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Police officers reported finding Jennifer Wright bleeding from her nose and with a “red bump on her face” on Saturday at the lobby of the Extended Stay America, at 101 Fairway Drive, records show.

Wright, the hotel’s registered guest, reported her attacker was in her room, where officers reported finding drugs, Alain Perez, who had an arrest warrant, and her alleged attacker, Juan Garrandes.

“I observed an open silver metal suitcase positioned on top of a dresser ... inside the suitcase I observed a clear plastic bag containing a white crystalline substance ... a separate clear plastic bag containing dried mushroom-like material,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.

Police officers reported finding 18.7 grams of methamphetamine, 23.2 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, and a digital scale. Perez “corroborated” Garrandes had attacked Wright, but Garrandes denied it, according to police.

Police officers arrested Wright and Perez shortly before 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, and corrections booked them at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, records show.

Wright faced charges of trafficking in amphetamines and possession of a controlled substance. A judge set her bond at $17,500. Perez faced a charge of failure to appear, a third-degree felony. His bond was $500.

Police officers arrested Garrandes, who was born in New York and lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Corrections booked him at TGKCC. He faced a first-degree misdemeanor battery charge. His bond was $1,000.

Garrandes’s convictions go back to 1991 in Miami-Dade County, and include armed robberies, carjacking, burglary, drug possession, and grand theft.

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Sierra, 42, pleaded guilty in August to three counts of murder and three counts of kidnapping in the 2012 killings of Gladys Machado and her daughters, 6-year-old Julia Padrino and 3-year-old Daniella Padrino.

The first day of the penalty phase began with prosecutors detailing the killings and arguing that the crimes warrant the death penalty.

“This is the instrument of death that he used — a Sedano’s bag just like this one,” lead prosecutor Abbe Rifkin told jurors, displaying a plastic grocery bag.

Rifkin described how Sierra, then 28, attacked Machado and her daughters, telling jurors that he tortured and humiliated Machado before killing her.

Prosecutors also described the deaths of the two girls.

Rifkin said Julia witnessed her mother’s death before Sierra suffocated her with a plastic bag.

Daniella, who was days away from her fourth birthday, was asleep when Sierra attacked her, prosecutors said. Rifkin told jurors that Sierra strangled the child with the same type of plastic bag.

“He violently awakened her by smothering her to death,” Rifkin said.

Prosecutors also presented allegations that Machado and Julia were sexually assaulted after their deaths. Rifkin described the crimes as “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel.”

Sierra sat quietly during the opening statement, often looking down toward the defense table.

The defense is expected to argue that mitigating circumstances should be considered before jurors decide on a sentence.

Defense attorneys told jurors that experts are expected to testify about Sierra’s history, including an alleged traumatic brain injury he suffered in a childhood car accident that they say permanently affected his personality and cognitive functioning.

Under Florida law, jurors weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase before making a recommendation on whether a defendant should receive life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The jury is expected to hear additional testimony and evidence in the coming days before reaching its recommendation.

La niña y Battle no se conocían, según el informe.

La policía indicó que el incidente se reportó después de que un gerente de Dollar Tree revisara las imágenes de vigilancia y se comunicara con las autoridades.

Agentes del Equipo de Resolución de Problemas de La Pequeña Habana, del Departamento de Policía de Miami, acudieron a la tienda, ubicada en el 1043 W. Flagler St., y detuvieron a Battle, según el informe.

De acuerdo con el informe, el video muestra a Battle caminando por un pasillo con un carrito de compras cuando la niña entra sola a ese mismo pasillo.

“El agresor se voltea hacia ella y acorta la distancia entre ambos. Mira brevemente a su alrededor y duda antes de colocar su cara cerca de los glúteos de la víctima. Luego levanta la parte superior del cuerpo (inhalando) y se aparta de la víctima”, indica el informe.

El informe también señala que la niña tomó un cartel y empezó a alejarse. Según la policía, Battle volvió a acercarse e inclinó la pelvis hacia ella, pero aparentemente no logró tocarla porque la niña se alejó rápidamente.

La niña contó luego a los investigadores que su madre la había llevado al Dollar Tree para comprar materiales para un proyecto escolar, y que le había pedido que buscara cartulina en otro pasillo, según el informe.

La niña le dijo a la policía que solo vio a una persona en el pasillo, según el informe. Recordó que, cuando se iba, Battle le tocó el brazo y luego le dio un leve empujón a la altura del hombro, indicó la policía.

Según los agentes, la niña también contó que sintió que Battle la estaba oliendo, y lo describió como “aire en la parte baja de la espalda”. Dijo que supo que la había olido y corrió hacia su madre para ponerse a salvo, según el informe.

La policía indicó que la descripción que dio la niña coincidía con el hombre que aparece en el video de vigilancia.

Según el informe, los investigadores interrogaron a Battle después de leerle sus derechos Miranda. Battle dijo que había llevado su bicicleta a un taller en Hialeah antes de pasar por el Dollar Tree.

Battle, residente de la zona de Gladeview, reconoció haber visto a la niña caminar hacia el pasillo donde él estaba comprando y dio a los investigadores una descripción que coincidía con su apariencia, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que, al preguntarle por su comportamiento, Battle respondió que “no tenía intención de hacerle daño”. Según ellos, Battle aseguró que acercó su cara a los glúteos de la niña porque estaba bajo los efectos de la marihuana y su cerebro “le dijo que lo hiciera”.

Según los registros de la cárcel, Battle enfrenta un cargo de conducta lasciva contra una menor de 16 años.

Battle compareció el martes ante el tribunal de fianzas de Miami-Dade, donde la jueza Mindy Glazer le fijó una fianza de $2,500. Además, le ordenó mantenerse alejado de la víctima y del Dollar Tree, lo puso bajo arresto domiciliario y le impuso un toque de queda de 11 p.m. a 6 a.m.

The president announced his intention on Friday night to impound more than $800 million from 11 appropriations accounts, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.

But the GAO said federal law provides that funds proposed for rescission must be made available at a certain point unless Congress completes action on a bill that goes along with the president's request.

“Any withholding of appropriated funds beyond their date of expiration, regardless of size, subverts both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress's constitutional power of the purse,” wrote the GAO's general counsel.

Under the Impoundment Control Act, the administration can withhold funds for 45 days as Congress considers the issue. Lawmakers can pass a bill that includes all or part of the president's request, but if Congress has not acted on the request within that 45 day-window, the president must release the funds.

But Trump made congressional action all but impossible by announcing the cuts with just five days left in the federal fiscal year and with the House out of session through the November election. The GAO, an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress, says the maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” is illegal.

Trump's first rescissions targeted foreign aid

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

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

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he again expects the courts to have the final word on the issue. Some of the proposed cuts are things that “many of us agree with, but the process by which they did it is going to be, I assume, subject to a lot of discussion and probably some litigation," he said.

Democrats have been highly critical of the president's effort and are working to tighten language in the next set of appropriations bills to prevent similar efforts in the future. Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Budget Committee, sponsored legislation that would require the White House Office of Management and Budget to release funds at least 90 days before they expire.

“GAO’s decision is clear: President Trump’s pocket rescission is illegal and subverts Congress’s constitutional power of the purse," Boyle said. “No president has the authority to ignore Congress and unilaterally cancel funding that was signed into law.”

New cuts target several federal programs

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

Also targeted for cuts were a Department of Education program for migrant students, a Department of Justice office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs and housing counseling services from the Housing and Urban Development Department.

Según los registros, los agentes encontraron el sábado a Jennifer Wright sangrando por la nariz y con un “chichón rojo en la cara” en el lobby del Extended Stay America, ubicado en el 101 Fairway Drive.

Wright, la huésped registrada, dijo que su agresor estaba en su habitación. Allí los agentes encontraron drogas; a Alain Perez, quien tenía una orden de arresto pendiente; y al presunto agresor, Juan Garrandes.

“Observé una maleta plateada de metal abierta encima de una cómoda... dentro de la maleta vi una bolsa plástica transparente con una sustancia cristalina blanca... y otra bolsa plástica transparente con un material seco parecido a hongos”, escribió un agente, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes reportaron haber encontrado 18.7 gramos de metanfetamina, 23.2 gramos de hongos con psilocibina y una báscula digital. Según la policía, Perez confirmó que Garrandes había agredido a Wright, pero Garrandes lo negó.

Los agentes arrestaron a Wright y a Perez poco antes de la 1:40 p.m. del sábado, y ambos fueron procesados en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según los registros.

Wright enfrenta cargos de tráfico de anfetaminas y posesión de una sustancia controlada. Un juez le fijó una fianza de $17,500. Perez enfrenta un cargo por no comparecer ante la corte, un delito grave de tercer grado. Su fianza fue de $500.

Garrandes, nacido en Nueva York y residente del vecindario Flagami de Miami, fue arrestado poco después de la 1:30 p.m. del sábado y procesado en el mismo centro correccional. Enfrenta un cargo de agresión, un delito menor de primer grado. Su fianza fue de $1,000.

Las condenas de Garrandes en el condado Miami-Dade se remontan a 1991 e incluyen robos a mano armada, robo de autos con violencia, robo en propiedad ajena, posesión de drogas y hurto mayor.

The bailout occurred at the intersection of Northwest 17th Street and 127th Avenue.

Sky 10 flew over the scene just after 2 p.m., where two people were being taken into custody near a fence outside a home in the area.

North Miami police said officers responded to the area to assist the Florida Highway Patrol with securing a perimeter in the area.

A police helicopter was also seen over the area as officers searched the neighborhood, which includes homes and businesses.

Authorities had not released additional information about the individuals who were placed in custody.

David Rudolph Jenrath, 24, turned himself into authorities Monday and was charged with two felonies: theft of trade secrets and computer tampering. He is being held on $15,000 bond at the Lee County Jail in Auburn, Alabama, according to police.

A news release issued Tuesday by the Auburn Police Department said a “business reported that sensitive information was stolen from the business and distributed to their competitors. The business reported that one of their competitors received the information and turned it over to them.”

It's unclear which schools received the stolen information. A complaint alleges that the incident occurred on July 19 at the Auburn Athletics Complex.

Jenrath’s profile on LinkedIn, which has now been removed, said he worked for the Auburn football program as a player personnel scouting assistant from January through June. His focus was on running backs and special teams.

His profile said his duties included evaluating high school and transfer-portal prospects, preparing scouting reports and recruiting summaries, assisting with opponent scouting and maintaining recruiting databases. His profile also said he was an applied artificial intelligence/sports analytics student at the University of Tennessee.

Auburn plays at Tennessee on Saturday.

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Judges from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard three hours of arguments in the latest chapter of a case that has been a recurring flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s escalating conflict with the federal courts.

Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate argued District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg has no basis or authority to continue with his inquiry because a prosecutor — not a judge — is responsible for investigating crimes.

“What's gone off the rails in this case is that the district court has purported to investigate,” Shumate said.

In April, a divided panel of three D.C. Circuit judges ruled that Boasberg must end his “intrusive” contempt investigation of the Trump administration. But the questions posed at Tuesday's hearing suggest that the full court could give Boasberg a green light to proceed with his inquiry. The judges didn't indicate how soon they would rule.

Judge Patricia Millett questioned why Boasberg shouldn't be allowed to continue with his inquiry so he can determine if other government officials merit additional scrutiny for possible criminal contempt.

“Are district courts allowed to decide if people have engaged in contempt in front of them?” asked Millett, who was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama.

“The district court loses the authority to investigate,” Shumate said.

“That's not my question,” Millet interjected, raising her voice. “This is all about wordplay here on which you mean by the word ‘investigate.’”

On March 15, 2025, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from transferring groups of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century law. After the order was entered, two planeloads of migrants protected by the order departed from the U.S. on their way to El Salvador, where they were locked up in one of the world’s most violent prisons.

Boasberg gave a verbal order for the aircraft to turn around. The administration denied violating it or a subsequent written order, but Boasberg has said the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country.

The administration has said then- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was responsible for the transfer decision. On Tuesday, however, D.C. Circuit judges suggested that Boasberg should be able to identify other possible targets for a contempt investigation before referring the matter to a prosecutor.

The case represents a major front in an escalating conflict between Trump and the federal judiciary, which has often blocked some of the president's most ambitious and legally dubious initiatives. In case after case, the administration has demonstrated an unprecedented willingness to skirt or even defy court orders.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, also an Obama nominee, said it undermines courts’ authority if the executive branch treats judicial orders as “optional” and is allowed to ignore them “with impunity.”

“The separation of powers respects the separate and co-equal authority of the different branches,” she said. “Really, at bottom what this case is about is whether (federal) courts are at the mercy of the executive.”

Pillard asked Shumate if he could help her “feel more comfortable” about the administration's perspective on that issue. Shumate said the department is “always advising our clients to comply with court orders.”

“It's also the right thing to do," he said. “We have to respect court orders, and the government in this case did comply with the order. I know there may be disagreement on that.”

The Justice Department says it didn't violate Boasberg's order “as it was best construed” and accuses the Obama-nominated judge of pursuing the contempt inquiry “with myopic and single-minded determination.”

American Civil Liberties Union attorneys say the government's decision to ignore Boasberg's order had “devastating consequences” for the migrants who were flown to El Salvador and held for months in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

“Plaintiffs’ four months at CECOT were nothing short of barbaric,” ACLU attorneys wrote. “They were subjected to horrific physical and psychological abuse, and deprived of food, water, and medical care. They were regularly severely beaten by guards and subjected to other physical abuse, including being shot at close range with rubber bullets.”

Trump has called for impeaching Boasberg, and the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration. In a rare rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rejected calls for Boasberg’s impeachment.

The girl and Battle did not know each other, the report states.

Police said the incident was reported after a Dollar Tree manager reviewed surveillance footage and contacted authorities.

Officers with the Miami Police Department’s Little Havana Problem Solving Team responded to the store, located at 1043 W. Flagler St., and detained Battle, the report states.

According to the report, surveillance video showed Battle walking through an aisle with a shopping cart as the girl entered the same aisle alone.

“The offender turns toward her and closes the distance between them. He (Battle) briefly scans the surrounding area and hesitates before positioning his face near the victim’s buttocks. His upper body then rises (inhaling), after which he turns away from the victim,” the report states.

The report also states that the girl then grabbed a poster and began walking away. Police said Battle again moved closer and leaned his pelvic area toward her but appeared unable to make contact as she quickly walked away.

The girl later told investigators that her mother had brought her to the Dollar Tree to buy materials for a school project. Her mother instructed her to get cardboard from another aisle, according to the report.

The girl told police she saw only one person in the aisle, the report states. As she was leaving, she recalled Battle touching her arm and then “nudging her shoulder area,” police said.

They said she also told investigators that she felt Battle smelling her, describing the sensation as “air on her lower back.” She said she knew he had smelled her and ran to her mother for safety, according to the report.

Police said the girl’s description of Battle matched the man seen in the surveillance video.

Investigators later interviewed Battle after reading him his Miranda rights, according to the report. Battle told police he had taken his bicycle to a repair shop in Hialeah before stopping at the Dollar Tree, the report states.

Battle, who lives in the county’s Gladeview area, said he acknowledged seeing the girl walk toward the aisle where he was shopping and gave investigators a description of her that was consistent with her appearance, according to the report.

Investigators said when Battle was asked about his behavior, he told them he “did not intend to cause any harm.” They said Battle claimed that he placed his face toward the girl’s buttocks because he was under the influence of marijuana and his brain “told him to do it.”

Jail records show Battle is facing one count of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child younger than 16.

Battle appeared in Miami-Dade bond court Tuesday, where Judge Mindy Glazer set his bond at $2,500, ordered him to stay away from the victim and the Dollar Tree, placed him on house arrest, and imposed an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

En cambio, el hijo de Steve Gallon III, exmiembro de la Junta Escolar de Miami-Dade y comisionado electo del condado, aceptó este martes un acuerdo con la Fiscalía. Fue condenado a cinco años de prisión, con abono del tiempo que ya ha pasado detenido.

“¿Cómo se declara, culpable o no culpable?”, le preguntó a Gallon el juez de circuito de Miami-Dade Alberto Milian.

“Culpable”, respondió Gallon.

Según los investigadores, los hechos ocurrieron el 8 de marzo de 2023.

La Fiscalía sostiene que un grupo de agentes vigilaba a Atiba Moore como parte de una investigación por drogas cuando Moore se dio cuenta de que un policía encubierto lo seguía en un auto sin identificación.

La Fiscalía acusó a Gallon, hoy de 36 años, de dispararle al agente por la espalda. Sin embargo, admitió este martes en la corte que le resultaría difícil probar ciertos elementos del delito en un juicio. El agente no pudo identificar a quien le disparó y el arma nunca fue recuperada.

Roderick Vereen, abogado de Gallon, dijo que la defensa sostuvo desde el principio que Gallon no sabía que la persona a la que le disparó era un policía.

“Esta familia lleva tres años y medio pasando por este calvario. Creo que lo que dijeron hoy el juez y la Fiscalía confirmó lo que yo venía diciendo desde el primer día: aunque este incidente ocurrió, no había ninguna prueba de que él supiera que el sargento Darrian Washington era un policía”, dijo Vereen.

Un fiscal dijo creer que fragmentos del arma que disparó Gallon alcanzaron a la víctima en la parte posterior de la cabeza.

La Fiscalía también reconoció que ningún análisis forense estableció que esos fragmentos provinieran de una bala en particular.

Finalmente, la Fiscalía aceptó retirar los agravantes por dispararle a un agente del orden y por cometer el delito con un arma de fuego.

Según los fiscales, la víctima quería que Gallon fuera condenado a 10 años de prisión. La defensa, por su parte, pedía que la condena se limitara al tiempo que ya había cumplido.

Al final, Milian condenó a Gallon a cinco años de prisión.

“Lo condeno a 60 meses en una prisión estatal de Florida, con abono de todo el tiempo ya cumplido”, dijo Milian.

Otra condición del acuerdo fue que Gallon no apelará la condena.

En el caso también hay otros coacusados. Según los fiscales, hay acuerdos y conversaciones en curso sobre esos casos, que podrían resolverse en las próximas semanas.

La huida tras abandonar el auto ocurrió en la intersección de la calle 17 y la avenida 127 del noroeste.

El helicóptero Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena poco después de las 2:00 p.m., donde se observó a dos personas siendo puestas bajo custodia cerca de la cerca de una vivienda en la zona.

La policía de North Miami lideraba el operativo, de acuerdo con múltiples reportes, mientras otras agencias brindaban apoyo en el lugar.

Un helicóptero policial fue visto sobrevolando el área mientras los agentes registraban el vecindario, el cual alberga residencias y negocios.

Las autoridades no han revelado información adicional sobre los detenidos.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

The apparent 6-3 order halts a lower court decision. It requires the government to give migrants a chance to object before they are sent to countries to which they have no ties.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December.

The Trump administration said the lower court order forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries last week.

The justices have sided with the administration once before on the core Trump administration policy, allowing deportation flights to temporarily continue last year.

The court said it will consider several questions: whether the policy is lawful, whether lower courts had the authority to issue a sweeping block and other questions the government deems appropriate.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported some 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries, including Liberia and Guyana. The vast majority have been sent to Mexico.

Trump’s Republican administration has said that it sends people with final deportation orders to third countries when they can't be returned to their homelands or their native countries won’t accept them, including those who have criminal convictions. Those governments provide assurances that people won’t be persecuted or tortured, federal attorneys said.

