The student said she was using a toilet at Building 2 when she saw “a black cellular telephone recording her from underneath the stall,” a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy wrote, according to a report.

The student said she exited the stall and confronted the man, who deputies later identified as Rishard Parsons, who has convictions going back to 2014, according to the deputy’s arrest report.

Parsons was last released from prison on April 12, and he was supposed to be on probation over a 2019 aggravated battery until April 11, 2028, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

The student said she ordered Parsons to “delete the video,” but he pushed her and fled, so she “pursued him through the breezeway” and “shouted for assistance,” according to the deputy’s arrest report.

A good Samaritan, who heard the student’s cries for help, joined the pursuit, and they detained Parsons before MDC public safety officers and MDSO deputies arrived, according to the report.

“The victim suffers from a possible fracture to her left knee,” a deputy wrote about the student, according to the arrest report.

MDC public safety officers were already searching for Parsons after another woman who works for MDC had reported she was in a stall at a restroom in the 100 building when she saw he “was recording her from the adjacent stall,” according to the arrest report.

The MDC employee walked out of the restroom and reported Parsons to MDC public safety personnel, who found surveillance video of him leaving the women’s restroom, according to the deputy’s report.

Deputies detained Parsons, took him to the MDSO special victims’ bureau for questioning, and he “admitted to being on campus and committing acts of voyeurism against both victims,” according to the deputy’s arrest report.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Parsons at 1:05 a.m. on Wednesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

Parsons faced three charges: Two counts of voyeurism and felony battery. His bond was $21,500.

Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.

It was their first visit to Kennedy Space Center since they blasted off in April. The last time the four saw the pad, the massive Space Launch System rocket had stood upon it.

“It's a lonely place without that rocket on it,” commander Reid Wiseman said. He and his crew spent the day thanking all those who helped send them on the flight.

The three NASA astronauts and one Canadian set a new record for distance travel during the lunar fly-around — 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). It was humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than half a century.

Public enthusiasm over the mission is still high, Wiseman noted. While boarding a plane in France about a week ago, he said, a woman handed him her boarding pass with this message written on it: “Thank you for reminding us about joy and hope in the universe again.”

They're excited about handing off to the next Artemis crew: three NASA astronauts and one Italian announced last month. Set for next year, the Artemis III mission will remain in orbit around Earth and practice docking with lunar landers in development by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis IV will follow as early as 2028 with a moon landing by two astronauts not yet identified.

The entire Artemis III crew is male, something that doesn't faze Artemis II's Christina Koch, who became the first woman to fly to the moon. What would be worse, she said, was someone overruling NASA's crew selection for Artemis III just “to make it look a certain way.”

“I am so glad and so proud that that's not the situation we have,” she told reporters.

Wiseman and Koch flew to the moon alongside pilot Victor Glover and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. Hansen announced earlier this week that he will leave the Canadian Space Agency in September, but remain a reservist in the Royal Canadian Air Force and continue supporting the Artemis program.

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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 trial for Brian J. Cole Jr. is set to begin Feb. 16 and last about two weeks. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali set the trial date during a brief hearing Wednesday.

Zachary Lawson, one of Cole’s lawyers, told Ali that defense attorneys and prosecutors have not discussed the possibility of a plea deal to resolve the case.

On Monday, the judge ruled that Trump's mass pardons for Capitol rioters did not apply to Cole. Ali refused to dismiss Cole's case before trial, rejecting defense lawyers' arguments that their client qualifies for a pardon because his alleged actions are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events near the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Ali, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, concluded that Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters explicitly applied only to people who were convicted of crimes related to the attack.

Cole was arrested nearly a year after Trump, a Republican, pardoned, commuted the prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6 attack. Prosecutors have said that Cole gave a confession when FBI agents questioned him after his arrest.

Cole is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters near the Capitol on the night before the riot. The devices did not detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.

A grand jury indicted Cole on four counts: interstate transportation of explosives, malicious intent to use explosives, an act of terrorism while armed and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

No deaths have been reported and the source of the cyclospora infections hasn't been identified. Meanwhile, investigations into similar illnesses have been going on in 28 other states, including in Ohio, where people just across the Michigan border are also becoming sick.

Michigan officials first announced the outbreak last week, when they were aware of more than 170 cases — all in the southeastern corner of the state — since June 22. Michigan usually identifies only about 50 cases each year.

On Wednesday, the state reported the number had grown to 992, including about 40 hospitalizations. Just across the state line, Lucas County, Ohio, reported 306 cases as of Wednesday. Northwest Ohio has seen more than 400 cases.

Cyclospora surges can be tricky to investigate, and food poisoning sources can be hard to establish. But “there is clearly a linked outbreak happening right now," Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Here's what to know about the current situation:

What is cyclospora?

Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness, called cyclosporiasis, is not usually life threatening and is typically treated with antibiotics. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

The heat-loving parasite infects the bowels and spreads through feces. In the past, people have been infected by consuming fruits or vegetables that were exposed to feces-contaminated irrigation water.

It’s less common than a number of other kinds of foodborne illnesses, including salmonella and E. coli. For years, few U.S. cyclospora outbreaks were reported each year. But the number started rising about a decade ago, with a particularly notable spike in 2018 and 2019. Experts attribute the increases to climate change and better detection.

How does this outbreak compare to previous ones in the US?

Comprehensive data on cyclospora outbreaks is lacking. But available information shows only a small number of documented outbreaks in the last 20 years have surpassed 1,000 cases. That short list includes a 1997 outbreak tied to Guatemalan raspberries that sickened more than 1,000 in the U.S. and Canada, and a 2019 outbreak linked to Mexican basil than sickened more than 2,400.

There are several reasons it's challenging to know the exact toll, said Melanie Firestone, a University of Minnesota foodborne illness researcher. Some tests used to check for types of food poisoning are not geared to detect cyclospora, “so there is a lot of underreporting when it comes to this,” she said.

Other challenges: Technicians aren't able to grow the parasite in labs, making it hard to draw evidence from contaminated produce. And it can be hard to figure out what food sick people had in common, because sometimes it’s a single ingredient that might be common in multiple recipes — like basil or cilantro.

Also, it's possible that food distributors may channel contaminated foods to both grocery stores and restaurants, making it hard to discern where tainted food came from. Investigations can take months and sometimes never find a clear source.

What's the current situation?

Cases seem to be surging in and around southeastern Michigan. But it's not considered a national health emergency.

There's no evidence that the parasite has evolved to become more infectious, said Dianna Blau, the CDC's acting parasitic diseases branch chief.

Thousands of cyclospora illnesses are reported in the U.S. each year and it's not yet clear how unusual this year will be, she added. That said, the case total so far is four times higher than at the same point last year, according to current CDC national data, which lags dramatically from what's being reported by the states.

Michigan appears to be suffering the worst of it, but the state's aggressiveness in investigating and reporting cases may be “part of the reason why this looks like a Michigan problem,” Bagdasarian said.

How can you protect yourself from cyclospora?

People who have diarrhea that hasn’t gone away on its own within a few days should see a health provider and discuss the possibility of cyclospora, officials say.

The best way to prevent infection with a parasite is to avoid food or water that may have been contaminated.

Fresh produce should be thoroughly washed before being eaten. But be aware that cyclospora can really stick to some foods, so washing may not eliminate the risk of infection.

As Michigan officials investigate the potential source, they recommend consumers purchase whole heads of lettuce rather than prewashed, bagged lettuce or salad mixes, and to removed the outer two to three leaves before washing the remaining leaves under running water.

They also say to cook vegetables when possible.

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

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It happened during the early morning hours on Wednesday along the 5200 block of Wiley Street in Hollywood.

Authorities have since identified the suspect as Kevin Lamar Bryant, 38.

According to Hollywood police, officers responded to the home around 1:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a disturbance involving a man.

When they arrived, officers said Bryant barricaded himself inside, and then around 4 a.m. intentionally set a fire inside the home.

Crews with Hollywood Fire Rescue quickly responded and were able to extinguish the fire, which they said caused significant damage to the home which had previously been condemned.

Juan Benitez, who lives next door, said it was police officers banging on his door that woke him up and helped him to safety.

“They said, ‘Get out of the house, the house is on fire,’” Benitez said. “It’s like something out of a movie, it’s unrealistic. First time something like that has ever happened to me.”

Police said they were then able to remove Bryant from the engulfed home before taking him custody without further incident.

“He was just yelling nonsense,” said Benitez. “I couldn’t understand.”

According to HFR, Bryant suffers from severe mental illness and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Afrobeats star Burna Boy, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the PS22 Chorus — a choir of elementary school students based in Staten Island, New York — will also perform, the last joined by Coldplay.

The 11-minute halftime performance, curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin, will take place during the final outside New York on July 19. The show will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.

“The FIFA World Cup brings the world together in a way nothing else can,” Bieber said in a statement. “I’m grateful to be part of this Halftime Show, and even more grateful knowing it’s already helping expand access to education for children around the world.”

Of all the performances, the addition of Burna Boy is particularly noteworthy: He’s one-half of this year’s official song for the World Cup, “Dai Dai,” led by Shakira. The song is a mesh of their musical landscapes: Afrobeats and Latin rhythms, an undeniably global, multilingual pop track. In one verse, they name a number of the world’s most famous soccer players and countries competing in this year’s World Cup: “Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia,” Shakira cheers. “Mexico, Japan, Korea, Netherlands.”

“The FIFA World Cup is one of the few moments that truly brings the entire world together,” Burna Boy said in a statement. “To represent Africa on the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show is a privilege and a responsibility that I don’t take lightly.”

And while the Super Bowl is famed for its halftime show, such performances are not commonplace in soccer, with events like the Champions League final featuring a pre-match concert.

This year's World Cup halftime performance will also feature some characters from “Sesame Street,” as well as Muppets like Kermit and Miss Piggy.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

It's been the same for much of Kostyuk’s run to the semifinals.

On Monday, after Russian missiles struck residential buildings close to where Kostyuk's parents live, she had to block that out to play her fourth-round match at the Grand Slam tournament. Last week, Russia hammered the Ukrainian capital with an 11-hour drone and missile attack that killed at least 21 civilians.

For Kostyuk, every day is about finding a way to focus on tennis while not shutting her eyes to what is going on at home.

“It’s not easy to disconnect entirely,” Kostyuk said after beating Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last four at Wimbledon for the first time.

“It was really tough for me last week when the first big attack happened," the 24-year-old Kostyuk continued. "Then on Monday they ruined like four streets of residential buildings. It was like five kilometers away from where my parents live. Again, another difficult night and a lot of dead people, innocent people, kids. It’s not easy. I try to be aware of everything that’s going on. Of course, I try for these things not to influence me too much.”

The 12th-seeded Kostyuk is into her second straight Grand Slam semifinal after losing to Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva in the last four at the French Open. The two did not shake hands before that match, which has become the standard procedure for meetings between Russian and Ukrainian players since the war broke out in 2022.

Like in most sports, Russian players have competed as neutrals on the men's and women's tennis tours since then. But the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday provisionally lifted its ban on Russia and recommended that individual sports drop the neutral status for athletes.

The Kremlin on Wednesday welcomed that decision as an “important step” toward reinstating the rights of Russian athletes.

Kostyuk had a different take.

“My thoughts are that it’s terrible,” Kostyuk said. “I think it’s very, very far from fair play for all the countries involved here, not just for Ukraine. I 100% don’t agree with this decision. ... I just want to go out there and hopefully beat every single Russian I play in the Olympics.”

There are no Russian singles players left in the Wimbledon tournament. Kostyuk will face Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic on Thursday. In the other semifinal, American Coco Gauff takes on another Czech player in Karolina Muchova.

Kostyuk is the second woman from Ukraine to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon after Elina Svitolina did it in 2019 and 2023.

Svitolina lost on both occasions. So what would it mean for Ukraine if Kostyuk becomes the country's first finalist?

“I’m hoping,” she said, “it would mean a lot.”

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

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Watson, 42, pleaded guilty last Thursday to aggravated battery in connection with the violent confrontation on Dec. 29, 2024, at Elevation Fitness on North Miami Avenue.

According to arrest documents, Watson told responding officers he was working out when the victim approached him and said he wanted to fight.

Surveillance video from inside the gym captured Watson beating the victim with his weightlifting belt. The video also appears to show a couple other men joining in on the attack.

“Next time I’m going to kill that mother****er, straight up,” Watson is hearing telling responding police officers in bodycam footage, also released Wednesday. “Because I’m sick of this shit, like me defending myself. Even having to f***ing sit here right now. You know how pissed off I am that I get attacked in the f***ing gym and this is f***ing happening?”

WARNING: The following video contains explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised.

“I’ve got respect for you guys, but f*** that,” Watson continued. “You guys saw a mother****er attack me and I’m sitting here like I’m in f***ing trouble. I’m leaving.”

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 last 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 Clayman 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.”

Records show that 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.

Watson, de 42 años, se declaró culpable el jueves pasado de agresión agravada en relación con el violento enfrentamiento ocurrido el 29 de diciembre de 2024 en Elevation Fitness, en North Miami Avenue.

Según los documentos de arresto, Watson les dijo a los agentes que respondieron al incidente que estaba haciendo ejercicio cuando la víctima se le acercó y le dijo que quería pelear.

El video de vigilancia del interior del gimnasio captó a Watson golpeando a la víctima con su cinturón de levantamiento de pesas. El video también parece mostrar a otros dos hombres uniéndose al ataque.

“La próxima vez voy a matar a ese hijo de puta, así de simple”, se escucha decir a Watson a los agentes que respondieron al incidente en las imágenes de la cámara corporal, también divulgadas el miércoles. “Porque estoy harto de esta mierda, de tener que defenderme. Incluso de tener que estar aquí sentado ahora mismo. ¿Sabes lo molesto que estoy porque me atacan en el maldito gimnasio y está pasando toda esta mierda?”

ADVERTENCIA: El siguiente video contiene lenguaje explícito. Se recomienda discreción al público.

“I’ve got respect for you guys, but f*** that,” Watson continued. “You guys saw a mother****er attack me and I’m sitting here like I’m in f***ing trouble. I’m leaving.”

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 last 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 Clayman 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.”

Records show that 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.

Las familias en La Guaira, el estado más afectado, van a la playa para ducharse y hacer sus necesidades, y ahora hay excremento en partes de las antes concurridas playas caribeñas. Otros están usando la poca agua que queda en los tinacos de las casas para lavar los platos y asearse. Muchas viven en refugios temporales o a la intemperie después de que 190 edificios se derrumbaron y otros 856 resultaron dañados, según las autoridades, en los terremotos consecutivos del 24 de junio que dejaron 3.685 muertos.

Juliani Herrera, de 20 años, comentó sobre los grandes tanques azules de plástico que muchas familias venezolanas usan para almacenar agua los días en que la empresa estatal presta servicio en las zonas. Dijo que siempre tienen agua en el depósito, pero con el terremoto se rompieron la mayoría de los tinacos de las casas. Ahora tienen que esperar a ver si viene un camión cisterna y los llena.

Algunas de las comunidades afectadas solo tenían servicio de agua potable una o dos veces al mes incluso antes de los terremotos. En Maiquetía, conocida por albergar el principal aeropuerto del país, la gente hizo fila el miércoles para recibir una caja con la bandera de Estados Unidos que contenía alimentos, agua y un kit de higiene que incluía un jabón, un cepillo de dientes y toallitas para limpieza corporal.

Herrera recibió una de las cajas que se repartieron en un refugio improvisado junto a la playa y la cargó durante varias cuadras. Trae el mentón, la parte superior del brazo y las manos cubiertos de rasguños manchados de yodo que se hizo cuando se cayó de una motocicleta mientras el suelo se sacudía violentamente al producirse los sismos.

Beatriz Ochoa, jefa regional de incidencia para América Latina del Consejo Noruego para Refugiados, señaló en un comunicado que se necesitan mejores condiciones para prevenir la propagación de enfermedades, ya que las personas viven en entornos densamente poblados, con altas temperaturas y lluvias estacionales, y con privacidad limitada.

Comentó que ha visto a familias haciendo todo lo que pueden para mantener la dignidad en condiciones difíciles, como en un refugio temporal, donde vio a gente organizándose para mantener limpios los espacios comunes, incluso mediante retretes improvisados.

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

Department of Homeland Security officials said in a statement that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, ignored commands while trying to evade arrest during an enforcement operation. They say he attempted to ram his car into an agent, who opened fire in self-defense.

Araujo's family said he was on his way to work at a construction job. He died on the way to the hospital.

The fatal shooting drew immediate criticism from immigrants rights groups and some Democrats who called for an independent investigation and for all footage, communication and evidence to be preserved.

Video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers. No immigration officers have been charged in those fatal encounters.

Man shot during vacation trip traffic stop

A fatal late-night traffic stop in Texas in March 2025 marked the earliest deadly shooting by federal officers during the nationwide immigration crackdown. It took almost a year for records in the fatal shooting of the 23-year-old U.S. citizen to be disclosed.

A Homeland Security Investigations team was conducting an immigration enforcement operation with local police when agents stopped Ruben Ray Martinez on his way from San Antonio to South Padre Island. Family members said he had just turned 23 and was with his best friend on his way to celebrate.

DHS officials said Martinez was told to exit the vehicle, refused and instead “intentionally ran over” an agent. Another agent fired shots through the open driver's window, striking Martinez, who died at a hospital. The HSI agent was treated for an undisclosed knee injury.

Martinez's mother said she was contacted by investigators with the Texas Rangers who told her there was video that contradicted the account given by federal agents. Federal and state authorities have declined to comment on potential discrepancies.

Nurse shot during Minneapolis protest

A Border Patrol officer shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, during a Jan. 24 protest against the Metro Surge immigration operation in Minneapolis.

Federal authorities immediately described Pretti, a U.S. citizen, as an armed agitator who was a threat to officers. But bystander video showed Pretti was on the ground and had been holding a cellphone during the interaction with officers.

The video showed an officer appearing to pull a gun from Pretti's waistband and step away before the first shot was fired by another officer, followed by more shots. Pretti had a permit to possess a firearm.

State and local officials pushed back against the federal officials' initial characterizations of Pretti, with Gov. Tim Walz calling the comments “despicable.”

Driver shot behind the wheel of an SUV

Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was repeatedly shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Videos show she was turning the wheels of her car away from officer, Jonathan Ross, when he opened fire. Trump administration officials have repeatedly defended Ross, claiming his life was at risk from the moving vehicle.

Good’s death caused a firestorm across the country. The U.S. Justice Department said it wouldn’t share information on the shooting with state authorities.

State and local officials subsequently sued to try to stop the immigration sweeps. Protesters with whistles trailed officers who, in response, deployed tear gas and other chemical irritants.

Cook from Mexico shot during a traffic stop

ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop Sept. 12 in suburban Chicago. Relatives said the 38-year-old line cook from Mexico had dropped off a child at daycare that morning.

At the time, DHS officials said agents were pursuing a man with a history of reckless driving who was in the country illegally. They alleged Villegas González evaded arrest and dragged an officer with his vehicle.

Homeland Security said the officer opened fire fearing for his life and was hospitalized with “serious injuries.” However, local police videos showed the agent walking around and dismissing his injuries as “nothing major.”

DHS has said the death remains under investigation.

Farmworker fell from greenhouse roof during ICE raid

Authorities were arresting dozens of farmworkers July 10 at Glass House Farms in southern California when Jaime Alanis fell from the roof of a greenhouse and broke his neck. The 57-year-old laborer from Mexico died at a hospital two days later.

Relatives said Alanis had spent a decade working at the farm in Camarillo, about an hour east of Los Angeles. During the raid, Alanis called family to say he was hiding. Officials said he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the greenhouse roof.

Homeland Security said Alanis was never in custody and was not being chased by immigration authorities.

Man struck on California freeway after running from officers

A man fleeing from immigration officers outside a Home Depot store in southern California died after being hit by an SUV as he tried to cross a freeway on Aug. 14.

Police in Monrovia, northeast of Los Angeles, said ICE agents were conducting enforcement operations when the man was hit while running across the eastbound lanes of Interstate 210.

The man, identified by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, 52, of Guatemala, died at a hospital.

Homeland Security said Montoya Valdez wasn’t being pursued by immigration authorities when he ran.

Gardener from Honduras killed on Virginia interstate

A pickup truck fatally struck Josué Castro Rivera on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, as he tried to escape authorities during a traffic stop on Oct. 23.

Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras, was heading to a gardening job with three passengers when ICE officers pulled over the vehicle, according to his brother, Henry Castro.

State and federal authorities said Castro Rivera ran away on foot and was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 264.

Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that Castro Rivera had “resisted heavily and fled.”

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Lauer reported from Philadelphia. AP reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed.

Oil prices rose to their highest point in weeks after President Donald Trump declared the U.S. ceasefire with Iran over, responding to Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and on American military sites in other Gulf nations. Costlier crude oil could lead to costlier gas station fill-ups as drivers in many countries were getting a break from elevated prices brought on by the war.

“Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has essentially stopped, which tells you more about risk perception right now than any statement from Washington or Tehran," said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, in an email. “Oil markets reacted quickly to the renewed geopolitical risk."

U.S. gasoline prices increased slightly Wednesday to an average of $3.80 for a gallon of regular, up from $3.79 the day before, but still well below the month-ago average of $4.16, according to motor club federation AAA.

Crude oil makes up the bulk of the price of gasoline, so when oil prices rise, gasoline eventually follows. But it can take weeks for consumers to feel the full impacts. That's because refiners make gasoline with oil purchased in advance. The finished product then has to travel through a system of pipelines and trucks to reach gas station pumps.

Gas station owners set prices at the pump, and to stay competitive, they sometimes absorb the impact of higher oil prices instead of immediately passing it along to customers.

To suppress high oil prices during the war, the U.S. and other countries released oil from their emergency stockpiles starting in March. But those stockpiles won’t last forever.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 319.5 million barrels as of July 3. The last time the inventory was that low was in 1983, when the reserve was initially being filled up.

“Unfortunately, the drawdown of strategic stocks means that there is a lot less ammunition in Trump’s holster,” said Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at Energy Policy Research Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts.

A barrel of U.S. benchmark crude was selling for $75.80 on Wednesday, the highest price in more than two weeks. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed close to $79 per barrel, its highest level since June 19.

The market reaction "highlights how sensitive prices remain to any escalation around the strait, given its role as a critical transit route for global oil flows,” Leon said.

Shipping uncertainty increases after fresh strikes

A day after the U.S. accused Iran of striking three commercial vessels and revoked the country's ability to openly sell crude oil on the world market, some advised the shipping industry to reconsider whether it was safe to send crewed ships through the Strait of Hormuz — and the wider Middle East.

International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez condemned attacks on ships in the strait.

“As long as the safety and security of crews cannot be assured, I urge flag states, shipowners, operators and all relevant authorities to avoid exposing seafarers to unnecessary danger by transiting the strait,” Dominguez said Wednesday. “The situation in the region remains volatile.”

Some traffic traversed the strait on Tuesday, according to data and analytics company Kpler, which verified 41 crossings compared to 36 on Monday. It was unclear if the crossings happened before or after the strikes. Some vessels also are going “dark” to pass through the strait and not broadcasting their locations, further complicating a complete count.

With the central route through the strait uncrossable due to mines, ships have been using two other routes, the smaller northern route, which goes through Iranian waters, and the southern route, which goes through Omani waters. The three ships struck Tuesday appeared to be using the Omani route.

An economist at advisory firm Oxford Economics said the ceasefire probably would continue to be on-and-off and Washington and Tehran could still deescalate the latest tensions instead of returning to war.

“The question is whether the latest developments merely represent a bump in the road or if we’re emerging from the ‘eye of the storm,‘” Ben May, the firm's director of global macroeconomic research, wrote in a research note. “While Trump said negotiations with Iran were a ‘waste of time’, he maintained an off-ramp by noting that U.S. negotiators would continue talks with Iran, suggesting the truce hasn’t been irrevocably broken.”

The new doubts about the Strait of Hormuz came after two of the biggest shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, announced Monday that their Gemini Corporation joint partnership would gradually resume service in the Suez Canal, which was paused due to attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis.

Recent stability in the Middle East created the conditions for the companies' decision, but "the recent deterioration could put this resumption in jeopardy once again,” said Judah Levine, head of research at freight booking platform Freightos. “The said.

Hapag-Lloyd said in a Wednesday statement that it made the joint decision after “thorough assessments of the security situation in the Red Sea area” and “if the situation changes or deteriorates, contingency plans are in place.”

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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 Clayman 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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Erling Haaland’s “Viking Row” and seven goals powered the team to compete in the country’s first-ever quarter-final. It’s at 5 p.m. against England at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, the 25-year-old striker secured the win against Brazil with a second-half brace. Martin Ødegaard, Norway’s captain, is counting on him to deliver against The Three Lions.

“It’s going to be a big test for us,” Ødegaard said on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale.

The Norwegian team practiced on a hot Wednesday at the Inter Miami CF Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

During a news conference, Ødegaard described England’s players, some of whom are his Premier League teammates, as “outstanding” and “world class.”

For Haaland, the match will also be a Golden Boot showdown against Harry Kane, the captain of England and Bayern Munich.

England’s players were practicing on Wednesday in Kansas City. England is the 1966 FIFA World Cup winner and placed fourth in 1990 and 2018.

Six other teams also advanced to the quarterfinals, which begin on Thursday.

• Morocco and France advanced to play at 4 p.m. on July 9th.
• Belgium and Spain advanced to play at 3 p.m. on July 10.
• Switzerland and Argentina advanced to play at 9 p.m. on July 11.

Related story: Argentine fans celebrate in Miami Beach after advancing to quarterfinals

Eliminations

Eight teams were eliminated: Colombia, Egypt, the U.S., Portugal, Canada, Paraguay, Mexico, and Brazil.

Related story: Ruben Vargas sends Switzerland to the World Cup quarterfinals in shootout win over Colombia

The tournament, held every four years, started with 48 teams on June 11.

After matches within 12 groups of four, 16 teams were eliminated. The Round of 32 matches eliminated the 16 others from June 28 to Friday.

Related link: View the knockout bracket

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Quarterfinals

July 9

Morocco vs. France at 4 p.m.

July 10

Belgium vs. Spain at 3 p.m.

July 11

• Norway vs. England is at 5 p.m.
• Switzerland vs. Argentina is at 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

July 14: 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

July 18: The third-place play-off match is at 5 p.m. at the Miami Stadium, better known as the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

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.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner, two-time World Series champion and 2011 AL MVP will retire after this season with the Detroit Tigers.

Verlander made the announcement on Wednesday, shortly after he was added as a Legend Pick to the American League All-Star roster.

“While I'm fully committed to giving my team everything I have for the rest of this season, I've decided this will be my last,” Verlander shared on social media. “It's fitting that I get to finish where it all started — with the Detroit Tigers, the organization that drafted me and gave me my first opportunity.”

Oldest player in the majors

The 43-year-old Verlander is the oldest player in Major League Baseball. He signed a $13 million, one-year contract to rejoin the Tigers in February.

Verlander allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings during a 9-6 road loss at Arizona on March 30.

That was his only start this year.

“It’s time for the next chapter,” Verlander said. “But first, I’m excited to finish this season the only way I know how — with everything I’ve got.”

Verlander has dealt with injuries this season

He went on the injured list with hip inflammation early in the season and when the right-hander was nearing a return last month, he pulled a hamstring during a bullpen session.

“I never wanted to retire because of a milestone, a number, or a date on the calendar,” Verlander said. “I wanted the game to tell me when it was time. Over the last several months, I've realized that time has come.”

He was scheduled to pitch in June and make what would have been his first start with the Tigers at Comerica Park since August 30, 2017 — the day before he was traded to the Astros.

Cy Young winner and World Series champion

He went 183-115 from 2005 to 2017 with the Tigers. He won the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2006 and both the AL MVP and Cy Young Award in 2011. He helped Detroit reach the World Series in 2006 and 2012 along with four straight division titles from 2011 to 2014.

Verlander was the 2017 ALCS MVP in Houston and helped the Astros win the World Series that year and was a key player for them when they won another title in 2022. He won his second and third Cy Young Award in 2019 and 2022.

“I've been fortunate to play with and against incredible players, for outstanding organizations, and compete in front of fans who deeply appreciate the game,” Verlander said.

All-Star Game tribute

While he will not play in the All-Star Game, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Verlander will be at the game in Philadelphia on Tuesday and will be honored during the festivities.

“The opportunity to attend once again is something I'll cherish and it will be an incredibly special moment for me and my family," said Verlander, who is married to model Kate Upton and has two children.

Verlander has a career record of 266-159 with a 3.33 ERA in 556 starts across 21 Major League seasons with the Tigers, Astros, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. He has 3,554 strikeouts while tossing 26 complete games, including nine shutouts.

He joins Bryce Harper of the host Philadelphia Phillies as a Legend Pick for the 2026 Midsummer Classic. Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Clayton Kershaw in 2025 have been recognized as baseball legends at previous All-Star games.

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

It came despite a fresh storm of old Trump criticism toward U.S. allies that seemed to put his commitment in doubt. In the end, Trump told reporters, “There was a lot of love in that room. A lot of unity."

"We’ve had a tremendous time and I think a great success," Trump said later at a news conference.

In a declaration, the leaders said their pledge to Article 5 of NATO’s treaty is “ironclad.” They said that “an attack on one is an attack on all.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said U.S. allies “warmly welcomed President Trump’s leadership.” It jarred after Trump had insisted his America should take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous part of ally Denmark.

“The message from this summit is simple. NATO delivers,” Rutte said.

Here are some takeaways from the summit.

Iran strikes and a possible NATO role

Most of the time, U.S. military strikes are ordered up while the president is close to home.

So Trump’s decision to authorize retaliatory strikes on Iran shortly after leaving a NATO leaders’ dinner was unusual, and underscored a beef he has with the alliance.

Trump has complained bitterly that allies didn’t help him keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Intriguingly, Rutte refused to rule out a future role for the alliance in the war.

“Obviously Iran is outside NATO territory,” Rutte said. He added: “If helpful, NATO is always willing to play a role. But first now, let’s see what happens over the coming days and weeks.” It’s something likely to please Trump.

NATO prides itself as a defensive alliance focused on protecting the transatlantic area. Its last venture outside, into Afghanistan, ended in chaos and allies are reluctant to get drawn into any other war.

Let them have Patriots, and perhaps F-35s

Trump said the U.S. will give a license for its Patriot air defense systems to be made overseas for Ukraine to counter Russian missile attacks — a huge coup for Ukraine, which sorely needs the technology for a war now in its fifth year.

“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said as he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”

Patriots are expensive, in high demand and take a long time to produce. Zelenskyy has for years been asking for more, and recently for a license so that Ukraine can manufacture its own, and faster.

In an uplifting moment for the summit host, Trump announced that the U.S. was prepared to lift sanctions on Turkey, opening the way for the possible sale of F-35 jets to the country, despite objections from Israel.

