type of rule to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the government could not provide a separate reimbursement plan for 340B hospitals.

The president signed an executive order in April 2025 to survey how much hospitals spend to buy drugs. The result of that survey led to the proposed rule, which would cap Medicare reimbursement for participating hospitals at the average sales prices, minus 33.4%. The reason why the average reimbursement rate would be cut is because the hospitals acquired the drugs at discounted prices.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 27 fell by 1,000 to 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 225,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The government also released its more comprehensive June jobs report on Thursday, a day earlier than usual due to the July 4 holiday.

That data showed that U.S. employers pulled back on hiring last month, adding only 57,000 jobs. That’s less than half the previous month’s total and a sign companies remain cautious. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though that decline is mostly due to the fact that many out-of-work people gave up looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed.

June’s tepid hiring comes after a relative surge in job gains the previous three months, countering concerns that the war in Iran would trip up an already wobbly labor market.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Among the companies that have cut jobs recently are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks and Walmart.

Thursday's layoffs data showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which quiets some of the week-to-week noise, fell by 2,500 to 222,000.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending June 20 ticked up by 2,000 by to 1.81 million, also a historically low figure.

The case has been tangled up in courts since the European Commission announced the fine in 2018. But the European Court of Justice dismissal on Thursday marks the end of that process.

“The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system,” the Luxembourg-based judges wrote in their ruling.

Google previously argued free and open-source Android has resulted in low-cost phones and driven competition with its chief rival, Apple. Android is the most popular mobile operating system, beating even Apple’s iOS.

The fine is one of three antitrust penalties totaling more than $8 billion that the European Commission slapped on Google between 2017 and 2019, putting the 27-nation bloc at the forefront of the global push to rein in tech giants.

Since then, the commission has widened its crackdown on digital giants with more antitrust investigations targeting Amazon, Apple and Facebook and sweeping new rules aimed at clamping down on the biggest digital companies.

Agustín Reyna, director general of the European Consumer Organization, welcomed the court’s ruling and said the EU needs more regulation akin to the Digital Markets Act to “nip unfair practices in the bud” and protect consumers.

“Today’s judgment sends a very clear message: dominant companies cannot use their power to shut out competition and limit consumer choice,” Reyna said. “Today is a big win for Europe.”

Now, after a massive infusion of cash from Congress, President Donald Trump's administration is swiftly building what it has dubbed a “smart wall,” a combination of 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel fencing and an array of sophisticated technology like sensors, cameras and towers allowing Border Patrol to surveil the territory.

The wall is under heavy scrutiny for the billions of dollars being dedicated to it when border crossings are at their lowest in decades. Critics say the U.S. is militarizing the border as it increasingly deploys sophisticated surveillance technology to the area, impacting local communities.

“We are seeing a massive expansion of surveillance and surveillance technology across the borderlands,” said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group. “The wall in all its forms is harmful to communities.”

Officials say the technology is complementary to the physical wall and frees up agents for other tasks.

“It’s a smart wall. It’s not just a barrier,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said during recent congressional testimony. “It maximizes the use of our most valuable resource, which is our agents.”

Contracts for hundreds of miles of wall already inked

The wall has been a top priority for Trump, a Republican, since he first ran for president.

During the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, the border emerged as a flashpoint, with thousands of people seeking to cross into the country each day. Those numbers started to taper off shortly before Trump returned to office last year and then slowed to a trickle, with his broader immigration crackdown serving as a deterrent for would-be migrants.

Flush with $46 billion to finish the wall after an infusion by Congress for immigration enforcement, CBP is inking tens of billions of dollars in contracts to build the wall and push along the president's signature project.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently that a preliminary part of the wall will be finished by “this time next year.” Scott said his agency is putting up 6 miles (10 kilometers) of wall a week.

Hundreds of miles had already been built before Trump returned to office. As of mid-June 2026, CBP has erected another 74 miles (119 kilometers) and aims to build hundreds more. There is no wall planned for roughly 535 miles (861 kilometers) of the roughly 2,000-mile-long (3,200-kilometer-long) border, because rugged terrain already serves as a barrier. Ground sensors and towers will be used instead.

CBP is also going back to hundreds of miles of already built wall and adding more technology, lights and roads. Along the long stretches of river in Texas that mark the border with Mexico, they're deploying 12- to 15-foot-long (3.7- to 4.5-meter-long) cylinder-shaped buoys meant to keep migrants or smugglers from crossing the border.

More technology being deployed on the border

Technology is playing a greater role in the Trump administration’s effort to make illegal crossings along the border more difficult, part of a broader transformation of CBP in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, into an intelligence operation with a mass surveillance network whose reach extends far beyond the nation's frontiers, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

And critics say the border technology poses a threat.

The Southern Border Communities Coalition says surveillance technologies can push migrants into more dangerous routes to avoid being detected.

Garza, the group's policy counsel, warned that surveillance technology infringes on the privacy rights of border residents and that locals have found ground sensors used to detect smuggler or migrant traffic placed on their property without their consent.

Nayda Alvarez and her relatives own land along the Rio Grande roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) inland from the Gulf of Mexico. She has found cameras placed on her family's land, and just last week she spotted a surveillance tower about a quarter of a mile (almost half a kilometer) down the river from her house.

“Are we expecting a war or something?” she said. "It doesn’t make me feel safer.”

Dave Maass, director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on civil liberties related to digital technology, said the technology has made the border area “a hostile environment” for locals and would-be migrants.

The foundation has published a guide on the various types of surveillance towers in use along the southern border designed to help local residents.

These can range from fixed towers with video, infrared and radar technologies that have a range of roughly 8 miles (13 kilometers) to remote video surveillance systems that have cameras and a spotlight fixed on top. Some are mounted on the backs of trucks so agents can drive them to different parts of the border.

Increasingly, these towers are autonomous. They can scan an area, analyze what they're seeing using artificial intelligence and alert Border Patrol agents to something suspicious. Proponents say this helps keep Border Patrol agents out in the field instead of sitting in front of computer screens watching for activity. But it also increases AI decision-making along the border when experts have warned about the technology’s potential for bias or other problems.

The big GOP tax cuts and spending bill passed by Congress last summer requires that CBP buys only the autonomous towers, and the department is deploying an additional 95.

Underground, buried fiberoptic cables can sense movement, capturing data that is also then analyzed by AI.

“We follow the contour of the land. We go through trees. We go down into the river banks. We can go absolutely everywhere,” said Magnus McEwen-King, CEO of Sintela, which has a contract with CBP to install the cables. He spoke at a recent border security expo in Phoenix, where some of the technology was on display.

CBP also uses ground sensors and trail cameras to detect smuggling routes.

Concerns over cost and future plans

The nonpartisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has questioned both the huge amounts of money for the wall-building and whether taxpayers are getting their money's worth.

In 2011, under Democratic President Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pulled the plug on a project to build a “virtual wall” of integrated technology like radars, sensors and cameras across the entire border after it ran over budget, faced technological glitches and was behind schedule.

Josh Sewell, director of research and policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the organization would like to see more “robust evaluation” of the technologies being used to avoid similar scenarios. And he criticized the Trump administration for lack of oversight on how the money is being spent, a charge CBP has denied, citing “oversight mechanism.”

In the Big Bend area of southern Texas, opposition to the department's wall-building plans gathered strong bipartisan support especially in the most sensitive areas that run through a state and national park and a wildlife area.

CBP now says it is not planning to build a 30-foot-high (9-meter-high) bollard wall in those areas. Its recently announced plans include installing patrol roads and some barriers designed to stop cars and using detection technologies.

Clara Benson, who is one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall coalition, says bright lights in the area designed to illuminate the border could pollute the skies in an area renowned for having some of the best views of the stars. Even without a 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel wall running through the land, there is concern about CBP's plans.

“There's still a lot of fear and dread that the plan is still going to be quite damaging,” she said.

Supporters of England, Belgium, Senegal, the United States and Bosnia were all represented, creating a melting pot of soccer fans.

The crowd was expected to keep growing as kickoff for the U.S.-Bosnia match approached. During previous matches, Bayfront Park reached capacity, and it remained to be seen whether that would happen again for Wednesday night’s game.

“At the end of the day, it is in our city, it is beautiful, and we are 100% percent supporting our country,” said U.S. fan Dylan Rodriguez.

“Honestly, it’s nice to see — bringing all these people together,“ said fan Caleb. ”At the end of the day, that’s what we want to see.”

Fans said the event has been a unifying experience, with friendships forming between people from around the world who share a passion for soccer — or futbal, depending on who you ask.

Families also packed the park, creating lasting memories while enjoying more than just the match. Along with watching the game, fans had access to food, drinks and a variety of activities throughout the festival.

But members of one local business group are pointing the finger at themselves instead.

What started with one table has quickly grown into one of the newest Business Network International chapters in Wilton Manors.

“We are the fastest growing chapter in all of Florida,” said Jerry Windle, who helps lead the group.

The chapter is the only officially designated LGBTQ+ ally chapter in Florida, but most of its members are not part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Instead, they are allies, including contractors and hetero family-man Ted Knote.

“We have a great group here,” Knote said.

Chapter members said that in less than a year, they have generated nearly $2 million in referral business.

Windle said part of the idea behind growing the chapter came after seeing corporate sponsorships pull away from LGBTQ+ organizations amid the current political climate and anti-DEI legislation.

“It’s very easy to become reactive and say why and point the finger and blame, blame, blame,” Windle said.

“Despite what may happen politically — and we can like it, we can not like it — but rather than point fingers and say would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, it’s what can we do now?” he said.

The group’s efforts have gone beyond growing business.

They have also helped support organizations like the Pride Center, where the chapter meets. The center has struggled to continue its HIV prevention efforts after losing federal funding under the Trump administration.

Windle said the chapter has donated $20,000 to the Pride Center.

“We have strength when we create the gravitas to sit at the table and we create the table,” he said.

The business group meets once a week in Wilton Manors.

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The man was identified by the Broward Sheriff’s Office as Bart Diguglielmo, of Lauderhill.

According to BSO, the shooting was reported just before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of the Walmart, located at 7900 W. McNab Road.

Deputies and North Lauderdale Fire Rescue medics responded to the scene and found Diguglielmo suffering from a gunshot wound, authorities said.

Deputies said paramedics transported Diguglielmo to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died.

Local 10 exclusively obtained video showing the moments that the fatal shooting occurred.

According to BSO, Diguglielmo and a woman had gotten into an argument over a parking space prior to the shooting.

Deputies said the woman remained at the scene after the shooting and claimed she shot Diguglielmo in self-defense.

Detectives confirmed that the woman was detained for questioning and is cooperating in the investigation.

The victim’s daughter, who asked to be identified only as Amanda, was in tears as she described her father during a Zoom interview with Local 10 News, calling him a “good man” who previously served in the military.

She told Local 10’s Rosh Lowe that nobody “deserves to lose their life over a parking spot.”

Amanda told Lowe that she was “hesitant to do the interview,” but said she wanted her dad “to be remembered for who he was and not who the media is portraying him to be.”

“I heard one news site say it was over a parking spot,” Amanda said. “Another says it was because my dad was making some type of advance towards the woman, which I will completely debunk because my dad is not that person. He’s not perfect, but not someone that would do this to this extreme.”

Amanda said she had been estranged from her dad for many years, but they had recently been working on repairing their relationship.

Detectives said upon the completion of the investigation, the case will be presented to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the woman who shot Diguglielmo.

The woman’s identity has not been released.

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Immigrant rights and faith groups have decried conditions at the facility for years and organized Wednesday protests.

They said detainees are subject to overcrowding and overheating.

Protester Luis Rivera said he has a close family friend who had a required appointment at the office. He said he’s scared and worried.

“You have people -- your family, your friends -- (who) you love,” he said. “It’s hard.”

Arianne Betancourt said her father was detained at the facility for six months. She now works full time to make sure people have humane conditions when held in detention.

“They’re going to spread the cruelty,” she said.

Betancourt added, “I talk to people who tell me that before they got to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ (in Collier County), they were able to walk and now they require a wheelchair and at these centers they don’t give wheelchairs, so these elders are bed-bound now.”

A Local 10 News crew saw a fire truck and ambulance go inside and get escorted out by authorities.

Rivera said he wants to protect his friend’s identity, but described him as a 20-year-old who came to the U.S. three years ago.

He said his friend is OK “for the moment, but he continued in the line, so I don’t know when he go inside (if) they’re going to remove (his) phone.”

Rivera said they live in Orlando, but he drove his friend to the Miramar office, because that’s where his appointment was.

Protesters said they plan to continue the weekly protests.

An ICE spokesperson released the following statement to Local 10 News:

“The Miramar facility functions as a check-in location for individuals on a non-detained docket and serves as a processing site for daily operational arrests. The number of individuals temporarily held at the facility varies based on operational needs. After processing, individuals are transferred to local detention centers.

“Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.

“ICE ensures that all individuals waiting to check in at the Miramar facility have access to restrooms and water. Restrooms and water fountains are available in the lobby, and individuals need only request access. Allegations that individuals in line do not have access to water or restrooms are totally false.”

ICE spokesperson

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages. The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings. Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

“It’s really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” she said.

Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

A fight to survive

Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.

She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.

“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.

“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors were able to save the teen's life but had to amputate part of her right leg.

Choosing positivity throughout her recovery

In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.

She initially struggled knowing, “that I only have two regular limbs, and that my life would be completely different.”

“I would cry, and I would ask my mom, ‘Why is it happening to me?’ And on that day, we put a Bible verse on my bedside table that said, ‘With God, all things are possible.’ And then she told me that what you look like doesn’t define you, it’s who you are on the inside. And so, I think that stuck with me throughout my whole recovery the past two years.

It doesn’t matter what I look like, as long as I’m spreading positivity and inspiring others to stay strong and to never give up,” she said.

Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the legislation happened because of the teen's “courage, perseverance, and advocacy to protect future beachgoers.”

“Because of her strength, lives will be changed. We should all be inspired by her,” Britt said.

Shark bites remain rare

While sharks are commonly found in the waters off the United States, shark bites are rare, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program.

There are between 60 to 80 known unprovoked bites worldwide each year, he said. It's extremely rare that two or more people are bit in close proximity. He said in a database of known shark bites, called the International Shark Attack File, there have only been a few instances of multiple bites in a single day.

When that happens, he said it’s likely because of environmental conditions such as sharks following schools of bait fish closer to the shore. Murky water conditions can also be a factor because they increase the chance that a shark will mistake a person for a fish or seal.

In the area where Gribbin was bitten, there are about 20 to 30 bull sharks 1,312 feet (400 meters) offshore at all time, Naylor said. Great white sharks have been spotted more frequently in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada, according to conservation groups. A smartphone app called Sharktivity also allows shark spotters to report their sightings.

The sightings might unnerve people, but Naylor said it's important to remember that shark attacks are rare.

“If sharks wanted to eat people, we’d have about 10,000 bites a day. The fact that we have so few is basically testament to the fact that the sharks are doing their level best to avoid people, not to target them,” Naylor said.

Gribbin said she would rather people have the opportunity to get information and make decisions about protecting themselves than to go into the water without knowing.

Another survivor praises the alert system

Braxton Rocha, who was bitten by a large tiger shark off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, said he liked the idea of an alert system. He thinks it is information that people, particularly tourists to the island, will want to know.