But some migrants have nevertheless found themselves imprisoned in countries they’d never heard of before their arrivals. Others also face serious safety risks and are left with little choice except to return to the home countries they were fleeing. Many have no criminal convictions and have been found to be at risk of torture or persecution, attorneys for the immigrants said.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.

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The president has traditionally invited the reigning champions, but that has not been the case under Trump. No team went during his first term or after he was elected again in 2024.

But Trump and Knicks owner James Dolan are close. They sat together when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, and Dolan indicated after the Knicks won the championship that an offer would be accepted.

The Knicks held their first practice of the new season Tuesday and Brown was asked if there was a determination about a White House visit.

“No, it’s still something that our guys, or the organization, is internally discussing and, you know, whatever we decide to do, we’ll all do together,” Brown said.

The Boston Celtics made the first trip by a champion in 1963, and President Barack Obama, who is a basketball fan, hosted the winner every year he was in office.

But Trump has feuded with some NBA players, saying during the 2018 NBA Finals that he wouldn’t invite whichever team won, after Golden State’s Stephen Curry and LeBron James, then with the Cleveland Cavaliers, said their teams had no interest in a visit.

The 2025 champion Oklahoma City Thunder didn't visit the White House last season, saying the timing did not work out.

Teams often try to arrange their visit when they are in Washington to play the Wizards. The Knicks are scheduled for those games on Dec. 18 and March 16.

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, deputies were investigating a fatal crash at Northeast 166th Street and Northeast Sixth Avenue when witnesses approached them around 11:42 p.m. with the shooting victim.

The Sheriff’s Office said the man had been shot at a laundromat located at 14701 NE Sixth Ave.

Local 10 News cameras captured first responders working to help the shooting victim at the scene.

Deputies said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue transported the victim to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition.

According to MDSO, its Intracoastal District General Investigations Unit has taken over the shooting investigation. No information about a possible subject was immediately available.

Fatal crash also under investigation

Deputies said the shooting victim had been brought to an area where deputies were already investigating a fatal crash.

Local 10 News cameras arrived at the crash scene shortly after it unfolded near a bus stop and a CVS.

Within the marked-off scene, a walker appeared to have been smashed. A short distance away, a minibus could be seen as MDSO investigators appeared to examine its front end, however authorities later confirmed that the bus was not involved in the crash.

Initial information from MDSO indicated the call for service involved a person who had been hit and transported to a nearby hospital as a trauma alert.

The Sheriff’s Office later confirmed the victim succumbed to his injuries.

The driver, meanwhile, remained at the scene, authorities said.

No additional information about the person killed or the circumstances surrounding the crash was immediately available.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to sign off on a diplomatic note to Qatar extending for nine months the life of Camp As Sayliyah, which had been due to close Wednesday at the end of the U.S. budget year, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to offer details before the public announcement.

The decision comes months after Rubio told Congress that the U.S. was still in discussions with several third-party countries to take the 1,039 Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other roles helping the American war effort as well as relatives of U.S. service members who have been stranded in Qatar for more than a year.

Rubio's testimony in June came after the AP and other outlets reported that war-torn Congo was among the countries where the Trump administration was considering resettlement.

The State Department would not immediately comment on Rubio's extension for the camp but said it “continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people.”

The department also repeated its position that the camp is a legacy of an attempt by President Joe Biden's administration "to move as many Afghans to America as possible without properly vetting them" — an assertion that has been denied by former officials and refugee advocates.

The group of Afghans in Camp As Sayliyah includes those who fought or worked alongside the U.S. military between 2001 and 2021, with more than 70% of the camp's residents being women and children, according to statistics from #AfghanEvac. The group has spent the last five years advocating for Washington to make good on its promise to resettle those whose service has put them at risk since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's reassertion of control.

“This is a victory for those people, and they’re going to have some semblance of knowing that they’re safe there because they’ve been worried that at any moment somebody’s going to come and rip them out of there,” Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads #AfghanEvac, told the AP.

But he added that there needs to be a permanent solution to this yearslong crisis.

Despite the camp's reprieve, which prevents those housed there from possible forcible removal to Afghanistan, residents have little hope of being allowed to enter the United States.

Upon entering his second term, Trump, a Republican, paused his Democratic predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, including dramatically altering refugee admissions to focus on white South Africans. Only five Afghans have been admitted to the U.S. since October 2025, #AfghanEvac says.

The refugee changes left thousands of people who fled war and persecution — and had gone through a sometimes yearslong vetting process to start new lives in America — stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.

Advocates have warned that if there is no alternative, the only other option for the group of residents would be to go back to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal from the Taliban.

In the coming nine months, the State Department said it would “continue to work to identify options for voluntary resettlement of all Camp As-Sayliyah residents.” It gave no additional details.

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Amiri reported from New York.

At the company’s annual developer conference, Altman made a slew of product announcements and updates, including the company's new agents, called Dots. The agents, designed to complete ongoing tasks proactively on behalf of users, are a competitor of Meta's personal agent Muse, which exploded in popularity after Meta's own conference last week.

Dot agents will be “like an AI helper that always has your back, inspired by the cool versions of what we all watched in movies growing up," Altman said.

On Monday, OpenAI said it was holding off on the release of a new AI model out of security concerns voiced by its researchers. The disclosure followed broader calls within the industry to decelerate the pace of the technology’s advance to let safety measures catch up.

In his remarks on stage, Altman did not address the scrapped model, but he did offer some parting words about how the AI boom should be considered more like a period of renaissance than an industrial revolution.

“The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, ever whirring faster and faster. There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate,” Altman said. “AI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.”

The company also announced the release of GPT-6.1 Sol, an upgraded version of its model GPT-6 Sol, and a premium speed tier called “Ultrafast," among other launches and updates.

OpenAI's announcements came as Altman's industry peers were meeting with President Donald Trump Tuesday. While many in Silicon Valley have called for the government to help establish guardrails for the technology, Trump has pushed back against the idea of greater government oversight of AI.

While Altman was not in attendance because of the conference, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman was at the White House, along with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Several other industry leaders joined them, along with senior administration officials and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump's so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” and was supposed to go for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars," wrote Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that handles Homeland Security funding.

The senators, in their letter to Mullin, demanded answers within the next 48 hours about “how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself.”

They asked the secretary if the department plans to use additional federal funds to air these ads or create new ones, and if so to share contracting information with the Congress. They also asked Mullin if he had spoken to Trump about using the taxpayer funds for the ads.

The political uproar over Trump's hagiographic ads, which started running last week during popular TV shows, including college and National Football League programming, has not abated as critics on the left and right raise alarms about the use of taxpayer funds, particularly so close to the midterm elections.

The White House has defended the advertisements, which disclose that they are funded by the U.S. government, as public service announcements.

Ad spend is up to $2.5m as criticism and legal scrutiny grow

The unusual commercials, which echo the GOP's midterm election slogans, against imagery of Trump's tenure in office — one with a “Love me, Love me” song refrain in the background — appear to violate a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for propaganda. Experts also have said the ads, which are airing on network and cable TV and streaming, differ from other administrations’ PSAs because they aren’t designed to help Americans access any specific program.

Over the weekend, a new ad promoting the president resembles a black-and-white video from his own 2024 campaign that shows Trump walking down a hallway as his voice can be heard warning of a “final battle” against “globalists” and “warmongers.” It ends with Trump staring straight into the camera lens with the “Paid for by the U.S. Government” message printed.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, compared Trump's ads to those used by authoritarian former leader Viktor Orban of Hungary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said it “shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”

Data from the outside firm AdImpact shows more than $2.5 million was spent on the three ads over the past seven days. The actual amount spent could be significantly more, depending on whether networks classified the ads as political.

The senators said that DHS has committed $20 million to the campaign.

A person who was unauthorized to discuss the situation and granted anonymity confirmed the findings, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump's ads use taxpayer dollars, likely skirting the law

The unusual ad campaign comes as Republicans face an increasingly volatile midterm election season with their control of the House and Senate — and Trump's future agenda — all at risk.

Voters say they are struggling with high prices of gas and groceries, and are concerned about the lengthy U.S. war against Iran, now in its seventh month. Democrats are gearing up for vast oversight of Trump and his administration if they seize power, and impeachment is not off the table.

House Democrats said Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, moved the money from Homeland Security to the ad campaign on Sept. 19.

The Homeland Security funds are part of a whopping $175 billion Congress gave the department in the “Big, Beautiful, Bill” as part of his immigration enforcement and deportation agenda. Democrats voted against that package, which Trump signed into law last summer, in part because of its steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee, said that after gutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and social services and “more than quadrupling funding for mass deportations, it turns out the Trump administration used Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill to pay for President Trump’s political ads.”

They said when Democrats regain control, they "will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable.”

What's also striking about the administration's use of taxpayer dollars for the ads is that Trump's own political campaign committee MAGA Inc. is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that could be used during the midterm season. Groups aligned with MAGA Inc. have started shelling out funds for the House and Senate races.

The administration has defended the use of the taxpayer dollars for the ads and shown no signs of changing course.

The contradiction isn’t lost on UN Women, the agency facing an uphill struggle pressing for the rights of women and girls — and for women to be at the top in international organizations, governments, business, technology and the escalating debate over artificial intelligence.

According to the U.N. agency’s recent “gender snapshot,” at the current rate of progress it will take 171 years to achieve gender equality, a U.N. goal initially set for 2015 and then moved to 2030. Other findings are also grim: Nearly one in three women globally have experienced sexual violence. Nearly one in five girls is married before age 18. And at the pace of the last five years, gender parity in parliament won’t be reached until 2089.

After years of upward movement, women’s political leadership is also losing momentum, with six in seven countries still led by men.

Sarah Hendriks, a high-ranking official in UN Women, said the just-ended annual gathering of world leaders in the U.N. General Assembly hall “very much reflected a male-dominated world, both in terms of representation as well as content.”

She welcomed the “disproportionate reinforcement” of the potential for a woman to be the next U.N. chief which she said cut across regions of the world and political divides, and was “energizing.”

“This is not just a question simply of symbolism,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s a question of whether the U.N. actually reflects the equality it asks the world to uphold.”

“We can’t ask governments to dismantle barriers to women’s leadership while accepting those barriers in its own institutions,” she said. “We can’t tell companies to break glass ceilings while the U.N. leaves our own ceilings intact.”

Lots of talk about women and opportunity, but what is the reality?

During the weeklong high-level meeting that ended Monday, Hendriks said, leaders said women “must have an equal opportunity to hold the most powerful positions in the world including this one – and, in fact, especially this one.”

Among those speaking out was East Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. He said that after more than 80 years, “we ought to have enough wisdom and elect a woman with unquestionable integrity." And Botswana's president, Duma Boko, lamented “an unfinished chapter in the history of this organization” — that after eight decades “the United Nations has yet to be led by a woman as secretary-general.”

There are currently seven candidates to replace Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31. The slate consists of four women and three men; former Chilean president Michele Bachelet dropped out.

Two women – U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Guyana’s U.N. ambassador, Caroline Rodrigues Birkett, topped the poll, but in the 15-member council each had at least five “discourage” votes. A third straw poll is scheduled Tuesday, and some diplomats said the results could encourage new candidates.

By tradition, the job of secretary-general rotates by region; this is Latin America’s turn, though there are two African contenders. While the General Assembly has the final say, decision-making rests with the five veto-wielding members on the Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. They have been mum about their choices, though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that Grynspan and Rodrigues-Birkett “meet the criteria."

‘When women lead, peace agreements last longer’

Hendriks, UN Women’s director of policy, programs and its intergovernmental division, said the choice, for her, is really about the kind of multilateralism the United Nations wants for the next 80 years.

During the high-level meeting, she said there was a reduction in the focus on gender equality in speeches by the U.N.’s 193 member nations. Leaders spoke extensively about conflicts in the Mideast, Ukraine and elsewhere, about peace and security and U.N. reform and in some causes about climate change, development, finance and artificial intelligence. “But gender equality was much less prominent as a political priority.”

Hendriks said the gender dimension of the technological transformation taking place today, including the use of AI, received far less attention. She called this a serious concern because “if we build a future of technology without women,” inequality will be embedded. Right now, she said, women hold only 22% of the AI professional positions globally and only 14% of leadership positions, “but nobody was talking about that.”

Still, there were some champions. Liberian President Joseph Boakai told the assembly that “gender equality is essential. When women lead, peace agreements last longer, economies grow faster and government becomes more accountable.”

In his farewell “state of the world” speech opening the meeting, Guterres called gender inequality the most universal form of inequality.

“Everywhere, women and girls continue to face discrimination, violence, exclusion and abuse,” he said. “Around the world, their rights are being rolled back. Their voices silenced. Their bodies turned into battlegrounds. And their freedoms treated as bargaining chips.”

Calling this “a profound waste for humanity,” the U.N. chief said women make peace more durable, economies more dynamic and institutions more effective.

Over his 10 years as secretary-general, Guterres said, the United Nations has achieved gender parity for the first time in its history in its senior leadership and all headquarters and professional staff.

“Equality is not a dream. It is a decision,” he said. “If the United Nations can change, so can governments. So can parliaments. So can businesses. So can peace processes. And so can this General Assembly.”

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

There’s Anne Hathaway’s titular character, a wildly popular novelist who is unable to speak or move after a car accident, but whose secret, and disturbing, autobiography speaks volumes. There’s Dakota Johnson’s struggling author, Lowen, who has been hired to finish Verity’s remaining novels and who finds herself living in Verity’s home and fantasizing about her more successful counterpart’s life, and husband. And then there’s Josh Hartnett, as said husband, who is caring and responsible but perhaps a bit quick to suggest that Lowen borrow one of Verity’s dresses for their night out on the town.

The actors couldn't help get the giggles on set

It is all quite heightened in the way that one might hope for in a sexy, psychological thriller, which opens in theaters Friday. At some point, Lowen even starts to suspect that Verity might be faking her paralysis. And the actors often found themselves doing something that the script did not call for: Giggling.

“There would be some shots where Dakota and I would just have to stare at each other,” Hathaway recently told The Associated Press. “There’s just something about knowing that you’re supposed to be scary that makes you giggle.”

But that is just part of the fun of going big for a pulpy, popcorn thriller, where Johnson gets to blow vape smoke in Hathaway’s face and all get to participate in a fantasy sequence in which Johnson starts out kissing Hartnett’s character and ends with Hathaway on her lips.

“It just seemed really fun to play somebody who’s deeply unwell,” Johnson said.

‘Verity’ is based on a Colleen Hoover psychological thriller

“Verity" is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to make it to the big screen. After “It Ends With Us,” it is one of her more popular bestsellers. That film made over $350 million worldwide in theaters, but also became infamous for its off-screen legal battles.

On “Verity,” however, the drama stayed on the screen. For director Michael Showalter, it offered a chance to dip into a genre that he has been dreaming about since he took an Alfred Hitchcock film class in high school. “Rebecca” was a major touchstone.

Hitchcock, and Brian De Palma, were in his head when casting the movie too. It held extra significance that Johnson’s grandmother, Tippi Hedren, was in “The Birds” and “Marnie,” and her mother, Melanie Griffith, starred in De Palma’s very Hitchcockian “Body Double.”

Johnson deadpanned that she wasn't “really thinking about my mother or grandmother in erotic thrillers at the time of filming."

But after the fact she said she found it “inspiring in a way."

“I guess, because it’s something that has been in my family, it’s like a sense of understanding and bravery,” Johnson said. “I guess I’m inspired by my mother and grandmother that they can do, or did that. And so could I.”

None of the three leads had ever worked together before. Showalter likened them to a “super group.” He learned from Hitchcock that movies like these are as much about the characters as they are about the actors.

“I’ve always been trying to play roles that are very different from each other and from myself,” Hartnett said. “And I think as I’ve gotten older, people have allowed me more leeway to do that.”

‘Verity’ concludes Hathaway’s big year on screen

Hathaway was a producer on “Verity” and came armed with big, cinematic ideas, Showalter said. The two had worked together on the romantic drama “The Idea of You,” and Hathaway was excited to help him make his “Rebecca,” and also to be in a role in which she was sitting and staring off in the distance for much of it. She had just come off several physically demanding productions. Stillness seemed like the right choice.

“Verity's” release ends an exhaustive streak of non-stop work for Hathaway that resulted in five major theatrical releases, and press tours, this year, including “Mother Mary,”“The Devil Wears Prada 2,”“The Odyssey” and “The End of Oak Street.” On top of that, she is soon going to give birth to her third child and then, after a bit of a break, plans to team up with Tom Cruise on a “Days of Thunder” sequel. But she is not patting herself on the back for any of it.

“Please let’s not over praise the pampered actress,” Hathaway said. “There’s a lot of pregnant women out there at home and in the workplace who didn’t get a manicure this morning. I’m very happy to do my job. I have so much support.”

Hathaway went on to speak about the thrill of watching audiences come back to movie theaters this year — something that she said she and her co-stars took for granted at the beginning of their careers. The annual domestic box office is up around 19% from last year; Hathaway's four movies have made just over $2.5 billion worldwide.

“This year in particular felt like the first time for me, post pandemic, post the strikes, where the movies were so exciting and people came out in droves to see them again and again and again,” she said. “It’s just been exciting to have so many offerings in a year that feels so important to the motion picture industry and, not to sound too, you know, grandiose about it, but to American culture.”

Hartnett chimed in: “But I’m with ‘The Onion’ saying that we’re becoming overly reliant on Anne Hathaway in our economy.”

Hathaway told him not to worry.

“I’m going to rest pretty soon,” she said. “This is the last one.”

Circuit court judge George Wright granted the injunction during a Tuesday hearing in Alachua County. Gators coach Todd Golden and several players attended the proceedings.

“We're pleased with today's ruling, and we're especially happy for Denzel,” Golden said in a statement.

Aberdeen’s attorney, Jesse Panuccio, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA earlier this month. His motion noted that more than 30 courts across the country have ruled that the NCAA’s “arbitrary decision” against student-athletes who began college careers during the 2022-23 season and completed four seasons of eligibility is “unlawful.”

“The NCAA’s refusal to honor its current eligibility framework breaches its contract with UF, which is intended to benefit student-athletes like Aberdeen,” the suit said.

The NCAA’s move to a five-year, age-based eligibility model has led to a series of court fights across the country.

Aberdeen played three seasons at Florida before transferring to Kentucky last year. He reenrolled at Florida earlier this year in hopes of finishing his undergraduate degree. He has worked out and practiced with the Gators all summer.

He initially planned to convince the NCAA that his freshman year in Gainesville should be considered a redshirt season. The 6-foot-5 Orlando native played only 12 games in 2022-23, scoring 19 points in 41 total minutes. He had hoped to get a waiver from the NCAA to secure another year of eligibility.

But the NCAA has since adopted the five-year eligibility model, which is scheduled to be fully implemented next fall, that will allow players to have five years of eligibility with the clock starting when athletes turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever is earlier.

That change quickly led to lawsuits from four-year players in the high school class of 2022, like Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is expected to slide into a starting spot to replace Xaivian Lee.

The Gators already are the betting favorite — and likely to be ranked No. 1 in preseason polls — to win it all in 2027. Golden retained most of last year’s roster, most notably big men Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu.