"I haven’t totally made up my mind,” he said.

Ankara purchased Russian missile defense systems in 2019 and was kicked out of the F-35 program.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has developed a close relationship with Trump, gave a thumbs-up after an interpreter relayed the news.

Good news for Ukraine; a softer Trump tone and a big loan

Beyond the Patriot announcement, Trump dropped his usual critical tone with Zelenskyy and praised his willingness to reach a deal on ending the fighting in Ukraine.

Trump said the Ukrainian president has “done an amazing job” and “been very effective” in the war.

“We’ve actually developed a good relationship. It’s hard to believe,” Trump said.

NATO leaders, meanwhile, agreed on a 70 billion euro ($80 billion) package of military support for Ukraine both this year and in 2027.

The figure involves 30 billion euros each year from a European Union loan program for Ukraine plus 40 billion euros from NATO allies. The Trump administration has all but stopped U.S. spending on Ukraine, and the United States will not take part.

NATO diplomats say that most of the 40 billion euros for 2026 has already been raised.

More cash and defense deals, and a stronger Europe

The meeting was marked by Rutte’s high-energy sales pitch to Trump. The former Dutch prime minister estimated that European allies and Canada would spend almost $300 billion more on defense this year and last.

At a “big reveal” defense industry event, backed by thumping techno music and slick videos, Rutte hailed the “tens of billions” of dollars that were being spent on weapons and military equipment contracts.

“I would argue that without you in this chair, this would not have happened,” Rutte told Trump in a tete-a-tete just before the meeting began. “Grab the win. It’s there.” Trump appears to have done so.

In their summit declaration, the leaders marked the start of a major transformation at the world’s biggest military alliance, saying that they are “building the future: a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO.”

Mystery surrounds NATO’s next summit

Albania was left wondering when, and perhaps even whether, it will host NATO’s next summit.

The Balkans country had been due to host one in 2027, but instead of referencing that rendezvous as they usually do, the leaders only said: “We look forward to our next meeting.”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a former professional basketball player, is generally well liked by his fellow leaders, but some NATO allies have cooled on the idea of holding a summit in Albania given his country’s low rate of defense spending.

Others want to avoid another potentially divisive meeting with Trump. Rutte said that Albania would be the venue, "but of course we still have to decide on an exact time.”

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Ankara, Turkey, and Michelle L. Price and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.

La espectacular jugada de Erling Haaland, con sus siete goles, impulsó al equipo a disputar los primeros cuartos de final en la historia del país. El sábado harán historia en Miami Gardens.

Con una estatura de 1,96 metros, el delantero de 25 años aseguró la victoria contra Brasil con un doblete en la segunda mitad. Martin Ødegaard, capitán de Noruega , cuenta con él para el partido contra Inglaterra.

“Va a ser una gran prueba para nosotros”, dijo Ødegaard el miércoles sobre el partido de las 5 de la tarde del sábado en el Hard Rock Stadium.

El equipo noruego entrenó el miércoles en el Inter Miami CF Chase Stadium en Fort Lauderdale.

Durante una rueda de prensa, Ødegaard describió a los jugadores de Inglaterra, algunos de los cuales son sus compañeros de equipo en la Premier League, como “sobresalientes” y de “clase mundial”.

Para Haaland, el partido también será un duelo por la Bota de Oro contra Harry Kane, el capitán de Inglaterra. y el Bayern de Múnich.

Inglaterra estuvo entrenando el miércoles en Kansas City .

Otros seis equipos también avanzaron a los cuartos de final, que comienzan el jueves.

• Marruecos y Francia avanzaron para jugar a las 4 de la tarde del 9 de julio.
• Bélgica y España avanzaron para jugar a las 3 de la tarde del 10 de julio.
• Suiza y Argentina avanzaron para jugar a las 9 pm del 11 de julio.

Noticia relacionada: Aficionados argentinos celebran en Miami Beach tras avanzar a cuartos de final

Eliminaciones

Ocho equipos fueron eliminados: Colombia , Egipto , Estados Unidos , Portugal , Canadá , Paraguay , México y Brasil .

Noticia relacionada : Rubén Vargas clasifica a Suiza para los cuartos de final del Mundial tras vencer a Colombia en la tanda de penaltis.

El torneo, que se celebra cada cuatro años, comenzó el 11 de junio con 48 equipos participantes.

Tras los partidos disputados en 12 grupos de cuatro, 16 equipos fueron eliminados. Los dieciseisavos de final, que se jugaron entre el 28 de junio y el viernes, eliminaron a los 16 restantes .

Enlace relacionado : Ver el cuadro de eliminatorias

CALENDARIO DEL TORNEO

Cuartos de final

9 de julio

Marruecos contra Francia a las 16:00

10 de julio

Bélgica contra España a las 15:00

11 de julio

• El partido entre Noruega e Inglaterra es a las 17:00.
• Suiza contra Argentina a las 9 pm

Fiesta para ver el partido al amanecer : El Amerant Bank Arena, un recinto cubierto, organiza una fiesta gratuita para ver el partido a las 17:00 horas del 11 de julio para quienes tengan entrada . El aparcamiento es gratuito.

Semifinales

14 de julio : Hay un partido de semifinales a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 14 de julio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido de semifinales.

15 de julio : Hay un partido de semifinales a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 15 de julio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido de semifinales.

Finales

18 de julio : El partido por el tercer puesto se disputará a las 17:00 horas en el Miami Stadium, más conocido como Hard Rock Stadium en Miami Gardens.

Fiesta para ver la final en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 18 de julio en The Sandbowl, detrás de The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para la final de bronce de las 5 pm.

Viaje al amanecer al estadio : El Amerant Bank Arena ofrece estacionamiento gratuito para los poseedores de entradas para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA que utilicen el servicio de autobús exprés gratuito del condado de Broward para llegar al Miami Stadium, también conocido como Hard Rock, en Miami Gardens.

19 de julio : El partido final es a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver la final en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a la 1 pm del 19 de julio en The Sandbowl, detrás de The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para la final que comienza a las 3 pm.

Fiesta para ver el partido al amanecer : El Amerant Bank Arena, un recinto cubierto, organiza una fiesta gratuita para ver la final el 19 de julio para los poseedores de entradas . El estacionamiento es gratuito.

In the first set of minutes released under new chair Kevin Warsh, “many” of the Fed's 19 officials said its key rate would be unchanged from or slightly below its current level of 3.6% by the end of this year. But “many” also said that it would likely be higher by year-end.

Forecasts released after the meeting ended June 17 showed that half of the 18 policymakers who submitted projections supported lifting rates by the end of this year, while the other half supported keeping them unchanged or reducing them. Warsh did not submit a forecast, reflecting his view that doing so can lock policymakers into a specific approach that is harder to change if the economy shifts direction.

Half support a hike by end of year, half don't

The minutes underscored the deep divisions among Fed officials, particularly over the future path of inflation. The policymakers generally expected inflation would decline as gas prices cooled and the effect of tariffs faded. Yet many officials also worried that massive investment in the artificial intelligence buildout would keep inflation elevated by lifting prices for semiconductors and other technology goods.

The minutes, released three weeks after the June 16-17 meeting, also said that a few officials believed there was “a case for raising” the Fed’s rate at that meeting, but they agreed to keep it unchanged, a decision that was approved by a unanimous vote. The minutes don't disclose the identities of which officials supported which outcomes.

Warsh was appointed by President Donald Trump earlier this year to replace Jerome Powell, whose term ended in May. Trump had repeatedly criticized Powell for not reducing borrowing costs quickly enough, but for now there's little sign Warsh is moving to cut rates. Powell, meanwhile, is still on the Fed's policymaking committee, serving a term as a Fed governor that lasts until January 2028.

During a news conference June 17, Warsh emphasized that the Fed will return inflation to its 2% target, which it has missed for more than five years. His comments were interpreted by economists and Wall Street investors as evidence that the Fed may hike rates later this year.

AI likely to be an inflation driver, minutes say

A key concern for many Fed officials is the potential for the AI buildout to contribute to higher inflation by pushing up prices for semiconductors, computer equipment, and electricity. Data centers require significant power to operate.

“Many participants noted that ongoing strong demand for AI infrastructure would likely sustain upward pressure on prices for technology products and electricity,” the minutes said.

Last month, Apple said it would increase the price of laptops and iPads because of more expensive memory chips.

Consumers are worried inflation will stay high

Inflation has worsened since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, reaching a three-year high of 4.2% in May. As the conflict has eased, gas prices have fallen back and inflation is likely to cool when June’s figures are reported next week.

But another concern for the Fed is whether Americans are increasingly expecting prices to stay high. If consumers and businesses assume inflation will remain elevated, such an outcome can become self-fulfilling. Businesses then are more likely to raise prices in anticipation of higher costs and more workers are likely seek higher pay to offset rising costs.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday that its measure of consumer expectations for inflation one year from now rose to 3.7%, the highest in nearly three years. Expectations for inflation in three years rose to 3.3%, a four-year high.

Most Fed officials, including Warsh, say they closely monitor expectations, though many put more weight on financial market measures. Those measures have been lower and more stable than those based on consumer surveys.

Los Dolphins realizarán ocho prácticas abiertas al público, además de una práctica adicional exclusivamente para los miembros con boletos de temporada. La entrada y el estacionamiento serán gratuitos para todas las prácticas del campamento de entrenamiento.

La primera práctica pública está programada para el domingo 2 de agosto como parte del “Back Together Weekend” de la NFL, presentado por Baptist Health.

Los aficionados también tendrán la oportunidad de ver al equipo participar en una práctica conjunta con los New York Giants el jueves 20 de agosto.

El equipo realizará una práctica en el Hard Rock Stadium el sábado 8 de agosto, que también estará abierta al público. Todas las prácticas comenzarán a las 9:30 a.m., a menos que se indique lo contrario.

Se recomienda a los aficionados confirmar su asistencia a través de la página oficial del campamento de entrenamiento de los Dolphins para recibir actualizaciones de asistencia, cambios en el calendario e información sobre obsequios.

El campamento de este año incluirá obsequios para los primeros 1,000 aficionados cada día, camiones de comida locales, actividades para los aficionados y una venta de garaje a beneficio de la Miami Dolphins Foundation.

Los organizadores del evento informaron que los aficionados que asistan a las prácticas en el Baptist Health Training Complex tendrán acceso a asientos bajo sombra con ventiladores y asientos tipo estadio por orden de llegada.

Algunos jugadores firmarán autógrafos después de las prácticas cada día, si el clima lo permite.

El campamento de entrenamiento de 2026 marcará el sexto año en que los Dolphins realizan prácticas en el Baptist Health Training Complex, que abrió en Miami Gardens en 2021.

Las fechas y horarios de las prácticas están sujetos a cambios. Los aficionados pueden encontrar las actualizaciones más recientes a través de la página oficial del campamento de entrenamiento de los Dolphins y de la cuenta oficial del equipo en X.

Los aficionados también tendrán su primer vistazo al plantel de los Dolphins conformado por el gerente general de primer año Jon-Eric Sullivan y el entrenador en jefe de primer año Jeff Hafley, quienes llegaron a Miami después de pasar tiempo con los Green Bay Packers.

Se espera que el mariscal de campo Malik Willis comience el campamento de entrenamiento como titular del equipo después de haber sido suplente de Jordan Love en Green Bay y de firmar en marzo un contrato de tres años y $67.5 millones USD con los Dolphins. El acuerdo incluye $45 millones USD totalmente garantizados al momento de la firma y un bono por firma de $22.25 millones USD.

Calendario público del campamento de entrenamiento 2026 de los Miami Dolphins

Fecha	Hora	Notas	Patrocinador
Domingo, 2 de agosto	9:30 a. m.	Fin de semana de reencuentro	Salud Bautista
Lunes, 3 de agosto	9:30 a. m.	Práctica pública	Pepsi
Martes, 4 de agosto	9:30 a. m.	Práctica pública	Gatorade Bajo en Azúcar
Jueves, agosto. 6	9:30 a.m.	Entrenamiento público	Snickers
Viernes, 7 de agosto	9:30 a.m.	Entrenamiento público	Ticketmaster
Sábado, 8 de agosto	10:15 a.m.	Entrenamiento en el Hard Rock Stadium	Bud Light
Lunes, 10 de agosto	9:30 a.m.	Entrenamiento público	City Home
Martes, 18 de agosto	9:30 a.m.	Día de los abonados	Publix
Jueves, 20 de agosto	9:30 a.m.	Práctica conjunta contra los New York Giants	Psycho Bunny

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The Dolphins will host eight practices open to the public, along with one additional practice exclusively for season ticket members. Admission and parking will be free for all training camp practices.

The first public practice is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 2, as part of the NFL’s “Back Together Weekend,” presented by Baptist Health.

Fans will also have the chance to watch the team participate in a joint practice with the New York Giants on Thursday, Aug. 20.

The team will hold one practice at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 8, which will also be open to the public. All practices will begin at 9:30 a.m. unless otherwise noted.

Fans are encouraged to RSVP through the Dolphins’ official training camp page to receive attendance updates, schedule changes and information about giveaways.

This year’s camp will include giveaways for the first 1,000 fans each day, local food trucks, fan activities and a garage sale benefiting the Miami Dolphins Foundation.

Event organizers said fans attending practices at the Baptist Health Training Complex will have access to shaded seating with fans and stadium-style seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

Select players will sign autographs after practices each day, weather permitting.

The 2026 training camp will mark the sixth year the Dolphins have held practices at the Baptist Health Training Complex, which opened in Miami Gardens in 2021.

Practice times and dates are subject to change. Fans can find the latest updates through the Dolphins’ official training camp page and the team’s official X account.

Fans will also get their first look at the Dolphins’ roster built by first-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and first-year head coach Jeff Hafley, who both joined Miami after spending time with the Green Bay Packers.

Quarterback Malik Willis is expected to begin training camp as the team’s starter after spending time as Jordan Love’s backup in Green Bay and signing a three-year, $67.5 million contract with the Dolphins in March. The deal includes $45 million fully guaranteed at signing and a $22.25 million signing bonus.

Miami Dolphins 2026 public training camp schedule

Letters to states and grant application details are the latest in a line of actions by Trump’s administration to shape details of running elections that have long been the job of states.

Courts have largely rejected the administration’s previous efforts, which reflect untrue claims about widespread voting fraud and come less than four months ahead of crucial midterm elections where Democrats seek to take control of one or both chambers of Congress and check Trump’s power.

“The overall point is that Trump is trying to use whatever levers of power and persuasive power that he might have to try to interfere with how states and localities are going to conduct the 2026 election,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and the director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project. “Some of this is aimed at changing how the rules are conducted. Some of it appears to be aimed at undermining voter confidence in the integrity of the election process.”

Justice Department warns election officials of prosecution

In letters sent Tuesday, to election officials for all 50 states and the District of Columbia — often secretaries of state — the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division said they and other election administrators could face criminal charges if they knowingly allow nonvoters to vote or remain on voting rolls.

It also called on the states to tell the federal government within five days how they intend to comply with the law.

Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who specializes in election law, said it’s not clear the 50-state letter means anything except to restate some parts of the law, with a request to follow up, “which I’m sure many states will ignore.”

The letter also warns that anyone who knowingly and willfully gives false information in registering to vote or voting would face criminal prosecution.

Antiterrorism grants include election requirements

A Federal Emergency Management Agency antiterrorism grant announcement in June includes a list of election-related requirements, saying that 20% of grants for states and urban areas would be withheld until they comply.

The program includes more than $1 billion for states and local and tribal governments for a variety of programs aimed at preventing terror at crowded places, online, with border security — and around elections. FEMA expects to award 56 grants.

“Recipients can ensure that their efforts contribute to a secure, transparent, and resilient electoral process, thereby reinforcing public trust and the integrity of democratic institutions,” the grant announcement says, noting that securing election infrastructure is a national security priority.

The list of items for states includes verifying the citizenship of all registered voters and election workers.

Places that use electronic voting systems that use bar codes or QR codes to count votes would have to submit plans to switch to hand-marked paper ballots. Every jurisdiction would have to show it audits results.

UCLA's Hasen said it could be difficult even for states that want to comply. It's too close to the midterm election to make some of the changes, he said, and some would require state legislatures to pass new laws.

The White House on Wednesday referred questions to FEMA, which did not immediately respond to an interview request.

Response from states appears to be partisan

Some states are pushing back, while others are defending the latest actions.

They seem to be breaking along party lines.

Oregon’s secretary of state, Democrat Tobias Read, accused the Justice Department of “knocking on our door again with more threats and no evidence to back up their fever dreams about non-existent voter fraud.”

Oregon elections are secure, accurate, and fair, he said, adding that he isn’t “intimidated by political threats or manufactured controversy.”

The Michigan secretary of state’s office, headed by Democrat Jocelyn Benson, said it has discussed its work repeatedly with the Justice Department and in public statements, congressional hearings and court testimony — information that it said “is either in the DOJ’s possession or easy reach.”

“We will be happy to provide it again to help address any confusion,” the office said in a statement.

In a statement, Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose defended the Justice Department’s missive to states, saying it’s reminding them of their legal obligation regarding election integrity. A lot of states aren’t taking it seriously, he said without giving examples or citing evidence. He said Ohio has worked with the federal government to ensure that its voter rolls are accurate and that only U.S. citizens vote.

Georgia's secretary of state's office says the state has already taken many of the actions required in the FEMA grant, including a citizenship audit of voter rolls.

Several of Trump's election actions have faced resistance

Trump has repeatedly and wrongly asserted that fraud cost him reelection in 2020, and his administration has put forth a series of policies and actions aimed at how elections are run.

In recent days, courts have rejected the Justice Department's effort to collect the names and contact information for every election worker in Georgia in the 2020 election and others trying to force New Hampshire and Pennsylvania to turn over detailed information about registered voters. With those rulings, the federal government has lost similar cases more than 10 times around its requests for details from 30 states and the District of Columbia.

Last week, a group of Democratic governors asked the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw its proposed rule seeking to implement an order from Trump to create a list of eligible voters — and potentially limit who can receive a ballot in the mail. A court previously put the order on hold, saying it was unconstitutional.

Also last week, the Supreme Court rebuked Trump and ruled that states can count mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day.

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Associated Press reporters Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Bill Barrow, Kate Brumback and Josh Kelety contributed to this article.

The president has already deposited the money in an account. The U.S. Supreme Court recently let the 2023 civil verdict stand, clearing the way for Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to release the money. The initial $5 million award has grown with interest.

The jury found Trump attacked Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store, and defamed her after she talked publicly about it in a 2019 memoir, during his first term as president.

Trump’s attorneys said Wednesday they would continue to challenge the verdicts, and accused his political opponents of using the legal system against him. They have appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Carroll’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The jury had reached its verdict — in a trial that Trump did not attend — after Carroll testified that a flirtatious and friendly chance encounter at the luxury department store turned violent. Trump repeatedly insisted that he never knew Carroll, now 82. He also accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and having political motives.

Trump is also appealing $83 million in defamation compensation granted to Carroll by a separate Manhattan jury after a January 2024 trial at which Trump briefly testified.

At that trial, Kaplan required the jury to accept the findings of the previous jury and only determine how much money, if any, Trump owed Carroll for comments he made about her as president.

Trump's lawyers complained that the judge, in setting rules for the damages trial, had barred Trump and his defense team from telling the jury that the encounter with Carroll never happened.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working toward securing legal status in the U.S. and knew what to do if stopped by ICE, his son said.

Ronaldo Salgado said his father may have been scared that the people in unmarked vehicles were coming to steal the tools he used for 35 years to build homes, from sunrise to sunset, so he could send his three American sons to college.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream," Salgado said during a news conference.

The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for Houston's Mexican American community for a century.

Federal officials say their vehicle was rammed but don’t provide evidence

Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday in a statement. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.

Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.

Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle and that no one has heard from any of them since.

Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the alleged damage to the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.

In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.

A video shot by bystander Juliet Martinez shows a black vehicle angled towards a white van, their doors wide open. A bleeding and handcuffed man groans loudly on the ground and his leg shakes. Other federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed men.

Civil rights groups say ICE can't be trusted with the investigation

The federal crackdown has created a country where it is “open season on Latinos” by officers who think they can “shoot and explain later,” League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said during the news conference.

The way ICE has handled previous investigations shows they have not earned the trust of taking their statements as facts without evidence like video to back it up, he said.

“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.

The league offered a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses. Ronaldo Salgado and several civil rights organizations called for an independent investigation. Some of them begged anyone with videos to not turn them over to ICE, which they said could destroy them.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo’s family and the community deserve the truth but federal authorities are exclusively handling the investigation at this time.

There's been an uptick in arrests in recent weeks

Representatives of ICE and DHS have not responded to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March with the aim of keeping it away from the controversies that had marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

In the months after two fatal shootings in Minnesota sparked a fierce backlash, the number of immigration arrests across the country fell and ICE appeared to recalibrate its tactics. But in late June, arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

The shooting was at least the eighth death resulting from an encounter with federal immigration officers since the start of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Son says his father worked hard for decades

Ronaldo Salgado said his mother was told something bad had happened to his dad around 7 a.m. Tuesday. After frantically looking for him at his job site and finding his empty van, he saw a video.

“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street," Salgado said.

Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico. They came to America and built their own home in Houston with help from friends and family who worked on his crew. His wife made his lunch before he left for the day and had a hearty meal ready when he came home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on his porch, Salgado said.

“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”

Salgado Araujo had biometric scan and fingerprints done earlier this year, his son said, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared having his tools stolen, his son said.

“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.

Mexico's president criticizes the latest killing

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is considering legal measures or may ask the United Nations to step in to stop the violence against Mexicans in the United States.

“There has been another tragic death of one of our compatriots in the United States due to detention issues, even though their only ‘offense’ is not yet having proper documentation,” Sheinbaum said.

Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.

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Brook reported from New Orleans and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle; Gisela Salomon in Miami; Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C.; and Ryan J. Foley in Omaha contributed.

El nuevo reglamento busca despejar los temores de los inversionistas internacionales sobre el compromiso de las autoridades venezolanas de proteger la inversión y abolir las nacionalizaciones en el sector petrolero y gasífero del país.

Además apunta a agilizar las operaciones y actualizar el marco normativo de las inversiones, acotó Rodríguez en un acto en el Palacio de Gobierno que fue televisado, sin dar otros detalles. La ley de hidrocarburos, aprobada el 29 de enero, abrió el sector a la inversión extranjera.

Desde que asumió el poder en enero Rodríguez ha hecho esfuerzos por mostrar que la industria petrolera venezolana se ha abierto al capital privado, al arbitraje internacional y al escrutinio.

El reglamento, el primero en 83 años, entrará en vigor tras su publicación en la Gaceta Oficial y fue promulgado seis meses después de que fuerzas estadounidenses capturaran a su predecesor Nicolás Maduro. El gobierno del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, en tanto, se ha propuesto un plan de “tres fases” que incluye la estabilización, la recuperación y la transición democrática del país.

En sintonía con la aprobación de la ley, el Departamento del Tesoro comenzó oficialmente a flexibilizar las sanciones al petróleo venezolano, que en su momento paralizaron la industria, y amplió la capacidad de las compañías energéticas estadounidenses para operar en el país sudamericano.

La presidenta en funciones ha dicho repetidamente que la ley es “respetuosa” de la soberanía del país, dejando en claro que los yacimientos petroleros seguirán siendo propiedad del Estado venezolano y destacando que es “una ley clara, con seguridad jurídica, con normas, adaptada a las prácticas internacionales de este sector”.

A pesar de poseer una de las mayores reservas de petróleo del mundo —-estimada en unos 303.000 millones de barriles, según la Oficina de Información Energética de Estados Unidos— Venezuela enfrenta una crisis de larga data agravada por el sostenido deterioro de su economía y el colapso de su industria petrolera, la principal fuente de sus ingresos en divisas.

Los críticos del gobierno atribuyen el colapso del sector a una mala gestión y a la corrupción en la petrolera estatal Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) bajo la administración de los gobiernos socialistas del presidente Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), predecesor y mentor político de Maduro (2013-2026).

La reforma modifica y revoca una serie de impuestos a la extracción, estableciendo un límite de regalías del 30% y permitiendo al Poder Ejecutivo fijar porcentajes para cada proyecto en la fase de ejecución en función de las necesidades de inversión de capital, la competitividad y otros factores. El inversor asumirá el costo operativo y los riesgos de la financiación.

El gobierno de Rodríguez espera que los cambios sirvan de garantía para las principales petroleras estadounidenses que hasta ahora han dudado en regresar al país. Algunas de estas compañías perdieron inversiones cuando el partido gobernante promulgó la anterior ley hace dos décadas para favorecer a PDVSA.

Bolsonaro se encuentra actualmente bajo arresto domiciliario en Brasilia, la capital brasileña, donde cumple una condena de 27 años por intentar un golpe de Estado tras su derrota electoral de 2022 ante el presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“Acabo de salir de la residencia de (Bolsonaro) después de presenciar otro registro e incautación por parte de la policía federal”, afirmó el abogado João Henrique Nascimento de Freitas. “No se encontró nada”.

Un funcionario de la policía federal que pidió el anonimato porque no estaba autorizado a hablar públicamente del asunto confirmó que no se incautó nada.

El Supremo Tribunal Federal de Brasil ordenó el registro después de que saliera a la luz una discrepancia entre el número de armas de fuego registradas legalmente a nombre de Bolsonaro y las entregadas a las autoridades competentes, según una decisión judicial firmada por el juez Alexandre de Moraes el martes.

El mes pasado, la policía incautó un arma de fuego propiedad de Bolsonaro que estaba en posesión de un oficial militar en un retén. El viernes, De Moraes concedió a Bolsonaro autorización para permanecer bajo arresto domiciliario pese al incidente.

Un panel de jueces del Supremo Tribunal Federal condenó al exmandatario en septiembre, y éste comenzó a cumplir su condena en noviembre. En marzo, se le concedió arresto domiciliario por problemas de salud.

El juicio de Bolsonaro recibió amplia atención internacional después de que el presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, impusiera un arancel del 50% a los productos brasileños alegando, entre otras razones, una “caza de brujas” dirigida contra su aliado.

Eduardo, uno de los hijos de Bolsonaro, fue condenado este año por hacer cabildeo ilegal ante el gobierno de Estados Unidos para amenazar a funcionarios brasileños con el fin de detener el juicio de su padre.

Muchos de los aranceles se levantaron posteriormente, aunque el gobierno de Trump amenazó recientemente con más aranceles por presuntas prácticas comerciales desleales, aun cuando Estados Unidos mantiene un fuerte superávit comercial con Brasil.

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

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According to Fort Lauderdale police, officers responded to the 1300 block of Northwest 13^th Court shortly before 4:30 a.m. after receiving a ShotSpotter alert in the area.

While searching the Lauderdale Manors neighborhood, officers found the victim in his car, with a gunshot wound, authorities said.

Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim’s father identified him to Local 10 News as 32-year-old Mike Menard. He said his son leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter.

“Very devastating, we understand that. Like I tell you, but I try to be strong,” Philippe Menard said.

Mike Menard was parked outside his family’s home when he was shot.

Surveillance video shows him walking to the car just minutes before he was shot and killed.

Local 10 cameras captured at least three bullet holes in the driver’s side window of the vehicle.

A truck parked next to it was also hit by gunfire.

The sound of the shots startled neighbors.

“We were scared. We had turned off all our electronics because we didn’t know where it was coming from. Like it sounded really close,” neighbor Nevaeh Brown said.

Overnight, homicide detectives searched the street. K-9 units also swept the scene after daybreak.

The victim’s father told Local 10 News that someone set fire to his home’s plants last week, and just days later, someone fired shots at the house.

“We heard that at night, but we cannot come out to see. So when we call police, they come here, they take pictures,” Philippe Menard said.

Philippe Menard described his son as a bright young man who ran with the wrong crowd.

He’s now left wondering if last week’s incidents could be connected to his son’s killing.

“He went to a university -- the guy’s (more) knowledgeable than me,” Philippe Menard said. “I didn’t reach that level. I can’t tell him, ‘Hey, I talk to you and you listen.’”

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Fort Lauderdale Police Department or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

The 23-year-old Caglianone joins Ben Rice from the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero in the competition. The other five participants have not yet been announced.

Five Kansas City players have previously participated in the event: Bo Jackson (1989), Danny Tartabull (1991), Mike Moustakas (2017), Salvador Perez (2021) and Bobby Witt Jr. (2024). None have come away with the title.

Witt was the runner-up in 2024 when he hit 50 home runs in total. He hit 13 HRs in the final round, one shy of Teoscar Hernandez’s 14.

In his first full season with the Royals, Caglianone is hitting .258/.322/.455 (77-for-299) with a team-high 14 home runs and 33 RBIs in 85 games. His 14 home runs have averaged 418 feet in length, which is tied for the best average in the majors this season.

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

It's another setback for the board of trustees, of which Trump is chairman, in a saga that began earlier this year when the Kennedy Center became: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

The conspicuous addition, and ensuing legal battle, became symbolic of Trump’s broader push to imprint his legacy — and, in this case, his actual name — on the nation's capital in his final term.

The panel of judges wrote Wednesday that the board of trustee's request "failed to show how they will be irreparably injured” if Trump's name remains off the building through the appeal process.

The board had argued that the removal “threatens to impede" fundraising efforts, but the judges found that claim came without the support of “specific facts or evidence.”

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

“His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people,” said U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio who filed the lawsuit. "Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down.”

She was referring to tarps hung on scaffolding that had obscured the removal of Trump's name, and which still veil that part of the building's marble facade.

When Trump first took office in 2025, he replaced the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, who then named him chairman. His name was quickly added to the building. A federal judge then ruled that the name change was illegal, prompting the ensuing legal battle.

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Jail records show Nathalie Jean, 43, faces one count each of burglary of an unoccupied structure and petty theft.

Jean is the mother of Yakheim Lollar, 17, whose December 2024 killing drew emotional testimony from family members during the sentencing of his ex-girlfriend, Jahara Malik, earlier this year.

According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, Jean’s Kia Telluride had been impounded at King’s Wrecker Service, located at 2151 NW Seventh Ave., after being towed.

Investigators say surveillance video captured Jean arriving at the tow yard in a silver Lexus just after 12:15 p.m. last Wednesday.

Miami police said the video showed Jean exiting the Lexus, entering her SUV, and driving out of the secured lot without authorization or paying approximately $486.45 in towing and storage fees.

The tow yard owner told police that he “never allowed the defendant to enter his towing yard to retrieve her vehicle,” the report states.

After discovering the SUV missing, the owner reviewed surveillance footage and reported it stolen.

Police said the vehicle was located Tuesday inside the parking garage of an apartment complex in the 6100 block of Northwest Seventh Avenue. The owner had the SUV towed back to his business and contacted police, according to the report.