Rocha was spearfishing in 2015 when he saw the large shark. “Looked like a bus or submarine. She was the biggest thing I’d seen in the ocean at that time,” Rocha said. He started making his way to shore. When he looked back to check where the shark was, the animal was right in front of him. He tried to push the shark away, but the animal was too big and powerful. It latched onto his leg. Rocha punched it in the nose and the shark let go and swam away.

“Everything happened so fast. It was almost like being struck by lightning. I was still kind of out of it. I looked down and see giant clouds of blood just bursting out of my leg,” he said.

It took nearly 100 staples to repair the gaping wound on his leg. But the experience did not dampen Rocha's enthusiasm for the ocean and wildlife. “I’ve always loved sharks,” Rocha said.

In just the past week, Trump has issued dark warnings that members of the Democratic Party's ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life" and even engage in assassinations. Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven't seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”

The GOP's ideological focus conflates democratic socialism, which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation, with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated. It has been building since Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor last year.

But it's kicked into a higher gear recently after democratic socialists won several New York City congressional primaries last week. The primary victory on Tuesday by another democratic socialist, Melat Kiros, for a Denver congressional seat suggested the trend may extend beyond Manhattan liberalism.

“The Democrats are making this easy for us,” Rep. Richard Hudson, the North Carolina Republican who leads the House GOP's strategy and fundraising arm, said in an interview. “They're nominating extreme liberals, leftists who are out of touch even with mainstream Democrats.”

Republicans are holding onto slim majorities

The messaging effort comes as Republicans scramble to hold onto threadbare congressional majorities in the November midterms. It risks overlooking public frustration, particularly among younger voters, with unfettered capitalism at a time of growing income inequality and rising costs.

But it also gives Republicans a much-needed opportunity to shift the conversation back to territory that is more comfortable for them after their party has spent much of the year on defense over the fallout from Trump's decision to launch a war against Iran, which contributed to widespread price spikes.

Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist who hosted Trump last week at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, acknowledged that Republicans are facing steep headwinds this year. But the recent string of wins by democratic socialists, he said, allows Republicans to present a contrast between “common sense and crazy.”

Democrats are uncertain over the party's direction

The renewed push could tug at tensions among Democrats who are largely united in their loathing of Trump but are divided over the party's direction. This year's primaries are shaping up as a referendum between centrists who are eager to course correct from what they see as progressive overreach earlier in the decade and a left-wing pushing for even more sweeping change.

“A lot of this anger has been boiling under the surface,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which was founded by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s coming to the fore in this moment in a very powerful way.”

But Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a centrist New Jersey Democrat, called the victories in Colorado and New York “aberrations.”

“We’ve got to fight like hell to keep our party from being hijacked by socialists,” he said. “Most of them are bomb throwers, not problem solvers.”

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford easily dispatched a more progressive rival earlier this year in his Democratic bid for governor in a state Trump carried in 2024. As he eyes a general election challenge to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, he insisted candidates like those who won in New York don't represent all Democrats.

He said the Democratic Socialists of America “is not the face of our party.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat who chairs the House Democratic campaign committee, said in a statement that Republicans were “resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues.”

Trump risks overreaching with communism argument

Trump and fellow Republicans risk missing the mark when the public's embrace of capitalism might not be as strong as it was decades ago.

About half of U.S. adults, 54%, have a positive view of capitalism, according to an August poll from Gallup, a slight decline from 61% in 2010. Democrats have driven some of the shift, but favorable opinions of capitalism have fallen among independents as well.

Only 42% of Democrats viewed capitalism favorably, while 66% had a positive view of socialism. The poll found that both younger and older Democrats have warmed slightly on socialism since 2010, but Democrats under age 50 are much less likely to view capitalism favorably. Democrats age 50 or older didn't shift meaningfully.

“Young voters, who I would argue are driving a lot of the electoral energy that we're seeing, came of age politically in a post-Soviet world,” Geevarghese said. “The attacks don't land in the same way when Donald Trump was politically of age.”

Hudson, who is running the House GOP campaign committee, acknowledged the communism line might not resonate in the same way with all voters, particularly younger people. That's why, he said, it's important for Republicans to tailor their message to the needs of individual districts.

“I've never run cookie-cutter campaigns where we just say one thing over and over everywhere,” he said.

Still, the argument was high on Trump's mind again on Wednesday as he visited the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. He called the former president a “ferocious opponent of a thing called communism.”

“It’s the biggest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, September 11,” he said. "It’s a bigger threat, potentially a bigger threat than that, because it’s like a cancer that spreads, and you better stop it fast.”

Beverly Gage, a history professor at Yale University who has written on the rise and fall of Sen. Joe McCarthy, said earlier eras of anti-communism politics took hold because there was a large and active Communist Party in the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the country's primary foe. But she said Trump's focus on the issue is notable given his ties to Roy Cohn, a onetime confidant of Trump who earlier worked for McCarthy.

“It's not very many steps to get from McCarthy to Roy Cohn to Donald Trump,” she said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, shrugged off Trump's communism focus as “bunk.” In an interview, he said the direction of the party isn't all that different from the dynamics he's navigated for decades in California politics.

“I governed in an environment where the DSA was otherwise known as progressives," he said. “This dialectic is so deeply familiar to me, and I don't over read any of it.”

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This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the Washington congresswoman’s first name is Suzan, not Susan.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in contributed to this report

The princess, who early last year announced her cancer was in remission, is the patron of the All England Club.

“On arrival, Her Royal Highness visited The Queue, spending time meeting attendees who have queued since early this morning, alongside AELTC’s honorary stewards, who volunteer each year to manage The Queue and welcome guests as they arrive at the Championships,” Kensington Palace said in a statement Thursday.

Wimbledon leaves a small batch of tickets available for same-day purchase and fans begin lining up and camping out the evening before in Wimbledon Park to get them each day.

Kate — who also helped out in a Wimbledon ticket office — met with children from Shine Camera Club, a local program that supports kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Crowds gathered as Kate walked by “Henman Hill” to reach Court 18, where British player Arthur Fery was facing Otto Virtanen. She was greeted there by All England Club chair Deborah Jevans and board member Tim Henman, a former Wimbledon semifinalist and namesake of the grassy area — also just called The Hill — that overlooks No. 1 Court.

Kate watched a portion of the match — Fery won 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3 — before attending Katie Swan's match against Madison Keys at No. 1 Court, where she sat next to Murray, who in 2013 became the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title in 77 years. Swan lost 6-1, 6-4.

Kate last year was at Centre Court on consecutive days to present the winners’ trophies to singles champions Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner. Kate offered consoling words to women's runner-up Amanda Anisimova after a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Swiatek.

In 2024, while recovering from cancer, Kate did not attend the women’s final but was on hand for Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Novak Djokovic.

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

Employment projection data offers a grim outlook for the women-dominated profession that may be particularly vulnerable to AI-induced job displacement compared to the broader workforce. But some admins are embracing the technology — and even using it as a tool to get ahead.

Deanna Danger, 43, has worked in an administrative role since 2003. She says adapting and staying ahead of the curve is a key part of her constantly-changing role, and AI is no exception.

“All you do is have to evolve,” she says.

Danger started using AI professionally in 2022, learning through experimentation and collaboration with fellow admins. Today, she no longer takes notes during meetings — she's set up Copilot and ChatGPT to do it for her. That has freed her to “actually participate in the meetings, and not just worry about making sure I typed everything out that was said,” says Danger, executive assistant to the chief information officer at Vanderbilt University. “Honestly, what used to take me hours I’m now done with in under five minutes.”

How — and to what extent — AI might reshape her profession remains to be seen, but jobs for administrative assistants and secretaries have been dwindling for decades. The unemployment rate for the office and administrative support workers — a broader category that includes administrative assistants — ticked up to 4% compared to 3.6% in June last year, according to Labor Department data released Thursday, although that level remains lower than the overall unemployment rate. In 2004, about 3.5 million people worked in the role — nearly 97% of them women, according to Current Population Survey data. Twenty years later, that number slid to 2.1 million — despite overall workforce growth during the same period.

And except for medical secretaries and administrative assistants — a category projected to grow 4% by 2034 thanks to growth of the healthcare industry — economists at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predict a continued decline in the profession.

“The overall story in office and admin occupations from the projection standpoint for the last several cycles has been one of productivity-enhancing technologies, limiting demand for employment,” said Emily Rolen, lead economist for the division of employment projections at the BLS. Technological advances — word processing, speech-to-text transcription, scheduling tools and apps — each transformed the duties of administrative professionals and contributed to overall decline.

Clerical and administrative workers may be more exposed to AI-induced job displacement than other professionals because they “lack adaptive capacity due to limited savings, advanced age, scarce local opportunities, and/or narrow skill sets," according to a Brookings Institution report published in January. About 86% of these 6 million workers are women.

Indeed, more secretaries and administrative assistants are 55 and older compared to the workforce at large (34% vs. 23%), median pay is lower than that of all U.S. workers ($47,460 vs. $49,500), and a high school diploma is sufficient for many entry-level roles.

But what labor data doesn't capture — as noted by the Brookings report — is an individual’s ability to navigate a changing environment, including administrative assistants like Danger, who say they “are way more capable than people think.”

Danger hosts a biweekly virtual coffee chat for peers through the American Society of Administrative Professionals, a professional group that says it serves about 132,000 members. Participants in a May session shared their AI use cases: creating flyers, scouting out restaurants for executive events, coming up with captions for employer social media accounts, drafting standard operating procedure language, and more.

But despite the overall atmosphere of enthusiasm, some participants raised concerns, including data security and the lack of AI regulation. Others emphasized that AI cannot, and will not, replace the emotional intelligence and relationship building skills that are hallmarks of a successful admin.

Fiona Young, founder of Carve, a business focused on training executive assistants on AI, says she has seen “a massive shift in demand" for her services since 2023. Young, a former executive assistant herself, says she has delivered AI training to administrative professionals globally, including at Google, Amazon, Uber, Salesforce and LinkedIn. In her experience, employers want staff to be able to leverage AI — “not just loosely understanding it, but genuinely using it as an integral part of how people are working every day,” she says.

Oana Manolache takes an even stronger stance. The founder and CEO of Sequel.io, a platform that enables companies to host webinars on their own websites, wrote in a LinkedIn post last year: “I will fire anyone who doesn’t use AI.”

But even Manolache says AI could not replace her executive assistant, Stephanie Martinez.

Manolache says Martinez uses AI to “free herself” from tasks like note-taking and meeting prep to focus on the “human work” of building team connectivity, making judgment calls, understanding executives' relationships with stakeholders and communicating accordingly.

Maybe AI could supplant the “traditional” assistant, but “it doesn’t replace what an executive assistant does now as the role has evolved,” Manolache says.

Martinez works remotely from El Salvador through Viva Talent, which — in another example of the shifting landscape for the role — trains and matches assistants from Latin and South America to primarily U.S.-based tech companies.

“The people who truly want to succeed in this role have a massive opportunity," Manolache says. “This person has access to information across the entire organization.”

For instance, when the company aimed to drive more customer reviews on a software review platform, Martinez, who manages most invoices and billing, approached the problem innovatively. She leveraged AI to sift through all customer communications, pinpoint good candidates for reviews, and draft outreach emails. Without AI, “it would have taken her so long to do this,” Manolache says, adding that it also freed up Martinez to “think creatively.”

That freedom to strategically implement AI is just as important as education and training, since many assistants are interested in adopting AI but lack the bandwidth to incorporate it, says Melissa Peoples, an Austin, Texas-based executive assistant coach and former C-suite executive assistant.

Gender dynamics compound that challenge in an industry dominated by women who are often paired with male leaders, Peoples says.

“You see those that are early adopters, and are crushing it, and are partnered with really empowering executives, and can do all of these things," she says. "And then you see the other side of this, where literally assistants are being told, ‘You’re not smart enough to be in the room. Just bring me my coffee.’”

With effective AI training, Peoples says admins can “find their voice” and “have higher impact so they are protected against what is going to happen as agentic AI becomes more commonplace and more easily accessible.” ___

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

The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations seeking a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with mediators Wednesday in Qatar.

It wasn’t clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the U.S. military's Central Command had put out a statement about a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through" the strait.

That could have been the phrase that angered Iran, which is preparing for the funeral that begins this weekend for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war's first moments in February.

“Any failure to comply, deviation from the designated route, or disregard for the navigation protocols of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with an immediate and forceful response from the armed forces, endangering the security of the violating vessels,” the Iranian statement said.

It also said that interference by U.S. forces in the strait “will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction.”

Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the waterway.

The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they won’t agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait. An effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore sparked attacks across the Mideast last weekend, highlighting the tensions.

Despite the attacks, ship traffic in the strait continued to rebound. At least 258 ships transited the waterway last week, a period that included Iranian strikes on two commercial vessels, according to marine data and analysis company Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That’s up from 138 ships the previous week.

Traffic has slowed since the Iranian strikes on June 25 and 27. At least 80 more ships passed the strait Monday through Wednesday, according to Lloyd's and shipping data and analysis firm Windward.

Iran's attacks “seem to have been forgotten,” Richard Meade, editor-in-chief at Lloyd’s, said Thursday during a webinar.

Ship traffic in the strait remains far below levels seen before the war, when about 130 vessels passed through daily.

Earlier this week, Iranian state television reported that a foreign ship got stuck in the strait after ignoring instructions from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. However, the vessel’s shape, reported location and other details indicate the ship is tied to Iran and appears to have been stranded for months.

Despite the tensions, Wednesday's talks saw “positive progress,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said. He told journalists that Pakistan hoped the next round of talks would be scheduled as soon as possible after Khamenei’s funeral.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

The report, which was shared before publication with The Associated Press, plotted 144 suspected drone sightings across Europe, including in NATO members Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Denmark, between 2024 and 2026.

Those sightings peaked in late 2025, forcing the temporary closure of several European airports, including in Germany, Spain and Denmark.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described the incidents in her country as the “ most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”

The IISS said the Russian campaign was designed to fall below the threshold of triggering discussions for a collective NATO response and was a “strategic failure” for Europe that exposed how the continent’s air defenses are not fit to deal with the current threat.

Air Chief Marshal John Stringer, NATO's deputy supreme allied commander in Europe, told AP that it is up to each alliance member to decide how to respond to such threats — and many countries are taking them increasingly seriously.

Several senior European officials said it’s difficult to attribute the drone incursions to Russia, and Stringer did not blame Moscow. But he suggested the activity fits the pattern of behavior seen in a widespread campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials have blamed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Of the handful of countries that have confirmed drone sightings, only Sweden has blamed Moscow directly — when a military drone flew toward a French aircraft carrier from a Russian spy ship.

President Vladimir Putin said in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

European nations struggled to respond to drones, the IISS said

Drones are challenging to detect because they fly low and slow, and on radar can look like birds or planes. They can be launched inside, or near, national borders, bypassing missile defenses, which are designed to detect supersonic missiles fired from abroad. And even if a drone is shot down, it’s extremely difficult to identify where it came from or who sent it and why.

The incursions showed drone defenses in Europe need to rapidly be improved, the IISS said.

Creating a comprehensive picture of threats is often difficult because the responsibility for tackling drones is often split among various authorities, Lt. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, Sweden’s military representative to NATO, told AP. It’s also a “tough decision,” he said, to decide to shoot a drone down because it could cause civilian casualties.

In a June report, Denmark’s Defense Command said the armed forces “could have been in a stronger position” to respond to drone sightings and that there were shortcomings in equipment used to detect them. Following the incidents, Denmark and several other European countries said they would boost their drone defenses.

Countries that may have had a “benign” view of the danger a few years ago have now realized that counterdrone systems are a critical part of air defense, said Stringer.