Aberdeen started 35 games for Kentucky last season, averaging 13.5 points, 3.4 assists and 2.5 rebounds. He came off the bench the previous two years at Florida and averaged 7.7 points as a junior in 2024-25.

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Content used in live performances, including songs and stand-up comedy scripts, must be approved in advance by local authorities, a long-standing requirement that reflects China’s strict censorship of the entertainment industry. Artists who violate the rules can be fined or banned from future performances and even public appearances.

Singer Na Ying’s performance was “a brief, fragmentary performance during an audience interaction segment rather than a full rendition of the song” and therefore did not require additional approval, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism said in a statement.

Na, one of China’s most influential female singers, performed “Curved Moon” at her concert in Chengdu on Saturday in memory of her friend and singer Liu Huan, a household name who died the previous day.

“I want to sing a song he sang before on this stage, to pay tribute to him,” Na, dressed in black, told the audience, according to videos posted on social media. Her voice trembled as she sang.

Some commenters called the performance an “expensive tribute,” expressing admiration for Na while also voicing concerns that she could be fined.

Liu, one of China’s best-known musicians for nearly four decades, died Friday at age 63, according to an obituary published Sunday by the University of International Business and Economics. A professor of music history, Liu taught at the university for more than three decades before retiring.

Liu performed the theme song for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with soprano Sarah Brightman during the opening ceremony.

Brightman called Liu “an amazing talent and a true gentleman” and said he “will be greatly missed” in posts on Facebook and X on Sunday.

The Chengdu decision came weeks after authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan fined one of the country’s best-known comedians for changing the lyrics of a patriotic song during a performance.

The bill, passed by voice vote late Monday, directs the government to not make pennies, giving a legal stamp of approval to the Trump administration’s decision to stop producing the currency last year. The penny, among the first coins to be made after the Mint was established in 1792, has become increasingly expensive to produce and is used by fewer and fewer consumers as digital transactions have become more standard.

Trump is expected to sign the bill. He wrote in a social media post last year that the U.S. has produced the 1-cent coin for “far too long."

Ending the penny will save millions of dollars

The Mint says that production of a penny now costs almost 4 cents and that ceasing to make them would generate immediate savings of $56 million annually.

The bipartisan bill, called The Common Cents Act, was sponsored by Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif.

“When it comes to taking on waste and making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely, it’s common sense that we should stop making a coin that costs nearly four times more than it’s worth to produce,” Garcia said.

Consumers can still use their pennies

Pennies are still in circulation, and the formal end to their production doesn’t mean consumers or stores can’t use them. The Mint said it made 3.2 billion pennies in 2024.

The bill outlines new procedures for stores as pennies are phased out, and it allows them to round transactions up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

Retailers had pushed for the bill to eliminate the threat of lawsuits as penny circulation has dwindled.

“Businesses across the country have faced cascading impacts from the lack of pennies in circulation, operating under constant uncertainty about how to handle cash transactions when exact change is unavailable,” a coalition of retailer groups wrote to House leaders in a letter earlier this year.

The bill would also allow the government to use an inner layer of zinc when producing the nickel, which could increase in circulation as the penny is phased out. The 5-cent coin is currently made from both nickel and copper, which is more expensive than zinc.

Instead, the namesake son of Miami-Dade school board member Steve Gallon accepted a plea deal Tuesday and was sentenced to five years in prison with credit for time served.

“How do you want to plead, guilty or not guilty?” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian asked Gallon.

“Guilty,” Gallon replied.

Investigators said the incident happened on March 8, 2023.

The state says a group of officers was surveilling Atiba Moore as the subject of a drug investigation when Moore became aware of an undercover officer pursuing him in an unmarked car.

The state accused Gallon, now 36, of shooting the officer from behind but admitted in court Tuesday that prosecutors would have trouble proving certain factors of the crime at trial. The officer could not identify who shot him, and a weapon was never recovered.

Roderick Vereen, Gallon’s attorney, said the defense maintained from the beginning that Gallon did not know the person he shot was a police officer.

“This has been 3 1/2 years that this family has been going through this ordeal, and I think that the judge’s words as well as the state’s words today established what I had been saying from day one, which is even though this incident happened, there was no evidence that he knew that Sgt. (Darrian) Washington was a police officer,” Vereen said.

A state prosecutor said he believed that shrapnel from the gun fired by Gallon struck the victim in the back of the head.

The state also acknowledged there was no forensic analysis establishing that the shrapnel came from a specific bullet.

Ultimately, the state agreed to drop sentencing enhancements for shooting a law enforcement officer and committing the crime with a firearm.

Prosecutors said the victim wanted to see Gallon sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the defense wanted only credit for time served.

In the end, Milian sentenced Gallon to five years in prison.

“I sentence you to 60 months in a Florida state prison with all credit for time served,” Milian said.

Another condition of the plea deal was that Gallon would not appeal the sentence.

There are also co-defendants in the case. Prosecutors said there are agreements and conversations taking place regarding those cases, which could be resolved in the coming weeks.

Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 36, of Orlando, Florida, has pleaded not guilty to trying to murder Rihanna and to more than a dozen other felony charges stemming from the shooting in March. No one was injured, but bullets tore through an Airstream trailer that the singing superstar and A$AP Rocky were in. Shots also struck the wall of a nursery where their small children were at the time.

“Criminal proceedings are reinstated,” Judge Maria Cavalluzzi said at a very brief hearing in Los Angeles County court after months of psychiatric evaluations.

Ortiz appeared behind glass in a custody area of the courtroom, wearing yellow jail clothes and handcuffs. She didn't speak during the hearing. She could get life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

There was no direct discussion of the mental evaluations in court, and case documents that include such details have been sealed. Ortiz has been returned to the regular criminal court process, which had been suspended shortly after it began. She was ordered to appear at a hearing Wednesday.

Attorneys for both sides declined comment outside court after the hearing.

Police and prosecutors allege that Ortiz drove a Tesla up to the Beverly Hills-area property of Rihanna and her rapper partner on March 8, pointed an AR-15 style rifle out the window and fired at least 20 rounds toward the property and a neighboring house.

Investigators found bullet holes in the trailer and on the exterior wall of the home’s second-floor nursery, where the three kids were with their nanny.

Investigators said that after her arrest later that day, Ortiz said: “I wasn’t attempting murder.”

Ortiz is charged with 10 counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, one for each of the people on the two properties. She’s also charged with three counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle or dwelling.

Ortiz had no prior police record, authorities said. Public records show she had been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.

Authorities have not discussed a motive or described any connection between Ortiz and Rihanna. Her lawyers have not offered comment on her beyond her not guilty plea and procedural issues.

A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has had 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.”

The Giants are releasing Beckham, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the move had not yet been announced.

“Wishing him the best,” edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux said. “He’s a legend in the game, and he’s fought so hard to make his way back in this league. And he’s definitely going to be able to make a statement somewhere, so I’m not worried for him.”

Beckham was thrown at just once during his brief cameo back with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2014. Coach John Harbaugh last week hinted at a bigger role for Beckham, saying he “would be all for it Sunday” against Tennessee and calling it “the perfect time.”

Jameis Winston threw one deep pass intended for Beckham during the first quarter. Fans later chanted “OBJ! OBJ!” to no avail, as Beckham was only on the field for six plays of the ugly, 12-7 win and 20 of 191 (10.5%) this season.

Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Thursday said the Giants were trying to find situations to use Beckham. Nagy added that one injury would be enough to have Beckham playing all the time.

In retrospect, it appears one injury — Calvin Austin's torn right ACL during training camp — was enough to get Beckham on the 53-man roster after making strides in practice and impressing in preseason games. Had Austin been healthy, there is a good chance Beckham would not have made the final cuts.

Beckham did, despite most recently playing an NFL game on Dec. 8, 2024, with the Miami Dolphins. He missed all of last season when he served a six-game suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test.

Back with New York, Beckham was behind Malik Nabers, Darnell Mooney and rookie Malachi Fields on the depth chart.

“I love playing with ‘O,'” said tight end Isaiah Likely, who was also teammates with Beckham on the Baltimore Ravens in 2023. “Hopefully, wherever he ends up, he does what Odell does.”

The Giants are expected to sign return specialist Braxton Berrios to the active roster, replacing Beckham as the fourth wideout. Berrios had been promoted from the practice squad the maximum three times.

Releasing Beckham is the latest move during a busy stretch, which included acquiring quarterback J.J. McCarthy from Minnesota in a trade Monday for a fifth-round pick. Likely said McCarthy was already at the team facility.

Harbaugh said Winston will start Sunday against Arizona, with either McCarthy or Jake Haener backing up. Haener was released with the intent of bringing him back on the practice squad.

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Glazer read a North Miami Beach police officer’s report on the arrest of Nathalie Belizaire, a mother of four, and said, “You cannot make this up!”

While Belizaire was on the Carnival Conquest, a cruise ship voyage from Miami to the Bahamas, her 2-month-old daughter was home with her three minor siblings, according to police.

“The poor kids were home alone,” Glazer said.

Belizaire left on Friday and returned on Monday, according to police. The children’s father called 911 on Saturday, according to the arrest report.

North Miami Beach police officers reported forcing their way into their apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street and finding the four kids, including a two-year-old child, “hiding” in the bathroom.

“We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids,” Glazer said.

On Monday, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies waited for Belizaire to return to PortMiami, according to the arrest report. Belizaire’s public defender told Glazer she denied the allegation.

“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship,” Glazer said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection held Belizaire until NMBPD officers detained her. Police officers questioned her and arrested her, according to the arrest report.

Glazer asked, “Who leaves the kids, four little kids, alone to go on a cruise?”

Miami-Dade corrections booked Belizaire at 1:25 p.m. on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a felony case against Belizaire, according to court records. She faced four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set her bond at $10,000.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the case.

Related story: Mother accused of leaving 4 young children, including infant, home alone to go on Carnival cruise

“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters outside the West Wing.

Details of the accord were not immediately available.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP's earlier story follows below.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised the U.S. government wouldn't limit the development of artificial intelligence despite calls for caution from top executives of AI firms, including some who gathered with him in Washington.

“I will never stifle the growth of a technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” Trump said at the unveiling of an AI chatbot, America.gov, intended to help Americans navigate government services. “We can’t stifle it, and we’re leading by a lot.”

Top AI executives lunched with Trump at the White House Tuesday, including Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Elon Musk, whose X social media platform includes its own AI model, Grok.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sat to Trump's right at Tuesday's White House lunch, according to a seating chart the president posted on Truth Social. Musk sat to Trump's left. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also attended.

Trump's bullishness on AI contrasts with the alarms sounded recently by some AI executives, including Amodei, who earlier this month called for leading firms to slow down their development of the technology. Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also called for allowing safety measures to catch up as companies reported mounting examples of AI agents going rogue.

Other executives, particularly Huang and Zuckerberg, have downplayed the concerns about runaway AI and underscored the responsibility of each company to ensure the safety of their products.

Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Republican Speaker of the House, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, also attended.

The unveiling of the AI chatbot occurred at a daylong event in Washington during which multiple Trump administration officials celebrated a “Golden Age” fueled by what Trump insists on calling “super intelligence," rather than artificial intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted that America.gov could soon be used to apply for a first-time passport fully online, without an in-person visit to a processing center that is currently required.

Speaking to reporters after the lunch with tech CEOs, Trump said there had been widespread agreement on “self-regulation” by the AI developers, “and we automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that."

He also said the executives had agreed to assuage the bipartisan opposition to data centers cropping up in local communities across the country, by providing more financial support to local schools or taking steps to reduce energy costs.

“You’re going to see, data centers are going to be very popular," Trump said. If the opposition continued, Trump suggested, “they’ll be forced to go overseas or other locations.”

Also Tuesday, Altman said in a television interview that the company is increasingly focused on safety. The day before, his company halted the rollout of a new model over safety concerns.

“We are pacing our progress, which includes sometimes not training a model,” he said on CNBC. “We have to do these in a way where we can make very confident safety cases and claims, so that people don’t have a bunch of anxiety.”

For his part, Trump on Tuesday portrayed the race to develop AI as largely a global competition between the United States and China, with the U.S. in the lead. He said there would be a winner and a loser, with no “second place.”

The two countries agreed last week to establish a channel for handling AI-related incidents during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington. But Trump underscored Tuesday that he didn't want to cooperate too much with China: "I didn’t want to do anything, because we’re leading. Why would I want to do anything?”

The latest action by the Treasury Department is part of the administration's Operation Economic Outcast campaign, which is aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Ten individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan were sanctioned for allegedly procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran's defense ministry as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

U.S. officials have said they want to disrupt Iran's defense systems and further degrade the government's ability to reconstitute its weapons program. The aim of the latest sanctions includes increasing the costs for the people and companies that have assisted Iran's military procurement efforts.

In 2024, the Biden administration also targeted entities that supported Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics in their production and proliferation of missiles and drones.

The latest financial penalties come as Iran’s currency fell to a record low Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar. The rial has steadily declined since the war began on Feb. 28, hitting its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2.

While the Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions, this year's U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into unprecedented freefall.

Job Listing: PHOTOGRAPHER/EDITOR

Responsibilities include but are not limited to: Video photography and editing of news stories and other special projects for broadcast. Must be proficient in non-linear editing (WPLG uses Avid Newscutter/Media Composer)

A Photographer/Editor provides daily video coverage of news, sports, and features on location.

In addition to excellent videography and editing skills, applicant should have experience with live ENG live truck and the operation of LiveU live device, field lighting, audio equipment as well as a working knowledge of state‑of‑the‑art editing and camera equipment. Must possess good judgment to work in the field covering news stories. Prefer at least 3 years’ experience in the above-mentioned areas.

A Photographer II is an hourly, non-exempt experienced level position. Must be able to work well under pressure, lift up to 50 lbs, and be able to meet newsroom deadlines as well as be able to work flexible hours including nights, overnights, weekends and holidays and should be capable of traveling out of town on assignment. Must possess and maintain a valid driver’s license.

***All of the essential functions of this position are not necessarily described in this posting.

***We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age gender, marital status, disability, matriculation or political affiliation. Any offer of employment is conditioned on successful completion of a pre-employment drug screen, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks. A valid driver’s license is required.

Please follow link below to apply for Photographer/Editor Position:

https://jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/wplg/CANDIDATEPORTAL/jobs/9055

WPLG/TV

3401 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Pembroke Park, FL 33023

No phone calls please.

“We are aware of the lawsuit and do not comment on pending litigation," the Tigers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gelof was hurt in the third inning of a 4-1 loss to the Tigers on July 9 while making a sliding catch in foul territory and colliding with a metal fence. The 26-year-old infielder immediately grabbed his knee in obvious pain, a tear in his uniform pants showed where his leg made contact with the fence. He was left with a deep cut under his right knee cap, just missing the tendon, and didn’t play again until Aug. 10.

“This injury could have easily prevented through the most basic and inexpensive design," said Gelof’s attorney, Jon Marko. "It doesn’t take a stadium design expert to realize that sharp metal fencing in an area where players are required to slide and play around is a recipe for disaster like the one that occurred here.

“All they had to do was put cheap padding up like they did after Zack was injured and this entire incident could have been avoided. My son’s little league diamond is safer.”

Gelof hit .256 with 22 homers and 55 RBIs — both career highs — in 111 games during his fourth season. The A's finished the season 64-98, putting them ahead of only the Los Angeles Angels and the Colorado Rockies in the majors.

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Según la Oficina del Alguacil de Miami-Dade, los agentes investigaban un arrollamiento fatal en la calle 166 y la avenida 6 del noreste cuando, cerca de las 11:42 p.m., varios testigos se les acercaron con la víctima del tiroteo.

La Oficina del Alguacil indicó que el hombre había sido baleado en una lavandería ubicada en el 14701 NE 6th Ave.

Cámaras de Local 10 News captaron a los socorristas prestando primeros auxilios a la víctima en el lugar.

Los agentes informaron que el Cuerpo de Bomberos de Miami-Dade trasladó al herido al hospital HCA Florida Aventura en condición crítica.

De acuerdo con la policía, la Unidad de Investigaciones Generales del Distrito Intracoastal asumió las pesquisas del tiroteo. Por el momento no hay información disponible sobre un posible sospechoso.

Arrollamiento mortal bajo investigación

Los agentes señalaron que la víctima del tiroteo fue llevada a una zona donde los oficiales ya investigaban un atropello fatal en el que el conductor se dio a la fuga.

Las cámaras de Local 10 News llegaron a la escena poco después del choque, ocurrido cerca de una parada de autobús y una farmacia CVS.

Dentro del área acordonada se podía ver un andador destruido. A corta distancia se encontraba una minibús que los investigadores de la policía parecían estar inspeccionando en su parte frontal; sin embargo, las autoridades confirmaron más tarde que el vehículo no estuvo involucrado en el accidente.

La información inicial de la policía indicaba que la llamada de emergencia reportaba una persona atropellada que había sido trasladada a un hospital cercano como alerta de trauma.

La Oficina del Alguacil confirmó posteriormente que se investiga el hecho como un arrollamiento mortal con fuga del conductor.

Hasta el momento no se ha divulgado más información sobre la persona fallecida ni sobre las circunstancias exactas del accidente.

La madre de los menores, quien pidió ser identificada solo como Shaniqua, había suplicado públicamente al conductor que se entregara: “Deja de intentarlo ocultar. Golpeaste a alguien. Golpeaste a mis hijos. No te detuviste”.

Agentes de la Oficina del Alguacil de Miami-Dade confirmaron la detención del presunto responsable, identificado como Arick Metayer, de 33 años. Se le acusa de arrollar a Peyton Williams y a su hermano Brent, de 15 años, mientras ambos viajaban en una bicicleta eléctrica cerca de la calle 117 y la avenida 7 del noroeste el pasado 9 de septiembre.

Peyton falleció posteriormente a causa de las heridas, mientras que Brent permanece en estado crítico.

De acuerdo con el reporte de arresto, Metayer huyó de la escena e intentó ocultar la evidencia del choque. Video de cámaras de seguridad muestra al sospechoso deteniéndose cerca del lugar, bajando de su Nissan Versa para revisar los daños en el lado del pasajero y huyendo de nuevo.

Al día siguiente, cámaras de un U-Pull-Iten Davie captaron a Metayer comprando dos puertas del lado del pasajero y un espejo retrovisor para reemplazar las piezas dañadas. El informe detalla que los repuestos eran de un color diferente.

Registros telefónicos ubicaron a Metayer en el huesario de autos y posteriormente abordando un tren de Brightline con destino a Orlando. Un testigo declaró a los investigadores que ayudó a transportar las repuestos y que, al informarle a Metayer sobre el fallecimiento de la menor, este respondió: “Lo sé. Voy a contratar a un abogado”.

“Los dejaste en la calle como si fueran animales. No se merecían eso”, expresó Shaniqua semanas atrás. Tras conocerse la detención, la madre reaccionó en redes sociales asegurando que asistirá a cada audiencia para exigir justicia.

Metayer se entregó a las autoridades el lunes y enfrenta cargos graves por abandonar la escena de un accidente con resultado de muerte, abandonar la escena con lesiones corporales graves y alteración de evidencia física. Permaneció ingresado en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight a la espera de que se le fije una fianza.

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Firefighters responded to the area of Northwest Ninth Street and 10th Avenue just after 2 a.m., where they encountered massive flames.

The fire has since been extinguished, but an ATV, three other vehicles and a portion of the home were damaged.