Authorities said Jean later arrived at the tow yard intending to pay the outstanding fees, but employees had already called 911.

They said detectives detained Jean and conducted a recorded interview after advising her of her Miranda rights.

According to the report, Jean admitted to removing the vehicle from the tow yard on July 1 without paying.

Jean’s arrest comes two months after she publicly spoke in a Miami-Dade courtroom during Malik’s sentencing. A judge ultimately sentenced Malik, 18, to 17 years in prison followed by five years of probation.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Jean was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where her bond was listed as “to be set.”

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Nathalie Jean, de 43 años, enfrenta un cargo de allanamiento de una estructura desocupada y otro de hurto menor.

Jean es la madre de Yakheim Lollar, de 17 años, cuya muerte en diciembre de 2024 provocó emotivos testimonios de familiares durante la sentencia de su ex novia, Jahara Malik, a principios de este año.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, la Kia Telluride de Jean había sido confiscada y llevada al depósito de King’s Wrecker Service, ubicado en 2151 NW Seventh Ave., después de ser remolcada.

Los investigadores dijeron que un video de vigilancia captó a Jean llegando al depósito de grúas en un Lexus plateado poco después de las 12:15 p.m. del miércoles pasado.

La Policía de Miami dijo que el video muestra a Jean bajándose del Lexus, entrando a su SUV y saliendo del lote asegurado sin autorización y sin pagar aproximadamente $486.45 USD por cargos de remolque y almacenamiento.

El propietario del depósito de grúas dijo a la Policía que “nunca permitió que la acusada ingresara al depósito para recuperar su vehículo”, señala el informe.

Tras descubrir que la SUV había desaparecido, el propietario revisó las grabaciones de vigilancia y la reportó como robada.

La Policía dijo que el vehículo fue localizado el martes en el estacionamiento de un complejo de apartamentos ubicado en la cuadra 6100 de Northwest Seventh Avenue. Según el informe, el propietario hizo que la SUV fuera remolcada de regreso a su negocio y luego contactó a la Policía.

Las autoridades dijeron que Jean llegó posteriormente al depósito de grúas con la intención de pagar los cargos pendientes, pero los empleados ya habían llamado al 911.

Indicaron que los detectives detuvieron a Jean y realizaron una entrevista grabada después de informarle sobre sus derechos Miranda.

Según el informe, Jean admitió haber sacado el vehículo del depósito de grúas el 1 de julio sin pagar.

El arresto de Jean ocurrió dos meses después de que hablara públicamente en un tribunal de Miami-Dade durante la sentencia de Malik. Finalmente, un juez condenó a Malik, de 18 años, a 17 años de prisión, seguidos de cinco años de libertad condicional.

Hasta la tarde del miércoles, Jean permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza figuraba como “pendiente de ser fijada”.

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In two days, MDSO deputies with the organized crime bureau arrested 12 women who are Chinese nationals, including five who listed Flushing, New York, as their permanent address, records show.

A deputy with the bureau’s vice and intelligence squad posed as a customer at the 10 businesses where there were arrests on Monday and Tuesday, according to the deputies’ arrest reports.

On Tuesday, deputies arrested seven women during undercover operations, from about 12:30 p.m. to about 10:20 p.m., at six massage parlors, records show.

Deputies identified the women as Quirong Xu, Hongli Ren, Zixuan Wang, Yan Xi, Mei Lin, Xiufen Lin, and Yaoying Lin.

Deputies reported arresting Xu, 67, and Ren, 62, at 9865 SW 184 St., in Palmetto Bay, and listed Xu’s permanent address as Flushing, records show.

Xu “advised of prices for sexual acts” and told the undercover deputy it would be “$70 for a hand job,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Deputies reported arresting Yaoying Lin, 58, at 7337 SW 107 Ave., in Kendall. Lin told the undercover deputy it would be “$60 for a hand job,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Deputies reported arresting Xiufen Lin, 51, at 10694 SW 24 St., in Westchester, and listed her permanent address as Flushing.

Xiufen Lin told the undercover deputy that “it would be $150 for sex,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Deputies reported arresting Mei Lin, 49, at 8410 West Flagler St., in Fontainebleau, and listed her permanent address as Flushing.

Mei Lin told the undercover deputy that “it would be $100 for a naked hand job,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Deputies reported arresting Xi, 48, at 17033 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay. Xi told the undercover deputy it would be “$100 for a hand job,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

Deputies reported arresting Wang, 46, at 7428 SW 117 Ave., in Kendall, and listed her permanent address as Flushing, records show. Wang told the undercover deputy it would be “$60 for a hand job,” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

On Monday, deputies reported arresting Yuping Li, Junrong He, Xun Ou, Qingxiang Zhu, and Youdi Zhuge.

Deputies reported arresting Li, 60, at 10471 SW 40 St. in the Westwood Lakes neighborhood, and listed her permanent address as Flushing.

Deputies reported arresting Zhuge, 58, and He, 52, at 11760 SW 88 St. in Kendall.

Deputies reported arresting Zhu, 57, at 16938 South Dixie Highway in West Perrine.

Deputies reported arresting Ou, 36, at 7375 SW 24 St., in the Coral Terrace neighborhood.

THE CHARGES

County court records show Miami-Dade prosecutors filed 12 cases.

Quirong Xu faced a third-degree felony charge of operating a healthcare practice or profession without an active, valid license.

Hongli Ren and Yaoying Lin faced two misdemeanor charges: Engaging in prostitution and committing an unnatural and lascivious act.

Xun Ou faced three charges: Operating a healthcare practice or profession without an active, valid license, engaging in prostitution, and committing an unnatural and lascivious act.

Zixuan Wang, Yan Xi, Mei Lin, Xiufen Lin, Yuping Li, Junrong He, Qingxiang Zhu, and Youdi Zhuge each faced four charges: Operating a healthcare practice or profession without an active, valid license; practicing massage therapy without a license; engaging in prostitution; and committing an unnatural and lascivious act.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

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According to detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security Bureau who were tasked with addressing intersection takeovers, an organized takeover event took place on Sunday between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. at various locations throughout the country.

Deputies said they identified Damiean Alvarez as a passenger inside a blue Infiniti G35 that was doing donuts at the intersection of Northwest 77th Court and 169th Street around 1:20 a.m. while approximately 50 to 60 vehicles were present and blocking the intersection.

Deputies said about two hours later, they again saw Alvarez inside the same blue Infiniti G35 which was doing donuts at the intersection of Northwest 25th Street and 76th Avenue, underneath the Palmetto Expressway, with around 50 to 60 vehicles present and blocking the intersection.

They said during both incidents, Alvarez was wearing a ski mask in an attempt to conceal his identity.

According to deputies, at both scenes, after the vehicles had blocked off all lanes of traffic, “spectators would exit their vehicles and approach the intersection to record and view the “spinner” vehicles do reckless driving patterns.”

Deputies said it was two days later, on Tuesday night around 9:05 p.m., when they took Alvarez into custody at his home along the 2700 block of Northwest 48th Street, where an arrest report indicated that the blue Infiniti was parked in the driveway.

An alleged confession from Alvarez was redacted from his publicly released arrest report.

As of Wednesday morning, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on felony charges of drag racing while masked, for which he was given a total bond of $3,500.

Records indicate he was also wanted on a warrant for a separate domestic violence case, for which his bond is listed as “to be set.”

El incidente ocurrió durante la madrugada de este miércoles en la cuadra 5200 de Wiley Street, en Hollywood.

Según la Policía de Hollywood, los agentes acudieron a la vivienda alrededor de la 1:30 a.m. tras recibir reportes de un altercado que involucraba a un hombre.

Cuando llegaron, los agentes dijeron que el hombre se atrincheró dentro de la vivienda y, alrededor de las 4 a.m., prendió fuego intencionalmente al interior del inmueble.

Equipos de Hollywood Fire Rescue respondieron rápidamente y lograron extinguir el incendio, que, según informaron, causó daños significativos a la vivienda.

La Policía indicó que luego logró sacar al hombre de la vivienda envuelta en llamas antes de ponerlo bajo custodia sin más incidentes.

Las autoridades no informaron si hubo personas heridas y el sospechoso aún no ha sido identificado por la Policía.

Según la Policía de Fort Lauderdale, los agentes acudieron a la cuadra 1300 de Northwest 13th Court poco antes de las 4:30 a.m., tras recibir una alerta de ShotSpotter en el área.

Mientras registraban la zona, los agentes encontraron a la víctima dentro de su vehículo con una herida de bala, informaron las autoridades.

La Policía indicó que fue declarado muerto en el lugar.

Detectives de homicidios e investigadores de la escena del crimen permanecen en el lugar mientras trabajan para determinar qué provocó la balacera.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Cualquier persona con información sobre la balacera debe comunicarse con el Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale o con Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

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Deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said Fernando Guevara-Olvera, of Homestead, worked at Luna Wireless, a T-Mobile authorized retailer, located at 20519 Old Cutler Road., in Cutler Bay.

According to investigators, Guevara-Olvera was hired in November of 2025 as a sales representative and “developed an excellent reputation among customers” to the point where customers “often refused assistance from other employees because they believed he was the most knowledgeable sales representative at the location.”

Deputies said Guevara-Olvera “exploited that trust by implementing and continuing a fraudulent scheme over several months.”

According to MDSO, when customers would upgrade their cellphones and surrender their old ones, Guevara-Olvera would keep the phones instead of properly processing them as trade-in devices, after which he “entered information into T-Mobile’s sales system making it appear that the trade-in had been completed.”

Investigators then learned that the fraud didn’t stop there, as Guevara-Olvera would activate “unauthorized cellular lines on customer accounts, changing customers wireless plans without authorization, and adding additional equipment including Apple iPhones, Apple watches and Apple EarPods,” according to his arrest form.

Deputies said Guevara-Olvera would tell customers that any billing issues were due to T-Mobile system errors, and that he would even use his personal bank account to apply payments to customers which “caused customers bank account balances to temporarily decrease, leading customers to believe their billing concerns had been resolved,” but after two or three days passed, they said the payments were returned or reversed.

According to authorities, the fraudulent activity occurred between November and February. They said Guevara-Olvera resigned from his job on Feb. 28, before any of the fraudulent activity had been discovered.

Deputies said in the days and weeks that followed, customers began returning to the Old Cutler store in increasing numbers to report the missing credits and billing issues, to the point where management told investigators that “nearly every transaction processed by Guevara required manual review and corrective action.”

It was determined by Luna Wireless that the business sustained customer courtesy-credit losses totaling $15,020.72 and inventory losses totaling $11,769.00 for a total combined documented financial loss attributed to Guevara-Olvera’s actions as $26,789.72, authorities said.

Members of MDSO’s Organized Crime Bureau said they located Guevara-Olvera on Tuesday and took him into custody without incident.

According to his arrest form, Guevara-Olvera spoke to detectives and admitted to some of the crimes, but said he believed his former manager was blaming him for things that he was not responsible for despite deputies advising him that the business had provided specific details “itemized by customer, transaction date and affected account.”

A further admission by Guevara-Olvera was redacted from his arrest form.

As of Wednesday afternoon, he was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of grand theft and organized fraud with bond listed as “to be set.”

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO) dijeron que Fernando Guevara-Olvera, de Homestead, trabajaba en Luna Wireless, un distribuidor autorizado de T-Mobile, ubicado en 20519 Old Cutler Road, en Cutler Bay.

Según los investigadores, Guevara-Olvera fue contratado en noviembre de 2025 como representante de ventas y “desarrolló una excelente reputación entre los clientes”, al punto de que estos “a menudo rechazaban la ayuda de otros empleados porque creían que era el representante de ventas con más conocimientos en esa tienda”.

Los agentes dijeron que Guevara-Olvera “aprovechó esa confianza al implementar y mantener un esquema fraudulento durante varios meses”.

Según la MDSO, cuando los clientes cambiaban sus celulares por modelos nuevos y entregaban los antiguos, Guevara-Olvera se quedaba con los teléfonos en lugar de procesarlos correctamente como equipos entregados a cambio. Después, “ingresaba información en el sistema de ventas de T-Mobile para hacer parecer que el intercambio se había completado”.

Los investigadores descubrieron que el fraude no terminó ahí, ya que Guevara-Olvera activaba “líneas celulares no autorizadas en las cuentas de los clientes, cambiaba los planes inalámbricos de los clientes sin autorización y agregaba equipos adicionales, incluidos iPhones de Apple, relojes Apple Watch y Apple EarPods”, según su informe de arresto.

Los agentes dijeron que Guevara-Olvera les decía a los clientes que cualquier problema de facturación se debía a errores del sistema de T-Mobile y que incluso utilizaba su cuenta bancaria personal para realizar pagos a las cuentas de los clientes, lo que “provocaba que los saldos de las cuentas bancarias de los clientes disminuyeran temporalmente, haciéndoles creer que sus problemas de facturación habían sido resueltos”. Sin embargo, después de dos o tres días, esos pagos eran devueltos o revertidos.

Según las autoridades, la actividad fraudulenta ocurrió entre noviembre y febrero. Indicaron que Guevara-Olvera renunció a su empleo el 28 de febrero, antes de que se descubriera cualquier actividad fraudulenta.

Los agentes dijeron que, en los días y semanas siguientes, los clientes comenzaron a regresar en número cada vez mayor a la tienda de Old Cutler para reportar créditos faltantes y problemas de facturación, al punto de que la gerencia informó a los investigadores que “casi todas las transacciones procesadas por Guevara requerían revisión manual y medidas correctivas”.

Las autoridades dijeron que Luna Wireless determinó que el negocio sufrió pérdidas por créditos otorgados a clientes por cortesía por un total de $15,020.72 USD y pérdidas de inventario por $11,769.00 USD, para una pérdida financiera documentada combinada atribuida a las acciones de Guevara-Olvera de $26,789.72 USD.

Miembros de la oficina contra el crimen organizado de la MDSO dijeron que localizaron a Guevara-Olvera el martes y lo arrestaron sin incidentes.

Según su informe de arresto, Guevara-Olvera habló con los detectives y admitió algunos de los delitos, pero dijo que creía que su ex gerente lo estaba responsabilizando por hechos de los que no era responsable, a pesar de que los agentes le informaron que la empresa había proporcionado detalles específicos “desglosados por cliente, fecha de la transacción y cuenta afectada”.

Otra admisión hecha por Guevara-Olvera fue censurada en su informe de arresto.

Hasta la tarde del miércoles, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight enfrentando cargos de robo mayor y fraude organizado. Su fianza figuraba como “pendiente de ser fijada”.

Según una orden de arresto, Jose Maya, de 40 años, está acusado de colocar un dispositivo de grabación de video debajo de la puerta de un baño, el cual grabó a la víctima, de 23 años.

Los detectives dijeron que la víctima descubrió el dispositivo el 28 de junio y reportó el incidente a las autoridades el lunes.

Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima afirmó que comenzó a sospechar de Maya el año pasado cuando lo sorprendió acostado en el piso, justo afuera de la puerta del baño, mientras ella se duchaba.

La mujer dijo que, al salir de la ducha, notó un pequeño objeto negro debajo de la puerta del baño, pero al principio pensó que era un insecto porque no llevaba puestos sus anteojos ni lentes de contacto.

Según la orden, la víctima dijo que Maya se puso de pie rápidamente cuando ella abrió la puerta del baño y afirmó que estaba arreglando una luz nocturna con sensor de movimiento cerca del baño.

La orden señala que la víctima sospechó de la situación, pero inicialmente descartó el incidente.

Según la orden, la víctima continuó notando un pequeño objeto negro que aparecía debajo de la puerta del baño mientras se duchaba y le contó a su madre sobre sus sospechas.

Los detectives dijeron que la madre de la víctima sugirió colocar un teléfono celular en el cuarto de lavado para confirmar sus sospechas.

Según la orden, la víctima lo hizo y su teléfono celular captó a Maya colocando un dispositivo de grabación debajo de la puerta del baño mientras la víctima se duchaba.

Los detectives dijeron que la madre de la víctima confrontó a Maya el 28 de junio y él hizo algún tipo de admisión, aunque sus declaraciones completas fueron censuradas en la versión pública de la orden de arresto.

Los detectives dijeron que la madre de la víctima le informó que uno de los videos mostraba sus glúteos, mientras que las otras grabaciones estaban borrosas.

Los registros muestran que Maya fue ingresado en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight alrededor de las 7:50 p.m. del martes.

“El Departamento de Policía de North Miami Beach está al tanto del arresto de uno de nuestros capitanes. Seguimos comprometidos con la transparencia, la rendición de cuentas y el cumplimiento de los más altos estándares profesionales para nuestra comunidad”, indicó el NMBPD en un comunicado emitido el miércoles.

El jefe de la Policía de North Miami Beach, Juan Pinillos, dijo que Maya fue relevado de sus funciones mientras se resuelve el caso, además de una investigación interna.

Hasta la mañana del miércoles, Maya permanecía detenido en el TGK sin derecho a fianza.

En dos días, agentes de la oficina contra el crimen organizado de la MDSO arrestaron a 12 mujeres de nacionalidad china, incluidas cinco que indicaron a Flushing, Nueva York, como su dirección permanente, muestran los registros.

Un agente de la unidad de vicios e inteligencia de la oficina se hizo pasar por cliente en los 10 negocios donde se realizaron arrestos el lunes y el martes, según los informes de arresto.

El martes, los agentes arrestaron a siete mujeres durante operaciones encubiertas, entre aproximadamente las 12:30 p.m. y las 10:20 p.m., en seis salones de masajes, muestran los registros.

Los agentes identificaron a las mujeres como Quirong Xu, Hongli Ren, Zixuan Wang, Yan Xi, Mei Lin, Xiufen Lin y Yaoying Lin.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Xu, de 67 años, y Ren, de 62, en 9865 SW 184 St., en Palmetto Bay, y señalaron que la dirección permanente de Xu es Flushing, muestran los registros.

Xu “indicó los precios por actos sexuales” y le dijo al agente encubierto que serían “$70 USD por una masturbación”, escribió un agente, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Yaoying Lin, de 58 años, en 7337 SW 107 Ave., en Kendall. Lin le dijo al agente encubierto que serían “$60 USD por una masturbación”, escribió un agente, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Xiufen Lin, de 51 años, en 10694 SW 24 St., en Westchester, y señalaron que su dirección permanente es Flushing.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Mei Lin, de 49 años, en 8410 West Flagler St., en Fontainebleau, y señalaron que su dirección permanente es Flushing.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Xi, de 48 años, en 17033 South Dixie Highway, en Palmetto Bay.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Wang, de 46 años, en 7428 SW 117 Ave., en Kendall, y señalaron que su dirección permanente es Flushing, muestran los registros.

El lunes, los agentes informaron el arresto de Yuping Li, Junrong He, Xun Ou, Qingxiang Zhu y Youdi Zhuge.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Li, de 60 años, en 10471 SW 40 St., en el vecindario Westwood Lakes, y señalaron que su dirección permanente es Flushing.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Zhuge, de 58 años, y He, de 52, en 11760 SW 88 St., en Kendall.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Zhu, de 57 años, en 16938 South Dixie Highway, en West Perrine.

Los agentes informaron el arresto de Ou, de 36 años, en 7375 SW 24 St., en el vecindario Coral Terrace.

LOS CARGOS

Los registros del tribunal del condado muestran que los fiscales de Miami-Dade presentaron 12 casos.

Quirong Xu enfrenta un cargo grave de tercer grado por ejercer una práctica o profesión de atención médica sin una licencia activa y válida.

Hongli Ren y Yaoying Lin enfrentan dos cargos menores: ejercer la prostitución y cometer un acto antinatural y lascivo.

Xun Ou enfrenta tres cargos: ejercer una práctica o profesión de atención médica sin una licencia activa y válida, ejercer la prostitución y cometer un acto antinatural y lascivo.

Zixuan Wang, Yan Xi, Mei Lin, Xiufen Lin, Yuping Li, Junrong He, Qingxiang Zhu y Youdi Zhuge enfrentan cada una cuatro cargos: ejercer una práctica o profesión de atención médica sin una licencia activa y válida, ejercer terapia de masajes sin licencia, ejercer la prostitución y cometer un acto antinatural y lascivo.

La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Mercedes Cevallos, contribuyó a este reportaje.

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According to an arrest warrant, Jose Maya, 40, is accused of planting a video recording device under a bathroom door, which recorded the 23-year-old victim.

Detectives said the victim discovered the device on June 28 and reported the incident to law enforcement on Monday.

Authorities said the victim claimed she first became suspicious of Maya last year when she caught him lying on the floor immediately outside the bathroom door as she was showering.

The woman said that as she exited the shower, she noticed a small black object underneath the bathroom door, but she initially thought it was an insect because she wasn’t wearing her glasses or contact lenses.

According to the warrant, the victim said Maya quickly stood up as she opened the bathroom door, and claimed that he had been fixing a motion-activated night light near the bathroom.

The warrant states that the victim was suspicious, but initially dismissed the incident.

According to the warrant, the victim continued noticing a small black object appearing underneath the bathroom door as she showered and told her mother about her suspicions.

Detectives said the victim’s mother suggested placing a cellphone in the laundry room to confirm her suspicions.

According to the warrant, the victim did so and her cellphone captured Maya placing a recording device under the bathroom door while the victim was showering.

Detectives said the victim’s mother confronted Maya on June 28 and he provided some kind of admission, although his full comments to her were redacted from the publicly released warrant.

Detectives said the victim’s mother told her one of the videos showed her buttocks, while the other recordings were blurry.

Records show Maya was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday.

“The North Miami Beach Police Department is aware of the arrest involving one of our captains. We remain committed to transparency, accountability, and upholding the highest professional standards for our community,” the NMBPD said in a statement Wednesday.

North Miami Beach Police Chief Juan Pinillos said Maya has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the case along with an internal investigation.

Maya posted a $7,500 bond on Wednesday and is expected to be released later in the day. In bond court earlier in the day, Miami-Dade County Judge Mindy Glazer ordered that he stay away from the victim and said he is not permitted to have any weapons or ammunition.

“Jose Maya has been arrested and charged, but an arrest is merely an allegation, not a definitive judgment of guilt,” Maya’s attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, said in a statement to Local 10 News. “Like every individual accused of a crime, our client is presumed innocent unless the State presents evidence beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

“We are committed to thoroughly reviewing all the evidence, challenging the allegations through the judicial process, and vigorously defending our client in court.”

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen ’s decision to run for the presidency for a fourth time means that someone found guilty not once but twice of embezzling public funds will campaign to lead the European Union ’s largest nation.

On Tuesday, a Paris appeals court cleared a path for the 57-year-old Le Pen to run by shortening a ban on seeking public office that had spelled possible doom for her ambitions. Opponents now know who they’ll be up against in the election less than 10 months away.

She's using the latest twist in her legal saga to fortify her story of a combative politician who is taking on the system in the interests, she says, of France.

“Her argument is essentially this: ‘Despite all the obstacles and all the ordeals I’ve been through, I’m still standing, I’m still running. I entered politics to carry this national project for France through to the end,'” said Luc Rouban, a senior researcher at Paris’ Sciences Po school of political sciences who studies Le Pen's National Rally party.

Legal uncertainty hangs over the election

While the Paris appeals court reduced both the ban and the prison sentence that judges handed down last year, it still ordered that she must serve a year of home detention, with her whereabouts monitored electronically.

The punishment conjured up the prospect of a candidate hoping to lead France stumping for votes with an electronic tag on her ankle.

Whether that will happen is unknown. By declaring Tuesday that she’ll challenge the ruling to France's highest court, Le Pen bought time. The court said Wednesday that the process will suspend the sentence that she be electronically monitored, at least until it has ruled.

When the Court of Cassation will rule is unclear. It said Wednesday the process should conclude before the election's first round in April, with the knockout round in May.

“I will therefore campaign without an electronic bracelet,” Le Pen declared.

Should she win — far from certain, despite polls suggesting she's one of France's most popular politicians — she would benefit from the legal immunity that comes with the presidency. That rules out any possibility of an electronic monitor while in office.

But electronic monitoring, if still required then, could come back into the picture after the presidency, said Julien Jeanneney, a professor of public law at the University of Strasbourg.

“In practice, however, one could imagine that a judge might decide not to require a former president of the Republic to resume wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet — particularly if the sentence had already been substantially served before" the election, he said.

Le Pen’s conviction leaves her open to criticism

Critics and potential election rivals argue that her embezzlement conviction would make her ethically unfit for the presidency.

“It’s not normal,” said Bernadette Flament, a 73-year-old resident of a village close to a campaign stop on Wednesday. “A president who governs, who will govern France, who has been convicted, is unacceptable.”

After multiple scandals involving lawmakers and ministers, polls consistently show French voters want higher ethical standards in public life and are highly critical of what they perceive as politicians’ dishonesty.

Last year, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former French president in modern history to go to prison after he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy. He was made to wear an electronic monitor for three months.

“There is a strong public expectation on this issue,” Rouban said. “Marine Le Pen may try to play down her conviction, but the fact remains that she has been convicted.”

Le Pen's double-ticket candidacy isn't what it seems

Le Pen announced that she'll campaign as a “duo" with protege Jordan Bardella — which to American ears may sound like the Trump-Vance or Biden-Harris tickets in the last U.S. presidential election.

Le Pen, a veteran of three presidential campaigns and daughter of five-time presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, brings experience. The 30-year-old Bardella, president of their populist, anti-immigration National Rally party, is popular with Gen Z, with larger followings on Instagram and TikTok.

In France, it’s a break with tradition for candidates to double-team a presidential election. Le Pen says Bardella would be her prime minister if she wins. They campaigned together Wednesday.

But unlike in the United States, French voters only choose one leader in the presidential election. The choice of prime minister is the president’s alone and no law would oblige Le Pen to pick Bardella.

The pairing could appeal both to National Rally supporters and to “new swaths of voters attracted by Bardella’s youth, communication style and apparent pragmatism, more anchored on the right and more amenable to business interests," said Célia Belin, who specializes in French politics at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank.

"By running as a ‘ticket,’ they hope to keep this large electoral base," she said.

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AP journalist Alex Turnbull in La Flèche, France, contributed.

The forecast team, led by Dr. Phil Klotzbach, now predicts 2026 could rival some of the least active seasons this century, and its bottom-line forecast for Accumulated Cyclone Energy or ACE – the seasonal scorecard that considers the overall strength and duration of storms – would be the third lowest in 30 years if it materializes, behind only the well-below-average 2013 and 1997 hurricane seasons.

The team calls for 4 hurricanes, but only one major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricane this season. Over the past three decades, only the 1997 and 2013 seasons ended with fewer than two major hurricanes. 2013 is the only hurricane season since 1994 to record no Category 3 or stronger hurricanes.

No Atlantic hurricane season in the reliable records (since 1950) has gone hurricane-less and generally two hurricanes is the floor, even for the least active seasons. The most active seasons like 2005 and 2020 have recorded as many as 15 hurricanes in a single season (15 and 14 hurricanes respectively in 2005 and 2020).

The lower overall numbers suggest lower chances of a U.S. hurricane hit this season, but the below-average forecast certainly doesn’t let the U.S. off the hook. Even in very inactive hurricane seasons, big hurricanes can strike (see Hurricane Andrew in 1992 for a South-Florida-specific example). That said, overall odds of at least one major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricane making landfall in the continental U.S. are cut by more than half this year – from 43% in a typical season to 17% in 2026.

Playing by El Niño’s rules

If you’ve read any of our newsletters in recent weeks, the lower predictions shouldn’t come as a surprise. The driving factor behind the downward predictions is increasing confidence that we’ll have a strong to very strong El Niño in place for the peak months of the season, which will keep storm-busting wind shear high, especially in the western part of the tropical Atlantic where hurricanes often hit their stride.

Long-range seasonal forecast models can struggle with El Niño predictions during the spring months but that wasn’t the case in 2026. If anything, forecast models seem to have underdone forecasts out of the gate, and El Niño conditions are already transitioning from moderate to strong levels, with additional strengthening expected into the fall and winter, when El Niño traditionally peaks.

Nada for the near future

Mum’s the word across the tropical Atlantic for the foreseeable future. We’re seeing one of the biggest dust outbreaks of the season so far, and as we discussed in Tuesday’s newsletter, wind shear will stay prohibitively high for the next few weeks.

The only dark horse development contender isn’t until the end of next week with a frontal low off the Carolinas. Models keep those odds very low (less than 10%), and it’s not anything we need to be concerned with for now.

The letter released Wednesday from Beshear, a Democrat who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028, to the former Senate Republican leader says “Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and well-being, and ability to hold office.”

McConnell, whose physical condition has visibly declined in recent years, was hospitalized June 14. He has not released a public statement, photos or videos since. Aides have disclosed nothing specific about his condition, other than to say last week that McConnell “continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

That lack of detail has fueled rampant speculation about his prognosis and whether he will return to the Senate when it reconvenes next week. The firestorm was enough that Republican Senate leaders on Tuesday made public statements saying they had talked to McConnell and that he was alert and discussing current events.

McConnell is retiring at the end of his term in January, and the campaign to elect his successor already is underway. Kentucky’s Senate succession law, which Republican legislators have twice changed during Beshear’s tenure, does not give the governor a role in picking a temporary successor should McConnell’s seat become vacant before his term ends.

Under the latest change in 2024, Beshear would call a special election if the seat became vacant. The winner of that election could take office after the result is certified. The general election winner would be sworn in as part of the new Congress in January. But there are unresolved questions about the timing of a special election under the untested law and the possibility the seat could remain vacant until January.

Beshear ended the letter by wishing McConnell “a safe and speedy recovery.”

A look at what an absence from the Senate or a vacancy could mean.

What happens if McConnell isn't able to return?

There is not much, if anything, that Beshear, Kentucky lawmakers or the Senate could do if McConnell remains in office but is unable to perform his duties between now and when the current Congress expires in January.

Senate rules do not allow proxy voting. But there have been extended Senate absences before, and the chamber has continued its business with however many senators are in attendance. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage. Without McConnell, that means a maximum of 52 Republican votes are available.

McConnell had been among the senators blocking war powers resolutions that seek to limit President Donald Trump's military options in Iran. Without him, the administration has less of a buffer. On the other hand, McConnell already had been among the Republicans refusing to support Trump's sweeping elections law overhaul.

Why wouldn't Beshear have a say in filling any vacancy?

The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution calls for Senate vacancies to be filled by popular elections. But it allows state legislatures to empower governors to appoint an interim senator to serve through those campaigns. Most states have taken this option, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Kentucky law allowed interim appointments until 2021, when McConnell and other state GOP leaders persuaded the Republican-run Legislature to make a change. They did not want Beshear to shift the partisan balance in Washington if he got the opportunity. They called for a committee of the previous senator's state party to select three people from whom the governor could choose an interim senator. In this case, that would mean Beshear picking which Republican would fill a vacancy. Several states have this system.