Russia is launching drones from shadow ships, the IISS said

The IISS plotted the movement of Russian shadow fleet vessels — ships of uncertain ownership that help Moscow dodge sanctions — and concluded that it’s highly likely that Russia is using them as platforms for launching drones.

The report focused on sightings of drones across central and northwest Europe and did not examine incursions along NATO’s eastern flank, where multiple Russian and Ukrainian attack drones have entered European airspace.

On Dec. 2, the Vezhen, a shadow ship linked to the severing of a Baltic cable, sailed in circles off the coast of Ireland when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived for his first official visit, the IISS said. Another ship was nearby, but its signal was off, it said.

At that time, four large military drones were spotted off the Dublin coast, flying for two hours above an Irish navy ship, the report said. The Irish Defense Forces did not reply to a request for comment.

The report cited other sightings that occurred when shadow fleet ships were nearby, several in Denmark.

— On Jan. 3, 2025, as the shadow fleet vessel Arctica sailed along the Danish coast, the IISS said up to 20 drones flew over the port of Koege, Denmark, before disappearing toward the sea.

— On Sept. 22, drone sightings led to the closure of Copenhagen Airport. The IISS found several shadow ships were in the area at the time, including the Arctica and the Boracay.

— Over the next several days, as the Boracay rounded Denmark and several other ships were in the area, more drones were reported over the country, including near military installations.

The IISS said suspicion for at least some of the sightings in September fell on the Boracay. The French military boarded the ship at the end of the month, and President Emmanuel Macron said he can't rule out that the vessel was involved in the drone flights over Denmark.

Denmark’s Defense Command confirmed that drones were identified in the country’s airspace in September and October 2025. It didn’t link them to Russia but noted that Moscow is carrying out hybrid attacks against the West, including those that are of a “character and scope far beyond what Russia carried out before the war in Ukraine.”

“It’s a reasonable assumption” that Russia is launching drones from shadow fleet ships, said Lindfors, though he noted it's often “almost impossible” to attribute them to one nation or actor.

Russia flew drones above military sites, the report said

The report also concluded that Russia likely tried to monitor military sites in the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany and force NATO nations to scramble to defend against drones, and so reveal radar positions and gaps in defenses. Among the reports of drones over military installations cited by the IISS were:

— The U.S. Air Force in Europe said there were multiple sightings of drones in November 2024 over four American air bases in the U.K.

— German authorities recorded more than 1,000 suspicious drone sightings in 2025, including over defense companies and military bases where Ukrainian soldiers were training.

— Dutch and Belgian defense officials said drones were spotted in November and December 2025 over military bases in the Netherlands and Belgium. The IISS said the bases are believed to host American B61 nuclear bombs.

— Drone sightings were reported at the Ile Longue submarine base, which hosts France’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

The U.S. Air Force in Europe said it couldn't provide more detail on the incidents in the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium, nor confirm the presence of American nuclear weapons.

A British defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military information, said a defense police investigation found no evidence to conclusively link the drone sightings in the U.K. to Russia. The Dutch Defense Ministry confirmed drones were seen over Volkel Air Base and said it took steps to defend military sites against drones.

The French army chief of staff headquarters said an investigation of the drones over Ile Longue is ongoing. It didn’t respond to questions about whether the military suspects the drones were launched from shadow fleet ships.

Requests for comment were also sent to defense ministries in Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

With so many incursions, “it would be naive to believe it’s just a coincidence,” said Lindfors, suggesting that such threats are the new normal.

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Associated Press writers John Leicester, Lorne Cook and Mike Corder contributed.

Aceh’s Sharia court ordered the two people to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least a hundred people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh.

The couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, were arrested in April after a Feb. 27 livestream in which they kissed in a car in Banda Aceh went viral and prompted reports to local Sharia authorities.

Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that enforces a version of Islamic law. Indonesia’s secular central government granted the province the right to implement religious law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war.

In 2015, Aceh expanded the law to apply to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province’s population.

The law allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including adultery and gay sex. Caning is also allowed to punish people gambling and drinking, and for women who wear tight clothes or men who skip Friday prayers.

The couple caned Thursday were sentenced to 25 lashes each, but it was reduced to 21 strokes because they had already spent four months in prison.

The court also seized a cellphone and a USB flash drive containing the TikTok live video as evidence to be destroyed.

Four other people were publicly caned on Thursday for online gambling and adultery.

Amnesty International Indonesia said public caning in Aceh as a form of human rights violation because it is cruel, inhumane and degrading to human dignity, even though Indonesia has ratified a convention mandating the abolition of inhumane punishments.

“Such behavior might be considered inappropriate because social media is viewed by people of various age groups, including children. But is it a crime that warrants imprisonment or even caning? That would be excessive,” said Usman Hamid, the Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia on Thursday.

Aini Nadhirah, 22, a Banda Aceh resident who attended the caning, said the public concern over the punishment could provide a lesson for others.

“In my opinion, this caning is entirely justified because it serves as a warning to other Aceh residents to be more careful when using social media. It also raises awareness that such actions are unacceptable, thereby educating the public,” Nadhirah said.

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Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

A total of 35 monks from Mukdahan province, about 600 kilometers (372 miles) northeast of the capital Bangkok, were on the pilgrimage. Five monks were killed at the site, while four others died at a hospital. Thirteen were hospitalized with three in critical condition, according to the provincial administration.

The group started the 260-kilometer (161-mile) walk to Ubon Ratchathani province about 30 minutes before the crash.

Security camera footage shared by a local rescue group, Ruam Jai Mukdahan Rescue Association, shows the monks walking in a single line on the side of a road before the truck crashes into them.

The boy is in custody and will be questioned when state child protection officers arrive, police said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but police said the monks described seeing the vehicle swerving before it slid off the road and crashed into the group.

By declaring a schism and extending excommunications to potentially thousands of Catholics, the Vatican’s doctrine office went above and beyond the minimum sanctions foreseen by the church’s canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops.

The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which it considers to be rife with heresies and errors. While a fringe movement on the Catholic right, the SSPX has been a thorn in the Vatican's side for five decades because it claims to be even more Catholic than the Holy See.

During a ritual-filled, five-hour Mass on Wednesday at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, the SSPX consecrated four new bishops in direct defiance of Leo, who had urged the group to hold off for the sake of church unity. An estimated 15,500 people and their children attended, a sign that the SSPX has plenty of supporters who came from around the world knowing full well they were defying Rome.

The harshness of the response suggested that after trying to negotiate with the SSPX, the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV had had enough.

Vatican decree targeted bishops and faithful

In a decree, the Vatican excommunicated the four new bishops and the two existing SSPX bishops who participated in the ceremony. It declared the consecrations a “schismatic act” and that the society itself had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the church.

It declared SSPX priests — who number about 750 — to be schismatic, and therefore excommunicated, and invalidated the sacraments of confession and marriage that they administer. The Vatican warned the faithful to stop going to SSPX Masses, decreeing that “those who adhere formally” to the society are schismatic and excommunicated.

The Vatican said that applied to people who are members of the SSPX lay branch and those who “regularly attend” SSPX Masses and formally share its doctrinal positions. The sanctions don't apply to Catholic faithful who have gone to SSPX Masses "just for liturgical or spiritual reasons" or those who go but accept the pope's authority and teaching.

Thursday's decree however could potentially involve the excommunications of thousands of rank-and-file SSPX faithful.

The sanctions, especially those targeting the priests, the faithful and the sacraments they can receive, were particularly harsh and reversed concessions the Vatican had granted the SSPX in recent years as part of its outreach to bring the group back under Rome's wing.

Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, expressed shock at the severity of the sanctions and called them “unjust."

“For us, this excommunication extended to the faithful is brutal. It’s not what we expect from a father to whom we refer every day,” he told The Associated Press. “We are told, ‘You claim to have the truth.’ Fine. I’m just saying that we certainly have our flaws, but our main flaw today is having a leader who doesn’t want to communicate with us. And that’s terrible.”

The Vatican's doctrine chief, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, met in February with the SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, and proposed a dialogue. But Pagliarani asked instead to meet with Leo, who declined but wrote a letter Tuesday begging the SSPX to call off the consecrations.

The group's founders opposed reforms

French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the SSPX in 1970 in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s meetings known as Vatican II revolutionized the church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent in 1988. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four bishops and declared the consecrations a “schismatic act.”

Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications as part of his yearslong outreach to the group. But the SSPX today has no legal standing in the church and with Thursday’s decree is declared to be in schism.

The consecrations had posed a crisis for Leo because the American pope has stressed the need for church unity. He has reached out especially to the conservative and traditionalist wing of the church that was in many ways alienated during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The Vatican responded so aggressively in part because the group poses something of a threat by representing a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church that has grown in the decades since its original break from Rome. While representing a fraction of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic faithful, the SSPX now has six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

A key Vatican II document rejected by the SSPX is one that, among other things, deplored antisemitism in every form and repudiated the “deicide” charge that blamed Jews as a people for Christ’s death. The Vatican crafted the document repudiating it as the church reckoned with the role traditional Christian teaching had played in the Holocaust.

The SSPX today says it rejects accusations that it ever taught or practiced antisemitism, and the SSPX distanced itself from one of the original 1988 bishops, the late Bishop Richard Williamson, when he denied the Holocaust.

Traditionalists in communion with Rome respond

In a note accompanying the decree, the Vatican said it was willing, “like a caring mother,” to welcome any SSPX faithful back into the fold. It laid out specific procedures for SSPX priests and faithful, by signing two forms professing the faith, promising fidelity to the pope and accepting the core teaching of Vatican II.

While the SSPX is out of communion with Rome, plenty of other Catholic traditionalists who love the Latin Mass remain in communion with the Holy See. They had been watching carefully to see how Leo's Vatican would respond to the SSPX consecrations and were surprised by the harshness of Thursday's sanctions.

“He’s brought the hammer down,” said Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, which is in communion. Shaw expressed sympathy with the plight of ordinary SSPX faithful, saying the invalidation of marriages especially is going to cause “massive” pastoral problems. “It's a sad day."

Luigi Casalini, of the blog Messa in Latino, meaning Latin Mass, said the excommunication of the bishops was correct because canon law provides for it. But the extension of the excommunications to SSPX priests and faithful was “an act of unusual severity,” he said, while saying the invalidation of SSPX sacraments was problematic.

One of the thousands of worshippers at Wednesday’s consecrations was Allison Isermann, a 24-year-old from St. Marys, Kansas, a small town with a large SSPX church. She grew up as a society member and strongly defended its teaching in opposition to Vatican II, specifically its openness to those of other faiths.

“It is actually very anti-Catholic and anti-charitable to affirm others and their beliefs when it is our duty and our mission to actually convert and sanctify the world and to restore all things in Christ,” she said.

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Jamey Keaten contributed from Econe, Switzerland.

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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 S&P 500 added 0.3% and is on track to close out its best week in nearly two months ahead of Friday's holiday for Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 468 points, or 0.9%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower after erasing an early gain.

Stocks got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market, which fell after a report from the U.S. government said employers added 57,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That’s growth, which is good for the economy, but it was also short of the 100,000 jobs that economists expected and a slowdown from May’s hiring pace.

The weaker-than-expected result could keep pressure off inflation, which has been accelerating worldwide because of jumps in oil prices caused by the war with Iran. And if inflation slows in upcoming months, now that oil prices are back below where they were before the war, the Federal Reserve may feel less need to raise interest rates several times this year.

That would be a relief for investors, who tend to love lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money and spend. Lower rates also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury got to 4.50% in the morning, up from 3.97% just before the war. But after the release of the U.S. hiring data, it immediately fell back to 4.47%.

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell more sharply. Traders now see an 82% chance that the Fed and its new chairman, Kevin Warsh, will not raise the federal funds rate at its next meeting later this month. That’s up from the 71% chance seen a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

“The labor market isn’t overheating,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. He said the data could allow the Fed to wait through the summer to get more clues about how inflation is behaving before having to decide on hiking rates.

Hopes for lower interest rates particuarlly help prices for investments seen as the most risky. Bitcoin climbed roughly 3% above $61,500, a day after dropping near its lowest level since 2024.

That helped stocks of companies across the crypto industry. Robinhood Markets rose 6.4%, Coinbase Global gained 5.2% and Strategy rallied 8.8%.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, the company behind LaCroix sparkling waters climbed 13.2% after National Beverage said it will pay a special dividend of $3.25 for each share that investors hold.

It was a widespread rally for U.S. stocks, with seven out of every 10 stocks rising within the S&P 500.

But more drops for computer chip companies weighed on indexes. They’ve been under pressure on worries that their stock prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI and that all the spending on chips and data centers may not result in as much profit and productivity growth as hoped.

Memory maker Micron Technology erased an early gain to drop 3.7%, a day after plunging 10.6%. Applied Materials fell 6.6%, and Advanced Micro Devices sank 3.8%. They were some of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 because they've grown so huge amid AI mania.

In the oil market, prices continued to sink on hopes for negotiations for a permanent end to the war with Iran. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.1% to $70.78 per barrel.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in several Asian markets. South Korea's Kospi index dropped 7.9% due to losses for chip companies like SK Hynix. That’s its worst drop since a 10% plunge a little more than a week ago.

Indexes also fell 2.5% in Tokyo and 2% in Shanghai.

European indexes were stronger, and France’s CAC 40 rallied 1.8%.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

“Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in (expletive) basketball history,” Brown said. “Flops. He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”

Did someone say breaking news?

Brown might have to make awkward amends with Embiid now that they are teammates on the 76ers in the wake of an out-of-nowhere trade that rocked the NBA and again positions Philadelphia as an instant contender for the franchise's first NBA title since 1983.

You know, because trying to win it all with a hired gun worked so well for the Sixers with Paul George. And James Harden. Or Jimmy Butler.

All flops of the postseason kind in Philly.

The Sixers have another superstar to pair with Embiid — and the true franchise cornerstones in All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and second-year standout VJ Edgecombe — after new team president of basketball operations Mike Gansey pulled off a whale of a move in his first month on the job.

Brown — the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season — is getting traded by the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said Wednesday.

Boston is getting George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.

“The nba is doing that THING AGAIN,'” Maxey wrote on social media Wednesday night.

Without a game played, the Sixers are the early winners in this deal.

Gansey somehow shed the two years and $110 million left on the oft injured and aging George's deal for a bona fide superstar who was sixth in the NBA MVP voting this past season. The 36-year-old George — who was suspended 25 games for flunking a drug test — played in only 78 total games for the Sixers and has played more than 56 games in a season only one time since 2019.

His contract seemed immovable.

Suddenly — as they say in Boston —- anything is possible in Philadelphia.

The Celtics had to move on from Brown after they dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee.

Following the first round of the NBA draft, Boston president of basketball operations Brad Stevens declined to say how close the team got to executing a trade for Brown. But he said he still views Brown to be part the Celtics’ future. It’s why the team sat down with Brown recently, who is currently overseas.

“Jaylen Brown is a big part of us. I don’t want to predict the future. I look at it as this is our team,” Stevens said.

He's now a big part of Philadelphia's plan and a franchise that seemed stuck in the mud after it was swept by the eventual NBA champion Knicks in the second round — after rallying from 3-1 down to topple Boston in the first round — and was now third among sportsbooks late Wednesday night to win the Eastern Conference.

Gansey said at his first press conference last month that he wasn't concerned the Sixers were traveling on two timelines — a win-now mode while Embiid and George were nearing the end of their deals versus dealing with the long-term of trying to find pieces that can still contribute in the future while Maxey is the undisputed leader of the team and Edgecombe is entering his prime.