Firefighters said the blaze started with the ATV, though it remains unclear what caused it to catch fire.

Security footage shows one of the vehicles bursting into flames.

“I thought it was going to explode because there was, like, at least three cars over there that caught on fire at the same time, so we were just, you know, worried that it might be a bigger thing,” neighbor Hilda Palma said. “But I was also worried because since the house was already on fire as well, I didn’t know if there were people in there, because the front of the door was getting on fire.”

No injuries were reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials took canisters of evidence from the vehicles to see if this could have been a case of arson.

The official cause of the fire, however, remains under investigation.

Local 10 News recently spoke with the children’s mother, who asked to be identified only as Shaniqua, and pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“Stop trying to hide it. You hit somebody. You hit my kids. You didn’t stop,” Shaniqua said.

Now, deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office say they have arrested the man responsible.

Arick Metayer, 33, is accused of hitting Peyton Williams and her 15-year-old brother, Brent, as the siblings rode an electric bicycle near Northwest 117th Street and Seventh Avenue on Sept. 9, according to deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said Peyton later died and Brent was critically injured.

According to an arrest report, Metayer drove away from the scene before he allegedly took steps to hide evidence of the crash.

Surveillance video captured Metayer stopping nearby, getting out of his Nissan Versa and looking at damage to the passenger side of the vehicle, investigators said.

They said he then drove away.

Investigators said Metayer then went to a U-Pull-It in Davie a day later, where surveillance video showed him buying two passenger-side doors and a mirror to replace the damaged parts.

The replacement parts were a different color, the report states.

Investigators also confirmed that cellphone records placed Metayer at the auto parts yard and later showed him taking a Brightline train from Miami to Orlando.

His arrest report also details a conversation with a witness who told investigators he helped Metayer transport the replacement doors.

The witness said he later called Metayer and told him the little girl he had hit had died, according to deputies.

According to the report, Metayer then told the witness, “I know. I’m going to hire an attorney.”

Weeks earlier, Peyton’s mother, Shaniqua, had publicly pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“You left them in the streets like they were animals. They didn’t deserve that,” Shaniqua said. “Just imagine her life — being here that short period of time, (having) touched so many people.”

Authorities said Metayer surrendered to deputies on Monday and was taken into custody.

In a social media post Tuesday, Shaniqua ripped into the suspect, saying in part, “How dare you …. The nerve of u, I pray they make u suffer … u took my soul , u took my heart, my insides are on fire, den u went to try and fix the car, u tried to hide and cover this up!!”

She also blasted someone who filmed her children on the ground after the crash, saying they were “just as guilty as the driver.”

“I hate this happened, I hate life right now, I’m so weak and broken, I just can’t understand this, (how) a person (can) be so cruel,” Shaniqua wrote. “They tryna protect you , when you ain’t protect my kids, that video of u hitting them was so heartbreaking, u ain’t stop, break nor turn around u hit them and left them in the street like animals!!!”

“This won’t be swept under the rug, I’m on yo a**, every court date, every hearing, u will hate this ever happened!! I promise u, Peyton, mommy will get justice for u baby girl!! They gone forever remember you,” she added.

Jail records show Metayer is facing felony charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving a death, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence.

As of Tuesday morning, Metayer was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

Speaking on his radio show Tuesday, Jones was asked what explanations there were for leaving enough seconds on the clock after a tying field goal for a defensive breakdown to put the Ravens in position for the winning kick.

“There is no explanation you're satisfied with. None,” Jones said. “Let's be sure that we all understand that. They (coaches) don't have one that they're satisfied with. We made mistakes during that time. There's no question about it. So there is no explanation. But there's an evaluation of how not to make the same mistakes again.”

Trailing 31-28, the Cowboys had a first down at the Baltimore 2-yard line with 23 seconds left when Dak Prescott threw incomplete into the end zone.

After a false-start penalty against tight end Luke Schoonmaker, Prescott scrambled to the Baltimore 5, and coach Brian Schottenheimer called his final timeout with 14 seconds remaining.

The coach who is also the play-caller instructed Prescott to either throw a quick out to receiver George Pickens or throw the ball away, based on the amount of time left, with no ability to stop the clock. Prescott didn't wait long to choose the throwaway, and the play lasted just four seconds.

There were seven seconds remaining after Brandon Aubrey's field goal, and the Dallas defense left a gap at just about the exact spot of the target line for a Baltimore field goal. Lamar Jackson completed a 27-yard pass to Zay Flowers, got the timeout called with a second to go and Tyler Loop made the 56-yard field goal.

Schottenheimer is in his second season as a head coach after 25 years as an NFL assistant. Christian Parker is a 34-year-old making his debut as a defensive coordinator. Both will be under considerable scrutiny from fans and pundits going forward, and perhaps from their own front office.

“We will be better from this experience that we had with Baltimore and what happened to us at the end of the game,” Jones said. “A win would have given you another way of couching it as far as having growth and enthusiasm for having won a game like that because we did come back and we came back in an impressive way. All of that makes us realize we really are just at the beginning of what I hope is an exciting year for us.”

The Cowboys (1-2) got a break in the NFC East when two-time defending champion Philadelphia lost to Chicago and backup quarterback Case Keenum on Monday night.

Dallas visits Houston (0-3) on Sunday. The New York Giants, who will be without quarterback Jaxson Dart for the rest of the regular season because of a knee injury, are tied with the Eagles atop the division at 2-1.

“We are very much in the hunt, and I say that principally based upon the way I feel about our team, as much or more than what’s happening with the other teams,” Jones said. “Philadelphia has things that they want to work on just as the Giants do, just as we do. It makes you see how health is a factor. Availability is a factor. And we're just getting started.”

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City, in an independent panel's verdict published Tuesday, was found guilty of almost all of the unprecedented 100-plus charges against it over a nine-year period in which the Abu Dhabi-backed team changed the landscape of the richest and most popular soccer league in the world.

City's alleged financial wrongdoing was worth in excess of 900 million pounds ($1.19 billion), and Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the ruling showed City “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade."

“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history,” Masters said.

City now faces severe sanctions that could include a huge points deduction or even expulsion from the league, causing severe reputational damage to its Abu Dhabi ownership.

The Premier League said sanctions will be decided in a separate hearing held by the independent commission. It did not say when that would take place.

City has always denied wrongdoing and said in a statement that it was “disappointed and surprised” by the ruling. It also plans to further drag out a case that has already run for more than three years by appealing the verdict and said it would be “relentless” in its fight to clear its name.

Any appeal by City would have to be made by Friday, the league said.

In an internal video to City staff — obtained by broadcaster Sky News — club chief executive Ferran Soriano went into detail about why he felt the verdict was wrong.

“This has gone on for so long that it is important to remind ourselves that the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation: that the owner's personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi,” he said. “This is just not true. Irrefutable evidence has been provided to the Premier League commission that shows it could not happen and that it did not happen."

The explosive ruling comes after it emerged last week that the charges against City were expected to be upheld following an exhaustive process.

The Premier League initiated its case more than three years ago and allegations first arose in 2018 from leaked club emails and documents.

City was accused of a raft of financial violations from 2009-18 — a period when the northwest club, long in the shadow of great rival Manchester United, was transforming itself into a record-breaking global superpower that has won multiple Premier League titles and the Champions League.

The violations included failing to provide accurate financial information and submitting inflated figures for sponsorship deals out of Abu Dhabi, hiding payments and breaching financial rules established by the Premier League and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, intended to keep clubs financially stable by not spending beyond their means.

On top of that, City faced many other charges of failing to cooperate with the investigation between 2018-23.

"An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period,” the league said, “and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the league’s investigation.”

Regarding the sponsorship deals, the league said: “Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs.

“The club,” the league added, “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.”

The purpose of City's “schemes” was found to have been to “artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million ($1.19 billion) during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules,” the league said.

The finding suggests that City’s rise to the top of the English game, fueled by investments from Abu Dhabi that delivered by its expensively assembled, star-studded squads, was achieved at lest in part by evading the league’s financial regulations.

Tuesday's verdict is set to bring chaos to English soccer in general, triggering a slew of lawsuits from rival clubs calling for compensation for having been impacted by City’s actions.

There’s also the question of whether City’s top stars, like Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, will stay at the club and what the future holds for Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family who bought City in 2008 and has gone on to own a group of worldwide teams — under the City Football Group banner — including New York City FC and Melbourne City.

City has always protested its innocence in the case, saying in 2023 when the charges were laid that there was a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”

Even over the weekend, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said there remained a ”confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence.”

The appeal could end up in the High Court in London if City feels the process in the case was unfair and/or impartial.

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The recipients will receive $800,000 over the next five years for them to spend as they please. The prize, often called a “genius” grant, is the result of a yearslong selection process that considers a wide range of recommendations. Fellows do not apply or participate in any way. Many express shock upon learning of their selection, a recognition that often yields new opportunities on top of the monetary award.

The 2026 fellows are:

Holly Jean Buck, 45, Buffalo, New York, a University at Buffalo sociologist whose research centers local communities' role in mitigating climate change and transitioning to clean energy.

Felipe De Brigard, 47, Durham, North Carolina, a Duke University philosopher using cognitive science to investigate the relationship between memory and forgiveness, including victims of political violence in his home country of Colombia.

Ellora Derenoncourt, 39, Princeton, New Jersey, a Princeton University labor economist researching the origins of racial wealth disparities in the United States and policies to reduce the gap.

Elizabeth Ellis, 38, Princeton, New Jersey, a Princeton University historian correcting the colonial record to emphasize Indigenous tribes' alternative approaches to nationhood and the strategies Native Americans used to resist European settlement.

Kaiyu Guan, 41, Urbana, Illinois, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign environmental scientist helping farmers predict and optimize crop yields through data and machine learning.

Trajal Harrell, Zurich, a Switzerland-based choreographer and dancer who combines dance traditions into a “fictitious archive” that breaks down the barriers between different styles.

Marika Holland, 58, Boulder, Colorado, a climate scientist helping better predict changes in ice cover and understand the effects of polar climate change on marine ecosystems.

Christine Sun Kim, 46, Berlin, a Germany-based artist conveying the experiences of deaf people and exploring new ways to understand sound through drawings, large-scale murals, video and interactives.

Song Lin, 40, Stanford, California, a Stanford University organic chemist whose methods are opening pathways for safer and more sustainable synthetic organic reactions.

Layli Long Soldier, 54, Santa Fe, New Mexico, a poet manipulating historical texts to emphasize the erasure of Native Americans and accompanying her written word with visual art.

Rodney McMillian, 57, Los Angeles, an artist at the University of California, Los Angeles, working across sculpture, painting, video and performance to explore how history and socioeconomic conditions impact belonging in the American South.

Maaza Mengiste, 55, Middletown, Connecticut, a fiction writer at Wesleyan University who shows the human cost of political conflicts through historically informed novels.

Ariel Ron, 48, Dallas, a historian at Southern Methodist University exploring how Northern agriculture affected economic growth and the expansion of federal power in nineteenth-century America.

Kate Spradley, 53, San Marcos, Texas, a forensic anthropologist at Texas State University working to identify and repatriate the remains of migrants who perished along the Texas-Mexico border and addressing the complicating factors of that work through her Operation Identification initiative.

Chip Thomas, 69, Flagstaff, Arizona, a public artist transforming neglected spaces, mostly in the Navajo Nation, into public works grounded in community history.

Vincent Valdez, 49, Houston and San Antonio, a visual artist depicting historical and contemporary scenes that reflect Latino experiences in the United States.

Vincenzo Vitelli, 48, Chicago, a physicist at the University of Chicago building theoretical frameworks to describe how matter and materials with unique properties will behave.

Bryan Washington, 33, Tokyo, a fiction writer capturing modern relationships in his novels including “Memorial” and “Palaver.”

Immanuel Wilkins, 29, New York City, an alto jazz saxophone player and composer whose compositions often reflect historical narratives of injustice.

Liangfang Zhang, 46, San Diego, a chemical engineer and bioengineer at the University of California, San Diego, who is creating novel nanotechnologies for treating and preventing infectious diseases, cancers and immunological disorders.

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The Brooklyn-based saxophonist, bandleader and composer hesitated to believe they were calling to say he was part of their prestigious fellows class. He spent the last 15 minutes of his ride convincing himself they only wanted his recommendations.

“I was just outside,” said Wilkins, 29, when he finally confirmed it was the former. "Which was nice because then I could yell as loud as I wanted to and celebrate.”

The foundation unveiled its 2026 fellows class on Tuesday: 20 individuals ranging in discipline from the performing arts to the social sciences, separated in age by four decades and spread across three continents. They will each receive $800,000 over the next five years in recognition of their “exceptional creativity.” Commonly referred to as “genius grants,” the no-strings-attached awards are intended to provide the flexibility necessary for recipients to pursue their artistic or scholarly visions.

This year's class shows a particular interest in history. There's a philosopher using cognitive science to investigate the relationship between memory and forgiveness; a poet repurposing historical texts to probe colonial violence and the resilience of Native American communities; and a choreographer breaking down the barriers between difference dance styles across time and place.

They “explore the depths of our humanity; they reveal untold origins to challenges; they expand the edges of scientific inquiry and life-saving research,” Kristen Mack, the vice president of communications for fellows and partnerships at the MacArthur Foundation, said in a statement.

“They show us new ways to understand the world,” Mack said.

Take Wilkins, the youngest member. His debut album “Omega” connects the 1918 lynching of a pregnant Black woman, Mary Turner, to the 2014 fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, Michael Brown. The abstraction of music, Wilkins told The Associated Press, allows him to represent these stories without "recreating the violence of them.”

That abstraction — the rhythms of jazz music that are difficult to capture in written scores — has drawn him to visual art, too.

Jazz musicians have long debated how to notate the “swing” so central to the genre, Wilkins explained. He is exploring whether that sound could be rendered through sculptures or spectrograms in the same way it is currently represented through eighth notes or triplets.

With “RECESS" — an immersive experience recently presented in his hometown of Philadelphia — he attempted a “graphic score” by performing on an industrial jungle gym that was both bandstand and playground.

“The system of Western notation, as we know it, doesn’t have the capacity to hold the sound of Black music. Like, a lot of what makes Black music maybe sound ‘Black’ is these quantum entanglements with the time,” he said. “I’m kind of trying to radically debate: what actually is this Western system of notation holding when it comes to Black music? That opens up a wide set of possibilities for what a score could look like."

A Princeton labor economist who centers racial inequality

Awardees who spoke with AP had no concrete plans for how they'd use the sudden gift. Nor does the MacArthur Foundation expect any answer to that question.

Unlike traditional grants, the award requires no progress reports from its fellows. The program does not accept applications, instead relying on an ever-changing list of outside nominators whose recommendations are reviewed by a confidential committee.

Ellora Derenoncourt, a New Jersey-based associate professor at Princeton University's department of economics, wants to use the award's platform to translate issues of economic justice for the broader public and interested policymakers.

Racial wealth disparities may seem too entrenched to ever reverse, she said. But she finds that history explains the origins of economic inequality and highlights “watershed moments” where public policies narrowed those differences. A 2021 paper showed a drop in the Black-white earnings gap after Congress raised the minimum wage and extended its protections in industries such as agriculture, domestic services and healthcare.

Another project explained how northern cities spent less on education and recreation in the communities where the Great Migration sent millions of Black Americans escaping the southern United States' low wages and racial barriers.

As the Trump administration tosses aside requirements for workforce demographic reports and limits the availability of other official sources, she fears her field might lack the information needed to calculate today's racial inequality. Universities and researchers like herself, she said, must figure out how to maintain robust data sets.

“I hope that I can take this responsibility seriously to highlight these issues," she said. "And maybe also make some more people into history nerds. Because I think, really, we need to turn back the clock to figure out sometimes either what works or what has made things the way they are today.”

A painter seeking to counter ‘social amnesia’

It's not dissimilar from the mantle taken up by Vincent Valdez.

The contemporary painter was drawing in his studio when the MacArthur Foundation called. For once in his life, he joked, he went “deathly silent.” Most every artist is aware of the award, he said, which carries a 45-year legacy of recognizing, as he sees it, individuals “pushing boundaries."

Valdez tackles questions of American identity through representational paintings recalling murals of the southwestern United States. Murals, he learned at a young age, created an “undeniable presence” for his Mexican American community whose stories weren't reflected in dominant culture. He aims to counter what he calls “social amnesia” by helping the public remember “what we are and where we’re headed.”

His 30-foot-wide painting “The City I" depicts a modern Ku Klux Klan with hooded figures holding a smartphone, a beer and a Pikachu-toting baby. The second part of that trilogy, “Dream Baby Dream,” situates Muhammad Ali's many eulogists in boxes that imitate “The Brady Bunch” title sequence.

He's working on the final installment, called “The New Americans.” Unlike their predecessors, these colorful portraits stand vertically rather than horizontally. The images aim to highlight overlooked “pillars” of society who he considers to be “fighting the good fight" — or, he said, “the stubborn pulses in a dying heartbeat.”

From a soaring Michael Jordan to the forceful eviction of a mostly Mexican American community to build Dodger Stadium, Valdez's work often engages sports. When making such images, he said, he's reminded of San Antonio Spurs' games with his dad. He was “overwhelmed” and “mesmerized,” he recalled, at the unified effort required to pull off a vertical version of “the wave." Beginning courtside and moving up to the last-row dollar seats, he said, fans would stand and throw their hands in the air “like a tornado.”

“If we can do it for sports on any given Saturday and Sunday in this country, then we can do this as a collective people for the things that truly matter and affect our daily lives and the lives of our neighbors,” Valdez said.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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According to deputies, prior to being found, Derius Frye was last seen Monday in the 3000 block of Northwest 61^st Street.

Deputies said Derius was wearing a burgundy school uniform shirt, khaki pants, black shoes and was carrying a black bookbag with a monster design on it.

Deputies said Derius had not contacted his family and might have been in need of services.

Authorities did not immediately confirm where he was found or the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.

Four-seam fastballs averaged 94.8 mph this year, according to MLB Statcast, up from 94.5 mph last season and 91.9 mph when tracking started in 2008. In a sign the upward trend is likely to continue, pitchers 25 or younger as of June 30 averaged 95.9 mph.

Right-handers averaged 95.3 mph, lefties 93.5 mph and relievers 95 mph.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to know that getting 97 by someone is a little easier than 91,” said Atlanta left-hander Chris Sale, a 37-year-old who averaged a career-high 96.1 mph this year. “We have a lot more help. There’s more ways of finding out efficiency.”

Pittsburgh had the hardest throwers, with a 96.3 mph average, and the Chicago Cubs ranked last at 93.7 mph.

“I’m glad I got out of the game when I did,” said San Diego manager Craig Stammen, a former reliever who last pitched in 2022.

100 mph is no longer uncommon

There were a record 5,687 pitches of 100 mph or more, up from 3,701 last year and ahead of the prior mark of 3,880 in 2023. There were just 214 in 2008.

Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski alone threw 1,115 pitches 100 mph or faster, the most in a season since tracking started in 2008. He shattered the previous record of 673 by Jordan Hicks in 2018.

A 24-year-old right-hander, The Miz reached 101 mph 753 times, 102 mph on 365 pitches, 103 mph on 143 tosses and pumped at 104 mph 22 times. His high was 105.5 mph, fouled off by the Chicago Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong on June 26.