Kentucky lawmakers changed the law again in 2024 to require a special election. The only role for the governor is to call that election.

Beshear vetoed the 2021 and 2024 changes but Republican lawmakers overrode him.

How would a special election work?

The 2024 law says Beshear “shall” issue a proclamation for a special vote but it does not say when he should make that proclamation or what the election date must be. Separate laws require certain minimum windows between a proclamation and the election date, but not necessarily a maximum window.

Some officials have argued that any vacancy after Aug. 3 would mean a special election concurrent with the general. They have even speculated that at some point, it would be impractical to have a special election at all given the regular election already taking place.

The Kentucky secretary of state’s office declined to speculate on a hypothetical time frame.

If a special election was needed, the simplest option would be to hold it at the same time as the regular general election.

For the full Senate term that begins in 2027, Republicans nominated U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and Democratic nominee is former state lawmaker Charles Booker. Concurrent elections would be separate, requiring new nominations by the parties, though they could choose Barr and Booker. Regardless, in this scenario voters would be electing the immediate replacement and the full-term lawmaker on the same Election Day.

Multiple vacant House seats have been filled that way with little national attention.

Could there be a legal fight?

Yes. The 2024 law has never been tested. If a vacancy occurred, there could be different interests between parties and even among Republicans about special election timing and whether to hold one at all. That could create any number of legal questions and disputes that have to be settled by the courts.

Beshear's office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how he interprets the law.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that it depends on what the governor might do to determine whether there might be a special election if there was a Senate vacancy after Aug. 3 and whether the seat might remain vacant until January.

Según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO), Tupac, cuyo nombre real es Edwin Vega Serrano, fue arrestado el martes en relación con un incendio provocado ocurrido el 27 de junio que dañó propiedad de la Junta de Comisionados del Condado Miami-Dade.

Los agentes dijeron que Serrano, de 50 años y sin hogar, fue captado por cámaras de vigilancia prendiendo fuego a un montón de desechos arrojados ilegalmente, ubicado directamente al noreste de 3333 NW 38th St.

Luego tomó un objeto no identificado y dañó una cámara instalada en un poste del Departamento de Desechos Sólidos de Miami-Dade, dijeron las autoridades.

Según el informe, el video muestra posteriormente a Serrano prendiendo fuego a una bolsa que estaba en medio de Northwest 33rd Avenue.

Los agentes dijeron que el incendio causó aproximadamente $4,200 USD en daños a propiedad perteneciente a la Junta de Comisionados, incluidos unos 45 pies de cerca y cinco tuberías de drenaje de 18 pulgadas.

Las autoridades dijeron que Serrano fue detenido el martes después de que dos empleados del Departamento de Transporte y Obras Públicas lo vieran cerca de Northwest 33rd Avenue y 37th Street y alertaran a un agente.

Serrano fue arrestado por cargos de incendio provocado en segundo grado y daños a la propiedad.

Los agentes dijeron que invocó su derecho a un abogado y no respondió preguntas sobre el incendio.

Hasta la mañana del miércoles, Serrano permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Los registros de la cárcel en línea indicaban que el monto total de su fianza figuraba como “pendiente de ser fijada”.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Tupac, whose real name is Edwin Vega Serrano, was arrested Tuesday in connection with an arson that occurred June 27, damaging property belonging to the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners.

Deputies said Serrano, 50, who is homeless, was captured on surveillance video igniting a pile of illegally dumped waste directly northeast of 3333 NW 38^th St.

He then grabbed an unknown object and broke a Miami-Dade Solid Waste Department pole camera, authorities said.

According to the report, the video then shows Serrano igniting a bag on fire, which was in the middle of Northwest 33^rd Avenue.

Deputies said about $4,200 worth of damage was caused by the fire to property belonging to the Board of Commissioners, including about 45 feet of a fence and five 18-inch drainage pipes.

Authorities said Serrano was detained Tuesday after two Department of Transportation and Public Works employees spotted him near Northwest 33^rd Avenue and 37^th Street and flagged down a deputy.

Serrano was arrested on charges of second-degree arson and criminal mischief.

Deputies said he invoked his right to counsel and did not answer questions about the fire.

As of Wednesday morning, Serrano was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Online jail records listed his total bond as “to be set.”

This edition started with 48 teams; it’s now down to eight, with six of those from Europe. And unless Morocco pulls off a series of surprising outcomes over the final two weeks, the champion will come from Europe or South America.

Again. As always.

A tournament that has been around for nearly a century — the first World Cup was in 1930 — has been contested on 22 previous occasions. The champions: 12 from Europe, 10 from South America, zero from the rest of the globe combined.

This year’s quarterfinal lineup: six from Europe, one from South America, one from Africa. Not exactly a history-bucking set of outcomes there.

That said, it seems like even some of Europe’s best players are surprised at how well this World Cup has gone.

“I thought it was not possible to do some things,” Norway star Erling Haaland said after his two goals helped his team beat Brazil for a spot in the quarterfinals — the first time his nation has gone this deep in a World Cup. “I guess I’m wrong.”

He was wrong in a good way. The tournament hosts were wrong in a not-so-good way.

North America had three cracks at breaking through this year in a bigger-than-ever, 48-team World Cup with the U.S., Mexico and Canada all co-hosts.

None of those teams even made the quarterfinals.

“We need to get over that next hurdle,” U.S. star Christian Pulisic said in a televised interview after the Americans were ousted by Belgium in the round of 16, a lopsided 4-1 defeat that shows how far North America still has to go. “Trying to compete and beat the world’s best, that’s our next step … There’s still another step that we have to take.”

The three hosts all got through the group stage and the round of 32 with ease. The U.S., Mexico and Canada had a combined 9-2-1 record in those matches, outscoring opponents by a total of 20 goals. Things looked promising, to say the least.

Then came the round of 16. Thud.

England ousted Mexico 3-2, the U.S. got rolled by Belgium in a match that looked one-sided from the outset and Canada was outclassed in a 3-0 loss to Morocco. Combined numbers from that trio of matches: 0-3-0 record, outscored by seven goals.

“Levels,” French soccer legend Thierry Henry said in his role as an analyst on Fox after the U.S. defeat. “The World Cup is different in the group stage. Round of 32 never existed before. Everyone made history in the round of 32. It never existed before … Unfortunately, one host, two hosts, three hosts, out. That’s exactly what you don’t want at a World Cup. That is annoying for me.”

If it annoys Henry, imagine how it feels for the Canadians, Mexicans and Americans.

There hasn’t been a CONCACAF — the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football — team in the World Cup quarterfinals since Costa Rica in 2014.

Before that, it was the U.S. in 2002 in its best showing at the World Cup since finishing third in 1930. Canada has never been past the round of 16. Mexico has played in each of the last nine World Cups; it reached the round of 16 in eight of those, never going further in that span.

“Everyone gave everything,” Mexico midfielder Erik Lira said. “But, in the end, it wasn’t enough.”

That seems to be an every-four-years refrain for every place other than Europe and South America.

There was some diversity in the makeup of the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal field with five confederations — Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and North America — all represented that year.

It was a rare blip. Of the 48 available quarterfinal spots over the six World Cups since, Europe has claimed 30, South America 14, Africa three and North America one.

Morocco is carrying Africa's hopes now and that continent came out of the group stage looking poised for a breakthrough. It sent 10 teams to the tournament; nine made it into the round of 32.

And then, most of the teams saw their hopes end by surrendering late goals.

Ivory Coast, South Africa and Congo all surrendered decisive goals in the 86th minute or later of what became their exits from the knockout phase. Cape Verde's magical ride ended after giving up an own goal to Lionel Messi and defending champion Argentina in the 111th minute. And for Senegal and Egypt, the endings were particularly harsh — both led 2-0 late in the second half, then fell by 3-2 scores to Belgium and Argentina, respectively.

Egypt felt the match was stolen by officiating decisions.

“Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition," Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said. “Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the competition.”

The counterpoint to that was how, once again, a powerhouse like Argentina found a way. For the fifth time in the last six World Cups, Messi's team is in the quarterfinals.

Some things just don't seem to change.

“It wasn’t easy to come back from a 2-0 deficit in a World Cup knockout match — especially given how games are going these days, where no one gives you anything for free,” Messi said. “But thank God, we did it once again.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Según detectives de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade (MDSO), de la Oficina de Seguridad Nacional, asignados a atender las tomas de intersecciones, un evento organizado de toma de calles ocurrió el domingo entre la 1 a.m. y las 5 a.m. en varios lugares del condado.

Los agentes dijeron que identificaron a Damiean Alvarez como pasajero de un Infiniti G35 azul que hacía trompos en la intersección de Northwest 77th Court y 169th Street alrededor de la 1:20 a.m., mientras aproximadamente entre 50 y 60 vehículos estaban presentes y bloqueaban la intersección.

Los agentes indicaron que unas dos horas después volvieron a ver a Alvarez dentro del mismo Infiniti G35 azul, que hacía trompos en la intersección de Northwest 25th Street y 76th Avenue, debajo de la autopista Palmetto Expressway, con alrededor de 50 a 60 vehículos presentes y bloqueando la intersección.

Indicaron que durante ambos incidentes, Alvarez llevaba un pasamontañas en un intento por ocultar su identidad.

Según los agentes, en ambas escenas, después de que los vehículos bloquearan todos los carriles de circulación, “los espectadores salían de sus vehículos y se acercaban a la intersección para grabar y observar a los vehículos que hacían trompos realizar maniobras de conducción temeraria”.

Los agentes dijeron que fue dos días después, el martes por la noche alrededor de las 9:05 p.m., cuando arrestaron a Alvarez en su vivienda ubicada en la cuadra 2700 de Northwest 48th Street, donde un informe de arresto indica que el Infiniti azul estaba estacionado en la entrada de la casa.

Una presunta confesión de Alvarez fue censurada en la versión pública de su informe de arresto.

Hasta la mañana del miércoles, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight enfrentando cargos graves por participar en carreras de aceleración mientras llevaba el rostro cubierto. Los registros indican que además era buscado por una orden de arresto relacionada con un caso separado de violencia doméstica, para el cual su fianza figura como “pendiente de ser fijada”.

La Policía de Coral Springs identificó al sospechoso en un informe de arresto obtenido por Local 10 News el miércoles como Daniel Edward Niemiec, de 20 años.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs, los agentes recibieron una denuncia por correo electrónico el miércoles pasado de un familiar de la víctima, quien afirmó que Niemiec la había “agredido físicamente” después de que la pareja terminó su relación, en el apartamento de él, cerca de la cuadra 1600 de Northwest 91st Avenue.

El familiar de la víctima dijo a la Policía que la víctima “lo llamó angustiada y le dijo que había sido agredida físicamente por su ex novio, Daniel”, señala el informe.

La Policía dijo que inicialmente no pudo localizar a Niemiec, pero posteriormente habló con la madre de la víctima, quien indicó que recibió un mensaje de texto a las 2 a.m. del 2 de junio que decía: “Lo amo, pero acaba de lastimarme. Me estranguló y me golpeó”.

Según el informe, la madre de la víctima dijo a los agentes que su hija estaba de vacaciones en Florida, visitando a unos amigos y hospedándose con Niemiec, “quien ha estado poniendo sus manos sobre ella, causándole dolor y lesiones”.

La Policía dijo que la víctima también entregó fotografías que muestran las lesiones que presuntamente sufrió.

Los investigadores dijeron que el primer ataque reportado ocurrió mientras la pareja mantenía relaciones sexuales.

La víctima alegó que Niemiec “la abofeteó varias veces en el rostro” después de que ella le pidió que se detuviera y que “no quería que Daniel continuara abofeteándola y era en contra de su voluntad”, según los investigadores.

La Policía dijo que un segundo ataque ocurrió el 30 de junio después de una discusión que “escaló a agresión física cuando Daniel se acercó a ella en la sala y colocó con fuerza ambas manos” alrededor del cuello de la víctima.

Indicaron que la víctima dijo a los investigadores que Niemiec se reía mientras la estrangulaba y reiteró que el estrangulamiento fue “sin su consentimiento”.

Según el informe, después de salir del apartamento e ir a la casa de una amiga en Margate, la víctima dijo a la Policía que regresó al día siguiente para recoger sus pertenencias.

Ella dijo que Niemiec la esperaba afuera con su mochila, arrojó sus pertenencias sobre ella y luego vació el contenido de la mochila encima de ella, señala el informe.

Según el informe, la víctima declaró que “Daniel había defecado, orinado y llenado su mochila con salsa picante, ketchup y otros líquidos desconocidos”, los cuales “fueron arrojados sobre ella e hicieron contacto deliberadamente con su cuerpo”.

La Policía dijo que la víctima rechazó recibir tratamiento médico, pero “estaba temblando físicamente” durante el encuentro con los agentes y “parecía estar asustada”.

Después de ser puesto bajo custodia el jueves, Niemiec dijo a los investigadores que “el incidente de las bofetadas fue cierto y se salió de control”, según el informe.

La Policía dijo que Niemiec explicó a los investigadores que, mientras mantenía relaciones sexuales con la víctima, estaba “probando algo nuevo y no conocía los límites de la situación”.

También dijeron que Niemiec admitió tener “problemas de ira” y que creía que la víctima le había sido infiel.

Según los investigadores, él dijo que “al defecar, orinar y llenar la mochila con salsa picante, refresco, ketchup y diversos líquidos” sería una “venganza por haberle sido infiel”.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Niemiec enfrenta dos cargos de agresión doméstica y un cargo de agresión doméstica por estrangulamiento.

Hasta la mañana del miércoles, ya no figuraba como recluso en los registros de la cárcel del condado Broward.

Si usted está experimentando violencia doméstica, puede llamar a Women in Distress al 954-761-1133 o a la Línea Directa de Violencia Doméstica de Florida al 800-500-1119.

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Coral Springs police identified the suspect in an arrest report obtained by Local 10 News on Wednesday as 20-year-old Daniel Edward Niemiec.

According to an arrest report from the Coral Springs Police Department, officers received a crime tip via email last Wednesday from a relative of the victim, who claimed Niemiec had “physically abused” her after the couple’s breakup at his apartment near the 1600 block of Northwest 91st Avenue.

The victim’s relative told police the victim “called him in distress and stated that she had been physically abused by her ex-boyfriend, Daniel,” the report states.

Police said they were initially unable to contact Niemiec but later spoke with the victim’s mother, who said she received a text message at 2 a.m. on June 2 that read, “I love him but he just hurt me. He choked me out and hit me.”

According to the report, the victim’s mother told officers her daughter was vacationing in Florida, visiting friends and staying with Niemiec, “who has been putting his hands on her causing pain and injuries.”

Police said the victim also provided photos showing injuries she allegedly sustained.

Investigators said the first reported attack occurred while the couple was having sex.

The victim alleged Niemiec “slapped her in the face multiple times” after she asked him to stop and “she did not wish for Daniel to continue slapping her and it was against her will,” according to investigators.

Police said a second attack occurred on June 30 after an argument that “escalated to physical abuse when Daniel approached her in the living room area and forcefully placed two hands” around the victim’s throat.

They said the victim told investigators that Niemiec laughed while choking her and reiterated the choking was “non-consensual.”

After leaving the apartment and going to a friend’s house in Margate, the victim told police she returned the following day to retrieve her belongings, according to the report.

She said Niemiec met her outside holding her backpack, dumped her belongings onto her, then dumped the backpack’s contents over her, the report states.

According to the report, the victim stated, “Daniel had defecated on, urinated on, and filled her backpack with hot sauce, ketchup, and other unknown fluids,” which were “dumped over her and made deliberate contact with her.”

Police said the victim declined medical treatment but “was physically shaking” during their encounter and “appeared to be in fear.”

After being taken into custody on Thursday, Niemiec told investigators that “the slapping incident was true and gotten out of hand,” according to the report.

Police said he told investigators that while having sex with the victim, he was “testing something new and did not know the limits of the situation.”

They said Niemiec also admitted to having “anger issues” and believed the victim had cheated on him.

According to investigators, he said that “by defecating, urinating and filling the backpack up with hot sauce, soda and ketchup and miscellaneous fluids” it would be “payback for her cheating.”

Jail records show Niemiec is facing two counts of domestic battery and one count of domestic battery by strangulation.

As of Wednesday morning, He was no longer listed as an inmate in the Broward County jail records.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, you can call Women in Distress at 954-761-1133 or the Florida Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-500-1119.

The ball has made headlines with its embedded technology and raised questions among fans, including: Why is everyone expected to promptly toss the ball back onto the pitch?

It's a question more out of curiosity than an outcry for change.

The thrill of catching a match ball is short-lived for World Cup -goers as staff members working the match await on the pitch in a ready position for fans to throw it back, per FIFA policy.

Some fans try to get a quick selfie with the ball if they are lucky enough to get their hands on it. A game ball would definitely be a coveted memento, especially for those who have spent thousands on flights, hotels and 100-level tickets.

“I mean, the amount of money that I spent, I should definitely be able to keep a football when I catch it from the stadium,” England fan Jack Goodwin said. “I saved up for a house and blew my whole deposit bringing me and my dad out from London.”

It's a tradition for American sports fans — catch a baseball at a game and you have a souvenir for life. Bonus if it's a ball from a playoff game or a milestone moment for the hitter.

In soccer, not so much.

“We don’t know, and we don’t care,” one Congo fan said when asked if he knew why fans couldn't keep a ball kicked into the stands. “We didn’t come here for a prize, we came here to watch our country.”

Baseball fans climb over each other and jump over seats for balls that come their way. Most soccer fans don't have a problem throwing the ball back.

Getting to the “why?” FIFA's policy is so rigid can be difficult. FIFA did not respond to emails requesting comment on this story. However, theories range from tradition, to economic concerns, to the ball’s technology, to the flow of the game.

“I don't think there's ever been a policy where you can keep the ball, which, unlike baseball, is a fairly expensive piece of equipment,” soccer historian Charles Cutton said. “Back in the day, it was not unusual for there to be one ball at a game. That was it. If it went into the stands, you had to retrieve it or give it back so play could continue. Now you’ve got them stationed all over the field."

Fans can purchase FIFA balls from licensed venders or pop-up stands for anywhere from $60 to $180. It's unclear how much soccer's ruling body pays for match-day balls, though it would seem whatever the cost FIFA could afford to have a few more on hand to ensure the match is not interrupted if one sails into the stands and a fan holds onto to it.

But while Major League Baseball fans eventually won the right to keep balls hit into the stands, soccer has stood firm in its expectations over the years. The evolution of the ball itself has only reinforced FIFA's interest in getting each one back.

This year's World Cup ball, the Adidas Trionda, is the most sophisticated to date.

Gone are the days of hand-stitched, leather, 32-panel balls.

“They've evolved from being natural materials like leather to now being a polymeric material," Georgia Tech professor Jud Ready said. “That's done for a couple of reasons. First, cost, but also, performance, because polyurethane does not absorb moisture like leather would.”

The Trionda is a four-panel, thermally pressed polyurethane ball, but perhaps the most defining feature is on the inside, where a 500Hz motion sensor sends real-time data to the video assistant referee system to help officials with decisions, including the oft-controversial offsides call.

Real-time data also goes to match referees to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal-line.

“The World Cup balls have radio frequency transmitters inside to serve basically as a GPS, as well as accelerometers to understand how much force is being kicked," Ready said.

Ready's colleague, professor Manos Tentzeris, said the sensor operates with 99.99% accuracy. Paired with cameras, it can pinpoint the precise location of anything on the pitch down to the tip of a shoe, which can be enough to determine whether a player is offside.

That technology isn't quite as valuable outside the stadium. Ready said the ball relies on stadium infrastructure to communicate with officials, making the electronics virtually unusable outside a World Cup venue.

Balls also must be charged before a match using a cord-free system similar to charging a smartwatch.

Because it's such a process, it seems unlikely a game ball will ever become a keepsake for a fan, but never say never — one day it could happen.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Crews worked through the night to shore up a massive development at the building that used to house Pfizer's headquarters. Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed Wednesday that there has been no additional movement in the building since it was deemed stable late Tuesday.

“The building is stable and yet we are going to continue to prioritize the safety of all in that immediate area,” he said.

Four nearby buildings remained under evacuation orders, the mayor said. Normally busy midtown streets around the construction site also remained closed.

Elinor Ruskin, 94, was among those redirected by police Wednesday after trying to get through a closed block. She took it in stride.

“These things happen. I don’t know if they will catch the mistake or what they will do,” she said. “Anyway, you know, this is New York City.”

While the cause of the structural issues remains under investigation, unionized construction workers took the opportunity to slam the developers for using non-union workers. They staged a protest, complete with a large inflatable rat, near the site Wednesday.

“We’ve got enough skilled workers in our union," said Anthony Williamson, an executive board member with Local 79 Construction and General Building Laborers. "This would have never happened in New York City if they had done the right thing.”

Antoine Mouthon, who works nearby at the United Nations, recalled seeing the aftermath of a large sheet of metal falling from the building last August.

“A whole year after I avoided that street," he said. "I thought they cleaned up their act.”

Sally Grant and Margaret Clark were waiting to be let back into the Hampton Inn. They had traveled from Scotland to see Bon Jovi perform at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, but were evacuated and told to leave their belongings, including their credit cards, passports and medication.

“They could have given us five minutes to grab our belongings, you know, instead of just saying everybody out, everybody out,” Clark said. “We’ve been left with nothing. We slept in the streets last night. The police wouldn’t help us. It’s been awful. Absolutely it’s ruined our holiday.”

Work continued, meanwhile, high above in the glass-and-steel tower.

Mamdani said temporary shoring and beams were installed on floors 18 through 23 of the building, and additional supports will be added throughout the day as crews make their way to the roof and down to ninth floor.

Once the emergency repairs are complete, the city’s Department of Buildings will conduct a “rigorous assessment” to ensure the plans and the site are fully compliant with all codes before any non-emergency work proceeds, he said.

Authorities responded to emergency calls at the building early Tuesday to discover two mangled support beams and sagging floors on its 21st floor. The building itself, along with a wide stretch of a bustling area not far from the Grand Central transit hub and the Chrysler Building was evacuated and area streets closed.

Fire Chief John Esposito said officials believed the steel-framed building wasn't necessarily at risk of a total collapse, but that "it would be more of a localized collapse.”

On-site contractors were eventually allowed to reenter the building to do the emergency repairs after city officials did a floor-by-floor inspection. The building was empty other than the workers.

The renovation project is billed as the largest office-to-residential conversion in the city’s history, creating some 1,600 units of housing. The plans call for transforming a pair of office buildings by adding more than a dozen stories atop one tower and redesigning another tower.

MetroLoft, the project developer, has said the building itself is not at risk of collapse and that no debris fell from the building, though Nathan Berman, the firm's founder has acknowledged the added weight from widening the top 15 or so floors of the building likely caused the damage.

___

Associated Press video journalist Ted Shaffrey in New York contributed to this story.

Emanuel’s condemnation of Israel’s leadership shows how far centrist Democrats have shifted away from historic support of Israel, three years after the war in Gaza began. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has curried favor with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, Israel’s standing with the Democrats has plummeted.

About 58% of Democrats say the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Israelis, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, a charge Israel vehemently denies.

Jewish adults, who overwhelmingly skew Democratic, have a slightly more favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, than of Netanyahu, the poll found.

“You cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing you have the right to fight,” Emanuel told a packed auditorium of students and supporters in a speech hosted by the university's Center for the Study of the United States. “You must instead find a new sustainable path to peace, security, and economic prosperity.”

A plan to end the pariah status

Emanuel offered a slate of tough love for Israel to “bust it out of its strategic pariah status,” focused on strengthening Israel’s diplomatic ties with Arab states and economic ties with the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, to provide an economic alternative to China’s sprawling multinational infrastructure program.

Specifically, he wants to end U.S. subsidies to Israel’s defense budget, arguing the country should pay for American defense like any other ally. He also wants to sanction Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, along with politicians who offer their support for that violence. He added that America turning a blind eye toward Israeli injustices had “engendered the worst of your domestic politics.”

The speech was well-received by the liberal Tel Aviv University crowd, who applauded even when Emanuel condemned Israel's policies, such as Netanyahu's role in not preparing for the day after in Gaza. He said “true friends tell each other the truth.”

Israeli media, however, preoccupied with the NATO conference in Turkey and a possible flare-up of conflict with Iran, barely registered Emanuel’s visit.

Rather than a two-state solution, Emanuel wants to push a 23-state solution, involving 21 Arab states, that would hold the Palestinians accountable for progressing toward a sovereign nation while accepting the historic Jewish connection to the land. The new, three-pronged U.S. policy would leverage the Arab world’s desire for stability, Israel’s need for security, and Palestinian demands for sovereignty, he said.

Emanuel arrived in Israel on Sunday, and visited several projects prior to his speech. One was a partnership between hospitals in Tel Aviv and Nablus where Israeli and Palestinian doctors train together. He also met researchers who recently published a report finding that sexual violence was systematic against Israelis in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath.

Emanuel also visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, and met with President Isaac Herzog.

He told The Associated Press earlier in the week he is avoiding meeting with political leaders before the country’s elections in the fall. Israel’s presidency is a largely ceremonial position that is meant to unify the country and be above party politics. The country's president is elected by the 120-member Knesset for a single 7-year term.

A country abandoned by its government

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the speech. Netanyahu famously called Emanuel a “self-hating Jew” over Emanuel's condemnation of Israel’s expansion of settlements in 2009, when he served as President Barack Obama's chief of staff. His denunciation so incensed far-right Israelis that a number of activists were detained while protesting his son's bar mitzvah in Jerusalem the next year, Emanuel recalled.

One of the activists police detained was Itamar Ben-Gvir, who today serves as Israel’s public security minister and oversees the police, which Emanuel dryly noted was representative of Israel's overall political direction in the past 15 years.

Emanuel, whose father was born in Jerusalem and fought in the 1948 war that led to the founding of Israel, also took time in his speech to acknowledge the toll of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which Hamas-led militants launched air and ground strikes on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records that are generally considered reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.

In his conversations with Israelis over the past several days, the intensity of feeling that the country had been abandoned by its government surprised him, Emanuel said before his speech. “This sense of post-Oct. 7 vulnerability, I had read about it, but you don’t feel the visceralness of this and the rawness of this until you sit across the table from people,” he said.

While no prominent Democrat has formally entered the 2028 presidential contest, that is likely to change soon after the November midterms. Emanuel, who also served as a congressman, Chicago mayor, and U.S. ambassador to Japan, has been one of the most direct about his intentions as a possible candidate. For example, he's done bike tours of early voting states like New Hampshire.

Emanuel, who said he still hadn’t officially decided to run, was emphatic Wednesday that the Democrats do not need to give up on Israel in order to win the White House in 2028. But Americans need to take a new direction when it comes to Israel, he said.

“The status quo is unacceptable, where you can’t say anything negative, which is an implicit endorsement,” he said. ___

This story has been corrected to reflect that Israel's president is an elected by the 120-member Knesset.

___ Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed from Washington and Steve Peoples contributed from New York.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Chinese nationals Yuping Li, Junrong He, Xun Ou, Qingxiang Zhu, and Youdi Zhuge on Monday.

Deputies arrested Li, 60, at 10471 SW 40 St. in the Westwood Lakes neighborhood. Her arrest report listed an apartment in Flushing, New York, as her permanent address.

Deputies arrested Zhuge, 58, and He, 52, at 11760 SW 88 St. in Kendall, and listed the massage parlor as their permanent address.

Deputies arrested Zhu, 57, at 16938 South Dixie Highway in West Perrine, and listed her as homeless.

Deputies arrested Ou, 36, at 7375 SW 24 St., in the Coral Terrace neighborhood, and listed her permanent address in San Bernardino County, California.

The five women each faced a third-degree felony charge of operating a health care practice or profession without an active, valid license.

They also each faced misdemeanor charges of practicing massage therapy without a license, engaging in prostitution, and committing an unnatural and lascivious act.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

It is the fourth year in a row that the queen, the wife of King Charles III, has visited the All England Club on Day 10 of the two-week tournament. She wore a light blue dress as she took her seat to watch the women's quarterfinal between Jasmine Paolini and Marta Kostyuk on Centre Court.

Other famous faces in the Royal Box included actors Elle Fanning and Dominic West, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Charles in the Netflix drama “The Crown.”

After Kostyuk's victory, Camilla surprised the next two players — British wild card Arthur Fery and Flavio Cobolli of Italy — by coming up to shake their hands as they prepared to walk onto Centre Court.

Before play started, Camilla met with a ball boy and a ball girl, as well as several long-serving staff members at the All England Club.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, is the patron of the All England Club and visited Wimbledon last week, meeting with fans in the famous queue outside the grounds and sitting next to two-time champion Andy Murray as she watched the tennis.

___

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

Según los registros de la cárcel en línea, el ex candidato a gobernador fue arrestado el jueves por la noche en Daphne, Alabama, por cargos de posesión de drogas peligrosas, parafernalia de drogas y posesión de marihuana.

Desde entonces, fue puesto en libertad.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre el arresto del hombre de 46 años.

Según un comunicado de prensa del Departamento de Policía de Daphne, los agentes detuvieron a Gillum cuando conducía de forma errática alrededor de las 22:45 horas del jueves.

La policía indicó que uno de los agentes vio una pipa de cristal en la consola central del vehículo, lo que les llevó a registrar el coche.

Según la policía, también se incautaron varios porros de marihuana y tres paquetes de una sustancia que dio positivo en metanfetamina.

Enseguida, Gillum fue detenido e ingresado en la cárcel municipal de Daphne antes de ser trasladado al centro penitenciario del condado de Baldwin.

Gillum, quien se postuló como demócrata contra DeSantis en las elecciones de 2018, ya había sido noticia en marzo de 2020 después de que la Policía de Miami Beach informara que lo encontró en el hotel Mondrian South Beach en estado de “ebriedad” junto a otros dos hombres.

Según un informe policial, los agentes encontraron tres pequeñas bolsas transparentes dentro de la habitación del hotel que contenían presunta metanfetamina cristalina, aunque los hombres nunca fueron acusados de ningún delito.

Gillum emitió un comunicado tras el incidente de 2020, en el que afirmó que había asistido a una boda la noche anterior y había estado bebiendo, pero negó haber consumido metanfetamina.

Gillum también fue noticia en 2023 cuando fue absuelto de mentirle al FBI en un caso de corrupción que también involucró el uso ilegal de contribuciones de campaña.

Hasta la mañana del martes, no había publicado un comunicado sobre el más reciente incidente en Alabama.

Syd Meyer y Chris Gleadall dijeron que pagaron $0.99 USD por el aguacate el domingo en el supermercado Publix ubicado en el 1000 de Overseas Highway, en Marathon.

“Estaban en oferta”, dijo Gleadall. “La verdad, no reviso mucho los productos que compro”.

Meyer dijo que el aguacate era para preparar sus tazones de pavo con aguacate, que suelen comer para la cena.