“I just don't look at it as two timelines,” Gansey said. “They're our four guys. They're under contract. We've got to do the best to get them to their best selves. I think every night, at 7 o'clock, we've got to get them to their best to help us.”

They're going to get Brown at his best — and with a proverbial chip in his shoulder — trying to prove Boston wrong and that he can lead his former rivals to the NBA promised land. With Jayson Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, the 29-year-old Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1).

Brown still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023.

Before Antetokounmpo was ultimately dealt to the Heat, Brown posted a video on Twitch in which he described his mood.

“To all the people that’s doubted me, that want me to do this, or want me, you’re turning me into a monster,” Brown said.

He'll have his opportunity in Philly to unleash the beast with Embiid routinely sidelined big chunks of the season with injuries. Maxey had lamented how difficult it was to try and carry the Sixers without a 1B when Embiid was sidelined and now the Sixers have a sort of guardrail in Brown to steady the team during those absences.

The Sixers are transformed — just as they thought they would be when they traded for Harden, Butler and signed George, only to fail and fail again in the playoffs.

Now it's up to Brown and Embiid and Maxey to form an All-Star trio that can do the improbable just as the Knicks finally did this season in winning their first title in 53 years.

Speaking of improbable, anyone in Philly have a number for LeBron James?

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

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

After Trump questioned Italy’s reliability as a wartime ally and claimed Giorgia Meloni had groveled for his attention, European leaders rallied to Meloni's side, thawing what had been a frosty relationship over her hard-right political roots.

It is the latest example of how the often divisive American president is helping to draw Europe closer together.

European leaders are finding more reasons to coordinate on defense, tariffs and foreign policy as they confront wars in Ukraine and Iran, a ballooning trade deficit with China, and threats from Russia. That leaves Trump, who has often preferred to negotiate with European countries individually, with less ability to do so, analysts say.

“Most of the mainstream leaders realize that Europe is getting squeezed between China and America, and so, if not now, then when?” said Sudha David-Wilp, vice president at the German Marshall Fund. “They need to act as a bloc in order to maintain Europe’s place in the world.”

This newfound European unity could be tested next week at a NATO summit in Turkey.

European leaders rally around Meloni

Meloni's spat with Trump has helped her strengthen ties with European leaders once wary of her party’s post-fascist roots.

A pivotal moment came in March when she wouldn't allow U.S. bombers headed to the Middle East to use a base in Sicily without parliamentary approval.

For years before then, France and Germany often kept Meloni outside the small-group talks that helped shape Europe’s response to major foreign policy crises. That persisted into 2026 amid disagreements over the Russian war on Ukraine, including Meloni’s rejection of a proposal by Britain and France to send European troops there following a possible ceasefire.

But Trump’s escalating attacks on Meloni — who called Trump's criticism of Pope Leo “unacceptable” — helped shift the dynamic, prompting European leaders to rally around her.

After all, they, too, have been on the receiving end of Trump's barbs.

Meloni was firmly in the fold at a late June meeting in Berlin with the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Poland. And she met the next day with French President Emmanuel Macron in southern France — the first bilateral summit since the pandemic.

Europe's nationalist parties are adjusting

Even nationalist parties across the continent once aligned with Trump are recalibrating their stances because his trade policies and war with Iran are proving unpopular with voters.

In France, far-right leader Jordan Bardella recently blasted U.S. actions as “foreign interference” and described Trump as “erratic” and “extremely unsteady.” Bardella had previously welcomed Trump's brand of nationalism as a “wind of freedom.”

In Germany, leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party have criticized the U.S. military campaign against Iran. The co-leader of the party, Tino Chrupalla, said in March he was “extremely disappointed” with Trump, whom he had viewed as a politician who would avoid new conflicts.

The changing rhetoric comes as elections approach, putting more focus on domestic issues.

“This pushes everyone to consider a European horizon more than an international one,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a political analyst and professor at Rome’s LUISS University,

Beyond Europe’s biggest powers

These dynamics are playing out beyond the European Union, from the Arctic Ocean to the Balkans.

When Trump threatened to take Greenland by force, protests erupted in its capital, Nuuk, and in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Leaders across the political spectrum bristled at the threatened infringement of European sovereignty and feared it could shatter the already stressed NATO military alliance.

In Albania, a luxury development being planned that is linked to Trump’s family business has become a major political issue, drawing protests in June.

The political risks of close alignment with Trump were perhaps most clearly illustrated in Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — long regarded as Trump’s closest ally in the European Union — was voted out of office in April despite support from the U.S. president and prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

An analysis by the consultancy Maplecroft suggested that negative perceptions of the Trump administration may have weighed on Orbán politically.

Meloni’s balancing act

Though Meloni remains closely aligned with Trump on issues like immigration and security, she has long diverged from him on Ukraine. Her steadfast support for Kyiv made her more palatable for European leaders and has been a key factor in forging a more united European front toward the U.S.

During their public spat last month, Meloni said her friendship with Trump came with a heavy political cost.

In her response to his accusation that she had “begged” to be photographed with him while at the recent G7 summit in France, she wrote on social media: “As for my popularity, being your friend has certainly not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you.”

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that Trump is deeply unpopular in Italy. According to the survey, 83% of Italians have no confidence in Trump’s ability to do the right thing regarding foreign affairs. His handling of a range of issues -- including Iran, tariffs, and U.S. immigration policies -- received a low level of support.

With a national election due by 2027 — and possibly as early as next spring — Meloni faces mounting political pressures, including fallout from the unpopular Iran war and her former ties to Trump.

Voters across Europe could hold their own politicians accountable for the actions of an American president beyond their control, said Castellani, the political analyst.

“At a certain point, when voters see the price of gasoline rising because of a war perceived as distant, they ask Meloni for the bill, not Trump.”

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McNeil reported from Brussels. Associated Press Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.

More than a year after first trying to buy Infowars, The Onion on Thursday will debut a send-up under its own website with plans to give some of the revenue to families of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The families have still received no money from Jones since courts ordered him to pay more than $1 billion for falsely calling the 2012 shooting a hoax.

The Onion will start by sending the families $100,000 from merchandise sales that combine the conspiracy empire’s brand with the The Onion’s logo in rainbow colors, according to CEO Ben Collins, whose company is still in court trying to take control of Infowars.

“Don’t give comedy writers a grudge for 18 months,” Collins said.

The parody will include a series of shows and other content under Infowars branding that spoof Jones’ aggressive mashup of conspiracies linking major news events, dubious scientific claims, attacks on people suffering in tragedies and sales of supplements and survival gear.

Jones' claims that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut is a hoax have no truth, but Jones continued to amplify them. His followers started to harass victims' families, suggesting they were “crisis actors” and even making death threats.

Jones' Infowars empire had 10 million visitors a month and generated more than $50 million in annual revenues at its peak, according to the company. But the $1.4 billion judgements in defamation cases in Connecticut and Texas, where Jones is based, forced him into bankruptcy and broke Infowars apart.

“All he’s been left with is an iPhone and a fancy microphone," said Chris Mattei, an attorney for nine of the Sandy Hook families.

Jones has moved his show to a different website. An email sent to an address to request interviews went unanswered.

The families knew they could never stop Jones from getting his message out, and he has managed to avoid paying the judgement so far. But they could expose what he said and assure he can never profit again, Mattei said.

“Every dime Alex Jones makes from here until the end of eternity is going to be claimed by the families,” Mattei said.

The Onion stepped in when Collins saw Infowars' assets were going to be sold at auction.

Collins spoke to Sandy Hook families, who said they were briefly skeptical, but then saw how The Onion's staff could use the Infowars style and branding to take the moral high ground and make fun of the people who not only caused them so much pain but they felt also poisoned society.

Collins didn't want to give away too much of the new stuff before it goes live Thursday.

But the new Infowars will maintain The Onion's sharp satire sprinkled with shock value. Collins said there will be a section selling a penis flattening device, a fake “pro oxygen” supplement pill that the host claims can replace breathing, as well as an extended debate on how many Bozo the Clowns there are.

“It’s old-fashioned Infowars — using the tricks that they use to get people addicted to outrage and, I would say, addicted to anticipation, trying to find the thing that’s around the corner that’s going to save your life,” Collins said.

The Onion will keep chasing Jones' property. Collins thinks they will soon get control of the Austin, Texas, studio Infowars once used.

Some families can't wait for that day. Collins said that Robbie Parker, whose daughter died at Sandy Hook, plans to read his book about fighting Jones while dealing with so much grief in the place Jones once sat.

The families at first wanted Infowars shut down forever and Jones never heard from again. But they are now looking forward to seeing what The Onion has planned, attorney Mattei said.

“The idea that it could be turned to some social good. I think it’s even better,” Mattei said. “So, yeah, I think the families are both pleased and amused with what they’ve been able to achieve here.”

“It has been a constant struggle,” says Calvert, a former associate professor at the University of Kentucky who has written often about Dickinson and is the founder of the John Dickinson Writings Project, which aims to make his works widely available.

For much of the country, the 250th anniversary of independence on Saturday is a time for celebrating and debating the country's birth. But for Calvert and others, it's also a moment to challenge the lingering image of a man who at times has been ignored, ridiculed or literally cast aside.

He was the Revolution's ‘penman’

Dickinson, a Maryland native who spent much of his life in Delaware and Pennsylvania, was once regarded as among the most important and inspiring founders. His “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” a dozen missives published in the 1760s, were widely read attacks against Britain's right to tax the colonies that helped give Americans a shared sense of identity and purpose. He even wrote the words to one of the country’s first patriotic anthems, “The Liberty Song.”

Admirers would call him the “Penman of the Revolution.”

But Dickinson also sought peace with Britain well after the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. In July 1775, he helped compose the Olive Branch Petition, a call for reconciliation that King George III essentially ignored. When the Continental Congress voted for independence in July 1776, Dickinson and fellow Pennsylvanian Robert Morris abstained. While Morris later signed the Declaration, Dickinson withheld his name.

“He wasn’t opposed to independence per se, but he thought it should happen gradually and without bloodshed,” Calvert says.

“America wasn’t prepared in any sense, including militarily, and there was no constitution, no foreign allies, and no domestic manufacturing. Neither was there was unanimity on the independence question,” Calvert adds. “But as critical as all these things were, Dickinson’s main concern was that there were no legal protections for the most vulnerable Americans. He was most worried about religious dissenters, particularly the Quakers in Pennsylvania.”

History downgraded him

Dickinson's reputation as a man more of words than of action has long outlasted him.

At the Signers' Hall exhibit in Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, the Dickinson statue is placed apart in a corner, sculpted in a contemplative pose. Popular storytellers of the American Revolution, whether documentary maker Ken Burns or “Hamilton” playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, tend to leave Dickinson out of the narrative. He is otherwise a smug Anglophile in the musical “1776,” and, in the 2008 HBO miniseries about John Adams, he is portrayed as the compromising foil to Adams' militant righteousness.

“It’s pretty egregious,” Calvert says. “He is depicted as a scowling and sunken-eyed naysayer of the Patriot cause. We know that he was a compelling and charismatic figure, well-liked among his colleagues and seen as a devoted Patriot leader. He did not wear a wig, don fancy clothes, walk with a cane or speak with a Scottish brogue — all things added in the show to make him appear aristocratic.”

Once independence was declared, Dickinson did not retire from public life or side with the British, but served in the Pennsylvania and Delaware militias. He helped draft the June 1776 Articles of Confederation, supported the U.S. Constitution as a Delaware delegate and served as the president of Delaware and of Pennsylvania. Dickinson and his wife, Mary, were the namesakes for the first college — based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania — chartered after the founding of the United States. When he died, in 1808, then-President Thomas Jefferson called him “one of the great worthies of the revolution.”

Praising his contributions both before and after independence, Calvert believes Dickinson should be placed alongside Adams, Jefferson and others among the elite of founders. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the Constitution Center, is among those who say Calvert has broadened his understanding of Dickinson (he speculates that the center's Dickinson statue was meant as a tribute to his “scholarly nature”).

Some historians see it differently. Joseph Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Founding Brothers,” credits Dickinson as the leading voice of resistance in the decade leading up to 1776 but laments his decision not “to take the last step.” Fellow Pulitzer winner Jack Rakove says that Dickinson’s thinking in 1776 was a “quirk of his conscientious political personality” that shouldn't diminish his other achievements.

But he still wouldn't rank him in the first tier. Instead, he places Dickinson just below, alongside such figures as Benjamin Rush and John Jay. Says Rakove: “Perhaps his qualms of conscience in 1776 have affected his reputation.”

Thank you, ‘South Park’

Dickinson himself would lament that his opposition to the Declaration was a “finishing blow” to his “diminished popularity.”

Adams was among his detractors, dismissing him as a “piddling genius whose fame has been trumpeted so loudly.” In the 1840s, Calvert says, historian George Bancroft helped seal Dickinson's legacy by condemning him for how he “dulled the resentment of the people, and paralyzed the manly impulse of self-sacrificing courage.”

Calvert has not been alone in defending Dickinson. His other advocates range from the late conservative commentator William Murchison, author of a 2013 biography that cites Calvert's research, to such historians-Dickinson Project editors as Ian Iverson and Nathan R. Kozuskanich. Calvert even praises the creators of “South Park” for an episode aired in 2003, during the Iraq War. As supporters and protesters clash, Cartman travels back to 1776, witnesses the independence debate and finds parallels to the present.

“It’s the only pop culture representation of Dickinson I’ve seen that portrays him as being motivated by principle — that we shouldn’t found a country based on war,” Calvert says.

“Here Dickinson is the forefather of those antiwar protesters,” Calvert says. “Whether he would have gone so far as to say that the reasons for the Revolution were trumped up, I don’t know. Maybe. In any case, there is a lot to like!”

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The story has been updated to correct that Dickinson helped draft the June 1776 Articles of Confederation, not the post-independence Articles of Confederation.

So if a certain pop idol were to choose this island, at this moment, for her vows, could anywhere be more fitting?

“This city has always known how to celebrate big moments. But this summer, so many of them have collided at once,” says Rabbi Yael Buechler, 40, of the Riverside section of the Bronx, who is preparing a “Swiftie Shabbat” this weekend with friendship bracelet cookies and a bedazzled challah bread she says is inspired by her “Chuppah Era.” “When I look back on the summer of 2026, I won’t remember just one event. I’ll remember a season when New York felt united in celebration.”

New York is always a city whose seduction battles its struggles, where the thrill of finding a subway car with an open seat meets the realization that it’s empty because its lone passenger is hurling trash across it. The schlepping, the waiting on line, the $9 boxes of cereal and $32 burgers and microscopic apartments with titanic rents, the sidewalk mounds of trash, the gutted rat you nearly step onto in the street. All of it can congeal into too much, separating New Yorkers for a season from New Yorkers for life.

But then there are those days when the streets are a storybook, with all the eclectic, utopian splendor Richard Scarry could muster, where you step out of an impossibly tiny, immeasurably cute cheese shop to find an impromptu classical concert on a front stoop. Neighbors exchange knowing looks at whatever absurdity unfolds before them, parks unfurl like paintings, a kaleidoscope of humanity seems in sync, lights twinkle, dumplings are cheap, pizza is perfect, bagels are fresh from the oven, dreams are all fulfilled.

Optimism emerges for summer in the city

In the battle between the slog of metropolitan life and its many daily gifts, some felt the recent arrival of a thumb on the scale.