“It's crazy, man. Everybody throws 100,” said New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon, finishing his 10th big league season. “When I was first up, you used to catch the mop-up guy throwing 90, 91. Now, if they bring a mop-up guy in, he’s got five pitches and throws 100.”

Increasing velo has become a priority in the minors, too

Four-seam velocity at Triple-A averaged 93.6 mph, up from 92.7 when tracking started in 2022. It was 93.3 mph at the eight Single-A ballparks Statcast tracks, an increase from 92 mph in 2021.

“They try to get the most guys to throw as hard as they can,” said Boston Red Sox outfielder Braiden Ward, a six-year minor league veteran who could make his big league debut in the playoffs. “If you can be accurate, you get moved up.”

Average spin rate on four-seamers in the majors dropped slightly to 2,314 revolutions per minute from a record 2,322 last year.

Complete games are neari

ng extinction

Pitchers threw a record-low 21 complete games, down from last year's prior mark of 28. There were 104 in 2015, 209 in 2003 and 510 in the strike-shortened 1981 season.

There were just 11 complete-game shutouts, down from 13 last year. The only years with fewer were four in 1871, eight in 1873 and 10 in 1872, when there were far fewer games.

Seventeen teams did not have a starting pitcher who got an out in the ninth inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and four didn't have one who got an out in the eighth: the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, New York Mets and San Diego Padres.

Starting pitchers averaged 15.14 outs, down from 15.56 last year and the fewest since 15.07 in 2021, according to Elias, a year when the sport was coming out of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The average pitches per start declined to 83.2 from 85 last year, Elias said.

Batting average dipped slightly

MLB's efforts to spark offense with defensive-shift restrictions, which began in 2023, have had little effect.

This year's batting average of .244 was down from .245 last season and just above .243 in 2024. The average in the first year of the restrictions jumped to .248 from .243.

The only seasons with averages lower than .243 were .242 in 1967, .239 in 1888 and 1908, and .237 in 1968.

Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez hit .316 to win the big league batting title, the lowest figure for the overall champion. The previous low was Dick Groat's .325 for the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Home runs level

Teams averaged 1.15 home runs per game, just a tick below last year's 1.16. The high was 1.39 in 2019.

Humidifiers to store baseballs have been used in all 30 ballparks since 2022.

“Hitting is completely different and pitching is completely different than it was 15, 20 years ago,” Astros manager Joe Espada said.

Steals dropped

In the fourth year since MLB increased bases to 18-inch squares from 15, stolen bases dropped to 0.68 per team per game from 0.71 last season and 0.74 in 2024, the highest since 1992. The average jumped from 0.51 in 2022 to 0.72 in the first year of the bigger bags.

Walks rise under robo umps

In the first year of allowing ball/strike calls to be appealed to robot umpires, walks rose from 3.16 per team per game last year to 3.36 this year, the highest figure since 3.39 in the pandemic-shortened season. The figure was the highest over a non-shortened season since 3.42 in 2009.

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AP Sports Writers Charles Odum and Kristie Rieken, and AP freelance writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

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After all, it was this week in 2024 when Hurricane Helene wrecked the Tampa Bay area and Florida’s Big Bend with record-setting storm surge before turning its sights inland and tearing through the southern Appalachians – including areas of western North Carolina – with biblical rains that turned it into the deadliest U.S. mainland hurricane since Katrina almost 20 years earlier.

It was on September 28, 2022, that Category 4 Hurricane Ian steamrolled southwest Florida, lifting a catastrophic 15-foot storm surge clear across Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, becoming the third costliest hurricane on record and the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida in almost a century.

It was also this week in 2015 – during one of the strongest El Niños on record not unlike this one – that Hurricane Joaquin rapidly intensified into a borderline Category 5 hurricane over the southwestern Atlantic, devastating parts of the Bahamas, sinking the American cargo ship El Faro and its 33 crewmembers, and indirectly contributing to a deadly and historic, multi-billion-dollar flash flood event across the Carolinas.

That’s only over the past decade. I could go on.

As bearish as the seasonal hurricane forecasts were this year, not a single one of the two dozen or so forecast groups that issue seasonal hurricane predictions envisaged a season without a hurricane. On the whole, the forecast groups predicted around 5 hurricanes this year, below the 30-year average of 7 Atlantic hurricanes.

Even Colorado State University, the pioneers and gold standard of seasonal hurricane forecasting weren’t willing to go below 4 hurricanes in 2026.

Of course, the season isn’t over and we can’t rule out an October hurricane (or two) to break the record drought, but no one – even and especially yours truly – could’ve confidently predicted a hurricane-less season through September. It’s an unprecedented record, and with each passing week beyond the previous September 11^th record (the modern, reliable record for the latest first hurricane), the clamor of a quiet season grows even louder.

Hanna and Fay hobble along over the open Atlantic

Tropical Storm Hanna formed over the wide open north-central Atlantic late Monday morning from the disturbance designated Invest 91L. It’s been sprayed with westerly wind shear which is shunting most of its storminess well east of its occasionally exposed center.

Hanna isn’t expected to do very much or last very long and should shed its tropical organization before the workweek is out.

Amazingly stubborn Fay, about 700 miles due south of Hanna, continues to hang on as a borderline tropical storm over the open Atlantic. Fay doesn’t have much gas left in the tank and like Hanna will have a short shelf life this week.

Watching the southern Gulf in about a week

Long-range models are starting to home in on the southern Gulf in about a week for the possibility of development along the tail of a stalled front with perhaps a boost from spin and moisture out of the eastern Pacific.

This is still 7 to 10 days out, and for now, models like Google’s 1,000-member DeepMind ensemble system put the starting odds low (at around 20%).

We’ll of course follow the trends in the days ahead.

The alliance could be well positioned to threaten the dominance of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party over the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority — but only if the first national elections in 20 years actually happen, which is very much in doubt.

Abbas has said parliamentary elections will be held Nov. 28 in Gaza and the West Bank. But he has repeatedly delayed elections, most recently in 2021, when Fatah appeared headed for defeat. When Hamas won the last elections, in 2006, Israel and Western countries boycotted its government, fueling months of unrest that led to its takeover of Gaza the following year.

Islamic Jihad deputy Secretary General Mohammed al-Hindi confirmed the formation of the electoral alliance in a rare interview with The Associated Press in Istanbul on Monday. He said it would support “a unified national list” that could be made up of independent figures rather than members of the groups.

It would include a bloc led by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief who was exiled in 2010 after a bitter falling-out with Abbas and had previously been driven from Gaza by Hamas. Dahlan has since cultivated close ties with the UAE, where he serves as an adviser to the ruler.

The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords, and Dahlan himself has extensive contacts with U.S. and Israeli officials, making him an unlikely ally for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have fought Israel for decades. The alliance appears to be rooted in shared frustration with Abbas.

New alliance takes aim at Abbas

Abbas’ leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy over parts of the occupied West Bank, is deeply unpopular among Palestinians who see it as autocratic, corrupt and ineffective.

The 90-year-old Abbas has clung to power since his own mandate expired in 2009, while Hamas continues to control parts of Gaza three years into a brutal war with Israel.

Dimitri Diliani, spokesperson for Dahlan’s Reformist Democratic Faction, stopped short of declaring a formal alliance but confirmed the factions are assembling a list that would transcend their political differences. The Palestinian Authority under Abbas “has failed Gaza and the Palestinian people everywhere,” he said.

He said several other Palestinian groups are also part of the initiative and there are efforts to bring “all other factions and independent professionals into uniting around one national rebuilding program.”

Hamas said in August that Dahlan and Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya had met in Cairo and discussed ways to “end the monopolization of national decision-making and formulate a comprehensive national strategy.”

Hamas and Fatah officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Past attempts at Palestinian unity have failed

Al-Hindi said the decision to launch the alliance came after attempts to bring together all factions in a “dialogue for internal consensus on the overall Palestinian issue” failed to bear fruit.

There have been multiple attempts over the years to bring Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization, the highest body representing the Palestinian cause internationally, but all have foundered.

A main sticking point has been the PLO’s recognition of Israel. While Hamas officials have said they are willing to accept a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war — they have stopped short of recognizing Israel, while Islamic Jihad takes a harder line.

Both are considered terrorist groups by the U.S. and other Western countries, which have voiced support for Palestinian democracy over the years while rejecting any government that includes Hamas. Fatah and Hamas are the most popular factions by far, though many Palestinians are frustrated with both.

Al-Hindi said his group — which has historically not participated in elections run by the Palestinian Authority — will not directly run any candidates but will “support a national list that is agreed upon.”

Violence is ongoing in Gaza and the West Bank

The scheduled elections come at a precarious time.

In the West Bank, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have intensified. In Gaza, a ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 has halted the heaviest fighting, but the Israeli military has seized control of more of the territory and continued strikes, which it says are in response to threats.

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage.

Under a U.S. plan for implementing the ceasefire, armed Palestinian groups were to give up their weapons while Israel would withdraw from the enclave. Al-Hindi said his group, along with Hamas, had agreed to the plan and blamed Israel for blocking it.

“When Israel’s obligations in the first phase (of the agreement) are achieved, we will move on to talk about the second phase, which includes the issue of weapons,” al-Hindi said.

Islamic Jihad official says Oct. 7 came as a surprise

Islamic Jihad took part in the Oct. 7 attack and held Israeli hostages, but al-Hindi said the group was not involved in planning the attack or given forewarning by Hamas. The night before, he said, Islamic Jihad members held a commemoration of the group’s founding and many stayed up late.

“In the morning, we were surprised by the media reporting what happened, but as a resistance movement, we were quick to participate in these confrontations,” he said.

With tens of thousands dead, Gaza largely reduced to rubble, and most of its population displaced, al-Hindi acknowledged that “some voices began to express doubts and say, ’What has the resistance brought down on the Palestinian people?'”

But he insisted that the Oct. 7 attack had been necessary to prevent the plight of the Palestinians from being completely sidelined as the UAE and other Arab countries had moved to normalize relations with Israel.

He also acknowledged that Iran — long a main source of support for Palestinian militant groups — is now preoccupied by the ongoing war and a U.S. economic blockade. But al-Hindi said his group will continue with or without Iranian support.

“As long as there is no political horizon to solve the Palestinian issue and attempts continue to flee from the Palestinian cause in the region, the future will be resistance,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Asking the site — which says it’s sourced via artificial intelligence from “official government sources” — questions about who won the 2020 election or about the name of the federal department that operates out of the Pentagon yields answers contrary to those Trump himself frequently proclaims.

As Trump was still speaking at Tuesday’s launch event, however, the site began modifying its answers. Asked again about the 2020 election, it replied that it couldn’t answer “political questions," a response it also gave to inquiries about whether Trump had been impeached or convicted of felony charges.

The Associated Press asked about:

The 2020 presidential election

“Official federal sources do not show that widespread fraud changed the 2020 presidential election outcome. Isolated election crimes did occur and have been prosecuted.”

Since Trump, a Republican, lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, he has repeatedly falsely claimed that victory was “stolen” from him and asserted that widespread fraud occurred. Repeated audits and recounts found no significant fraud in the presidential election, and Trump’s own administration said the election was clean.

Trump running for president in 2028

“The 22nd Amendment says that no person shall be elected President more than twice. Donald J. Trump has already been elected twice (2016 and 2024). I am not giving legal advice.”

Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it. He had only been back in the White House for a couple of months when he told NBC News, “There are methods which you could” use to seek a third term.

The Pentagon

“The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense.”

Last year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, complaining that the Department of Defense’s name was “woke.”

Human action as cause of climate change

“Federal climate-science pages say recent warming is largely from human greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly burning fossil fuels. Earth’s climate has also changed for natural reasons over long periods.”

Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” previously issued an executive order that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Presidential salaries

The chatbot said that “some presidents have declined to keep that pay,” mentioning Trump but listing George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump.

During his remarks Tuesday, Trump, a real estate mogul who took in about $1.2 billion from various crypto holdings last year, said he was the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, something that he has said before.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties were under a flood advisory until 11:45 a.m.

The forecast also includes a 70% chance of afternoon scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Monroe’s mainland was under a coastal flood statement with isolated minor coastal flooding until 2 p.m.

Coastal Miami-Dade and Broward counties were under a coastal flood advisory with isolated minor flooding until 2 p.m.

Monroe County’s Upper Keys were under a coastal flood warning for major saltwater flooding until 5 p.m.

Monroe’s Middle and Lower Keys were under a coastal flood advisory with saltwater flooding until 5 p.m.

Tuesday’s peak high-tide is forecast to be moderate at 11:40 p.m.

Officials asked drivers to avoid water of unknown depth and residents to protect flood-prone property.

Some storm drains may overflow, and some seawalls and docks may be overtopped. Boaters should expect less clearance under fixed bridges.

For more details about the specific advisories, visit this page.

Weather Authority

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De acuerdo con los agentes, Derius Frye fue visto por última vez el lunes en la cuadra 3000 de la calle 61 del noroeste.

Las autoridades informaron que Derius vestía una camiseta borgoña de uniforme escolar, pantalones caqui, zapatos negros y llevaba una mochila negra con un diseño de monstruo.

Derius fue descrito como un niño de raza negra, de 5 pies y 3 pulgadas de estatura (1.60 metros) y unas 120 libras de peso (54 kg). Tiene cabello negro y ojos café oscuro.

La policía indicó que el menor no se ha comunicado con su familia y podría necesitar servicios de asistencia.

Se pide a cualquier persona que tenga información sobre su paradero que llame al agente D. Guzman al 305-715-3300 o escriba a u309125@mdso.com. Quienes prefieran hacer una denuncia anónima pueden comunicarse con Línea de Alto al Crimen de Miami-Dade al 305-471-8477.

Según la policía de Hollywood, el departamento recibió una llamada poco antes de las 8 a.m. del domingo sobre una persona inconsciente dentro de su vehículo cerca de North 62nd Avenue y Hollywood Boulevard.

La policía dijo que Jacquees, cuyo nombre real es Rodriguez Jacquees Broadnax, se mostró agresivo con los socorristas mientras era trasladado a un hospital.

El hombre de 32 años fue arrestado por cargos de conducir bajo los efectos del alcohol o drogas, resistirse a un agente sin violencia y agresión contra un agente, bombero o técnico de emergencias médicas.

Jacquees inicialmente permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward bajo una fianza de $3,500 USD, pero poco antes del mediodía del lunes ya no aparecía en la base de datos en línea de la cárcel.

Jacquees, quien es de Atlanta, Georgia, ha tenido varias canciones exitosas a lo largo de los años, entre ellas “B.E.D.” y “You”.

El mes habitualmente más activo de la temporada de huracanes está por concluir sin que se haya formado un solo huracán en el Atlántico, un fenómeno sin precedentes en los registros meteorológicos modernos y confiables.

En un panorama que contrasta drásticamente con la devastación provocada por fenómenos pasados en estas mismas fechas —como Helene en 2024, Ian en 2022 o Joaquin en 2015—, la cuenca tropical luce inusualmente tranquila este 29 de septiembre.

Ninguno de los más de dos docenas de grupos meteorológicos que emiten pronósticos estacionales anticipaba un escenario sin huracanes a estas alturas del año. Aunque las proyecciones iniciales apuntaban a una temporada por debajo del promedio debido al fenómeno de El Niño —estimando unos cinco huracanes frente a la media habitual de siete—, instituciones referentes como la Universidad Estatal de Coloradomantuvieron sus estimaciones por encima de cuatro.

Si bien no se descarta que octubre pueda registrar actividad ciclónica antes de finalizar la temporada, la falta de desarrollo hasta la fecha supera ampliamente el récord previo registrado un 11 de septiembre para el primer huracán del año.

Sistemas activos y monitoreo a largo plazo

Por el momento, dos sistemas débiles permanecen sobre aguas abiertas del Atlántico norte sin representar amenaza para tierra firme:

• Tormenta tropical Hanna: Formada a partir de la perturbación Invest 91L, enfrenta fuertes vientos en altura que desplazan su nubosidad. Se prevé que pierda sus características tropicales antes de que termine la semana.
• Tormenta tropical Fay: Ubicada a unas 700 millas al sur de Hanna, se mantiene débil y con baja probabilidad de intensificación antes de disiparse.

De cara a los próximos siete a diez días, los modelos de pronóstico a largo plazo comienzan a vigilar el sur del Golfo de México ante la posible formación de un sistema sobre la cola de un frente frío estacionario. Por ahora, los modelos de conjunto señalan que las probabilidades de desarrollo son bajas, situándose cerca del 20%.

Giancarlo Stanton, out since April 24 because of strained calf muscles in both legs, was included. So was center fielder Trent Grisham.

Sidelined since Sept. 16 by a strained right calf, Judge took live batting practice on the field Monday, a day ahead of the series opener, in an effort to persuade manager Aaron Boone and the medical staff. He walked twice, hit a comebacker to the mound and took a called third strike against teammates Ryan Weathers and Elmer Rodríguez.

The three-time AL MVP had a platelet-poor plasma injection Sept. 21. The 34-year-old was sidelined by a fractured rib from May 31 to Sept. 8 and played in just seven games before the latest injury.

Judge was limited to 66 games this season. He hit .241 with 18 homers, 41 RBIs and an .871 OPS, including .174 with one homer and three RBIs in September.

Stanton started the season with a .256 batting average, three homers and 14 RBIs in 24 games. The 36-year-old, acquired after winning NL MVP in 2017, had 38 homers and 100 RBIs in his first season with New York but has missed 500 of 1,194 games since (41.9%).

Grisham had been sidelined since straining his right hamstring on Sept. 4. He was among New York’s 15 position players.

Boston Red Sox

Left-hander Garrett Crochet, who won last season’s WCS opener against the Yankees by allowing one run and four hits in 7 2/3 innings, will be available in the bullpen. The two-time All-Star has not pitched since April 25 because of left shoulder inflammation.

“He’s worked very hard to get everything back strong the way it needs to be, but we’re still going to be evaluating him daily to see where he’s at,” manager Chad Tracy said.

Philadelphia Phillies

Second baseman Luis Arraez, a three-time batting champion, is out for the series against Atlanta after spraining his left ankle last Thursday.

Left-hander Brooks Raley, like Arraez acquired ahead of the trade deadline, also was left off.

Right-hander Jonathan Bowlan and infielder Otto Kemp were included as the Phillies went with 14 position players.

Philadelphia did not include any players it acquired at the trade deadline.

Atlanta Braves

Infielders Rowdy Tellez and Luke Williams were included on the roster by Atlanta, which has 15 position players.

Chicago White Sox

Tommy Pham, a 38-year-old outfielder acquired from Philadelphia on Aug. 31, was among 14 position players picked by Chicago for its series at Houston in a rematch of the 2005 World Series — the Astros moved to the AL for the 2013 season.

Pham hit .429 for Arizona in the 2023 World Series against Texas.

Houston Astros

Right-hander Ethan Pecko, 2-0 with a 3.94 ERA in eight starts from mid-August through the end of the regular season, is injured and was not among the Astros’ 12 pitchers. Steven Okert (hamstring) also was left off.

Houston included Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai, who struggled to a 6-4 record and 4.93 ERA in 15 starts and eight relief appearances after coming to Major League Baseball with a $54 million, three-year contract.

Infielder Reynal Delgado, who played in just three games for the Astros after July 19, was included along with outfielder Joey Loperfido, chosen over LaMonte Wade Jr.