“Saco el aguacate, listo para prepararlo, y lo miro pensando: “Este tallo se ve muy raro”. Lo observo más de cerca y, en realidad, había una pequeña marca de bala en la base del cartucho. Era de calibre .22″, dijo Gleadall.

Decidieron grabar un video que compartieron en Instagram. Los usuarios reaccionaron con creatividad: “¡Holy Glock-a-mole!”, “¡Ammo-cado!” y “¡Bullet-cado!”.

Arthur Fery grew up five minutes from the All England Club and now the 114th-ranked player is a semifinalist at the grass-court Grand Slam.

The 23-year-old British player, who needed a wild-card invitation to enter the tournament, beat ninth-seeded Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Centre Court in front of roaring home fans and a Royal Box contingent that included Britain’s Queen Camilla on Wednesday.

"It gets better and better every match," Fery said in an on-court interview. “I just can't believe it.”

Fery earned a standing ovation after winning the first set. The deafening roar that followed Fery taking the tiebreaker to seal the second set was heard over at Wimbledon's other main stadium — No. 1 Court, where Alexander Zverev was in the process of beating Taylor Fritz in straight sets.

The only other wild card to have reached the men’s singles semifinals at the All England Club was Goran Ivanisevic in his run to the Wimbledon title in 2001.

Fery sealed his memorable victory with an ace and fell onto his back to soak in the applause.

“That last game, I felt emotions that I hadn’t experienced before in my life,” he said.

A short time later, Zverev wrapped up his 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win to set up a semifinal against Fery on Friday.

Moments before the start of their quarterfinal match, Fery and Cobolli were surprised to meet Camilla in the hallway moments before they walked onto court.

A champagne cork popped in the crowd late in the first set and distracted Cobolli during his service motion. The locals will surely pop a few more with a British player to support in Friday's semifinal.

Friday's other semifinal pits seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic against defending champion Jannik Sinner.

Kostyuk to meet Noskova in semifinals

Earlier Wednesday, Marta Kostyuk beat Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-2 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinals.

The 24-year-old Ukrainian also reached the last four at the French Open, losing to Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, the eventual champion in Paris.

Kostyuk raised her hands and dropped to her knees after Paolini scuffed a shot on her second match point. After shaking hands with the Italian, Kostyuk did a pirouette on court.

The 12th-seeded Kostyuk had a sneak peak at Centre Court on Tuesday so that she wasn’t overwhelmed for the match.

“I was flabbergasted by this entrance and everything inside,” she said in an on-court interview. “I was like, ‘wow,’ I need one day to recover from what I saw. ... I was on this court as (a) spectator once nine years ago watching Roger (Federer).”

Kostyuk will be back on Centre Court on Thursday to face Linda Noskova for a spot in Saturday’s final. Noskova beat Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-5 on No. 1 Court.

It’s the first career Grand Slam semifinal for the 21-year-old Noskova, who improved to 10-1 on grass this season.

“I was a little bit nervous before the match,” said Noskova, who beat Jessica Pegula in the Berlin Open final in the buildup to Wimbledon. “Usually when it's really, really important for me and I’m putting a little bit of pressure on myself, that’s when I play the best.”

The other women’s semifinal features Coco Gauff against Karolina Muchova, who like Noskova is from the Czech Republic. They’re up first on Centre Court on Thursday.

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

Según los agentes, Wilson Matias Jr., de 19 meses, salió corriendo de su casa en Allen Road poco después de las 2 p.m. del lunes mientras su madre, Ericka Cante Hernandez, de 33 años, sacaba de la entrada un Chevrolet Suburban 2024.

Los agentes dijeron que Hernandez accidentalmente golpeó a su hijo con la camioneta SUV.

Wilson fue trasladado por paramédicos al Hospital Memorial Regional, donde murió.

Hernández dijo en español a Local 10 News que no tenía palabras y que estaba devastada.

Aunque los detectives creen que el accidente fue accidental, dijeron que la investigación continúa.

Familiares le dijeron a Local 10 News el lunes que cariñosamente se referían a Wilson como Junior.

“Estaba en shock porque era mi primer hermanito”, dijo Ashly Cante, hermana de la víctima. “Era un buen niño. Le gustaba jugar. Estaba conmigo y con mis hermanos.”

Desde entonces crearon una página de GoFundMe para ayudar con los gastos del funeral y los servicios conmemorativos.

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The new Quiet Zone Pilot Program targets excessive nighttime noise in the South of Fifth neighborhood, where residents have raised concerns about loud vehicles disrupting their quality of life.

The initiative is designed to curb persistent disturbances caused by engine revving, modified exhaust systems and amplified sound from vehicles during the late evening and overnight hours.

“This pilot program is aimed at the people who create so much noise with their vehicles that they become a neighborhood nuisance,” Miami Beach Vice Mayor Laura Dominguez, who sponsored the initiative, said in a statement Wednesday. “I hope this will be an important step at increasing the quality of life for our residents.”

As part of the program, the city has installed large, bright yellow aluminum signs at entrances to the designated Quiet Zone. The signs warn drivers that fines may be issued for excessive vehicle noise.

City officials said the pilot will be evaluated over the next year before determining whether it should be expanded to other neighborhoods.

“Our residents deserve to rest peacefully in their homes, especially during late-night hours,” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said in a statement. “Excessive vehicle noise is not merely disruptive — it is a quality of life issue.”

Meiner said the Quiet Zone Pilot Program builds on previous efforts to address illegal and disruptive vehicle noise and provides police with another enforcement tool.

Enforcement will be carried out by Miami Beach police officers during their regular evening patrols as part of Operation Quiet Streets. Officers may issue citations under applicable state laws and city ordinances when they observe violations.

City leaders say the program is intended to strike a balance between Miami Beach’s vibrant nightlife and the needs of residents who live in the area.

El nuevo Programa Piloto de Zona de Silencio está dirigido a reducir el ruido excesivo de vehículos durante la noche en el vecindario South of Fifth, donde los residentes han expresado su preocupación por los vehículos ruidosos que afectan su calidad de vida.

La iniciativa está diseñada para reducir las molestias persistentes causadas por aceleraciones de motor, sistemas de escape modificados y sonido amplificado de los vehículos durante las horas de la noche y la madrugada.

“Este programa piloto está dirigido a las personas que generan tanto ruido con sus vehículos que se convierten en una molestia para el vecindario”, dijo la vicealcaldesa de Miami Beach, Laura Dominguez, quien impulsó la iniciativa, en un comunicado emitido el miércoles. “Espero que este sea un paso importante para mejorar la calidad de vida de nuestros residentes”.

Como parte del programa, la ciudad instaló grandes letreros amarillos de aluminio en las entradas de la Zona de Silencio designada. Los letreros advierten a los conductores que podrían recibir multas por ruido excesivo de vehículos.

Funcionarios de la ciudad dijeron que el programa piloto será evaluado durante el próximo año antes de determinar si debe ampliarse a otros vecindarios.

“Nuestros residentes merecen descansar tranquilamente en sus hogares, especialmente durante las horas de la noche”, dijo el alcalde de Miami Beach, Steven Meiner, en un comunicado. “El ruido excesivo de los vehículos no solo es una molestia, sino un problema de calidad de vida”.

Meiner dijo que el Programa Piloto de Zona de Silencio se basa en esfuerzos anteriores para abordar el ruido ilegal y excesivo de los vehículos, y proporciona a la Policía otra herramienta para hacer cumplir la ley.

La aplicación del programa estará a cargo de agentes de la Policía de Miami Beach durante sus patrullajes nocturnos regulares como parte de la Operación Quiet Streets. Los agentes podrán emitir citaciones conforme a las leyes estatales aplicables y las ordenanzas municipales cuando observen infracciones.

Los líderes de la ciudad dicen que el programa busca lograr un equilibrio entre la vibrante vida nocturna de Miami Beach y las necesidades de los residentes que viven en el área.

Prosecutors are trying to convince state District Judge Tony Graf that they have enough evidence to bring Tyler Robinson to trial on an aggravated murder charge. After the hearing concludes, Graf must determine if the case should proceed, which experts say is likely.

Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder in Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination on the Utah Valley University campus, for which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea. His attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence. They have, however, sought to get the death penalty taken off the table, so far unsuccessfully.

Here's the latest:

Robinson’s defense disputed the idea that he was hostile to Kirk’s politics

Defense attorney Richard Novak sought to block prosecutors from introducing a statement describing the traditional Christian values of Turning Point USA.

“This doesn’t say anything about Mr. Robinson’s state of mind,” Novak said about Turning Point USA board member David Engelhardt's statement. “I don’t think that this court should be deciding — based on the record before it — where, if at all, politics and religion intersect.”

The judge ruled that the Turning Point statement was relevant and would be “provisionally admitted,” with a final decision at a later date.

Robinson’s roommate provided investigators with a DNA sample

FBI analyst Amanda Bakker said after Robinson’s roommate provided a DNA sample for comparison, she was able to rerun her tests and attribute all of the DNA to two people.

Investigators found the towel and suspected murder weapon — a bolt-action rifle with one spent round — in a wooded area near where Kirk was shot.

DNA on the towel matched to two people, Jennifer Faumuina with the State Bureau of Investigation testified. One was Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, and the other was very likely Robinson, she said.

Defense lawyer Michael Burt cast doubt on the analyst’s conclusions

It’s a theme that’s likely to come up again during the weeklong preliminary hearing.

“She can’t match Mr. Robinson to the questioned samples,” Burt concluded.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride countered that the reliability of the DNA testing could be examined if the case goes to trial. He suggested the preliminary hearing was not the time to take up the matter.

“The point is there are explanations that are susceptible to different interpretations and arguments,” McBride said. “The court is going to determine if it meets the threshold of reliability at trial.”

DNA evidence from Charlie Kirk's assassination disputed by defendant’s lawyers

Lawyers for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk are expected to keep questioning the reliability of DNA testing that prosecutors said links the defendant to the suspected murder weapon when a weeklong hearing continues Wednesday.

A member of Tyler Robinson’s defense team interrogated a DNA analyst from the FBI on Tuesday about the techniques she used to connect Robinson to a rifle found wrapped inside a towel at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was shot in September while speaking to a crowd.

Defense lawyer Michael Burt cast doubt on the analyst’s conclusions — a theme that’s likely to come up again.

Prolonged and intense heat is part of a climate change-driven pattern of weather extremes that has also led to intense flooding and prolonged drought. For farmers, this means shorter planting windows and potential loss of crops because of periods of early-season heat followed by a freeze.

“I think it’s pretty safe to assume these kind of heat waves aren’t going away or they’re not freak occurrences,” Woods said.

The recent heat dome, a high-pressure weather system that traps heat and humidity over a region, affected some specialty farmers who produce crops of fruits and vegetables. Human-driven climate change also has brought more intense heat waves and other extreme weather.

These specialty farmers have found ways to adapt, in part by adjusting their harvest schedules to avoid the hottest parts of the day. But they don’t always have access to the same safety net as farmers of traditional commodity crops such as corn and soybeans when extreme weather hits, experts say.

The heat and humidity that comes with a heat dome can be dangerous for farmworkers and is a “serious threat to human health,” said Melissa Widhalm, the associate director at the Midwest Regional Climate Center in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Woods works in the coolest parts of the day in the morning and evening, taking frequent water breaks. She plants and harvests by hand, unlike larger farms that often rely on machinery. If it gets too hot and she has to harvest, she pitches a tent she uses for farmer's markets in the fields to create some shade.

Heat can affect crop quality, harvest time

Extreme heat coupled with periods of rain and high humidity can also bring diseases and other pests that can destroy crops. Right now the priority is harvesting those most-vulnerable crops, such as tender salad greens. Woods grows vegetables and culinary herbs for restaurants in the region and for a community supported agriculture program. Harvesting crops when it's too hot outside can affect their quality, she said.

She's also concerned for the health of her seedlings that will grow into fall crops. Right now, Woods keeps her seedlings in an enclosed cabinet inside a barn where it's cooler. Once they've germinated, she moves them into a greenhouse with fans running to keep temperatures manageable.

“We have to do a lot of checking on the greenhouse and watering frequently to keep those teeny tiny plants alive,” Woods said.

For some growers, the recent heat also has shortened the harvest window for certain specialty crops.

For Paul Rasch, who owns and operates multiple fruit orchards in central Iowa, the heat has forced his crew of eight workers to step up harvesting of raspberries. Normally, they'd have about three weeks to harvest this perishable fruit, but “we’re scrambling to pick as many as we can,” he said.

They've started harvesting as early as 6 a.m. some mornings to finish before noon when it gets too hot and unsafe to work. He's also installed air conditioning inside buildings and is adding shade outdoors with trees and covered pavilions so customers coming to pick their own fruit can stay cool. And he's testing a few high tunnels so he can keep conditions more consistent for certain crops.

Rasch said that it seems like these heat events are becoming more common, more intense and lasting longer. These events, along with floods, drought and late-spring frosts are all worrisome and can adversely affect crops throughout the year.

“We don’t ever seem to have a typical year anymore,” he said.

Crop diversity protects against losses, insurance can be hard to access

Smaller farms like Woods' and Rasch's often plant and harvest a wide variety of crops throughout the year. Part of that is a business decision, but it's also to protect against losses that might impact one crop, but not others.

“You’re always gonna have something that will thrive while other things might be more challenged,” Woods said.

Rasch also said that crop insurance for specialty crop farmers is different than for commodity farmers. They're more vulnerable to extreme weather, but they aren't as protected, he said. Woods, who also works with the Organic Association of Kentucky, agrees and said she knows farmers like her who have a difficult time accessing insurance because they farm such a wide range of crops on small acreage.

And that's because federal crop insurance programs are designed to insure single crops with one growing season, like corn, soybean and wheat, said Duncan Orlander, a policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

For smaller specialty crop farmers, the paperwork required to cover a larger range of crops on small acreage can be too burdensome and coverage for certain specialty crops may not even be available in certain places. Crop insurers are also disincentivized to sell policies with small premiums and potential payouts, he added.

And although there are federal programs that cover a farm's revenue rather than their specific crops, Orlander said these policies are complicated and widely underutilized.

“We’re not keeping up with the losses and the extreme weather that we’re seeing,” he said. “And we have to think a little bit differently about how we are going to mitigate risk and cover losses into the future when these things occur.”

For Woods, the community supported agriculture program she runs gives her flexibility in case one crop fails. Her customers are supporting the farm for the season regardless of what vegetables end up in their boxes. That program and her crop diversity is one way she “hedges our bets” against heat, floods and drought.

“It’s something you have to be aware of and plan for and have a plan to be resilient in the face of these kind of events,” Woods said.

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Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

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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.

La niña, originaria de Margate, fue vista por última vez el 30 de junio de 2025 cerca del Florida Mall en Orlando, pero no fue reportada como desaparecida sino hasta octubre, después de que su padre se enterara de que la madre de la menor estaba en la cárcel.

Las autoridades dijeron que la madre de la niña, Paasha Davis, fue arrestada bajo cargos de negligencia infantil, ocultar el paradero de una menor y mentirle a las autoridades.

Indicaron que la policía de Margate, la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado Osceola y el FBI trabajan en el caso.

El padre de la niña, Gordon Terrelonge, cree que Davis tiene las respuestas que llevarían a encontrar a su hija, y dice que los investigadores realizaron una nueva búsqueda con perros cadáver hace algunas semanas en el centro de Florida.

“Todos creemos que sigue viva”, dijo Terrelonge. “Pensamos que tal vez se la dio a alguien porque definitivamente perdió la cabeza, pero sentimos que el hecho de que ella pasara los últimos tres meses sin que la encontráramos, y luego descubrir que Gabby ha estado desaparecida desde junio o julio, en lugar de septiembre, nos demuestra que sentimos que ha tenido ayuda o tal vez la ha recibido”.

Cualquier persona con información sobre el paradero de Gabrielle, quien ahora tendría 11 años, debe comunicarse con el FBI.

En cuanto a Davis, Terrelonge dijo que permanece bajo custodia en un hospital.

Every year, Cuba argues in front of the United Nations that the U.S. economic embargo is the cause for their economic problems. Each year, Cuba loses more support for their argument. The United Nations has no legitimate or legal right to lift the embargo. The U.S. Congress can only lift the embargo.

The Cuban government propaganda machine has failed. Most Cubans on the island, including economists on the island, blame the Cuban government for their current poor economic conditions.

July 6 update: Raul Castro’s grandson says Cuba is willing to negotiate with US

Reuters reported earlier this morning that Raul Castro’s grandson Raulito, known as “El Cangrejo,” announced that Cuba is willing to negotiate with the U.S. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether Raulito is negotiating on behalf of the Castro family or the Cuban government?

We know that Cuba has been selling some of their assets, including some belonging to the military economic conglomerate GAESA in the last couple of weeks. Cuba’s attempt to invite foreign investment has not attracted many takers for the fear of losing their money.

July 2 update: Cuba’s culture of fear complicates a Democratic transition

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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.

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According to online jail records, the former politician was arrested Thursday night in Daphne, Alabama on charges of possession of dangerous drugs, drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.

He has since been released from jail.

Further details surrounding the 46-year-old’s arrest were not immediately released.

According to a press release from the Daphne Police Department, officers pulled over Gillum as he was driving erratically at about 10:45 p.m. Thursday.

Police said one of the officers spotted a glass pipe on the center console of the vehicle, which led them to search the car.

According to police, several rolled marijuana cigarettes and three packages of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine were also recovered.

Gillum was then arrested and booked into the Daphne City Jail before being transported to the Baldwin County Correctional Facility.

Gillum, who ran as a Democrat against DeSantis in the 2018 election, previously made headlines in March 2020 after Miami Beach police said they found him at the Mondrian South Beach Hotel in an “inebriated” state with two other men.

According to a police report, officers found three small clear bags inside the hotel room containing suspected crystal meth, although the men were never charged with a crime.

Gillum released a statement after the 2020 incident, saying he was at a wedding the night before the incident and was drinking, but denied taking any methamphetamines.

Gillum also made headlines in 2023 when he was acquitted of lying to the FBI in a corruption case that also involved illegal use of campaign contributions.

He has not publicly released a statement regarding the latest incident in Alabama, as of Tuesday morning.

“I leave with a fulfilled heart, proud of my contribution to the greatest successes of Croatian soccer in history, and I wish my successor, the national team and Croatian soccer many new successes,” Dalić said in a statement posted by the national soccer federation on Instagram on Wednesday.

The announcement came less than a week after Croatia lost 2-1 to Portugal in the round of 32 at the World Cup.

“I have always said that there is no greater honor than leading my national team, and that I cannot have a more important, more responsible, and more beautiful job than this," Dalić said.

“The support in recent days has prompted me to reconsider my decision to leave, but... it’s about time. As much as I still feel the ambition and desire to write new successes with Croatia, I feel that this is the right moment to conclude this incredible era.”

The federation called Dalić's time at the helm an “unforgettable journey” and said his departure was a “proud farewell.”

“Following nearly nine years, head coach Zlatko Dalić has decided to close his incredibly successful chapter with Croatia,” the federation said on X. "Head coach, thank you for everything — the victories, the achievements, the qualifying berths, the medals, the unity, the respect, and your unwavering commitment to fight for Croatia, both on and off the pitch.

“The results speak of your coaching virtues. The respect you’ve earned from your players, staff, and opponents speaks volumes about the person you are."

Under Dalić, Croatia's so-called golden generation, which included star player Luka Modrić, was runner-up at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and third at the 2022 edition in Qatar. It was also runner-up at the 2023 Nations League.

The federation did not immediately announce a new coach.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Police arrested Anthony Gonzalez Tovar on April 17.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies previously released surveillance footage they said shows Gonzalez Tovar exposing himself before approaching a woman, who was sitting on the grass along the 16300 block of Golf Club Road in Weston, on April 8.

Authorities alleged the video showed Gonzalez Tovar looking around before grabbing the victim from behind, who fought back until the suspect ran off.

Gonzalez Tovar was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, but he has since been transferred to the Broward County Main Jail.

He will eventually be scheduled for a court appearance to face the attempted sexual battery charge as an adult.

At Miami Dade College’s Homestead Campus, the Microbiology Girls Club is giving middle and high school girls a college-level crash course in scientific research.

The club is helping reshape a field where who asks the question often shapes what gets discovered, and for Dr. M. Nia Madison, it’s personal.

“I’m very passionate about increasing the number of women in STEM fields because women have been underrepresented in STEM historically for a long time,’ said Madison, a microbiology professor at Miami Dade College Homestead Campus and founder of the club. “The purpose of the Microbiology Girls Club is to engage and inspire girls from a young age to be interested in all STEM fields.”

For six weeks, these girls spend their summer exploring a world most people never see.

Working alongside Madison, a college professor and researcher, they examine microscopic life, grow bacteria, use college-level lab equipment and piece together the identity of an unknown microbe.

By the end of the program, what started under a microscope has grown into something much bigger. Science-focused field trips broaden their horizons before they wrap up the summer by presenting their research to family and friends.

“I’m really excited about the fact that a lot of my students go on to four-year universities, graduate school, to engage in science terminal degrees,” said Madison.

Over the last decade, more than 400 students have passed through the program, many returning later as dual-enrollment students.

Each day blends hands-on research designed to show these girls not only how science works, but that they have a place in it and can really make a difference.

Madison said she opened the doors of her cutting-edge research lab to aspiring scientists, using mentorship as a way to diversify STEM fields.

She is a microbiologist and HIV researcher with more than two decades of research experience, extending beyond microbiology. She also mentors agricultural research students, advises the campus Garden Club and teaches sustainability.

This connection is building confidence, inspiring curiosity and creating a pipeline of future hometown scientists.

Through support from The Children’s Trust Youth Development Grant, Madison is already recruiting for the 11th and 12th annual Microbiology Girls Club programs.

For application information, contact Madison at: mmadison@mdc.edu

To submit an idea for What Connects Us, email whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

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According to deputies, Wilson Matias Jr., who was 19 months old, ran out of his home on Allen Road shortly after 2 p.m. Monday as his mother, Ericka Cante Hernandez, 33, was pulling out of the driveway in a 2024 Chevrolet Suburban.

Deputies said Hernandez accidentally struck her son with the SUV.

Wilson was transported by paramedics to Memorial Regional Hospital where he died.

In Spanish, Hernandez told Local 10 News she had no words and that she is devastated.

Although detectives believe the crash was accidental, they said the investigation remains ongoing.

Family members told Local 10 News that they affectionately referred to Wilson as Junior.

“I was in shock because that was my first little brother,” said Ashly Cante, the victim’s sister. “He was a good kid. He liked to play. He was around with me and my brothers.”

Loved ones have since created a GoFundMe page to assist with funeral and memorial expenses.

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On one side is a developer proposing an eight-story building with nearly 200 residential units.

On the ground floor of the building will be a new home for Crystal Academy, a school dedicated to serving children with autism.

But for many who live near the site, they say the issue isn’t the school, it’s the size of everything else that comes with it.

Neighbors say their streets are already congested and they worry hundreds of new residents would only make traffic worse while putting even more pressure on roads and city infrastructure.

However, many supporters of the project point to the development providing a permanent home for Crystal Academy, with a 99-year lease, rent free, because their current facilities are old and nearly unusable.

After hours of discussion, public comment, and Coral Gables commissioners trying to find a middle ground with design plans, they voted in favor of the building.

Developers said afterwards that they are ready to get to work, while those not in favor indicated their fight was not over.

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Detectives with the Miami Beach Police Department said they were working an undercover operation while attempting to locate criminals involved in human trafficking.

In total, they made six arrests, including Angely Cordero Cabrera, 21, from Dallas, Texas.

According to police, detectives found an online ad and called the listed number, and an undercover officer was directed to the Miami Princess Hotel, located at 4251 NW 11th St. in Miami, after inquiring if the listed girl was available.

Once there, police detained two females. They were Cordero Cabrera and a 16-year-old girl, police said.

According to officials, the arrests were made under the FIFA task force created by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, and the investigation remains active and ongoing.

Police said when there are large sporting events in town, human trafficking increases.

This is just the latest case of human trafficking in which South Florida law enforcement has cracked down on sex crimes.

Last week, Local 10 News reported on six men who were arrested after investigators said they agreed to pay for sex with what they believed to be one or two girls, aged 14 and 15.

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According to Fort Lauderdale police, the incident was reported at about 7:30 a.m. in the 1000 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue.

Detective Kerri Hagerty said the mother and son were approached from behind by an unknown person who struck both of them with a “blunt object.”

Hagerty said the woman sustained a cut in the back of the head and the boy sustained an abrasion to his face.

Both victims were transported to Broward Health Medical Center to be treated for their injuries.

Local 10 reporter Roy Ramos spoke with the mother after they arrived home from the hospital. She said she was walking her son, who has special needs, to a bus stop to take him to school when he was targeted.

The mother also told Local 10 News that she and her son had only moved into their apartment less than a week ago.

She said a man struck her son with a mallet-type of object and then began striking her with the object after she intervened to protect her son.

“Some guy just comes behind us, out the blue. My son is non-verbal, he’s disabled – that’s sad,” the woman identified only as Chrissy said, adding that her son has autism. “He just comes and tells him something and attacks him, and then I had to intercept and get in front (of him) and then he attacks me.”

Chrissy said the suspect appeared to be carrying a heavy mallet-like object.

“It looked like a mallet, some kind of thing, but it was really heavy because the intensity that he hit me in the head. I still had to stay alive to protect him,” she said.

Chrissy said her son also suffered internal damage to one of his eyes, but is not blind.

She also expressed frustration that witnesses did not stop the suspect.

“They didn’t care. ‘Don’t know, see nothing,’ of course,” she said.

Chrissy also had a message for the attacker.

“You attacked a child and a woman and you had no remorse. You were about to go again if I didn’t stop you,” she said.

Hagerty said the suspect fled the scene prior to officers arriving.

Anyone with information about the suspect’s identity is asked to call the Fort Lauderdale Police Department or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

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The girl, who is from Margate, was last seen on June 30, 2025, near the Florida Mall in Orlando, but wasn’t reported missing until October after her father learned her mother was in jail.

Authorities said the girl’s mother, Paasha Davis, was arrested on charges of child neglect, concealing the location of a minor and lying to law enforcement.

They said Margate police, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are working the case.

The girl’s father, Gordon Terrelonge, believes Davis has the answers that would lead them to his daughter and says investigators conducted a new search with cadaver dogs weeks ago in Central Florida.

“We all believe she’s still alive,” said Terrelonge. “We think that maybe she gave her to somebody because she’s definitely lost her mind, but we feel like for her to do the last three months of not finding her and then finding out Gabby’s been missing since June, July, instead of September, that just shows you we feel like she’s had help or maybe gotten help.”

Anyone with information regarding the location of Gabrielle, who would now be 11 years old, is urged to contact the FBI.

As for Davis, Terrelonge said she is being held in custody at a hospital.

It happened early Sunday morning along Sunshine Boulevard near Southwest 27th Street.

“I can’t! I can’t! I can’t,” a woman is heard screaming on the call.

The dispatcher asks the woman to calm down as she tries to understand what is happening.  

“So a vehicle just ran into your house, is that correct?” the dispatcher asked.

“And they’re fighting, they’re fighting, somebody’s fighting,” the woman said.

Home security video showed a Lamborghini driving along the road when another car pulled up beside it, and that’s when the gunfire erupted.

Miramar police say three people in the Lamborghini were shot, including 21-year-old social media influencer Brianna Johnson, known online as DreamDoll Bri, who did not survive.

Now police officers are releasing the 911 calls just days after the shooting as they continue to search for a suspect.

Johnson’s loved ones created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.

Standing in front of a judge with bandages on his nose and his arm wrapped in a cast was 38-year-old Vladimir Mushenko.

The injuries were sustained in a fatal crash that occurred on the Fourth of July along Dania Beach Boulevard.

Mushenko now faces 22 charges related to vehicular homicide, DUI and reckless driving.

Traffic homicide detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office say Mushenko was behind the wheel of a white BMW and speeding down Dania Beach Boulevard when he hit a curb, overcorrected, then lost control of the vehicle and slid sideways into the westbound lanes before crashing into a Mercedes-Benz carrying four people, including two children.

They were all rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

There were three passengers in the car with Mushenko, including Oleksii Masksymov, who was pronounced dead at the scene, and Said Akhmedov, who died at the hospital.

A third passenger survived and told deputies Mushenko was the driver.

In an arrest report, a deputy noted Mushenko showed signs of impairment, saying his breath smelled like alcohol, his eyes were glassy and he appeared disoriented.

Hospital staff at Broward Health Medical Center tested his blood- alcohol level, with the results revealing it was more than twice the legal limit, the report stated.

Prosecutors mentioned in court that Mushenko was convicted last year for careless driving.

The Russian national is currently being held behind bars at the Broward County Main Jail in connection with the crash and on an immigration hold.

Prosecutors said Mushenko entered the country illegally in 2023 from the California border.

Across the 77 insurers in the ACA program that have submitted rate filings that are publicly available, the median proposed premium increase for 2027 is 14%, according to Wednesday’s analysis from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. The insurers cited mounting healthcare costs, federal regulatory changes and the recent expiration of pandemic-era enhanced subsidies as the biggest factors driving premiums higher.

The rise in premiums adds to what already was a significant jump in 2026, when the median rate increase was 20%, according to KFF.

While most Americans in Obamacare still qualify for subsidies that protect them from paying the full premiums, middle-class enrollees who don't get those subsidies will face an especially stark increase in costs. That group includes households with incomes at or above 400% of the poverty level — about $63,000 per year for an individual or $129,000 for a family of four.

The rate increases come as federal lawmakers have proposed various policy changes to overhaul the expensive U.S. healthcare system, but no comprehensive legislation has amassed enough support to pass. The higher costs are contributing to Americans’ existing worries about overall affordability, a concern that many voters say is front of mind with November’s midterm elections looming.

Insurers cite rising costs and a smaller, sicker covered population

Health insurers must send filings to regulators every year, explaining what they expect to see in premium rate changes for individual market health plans for the coming year.

Next year’s rates will be finalized later in the summer, but KFF’s analysis looked at those in the ACA marketplace that already are public across 16 states and Washington, D.C., to get an early glimpse at what insurers are saying. The report measured insurers' premium increases as an average across all types of plans — bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

The analysis found that insurers listed rising costs across the healthcare sector — from hospital visits to prescription drugs, the workforce and sicker patients — as the biggest cause of rising premiums. Overall inflation contributed to that pressure, driving prices higher across the entire economy.

Insurers also blamed the expiration of federal subsidies that had offset costs for many people and caused the Affordable Care Act program to balloon in size in recent years. When those tax credits expired in January, many plan costs skyrocketed. That prompted large swaths of enrollees to depart the marketplace, leaving sicker patients who carry higher risks and costs, and driving premiums higher.