The city’s trademark cynicism faded a bit. And in a place where celebrity passersby and visiting monarchs typically get the same collective shrug, a certain exuberance appeared. The beaming young mayor, fresh off an announcement that a swath of New York’s tenants would see no rent hike, was even found jumping into a city pool in a suit and tie.

This town has known seasons of many stripes, from that autumn of grief after 9/11 to that spring of solitude and trepidation as COVID-19 first emerged. They always pass. The city moves forward. But however long this Summer of New York stretches and the city pulsates with positivity, locals are relishing it.

“It’s easy to feel alone in the big city, but we all feel a bit closer right now,” says Dallas Short, a 38-year-old publicist who lives in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan. “Anything seems possible and attainable right now.”

More than anything, the Knicks’ fantastic run fueled today’s New York temperament, with its underdogs-coming-out-swinging, constantly-rallying-from-behind, Jalen Brunson methodically delivering, OG Anunoby tipping in an impossible shot, and millions of onlookers unsure of what they just witnessed as they slid into a warm bath of delight.

Spike Lee, a sideline fixture for decades and quintessential New Yorker, captured the city's darker side with his film “Summer of Sam,” set in the city's long-remembered summer of 1977. This year, he oozed joy even before victory was sealed.

“This is truly Fun City,” he proclaimed in The New York Times, “born again!”

Then there were those soccer games

Before the thrill of that even wore away, the world’s soccer fans descended, turning Times Square into a Viking longship and points across the city into flag-waving, drum-beating celebrations. In a city whose most iconic statue is a testament to its openness to newcomers, teams from Cape Verde to Paraguay to Congo found local fans and international visitors found compatriots.

“There is electricity in the air,” says Steven Gottlieb, a real estate agent and born-and-bred New Yorker who lives in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan. “Many of us have a love-hate relationship with New York City, but there’s a lot to love right now.”

Which brings us to none other than Taylor Swift.

After moving here over a decade ago, she penned “Welcome to New York,” which called the city a “true love” and portrayed it as an “ever-changing,” “drives you crazy,” “keeps you guessing” paramour.

Asked about her new home at the time, she told Rolling Stone, “In terms of being happy, I’ve never been closer.”

Swift was spotted courtside at Madison Square Garden in Game Four of the Knicks’ run. And if rumors and reports bear out, she’ll return to the arena this week to celebrate a marriage to football player Travis Kelce. It would arrive on a week capped by all the revelry the city can serve up for the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence, in a fireworks-blasting, tall ships-sailing spectacle.

In this city scarred by terror, darkened by blackout and flooded by storm, no New Yorker would be so naïve as to think it all will last. The rents will rise. The kvetching will return. The smells and the crowds will again grow too much.

Let it be remembered, though: For a blissful moment in the summer of 2026, joy reigned here.

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

Democratic lawmakers and governors see it as a way to help pay for the joint federal and state insurance program that covers low-income residents as federal policy changes are expected to make the program more expensive for states and may lead to a reduction in the number of people with coverage.

Proponents also say it's about fairness because employers benefit from having some lower-income workers with taxpayer-funded health coverage.

Business groups object. So do some liberal policy organizations.

New Jersey is putting the fee in place

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a measure Tuesday night to charge employers that have at least 50 workers covered by Medicaid, and the state budget she approved earlier in the week counts on raising $145 million this year from the program.

Under the plan, companies will be billed for each employee and employees' dependent receiving Medicaid, the joint state-federal insurance program.

The fees per person would start at $325 a year for companies with 50 to 249 Medicaid beneficiaries and top out at $725 annually for employers with at least 500 recipients.

Federal Medicaid changes are prompting Democratic-led states to act

A bill passed this week in California doesn't impose a charge now, but it does direct the state administration to present lawmakers options for doing so next year.

Finishing the job would fall to the successor of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is leaving office in January. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has made an employer charge part of his election platform.

State Sen. John Laird, a Democrat who sponsored the California proposal, said the big tax and policy law President Donald Trump signed a year ago was a major factor in the need for action because it could prompt the state to spend more on Medicaid to plug holes left by federal changes.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects more than 10 million people will be uninsured because of the law by 2034. It requires some beneficiaries to work, be in school or volunteer — and requires even more to document whether they meet the requirements. Most employees at the bigger companies would not be at risk of losing Medicaid coverage as long as they're working at least 20 hours a week.

Laird also said there's an equity issue involved.

“If you're a small business person in California, you are quite likely paying for health insurance for your employees. And through your taxes, you're paying for health insurance for some of the biggest employers in California,” he said. “And that's not fair.”

Legislation with similar intents passed one legislative chamber in both Colorado and Oregon this year, but neither made it to law. A measure was also introduced in Washington.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat who is seeking a third term in November's election, has called for the same move there with the idea of making it a part of the state budget that would kick in two years from now.

Opposition comes from business and some liberal groups

It's no surprise that business organizations have criticized the approach, which would add to their expenses.

“The fact remains that many job-creators are still going to be penalized for something they have no control over,” Christopher Emigholz, the chief government affairs officer at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said in a statement. “If an employee declines an employer-provided health plan because they’d rather be on Medicaid, it is unfair to penalize the employer for that employee’s decision.”

Some left-leaning policy organizations also oppose the charges.

Gideon Lukens, who analyzes health policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that while the idea may be well-intentioned, it could lead companies to employ fewer people from low-income household or single parents. He said companies could also consider the policy in decisions about whom to hire or lay off — and also on where to locate or how many workers to employ.

And, he said, it could make employees — or potential employees — less likely to enroll in Medicaid knowing it would make them less attractive to employers.

“Usually, when I see a tax on something it’s going to discourage whatever being taxed,” he said in an interview.

New Jersey's legislation tries to address some of the concerns. It would exempt temporary, seasonal and part-time employees. It would also bar employment decisions based on a workers’ Medicaid status.

The idea has come up before, though it's never stuck for long

Charging companies whose workers are covered by Medicaid isn't a new idea. At least two states have previously enacted it, and it's been proposed in Congress.

Massachusetts lawmakers in 2017 adopted a charge on employers up to $750 per nondisabled worker who was covered through Medicaid or a state-subsidized health exchange plan. The program began in 2018 was not renewed when it expired the next year.

An even earlier policy in Maryland, in 2006, immediately affected only Walmart. An industry group challenged it in court and won, stopping the fees. A federal judge found that it required the company to track and allocate employment benefits differently in Maryland than in other states in violation of a federal law that governs self-insured employee health plans.

The latest generation of proposals may avoid that legal pitfall by not referencing those health plans in the legislation.

Patrick Kane is still available after spending the past three years with Detroit. Kane is 37 now and a decade from winning the Hart Trophy as MVP when he led the league in scoring but takes playoff MVP experience and three Cup rings wherever he goes. Also unsigned are wingers Vladimir Tarasenko, who has won twice, and Anthony Mantha, who is coming off a career year, and forward Claude Giroux, who is still chasing a championship at 38.

The first 11-plus hours of free agency featured more than 55 players changing places across the league with more than $360 million worth of contracts. And that's not even counting Bowen Byram becoming the highest-paid defenseman at an average salary of $12.5 million beginning in 2027 under his new deal with Chicago after he was acquired in a trade with Buffalo.

Byram's time with that distinction may be short if Colorado gets a new contract done with two-time Norris Trophy-winner Cale Makar, which also would go into effect in 2027-28.

The salary cap getting another record increase to $104 million led to some big-money deals but also reduced the depth of available talent because teams had room to re-sign their top players. New Jersey extended captain Nico Hischier, Florida re-signed center Eetu Luostarinen and Philadelphia rewarded goaltender Dan Vladar with a long-term contract.

More signings on Day 2

A day after landing prized free agent goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, the Toronto Maple Leafs continued their offseason transformation by signing former Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime to a three-year contract.

The Wild re-signed defenseman Zach Bogosian ($1.25 million) and right wing Nick Foligno ($900,000), bringing back a pair of trusty veterans on one-year deals for back-end roles. Bogosian will begin his 19th season in the NHL, his fourth in Minnesota.

Foligno, who arrived right before the trade deadline last season and played on the fourth line in the playoffs with his younger brother, Marcus, is entering his 20th NHL season.

Isles GM Darche open to additions

New York Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche was expecting a break after a busy stretch with the draft and free agency happening less than a week apart. And yet, he's also keeping an eye out.

“We’ll have probably over $40 million of cap space next summer," Darche said. “I’m still going to be working the rest of the summer, especially the next couple weeks. A lot of GMs, I won’t lie to you, they go on vacation and it goes pretty silent on the GM chat. But if I have opportunities to improve the team, I will. Every single day, it’s a relentless pursuit of trying to get better.”

Hischier's Devils made a splash late Wednesday by tendering an offer sheet for Utah center Barrett Hayton for $4.775 million. The Mammoth, who acquired Vincent Trocheck in a trade with the Rangers, have a week to match or would receive a second-round pick as compensation.

The threat of an offer sheet remains for Dallas winger Jason Robertson, who turned down a trade to Seattle last week and needs a new contract. The Stars signed forward Joel Kiviranta to a one-year contract after he had nine points in 51 games for Colorado last season.

Reigning Norris winner Zach Werenski won't be going to the Stars and reaffirmed with two years left on his deal that he's happy to be in Columbus after trade rumors settled quickly.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Those in the crowd beat their chests rhythmically in the intense summer heat, the wails of women cutting through the noise. Mourners rushed the casket, causing the 86-year-old religious leader's white-wrapped body to tumble out into the crowd.

Initial reports said the chaos killed at least eight people and injured some 11,000 others. It was recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest percentage of a population to attend a funeral, drawing an estimated 10.2 million people — about one-sixth of Iran’s population at the time

Now, as Iran prepares to bury the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, The Associated Press is making its story and historic photographs of Khomeini's funeral available. The story has been edited for typographical errors, but maintains the AP style of the day.

___

Mourners Block Funeral, Postpone Burial; Scores Crushed in the Chaos

By ALEX EFTY

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Millions of mourners beating on their heads and chests today blocked the funeral procession of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and scores of people, including Khomeini’s son, were crushed in the chaos.

The unyielding crowds forced authorities to postpone the burial.

There was no immediate word on if or how many people were killed, injured or simply fainted because of the 91-degree heat. At least eight people were killed and hundreds hurt Monday during a similar huge show of mass grief.

Security forces fired in the air to disperse the crowds, but the grieving multitudes remained, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The Revolutionary Guards beat mourners on their hands to let go of Khomeini’s coffin.

Khomeini’s only son, Ahmad, 43, was knocked down in the dusty north Tehran square outside the Mosalla Mosque where Khomeini’s body had lay in state since Monday in an air-conditioned glass-encased bier.

Ahmad Khomeini’s white turban fell off as he was being hoisted above the crowds and passed from hand to hand to an ambulance at the edge of the square. He appeared pale and drowsy, but conscious.

The hearse carrying the body was stranded in a sea of mourners clad in black, unable to move forward because of the crowds, IRNA said.

Tehran television said it was “impossible” to break through the grieving multitudes to bury Khomeini before dusk. Islam forbids burying the dead after nightfall.

Khomeini died Saturday at age 86.

He was to be buried at the Baheshte Zahra cemetery, 22 miles south of Tehran, alongside victims of the Islamic revolution that catapulted him to power 10 years ago and thousands killed in the Iran-Iraq war.

The television said alternative arrangements for Khomeini’s burial would be announced later.

Shouts of “Allah Akbar!” God is Great, echoed across the city. The hearse had hardly covered a half mile of the journey two hours into the funeral procession.

Many of Tehran’s 6 million people turned out to bid Khomeini farewell. Millions more converged on the city from other regions, the official media reported.

The procession began at 7 a.m. when Khomeini’s devout militants, the Revolutionary Guards, carried his body down from the bier.

Five helicopters hovered overhead as a martial band played somber tunes.

Khomeini’s body was wrapped in the Islamic republic flag and laid on the ground in the open air as the white-bearded Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani prayed. Golapaygani, one of the four remaining senior ayatollahs in Iran, choked often and lifted his spectacles to wipe tears with a handkerchief.

After the 30-minute service, Khomeini’s body was placed in a wooden coffin that was covered with a white cloth, then carried by Revolutionary Guards from hand to hand into a white van.

Crowds cried hysterically. Readings from the Koran, Islam’s holy book, blared from the mosque’s minaret as the masses cried: “Farewell beloved imam!” and “Oh Khomeini, why have you left us?”

They pounded their heads and chests with clenched fists in a traditional Shiite Moslem expression of grief.

In the chaos, women, clad in head-to-toe black chadors, were rubbing shoulders with men, defying an Islamic ban on physical contact between a woman and a man other than her husband.

Firefighters sprayed the mourners with water to cool them off.

About 2 million frenzied mourners had kept a nightlong candle-lit vigil around the bier.

Some mourners scratched their faces until the blood ran and threw ashes over their clothes.

Khomeini died of a heart attack 11 days after intestinal surgery without resolving the problem of who would succeed him. He left a 29-page “political testament,” excerpts of which were read over Tehran radio on Monday.

The excerpts made no reference to how Iran should be governed after his death. But such proposals may have been in the sections that still have not been made public.

President Ali Khamenei, 49, was appointed caretaker leader Sunday. A presidential election and referendum on constitutional reforms, which are likely to increase the president’s executive power, are scheduled for Aug. 18.

Khamenei’s swift appointment was designed mainly to fill the vacuum amid political turmoil that has prevailed since Khomeini launched his resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in February with a call for the death of British novelist Salman Rushdie.

In the absence of a single personality who can match Khomeini’s religious and political authority, it seemed likely that Iran would be ruled by a collective leadership.

Khamenei has endorsed the presidential candidacy of Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani, 55, a political ally and the only declared candidate.

Former Iranian President Abolhassen Bani-Sadr said from exile in France that Khamenei’s appointment indicated “total failure” by the government.

“Imagine a church that cannot find a pope. It is exactly the same, like a dynasty that cannot find a king. … It will not last,” he said.

Officials are actively enforcing that rule change.

The latest incident came on Tuesday night when Ecuador defender Piero Hincapié was sent off in second-half stoppage time of his team’s 2-0 loss to Mexico in the round of 32. The red card didn’t impact the outcome of the match, which ended moments later.

Hincapié’s red card came after an exchange with Mexico forward Santi Giménez.

Why did FIFA establish the new rule?

FIFA established the new rule to prevent players from hiding abusive, discriminatory or offensive language while on the field.

Nicknamed the “Prestianni Law,” rules for red cards to players at the World Cup were added because of a controversy in international soccer this year.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino pushed for changes after Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni tried to hide verbal insults toward Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior in a Champions League match. Soccer’s rule-making panel, the International Football Association Board, agreed that players can be penalized with a red card if they cover their mouths when verbally confronting another player.

The rule is not mandatory within the Laws of the Game but gives tournament organizers like FIFA the option to use it at their discretion.

The rule change was unanimously approved by IFAB, which includes officials from FIFA and the four British soccer federations, at a special meeting ahead of the FIFA Congress. FIFA’s proposal followed Vinícius, backed by Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé, accusing Prestianni of making a racially charged insult while raising his jersey to cover his mouth during the game in February.

Is Piero Hincapié the only player who has received a red card at the World Cup?

No. Paraguay midfielder Miguel Almirón was the first player to be punished under the new rule when he was sent off in a group match against Turkey for covering his mouth during a confrontation with defender Mert Mulder.