San Diego Padres

Joe Musgrove was among 11 pitchers on the Padres' roster against the Cubs, and the 33-year-old right-hander could make his first big league appearance since the 2024 wild card game.

He left that game against Atlanta after 3 2/3 innings because of elbow tightness and had Tommy John surgery that Oct. 11. He made four minor league appearances this past August but then experienced soreness. In 2021, he threw San Diego's first no-hitter.

Designated hitter Miguel Andujar was included. Right-hander Randy Vásquez and infielder Sung-Mun Song were left off.

Chicago Cubs

Right-hander Kevin Gausman was included despite a left shoulder that was sore after he made a sliding tag at third base on Sept. 23.

Left-hander Caleb Thielbar, who had a 4.86 ERA this year, was not among the Cubs’ 12 pitchers.

Right-handed-hitting Gabriel Arias was among the position players.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Los bomberos acudieron al área de la calle 9 y la avenida 10 del noroeste poco después de las 2:00 a.m., donde se encontraron con llamas gigantescas.

El incendio ya fue extinguido, pero un ATV (cuadraciclo), otros tres vehículos y una porción de la residencia sufrieron daños.

Según los bomberos, el fuego comenzó en el cuadraciclo, aunque aún no está claro qué provocó que se encendiera.

Un video de cámaras de seguridad muestra el momento en que uno de los vehículos se envuelve repentinamente en llamas.

“Pensé que iba a explotar porque había al menos tres autos allá afuera quemándose al mismo tiempo, así que estábamos preocupados de que fuera algo más grave”, contó la vecina Hilda Palma. “También me preocupaba porque, como la casa ya se estaba quemando, no sabía si había gente adentro, ya que el fuego estaba alcanzando la entrada principal”.

No se reportaron personas heridas.

Investigadores de Bomberos de Miami-Dade recolectaron recipientes con evidencia de los vehículos para determinar si se trató de un incendio provocado.

La causa oficial del siniestro continúa bajo investigación.

But he no longer claims to be an underdog.

“It would be so disingenuous to say you’re an underdog, ‘as he said from his penthouse,’" Stallone said during a recent interview, on a high floor of a luxury Manhattan hotel. "Yeah. Come on. I am a lucky dog.”

Stallone, who turned 80 in July, is among the most successful movie stars and filmmakers in history. He has generated billions of dollars through such blockbuster franchises as “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “The Expendables” and portrayed some of the most memorable film characters. And he is still working, starring as mobster Dwight “The General" Manfredi in the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King.”

By choice and otherwise, Stallone has been reliving his early years as a struggling actor-writer who somehow convinced United Artists to back his modest story of a journeyman boxer's shot at the heavyweight championship, and even allow him to play the lead despite having little acting experience. His memoir “Steps,” published Tuesday, arrives less than two months before a fictionalized and semi-authorized version of his story, Peter Farrelly's “I Play Rocky," arrives in theaters, with Anthony Ippolito in the starring role. (Farrelly spoke about the film with Stallone, who was otherwise uninvolved.)

“Rocky," which beat out “Taxi Driver” and “All the President Men's” among others to win the best picture Oscar, is one of those classic movies that only seem to benefit from the back story; Stallone's own journey from the streets of Philadelphia to the Oscars stage echoes so well his character's improbable rise.

As he writes in “Steps,” he was a hard-luck case, an unplanned and unwanted child who seemed to face endless discouragement right through the production of “Rocky," when he feared every day on the set might be his last.

Stallone was in Manhattan to promote his book, but spends much of his time at the Palm Beach, Florida estate he shares with his wife, Jennifer Flavin. Even when — especially when — he's talking about his rare fortune, Stallone speaks in a warm, rumbly, offhand manner, a kind of private street talk that suggests he doesn't believe it all.

Last year, he was a Kennedy Center honoree, his award presented to him by President Donald Trump, who had previously named Stallone, Jon Voight and Mel Gibson his “ambassadors” from an otherwise liberal Hollywood. Stallone has called Trump “the second George Washington,” but he has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats and broken with conservatives by calling for stronger gun control laws. He also condemns war, including the Iran War, as a story of sending people into a "meat grinder while the military complex is making zillions of dollars."

“I do believe that you have to defend yourself. But to go on the offensive?” he says, adding that he would prefer not to be known as a ”political figure."

“I love the common architecture of trying to just survive. That’s noble," he says. "To be a politician, that’s a different animal.”

During his interview, he also talked about fate, insecurity and why he was probably better off for his unhappy childhood.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Why write this book?

STALLONE: I was approached a few times (over the years) and the one thing I didn’t want to write about is my life. It’s this ambivalent roller coaster ride. It's not always the most pleasurable ride. And I thought, ‘What am I known for?’ Pulling off this minor miracle in 1976, which falls under the heading of inspiration. That’s what I want to do. Because the character was an inspiration, I wanted to tell the people how it all came to be.

AP: How hard was it to relive some of those early memories?

STALLONE: It was very hard because I spent 50 years burying that stuff. And it’s like you come across a lost city, and you start to become your own spiritual archaeologist, digging down. And it’s not pretty. But I didn’t want this to be, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ Everyone has issues and a lot worse than me. I just wanted to touch on the essence because I still have this conundrum. If everything was really nice, maybe I wouldn’t be here, you know what I mean? If I didn’t have that insecurity which drives us. You know, insecurity is a great motivator.

AP: For people at your level of success, do you find they all have that sense of insecurity, that drive?

STALLONE: I think so — especially the ones that are desperate to do better and constantly pushing it. For example, I don’t have to do my dialogue for another month before we start “Tulsa King.” I'm up every morning at 5:00 o'clock, studying until literally it’s like breathing. Now, that’s probably insecurity, but that’s the way I approach it.

AP: When was the last time you actually watched “Rocky” in its entirety? Did you look at it while working on the book?

STALLONE: No, I didn't. You know what I see. You're sitting there and going through messages and somebody who's 18 has put it on the internet or on TikTok. And how would this person relate to an 80-year-old guy? They're not, though. They're not relating to me. It's that character.

AP: Young people know about Rocky.

STALLONE: In retrospect, that to me is the greatest gift. You know, you write something — I’m just trying to get some footage on myself. I'm just trying to write something really simple. I didn’t ever expect it to be in more than one or two theaters. So all this is a tsunami of good luck. It ('Rocky') tapped into something that I cannot take credit for.

AP: Writers talk a lot about how they learn how they think through the act of writing. Did you experience some of that while working on this book?

STALLONE: A lot of it, yeah.

AP: Like what?

STALLONE: I was thinking while I was working (on the book). “You were really at the end of your rope.” Nothing was working. I was 29 years old. And I had this epiphany, like in the backyard, pounding the soil, asking for spiritual help. I had always avoided it. And I had thought, you know, “To each his own.” I don’t want to rely upon some idol, god, symbol, anything. But maybe we need something that makes us believe in the invisible — faith. I had no faith. I was agnostic, and then it came literally back that night.

And that's why I pay homage in the “Rocky” movie. The first scene is, you know, at “The Resurrection” (gym). It's amazing we found that place. A boxing club called "The Resurrection."

AP: You've described how the priests in Catholic school said it was necessary to suffer for your faith, and how you turned away from that. But look at what you put yourself through to make a movie.

STALLONE: It's the way I’m built, I think. There are no free lunches. I’ve had back operations, neck surgeries, both shoulders, heart — you name it. And it’s all because ... you do it yourself. There was a necessity to feel it. You’re not going to be like the other guys. You’re going to do it, which is completely wrong (laughs).

AP: And now you have a movie about you, “I Play Rocky,” coming out.

STALLONE: How strange is this? A movie about me being in a movie.

AP: What did you think of it?

STALLONE: It’s fantastic. And the kid (Ippolito) did a great job. This is so odd. They usually do this when you’re dead and gone. It's 50 years almost to the day when it came out and if he gets nominated ... It’s so surreal. I have to give Peter Farrelly, the director (credit). I never in a million years had any confidence this would work. But he said that to the everyday person, this is kind of a fantastic journey. Rocky is fiction, this is real. And that's what people are holding on to.

Police said they arrested a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam on Sept. 15 who is “suspected of playing a role in the hacker group ShinyHunters. The man is also suspected of attempted solicitation of two murders.”

Police said the suspicion of trying to arrange two murders was linked to information found on the suspect’s laptop but “is not related to the investigation into ShinyHunters.”

ShinyHunters last week claimed to have breached the FBI’s jobs website. The hacker group said it had stolen “very sensitive data” belonging to thousands of agents and applicants and that it had compromised the bureau’s jobs website.

FBI Director Kash Patel took to X to highlight the arrest in the Netherlands.

“This morning @FBI and our partners the Dutch National Police are announcing the arrest of one of the alleged leaders of ShinyHunters - a global cybercrime and threat actor group linked to cyberattacks in the United States, the Netherlands, and around the world,” he said.

“In coordination with FBI investigators the Dutch High-Tech Crime Unit arrested the suspect under Dutch law,” he added. "As we speak FBI teams are actively working with partners to obtain and execute more leads in the ongoing investigation based on this arrest.”

The Dutch police statement announcing the arrest did not mention the FBI hack or coordination with American law enforcement.

Dutch detectives seized data storage devices during their probe and were investigating their contents and said they did not rule out more arrests.

“Arresting cybercrime suspects is a key intervention in our broad-based fight against this type of crime,” said Stan Duijf, the Dutch police official responsible for tackling cybercrime. “The ShinyHunters group is responsible for a large number of victims, both in the Netherlands and abroad. It is gratifying that we have been able to arrest a suspect in the investigation into this group.”

A court in Rotterdam on Tuesday ordered the suspect held for a further 90 days.

Last Wednesday, the FBI said it was “actively and aggressively investigating” a claimed hack of the FBIJobs.gov portal. A message that circulated online from ShinyHunters claimed responsibility.

“We have compromised the FBI. We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job,” said the ShinyHunters message, which was directed to Patel and Brett Leatherman, the assistant director in charge of the bureau’s cyber division. The claims could not immediately be verified.

In its message, ShinyHunters said it would give the bureau one week to correct or remove what it said were false allegations contained in an FBI public advisory from May that described the organization as a “cyber criminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches and extortion.”

Eala had to withdraw from the China Open in Beijing — a mandatory WTA 1000 event — to compete at the Asian Games. She could be fined $10,000.

“It was a decision I didn’t take lightly,” Eala told SNTV after winning her second-round match at the Asian Games. “Of course it’s difficult to miss out on a 1000, especially Beijing, where I’ve heard so many great things about the tournament and I have yet to go. But I know there will be many chances to go back and I’m really excited to be here, to represent my country and to compete.”

The 18th-ranked Eala beat Patcharin Cheapchandej of Thailand 6-1, 6-0 on Monday.

Eala took bronze medals in singles and mixed doubles (with partner Francis Alcantara) at the 2023 Asian Games and is a favorite for gold this time.

“I’m as eager as anybody and maybe even a little more,” she said. “I have a lot of will to compete, a lot of will to win.”

Eala upset defending champion Iga Swiatek on Centre Court in the third round of Wimbledon this year and then earned her first WTA Tour title in Washington.

She reached the third round of the U.S. Open.

Eala next faces Joanna Garland of Taiwan in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index tumbled 6.7 points to 81.9 in September, down from 88.6 in August. That’s the lowest reading in the board's survey since April 2014 and below the lowest level reached during the pandemic.

Respondents’ views of their present situation fell by 7.9 points to 109.3. Their short-term outlook also slid, falling 5.9 points to 63.6.

Americans remain flustered by the economy after five years of elevated inflation, potentially posing a risk to President Donald Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections, which are a little more than a month away.

Write-in responses to the board’s survey, collected from September 1-23, were mostly pessimistic this month, with frequent references to the high cost of gas, goods and services.

“The Consumer Confidence Index deteriorated notably in September, following two prior months of softening,” said Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’s chief economist, adding that consumers’ views of current business conditions became negative for the first time since September 2024.

Trump has continued to blame high prices on his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, yet inflation has risen since Trump’s inauguration last year.

Earlier this month, the government reported that consumer inflation accelerated last month and gas prices spiked as fighting in the Middle East dragged on. The consumer price index rose 3.4% last month compared with a year ago, the Labor Department said Friday, just like July. But inflation quickened month to month as costs jumped 0.4% from July, quadrupling the 0.1% registered in the previous month.

The Federal Reserve two weeks ago raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2023 in an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation, and the central bank signaled another rate hike could occur later this year.

The quarter-point increase lifted the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

Gasoline prices — which currently average $4.46 for a gallon of regular — are not all that is rising. Prices for appliances, car repairs, and wireless phone services also jumped in August.

The most recent measure of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index — was up 3.7% in June from a year earlier. That was down from May’s 4.1% year-over-year increase but up from 2.8% before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. It was 2.5% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.

The government issues its August PCE data Wednesday.

Consumers’ views of the current labor market also worsened in September, but remained in positive territory, the board said. Respondents broadly said they expected their household incomes to rise, but not as much as in previous months.

The U.S. labor market bounced back in August as employers added a surprising 162,000 jobs, ending a summer of lackluster hiring. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.1%, but some of that can be attributed to significant numbers of people giving up on their search for employment in previous months.

Inflation has dominated conversations this year in business and households, and meager pay raises have made rising prices more painful for many. Average hourly wages rose 3.1% last month from a year earlier, the weakest year-over-year increase since May 2021.

The government issues its September jobs report on Friday.

U.S. job openings slid to 7.08 million from a revised 7.34 million in July, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Openings came in below the 7.2 million that forecasters had expected and were the lowest since they hit 6.9 million in March.

The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that layoffs fell and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — retreated slightly in August. The JOLTS report's measure of gross hiring — before subtracting people who quit or lost their jobs — ticked up modestly in August but remains at low levels.

The U.S. job market is sturdy, though unspectacular, despite an energy shock from the Iran war. Hiring has rebounded from a miserable 2025. Employers — businesses, nonprofits and government agencies — have added an average 80,000 jobs a month so far this year. That is an improvement on the 9,700-a-month average last year when high interest rates and uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies discouraged businesses from hiring.

Still, Americans’ confidence in the economy has sunk to the lowest level in more than a decade, according to the monthly index released Tuesday by the Conference Board.

When the Labor Department releases its next jobs report on Friday, it is expected to show that the United States added 95,000 net jobs in September, solid but down from a surprising 162,000 in August. The unemployment rate likely stayed a low 4.1% as most American workers enjoy an unusual degree of job security, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.

Employers may not be laying workers off, but they aren't hiring nearly as many as they did a few years ago. Hiring remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, and the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns.

Cory Stahle, senior economist at the Indeed jobs website, said the labor market is "far less dynamic than it was a few years ago. It’s a comfortable place to be if you already have a job. It’s a frustrating one if you’re trying to find one, especially for new graduates and others entering the workforce.''

In a Tuesday press release, Oura said it's delaying the IPO “despite strong demand.”

The IPO market had a solid start to the year but tailed off in the third quarter, according to research firm Renaissance Capital. Concerns about a possible slowdown in spending on artificial intelligence, the Federal Reserve’s resumption of rate hikes and a surge in bond yields — making borrowing more expensive — all played a factor, Renaissance said.

Oura customers use the ring to monitor their health, including sleep patterns and fitness activity. The company gets the bulk of its revenue from ring sales, with the rest coming from subscriptions.

The company approached the IPO with momentum: The introduction of the Oura Ring 5 helped boost the number of paid members to 5.7 million and the company expects revenue for the fiscal year ending Wednesday to have grown by 90%.

Oura planned to sell 50 million shares in the IPO between $40 and $44, with nearly three-quarters of them being sold by current shareholders. At the midpoint of the price range, Oura's IPO would have given it a market value of $13.5 billion.

That has already changed Tuesday with a surge of moisture moving through from the Caribbean. This will spark rounds of showers and thunderstorms at any point Tuesday.

Some downpours could contain heavy rain that leads to minor flooding. We will have to watch this potential during high tide since king tides are still filling up the drains near the coast. Next high tides are 11:38 a.m. and 11:40 p.m. at Virginia Key.

We will have the potential for storms at some point each day through the work week. High temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 80s with a decent amount of clouds around.

"I know what it’s like to struggle,” Berman, a nurse and first-time candidate, told The Associated Press. “Folks are really looking for someone that they can turn to and say, ‘That guy’s walked a mile in my shoes.’”

Democrats see his race as one that could break their way if the blue wave they’re working toward turns into a tsunami. And while there are signs that Republicans may be getting nervous, officials from both parties said it will be difficult for the newcomer to upset the better-known incumbent.

Berman, like other Democratic challengers across the country, is trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s sagging approval rating fueled by anger over the economy, increases in healthcare costs and high gas prices caused by the war in Iran.

“Everybody’s ready for a change,” said John Pintar, a 68-year-old retired heavy-machine operator from Caledonia who went to a Racine coffee shop to hear Berman make his pitch last week. “I certainly am.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced in September that it was adding Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District to its “red to blue” program that targets Republican incumbents viewed as vulnerable. The designation frees up resources and fundraising for Berman in a boost to his underdog chances.

Steil, who worked as an attorney for a plastics manufacturer before being elected to Congress, downplayed being targeted as he seeks a fifth term.

“We’ve shown time and again our ability to go out, get out above the noise, speak directly to voters,” he told the AP. "And in the end, we’ve been successful.”

No Going Back PAC, a Trump-aligned group, has spent about $90,000 on mailings in Steil’s district.

Nationwide, No Going Back PAC and another Trump-aligned group, Safety and Affordability PAC, have spent more than $84 million on advertising in House races since Sept. 1, according to an AP analysis of data from AdImpact, which tracks media spending and ad buys. A third group, MAGA Inc., did not spend on House races.

The vast majority of the groups’ ad spending, 96%, has been in House districts Trump carried in 2024, which the AP determined by using precinct-level results to map to the new district boundaries some states have adopted. Only $3.5 million was spent on districts won by Democrat Kamala Harris.

The cash flow shows how Republicans have been on defense this year, but the party's deep pockets could help insulate its members.

Steil and groups supporting him have outspent Berman and his backers by a 2-1 ratio, according to AdImpact data. He had $6.3 million cash on hand entering August, compared with just under $152,000 for Berman, based on federal filings.

Peter Barca was the last Democrat to hold the seat, from 1993 to 1995, and he lost a comeback attempt against Steil in 2024. He said Berman may still succeed despite being outspent.

“When the wave’s big enough, that will save you,” Barca said.

Wisconsin district once served by Paul Ryan has deep manufacturing ties

Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District borders Illinois to the south and Lake Michigan to the east. It includes the cities of Kenosha, Janesville and Racine, where Berman was greeting voters at a downtown coffee shop this week.

The district grew more competitive under new congressional maps enacted in 2022, but it still leans Republican. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan held the seat for 20 years before Steil, his former aide, replaced him in 2019.

The area suffered thousands of manufacturing job losses as the automobile industry collapsed and jobs were sent overseas. The General Motors plant in Janesville, which had operated for 90 years and employed 7,000 people at its height, shut down in early 2009. Other manufacturers in the area, including a vehicle assembly plant in Kenosha, also shuttered around the same time.

Berman has gone after Steil for supporting Trump’s tariffs, saying despite the president’s claims that they will bring U.S. factories “roaring back,” voters in southeast Wisconsin have yet to see any evidence of it.

Steil said he's heard frustration from voters.