New state-by-state data posted by the Trump administration shows that the overall ACA marketplace shrunk by more than 2.5 million people over the past year, with some states seeing declines amounting to nearly a third of their enrollee population.

Some insurers added that federal regulatory changes contributed to their requests for higher premiums. For example, they said new enrollment and eligibility requirements instituted by the Trump administration could affect the overall population of ACA enrollees.

While Affordable Care Act enrollees make up less than 10% of the population, similar cost drivers are likely to make other private plans, including employer-sponsored plans, pricier too, according to KFF’s analysis.

Findings align with other analyses

Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms also published an analysis of preliminary ACA insurer rate filings last month. Like KFF's, it projected double-digit premium increases in the marketplace next year.

Stacey Pogue, a senior research fellow at the center who authored the report, said the enrollees most affected by the rising premiums will be those who don't qualify for financial help. She said those people already saw the most significant increases to their premiums in 2026, with some of their premiums doubling or tripling.

“Those are the folks who kind of got a double whammy” this year, she said.

Pogue said the rate filings are demonstrating what many analysts had expected: that the expiration of enhanced tax credits would cause healthy Americans to flee the marketplace and leave a sicker patient population that relies more heavily on insurance.

“When the healthy people leave, the prices go up,” she said. “The analysts all predicted that, and now that's what we're seeing.”

The IOC provisionally lifted a suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and advised Olympic sports bodies they no longer need to be vetting its athletes for permission to compete as neutrals.

“It is an important step toward reinstating our athletes’ legitimate rights to participate in international competitions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday. “Work will continue through our sports authorities. They are conducting this work constantly and consistently, this work will continue.”

Peskov added that “now, it’s very important that all our athletes have the opportunity to compete in major international events.”

The IOC’s guidance to reintegrate Russians in international events is not binding for the governing bodies of individual sports.

Track and field has already said it will not follow suit and there is no sign yet of changes which could let Russia return to major soccer events like Euro 2028 or a future World Cup.

“FIFA has been made aware of the decision taken by the IOC to provisionally lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee," soccer's governing body said. "FIFA will analyze the decision before deciding on next steps in coordination with the relevant stakeholders.”

FIFA last year invited Russia to send a team to the inaugural boys’ Under-15 Football Festival in Azerbaijan starting Oct. 22. That came soon after the IOC recommended allowing Russian youth teams to compete with the country's flag and anthem.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Edmunds experts have identified four small sedans and one midsize sedan that they would recommend you focus on. Each car has competitive Edmunds scoring, widespread availability on the used market, and a reliability score of at least 4 out of 5 from RepairPal, an independent source for data-driven reliability ratings. We’ve also noted the latest model years you can expect to find at nationwide retailers such as Carvana and CarMax that meet our $15,000 price cap.

Honda Civic

The Civic’s status as a perennial favorite among small sedans is well earned. It delivers excellent fuel economy and peppy acceleration, while its suspension tuning strikes a near-perfect balance between ride quality and athleticism. Although the Civic’s center touch screen can be slow and annoying to use at times, the Civic otherwise impresses with its roomy back seat and tight construction.

Look for: Older Civics easily fall within our price cap, but aim to get a 2016 Civic if you can. It received a full redesign this year that features new styling, a roomier interior and a new optional turbocharged engine that provides plenty of power plus high mpg.

Kia Forte

Kia’s Forte is the brand’s small sedan, which was sold until a few years ago, when Kia replaced it with the K4. The Forte’s sharp styling, quiet interior, and an extensive list of available features make it feel like a small sedan that’s more refined than its price would suggest. It also gets good fuel economy and has a large and easy-to-load trunk. The Forte’s ride quality can be a bit too firm and uncomfortable over bumps, but overall it is a smart pick for a used sedan.

Look for: The last generation of the Forte debuted for the 2019 model year. Any Forte from this year up to 2021 or so should be pretty easy to find for under $15,000. Among the Forte’s available trim levels, the EX is worth focusing on because it comes with premium features such as synthetic leather upholstery and heated and ventilated front seats.

Mazda 3

While most of the sedans in this group either aren’t sporty at all or merely dress the part, the Mazda 3 is genuinely fun to drive. Even if performance isn’t a priority for you, this responsiveness can be a valuable asset during emergency maneuvers. The Mazda 3’s sharp exterior design also offers a dose of style while its interior quality exceeds expectations, and its crash test scores put it among the top of its class.

Look for: The third-generation Mazda 3 debuted in 2014 and was produced through 2018. Buyers shouldn’t have any difficulty finding solid choices from the later years of that production run. The 2018 Touring model offers a long list of standard features for the price and is equipped with a more powerful engine than lower trims.

Toyota Corolla

A long-running staple in the compact sedan class, the Toyota Corolla has built its reputation on providing no-nonsense transportation with low running costs. The Corolla gets high marks for its comfort and appealing list of advanced driver assist features. It’s not as spacious as some of its rivals, and pokey acceleration keeps the fun factor relatively low, but otherwise the Corolla is a sensible choice.

Look for: Toyota introduced the 11th-generation Corolla for 2013. You should be able to get a 2015 to 2017 Corolla for under $15,000. Notably, the 2017 Corolla features included revised front-end styling, new LED headlights, and upgraded interior upholstery.

Chevrolet Malibu

Finding a used midsize sedan that’s less than 10 years old and under $15,000 can be difficult if it’s a popular model such as the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. But this is where the Chevrolet Malibu earns its appeal. As the only midsize in this group, the Malibu offers more space for passengers and their cargo than the other sedans on this list, yet it still delivers proven reliability and strong overall value.

Look for: The current-generation Malibu arrived in 2016. Any Malibu from this year or newer is a good pick. If you can find one, the 2019 Malibu is worth seeking out for its revised styling and updated infotainment tech.

Edmunds says

These models prove you don’t need to spend big to get a reliable and well-equipped sedan. From style and technology to ride quality and efficiency, the real decision comes down to what matters most to you. Each one has certain strengths, but they all deliver solid value for the money.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Bradley Iger is a contributor at Edmunds.

To do so, the company is trying to convince policymakers, regulators, the public and prospective customers that the business it is building onshore is a more disciplined operation than the freewheeling offshore exchange that has at times been the subject of unfavorable headlines.

Polymarket has hired social media influencers to produce viral marketing on TikTok and other platforms. Its account on X, formerly known as Twitter, is now followed by millions and posts about current events throughout the day. It has signed partnership deals with major sports teams and Major League Baseball, as well as news organizations ranging from CNBC to CNN. It's all part of a pitch that its real-time markets are a more accurate read on the future than traditional polling or punditry.

The campaign is, effectively, an effort to sell Polymarket as something different from the Polymarket people know today.

What the American public knows as Polymarket has, at least by the letter of the law, been unavailable to Americans. In 2022, it was pushed offshore after settling federal charges that it operated an unregistered derivatives market. But Americans have regularly found ways around the prohibition, and the offshore business faced criticism over allegations of insider trading and allowing wagers tied to war and other violence.

Polymarket's push into the U.S. means Americans now have legal access to Polymarket through their U.S. platform, albeit it will be limited access. It adds another competitor to the U.S. prediction market industry, now dominated by Kalshi, and also featuring Robinhood and others offering similar services.

Polymarket began operating again in the U.S. at the end of 2025 after buying the derivatives exchange QCEX to get the regulatory license to operate in the country. Executives say the U.S. exchange is walled off from the international platform, and they have hired a slate of compliance, surveillance and regulatory specialists in recent weeks to keep it that way.

“Trust is the product we are building here,” said Dan Lee, head of U.S. operations at Polymarket, in an interview. Lee started with Polymarket in February from Coinbase.

Among the hires, the company added Megan McGrath from Robinhood as its new chief compliance officer. Lee and another executive, Natalie Oblazny, were hired from Coinbase. It’s also hired former Department of Justice and FBI officials as the platform’s head of enforcement and new surveillance head. Lee said Polymarket’s successful reentry into the U.S. depends almost entirely on whether it can convince people that Polymarket U.S. can be a trusted prediction market platform, and the new hires are key to that effort.

Both Polymarket International and Polymarket U.S. provide the same service: trading on the likelihood of events, such as weather, sports, politics or news. But the underlying structures differ. Polymarket’s international platform is built on blockchain technology and requires users to trade with cryptocurrency, while Polymarket U.S. operates through a more centralized structure regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and funded with traditional U.S. dollars.

Customers using Polymarket U.S. versus Polymarket International won't notice the difference, with the exception of how they fund their accounts. Also Polymarket U.S. is going to have a much narrower number of contracts, and more regulations, than its international counterpart.

“Polymarket U.S. is supposed to comply with U.S. law and regulations. Polymarket International is where anything goes,” said Todd Phillips, who has written extensively on prediction markets at the Roosevelt Institute.

The stakes are high for Polymarket. Between its departure in 2022 and return six months ago, the prediction market industry has changed and grown in popularity. The trading volume across the platforms for Polymarket and rival Kalshi is now $26.6 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Dune. That’s up from $9.75 billion in volume across the platforms in October last year. About two-thirds of that activity is on Kalshi, which dominates the U.S. market on the strength of sports wagering. Kalshi was valued at $22 billion in its most recent funding round.

Both platforms are also benefiting from a more favorable treatment of the industry in Washington. The Trump Administration has been generally supportive of prediction markets. The CFTC has sued states to argue that federal law should preempt any regulations that state politicians have wanted to place on the prediction market industry. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is also an investor in Polymarket through his venture capital firm 1789 Capital.

Even so, it’s been a rough start for Polymarket’s reintroduction to American audiences. The Wall Street Journal found evidence that Polymarket’s advertising and marketing campaigns used allegedly deceptive strategies that showed hired influencers making money trading on Polymarket when the trades were fake.

Politico reported in June that a Polymarket executive paid at least 20 political content creators, many of which did not disclose those partnerships to the public. Both projects have been part of the campaign Polymarket was using to reintroduce to American audiences.

In response to the WSJ and Politico reports, the company says it is investigating its marketing and promotional campaigns.

It's too soon to tell whether Polymarket U.S. will be able to differentiate itself from its international counterpart. Polymarket’s international platform has made headlines, often to public and political outrage.

When a U.S. Army sergeant was indicted earlier this year over bets on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he was trading on Polymarket’s international platform. The Associated Press reported in April that 50 brand new accounts on Polymarket’s international platform placed substantial bets on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire in the hours, even minutes, before President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on social media, raising concerns of insider trading.

Lee said he believes the steps the U.S. business is taking will help further legitimize it, despite the issues the international platform has faced.

“I think having the international business being the bulk of the volume, it often sort of masks the progress we are making here in the U.S. to broaden Polymarket’s acceptance,” Lee said.

The blast that killed Mohamed al-Wahidi, an official with Egypt's relief arm in Gaza, turned what was supposed to be a moment of celebration — the live screening Tuesday of a potential upset against Argentina by an Arab team — into a reminder of how the near-daily Israeli strikes are continuing to kill civilians despite a truce reached in October.

In the months since the ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed 1,084 people, including nine killed by strikes and gunfire across Gaza on Wednesday, according to local health officials. Among the dead were two children, as well as a truck driver who was gunned down at a roadblock along the Philadelphi Corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that runs along Gaza's border with Egypt.

The Israeli military said it shot the truck driver after he “ran towards the troops.” Another man was killed on the street by a drone in Gaza City.

The strike that killed Wahidi on Tuesday hit a car in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at dusk, according to Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital. He said three others were killed in the attack, including the driver, Ahmed Daghmush, 33, and two brothers, 10-year-old Hamza al-Deri and 8-year-old Fari.

The Israeli military said Wahidi, who helped organize the soccer screenings in Gaza on Tuesday, was not a target of the strike. It said the attack was aimed at a Hamas militant and that it was checking whether Daghmush was the target. Abu Selmiya said he was a taxi driver without any known links to militant groups.

The committee for which Wahidi worked is the relief arm of the Egyptian government, which provides food, shelter and other assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.

Many in the Palestinian diaspora live across the border in Egypt, which was a key mediator of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Team Egypt's Gaza fan base has only grown since the start of the tournament, with coach Hossam Hassan spotlighting the plight of the Palestinian people in press briefings and on the pitch. He dedicated his team’s victory over Australia on Friday to both Egyptians and Palestinians and waved a Palestinian flag.

In a Monday briefing before the match against Argentina, Hassan urged the world to do more for the Palestinian people.

“I urge you, I urge all media officers, all athletes worldwide, regardless of their identities, maybe we can convey a collective message that is as follows, let the Palestinian people be, let them exist, let them live a life of their own," he said.

Israel’s military says its strikes target militants and it regrets harm to civilians. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect in October.

The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war stands at 73,110, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals who maintain detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel from Jerusalem. Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed.

Ukraine struck oil refineries in Russia's Saratov and Tatarstan regions, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey. Trump said the U.S. would give a license to Ukraine so it could manufacture Patriot air defense systems to counter Russia.

Russia attacks Kyiv, hours apart

In Kyiv, several explosions were heard shortly after midnight, even before authorities could issue an alert to give civilians time to find shelter.

The early morning Russian attacks killed one woman and injured two others in Kyiv, according to city administration head Tymur Tkachenko. The State Emergency Service said the attack damaged several administrative buildings and warehouses, as well as a garage complex and several trams.

Hours later, another Russian drone struck Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, killing a second person and injuring six others, Tkachenko said. A total of eight people were injured in the attacks on the capital.

In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 20 others were injured in a series of overnight strikes, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian guided bomb injured two people Tuesday night, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.

Ukraine’s air force says Russia fired 169 long-range strike drones and seven missiles, including five ballistic missiles. Air defenses shot down or jammed 139 drones, and two anti-radar missiles didn’t reach their targets, it said.

All five ballistic missiles and 20 drones struck targets at 15 locations, the air force said, underscoring the continued strain on Ukraine’s air defenses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck an arms industry facilities in Kyiv, hitting a plant that manufactured components for Flamingo cruise missiles and a facility assembling mid- and long-range drones.

Trump cites a better relationship with Zelenskyy

In Ankara, Trump said the U.S. will give a license to Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air defense systems to defend against Russian missile attacks like those that have been striking Kyiv in recent weeks.

It would be a huge coup for Ukraine, which badly needs the systems that are expensive, in high demand and take a long time to produce. Zelenskyy long has been asking for more Patriot systems, as well as the license to produce them.

“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said, sitting next to Zelenskyy. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”

The tone of their meeting was a markedly different from an earlier, acrimonious encounter at the White House in February 2025 when Trump berated Zelenskyy. On Wednesday, he praised the Ukrainian leader's willingness to reach a deal to ending the war, saying he has “done an amazing job” and “been very effective.”

“We’ve actually developed a good relationship. It’s hard to believe,” Trump said, adding he believed a deal on ending the war was on the horizon and that the U.S. would “work on some kind of security package” for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his support and said he wanted to discuss weapons supplies, possible peace negotiations and a developing drone deal.

“Air defense is the priority,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv wanted to share details of its needs under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, in which European allies and Canada are buying American weapons to help his country.

Zelenskyy also said Ukrainian and U.S. officials had begun work on a drone deal, calling it “a very good beginning.”

Trump was expected to have another call with Putin following his meeting with Zelenskyy.

Ukraine hits Russian oil and gas facilities

The ministry also said air defenses downed 415 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday to early Wednesday. Gov. Roman Busargin of Russia's Saratov region said a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, injured several others and damaged industrial facilities.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine's long-range attacks reached the Saratov, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan regions deep inside Russia, as well as the Voronezh region, closer to the border. The strikes hit refineries in Saratov and Tatarstan, the latest energy facilities struck by Ukraine that have worsened fuel shortages across Russia.

In the Tatarstan region, Nizhhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said Ukrainian drones damaged industrial facilities in the city and injured several people. Belyayev didn’t identify the damaged facilities.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of the Crimean Peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, said restrictions on civilian fuel sales would continue and that gasoline would not be available “on certain days.”

Aksyonov said many of the decisions being made to resolve the crisis could not be disclosed publicly, adding that he was giving regular updates to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The fuel supply situation remains strained and will continue to be so for some time,” he said. “We are monitoring this issue closely in coordination with the federal government and are working on a solution.”

Following a meeting with Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced all diesel exports will be halted until the end of July as Russia grapples with fuel shortages. Similar export bans are already in place for gasoline and jet fuel.

Putin told the meeting that Ukraine's attacks on energy infrastructure was an attempt to provoke anxiety and damage the economy -– goals he described as “unachievable.”

Russia’s Gazprom state-controlled gas company said Ukrainian drones attacked the Krasnodarskaya compressor station serving the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline to Turkey late Tuesday. It said the attack was intended to derail Russian gas shipments to Turkey, but there was no disruption of supplies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it another “dangerous” attack against “the critical international energy system” and voiced hope that Turkey and other nations would warn Kyiv against such action.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said Ukrainian drones damaged two oil tankers in Taganrog Bay, injuring two crew members. The crew of one of the ships had to be evacuated.

He said there was no oil spill because the tankers heading to the port of Rostov-on-Don were empty.

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Seung Min Kim in Ankara, Turkey, and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed.

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

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research makes clear that for many U.S. Jews, support for Israel remains a bedrock of their religious identity, its existence a guarantee of Jewish self-determination and safety. Yet others — particularly those who identify as Jews through ethnic, cultural or family ties, rather than religion — feel less connected to Israel and judge its actions in the ongoing conflict more harshly.

About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation, according to the sweeping survey that touched on everything from views on Israel to antisemitism concerns and strains on interpersonal relations. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways.

Israel has been at the center of the turmoil in the Middle East since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed some 1,200 people. More than 73,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Israel retaliated, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and militant deaths. Israel’s ongoing offensives have become a wedge issue for Jewish and non-Jewish Americans, leading to protests, raising antisemitism fears and questions about America’s close ties to Israel.

Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical. Only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. About one-quarter believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some human rights organizations and vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government.

But they are more supportive of Israel's actions than secular American Jews. About 4 in 10 religiously unaffiliated Jews say Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians, and only about 2 in 10 see Israel’s current operations in Gaza as justified. The vast majority, 74%, say they are “not too” or “not at all” emotionally attached to Israel, a sharp contrast from other Jewish adults.

Anna Constant, 56, of Seattle identifies as culturally Jewish and says she doesn’t feel closely connected to Israel.

“I kind of think of myself as an American version of a Jew. I do have a homeland," she said, referring to the United States.

At the same time, “my heart is broken for everything everyone is navigating over there. ... We have bad governments happening not just in Israel but in the United States. I’m trying to hold on to the reality that the people are not the governments.”

Conflicting views about Israel’s military actions

Jews who regularly attend religious services are more likely than those who never attend to feel a connection to Israel and see its military actions in Gaza as justified, the survey found.

About 3 in 10 Jewish adults never attend religious services, although that rises to about two-thirds among religiously unaffiliated Jews. About half of Jewish adults attend a few times a year or less often. About 2 in 10 attend at least once a month, including about 1 in 10 who attend weekly.

According to the survey, Jewish adults mostly identify as Democrats; about 3 in 10 identify as Republicans. Religiously unaffiliated Jews are slightly more likely than Jewish adults overall to identify as Democrats, and less likely to call themselves Republicans.

Jacqueline Rothstein, 35, splits time between a New York City suburb on Long Island and the city’s heavily Jewish borough of Brooklyn. She is Modern Orthodox, attending worship services about once a month.

A political independent, she views Republican President Donald Trump favorably and has an unfavorable view of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim Democrat who supports Palestinian rights. Rothstein says her Jewish identity and supporting Israel are “extremely important” to her.

She's keenly aware of divisions within the Jewish community, and cites family history as one key reason for the differing views of Israel. Two of her grandparents were Sephardic Jews expelled from Egypt in the 1960s; the other two were Holocaust survivors, she said.

“There are plenty of American Jews whose grandparents didn’t have that trauma,” Rothstein said. “If you have no connection to Israel, if your grandparents were safe in America, ... then you don’t know the struggle.”

Jewish adults who identify as religiously Jewish are much likelier than nonreligious Jews to identify as Zionists. About 3 in 10 religiously Jewish adults say “Zionist” describes them “extremely” or “very” well, compared to 6% of religiously unaffiliated Jews.

Just under half of secular Jews, 45%, say “Zionist” describes them ”not very well" or “not well at all.”

Many still see Israel as central to their Jewish identity

Supporting Israel is still fundamental to many Jewish adults’ identity, but its importance compared to other aspects of being Jewish varies.

About half of religiously affiliated Jewish adults say supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important to their Jewish identity, compared to about 1 in 10 religiously unaffiliated Jewish adults.

Rabbi Seth Adelson noted that Israel was founded primarily by secular Jews, but suggested that today in the U.S., stronger connections to Israel are felt by religiously observant Jews. He is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, a Conservative synagogue with close ties to the three congregations targeted in the 2018 massacre at the nearby Tree of Life synagogue in which 11 worshippers were killed in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.

“In recent years, perhaps due to the complexity of that region, due to the challenges faced by modern states, religious Jews have been more likely to hold on to our ancient stories, and Jews of no religion have been less likely to hold on to those stories,” Adelson said.

Some of the divide is generational. Younger Jews — regardless of their Jewish affiliation — are less likely to see Israel as important to their Jewish identity. But there are commonalities, too. Majorities of younger and older Jewish adults, for instance, say that remembering the Holocaust is important to their Jewish identity.

Bonnie Brody, 78, grew up in a community with several Holocaust survivors in Queens, New York. While she doesn’t always agree with its government’s choices, the Florida resident sees Israel as a vital haven for Jews.

“I heard the stories of the concentration camps and how even (the U.S.) turned back a ship full of Jews,” she said, referring to the ocean liner St. Louis that departed Germany in 1939 with hundreds of Jewish refugees aboard, and was prevented from landing in the U.S. “Many of them had nowhere to go.”

Painful conflicts with family over Israel are common

The survey finds that rifts are springing up within families and communities over Israel, even among religiously unaffiliated Jews.

Most Jewish adults, 55%, say they've felt offended by another person's comments about Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, while about 4 in 10 say they've disagreed with family members about something related to Israel.

About 3 in 10 say they've stopped talking to someone because of something they said about Israel.

Shainah Horowitz, 45, a staunch Democrat from Portland, Oregon, says the Jewish community in that solidly liberal city is riddled with divisions. On one hand, she said, there is friction between politically right-leaning Orthodox Jews and Jews with more left-leaning views, including those in her Conservative synagogue which takes pride in being LGBTQ+-inclusive. Meanwhile, she said, secular anti-Zionist Jews in Portland can be stridently critical of Jews who — like Horowitz herself — identify as Zionists and support the concept of Israel as a Jewish state.

“I cannot have conversations with certain friends — non-Jews and some very secular Jews who buy into the anti-Israel slant,” she said.

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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.

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The AP-NORC poll of 3,040 adults was conducted June 11-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The poll included interviews with 1,022 Jewish adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points and the margin of sampling error for Jewish adults is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points.

In Ituri province, the hardest hit among the three provinces in eastern Congo affected by the outbreak, some of the health professionals and other front-line workers told The Associated Press they’ve not been paid their wages and bonuses since the outbreak was declared on May 15. They also alleged they were working with limited gear, and were being treated unfairly by authorities as well as response teams.

“Since the Ebola virus disease outbreak was declared, we've been demanding payment for our work,” Dr. Biensi Kano, a member of the epidemiological surveillance committee in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, told The Associated Press.

The latest government data shows 1,708 recorded cases, including 580 deaths, and that the first month of this Ebola outbreak was already the worst on record, health authorities said. The strike comes at the start of enrollment for clinical trials for the treatment of the Bundibugyo virus that is responsible for this outbreak.

Treatment centers at near-full capacity

The World Health Organization representative in Congo, Dr. Anne Ancia, said Tuesday that the virus continues to spread, fueled by population movements and insecurity, while some treatment centers are at near-full capacity.

The non-payment of benefits “exposes us and our families to significant socio-economic difficulties and seriously undermines our living conditions,” said Kano.

In an official notice to national and provincial authorities over the weekend, front-line workers in Ituri threatened to strike if the wages were not paid in 24 hours. By Tuesday, some had already stopped working although no official strike has been declared.

The aggrieved front-line workers also include safety and security teams, those that often embark on community outreach as well as those burying patients who died from Ebola.

Congo’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the situation. Officials in Ituri, however, said they’ve met with the workers and their concerns are being addressed

“The fact that Bunia airport is closed is hampering the very implementation of the response, particularly certain aspects of the flow of funds. This is one of the reasons that may account for the delay in payment,” Akilimali Pierre, incident manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, told The Associated Press.

Some of the workers organized a protest Monday outside the Rwampara Ebola treatment center. They set tires alight, causing a brief panic in the vicinity before the police intervened to restore order.

Health workers face other challenges as well, including attacks from angry residents and skepticism about the virus.

‘We risk dying for nothing’

Dr. Ben Bakule, a community investigator, said he narrowly escaped death in late May when a group of angry young men attacked him and his colleagues while they were tracing contacts of a confirmed Ebola case in the village of Tutu, in Djugu territory.

“We spend money on transport to get to work. We thought we’d be rewarded. At the moment, nothing is going right because we’re not being paid. We don’t deserve this sort of treatment,” he told The Associated Press.

“We might have to give up our jobs. These are risks we’re taking. We risk dying for nothing. This government wants this epidemic to continue,” Bakule added, his voice tinged with frustration.

When he visited the mining town of Mongbwalu — considered the hot spot for the disease — last month, Congo’s Minister of Health Roger Kamba assured the response teams that the government was prioritizing their working conditions.

"All doctors, all nurses and all staff working on the response will be fully supported. We have the money for that,” Kamba said at the time.

But front-line workers say the reality is different.

“We are doing everything we can to make the public understand how dangerous this disease is. I came here to save people’s lives, but this is how I am being thanked. We are working day and night without being paid,” said Dr. Ghislain Maneba, an epidemiologist and community investigator in the Rwampara health zone.

Meanwhile, the strike by some workers has caused concern among residents in Ituri, where measures to slow the outbreak have resulted in economic hardship.

Bunia resident Anifa Kito said she fears that response efforts may falter, further complicating daily life. “I would ask the authorities to resolve this situation before things get any worse,” she said, standing in front of her tomato stall.

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AP writer Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia contributed to this report.

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late Tuesday.

The Pakistani navy and civilian teams in planes and ships found the plane debris after about 12 hours of searching in the Arabian Sea, Pakistan’s Airports Authority said in a post on X.

Retired Rear Adm. Faisal Shah said searchers were dealing with rough seas and that they were still looking for the main wreckage of the plane, which could prove much more difficult to find because the area is believed to be about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) deep, requiring specialized equipment.

He said recovering debris does not necessarily reveal the aircraft’s exact crash site because ocean currents, waves and wind can carry the floating wreckage far from where the aircraft went down.

In a statement, K2 Airways identified the missing crew as Capt. Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, and aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan.

“We continue to pray earnestly for the safety of our colleagues,” it said.

Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, the father-in-law of co-pilot Faisal Jatoi, said the family was in regular contact with him while he was in Sharjah, and that he had called his wife shortly before departure Tuesday. Bahrani said government officials have been in contact with the family since the aircraft disappeared.

“All we can do is wait and pray for a miracle,” he said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif released a statement expressing sympathy with the families of the five crew members, and directed the government to deploy all available resources for the search effort.

Pakistan’s Airports Authority said earlier on X that radar data showed the aircraft making a sharp change in heading and rapidly descending before radar and radio contact were lost at about 9:21 p.m., approximately 155 nautical miles (287 kilometers, 178 miles) west of Karachi.

Aviation expert Imran Aslam told local broadcaster ARY News late Tuesday that it remained unclear what caused the aircraft to disappear from radar. He said that even if an aircraft suffered an engine failure, it would normally continue gliding rather than plunge suddenly. He said the exact cause would become clear only after investigators gathered more evidence.

In May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 98 people crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near Karachi airport while attempting to land. All but one of the 99 people on board were killed. A government investigation later concluded that human error by the pilots and air traffic controllers caused the crash.

___

Associated Press writer Muhammad Farooq contributed to this story from Karachi, Pakistan.

El gobierno central asignó 50 millones de yuanes (7,4 millones de dólares) para restaurar carreteras, escuelas y otras instalaciones en la provincia de Hubei, en el centro de China, y otros 20 millones de yuanes para ayudar a reconstruir viviendas y reasentar a residentes allí, informaron medios estatales. Once personas murieron y cientos resultaron heridas la noche del lunes en violentas tormentas eléctricas y tornados poco comunes.

El gobierno también asignó 30 millones de yuanes (4,4 millones de dólares) a la provincia de Gansu, donde el alud de tierra sepultó a los trabajadores forestales.

El dinero se sumó a los 100 millones de yuanes (14 ,7 millones de dólares) asignados anteriormente para escuelas, hospitales, transporte y otra infraestructura en la región de Guangxi, en el sur de China, donde graves inundaciones anegaron ciudades y dejaron a residentes varados tras lluvias más intensas de lo esperado derivadas de una tormenta tropical.

Lu Xiaofei, que trabaja en Shenzhen, un centro tecnológico cerca de Hong Kong, contó que la familia de su hermano estaba atrapada en su casa en la aldea de Lu, en el distrito de Qintang. Su hermano estaba con su esposa, su bebé de 9 meses, sus padres y su abuelo.

“El agua dentro de la casa supera la altura de una persona. Tienen que subir todos al segundo piso. No hay electricidad desde ayer por la mañana y ahora tampoco tienen agua corriente”, explicó Lu a The Associated Press en una entrevista telefónica.

Lu relató que su hermano le dijo que el nivel del agua subió anoche y que su situación era tan crítica que el agua potable pronto se les acabaría, mientras que las autoridades locales no se habían puesto en contacto con ellos. Muchos vecinos enfrentaban los mismos problemas, agregó.

Otras personas pidieron ayuda en redes sociales, mostrando videos de sus alrededores anegados tras las inundaciones y destacando la falta de recursos.

Varios embalses se desbordaron o reventaron después de que los restos de la tormenta tropical Maysak golpeara Guangxi, enviando torrentes de agua a pueblos y ciudades. Se informó de seis muertos y unas 130.000 personas han sido evacuadas. Más de 8.000 personas y unas 5.700 embarcaciones participan en la operación de rescate, informó la agencia oficial de noticias Xinhua.

Reportes no confirmados de medios locales dijeron que cientos de serpientes habían escapado de criaderos después de ser arrastradas por el agua. La televisora estatal CCTV reportó serpientes en el agua y dio consejos sobre qué hacer en caso de mordedura, pero no dijo de dónde habían salido las serpientes.

Las fuertes lluvias han azotado zonas del centro-este y del sur de Guangxi desde el sábado pasado, y el centro meteorológico nacional indicó que en algunas zonas habían caído entre 10 y 40 centímetros (aproximadamente entre 4 y 16 pulgadas) de agua. En varios de los puntos más afectados se registraron más de 90 centímetros (35 pulgadas), señaló.