Paraguay won 1-0, but Almiron missed Paraguay’s final group game against Australia. FIFA said that decision was not subject to appeal.

What does it mean when a player receives a red card at the World Cup?

If a player is shown a red card by an official, he is ejected from the match and must serve a one-game suspension in the following match.

The team is forced to play the remainder of the match with 10 players — putting them at a huge disadvantage — but is allowed to start the following match at full strength with 11 players, just not the suspended player. ___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

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After 16 single direct-knockout matches, the winning teams will advance to the tournament’s Round of 16, which begins on the Fourth of July.

Here is the list of the teams that have advanced to the Round of 16:

1. Canada, the Group B runner-up, qualified after a 1-0 victory on June 28 against Canada. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 1 p.m. on July 4 against Morocco.
2. Brazil, the Group C winner, qualified after a 2-0 victory on June 29 against Japan. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 4 p.m. on July 5 against Norway.
3. Paraguay, the third in Group D, qualified after a 1-1 draw that ended with a 4-3 victory on penalties against Germany on June 29. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 5 p.m. at Philadelphia Stadium.
4. Morocco, the Group C runner-up, qualified after a 1-1 draw that ended with a 3-2 victory on penalties against the Netherlands on June 30. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 1 p.m. on July 4 against Canada.
5. France, the Group I winner, qualified after a 3-0 victory again Sweden on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 5 p.m. on July 4 against Paraguay.
6. Norway, the Group I runner-up, qualified after a 2-1 victory against the Ivory Coast on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 4 p.m. on July 5 against Brazil.
7. Mexico, the Group A winner, qualified after a 2-0 victory against Ecuador on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 8 p.m. on July 5 against England.
8. England, the Group L winner, qualified after a 2-1 victory against Congo on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 8 p.m. on July 5 against Mexico.
9. Belgium, the Group G winner, qualified after a 3-2 victory against Senegal on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 8 p.m. on July 6 against the United States.
10. The U.S., the Group D winner, qualified after a 2-0 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1. The team’s Round of 16 match is at 8 p.m. on July 6 against Belgium.

TRACK PROGRESS

• Eliminations during Round of 32
• Round of 32 teams
• View the knockout bracket

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Round of 32 knock-out matches

July 2

• Spain vs. Austria at 3 p.m. at Los Angeles Stadium
• Portugal vs. Croatia at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Stadium
• Switzerland vs. Algeria at 11 p.m. at BC Place Vancouver.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 3

• Australia vs. Egypt is at 2 p.m. at the Dallas Stadium.
• Argentina vs. Cape Verde is at 6 p.m. at the Miami Stadium
• Colombia vs. Ghana is at 9:30 p.m. at the Kansas City Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Round of 16 begins

July 4

• Canada vs. Morocco is at 1 p.m. at the Houston Stadium
• Paraguay vs. France is at 5 p.m. at the Philadelphia Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 5

• Brazil vs. Norway at 4 p.m. at the New York/New Jersey Stadium
• Mexico vs. England at 8 p.m. at the Mexico City Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 6: There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

• U.S. vs. Belgium at 8 p.m. at the Seattle Stadium.

July 7: There are two matches at noon and 4 p.m.

Quarterfinals begin

July 9: There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 5 p.m. on July 11. Parking is free.

Semifinals begin

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15: There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals begin

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

Senegal held a 2-0 lead with just 5 minutes of regulation time remaining but late goals by Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans pushed the round of 32 match into extra time.

Tielemans completed Belgium’s comeback by converting a penalty in the 125th minute of the game – the latest goal in World Cup history.

“Being part of this comeback is a proud moment because I scored the last two goals to give the team the win today. I’m very proud of that to be able to help the team to score goals and bring us over the line,” Tielemans said.

He was fouled with only seconds to go and with a penalty shootout looming, and the referee awarded the spot kick after a video review, ignoring protests from the Senegal team.

“I do not want to interpret the decision. We all have different interpretations when it comes to awarding a penalty,” Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said. “I’d rather not comment, not interpreting the referee’s decision.”

The win for Belgium marked the second time in the last 11 World Cups that a team trailed by two or more goals in the knockout round and advanced. Belgium also did so in a 3-2 victory over Japan in the round of 16 at the 2018 tournament.

“Senegal deserved to win,” Belgium coach Rudi Garcia said. ”But, I am happy it was us.”

Many of the key players from the Belgium team that finished in third place in Russia in 2018 were instrumental to Wednesday’s victory. Lukaku, who leads his nation in goals scored, came off the bench to get Belgium back into the match by scoring in the 86th minute, setting the scene for Tielemans to force extra time.

“It is a cruel loss, as we were good in the game,” Thiaw said. ”We had the advantage. We were leading 2-0. However a football match is not an 85-minute one. Belgium came back, and we were not able to deal with that ... We must congratulate Belgium as they progress.”

Belgium is back in the round of 16 for the third time in four tournaments. The team reached the quarterfinals in 2014 and the semifinals in 2018 but failed to get out of the group stage four years ago in Qatar.

The Belgians will next face the United States on Monday in Seattle.

Senegal long appeared to be heading toward the round of 16. Habib Diarra scored in the first half and Ismaïla Sarr made it 2-0 at the start of the second. It was his fourth goal of the World Cup, and one of the most beautiful of the tournament. Sarr made a perfect first touch off his chest on a long ball from Moussa Niakhaté and then sent his shot past Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Courtois, who was playing in his fourth World Cup, then made three key saves to keep Senegal from increasing its lead.

Senegal defender Krépin Diatta said Belgium should not have been allowed to get back into the game.

“It shouldn’t have happened. You have to defend your box and you have to be the boss of your box,” he said. ”We suffered, but we have to go on. It’s a pity.”

Lukaku said Belgium showed character with its late comeback.

“This Senegal side is one of the best teams in the tournament,” he said. “Technically, physically and tactically, it was really tough. But when we stepped up the intensity of our pressing, when we were there for the second ball, our team spirit shone through and we won the match.”

Senegal headed to the World Cup as the second-highest ranking team in Africa, behind Morocco. It won a chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final on Jan. 18 against Morocco, but the result was overturned by the governing body of African soccer because Thiaw had temporarily pulled his players off the pitch.

Senegal advanced to the World Cup knockout phase as one of the best third-place finishers after losing to France and Norway and beating Iraq.

“It’s the best African nation. It’s as simple as that,” Garcia said. ”They showed that even against France, they dominated in the first half. They came out of a difficult group. I would have preferred not to play against them.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Harry Kane ensured England avoided an early exit from the inaugural 48-team World Cup by scoring two second-half goals in a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Congo in the round of 32 on Wednesday.

The late victory, England’s second ever at the World Cup after conceding the first goal, earned the 1966 champions a spot in the round of 16 and a match against co-host Mexico.

“It was just about pounding the rock, keep pounding the rock and our moment would come,” Kane said after scoring his fourth and fifth goals of the tournament. “We spoke about people having hero moments. It can be anyone in the team … Whoever it is, we have hero moments, and for me it was the day.”

That team’s next match will be played at the Azteca Stadium, the site of Argentina great Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal that eliminated England from the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.

Getting there didn’t come easy against a Congo team that nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.

England’s only other World Cup victory after trailing 1-0 came in the 1966 final against West Germany at Wembley Stadium.

“That’s a good sign. It just shows you the level of determination and the level of belief and also the level of focus,” England coach Thomas Tuchel said. “I didn’t feel the weight on their shoulders and I found that we played it with the exactly right attitude and we trusted our spirit.

“The goalkeeper kept on saving incredible saves ... but this team today did not accept a defeat as an outcome.”

Kane made sure the early deficit wasn’t a problem Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium by extending his record as his country’s leading scorer in tournament history to 13. He has a record 84 goals for the national team in total.

His first goal came in the 75th minute. Substitute Anthony Gordon lifted a cross from the left and despite Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi getting a hand to Kane’s header, he didn’t stop it from nestling into the bottom corner.

Eleven minutes later, Kane sent his shot into the top corner to put the thoughts of an upset to rest.

“When you get to the knockouts, the pressure and the risks are so much higher. But from an attacking point of view, that was easily our best game of the tournament,” Kane said. “Sometimes you just have to grind wins out and we did exactly that today. I told the boys to enjoy it. We’re through, and we go again in four days.”

Brian Cipenga had put Congo in the lead in the seventh minute after collecting a cross on the left of the box and shooting low past England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford at the near post.

Mpasi did his best to keep that 1-0 lead alive. He denied Jude Bellingham on three occasions — blocking two close-range headers before halftime and then clawing away another deflected effort after the break.

Kane nearly made a breakthrough late in the first half, but Mpasi blocked a powerful shot at the near post. And the keeper was also caught up in a collision with Kane in the box. England thought it should have been awarded a penalty, but referee Adham Makhadmeh waved away appeals.

Congo had a chance to double its lead when Yoane Wissa hit the post in the first half.

“We’re disappointed because we really believed we could do it,” Congo coach Sébastien Desabre said. “We played well. Towards the end of the match, we conceded two chances and one of the world’s best players scored two goals against us. It’s a shame.”

England’s only major soccer title came in that 1966 tournament at home. But the team has been getting closer to another in recent years, reaching back-to-back European Championship finals and the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Tuchel has been hired to end that winless run. As a German, his appointment was a controversial choice given England’s long-standing rivalry with his country. So anything other than a deep run in this year’s tournament would likely reignite questions over the wisdom of that decision.

Despite winning Group L with two wins and a draw at this year’s World Cup, there has been a mixed response to England’s performances.

And in a tournament that has seen traditional powers like Germany and the Netherlands eliminated early, the fear was that England could follow that trend against a Congo team that already held Portugal to a 1-1 draw in the group stage.

The 46th-ranked Congo team had already made history with its first goal, point and win at a World Cup, 52 years after its only previous appearance when competing as Zaire at the 1974 tournament in West Germany.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

After 16 single direct-knockout matches, the winning teams will advance to the tournament’s Round of 16, which begins on the Fourth of July.

Here is the list of the Round of 32 teams eliminated:

1. South Africa, the Group A runner-up with 4 points, was eliminated on June 28 after Canada won 1-0.
2. Japan, the Group F runner-up with 5 points, was eliminated on June 29 after Brazil won 2-1.
3. Germany, the Group E winner with 6 points, was eliminated on June 29 after a 1-1 draw ended with a 4-3 defeat on penalties against Paraguay.
4. The Netherlands, the Group F winner with 7 points, was eliminated on June 29 after a 1-1 draw ended with a 3-2 defeat on penalties against Morocco.
5. Ivory Coast, the Group E runner-up with 6 points, was eliminated on June 30 after Norway won 2-1.
6. Ecuador, the third in Group E with 4 points, was eliminated on June 30 after Mexico won 2-0.
7. Sweden, the third in Group F with 4 points, was eliminated on June 30 after France won 3-0.
8. Congo, the third in Group K with 4 points, was eliminated on July 1 after England won 2-1.
9. Senegal, the third in Group I with 4 points, was eliminated on July 1 after Belgium won 3-2.
10. Bosnia and Herzegovina, the third in Group B with 4 points, was eliminated on July 1 after the U.S. won 2-0.

TRACK PROGRESS

• Round of 16 qualifications
• Eliminations during Round of 32
• Round of 32 teams
• View the knockout bracket

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Round of 32 knock-out matches

July 2

• Spain vs. Austria at 3 p.m. at Los Angeles Stadium
• Portugal vs. Croatia at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Stadium
• Switzerland vs. Algeria at 11 p.m. at BC Place Vancouver.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 3:

• Australia vs. Egypt is at 2 p.m. at the Dallas Stadium.
• Argentina vs. Cape Verde is at 6 p.m. at the Miami Stadium
• Colombia vs. Ghana is at 9:30 p.m. at the Kansas City Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Round of 16 begins

July 4

• Canada vs. Morocco is at 1 p.m. at the Houston Stadium
• Paraguay vs. France is at 5 p.m. at the Philadelphia Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 5

• Brazil vs. Norway at 4 p.m. at the New York/New Jersey Stadium
• Mexico at 8 p.m. at the Mexico City Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 6: There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 7: There are two matches at Noon and 4 p.m.

Quarterfinals begin

July 9: There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 5 p.m. on July 11. Parking is free.

Semifinals begin

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15: There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals begin

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

Track group-stage

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

The Ice Bucket Challenge gained popularity in the summer of 2014 as a way to raise ALS awareness. People took a video or photo as they got a bucket of ice water dumped on them, and they’d challenge friends or relatives to do the same.

According to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, the drive helped raise an estimated $135 million in the United States and $220 million worldwide in the fight against ALS.

Johnson attempted to boost the cause once more in an Instagram post Wednesday, two days after announcing on “Good Morning America” that he’s dealing with ALS.

Johnson said he was inspired after watching former Utah men’s basketball player Hunter Mecum post an Instagram video in which he dumped ice water on his head to honor the 40-year-old former running back.

“The support you’ve shown me over the last few days has meant more than I can put into words,” Johnson said in his post. “Seeing this video reminded me of something powerful. Years ago, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge united millions of people around one cause and helped change the fighting against this disease. Today, I’m asking you to help me do it again.”

Johnson challenged former All-Pro running back Marshawn Lynch and former Tennessee Titans teammates LenDale White and Adam “Pacman” Jones to participate. Johnson later added Instagram Story posts showing White and others getting doused with water.

In his “Good Morning America” interview, Johnson said he was diagnosed with ALS last year.

The 2008 first-round draft pick from East Carolina rushed for 9,651 yards during a 10-year career that included stints with the Titans (2008-13), New York Jets (2014) and Arizona Cardinals (2015-17). He rushed for 2,006 yards and was The Associated Press offensive player of the year in 2009.

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

The World Cup’s daily group-stage matches ended on June 27 after 16 teams were eliminated.

The 48 qualifying teams started the tournament with matches within 12 groups of four on June 11.

As the tournament continues, the single direct-knockout matches to advance into the Round of 16 are set to end on July 3.

The list of 32

Here is the list of the teams in order of group-stage placement, points earned, and FIFA ranking:

1. Argentina (1) wins Group J with 9 points. The match is at 6 p.m. on July 3 against Cape Verde.
2. France (2) wins Group I with 9 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
3. Mexico (14) wins Group A with 9 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
4. Spain (3) wins Group H with 7 points. The match is at 3 p.m. on July 2 against Austria.
5. England (4) wins Group L with 7 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
6. Brazil (6) wins Group C with 7 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
7. The Netherlands (8) wins Group F with 7 points. The team was eliminated on June 29.
8. Belgium (9) wins Group G with 7 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
9. Colombia (11) wins Group K with 7 points. The match is at 9:30 p.m. on July 3 against Ghana.
10. Switzerland (17) wins Group B with 7 points. The match is at 11 p.m. on July 2 against Algeria.
11. Germany (10) wins Group E with 6 points. The team was eliminated on June 29.
12. United States (15) wins Group D with 6 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
13. Morocco (7) is the Group C runner-up with 7 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
14. Ivory Coast (30) is the Group E runner-up with 6 points. The team was eliminated on June 30.
15. Norway (31) is the Group I runner-up with 6 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
16. Portugal (5) is the Group K runner-up with 5 points. The match is at 7 p.m. on July 2 against Croatia.
17. Japan (18) is the Group F runner-up with 5 points. The team was eliminated on June 29.
18. Egypt (26) is the Group G runner-up with 5 points. The match is at 3 p.m. on July 3 against Australia.
19. Australia (27) is the Group D runner-up with 4 points. The match is at 3 p.m. on July 3 against Egypt.
20. Canada (32) is the Group B runner-up with 4 points. The team advanced to Round of 16.
21. South Africa (54) is the Group A runner-up with 4 points. The team was eliminated on June 28.
22. Cape Verde (64) is the Group H runner-up with 3 points. The match is at 6 p.m. on July 3 against Argentina.
23. Austria (22) is the Group J runner-up with 4 points. The match is at 7 p.m. on July 2 against Spain.
24. Croatia (11) is the Group L runner-up with 6 points. The match is at 7 p.m. on July 2 against Portugal.
25. Senegal (18) classifies after placing third in Group I with 4 points. The team was eliminated on July 1.
26. Algeria (29) classifies after placing third in Group J with 4 points and a minus two goal difference. Game day: July 2
27. Ecuador (32) classifies after placing third in Group E with 4 points. The team was eliminated on June 30.
28. Paraguay (37) classifies after placing third in Group D with 4 points and a minus two goal difference. The team advanced to Round of 16.
29. Sweden (38) classifies after placing third in Group F with 4 points. The team was eliminated on June 30.
30. Congo (46) classifies after placing third in Group K with 4 points plus one goal difference. The team was eliminated on July 1.
31. Bosnia and Herzegovina (64) classifies after placing third in Group B with 4 points and a minus one goal difference. The team was eliminated on July 1.
32. Ghana (65) classifies after placing third in Group L with 4 points. The match is at 9:30 p.m. on July 3 against Colombia.