“We need to continue our work to make life more affordable,” Steil said, citing his votes in support of eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and other tax reforms.

“There’s also more work to be done,” Steil said.

Democrat tapping into voter anger and working-class background

Berman, 40, leans into his working-class background when talking to voters. He describes how he grew up in rural Wisconsin, attended public schools and was the first in his family to graduate from college.

He talks about holding his first union job and how cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs affecting the VA hospital where he worked as a nurse motivated him to run for Congress.

“We’re up against folks, like my opponent, who are too far removed from what you and I are up against every day,” Berman said to a cheering room of supporters at a coffee house this week.

In his first television ad released earlier this month, Berman is shown fishing with a holstered gun as he highlights his working-class roots and dings Steil for getting “millions from special interests.”

“I’m not looking to get rich,” Berman says. “I just want to hunt, take my daughters to Packers games and make life easier for families like mine.”

Retired probation agent Dave Carlson, 71, of Racine, said he wants Berman to pull off an upset, but he’s keeping his hopes in check.

“We’ve had other decent candidates on the Democratic side,” Carlson said, “but Steil pulls it out in the end.”

Steil has a nearly 100% voting record in line with Trump and has won all four of his races by at least 9 percentage points. Steil is also seen as a potential 2028 Senate candidate, if Republican Sen. Ron Johnson retires.

Steil demurred when asked if he thought it was an asset or a liability to be so closely tied to Trump.

“This is a contrast election between myself and my opponent, and I think my values align with southeast Wisconsin,” Steil said.

Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, who lives in the district, said he doesn’t think Berman can overcome Steil’s name recognition built over eight years in Congress.

“Starting from zero, building up against a popular incumbent congressman, is a really hard hill to climb no matter what the environment is like,” Vos said.

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Associated Press writers Aaron Kessler and Ashlyn Still contributed to this report in Washington.

The Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, before beginning its journey around the United States in spring 2028. The full route for the torch relay will be announced in 2027.

LA28 organizers say the relay will be one of the largest in Olympic history, passing through iconic and internationally renowned landmarks, stopping at major cultural and sporting events and hosting festival celebrations in select cities nationwide.

"Every Olympic Games begins with a single flame, and carrying that flame to Los Angeles is an honor and privilege that we’ll share with every corner of the country, as Americans in all 50 states carry the flame on its path to our Opening Ceremony,” LA28 chair and president Casey Wasserman said in a statement.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the city will be proud to welcome the Olympic flame back 32 years after hosting the centennial Summer Games.

“Atlanta looks a little different. We are bigger. We are more connected to the world. So, when the flame returns to the U.S., Atlanta will be ready,” Dickens said in a statement. “Ready to welcome it from Greece. Ready to celebrate the spirit of the Games together as a community. And ready to send it forward toward Los Angeles and the next chapter of America’s Olympic story.”

The Paralympic torch relay will follow the end of the Olympics in August 2028, with the flame originating in Stoke Mandeville, England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. The relay's U.S. starting location will be announced later.

Both torch relays will be sponsored by Coca-Cola, JPMorganChase, Allstate and Xfinity.

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See apnews.com/sports

Mostly because the American gymnastics icon is still kind of wondering about it herself. So much so that there will be times when the question wakes the 29-year-old two-time Olympic all-around champion up in the middle of the night.

“I’m like 'Oh my gosh, I don’t know what the decision (is) I should make, but I don’t necessarily have to make it just yet,” Biles told The Associated Press. “But I feel like it’s kind of in the works which way I’m leaning towards.”

After trips to Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris, the lure of the opportunity to perform on the world stage at home in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028 is real. Olympic teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey are already pointing toward LA. So is Katelyn Ohashi, a former college star at UCLA who returned to elite competition in July following a staggering 13-year break from the sport's top level.

“I know (athletes) are going a lot longer, and I’m just like, what the hell? It’s going to be like a big reunion if I did,” Biles said. “It would be so much fun. But I still have to weigh the options.”

And the risks. Biles will be 31 by the time the flame is lit at the opening ceremony in the LA Coliseum and Sofi Stadium in July 2028. The sacrifices of trying to make a fourth Olympic team would be far different than what she faced in Brazil a decade ago.

Biles and her husband, Indianapolis Colts safety Jonathan Owens, would like to have a family at some point. The potential impact of training on her reproductive health is a factor. So is the likelihood that returning to competition would mean she and Owens could be separated for significant stretches.

“I am getting to the age of 30 where we start to talk about, 'What does your reproduction cycle ... what’s going on in there? What does that look like? How healthy is it? And so I think these are major things that are on the table at my age that I have to take in consideration and weigh those options and what that looks like and when we want to start a family."

Still, the FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to LA is only too real.

“Like a home Olympic Games, like, how could you not?” she said. “It’s absolutely incredible.”

Biles has spent the last two years since her history-making performance in Paris — when she became the third woman ever to win multiple all-around golds — taking a break and leaning into the trappings that come with being one of the most recognizable faces of the U.S. Olympic movement.

The athlete who brought the topic of mental health kicking and screaming into the white-hot Olympic spotlight when she removed herself from several competitions at the Tokyo Games in 2021 while dealing with a mental block dubbed “the twisties” also remains passionate about various causes, including foster care and ADHD.

Among the latest is participating in the “Skin to Believe In” campaign, aimed at getting the roughly 36 million Americans living with inflammatory skin conditions to talk with their health care provider about long-term, steroid-free, topical treatment options for their chronic skin diseases.

Biles was diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis on her face and scalp and eczema on her arms. The issue with her scalp became so problematic that she would scratch until she bled. She spent a long time trying to identify the cause. A relentless traveler, she wondered if it was triggered by certain environments or something internal like stress.

She now uses a steroid-free foam and cream, which not only has helped immensely but also allows her to keep her options open if she ultimately decides to give it one more shot.

There's a part of her that thinks it's doable. Biles found herself in the gym with her sister Adria recently and decided to try a double layout. You know, for fun.

“I’m like, ‘If I get lost, like, it’s over,’” Biles said. “And then I did it. And of course I was like, what the hell? That wasn’t that bad. Like, I wasn’t as scared as I thought I was going to be. And that scared me more with the decision.”

Biles joked there is one segment of the population that would be just fine if her sabbatical turned into an official retirement: others in the mix to make a potentially loaded U.S. team that will be heavy gold-medal favorites when they take the floor at the Staples Center in July 2028.

She was texting with former World Champions Centre and world championship teammate Joscelyn Roberson — now competing at Georgia after reuniting with Cecile and Laurent Landi, who served as Biles' coaches from 2017-24 — when Roberson made a suggestion.

“She’s trying to remind me, like, ‘Hey babes, you’re good. Remember, you don’t have to come back. Stay at your house and stay with your husband,'" Biles said with a laugh, later adding, “I know some of the girls would be like, ‘Oh no, Simone’s coming back.'”

And Biles very well just might, though she's well aware of the difficulty of the task she would face, physically, mentally and emotionally. She's talked to skier Lindsey Vonn — who made her own Olympic comeback this year at 41 — about the unique push/pull of the Games. Biles insists she's at peace if she never pulls on a leotard and salutes the judges again.

“I’ve experienced so much and I’d done so much, so it’s like, I also have to be doing it for the right reasons,” she said. “I feel really, really comfortable with what I've done in the sport. So I just have to sit down and be like ‘Why? Why am I doing it?’ Because there has to be a good reason.”

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

The 31-year-old Bardella, who Le Pen says will be her prime minister if she wins the presidency in May, vigorously denied authorship of the comments about supposed Jewish banking monopolies and other antisemitic conspiracy theories that investigative website Mediapart attributed to him and published Monday.

It said they were written more than a decade ago. They included years when Bardella, now the National Rally president, was a teenage member of the party's predecessor, the National Front. It was founded by Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who repeatedly denied the Holocaust and was convicted multiple times of hate speech before his death in 2025.

Allegations of antisemitism touch a particular nerve at the National Rally because Le Pen has worked for years to distance herself from her father’s sulfurous legacy. To win the presidency, she must overcome obstacles that blocked his presidential ambitions. His associations with people who collaborated with France’s Nazi occupiers in World War II and his multiple convictions for antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence made him anathema to many voters.

Sitting side by side, Marine Le Pen, Bardella and their ally Eric Ciotti on Tuesday used a previously scheduled gathering of their lawmakers to demonstrate unity.

They described Mediapart's allegations as the opening salvo of a supposed effort to undermine the National Rally and Le Pen as she campaigns to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

It's “the beginnings of an all-out war, of attempts to destabilize the presidential campaign, which — I’m telling you — will target us one after another,” Bardella said.

“We have both put on our Kevlar suits, because this is heavy stuff coming down on us,” Le Pen said. "This manipulation is about as subtle as a charcuterie convention.”

“We are not going to let them do this to us!” she added. To applause from their lawmakers, she expressed ”absolute confidence" in Bardella, who is particularly popular with young voters and has large followings on social media.

Mediapart said the comments it attributed to Bardella were drawn from private written exchanges but did not specify whether they were emails or another format. It said it independently authenticated the exchanges but did not detail how or say how it obtained them. Specializing in investigative journalism, Mediapart has become a leading news provider in France since its launch in 2008, claiming more than a quarter-million subscribers.

Bardella said he has launched a libel action against Mediapart's allegations, describing them as "a dirty-tricks operation.”

“These remarks are completely delusional. They are not mine,” he told broadcaster CNews.

At this early stage before the two-round election in April and May, Le Pen is widely regarded as a front-runner in the race to succeed Macron. Her campaign has been relatively free of major bumps since an appeals court in July cleared her path for a fourth run at the presidency, with a ruling that shortened a ban on seeking public office handed down to Le Pen for embezzling public funds.

Bardella, Le Pen's protégé, had been waiting in the wings to take her place as the party candidate if the original five-year ban had been upheld. On Tuesday, he described the antisemitism allegations as a plot that he alleged had been cooked up to thwart his chances had that scenario played out.

National Rally has courted Jewish voters by positioning itself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism in France and with Le Pen's sustained effort to dissociate herself from her father's legacy. In a process that researchers and critics of the party dubbed “de-demonization,” she expelled him in 2015 from the National Front and rebranded it in 2018.

Yonathan Arfi, who heads a French Jewish umbrella group, CRIF, said Bardella’s alleged comments, if substantiated, would represent “a stinging repudiation” of the sanitization strategy.

“How could a political figure who made such repugnant antisemitic remarks subsequently have risen to such positions of responsibility within a party that claims to have changed and to be fighting hatred of Jews?” Arfi posted on X.

Haskins' death was confirmed early Tuesday by his agent. Additional details were not immediately available.

“It’s a tragic loss,” his agent, Jay Schachter, said in a statement. “Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis, loved him even more. He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly. I’m heartbroken.”

“Saved by the Bell,” which ran from 1989 to 1993, centered on the antics of a group of students at the fictitious Bayside High in Southern California. Taking a page from the comedy movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the school often appeared to be run more by the teens than their hapless principal. The show was both ridiculed and embraced for its zany plots.

Lark Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle on the show, paid tribute to Haskins in an Instagram post, saying she was heartbroken.

“Knowing Dennis Haskins for almost 40 years has been one of the truest blessings of my life, which makes losing him hurt so deeply,” she wrote. “We shared so much history together from our earliest days, and through it all, he remained a fabulous person, a loyal friend, and someone with such a kind, gentle heart.”

Haskins was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to a biography posted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he was active in the school's drama club and helped found a community theater group.

Before his television career, he was a music manager, agent and concert promoter, and his clients included Tom Jones and Gregg Allman, according to his biography on IMDb.

Haskins later went on to have guest roles in “The Twilight Zone” and “Magnum, P.I.” in the 1980s.

Peyton, 10, was killed in the crash and her older brother, Brent, was injured.

Authorities said the two were riding an e-bike when they were struck by a vehicle in the area of Northwest 117th Street and Seventh Avenue on Sept. 9.

Several days later, deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said they located the vehicle from the incident, which had been described as a silver or gray 2009-2012 Nissan Versa.

On Monday, authorities announced the arrest of Arick Metayer in connection to the case.

Deputies said Metayer, 33, was taken into custody on Monday night.

He is facing felony charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence.

As of Monday evening, Metayer was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set.”

The contest has raised the possibility that the nation's second most populous city could follow New York's lead, where democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor, capping a stunning ascent for the far-left state lawmaker who promised to transform city government to restore power to the working class. Yet in LA, no celebrity swirl has gathered around Raman in her first run for citywide office.

The two Democrats are scheduled to appear at a forum co-hosted by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles at a time when the party has been deeply divided over the war in Gaza and aid to Israel.

Bass, the first Black woman to hold the post, is fighting to keep her job after a rough first term in which she suffered sustained fallout from the deadly Palisades Fire, the most destructive in Los Angeles history that ignited when she was out of the country. In June, a fire east of downtown in a massive frozen-food warehouse left neighbors to endure weeks of foul smells and frustration.

Raman, who endorsed Bass before reversing course and entering the race herself, is testing if voters in the heavily Democratic city want to move further to the political left to address long-running problems of homelessness, buckled streets and climbing rent and home prices. She's railed against “the broken status quo.”

The race earlier garnered national attention for the candidacy of Spencer Pratt, a Republican who starred on “The Hills” and had lost his home in the Palisades Fire. His campaign was lifted by videos that supporters generated with artificial intelligence, though he failed to qualify for the November election.

In a city known to shrug at local politics, the race to take charge at City Hall has been overshadowed by ongoing turmoil in Washington, the fight for Congress, two wars, anxiety over inflation and the Los Angeles Dodgers gearing up for another playoff run.

On the horizon are questions about how the financially challenged city will manage the 2028 Olympics.

After the fires, “There are a bunch of people who don’t want to vote for Karen (Bass) and they are wrestling with what to do,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. As a council member, Raman is not widely known and “the decibel level of this campaign is unbelievably low.”

With mail ballots scheduled to arrive at homes in early October, typical markers of election season — yard signs, TV ads, billboards and bumper stickers — are rarely seen. Data compiled by AdImpact shows the campaigns have spent or booked only a sprinkle of airtime and digital messaging so far through Election Day.

Bass took office in 2022 promising to contend with an out-of-control homeless crisis, but the problem remains in plain view in most neighborhoods. Figures released in July showed homelessness increased over the previous year, after taking a dip. Bass faulted the Trump administration for cuts and policies “that pushed more people onto the streets.”

During her time in office, the city has weathered federal immigration raids and witnessed a continuing exit of Hollywood jobs, while residents complain about dirty, crumbling streets and homeless encampments.

Raman, who could be the first South Asian woman in the job, says that while City Hall has favored powerful insiders, “working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services and a city that has stopped working for them.”

Bass represents the Democratic establishment as the incumbent mayor, and she’s backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with influential labor unions. She served in the state Legislature and Congress before becoming mayor in 2022.

Raman has promised to speed up housing construction, bring back entertainment industry jobs and improve services in a city known for filthy streets, gridlock and an unresponsive City Hall.

One of the unknowns in the race is where Pratt's supporters will go, if they vote at all. Pratt finished with about 25% of the vote, several points behind Raman. He's continued to criticize both candidates on social media.

“Truly the Dumb and Dumber election. So sad for LA. Dark times ahead, folks,” he recently posted on X.

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a stern and clear message to the Cuban government. “Do not think that you can wait out the end of this administration. Change your government or you will face the consequences.”

I do not believe, given the problems in the Middle East, that the U.S. will open another military front. Although even if they do, it will not take long for the U.S. to take out Cuba’s military.

The problem is what do we do after with the island? I do not believe Cuba is ready for a democratic government.

Sept. 25: Cuba denies negotiations with U.S.

President Trump announced two days ago that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has started negotiations once again with members of the Cuban government.

Cuba’s Vice Minister Fernández de Cosio was quickly to react and make it clear that such negotiations are not true.

In the meantime the support amongst the Cuban-American and Venezuelan community for Trump is eroding fast ahead of the midterm elections.

Sept. 24: The Trump administration needs a lesson in simple mathematics

At a press conference Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in reference to Cuba that we cannot expect to change a country that has been under a totalitarian regime for 60 years in six months. First, Mr. Secretary, this coming Jan. 1 will mark 68 (2027-1959= 68) years since the Castro’s took over power.

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Trump, Rubio and the Cuban American members of Congress from South Florida have said multiple times that by the end of 2026 the Cuban government would fall. Now they say by the end of 2029. Maybe the 6 was reversed from the beginning.

Secondly, we captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela this past January. The following week, President Trump said that in two weeks (a week has 7 days. 7x2=14), Cuba would be next. Let’s check the math, Mr. President. It’s been eight months since the capture of Maduro. That’s about 240 days.

The foreign policy of this administration continues to be a disaster. We have 101 ambassadorial appointments open around the world out of 196. 40 appointees are waiting Senate hearing and confirmation. But their qualifications are so bad they probably will not be confirm. 95% of President Trump’s ambassadorial appointments are political with limited international relations and diplomatic knowledge.

Furthermore, 42 times the Trump administration has announced a cease fire with Iran because both nations were close to a deal. So far the war goes on with no clear exit strategy.

In the meantime, Cuban Americans and Venezuelans in South Florida have realized that the Trump administration strategies are just a game with empty promises.

There is still time to correct your calculations but you are running out of time, mid-term elections are around the corner. Do the math.

Sept. 22: Trump calls Cuba ‘failed state that will fall’

This morning, President Donald Trump addressed the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting.

In his speech, he called Cuba a “failed state that will fall.” He further stated that “communism will never come to the U.S. but liberty will soon come to Cuba.” Trump further stated that Cuba represents a threat to U.S. national security -- all these accusations without giving any specific details.

Sept. 22: Wealthy, influential Cuban-Americans with ties to Trump planning for ‘post-communist’ Cuba if regimes falls

According to an article by the Wall Street Journal, wealthy and influential Cuban-Americans with ties to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been meeting in lawyer offices and hotel conference rooms to plan for a “post-communist” Cuba if the regime were to fall soon.

The “change” model seems to first attempt to stabilize Cuba by restructuring the economy that could possibly lead to a new form of government.

Many of these individuals are planning to personally play a role in rebuilding Cuba. These individuals run wealthy businesses. However, for the most part, the opposition groups in South Florida have been left out of these conversations or any role they might play in the future of Cuba.

Sept. 21: Cuba’s leadership continue to blame their problems on everybody else except themselves

Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio made a surreal statement yesterday, claiming that everyone at the top of the Cuban government leadership get, on average, two hours of electricity per day.

We know that most of Cuba’s inner circle of power have generators or solar panels that provide them electricity around the clock each day.

What Fernandez de Cossio does not admit is that the electrical problem has been caused by the Cuban government not being able to fix the outdated electrical plans that are the cause of the problem.

Sept. 18: Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar breaks with Trump over immigration policy

After supporting President Donald Trump’s policy on immigration, Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar issued a video yesterday criticizing Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security was quickly to react and say that the Trump administration will continue enforcing the policy.

We need to ask ourselves whether Salazar’s change of heart has to do more with political survival since she faces a tough race in the midterm elections this coming November from well known South Floridian Eliott Rodriguez (D).

Sept. 17: Cuba is not Venezuela

A new poll recently done by FIU, inside Venezuela and Cuba, show how different the situations are for U.S. foreign policy.