Otra tormenta, el supertifón Bavi, podría golpear el sureste de China durante el fin de semana. En Taiwán, algunos agricultores se apresuraron a cosechar su arroz antes de la tormenta, que se esperaba para última hora del viernes.

El mal tiempo también causó muertes en otras partes de Asia. Aludes de tierra provocados por fuertes lluvias monzónicas en el sureste de Bangladesh mataron a varios refugiados rohinya, incluidos cinco niños. Las intensas lluvias del monzón azotaron partes de la vecina India, dejando más de una docena de muertos en los últimos días.

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La periodista de AP Fu Ting en Washington contribuyó a esta nota.

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

The ceremonies began on Saturday, with authorities shutting down streets, airspace and daily life in Tehran, Iran's capital, as throngs commemorated the life of the man who led Iran for decades with an iron fist while confronting the West. His body was later taken from Najaf to Karbala before it is to be returned to Iran.

Khamenei was killed in late February in wide-scale U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that started the war. The 86-year-old supreme leader was among several senior Iranian leaders killed in strikes during the war.

Talks on ending the war between the United States and Iran appear to be on hold until after the burial.

However, strikes from both sides in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday and into Wednesday raised risks that the interim agreement to end the monthslong conflict that engulfed the Middle East could completely break down.

The U.S. military attacked Iran early Wednesday after it said Tehran struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran then launched retaliatory strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain.

Khamenei's body arrived on Tuesday in Najaf, considered one of the holiest of cities for millions of Shiite Muslims worldwide. Mourners holding portraits of Khamenei welcomed the body and senior officials escorting it, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The body was placed in a casket draped in the Islamic Republic’s flag and encased in glass.

Some supporters performed self-flagellation on the streets, while others waved Iranian as well as red and black flags symbolizing mourning and revenge.

Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, a senior scholar at the Najaf seminary, led the funeral prayers at the Shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law.

As the coffin was carried into the shrine, large crowds pushed and shoved their way to get close to it. Some threw themselves onto the casket, as attendants struggled to control the crowd, urging the pallbearers to carry it closer to the ground for fear it might fall.

“We, the people of Iraq, will remain a thorn in the eyes of the enemies,” said Jaafar Jawad, a funeral attendee. “(His body arriving here) is the greatest possible honor, and God willing, we will be loyal and repay a little of his debt in the holy city of Najaf.”

The body later arrived in Karbala, also a holy city for Shiites, where Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet, was killed in 680 AD. Thousands of supporters gathered in the desert heat in and around the shrine while Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei, a representative of Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, led the prayers there.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance at the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.

Trump made the announcement as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Turkey, praising him as having “done an amazing job” and “been very effective” in the war.

Speaking at the summit a day after Trump again expressed a desire for the U.S. to control Greenland, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “Greenland is of course not for sale.”

Here is the latest:

US lawmakers meet with Zelenskyy

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is encouraging Trump to follow through on additional security assistance for Ukraine and the tightening of sanctions on Russia.

The lawmakers issued a joint statement after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.

The group said that some 35,000 Russian soldiers are being killed or wounded each month for no territorial gain and the Russian economy is slowing.

“It is abundantly clear that Russia is not winning this war,” the lawmakers said.

The U.S. lawmakers say Russian President Vladimir Putin is negotiating for time, not peace.

“Putin is at his weakest position in years and real sustained pressure can finally bring this war to a close,” the lawmakers said in their joint statement.

Three Democratic and three Republican lawmakers issued the joint statement.

Trump administration informs Congress of plans to rescind Syria’s terrorism designation

In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump has told lawmakers that the U.S. will soon remove Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a yearlong normalization process with the country’s new government.

“Lifting sanctions on Syria will unlock international trade and investment, give Syria a chance to rebuild, and open up a new chapter for the Syrian people,” Rubio said. “A stable, unified Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors benefits not only the region, but the entire world.”

In June 2025, Trump signed an executive order ending several economic sanctions before revoking the terrorism designation a few weeks later for President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took over after the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad in December 2024.

Trump and Erdogan discussed naval defense cooperation

Trump and Erdogan have discussed possible cooperation in the defense industry, the Turkish president said, pointing specifically to the shipbuilding sector.

Erdogan said the two talked about projects including building frigates and submarines, adding that the vessels could be built in Turkish shipyards.

Starmer says Erdogan gave NATO leaders guns as gifts

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave NATO leaders pistols as gifts at their summit in Ankara.

Starmer told reporters that each weapon was engraved with the recipient’s name and came with a box of ammunition.

The guns came with a note from Erdogan waiving export controls. But the British prime minister left his in Turkey to be decommissioned, because it would be illegal to import it into the U.K.

Erdogan says Trump is ‘positive’ on F-35s

Erdogan insisted that Trump has a “positive approach” toward the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey.

In his press conference at the end of the two-day summit, the Turkish leader said: “Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise.”

Erdogan rebuffs Israeli and Greek objections to sale of F-35s

Erdogan dismissed objections from Israel and Greece concerning the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.

Speaking at a closing news conference at the end of the two‑day summit he hosted, the Turkish president said opposition raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis “have no place in my world.”

Trump had announced during a meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased Russian missile defense systems in 2019. The move led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program.

On Wednesday, however, Trump suggested he hadn’t made up his mind concerning the F-35s.

Erdogan, meanwhile, also renewed Turkey’s long-standing offer to mediate between Ukraine and Russia for an end to the war.

Top UN official warns return to full-scale US-Iran war would have ‘catastrophic consequences’

The secretary-general is alarmed by the renewed military confrontations in the gulf,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres, told reporters Wednesday. “These incidents risk derailing the diplomatic progress achieved between Iran and the United States.”

He reiterated “the obligation of all parties to fully comply with international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” shortly after Trump repeated his previous threats to target Iran’s electric and desalination plants.

Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5M after jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed her

E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Donald Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed her after she publicly revealed the attack, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order that says the money can be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has grown since the verdict.

Carroll’s lawyers had requested the disbursement after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2023 civil verdict.

Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.

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Iran strikes conducted with jets, but a large Navy fleet is off the waters of Iran

The retaliatory strikes against Iran were conducted by Air Force and Navy fighter jets in the region and lasted about four hours, a U.S. official confirmed Wednesday.

The strikes Tuesday evening hit around eight times more targets than the previous round of retaliatory strikes that were conducted at the end of June — an escalation that was prompted by Iran’s ongoing strikes on merchant shipping in the region.

The official also noted that the Navy’s massive flotilla of warships was not involved in last night’s strikes. The force of 19 ships stationed around the waters of Iran is massive. It includes two aircraft carriers — the USS Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush — as well as an amphibious assault ship carrying over 1,000 Marines, 14 destroyers, a cruiser, and an expeditionary sea base vessel.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing sensitive military operation.

Trump gives confusing answer on why he’s changing planes on the way home

Trump flew to Turkey on his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar.

But he announced in a social media post earlier Wednesday that the plane he had proudly shown off would instead visit Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom so military members could “tour the Aircraft.”

Trump said he would be flying home in an older plane used as Air Force One “for old time’s sake.”

When asked Wednesday if security concerns played a role in the switch, Trump didn’t directly answer but said he was “No. 1 on the list for killing” by Iran.

The U.S. Air Force referred inquiries to the White House.

Images of the jet captured since its unveiling show it is not equipped with some of the same missile-detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets.

Trump promises quick resolution in Iran even as he says ceasefire is over

“I don’t think it’s going to start again; I think it’s going to go very quickly,” Trump said when asked whether the war was restarting.

He repeated an earlier threat, saying the U.S. “might” strike Iran again tonight, but he insisted it wouldn’t lengthen the war significantly.

“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” he said. “We’re not looking for long-term.”

Trump says there is an ‘oil glut right now’

The president played down the risks that an intensifying war with Iran could drive up oil prices, claiming that the world has an “oil glut.”

“This will end very quickly,” Trump said. “We have an oil glut right now, because we got all those boats out of the strait, and it’s going to drop, and I predicted everything.”

Trump spoke as U.S. oil futures topped $75 a barrel in Wednesday afternoon trading, a daily increase of more than 6%.

The International Energy Agency said this week that oil supplies could exceed demand if there is a durable ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that keeps the Strait of Hormuz open. It said any surplus would be driven by a 1.1 million-barrel-a-day drop in global oil demand this year.

Trump says of Iran that US military might ‘just finish the job’

“We can play games, but I’m not sure I want to make a deal,” the president said. “Just finish the job.”

Trump has said that the tentative ceasefire with Iran may now be off and is threatening a new round of attacks.

His comments about finishing the job came in response to a question about Trump having previously said that Iran’s leaders were rational and acceptable to deal with, only to now suggest they are “crazy.”

The president said he had a change of heart over Iranian leaders because “I got to know them.” He also suggested that leaders who have emerged in Iran after the war began are no longer looking out for the Iranian people.

Trump describes Iran as weakened but alludes to ongoing security concerns

Trump said that all of Iran’s anti-aircraft weapons are “gone” but suggested Tehran still can down aircraft, adding immediately: “That doesn’t mean they’re not going to get a plane at some point.”

He then said, “Everything’s gone,” and remarked on how many of Iran’s leaders were taken out.

“You know what? I may be gone too, because I’m their No. 1 target,” Trump said.

Even before the Iran war, federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump for years. The Justice Department in 2024 announced that an Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.

Trump exaggerates his TikTok popularity

Trump claimed that he’s “No. 1 on TikTok.” He did not specify which metric he used to make that determination, but it’s not true based on follower counts.

As of Wednesday, the Senegalese-Italian influencer Khabane Lame, known for his silent comedy videos, was the most followed user on the platform with 162.3 million followers.

Trump has 16.7 million followers — that doesn’t even put him in the top 50.

Trump suggests that communist candidates are ugly

During his news conference, Trump said that “all I do is talk about communism” on TikTok and in recent public comments.

The president has spent weeks criticizing progressive Democratic primary winners as communists. But he added a new insult this time, implying that none of those candidates are attractive.

“I don’t see any looker,” Trump said. “I don’t see anyone with the look.”

By way of elaboration, he added, “I guess you need something. They don’t have it and I think they’ll fade fast.”

In reference to more moderate politicians in Europe, Trump said, “These are not social democrats” but instead, “These are communists that are running and they don’t want God.”

Trump says there was a lot of ‘love’ in the NATO working session

The president said “there was tremendous love in that room” that the press didn’t get to witness, including what he said was respect and love for the country.

He told reporters that he didn’t want to say it was for him “because you’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s so conceited. He’s such a conceited person.’”

But he then said that the other leaders like the job he’s doing and “grown people” in the room said, “Sir, we love you.”

Trump then mused on whether what he heard was just flattery, saying: “Maybe they’re trying to get to me. And in a way they did.”

Trump has high praise for summit and its ‘tremendous unity’

Despite repeated criticism that NATO has done too little to help the United States, Trump was effusive about the warmth he felt as leaders met on Wednesday.

Trump said there was “tremendous love in that room” along with “tremendous unity.”

He described his allies as “very smart people — they have a lot of good in their heart, not evil, good.”

It was a remarkable turn after Trump had renewed his criticisms against European allies.

Trump begins his NATO remarks

The president has arrived to give remarks on stage, capping his appearance at the two-day summit. It comes about three hours after his address was initially scheduled.

Merz defends US strikes on Iran

The German chancellor said it was clearly Iran that violated the ceasefire agreement. He said the U.S. military had struck back on Trump’s orders and “that is justified.”

But he added that “in the end, there must be an agreement with Iran that ends the nuclear program permanently and reopens the Strait of Hormuz permanently.”

Trump appears to have cooled on the idea of getting Syria to fight Hezbollah

Sitting across from al-Sharaa, Trump gave a cautious response when asked about his earlier suggestion that Syria should lead the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“They could help, we’ll find out,” Trump said. “I think we’re making a lot of progress.”

Al-Sharaa wasn’t asked about it at their one-on-one meeting.

Trump raised the idea at the G7 summit last month, saying he thought Syria would do a better job than Israel. Days later, he again criticized Israel’s handling of the situation and said he was “close to giving it to Syria.”

Al-Sharaa has previously said he has no interest in taking on that role.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa thanks Trump for lifting sanctions

Al-Sharaa thanked Trump for “the historic decision to lift the sanctions,” saying “the entire Syrian people thank President Trump.”

Trump met al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2025 months after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Since then, his administration has steadily eased U.S. sanctions on Syria.

Ahead of meeting Trump Wednesday, al-Sharaa met with a U.S. congressional delegation that was also in Ankara for the NATO summit, according to Syrian state media.

German leader says the summit contributed to keeping NATO together

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his expectations of the summit were more than fulfilled.

He said he’s “returning to Germany with the feeling that we made a big contribution to NATO staying together, to it becoming stronger, to it becoming more European.”

Merz said there was “a new feeling of European responsibility in the room.”

Trump says oil prices rise when the US attacks Iran

The U.S. president said oil prices were rising Wednesday after military attacks intensified with Iran in a troubling sign for peace talks.

“Any time we hit them, it goes up a little bit — $2,” Trump told reporters. “As oil goes, so goes everything else.”

The president has taken conflicting stances on the energy price bump caused by the Iran war, saying it wasn’t a consideration for ending the war and then touting price declines after an interim deal was announced in June.

But Trump’s math was somewhat off. U.S. oil futures were trading Wednesday morning at roughly $75 a barrel, an increase of about $5.

Trump suggests he’ll remove Syria from terrorism list

During his sit-down with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Trump was asked if he would remove Syria from the State Department’s state sponsors of terrorism list, which brings a range of sanctions.

“I think I will, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” Trump said. “He’s done a great job,” Trump added, referring to al-Sharaa.

Trump spoke warmly about al-Sharaa, calling him a strong and respected leader who brought together a country that was “a real mess, very disjointed.”

Syria has been on the list since 1979. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for removing Syria from the list, citing improvements after the 2024 ouster of Bashar Assad.

Spain’s leader downplays Trump’s threats and calls relationship with US ‘very positive’

Asked about Trump’s renewed trade threats, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the bilateral relationship with the U.S. “positive” and said Spain had fulfilled its defense spending obligations for 2026.

Sánchez added that he and Trump briefly spoke at the summit in Turkey and shared “nothing but kind words and friendliness.”

“We spoke about football, about the World Cup in the United States,” Sánchez told reporters. “It was an informal chat.”

The Spanish leader downplayed Trump’s threats to cut off trade with Spain, saying his government had taken the comments with “a certain normalcy,” reiterating that the European Union handles trade policy on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, including Spain.

“When one looks beyond these statements, what becomes apparent is that the relationship between the United States and Spain — across social, cultural, economic and political spheres — is very, very positive,” Sánchez said.

Spanish minister says Spain ‘accepts neither blackmail nor threats’

Health Minister Mónica García was the first Spanish government official to comment publicly in response to Trump’s renewed trade threats against Spain over its defense spending.

On X, García wrote: “Trump calls Spain a ‘terrible partner’ because it accepts neither blackmail nor threats. Because we are a sovereign, democratic country that defends multilateralism and peace. What is terrible is to confuse diplomacy with bullying.”

Trump wants Putin and Zelenskyy to meet but says it probably won’t be in Moscow

Asked about his efforts to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said he’d like to see the leaders of both countries sit down together.

Trump said he’s talked about it with Putin, who he said was open to a meeting but wanted to host in Moscow. Trump said he rejected the idea on behalf of Zelenskyy.

Sitting across from Zelenskyy, Trump asked directly if he would meet in Moscow. The Ukrainian president answered with a quip.

“It’s difficult, there are a lot of Ukrainian drones there,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”

Trump has not only warmed to Zelenskyy but also Ukraine’s drone technology

As Trump was heaping praise on Zelenskyy and his country’s efforts in the war with Russia, he commended Ukraine’s use of drones to counter attacks and suggested the U.S. might buy the technology.

It’s a shift for Trump, who had previously been dismissive of Ukraine’s use of the low-cost but effective unmanned aircraft in the war and suggested the U.S. technology and tactics were superior.

Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. makes great drones, but it might buy from Ukraine because “they have an ability to make a lot of them” and called it “amazing.”

“It’s an amazing ability, very cheap,” he said.

“You’re very talented people,” he said to Zelenskyy. “So uh, yeah, I think we’re going to make that deal. You know, if we made that deal, we’d have great protection.”

Macron says Iran was ‘wrong’ to launch strikes

French President Emmanuel Macron said Iran was “wrong” to carry out the strikes on ships in the Strait of Hormuz that prompted a U.S. response, saying they violated the agreement Tehran had signed.

“I believe the Iranians were entirely in the wrong to carry out those strikes, which are contrary to the agreement they themselves signed,” Macron said.

Asked about the status of the ceasefire, Macron said the parties remain within the 60-day negotiation period established under the U.S.-Iran deal signed in June.

Macron said his understanding is that the meetings scheduled under that framework will continue to take place.

Trump threatens to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure

President Trump threatened Wednesday to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure and to seize Kharg Island, with its oil infrastructure, as his ceasefire with Tehran appeared to be in tatters.

Trump made the threats after announcing that the U.S. was preparing for a second night of strikes against Iran after Iranian attacks on American military sites in the Gulf.

If the U.S. has to, Trump said, it will take out Iran’s electric plants and desalination plants. He said Tuesday’s strikes included attacks on Kharg Island but not its oil facilities.

“Maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island. There’s not a thing they could do about it,” Trump said.

Officials said six people were killed, and 11 others were missing in the Guangxi region by Tuesday evening. The severe weather forced 130,000 people to evacuate, according to the regional propaganda office.

Some residents were still waiting to be rescued. Lu Xiaofei, who works in Shenzhen, a tech hub near Hong Kong, said her brother's family was stuck at his house in Lu village in Qintang district. His brother was with his wife, his 9-month-old baby, their parents and grandfather.

“The water in the house is over one person’s height. They have to all move to the second floor. The power has been out since yesterday morning, and now they don’t have running water, either,” Lu told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Lu said her brother told her that the water level rose last night and their situation was so dire that drinkable water would be running out soon, while local authorities had not reached out to them. Many villagers nearby were facing the same challenges, she said.

Others called for help on social media, showing videos of their inundated surroundings following the flooding and highlighting their lack of resources.

Local media Litchi News reported that snakes from breeding facilities were washed away and were at large in Hengzhou city, with some attempting to enter houses. It quoted a villager saying that over a dozen of people were bitten.

The national meteorological center said heavy rain has been battering central-eastern and southern parts of Guangxi since last Saturday, with cumulative rainfall amounts reaching 100 mm to 400 mm (about 4 inches to 16 inches) in some areas. Some hard-hit areas recorded over 900 mm (35 inches), it said. The weather agency said heavy rain would continue to affect the areas on Wednesday.

Some train services were suspended in the region for safety reasons.

While Guangxi was grappling with floods, Super Typhoon Bavi is expected to hit parts of southeastern China over the weekend.

Elsewhere in Asia, severe weather also caused deaths. Landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in southeastern Bangladesh killed several Rohingya refugees, including five children. Heavy monsoon rains battered parts of neighboring India, leaving over a dozen of people dead over the past few days.

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AP writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this story.

The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.1% after Trump said the agreement to pause fighting was “over,” but the index then trimmed its loss to 0.3% after Trump said the most recent exchange of fire with the Islamic Republic did not herald a return to full-scale war. They're his latest mixed messages on what will happen with the war, which threatens to worsen inflation for the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 550 points, or 1%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher after erasing an earlier loss.

The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 5.2% to $78.02 and briefly topped $80. That’s still below its peak from earlier in the war, when the price for the most actively traded contract reached nearly $120. But the jump is unsettling because oil prices had just dropped back to where they were before the war.

The worry is that a continuation of the war will block the Strait of Hormuz and prevent the delivery of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. That could worsen inflation, which economists expected would ease with oil prices, and in turn force the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates.

Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.

Losses for stock markets in Europe accelerated, and oil prices climbed immediately after Trump said, “For me, I think it’s over” about the status of the ceasefire. He added that U.S. representatives can continue negotiations, “but I think they’re wasting their time.”

On Wall Street, stocks of companies in the housing industry helped lead the way lower. They were hurt by worries that rising Treasury yields in the bond market will mean higher rates for mortgages and chill the industry.

Builders FirstSource, which sells countertops, windows and other building supplies, fell 4.9%. Homebuilders PulteGroup fell 4.9%, and D.R. Horton sank 4.3%.

Companies with big fuel bills also sank. American Airlines lost 3.6%, and United Airlines fell 2.2%.

Helping to offset those losses was a steadying for some influential stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. They’ve been under pressure in recent weeks on worries that their prices shot too high and that AI may not produce enough productivity and profits to make all the investments in chips and data centers worth it.

Their swings carry a lot of weight on Wall Street because AI stocks have grown into some of the U.S. market’s biggest, giving their movements more effect on the S&P 500 than other stocks.

Nvidia rose 3.8%, for example, and was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 because it's the largest stock on Wall Street.

Broadcom climbed 5.2% after Apple announced a multiyear commitment where Broadcom will design and produce custom components for its products. Apple said the agreement's value could top $30 billion.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose with the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly got near 4.60% before pulling back to to 4.56%. That's up from 4.55% late Tuesday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began.

In stock markets abroad, European markets turned sharply lower after Trump made his comments, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.2%.

In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 5.3% and continued its sharp swings amid seesawing worries and euphoria about the AI stocks that dominate its market.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was an outlier and rose 3%.

Shares that trade in Hong Kong of Chinese AI startup Zhipu, known also as Z.ai and traded as Knowledge Atlas Technology, jumped 13.4%.

A six-month lock-up period for “cornerstone” investors following its January trading debut in Hong Kong expires this week. China National Radio reported late Tuesday that nearly 70% of Zhipu’s cornerstone investors are committed to stay on, despite previous worries that the lock-up period expiration could trigger a sell-off.

Zhipu’s share price has risen more than 1,300% since its debut.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott, Chan Ho-him and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

“The lesson of (the) recent past is that ignoring Afghanistan is not a good thing to do,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Barham Salih, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday alongside the head of the United Nations Development Program, Alexander De Croo, during a joint visit to the country.

Although many challenges and difficulties remain, “it’s wiser to engage, to support and promote the right type of policies to making sure that Afghanistan remains safe and secure,” Salih said, speaking via video link. “Without it, I think we may well risk instability, with all the implications of that instability," whether that is drugs, extremism, criminal activity or the movement of refugees, he said.

Afghanistan hit by multiple crises

After four decades of conflict, the impoverished, aid-dependent country is now buffeted by multiple crises, from natural disasters and climate change to the largest influx of returning refugees the world has seen in decades.

“In Afghanistan, there is never a crisis just on its own. It’s always crisis on top of crisis,” De Croo told the AP. “And that you see here.”

Nearly 6 million people have returned to Afghanistan since 2023, the vast majority from neighboring Pakistan and Iran since those countries began a crackdown on migrants living there. Another roughly 2 million people are expected to return this year, the U.N. officials said.

The returnees have strained local communities, many of which already have scant resources in a country where poverty is rife and malnutrition stalks the most vulnerable.

This has been compounded by massive cuts in international aid and a Taliban government that has sidelined half of Afghanistan’s population, denying women and girls education beyond primary school and banning them from the vast majority of jobs.

The country is also internationally isolated. No Western nation has formally recognized Afghanistan’s government since the Taliban seized power in the wake of a chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops in August 2021. Russia was the first country to officially do so, in 2025.

Last month, a delegation from the Taliban government traveled to Brussels to meet European Union staff for talks on diplomatic services and the return of Afghans from European countries. The meeting symbolized a small crack in Afghanistan's diplomatic isolation.

Progress seen in some areas

Yet despite the significant challenges, Afghanistan has nonetheless shown improvement in some areas, notably in security and combating corruption and drug production, the U.N. officials said.

“I wouldn’t close my eyes to the fact that there is progress, and maybe progress that no one would have expected five years ago,” De Croo told the AP. He said drug production was down by 95% in a country that was one of the world’s major producers of opium and heroin.

“If now the international community turns its back to Afghanistan, the consequences will not only be in Afghanistan. The consequences will be much, much broader,” De Croo said.

“The message to Western countries is: if you want to have a stable and peaceful society, you are not only achieving that with domestic policy. If you want to live in peace and stability, your neighborhood also needs to be at peace and stability,” he added.

Draconian restrictions on women and girls remain

The harsh government-imposed restrictions on women and girls remain one of the greatest points of contention between the Afghan government and the international community. De Croo and Salih said they had discussed the issue in their meetings with Afghan officials during their visit to the country. Both said they believed the key to progress was engagement.

“We hope that constructive engagement will show the way forward in that regard,” Salih said. “It’s important that there is progress, there is tangible reforms that will allow for an inclusive system in this country.”

Aid cuts could have lasting repercussions

The international aid cuts have had “a very tangible impact” on the country, De Croo said, noting that 422 medical centers shut down in Afghanistan due to lack of funding in the space of a year. “Closed because the funding just disappeared. That is more than 3 million people that are impacted, that just lose their access to basic medical services,” he said.

Earlier this year, the World Food Program said funding cuts had forced it to turn away three out of four acutely malnourished children seeking help because it no longer had the funds to feed them.

The Afghan government launched a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation soon after it seized power. But the dramatic cut in drug production was also due in part to farmers being given alternative crops to the cultivation of opium poppies, De Croo said, noting that funding for such programs had been severely curtailed.

“If we cannot continue working together with farmers in giving them an alternative for producing drugs,” then drug cultivation could return, he said.

Although international attention has shifted away from Afghanistan, Salih said that while challenges remain, there is now an opportunity for the rest of the world to engage with the country.

“It is vital to remind the world that the price of inaction far outweighs action,” Salih said. “You cannot ignore Afghanistan, and what happens in Afghanistan does not necessarily stay in Afghanistan."

Supreme Court judges in London held a hearing Wednesday on a landmark human rights case that could decriminalize gay sex in the eastern Caribbean nation, potentially setting a precedent for the largely conservative Caribbean region.

The case was filed in February 2017 by Jason Jones, who argues that so-called “buggery” laws in the twin-island nation that prohibit gay sex, dating from when the country was a British colony, are unconstitutional. Those found guilty could receive up to five years in prison.

Jones is represented by lawyers including Anand Ramlogan, the former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Who are we to volunteer that gay people should starve because we don’t like the meat that they eat?” Ramlogan told the panel of judges. “Constitutional rights exist precisely because majorities are not always right. They ensure that the dignity and equality of every citizen are not left to the changing tides of public opinion.”

A move to protect colonial laws is under scrutiny

Opposing Jones are Trinidad and Tobago’s government, backed by the country’s Council of Evangelical Churches and its largest Hindu organization, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

The case has wound its way through several courts. In April 2018, Trinidad’s High Court found the laws unconstitutional, but a local appeals court partially reversed that ruling in March 2025. Four months later, Trinidad's Court of Appeals allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the final court of appeals in England.

Attorneys representing Trinidad and Tobago's government are seeking a decision that upholds the March 2025 ruling. A majority of justices in 2025 found that the High Court erred by allowing judges to change a law. A provision in some Caribbean constitutions protects colonial laws from legal challenges, including in Trinidad and Tobago.

The case, which is now before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, is being closely watched by activists across the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago is an independent country but also a republic within the British Commonwealth, so the Privy Council is its final court of appeals. The country has pushed for the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council.

In an October 2023 speech, Justice Adrian Saunders, former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, argued for that change, noting that the provision protecting pre-independence laws is especially tricky in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Caribbean judges being naturally ‘closer to the ground’ than their British counterparts in the (Privy Council) may well be keener to be more sensitive to and proactive in remediating the debilitating consequences of constitutional or legal provisions that deprive Caribbean people of the full enjoyment of their human rights,” he said.

In 1991, the Bahamas decriminalized homosexuality, while the U.K. government repealed such laws in 2001 in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, judges have recently struck down similar laws in Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda.

Gay sex remains a crime in Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — all former British colonies. In the U.K., gay sex was decriminalized in 1967, more than 400 years after buggery laws were passed during the reign of King Henry VIII, with the last executions associated with the crime occurring in 1835.

“Jason Jones asks for no special privilege. He asks that the Constitution protects him as it does every other citizen,” Ramlogan said.

Supreme Court president warns of a complex legal case

Jones, 61, who has been openly gay since age 16, left Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 because of what he described as homophobic violence and discrimination.

“His experience is part of a wider picture,” LGBTQ groups supporting Jones said in a recent court filing. “(He) is unable to fully express his sexuality without being branded a criminal.”

Jones argues that criminalizing gay sex is a moral stance, asserting that “Trinidad and Tobago is a secular society and a multiracial one. Christian morality is neither universal nor superior.”

While the country’s so-called buggery laws have not been enforced in recent history, attorneys and activists say they still send a message.

“A law of this kind operates not only through arrest and conviction, but through the stigma, fear, concealment and exclusion,” according to a recently filed written argument by activists in favor of Jones.

It asserted that criminalizing gay sex “compounds stigma at precisely the stage at which young people may be forming identity, seeking support, accessing education and healthcare, and deciding whether it is safe to disclose abuse, bullying or self-harm risks.”

It's unclear when the Privy Council might issue a ruling. Justice Robert Reed, president of the Supreme Court, said at the end of the hearing that the case is “of great concern to many people on both sides of the debate” and that it raises some very complex legal questions.

In posts that sometimes included photos and videos of their attacks on unconscious victims, they referred to women as “cars,” sedatives as “fuel” and rape as “driving,” according to court documents. They called their victims “dead pigs.”

Investigators have been poring through several years' worth of posts in roughly two dozen group chats on the popular messaging app that authorities believe served an online predator network of mainly Chinese men targeting mostly Chinese women in Germany. Their investigation has already led to the convictions of three alleged inner circle members on rape and other charges. A fourth was convicted Wednesday in Berlin.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of sexual violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 1-800-656-4673 in the U.S., 116 016 in Germany or 15117905157 in China.

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“The perpetrators were characterized by a particular ruthlessness, an objectification of the victims, and the perfidious planning of their crimes,” Frankfurt chief prosecutor Dominik Mies told The Associated Press.

Major details of the investigation remain unknown, at least to the public, including how many attacks and perpetrators have been linked to the German Telegram chats and how the chats, some of which reportedly had tens of thousands of members, could have operated for so long. It's also unclear if the chats are linked to a ballooning investigation in Europe and the Americas into drug-facilitated sexual assaults by misogynist online communities.

Chinese community rallies to support the victims

Under German privacy laws, prosecutors are limited in what they can say outside the courtroom, documents are restricted and, in the ongoing case in Berlin, members of the public have been forced to leave the courtroom during parts of the trial.

This may be why the investigation into the Telegram group has garnered less attention in Germany than might be expected. But members of the country's Chinese community, mostly women, have been attending court proceedings to show support for the victims even if they don't know them.