TRACK PROGRESS

• Round of 16 qualifications
• Eliminations during Round of 32

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Round of 32 knock-out matches

July 2

• Spain vs. Austria at 3 p.m. at Los Angeles Stadium
• Portugal vs. Croatia at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Stadium
• Switzerland vs. Algeria at 11 p.m. at BC Place Vancouver.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 3:

• Australia vs. Egypt is at 2 p.m. at the Dallas Stadium.
• Argentina vs. Cape Verde is at 6 p.m. at the Miami Stadium
• Colombia vs. Ghana is at 9:30 p.m. at the Kansas City Stadium

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro’s capture, faced accusations that her administration and supporters were hindering the disaster relief effort instead of contributing to it.

“If in fact we are having impediments being put in the way of getting the help to the people of Venezuela, then we need to exert as much pressure as possible,” U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Giménez said on Wednesday in Doral.

César Rodríguez, a pilot with W Aviation in Fort Lauderdale, reported having to wait for operating permits from the Venezuelan National Institute of Civil Aviation, or INAC, to be allowed to land with aid.

“We still have two planes with cargo,“ César Rodríguez said in a public update on Tuesday on Instagram.

In Venezuela, Francisco Lermanda, a member of the search-and-rescue team Topos Chile, reported that they had found a 14-year-old boy who was trapped and at risk of a deadly blood clot, so they used a phone to call their team’s physicians for guidance.

“A soldier took away our phone because he said it could be espionage,” Lermanda told Venezuelan Diario La Grey about how the armed Venezuelan military disrupted their effort to save the teen.

Lermanda warned that he had experienced how the Venezuelan government was militarizing and politicizing the response to the earthquakes — and this concerned him.

“It is very difficult to cope with this situation,” Lermanda told Diario La Grey.

The world-famous leader of the Brigada Internacional de Rescate Topos Azteca, Héctor “El Chino” Méndez, has been active since the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

“I am not a politician; I am a rescuer,” Méndez told reporters in Spanish while working in Venezuela. He later added, “I’m 80 years old, and you’re not going to come to me to tell me what to say.”

A spokesperson for the Mexican Topos Tlaltelolco Rescue Brigade later released a statement asking the public to keep the focus on the victims and on the rescue efforts.

Sebastian Eduardo Martinez Borrego, also known as “Boikido,” was among the Venezuelan English-Spanish translators who reported they were harassed over their work with foreigners.

“I fear for my life, I am being pursued and harassed by state repressive agencies,” Martinez Borrego wrote on Instagram, as he blamed Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, or DGCIM.

Before many of the foreign rescue teams arrived, the civilian volunteers who had rushed to rescue survivors with nothing but their bare hands and tools suddenly faced a new obstacle on June 26: The government required a new permit for access.

Despite the urgency, the volunteers had to stand in line to apply before officials in uniform, who sat behind desks in Caracas to process permits, as the Venezuelan military restricted access to La Guaira.

Venezuelan officials allowed foreign journalists into the area with a list of limitations and requirements. The Venezuelan National Press Workers Union, or SNTP, was documenting the limits to on-the-ground reporting.

Journalists with Runrun.es reported that the Venezuelan military didn’t give them access to the devastation at Carayaca, a city in the state of Vargas, just west of La Guaira.

“The country needs verified and timely information, especially the families of the victims,” a spokesperson for SNTP wrote in Spanish on June 29 on X.

On Tuesday, Diosdado Cabello, a former Venezuelan military officer who serves as the minister of justice, announced the arrests of law enforcement personnel who were accused of looting in La Guaira.

Cabello, who is wanted in the U.S. for narcotrafficking, identified the four suspects as Maya Aguilar Reyes, Fredy Rafael Lugo Oliveros, Roger Andrés Omaña, and Josue Jhonatan Burgos Sánchez.

A witness recorded and shared a video that went viral. It showed Aguilar Reyes, his identification, and a woman in tears who confronted him, took a bag he was holding full of U.S. dollars, and ripped the bills into pieces over the rubble near a collapsed building.

Delcy Rodríguez’s brother Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, announced on Wednesday that the death toll had increased to 2,295.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates fatalities in the tens of thousands, and the United Nations announced the procurement of 10,000 body bags.

“I would like more presence of public entities, who really are those responsible for this, but in the end, we’re used to making do with almost nothing,” Mijaed Diaz, a veterinarian who was searching for body bags for four bodies in La Guaira, told Reuters.

With the support of the U.S. State Department, North Carolina-based nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse opened a temporary 56-bed field hospital near Paseo La Guaira, north of Caracas.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Southern Command announced some changes on Wednesday afternoon, as U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Jarrard continued to lead in Venezuela.

Joint Task Force-Bravo, under Col. David Webb’s command since June 18, moved “advanced elements” from the Simón Bolívar International Airport to the Port of La Guaira, where the USS Fort Lauderdale had a medical support platform.

A U.S. Army medical unit, a military ambulance, and marine logisticians, who had a water purification system, a tram, a mobile potable water container, and a tow truck/wrecker, were on the ground, according to SOUTHCOM.

Helpful list: Aid drop-off locations in South Florida

More on HELPING VENEZUELA

• Doral-based nonprofit GEM dispatches over $1 million in aid from community

• Inter Miami, Marlins, Dolphins join relief efforts
• NFL star joins Global Empowerment Mission’s team; his message to South Floridians, ‘Do what you can’
• More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US hours before the earthquakes are missing

• Food for the Poor welcomes investments in reconstruction
• Physicians in Miami-Dade collect donations of medical supplies near Doral
• Meet Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. German Leal

• Pembroke Pines police officers announce collection drive
• Airbnb partners with nonprofit CADENA for emergency housing
• Hogar Bambi aims to protect vulnerable children

• Grey Bull Rescue Foundation team arrives at Caracas
• Officials close La Guaira, require volunteers to register in Caracas
• Amazon donates to Airlink to help charities with logistics

• Miami search-and-rescue team prepares to deploy
• Centro Comunitario AFE hosts collection drive in Miami-Dade
• Weston-based charity partners with local pharmacy

• Veteran-led Project DYNAMO delivers 20,000 pounds of aid in 1st 48 hours
• Altruism at El Arepazo feeds Global Empowerment Mission’s team effort
• Salvadoran rescuers work to free 15-year-old survivor in Caraballeda

• Food For The Poor packs disaster relief kits with ‘hopeful’ hand-written notes
• U.S. Southern Command focuses on airport damage
• State Department deploys Miami-Dade search-and-rescue team

• Miami Beach opens 4 new aid drop-off locations
• Miramar to keep 6 aid drop-off locations open 24/7
• Miami-Dade’s tax collector opens 11 drop-off locations
• Doral opens 4 aid drop-off locations

• Aid drop-off location opens in Homestead
• Starlink offers free service through July 25, but a kit is $470
• International Medical Corps deploys staff, needs donations
• Save The Children asks for emergency fund donations

• Samaritan’s Purse focuses on ‘emergency field hospital’
• Red Cross asks for Disaster Response Emergency Fund donations
• UN asks for donations for ‘underfunded’ program for kids

• World Vision asks for ‘disaster relief fund’ donations
• World Central Kitchen asks for donations for fresh meals
• United Way Miami launches ‘Operation Helping Hands’

Leer en español

Authorities said Milagros De La Caridad Navarro, 35, was arrested Tuesday by the Miami Gardens Police Department after surrendering herself in connection with the Feb. 22 shooting.

According to an arrest report, officers responded to the 100 block of Northwest 202nd Terrace just after 1 a.m. on that day after receiving reports about a shooting.

Miami Gardens police said they were notified about 30 minutes later that a gunshot victim had arrived at HCA Florida Aventura Hospital.

The report states the driver who took the victim to the hospital told officers she was unfamiliar with the area because she was visiting from Georgia.

The driver said she heard multiple gunshots while driving before realizing her mother-in-law had been struck and then took her to the nearest hospital, according to the report.

The driver told investigators she did not know who was responsible for the shooting, the report states.

Investigators said they later interviewed the victim after her breathing tube was removed.

According to the report, the victim had difficulty speaking and recalling the events, but remembered leaving Hollywood Beach with another woman, returning home to shower and cook, and later leaving a home where a woman identified as “Caridad” had been present.

The report states that the victim told detectives her next memory was waking up in the hospital.

Police said the investigation included witness interviews, photo lineups and surveillance video.

According to the report, a witness identified Navarro during a photo lineup conducted on March 3. Another witness later identified Navarro in a separate lineup after telling investigators she had left her home in Navarro’s care while she was away, the report states.

Detectives also obtained surveillance video from a neighbor that, according to the arrest report, showed Navarro “shooting multiple shots in the direction of the victim.”

Investigators said a separate witness later told investigators that she saw Navarro pulling a handgun from a black fanny pack before the group got into a vehicle. They said that witness claimed she did not see the gun being fired, but saw Navarro holding the gun in her right hand as they drove away.

Jail records show Navarro is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated battery with a weapon causing great bodily harm.

As of Wednesday, Navarro was being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

A motive for the shooting remains unclear at this time.

Tillman delivered the goal of his life, and one of the biggest ever by a U.S. man at the World Cup, sending this American soccer fairytale into the round of 16.

“I’ve been dreaming about this game," Tillman said after scoring the final goal in a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night. “I’ve been dreaming about maybe taking a free kick and scoring a free kick. I’ve practiced this in training and I think today I showed what I can do.”

The round of 32 win set up a Monday matchup in Seattle against Belgium as the U.S. hopes to make a deep run on home soil. The Red Devils beat the Americans 2-1 in extra time at 2014's round of 16.

“It’s about to keep dreaming,” said U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, who belted out “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as it played over the public-address system after 10 minutes of stoppage time. “In football all is possible if you believe.”

Folarin Balogun put the Americans ahead in the 45th minute with his third goal of the World Cup, then was sent off in the 64th for a red card.

Star Christian Pulisic had a goal disallowed for offside in the 78th, and Tillman helped seal the win when he curled in a free kick that got over the wall and on target from just outside the box in the 82nd. The ball went off diving goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj’s right hand and in despite the pain in Tillman's bloody right foot from being stepped on.

Balogun dominated the first half and scored in the 45th minute. The Americans had to scramble after his foul for awkwardly stepping on Tarik Muharemovic and preserved the shutout despite playing short-handed for more than 30 minutes.

“It felt so comfortable, even down to 10 men,” captain Tim Ream said. “That’s the way you want to feel. You don’t want to have that panic set in. You want have that calm and focus and we had that.”

Pochettino became the first U.S. coach with three World Cup victories, and the Americans gained just their second World Cup knockout round win. They made it to the semifinals in the first tournament in 1930 by winning their group and won a round of 16 matchup against Mexico in 2002.

Balogun leads the U.S. with three goals, but will miss the Belgium match because of an automatic suspension for the red card, assessed by Brazilian referee Raphael Claus after a video review. Balogun stepped on an ankle of Tarik Muharemovic, apparently not intentionally.

“Obviously the ref made a decision that he made, but I think it’s questionable,” midfielder Weston McKennie said. “I think there’s been many other plays like that throughout the tournament on other players that a card wasn’t given at all. It’s disappointing.”

Balogun matched Landon Donovan in 2010 for the second-most goals by an American in a World Cup, behind only Bert Patenaude’s four in 1930.

“Of course he’s a great player," Tillman said. "We have great players who can replace him, and give the best they can, and hopefully score some nice goals as well.”

The win snapped a 10-game losing streak for the U.S. against European teams dating to a tie against England in the 2022 World Cup. The Americans had lost seven games and tied six against European nations in World Cup play since beating Portugal in their 2002 opener.

The U.S. had started fast in the group stage matches by scoring in the first 15 minutes of all three games but it was Bosnia that had the better chances early. Matt Freese needed to make two saves early to stop Ermedin Demirovic following a deceptive goal kick that caught the U.S. defense napping and then again on the ensuing corner kick that Kerim Alajbegovic almost scored on directly.

Balogun took over from there. He had an apparent 31st-minute goal called off for offside and was knocked down in the box on two other opportunities before finally delivering. Ream intercepted a Bosnia goal kick at midfield and passed to Tyler Adams, who flicked to Tillman. The ball, with the help of an errant Bosnian clearance attempt and a deflection, found Balogun in the box. Balogun slid the left-footed shot past Vasilj.

Balogun punctuated the goal with his version of the LeBron James Silencer celebration, drawing a positive reaction from King James himself.

Balogun nearly scored again in first-half stoppage time but his shot from in close deflected off the crossbar and out of play.

Bosnia’s second World Cup trip was a success with a draw against Canada in the opener and a win over Qatar that helped the team advance to the knockout round for the first time. But it ended in disappointment.

“We had our moments after the red card,” Vasilj said. “You could feel that there was something. The only thing that was missing was a goal. And then in the worst moment, out of nothing, I would say, a free kick and we conceded a second goal. After that it was really difficult.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

De los 11.000 millones de dólares comprometidos tan sólo por la Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA, por sus siglas en inglés), se han desembolsado unos 2.700 millones de dólares, en su mayoría para cosas como equipos, materiales y costos de diseño arquitectónico y de ingeniería, según la Oficina de Rendición de Cuentas del Gobierno (GAO, por sus siglas en inglés).

El gobierno estadounidense está legalmente obligado a desembolsar ese dinero para el propósito especificado.

El informe de 86 páginas se basa en una auditoría realizada de agosto de 2024 a junio de 2026. Fue publicado por legisladores demócratas de Estados Unidos.

"La gente de Puerto Rico ha esperado nueve años a que su gobierno cumpla su palabra", indicó el representante demócrata Jared Hoffman, de California, en un comunicado. "Vieron cómo se asignaban miles de millones y casi nada de eso llegó”.

El huracán María azotó Puerto Rico en septiembre de 2017 como una tormenta de categoría 4, dejando sin electricidad a algunos vecindarios durante casi un año, el apagón más prolongado en la historia de Estados Unidos. Se estima que 2.975 personas murieron en las secuelas de la tormenta.

Dos semanas antes de que María tocara tierra, el huracán Irma rozó la esquina noreste de la isla como una tormenta de categoría 5, también afectando el suministro de electricidad.