“What makes one really angry is to see that such groups hate women, they have no respect,” said Fu Xiao, who traveled roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) to Berlin last week to attend the trial. “Women aren’t seen as people.”

In China, state media has covered the cases comprehensively, but wider discussion about the prosecutions on Chinese-language social media like Rednote has been partially censored. Certain tags have been more likely to get a post deleted or banned on Rednote, screenshots and searches show. But posts using less direct language have survived the censors, including ones that refer to “date rape” or the euphemistic “students studying abroad in Germany.”

China’s Ministry of Public Security and Rednote didn't respond to requests for comment.

Cases echo a landmark French trial

The German cases have drawn comparisons to the attacks on Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who, over the course of nearly a decade, was repeatedly drugged and raped by her then-husband and strangers he invited to their home. The trial — and Pelicot’s decision to waive her anonymity — prompted a reckoning over rape culture in France and beyond.

“Pelicot is not an isolated case,” Judge Markus Koppenleitner said during a hearing in Munich for one of the Chinese men convicted in the German investigation. “This is not a Chinese or French phenomenon, but one that also exists in Germany and, ultimately, worldwide.”

Similar cases to the “German driving school” investigation have been popping up around the globe. Although authorities haven't publicly linked them to the German prosecutions, some investigators have cited tips from German authorities and journalists as crucial to their progress.

In Los Angeles, German investigators last year reached out to police about a potential suspect in drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The defendant, a graduate student from China, is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting three women in LA after he allegedly procured the drugs from a Chinese national in Germany.

In the Netherlands last month, police arrested four men suspected of drugging and sexually abusing women after hearing from authorities in Germany and the U.K. Dutch police said the alleged perpetrators used social media chat groups to disseminate videos showing the abuse and discuss how to drug victims.

And Europol, the European Union’s police agency, last week announced “Project Medusa,” an international operation designed to dismantle online networks that promote drug-facilitated sexual assaults. Law enforcement from Germany and the U.K. are leading the operation, which has already netted 57 arrests.

Cases raise questions about Telegram

The German predator network managed to thrive despite clear violations of Telegram’s terms of service, again raising questions about how the platform has been used for criminal activity.

In 2024, the app’s founder was arrested in Paris over allegations that the platform was being used for illicit activity, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images. He denied wrongdoing, blaming surging numbers of Telegram users that he said “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.” The investigation is ongoing.

“Sexual violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and such content is routinely removed,” the company said in a statement. “Telegram fulfils all of its legal obligations in relation to such harmful content, including everything set out by” the European Union's Digital Services Act.

The company didn't respond to questions about the German cases, including how photos, videos and comments about sexual crimes were posted for years in the app, whether Telegram was aware of the activity and what, if anything, it did to alert the authorities.

Some of the German Telegram chats date back to at least 2020, court documents show. Attorney Magdalena Gebhard, who represented a victim in a previous Berlin trial that led to a conviction, said there was an inner circle of eight perpetrators but that some of the chat groups had up to 50,000 members.

Police only became aware of the network in 2024 after a man in Frankfurt, referred to by German courts as Dapeng Z., changed his tactics from drugging and sexually abusing female acquaintances to targeting strangers he met online, according to prosecutors.

German police arrested Dapeng Z., whom German and Chinese media have reported is the group's ringleader, in 2024 in cooperation with Chinese law enforcement, according to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt and the Beijing News, a state-run media outlet.

He was sentenced in February to 14 years in prison for aggravated rape, attempted murder and other offenses, though he has appealed. His attorneys didn't respond to a request for comment.

Although authorities haven’t publicly said how many women were victimized by the “driving school” network, they have said their investigation is ongoing, meaning there could be further arrests and additional victims. Gebhard’s client, for example, only learned she had been sexually assaulted after investigators discovered video footage.

Another defendant convicted in Berlin

On Wednesday, Zhiting S., a 32-year-old trained medic, was convicted of being an accessory to rape, among other charges, and sentenced to five years in prison. The defense plans to appeal the verdict.

The Berlin state court found that in the chats, Zhiting S. had pointed to a particular sedative before an assault by the man convicted in Frankfurt, though he wasn't alone in offering such advice.

Zhiting S. also was convicted on three charges of sexual coercion related to alleged abuse of his partner in China. Video recordings led investigators to those crimes.

Defense attorney Ehssan Khazaeli said earlier that his client has admitted being part of a chat group but did not offer any significant advice.

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Wu reported from Bangkok. Associated Press reporters Geir Moulson and Fanny Brodersen in Berlin, Molly Quell and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

A member of Tyler Robinson's defense team interrogated a DNA analyst from the FBI on Tuesday about the techniques she used to connect Robinson to a towel wrapped around a rifle found at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was shot in September while speaking to a large crowd.

Defense lawyer Michael Burt cast doubt on the analyst's conclusions — a theme likely to recur during the five-day preliminary hearing.

“She can't match Mr. Robinson to the questioned samples,” Burt argued.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride countered that the reliability of the DNA testing could be examined if the case goes to trial. He suggested the preliminary hearing — where prosecutors have a lower burden of proof compared with a trial — was not the time to take up the matter.

“The point is there are explanations that are susceptible to different interpretations and arguments,” McBride said. “Ultimately, we’re going to have an expert hearing where all the literature is going to be before the court and the court is going to determine if it meets the threshold of reliability for admission to trial.”

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty. State District Judge Tony Graf will decide at the conclusion of this week's hearing if they have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial on an aggravated murder charge.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea and his attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence. They have, however, sought to get the death penalty taken off the table, so far unsuccessfully.

Prosecutors must show they have enough evidence for a trial

FBI analyst Amanda Bakker said after Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, provided a DNA sample for comparison, she was able to rerun her tests and attribute all of the DNA to two people.

Investigators found the towel and suspected murder weapon — a bolt-action rifle with one spent round — in a wooded area near where Kirk was shot.

DNA on the towel matched to two people, Jennifer Faumuina with the State Bureau of Investigation testified. One was Robinson’s roommate and the other was very likely Robinson, she said. Twiggs, a key figure in the prosecution’s case, will not testify in person this week, but prosecutors have said they plan to introduce a recorded statement.

Prosecutors allege Robinson confessed in a note left for Twiggs, who was also his romantic partner, that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”

Investigators say Robinson went to a rooftop near where Kirk was speaking and shot him once through the neck as the activist was taking questions from a crowd of several thousand people. Kirk was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.

The defense team pushes back

Prosecutors contend the shooting endangered others at Kirk’s campus event — an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime punishable by death under Utah law. Robinson also faces possible sentence enhancements based on the prosecution’s claim that he targeted Kirk because of his political views.

During one of several appearances on campus by Robinson on Sept. 10, the defendant went to the amphitheater where Kirk was later shot, State Bureau of Investigation Agent David Hull testified Tuesday. Hull said Robinson made contact with representatives of Turning Point USA, a group co-founded by Kirk that galvanized the conservative youth vote to help Trump win a second term.

The investigator did not detail what occurred during that interaction or if members of Kirk’s security team were present.

Robinson turned himself in after the shooting. Prosecutors allege he sent a text to Twiggs saying he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”

Robinson’s defense team pushed back Tuesday on the idea that he was hostile to Kirk’s politics. Defense attorney Richard Novak sought to block prosecutors from introducing a statement describing the traditional Christian values of Turning Point USA.

“This doesn’t say anything about Mr. Robinson’s state of mind,” Novak said about the statement from Turning Point USA board member David Engelhardt. “I don’t think that this court should be deciding — based on the record before it — where, if at all, politics and religion intersect.”

The judge ruled that the Turning Point statement was relevant and would be “provisionally admitted,” with a final decision later on.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

That's because Platner's starburst candidacy followed an increasingly familiar arc that's shown no signs of abating in American politics — the outsider who defies the warnings of party veterans and captures the hearts of primary voters, even as liabilities pile up and complicate the odds of winning the general election.

With candidates having so many ways to raise money and draw attention — and the public having so little faith in longstanding institutions — the country remains primed for new waves of anti-establishment campaigns, no matter how erratic.

“I think there’s going to be a lot more of this," said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver.

Platner initially surged on the scene with a grassroots campaign in defiance of Democratic leaders, who had rallied around 78-year-old Maine Gov. Janet Mills as their best hope of unseating Republican Sen. Susan Collins. But Mills dropped out as Platner consolidated support, weathering a steady drumbeat of revelations over a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, extramarital sexting and controversial social media posts that would have wrecked a typical campaign.

But that changed this week when a former girlfriend told reporters that Platner drunkenly entered her house and sexually assaulted her in 2021, an allegation the candidate denied. Even Platner's most ardent supporters have urged him to drop out by July 13, which would allow the state party to replace him with a new candidate in a must-win race for Democrats who already faced a narrow path to wrest back control of the Senate in November.

Traditionally, political parties avoid this sort of last-minute surprise with an internal system to vet candidates. In addition, people running for national office have often previously served in local or state positions and have gone through scrutiny at that level.

That doesn't happen as much for populists who can bypass party gatekeepers and even base their entire campaigns on not being beholden to political professionals.

“I understand that people are tired of politics as usual, it’s just that part of the normal political process does vet candidates, and I think people should be worried about unvetted candidates facing Republicans who will have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend to exploit weaknesses,” said Neera Tanden, a veteran Democrat who has sparred with progressives over the years and currently leads the Center for American Progress, a party-aligned think tank.

A familiar story for Republicans

Of course, establishment-backed candidates can flame out, too. The last Democrat to lose a Senate race in a sex scandal was North Carolina's Cal Cunningham, a lawyer and former state senator who fell narrowly short of Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in 2020 after the disclosure of explicit text messages with a woman who wasn't his wife.

Plenty of incumbents of all ideological stripes have been brought down by scandals. The biggest recent win by a Democratic outsider came when Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the New York mayor's primary last year against Andrew Cuomo, a former governor who was hobbled by a sex scandal.

Still, there's a longstanding pattern of insurgent candidates getting into trouble of all kinds.

Just ask Republicans. After the rise of the Tea Party in 2010, they lost multiple winnable races because outsiders defied their own party establishment to win primaries, only to lose in the general election. Republicans ended up missing a chance to gain control of the Senate despite outrage over President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

The party lost more Senate races in 2012 only to launch an internal war against outsider candidates and capture the chamber with more traditional nominees in 2014.

Liberal activists have openly hungered for a Democratic variant of the Tea Party, which emerged from disgust at Republican losses during Obama's presidency. Democratic voters stood by their party establishment during Trump's first term, but after President Joe Biden's collapse and Trump's return last year they have become enraged at their own party leaders.

In primary after primary, Democratic voters have favored younger, outsider candidates this year.

“The Democrats are going through what we went through 15 or 20 years ago,” said Matt Gorman, a veteran Republican strategist. “They're just in their second inning of this. The rubber's going to hit the road when they start losing winnable Senate seats.”

Of course, Trump is the ultimate example of the outsider, populist candidate, one who ran openly disparaging his party's leadership and now controls it with an iron fist. He has, however, an advantage that Platner and many other anti-establishment candidates lack — a decades-long, carefully cultivated image that dominated popular culture long before he ran for office.

“If you don't have a 25-year hard name ID before jumping into politics, this matters,” Gorman said of scandals like Platner's.

Liberals still want party to keep its distance

Even Platner backers like liberal podcaster Tommy Vietor were having second thoughts about the process this week.

“Obviously, a big lesson here is that vetting is really important, and some of the vetting gets done by campaigns themselves, and then ultimately it will be done by the media if the campaigns don’t figure that part out,” said Vietor on the Pod Save America podcast.

Vietor, who boosted Platner but has now called for him to drop out, noted that traditional vetting often doesn't pick up allegations of assault like the one threatening to sink Platner's campaign, but it can highlight red flags.

Even though Platner has not formally decided to withdraw, Maine's Democratic politicians are acting as if he has. State Sen. Troy Jackson, another progressive who opted to run unsuccessfully in the party's primary for governor, filed papers for his Senate candidacy on Tuesday, even with Platner still the nominee. Other Maine aspirants began jockeying for position before the July 27 deadline the state party would have to choose a replacement.

Platner's liberal backers have demanded he be replaced by a similarly anti-establishment candidate, saying that would best reflect the will of the state's Democratic voters who overwhelmingly backed Platner in the primary just a month ago. Whatever happens, it seems likely to leave more scar tissue along the fault lines that have split the party already this year.

Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backed Platner but now has called for him to leave the race, said he hopes Platner’s replacement will have a similar agenda and will not let the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm “just run their campaign.”

“People clearly wanted a voice for systemic change,” Green said. “But it’s a little unclear exactly what’s happening behind the scenes.”

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Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Minneapolis and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined her $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment.

Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.

Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened "the independence of our judiciary." Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, had urged authorities to “lock her up.”

In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin emphasized that the jury's verdict last December and Adelman's sentence reflect Dugan's abuse of her position to obstruct law enforcement officers.

“Law enforcement officers need to be able to carry out their lawful responsibilities in the manner that is safest for them, the public and the individual they are attempting to detain,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel. “Dugan’s reckless and illegal actions interfered with that goal and created unnecessary risks for all involved. For that there needed to be serious consequences.”

Dugan says she was just trying to do her job

Dugan addressed the court, saying she tried to do her best as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”

"I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither,” Dugan said, adding that she was trying to do her job. She said she has had to retire from public life because of threats against her and her family.

Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling acknowledged that Dugan has experienced collateral consequences but said “judges can't choose to disregard the law.”

The judge said Dugan lost her job, now has a felony conviction and experienced threats that forced her to move and stop attending community events. He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.

“This conviction affirms that no one is above the law,” Adelman said.

Prosecutors had pushed for a ‘serious sentence’

Prosecutors had argued in a sentencing memo that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.

“Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross,” Frohling wrote. “The defendant crossed that line.”

Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough,” and should not be sentenced to any jail time beyond the hours she spent in federal custody.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months behind bars, but the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, wasn't bound by them. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence, but Frohling wrote that "this was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence.”

Attorney Jason Luczak said after the sentencing that they would still appeal Dugan’s felony obstruction conviction. Jurors acquitted her at trial of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

What happened in the courthouse that day

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge's office, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz. Her attorneys said during her trial that she was following protocols that called for court employees to report any immigration agents to their supervisors.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

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Associated Press contributors include Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

The totals give HBO Max the top spot for both drama and comedy, with “Hacks” breaking the record for most nominations for a comedy series held jointly by “The Studio” last year and “The Bear” in 2024. HBO Max led all outlets with 122 overall nominations and has three shows up for both best drama and best comedy series.

The nominees announced for 118 Primetime Emmy categories included the late Rob Reiner for his guest acting on “The Bear,” Bad Bunny for his Super Bowl halftime show, and newlywed Taylor Swift for “The Eras Tour - The Final Show” concert special.

“Hacks” gets a special send-off and “The Pitt” grows up

Emmy voters love a departing show, and have loved the tension-between-comedy-generations “Hacks” since its first season, allowing it to run up the numbers as a fifth-year senior. Star Jean Smart has won best actress in a comedy for all four previous seasons and it would be stunning if she didn’t claim a fifth.

Her sidekick throughout the series Hannah Einbinder, who last year broke through and won supporting actress in a comedy in her fourth nomination, got a fifth. Her castmate, the show’s co-creator Paul W. Downs, got three nominations, for acting, writing and producing.

The day-in-the-life emergency room series “The Pitt” was a rookie upstart last year with big wins including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa.

Already a beloved veteran show, it owned this year’s acting categories. Wyle was nominated again for best actor (along with nods for his directing and producing) as was LaNasa. Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif and Sepideh Moafi also got nominations, with “The Pitt” taking four of the seven supporting actress spots and three supporting actor slots.

In an era when major Emmy contenders — like 2025’s top drama nominee “Severance” — take years off between seasons, “The Pitt” came right back for another round. And its claim on the acting categories was helped by the between-seasons absence of “The White Lotus,” and its elite ensembles.

A solid showing for Apple TV

Two new shows from Apple TV, the one-woman-against-the-hivemind drama “Pluribus” and the horror comedy “Widow’s Bay,” both scored big in their first seasons.

“Pluribus,” from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan, got 18 nods. They included best actress in a drama for its only lead cast member Rhea Seahorn, considered the favorite to win.

“Widow’s Bay” got 19, including best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who was also nominated as a producer and for his acting in the limited series “The Beast in Me.”

Two other Apple TV shows are also up for best comedy, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” whose stars Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer got acting nominations, and “Shrinking.”

The “Shrinking” nominations included best supporting actor in a comedy for Harrison Ford. The force could be with Ford, with many prognosticators saying this will be the year the Hollywood legend finally wins an EGOT-tier award. His castmate Jason Segel is up for lead actor.

Big day for Bateman, Short and Brunson

Many close observers also think this will be the year the perennially nominated Martin Short wins best actor in a comedy for “Only Murders in the Building.” He was nominated for three trophies, including nods for his producing of “Only Murders in the Building” and hosting “The Match Game.” A Netflix documentary about him, “Marty, Life is Short,” also got two nominations.

Jason Bateman got four nominations, for his performing and producing on both “Black Rabbit” and “DTF St. Louis.”

ABCs “Abbott Elementary” remained a rare bright spot for the traditional broadcast networks that have been marginalized in top categories by cable and streaming shows. Creator, star and two-time Emmy winner Quinta Brunson was nominated for three more, and the show got seven.

Reiner, Swift, Bunny and Fox are among the notable nominees

The vast range of Emmy categories brings unexpected stars and beloved figures into the mix.

Rob Reiner, who was killed along with wife Michele Singer Reiner in December, has a chance at his third Emmy. He was nominated for guest actor for “The Bear,” about 50 years after winning two for his acting on “All in the Family.”

Five-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox, also got a nomination in the same category for playing a patient with Parkinson’s disease, which the actor was diagnosed with in the 1990s, on “Shrinking.”

The Super Bowl halftime show is nearly always nominated, but this year's featuring Bad Bunny on NBC went above and beyond with nine nominations.

Swift's “Eras Tour” concert special got five nominations days after her marriage to Travis Kelce, one of them for the singing superstar herself as producer. She has one previous Emmy, for interactive media in 2015, to go with her 14 Grammys.

And after a year of targeting from the Trump administration for late-night hosts and their shows, the now-off-the-air “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” got nine nominations and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” got six.

“Beef” and “Euphoria” are back in the mix

Netflix’s “Beef” was tops in the limited or anthology series categories with 16 nominations. “Beef” had a dominant first season in 2023, and the anthology’s all-new grudge holders, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton, all got nominations.

“Euphoria” made its Emmys return after a long absence and got seven nominations. Zendaya, who won best actress in a drama for the first two seasons in 2020 and 2022, got a nod for the recently aired third season.

Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller announced the nominees at the Television Academy in Los Angeles. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, airing on NBC, will be held Sept. 14. Mariska Hargitay, the longtime star of NBC's “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” will host and is a double nominee for directing and producing the documentary “My Mom Jayne.”

Trump, who is known for sending mixed messages about his intentions, has repeatedly threatened to escalate strikes against Iran, only to pull back after claiming diplomatic progress. He said Wednesday that the U.S. would “probably hit them hard again tonight,” and later added that the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action.

“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast," Trump said, though he also suggested the U.S. military might “just finish the job.”

A day after assaults on commercial shipping escalated into an exchange of strikes on Iranian and U.S. military targets, Trump also renewed his past threats to hit Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including electric plants and desalinization plants, and to seize the oil-production hub of Kharg Island.

Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said the strikes are continued retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

“They are behaving very badly,” he said of Iran, accusing the country of launching drones and a missile at ships. After three tankers were hit Tuesday, the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, and Iranian forces retaliated by attacking American military sites in the Persian Gulf.

Iran has asserted that the interim ceasefire deal gives it the right to manage traffic through the strait. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, was defiant in a post on X: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

Strikes raise fears that war could resume

The latest exchange of fire raised fears that the war in Iran could reignite, and Trump fueled those concerns by saying the interim agreement to pause fighting was “over,” although he added that he would allow negotiations to continue.

Attacks have repeatedly threatened the shaky ceasefire, but Trump's comments added new uncertainty, and oil prices shot up after he spoke. A renewed conflict could engulf the wider Middle East and would likely again halt energy shipments through the strait that are crucial to the global economy.

“For me, I think it’s over,” Trump said when asked about the status of the ceasefire. He added that U.S. representatives can continue negotiations, but he cast doubt on the outcome. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” he said.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, also a top negotiator, retorted on X that Trump's remarks “are not a sign of power but an admission of the failure” of U.S. policy toward Iran.

Trump has threatened to seize Kharg Island at previous points in the war, including last month, when he also questioned whether the U.S. “has the stomach for it.” Some 90% of Iranian oil exports pass through the island.

The new attacks on ships in the strait, despite the negotiations, could reflect a divide among Iran's leadership. Hard-liners seek lasting control over the waterway, which is a globally important conduit for fuel shipments and has become a critical lever in confronting the West. Pragmatists want a permanent peace deal to lift international sanctions and provide desperately needed economic relief.

Negotiations to reach a final deal had been due to start after the dayslong funeral for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Feb. 28 in the war’s first moments. The funeral, which ends Thursday, was supposed to be a period of lower tensions.

The talks are meant to focus on the toughest matters, including fully reopening the strait and rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

US military says it hit air defenses and small boats

The U.S. military’s Central Command said American forces launched strikes “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”

The military said it hit Iranian targets including air-defense systems, radars and over 60 small boats used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Those boats have been key to threatening ships in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war. Iran’s ability to bring shipping in the waterway to a near halt during the war proved its greatest strategic advantage.

Rising prices for energy supplies, fertilizer and food put pressure on the U.S. to make a deal.

Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including in Bandar Mahshahr, where a Revolutionary Guard member was killed. State television said eight members of the Army's air and naval forces were killed in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr; the latter is home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex.

On Wednesday morning, both Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait, home to U.S. Army forces, sounded missile alerts. The Revolutionary Guard issued a statement acknowledging targeting U.S. military installations in both countries.

Kuwait said it intercepted two ballistic missiles and 13 drones launched by Iran. The Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry said a number of lines were out of service after shrapnel fell on them.

US revokes license allowing the sale of Iranian oil

After the Iranian strikes on shipping. the U.S. revoked a license that — for the first time in years — had allowed Iran to conduct oil sales openly in U.S. dollars, as part of the interim deal.

Iran and the United States agreed as part of the interim deal to allow ships to pass through the strait without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran has insisted it must control the vessels’ routes and vowed to later charge fees for passage. That would upend decades of practice in the waterway. The ships attacked Tuesday all appeared to be using a route close to Oman’s shore, rather than one ordered by Tehran.

The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait.

Elsewhere, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falah al-Zaidi and other Iranian and Iraqi officials attended funeral ceremonies for Khamenei on Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

Khamenei’s body will be returned to Iran to be buried Thursday at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.

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Kim reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Najaf, Iraq; and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed.

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El Niño’s most prominent mark on the hurricane season is to ratchet up vertical wind shear – the scissor-like wind pattern that lops off the tops of organizing storm seedlings before they can develop into strong hurricanes. The increase in wind shear is highest in the western part of the tropical Atlantic, especially across the Caribbean, which also helps to reduce the number of U.S. landfalls during El Niño years.

Typically, however, it takes a little time for the abnormal warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific – the ocean phenomenon that defines El Niño – to link arms with the atmosphere and change global circulation patterns that ultimately reshape winds over the tropical Atlantic. Since El Niño peaks in the late fall and winter, we usually start to see the atmospheric response by August and September, as the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season hits.

This year, however, it appears we’re seeing that atmospheric feedback to the strengthening El Niño earlier than usual, which could be a result of the record-setting pace of the warming so far in the eastern equatorial Pacific.

Wind shear in the bellwether Caribbean has shot up like a skyscraper since mid-June and is the second highest to start July (second only behind 2015, another strong El Niño year) since satellite records began in 1979.

As we’ve discussed in previous newsletters, by July the wind shear load across the Caribbean becomes one of the most reliable predictors of future seasonal hurricane activity. The more shear we see in the Caribbean in July, generally the less overall tropical activity we should expect in August, September, and October.

It’s still early in the month, but forecast models show no signs of the shear surrendering its Caribbean stronghold. If anything, the shear looks to only increase over the coming weeks, with a bullseye of exceptionally strong wind shear centered squarely over the Caribbean.

If this is any indication, the tropical Atlantic will have some heavy lifting to do to churn out much activity in the months ahead. Of course, in any given week, the winds can relax enough for a hurricane to slip through the cracks (hurricanes are a given every season, even in strong El Niño years), and we’ll want to watch the subtropics a little more closely, especially east of Florida, but overall these trends bode well for a noticeably less active hurricane season.

And as we would expect, forecast models continue to advertise a very sleepy Atlantic, with no signs of life into at least late July.

Allowing foreign manufacture of Patriots, which the U.S. had resisted, was a turnaround for Trump that mirrored his day at the NATO meeting: Upon arriving, he lashed out at European partners for resisting his efforts to take control of Greenland and for not supporting his war in Iran. But by day's end, he described a gathering of unity and “tremendous love," and praised member nations on their progress in increasing their defense spending.

NATO’s European members plus Canada have scrambled to meet the alliance's increased defense spending targets, which Trump has demanded as the U.S. draws down troops in Europe and insists the continent take more responsibility for its own security.

Trump had reopened old wounds among the 32 NATO leaders by insisting again ahead of the summit that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory. That led Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to say her country is “ready to defend every inch of NATO including our own territory.”

Trump also blasted some European countries for refusing to participate in the Iran campaign, singling out Spain as “a terrible partner in NATO” and renewing his threats to cut off trade.

Trump strikes a positive tone on Zelenskyy

But the tone of Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a break from earlier encounters which ended in acrimony, and Trump praised the Ukrainian leader's willingness to reach a deal on ending the fighting in Ukraine.

“We’ve actually developed a good relationship. It’s hard to believe,” Trump said during a news conference with Zelenskyy, adding that he believed a deal on ending the war was on the horizon and that the U.S. would “work on some kind of security package” to provide to Ukraine.

Trump said the Ukrainian president has “done an amazing job” and “been very effective” in the war as he pledged to grant Ukraine a license to manufacture the Patriot defense systems.

“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”

Patriots are expensive, in high demand and take a long time to produce. Zelenskyy has for years been asking for more of them, and more recently for a license so that Ukraine can manufacture its own.

NATO chief backs latest US strikes on Iran

Ahead of the summit, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised Trump for the series of U.S. strikes on Iran overnight, after Tehran struck three merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think what you did last night was absolutely necessary,” Rutte said to Trump. “It was a very strong response, and I’m with you on this.”

The U.S. strikes, as well as the revoking of a license allowing Iran to sell its oil on global markets, underscored the fragility of an interim deal to end months of fighting.

Trump said of the interim agreement with Iran: “For me, I think it’s over” — but added he will allow talks to continue.

“It’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” he said.

NATO leaders sought to show Trump they were boosting defense

Rutte has dedicated a huge amount of energy to keeping Trump's support for NATO and to holding the summit together. On Wednesday, he sought to tamp down the president’s ire by giving him credit for recent increases in defense spending from NATO allies.

“Grab the win. It’s there,” Rutte told Trump on Wednesday.

The NATO chief pointed to countries including Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Denmark that are investing more in defense, but noted that the Trump administration expects “the Europeans and Canadians will equalize their spending with the United States.”

Last month Rutte went to Washington to hail the “Trump Trillion” — the $1.2 trillion that European allies and Canada have added to defense spending since Trump came to power in 2017.

As leaders converged on Ankara, Rutte hosted a “big reveal” event to showcase the many deals planned for the increased spending — much of it to be spent on U.S. companies, creating thousands of jobs for Americans.

At last year's summit, the allies agreed to invest 5% of their gross domestic product on defense — 3.5% on their defense budgets and 1.5% on infrastructure so troops and equipment can move faster in times of conflict.

Yet figures released by NATO on Tuesday showed that Slovenia, Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic have struggled to meet the alliance’s old spending target of 2% of GDP.

The Trump administration wants to see a leaner “NATO 3.0,” with Europe taking responsibility for its own security, including Ukraine, with conventional weapons while America would continue to provide its nuclear umbrella.

The Pentagon has launched a six-month review of U.S. military presence in Europe, leaving allies to seek clarity on just how deeply Trump intends to cut U.S. force numbers.

Zelenskyy pushes for NATO entry

Zelenskyy made a fresh appeal Tuesday for Ukraine to be allowed to join the alliance, saying Ukrainian armed forces are highly experienced and would only boost NATO’s defense capabilities. Russia is vehemently opposed to that.

Zelenskyy has highlighted Ukraine’s adaptability and its ability to strike deep inside Russia. He said Ukraine’s armed forces are “eliminating” on average 30,000 Russian troops every month.

In a declaration following Wednesday's summit, NATO leaders pledged to provide Ukraine with $80 billion to help meet its defense needs this year and next, noting “the long-term threat Russia poses to Euro-Atlantic security.”

Concern has been mounting among some countries with borders near Russia that Moscow might be preparing a hybrid attack — a combination of conventional warfare with tactics like cyberattacks — on the continent as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.

Trump administration to lift Syria's terrorism designation

Trump also met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former insurgent who led the offensive that unseated autocrat Bashar Assad in December 2024. Despite having once been an al-Qaida fighter, al-Sharaa has won Trump’s backing as he seeks to rebuild Syria and restore its shattered ties with the West.

Later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that Trump has told U.S. lawmakers that the U.S. will soon remove Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a year-long normalization process with the country’s new government.

“Lifting sanctions on Syria will unlock international trade and investment, give Syria a chance to rebuild, and open up a new chapter for the Syrian people,” Rubio said.

In June 2025, Trump signed an executive order ending a number of economic sanctions before revoking the terrorism designation a few weeks later for al-Sharaa, though the designation for Syria remained.

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Associated Press journalists Collin Binkley and Michelle L. Price in Washington and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations contributed.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way superstar blasted a 409-foot line drive to center on a 2-0 pitch for his 20th homer of the season. Center fielder Cole Carrigg could only watch it fly out.

“It was quite the homer,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It was 119 (mph exit velocity) off the bat, low-launching, it was squared up, got out in a hurry. I just marvel at him every day. Three hundred is a big number."

Ohtani is the fifth-fastest in history to reach 300 and the 170th member of the club. It took him 1,102 games between playing for the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers; New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was the quickest at 955 games.

It was Ohtani's 31st career leadoff homer and seventh this season. He also homered in the Dodgers' 8-7 victory in 11 innings on Monday night to highlight a 3-for-4 performance.

Roberts believes there's a lot more homers within reach for Ohtani, who turned 32 last Sunday.

“He just had a birthday, still young, still strong, so I definitely think 500 is in his future,” the manager said.

Teammate Freddie Freeman bowed as Ohtani made his way back to the dugout.

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