Múltiples problemas retrasan el avance

Los apagones crónicos llevaron a la gobernadora de Puerto Rico a declarar estado de emergencia en abril de 2025, pero las interrupciones persisten, y aproximadamente la mitad de esos incidentes se atribuyen a la vegetación que invade las líneas de transmisión y distribución.

Según el informe, hasta febrero sólo se habían despejado 640 kilómetros (400 millas) con fondos federales de los 26.000 kilómetros (16.000 millas) planificados. En total, se despejaron casi 4.500 kilómetros (2.800 millas) de líneas en el año fiscal 2025, de acuerdo con Luma Energy, una empresa privada que supervisa la transmisión y distribución de electricidad en Puerto Rico. Actualmente enfrenta una demanda del gobierno de la isla que busca rescindir su contrato. La empresa ha presentado una contrademanda.

El informe señaló que la rotación de personal; los procesos de revisión de proyectos, que describió como “engorrosos”; y la situación financiera de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica de Puerto Rico —que aún pasa apuros para reestructurar más de 10.000 millones de dólares de deuda— están impidiendo el avance.

Una medida que retrasó aún más la liberación de fondos ocurrió cuando la entonces secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, implementó una política en junio de 2025 para que los gastos del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés) superiores a 100.000 dólares fueran aprobados personalmente por esa oficina. La norma fue revocada en abril por el nuevo secretario de Seguridad Nacional, Markwayne Mullin.

Muchos fondos asignados, pero pocos desembolsados

Hasta diciembre de 2025, se completaron nueve grandes proyectos financiados por la FEMA, la mayoría relacionados con la generación; otros 133 proyectos se encuentran en distintas etapas.

La agencia también ha comprometido alrededor de 1.300 millones de dólares para 24 proyectos prioritarios de generación, siete de los cuales se han completado.

El informe indicó que los trabajos de reparación a menudo implican apagones programados y que encontrar piezas de reemplazo puede tomar hasta dos años.

De los 2.900 millones de dólares asignados por el Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano para modernizar y reparar la red, hasta febrero sólo se habían desembolsado unos 589 millones de dólares.

Mientras tanto, de los 1.000 millones de dólares comprometidos por el Departamento de Energía, se han desembolsado alrededor de 255 millones de dólares, determinó el informe.

Unos 365 millones de dólares asignados originalmente para proyectos de energía solar desde entonces se han redirigido a la red eléctrica, para “arreglos prácticos y reparaciones de emergencia”, según funcionarios del departamento entrevistados por los auditores.

El Departamento de Energía también canceló hasta 350 millones de dólares en subvenciones en el marco de un programa de energía solar, señaló el informe.

Sí desembolsó los 1,2 millones de dólares previstos para centros destinados a proporcionar electricidad a comunidades vulnerables en Puerto Rico durante desastres.

DHS dice que Puerto Rico es el responsable “en última instancia”

La GAO instó a la FEMA a actualizar sus directrices para reflejar flexibilidades y al Departamento de Energía a aclarar funciones y responsabilidades, y a crear un plan de colaboración.

“Dada la complejidad del financiamiento, los numerosos actores involucrados y los diversos planes para la recuperación de la red, una coordinación amplia entre Puerto Rico y las entidades federales es vital”, señala el informe.

El Departamento de Energía y el DHS coincidieron con las recomendaciones, aunque este último señaló que “el gobierno de Puerto Rico es en última instancia responsable de desarrollar una solución integral y reconstruir la red eléctrica”.

___

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

Leer en español

A team of community donors, volunteers, and GEM’s staff moved some 235,000 pounds of donations in a logistics-heavy operation.

The team had some 50 tons of aid at a warehouse in Doral and another 50 tons at a warehouse in Valencia, which is operating as a distribution center.

“It’s the worst disaster that we have ever experienced,” said Doral Councilman Rafael Pineyro, a GEM volunteer who was born in Caracas.

GEM had the support of the U.S. State Department, the agency President Donald Trump tasked with running the U.S. response in Venezuela. U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Giménez stopped by the warehouse in Doral.

“It’s not about politics, it’s about getting help to the people in need,” Giménez said.

The U.S. Southern Command has deployed every branch of the military.

The State Department also activated the Florida Task Forces from Miami and Miami-Dade County. They joined two other highly-trained search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax, Virginia, and California.

Hassel Mendoza, a Venezuelan engineer who lives in Tampa, traveled to La Guaira to search for his mother, sister, nephew, and brother-in-law in the ruins of a collapsed nine-story apartment building.

“We lost a lot of time trying to figure out new tools to use for a specific activity, like to cut steel,” Mendoza told CNN, adding that the government teams and volunteers didn’t have equipment such as drills or sensors.

On Tuesday, Diosdado Cabello, a former Venezuelan military officer who serves as the minister of justice, announced the arrests of law enforcement personnel who were accused of looting in La Guaira.

Cabello, who is wanted in the U.S. for narcotrafficking, identified the four suspects as Maya Aguilar Reyes, Fredy Rafael Lugo Oliveros, Roger Andrés Omaña, and Josue Jhonatan Burgos Sánchez.

A witness recorded and shared a video that went viral. It showed Aguilar Reyes, his identification, and a woman in tears who confronted him, took a bag he was holding full of U.S. dollars, and ripped the bills into pieces over the rubble near a collapsed building.

“I know that many Venezuelans are feeling pain and frustration; I deeply share those sentiments,” said Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president since the U.S. military captured Nicolás Maduro.

Rodríguez’s brother Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, announced on Wednesday that the death toll had increased to 2,295.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates fatalities in the tens of thousands, and the United Nations announced the procurement of 10,000 body bags.

GEM staff and partners asked the public for online cash donations and to signup online for a shift to volunteer. The high-priority needs included hygiene products, non-perishable foods, and first-aid items.

Helpful list: Aid drop-off locations in South Florida

More on HELPING VENEZUELA

• Inter Miami, Marlins, Dolphins join relief efforts
• NFL star joins Global Empowerment Mission’s team; his message to South Floridians, ‘Do what you can’
• More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US hours before the earthquakes are missing

• Food for the Poor welcomes investments in reconstruction
• Physicians in Miami-Dade collect donations of medical supplies near Doral
• Meet Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. German Leal

• Pembroke Pines police officers announce collection drive
• Airbnb partners with nonprofit CADENA for emergency housing
• Hogar Bambi aims to protect vulnerable children

• Grey Bull Rescue Foundation team arrives at Caracas
• Officials close La Guaira, require volunteers to register in Caracas
• Amazon donates to Airlink to help charities with logistics

• Miami search-and-rescue team prepares to deploy
• Centro Comunitario AFE hosts collection drive in Miami-Dade
• Weston-based charity partners with local pharmacy

• Veteran-led Project DYNAMO delivers 20,000 pounds of aid in 1st 48 hours
• Altruism at El Arepazo feeds Global Empowerment Mission’s team effort
• Salvadoran rescuers work to free 15-year-old survivor in Caraballeda

• Food For The Poor packs disaster relief kits with ‘hopeful’ hand-written notes
• U.S. Southern Command focuses on airport damage
• State Department deploys Miami-Dade search-and-rescue team

• Miami Beach opens 4 new aid drop-off locations
• Miramar to keep 6 aid drop-off locations open 24/7
• Miami-Dade’s tax collector opens 11 drop-off locations
• Doral opens 4 aid drop-off locations

• Aid drop-off location opens in Homestead
• Starlink offers free service through July 25, but a kit is $470
• International Medical Corps deploys staff, needs donations
• Save The Children asks for emergency fund donations

• Samaritan’s Purse focuses on ‘emergency field hospital’
• Red Cross asks for Disaster Response Emergency Fund donations
• UN asks for donations for ‘underfunded’ program for kids

• World Vision asks for ‘disaster relief fund’ donations
• World Central Kitchen asks for donations for fresh meals
• United Way Miami launches ‘Operation Helping Hands’

Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital, where more than 50,000 people sheltered in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings, the Kyiv Metro said. Emergency crews dug through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings all day in search of victims.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bombardment was in response to Ukraine’s recent barrage of long-range strikes, which have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine's frequent attacks inside Russia — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians already feeling the war’s economic toll.

More than four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s technological advances in drone engineering have in recent months given it an edge, analysts and Western officials say. Its strikes on supply routes behind the front line have robbed the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and made its progress slow and costly, they say.

Kyiv’s forces have especially targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 and delivering a blow to the Kremlin’s narrative that Moscow is winning the war.

Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating table, but so far Moscow's response has been to hit back.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump administration, haven’t produced results. President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy are expected to attend next week’s NATO summit in Turkey.

Putin thinks that time is on his side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, analysts say.

Ukraine's top diplomat says it was a ‘night of horror' in Kyiv

The attack killed 21 people in Kyiv, according to the country's Emergency Service. More than 90 others were reported injured.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “night of horror” in the capital, which had a pre-war population of roughly 3 million people.

Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as a huge pall of black smoke rose into the sky.

More than 30 locations across the city reported damage, including about 20 residential buildings, authorities said.

Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district of the city. “We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything,” the 24-year-old said.

In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, residents were trapped inside a damaged nine-story building, and in the Darnytskyi district, most of a nine-story building collapsed.

In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, meanwhile, a Russian strike killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other people, including an 11-year-old girl, all members of the same family, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.

The bombardment was “exclusively against military or military-linked targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.

No reliable figures are available for battlefield casualties in the war. A report earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, estimated that up to 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing on both sides, with Russian troops accounting for most of that number.

Ukrainian officials urge countries to provide more air defenses

The attack used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones to strike weapons factories and energy facilities in and around Kyiv, and “military airfield infrastructure” in other parts of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement said.

In all, Russia fired 74 missiles and 496 drones in the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.

Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But it is harder to stop ballistic missiles, which accounted for roughly a third of the missiles fired overnight.

Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said in April that the country's weapons factories meet up to 75% of its military’s needs. But he and other Ukrainian officials have pleaded with partner countries to supply more Patriot systems that offer the best protection from Russian aerial attacks.

Ukraine attacks another Russian oil refinery

Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said.

Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according to the General Staff.

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The proximity of the projects embodies what experts describe as an “all-of-the-above" energy approach for Inner Mongolia, which has become China's largest base of both renewable energy and coal production. Its energy transition mirrors China as a whole: Wind and solar capacity are expanding quickly while coal remains indispensable.

China has been installing wind and solar power faster than any other country. Yet coal-fired plants still supplied around 51% of China’s electricity in 2025, according to the latest data from the National Energy Administration.

“While China as a whole is transitioning away from coal, Inner Mongolia is most certainly the most paradoxical part of the story. In Inner Mongolia’s case, more renewables often means more coal capacity as well,” said David Fishman, an energy consultant at The Lantau Group, who has visited Inner Mongolia's coal plants and the solar farms.

Inner Mongolia wants wind and solar power to increasingly replace electricity traditionally supplied by coal, while also meeting the country’s growing demand for power. But officials said both renewables and coal will continue to rise for now, with coal needed to supplement when weather causes interruptions in wind or solar power.

“Many people see there is a conflict or a competitive relationship between traditional energy and renewable energy,” said Gu Qing, an official of Inner Mongolia’s energy administration, standing at the edge of the Dalad Banner solar farm.

“As more renewable energy capacity is added, coal-fired power will also continue to grow, although the pace will gradually slow,” Gu said.

The Dalad Banner solar farm, which Associated Press reporters visited on a recent government-organized tour, currently generates around 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. It is part of a broader clean energy program started in 2018 in northern China’s Kubuqi Desert.

Inner Mongolia is crucial to China's power transmission plan

Inner Mongolia is one of the most crucial nodes in China’s “West-to-East Power Transmission Project," which transmits electricity from the country's resource-rich northwest to its industrialized east. In 2025, 40% of Inner Mongolia’s electricity generation, about 350 billion kilowatt-hours, was sent to other parts of China. The amount is enough to power 120 million households for a year.

Solar and wind installed capacity has more than doubled in the past five years in Inner Mongolia, but coal still dominates electricity generation. Coal-fired plants produced around 590 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025 in Inner Mongolia, while solar and wind generated about 277 billion kilowatt-hours combined.

Coal power capacity in Inner Mongolia has continued to expand over the past five years.

“Because wind and solar are intermittent…we cannot do without the support of coal-fired power,” said Huang Zhiqiang, vice governor of Inner Mongolia, during a recent news briefing.

“What is changing is that coal power units are turning from supply-guarantee units to serving as a supporting and regulating role,” he said.

Inner Mongolia mined around 1.2 billion tons of coal in recent years, accounting for one quarter of China’s total coal production. Over 60% was transported to other provinces. Ordos, the city administering the Dalad Banner, is also one of the country's five largest coal-producing centers designated by the central government.

Managing the energy transition

Officials said renewable energy is beginning to replace existing demand conventionally provided by coal. The transition requires that coal plants ramp down when renewable output is abundant and ramp up when it is not. Huang said Inner Mongolia refurbished all coal power units so they can ramp down to operate at 15% of their capacity so less coal is burned.

But Fishman, the energy consultant, said ramping units down to 15% is “an aspirational or best-unit capability rather than something that applies across the whole fleet in day-to-day operations,” because it will cause stress both technically and financially.

Similarly, Anika Patel, China section editor at the climate change research organization Carbon Brief, said: “Just because a plant can operate flexibly doesn’t mean that it is operating flexibly."

She said that it's challenging to relegate coal to a supporting role because of Chinese economic and political incentives around its use. Patel said China’s long-term power contracts reduce flexibility for power grids to purchase renewable electricity, while lengthy interprovincial trading arrangements make it harder to include solar and wind.

Supporting artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and manufacturing

The government said Inner Mongolia is not only building more wind and solar projects to meet the rising electricity demand from AI computing, electric vehicle charging and manufacturing. It is also investing in energy storage, transmission infrastructure and other ways to make the grid efficient.

Gu said Inner Mongolia will encourage factories to adjust production to better match patterns of wind and solar generation so renewable energy can be used more efficiently.

For over a decade since the early 2010s, China experienced a rapid solar and wind energy expansion that was largely driven by government targets and investment incentives, leading to issues such as overcapacity.

Power generation is only one part of Inner Mongolia’s coal strategy. The region is also a big hub of coal chemical industry, in which coal is converted to chemicals or fuels to produce other products. The processes emit more carbon dioxide than using coal to generate electricity. Huang said Inner Mongolia will deploy carbon-capture technologies to curb emissions.

He said Inner Mongolia has been expanding capacity of coal-to-oil, coal-to-gas and coal chemical industries. The Iran conflict and the close of the Strait of Hormuz exposed the vulnerability of countries that rely on imported oil and liquefied natural gas.

“At the industrial level, this can help offset and ease China’s reliance on imported oil and gas, reducing dependence on overseas supplies,” Huang said.

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Video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.

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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.

The FBI did not specify how many ransom notes have been received, other than saying “several.”

“This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case,” the FBI said in a statement.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department is also investigating the case. The department declined to comment on the notes Wednesday but said it's taking every tip in the investigation seriously.

Tucson TV station KOLD has said it received two notes, one demanding millions in Bitcoin in exchange for Guthrie’s return and another that said she had died. TMZ also received a note.

Guthrie is the mother of longtime “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will on Feb. 1. They found blood near the front doorstep of her home just outside Tucson, and the FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night.

Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the weeks after she vanished. A volunteer group recently conducted a search for her body near the Arizona-Mexico border.