The poll shows that 90% of Venezuelans want free and democratic elections this year, which I do not believe the current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez will agree to. I’m also sure that she will use Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plan of “stabilization, recovery, and transition phase” to say that the first stage has not been fully accomplished. There was no timetable put on the plan.

The case of Cuba is very different. The population wants their economic and social needs met before political reforms, which goes to my argument that Cuba has a very short history of democratic governments.

So to remind our local members of Congress. To say that “we must return Cuba to democracy” will not happen anytime soon.

Sept. 16: Rubio’s latest actions on Cuba

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sent more humanitarian aid to Cuba, and it is being distributed by the non-governmental organization (NGO) associated with the Catholic Church, Caritas of Cuba.

At the same time, Rubio warned international banks and businesses not to collaborate with any Cuban business entities that have been sanctioned by the U.S.

Secretary Rubio also called for the Cuban government to change and become a democracy.

By now, we should understand that changing governments like Cuba, which have been under totalitarian control, is not easy and will take time. Especially countries like Cuba that, in their political history, have had unsustainable democratic governments.

Sept. 15: Cuba becomes a betting market for U.S. prediction markets

Cuba has become a betting market in the USA.

The betting site Polymarket shows how people in the U.S. are betting on everything from the removal of Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power to when and if the U.S. will invade Cuba or make an economic agreement with Cuba.

The last prediction is whether the U.S. will go and get indicted Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Sept. 10: Russia denies Cuba full membership in BRICS

BRICS is an organization of 11 emerging economies around the world. The organization works to influence their global importance and reshape economic governance.

The membership includes Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Partner nations include Belarus, Cuba, Nigeria and Thailand.

The Russians turned down Cuba for full membership into the organization because of Cuba’s poor economic conditions and poor predictions by economists moving forward.

Sept. 9: Cuba and the U.S. stuck in diplomatic rhetoric

Cuba’s Brigadier General Emir Mesa Corona, who is in charge of personal security at the Ministry of Interior, sent a strong message to the U.S. not to even think of trying to kidnap Raul Castro or anyone in Cuba’s government or they will face serious consequences.

At the same time, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla admitted that backroom negotiations with the U.S. continue but the U.S. will not soften their positions. Cuba wants the economic embargo lifted while the U.S. wants regime change.

Sept. 8: Blind passion for Cuban politics leads to a political circus between Miami, Havana and DC

As a little boy growing up in Miami, I remember when every presidential candidate from both political parties would come to campaign in Miami and promised that if elected, they would work to see a “Free Cuba.” They would end their speeches with “Viva Cuba Libre.” Local politicians representing different municipalities in Miami-Dade would talk about U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba like they controlled it, and yet, they had nothing to do with it within their scope of responsibilities. But it got them the votes they needed to be elected and remain in power, while political leaders in Cuba continued to blame everything wrong on the island on the U.S. economic embargo, or as they call it, “the blockade.”

On Jan. 3, the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela with the assistance of their current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez and brought him to the U.S. to face justice. Shortly thereafter, President Donald Trump announced that Cuba would be next.

The Trump administration began to sanction Cuban organizations and individuals of the government in an attempt to squeeze them out of power. So far, they are still in power. The Cuban government began to prepare for a U.S. invasion. To this date, it has not happened and probably never will.

On May 20, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Raul Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996 in a theater-like political rally at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. So far nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen. There is no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba. A week ago, many media outlets across Miami reported, based on sources from inside the island, that Raul Castro was gravely ill. This past weekend, Raul reappeared surrounded by Cuba’s military elite.

Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the three Cuban-American members of Congress from South Florida had announced that by the end of 2026, Cuba would fall. Now it has been pushed back to 2029. Furthermore, Rubio recently said that the problem in dealing with Cuba is the Helms-Burton Law (Senator Jesse Helms and Richard Burton, both Republicans) that was enacted by Congress in 1996, also with the hard work of the late Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The three Cuban-American members of Congress made it clear that the goal was to return Cuba to democracy. What democracy? Cuba did not have a democratic government before Fidel Castro took power. How much do they really know about Cuban history? Or is it just a play on words and empty promises?

So as time passes each day, the Cuban-American community is beginning to ask itself, what is really going on in D.C.?

It would not surprise me that in the near future the Trump organizations would negotiate to buy the empty Melia Hotels in Cuba and put the Trump name on them. After all, we now own a big chunk of Venezuelan oil and there was no regime change as promised.

Will we ever learn? How much longer are we going to be blind by our passion?

Sept 6: Raul Castro makes public appearance

After much speculation about Cuba’s Raul Castro being close to death, the Cuban leader showed up at a military event yesterday accompanied by his grandson, Raulito, and Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Sept 3: Raul Castro stable, according to sources

Sources in Cuba say Raul Castro, 95, is stable despite reports about his declining health. According to sources, retired General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, known as “ El Fury,” is currently in worse condition. Colome Ibarra was head of the Ministry of the Interior and highly respected by the Castro brothers and the Cuban military.

Sept 3: President Trump’s hands are tied with regard to Cuba, Rubio says

After months of saying Cuba would be next, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the president’s hands are tied because of the Helms Burton Law which requires no normalization between the U.S. and Cuba unless there is regime change and a move towards a democratic government.

Even if Raul Castro was to die in the near future, I do not expect regime change.

Only the U.S. can change the Helms-Burton Law and I don’t expect that to happen anytime in the near future or after the mid-term elections.

Sept. 2: Children in Cuba start new school year amid more challenges than any other year before

Children in Cuba started the new school year Tuesday facing a lack of supplies, books, uniforms and teachers, and buildings that are falling apart, along with a lack of food to feed the children.

According to the Cuban minister of education, this will be a very challenging year unlike any others.

Cuban education was once one of the big accomplishments of the revolution. However, it was also used to indoctrinate the students in an ideology that no one on the island nation believes anymore.

Sept. 1: Raul Castro hospitalized, sources say

Reliable sources inside Cuba have informed me this afternoon that Raul Castro has been hospitalized. We need to be careful and not to over speculate what might happen until further notice.

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.

At Calusso in Fort Lauderdale, executive chef Jonathan Kaiser works under relentless pressure to create culinary art to one day be awarded a coveted Michelin Star.

Kaiser is featured on this season of Apple TV’s docuseries “Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars,” showing how one of South Florida’s own handles the heat on the world stage.

Inside Calusso at Pier 66, Kaiser leads a kitchen where every single detail is under intense scrutiny.

Now, millions of viewers worldwide are getting a front-row seat to that high-stakes pressure.

A born and bred Broward County boy, hospitality is in Kaiser’s blood.

For him, putting Calusso on a global platform isn’t just a personal milestone, it’s a major moment for South Florida’s evolving dining scene and a win for his kitchen.

The peak high-tides in the area are from about 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Monroe County’s Upper Keys were under a coastal flood warning for major saltwater flooding until 5 a.m. on Tuesday.

Monroe’s Middle and Lower Keys were under a coastal flood advisory until 5 a.m. on Tuesday. Some storm drains may overflow, and some seawalls and docks may be overtopped.

Monroe’s mainland, and coastal Miami-Dade and Broward counties were under a coastal flood advisory until 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

In Hollywood, Mark Roseman and Erica Rubin had a seawall in their neighborhood, but with an open gate, the water was getting through.

Some business owners in the city are taking steps to ensure the water doesn’t cause any damage.

Local 10 caught up with business owner Ian Jarrett as he was placing sandbags outside his convenience store after water seeped inside on Sunday.

“We have to adapt to the climate change because I think they need to renew the beach area, upgrade it, you know?” he said.

After spending the last 25 years in Hollywood, Jarrett said king tide flooding has never been this bad.

“Last year, when we had king tides, they put up barriers and the barriers really did work, but this year, the water was so much that it came over the barriers,” he said.

Officials asked drivers to avoid water of unknown depth and residents to protect flood-prone property.

For more details about the specific advisories, visit this page.

After many months of enduring high gas prices, they continue to go up.

“Unbelievable,” said driver Alex Vasquez. “This too shall pass, that’s what I keep saying.”

Parts of South Florida are paying over $4.50 a gallon.

According to AAA, Monday’s average gas price in Broward County was $4.38 a gallon while in Miami-Dade County, it’s slightly lower at $4.31 a gallon.

Over time, drivers say the cost adds up.

“Ten dollars here, $10 there -- before you know it, you’re behind $200, $300,” said driver Virgil Bolohan.

Before the war with Iran, national gas prices were under $3 a gallon.

Since then, prices have gone up 50% nationwide as the conflict blocks transit through the all-important Strait of Hormuz.

AAA said the latest surge in gas prices has come from higher oil costs.

It’s led to drivers searching for more creative ways to save at the pump.

“I shop around, I have a couple apps, and I kind of cross around and see which is the best deal,” said Bolohan. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Overall, drivers are hoping for some relief soon and less strain on their wallet.

“Let’s hope there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming train,” said Vasquez.

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City staff told Local 10 News there are two issues at hand: One is that the seawall needs to be replaced, and as a result, there’s been a relatively new issue with the sidewalk eroding.

It’s going to cost the city $12 million to replace and reimagine the existing seawall from Andrews Avenue to the Florida East Coast Railway bridge.

In an email to Local 10, city staffers said there’s a design plan underway to improve pedestrian connectivity and the overall Riverwalk experience, but that is taking time.

In a statement, the city said the design should be complete by January, adding: “Once (the) design is complete, the city must follow the required procurement process to competitively bid and award a construction contract. As of now, construction is anticipated to begin in summer 2027.”

Those anticipating the change say they have faith the city will come through with its promise.

Authorities say Nathalie Belizaire, 29, abandoned her four children to go on a three-night cruise aboard the Carnival Conquest.

The ship left PortMiami for the Bahamas on Friday and returned Monday morning, which is where officers with the North Miami Beach Police Department were waiting to arrest Balizaire.

According to her arrest report, “the defendant left all four minor children, including a 2-month old infant and a 2-year-old child, inside the residence.”

Police said they received a call over the weekend from the father of the 2-month-old who was concerned after discovering the children may be home alone.

That man told investigators he saw a social media post from Belizaire highlighting the cruise, and when he inquired about the children, she told him she would be dropping them off with their great-grandmother, according to the arrest form.

When the father arrived at the apartment on Saturday night, he told police he only heard a TV on and voices of the children, which prompted his call to 911.

After first responders forced their way into the home, a police reported stated, “Upon entry, all four minor children were discovered inside the residence without adult supervision and were hiding together in the bathroom.”

This is not the first time Belizaire has been in trouble with the law.

In January of last year, she was arrested after allegedly pepper-spraying her neighbor in the face over claims of harassing Belizaire’s daughter.

For that, she was charged with aggravated battery.

Now Belizaire is facing four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm following her arrest Monday morning.

María del Carmen Abascal has been hospitalized since she was carried out on a stretcher from the apartment where she had lived for seven decades on Wednesday. Her case has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets in recent days and led the government to present measures to address the country’s housing crisis. It remains to be seen if they go far enough to appease protesters.

Abascal, who has become widely known as simply “Maricarmen,” accepted a deal with the company that owns her apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood to return home as soon as she is discharged, her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, told The Associated Press.

“She is very happy,” said Duro.

The agreement limits her rent to 30% of her income, meaning she would not pay more than the 500 euros ($570) per month she paid previously.

The coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists announced the new measures earlier Tuesday, after four days of intense protests centered around an encampment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s most iconic plaza.

New housing measure

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The government's main decree extends protection against evictions for vulnerable Spaniards until 2030, regulates room rentals, imposes a new tax on seasonal rentals and bans “speculative real estate purchases by vulture funds” until 2028, Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez told reporters at the presidential palace. It remains unclear how such funds are classified or how large the tax will be, as the decree's full text has yet to be released.

It also offers tax breaks to landlords who rent to low-income tenants, offers interest-free loans to families buying their first home, and protects public housing and promotes its construction, Rodríguez added.

“This has been thanks to the citizen movement. To Maricarmen. To the thousands of people in the streets,” Spain's Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on social media.

Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the housing market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. The protesters have been demanding stronger protections for tenants, measures to combat fraud and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable.

Parliament has 30 days to ratify the measures, and the government wants to expedite the process, calling for an extraordinary plenary session on housing for Friday. The government's coalition holds 152 of the chamber’s 350 seats, so it needs the support of smaller parties across the political spectrum to pass bills. Lack of parliamentary support in late July prevented the approval of similar measures.

Activists see a historic standoff with the government

The Madrid Tenants’ Union, the organizer of the protest, said it would remain cautious until it could review “the fine print” of the decree.

“The streets, this encampment and all the others currently across the country are engaging in a historic standoff with the government to push it to advance the right to housing through measures that had not been considered. And this continues,” said Alicia del Río, the union’s spokesperson.

The activists, who have called for more protests for the weekend across the country, will decide “in due time” whether to dismantle the encampment, a spokesperson told AP in a text message. The regional government, led by the conservative People’s Party, has asked the government delegate to clear the square within 48 hours before taking the matter to court. The protesters have remained peaceful.

“There are years when nothing happens, and weeks when history is made. This could be one of them,” the union said in a statement. “A historic window of opportunity has opened to reverse decades of the commodification of housing, and the coming days will be crucial. That is why we need to ramp up the pressure.”

Smaller encampments have sprung up in other cities, from Seville and Málaga in the south to Santiago de Compostela in the north and Palma de Mallorca in the tourist-friendly Balearic Islands, drawing international attention to a long-running issue.

Asked about the situation on Monday, Pope Leo XIV said it underscored the need for political leaders to find solutions to the housing crisis affecting many communities.

“Maybe we have to insist that political leaders, authorities find a solution to this, because it’s obviously increasing and oftentimes we only react in the moment of an emergency,” he said, after admitting that he was not familiar with the case. “But we have to try to see what the systemic cause of the problem is and how to help.”

Spain has had a housing law in place since 2023 that regulates rents and protects tenants, as well as allowing rent caps in high-demand areas at the request of local governments.

Abascal's family rented the apartment since the 1950s

Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the property in 1956 and she continued as the tenant after her parents died, during which time there was a rent cap. The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the union, which organized Saturday’s protest.

Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the unit, raised her monthly rent from 500 euros to 2,650 euros. It subsequently lowered the rent to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, the union said.

The company didn't respond to emailed and phone requests for comment from AP.

___

Associated Press journalists Nicole Winfield in Rome and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.

A chemical peel uses a solution to remove damaged outer layers of skin, creating a controlled injury designed to trigger the skin’s natural healing process.

“Taking off dead skin, it’s exfoliation,” skin therapist Luna Lombardi said. “It breaks the skin bonds, which triggers the shedding of the skin.”

Lombardi said chemical peels can range from superficial treatments with little or no visible shedding, to medium and deeper peels that penetrate farther into the skin and require more downtime.

Common ingredients include glycolic or lactic acid, salicylic acid and TCA.

“The skin is shedding and rebuilding itself,” Lombardi said. “It’s a controlled injury, so you’re shedding the dead and rebuilding the new.”

What can chemical peels do?

According to Lombardi, chemical peels can help smooth rough texture, even out some discoloration and improve the appearance of some acne, scars, fine lines and sun damage.

The process can also trigger collagen production as the skin repairs itself.

“When you have a controlled injury, depending on how deep the chemical peel goes, it builds up collagen,” Lombardi said.

The type of peel used depends on the individual and the results they are hoping to achieve. Lombardi said she always begins with a skin consultation before treatment.

And while some people may hope to see dramatic results after a single peel, Lombardi said multiple treatments may be necessary.

“Some people think they’re going to do one peel and remove years of hyperpigmentation — that doesn’t exist,” she said, adding that four to six sessions may be recommended.

Depending on the peel and a person’s skin, those treatments may be spaced several weeks apart.

What to do after a chemical peel

Downtime can also vary significantly depending on the strength of the treatment. Dermatologists say it can range from just a few days to two or three weeks for a deep peel.

After treatment, protecting the newly treated skin is important. Lombardi recommends keeping the skin moisturized, staying out of the sun and using sunscreen.

She also warns against picking at peeling skin.

“No, no — picking the face is a huge no-no,” Lombardi said. “You have to be very careful with baby skin that’s going to grow.”

Consumers should also think twice before attempting stronger chemical peels themselves.

The FDA warns against using high-concentration chemical peels at home without professional supervision, saying they can cause serious burns, changes in skin color and scars.

Before undergoing a chemical peel, experts recommend understanding what is being applied to the skin, how deeply the treatment is designed to penetrate and making sure the procedure is performed by a licensed, trained professional.

Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard urged Americans in a message ahead of U.S. midterm elections to take to the streets and rally against Donald Trump, claiming the U.S. president's war in the Middle East has failed.

And in the occupied West Bank, settlers rioted to prevent a Palestinian man escorted by the Israeli military from returning to his home in the village of Jalud.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Tuesday. Full coverage is available here.

US targets Iran’s military supply chain with new sanctions

The United States is targeting people and companies around the globe that it accuses of being financial facilitators or enablers of Iran’s military supply chain.

The Trump administration is pushing forward with economic warfare against Tehran at a time when renewed diplomacy between the two countries remains uncertain.

The Treasury Department action Tuesday is part of the administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign, aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

Ten individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan now face sanctions over accusations of procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

By Farnoush Amiri

An Iranian spokesman advises Americans to reconsider their leaders

Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said that the only way for the war in Iran to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave.

He spoke at a news conference Tuesday in Tehran, reading from what he called a “letter to the American people.” The message was apparently meant for the U.S. public just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections for the U.S. Senate and Congress — a vote in which Trump’s Republican Party faces fierce headwinds as it looks to maintain control of Congress.

Later, in remarks to The Associated Press, Mohebbi urged Americans to reconsider their leadership and take to the streets and protest Trump's policies to denounce what he called the U.S. government’s war-mongering policies.

He accused the United States of using Iran’s nuclear program as a ruse to “plunder Iran’s wealth” and to turn the country “back into a colony.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s currency fell to a new record low Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.

Major Saudi pipeline is once again operating

A crucial oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia that was shuttered by the kingdom earlier this month after coming under attack is once again operating, a Saudi government official said.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said operations are near pre-attack levels and that the East-West pipeline should be running at full capacity within a few weeks. The kingdom relies on the pipeline to move its crude from oil processing facilities on the Gulf to ports on its western, Red Sea coast.

Saudi Arabia blamed an Iran-backed militia in Iraq for the drone attack that forced the temporary shutdown of the 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) pipeline.

Satellite imagery indicated tankers on Sunday loaded some 12.5 million barrels of oil at the Yanbu export terminal, which is supplied by the East-West Pipeline, and the nearby terminal at Al Muajjiz, the data and analytical firm Kpler said in a report.

Egyptian president says attempts to expel Palestinians continue

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Tuesday that attempts to force two million Palestinians from the war-stricken Gaza Strip are continuing, and said a two-state solution was the "only way to achieve permanent peace and stability in the region.”

His comments come on the heels of a recent call by right-wing Israeli politicians for a Palestinian mass emigration. In his bid to become minister of defense, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir told reporters last week that he would “encourage” Palestinians to leave Gaza and the West Bank and loosen constraints on the military.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had reportedly threatened to destroy what remained of Gaza City and to force Palestinians to leave if Hamas took any Israeli hostages.

Sissi’s comments echoed Egypt’s unequivocal refusal of a permanent Palestinian expulsion into neighboring countries. Days after the Israeli war on Gaza erupted in 2023, the Egyptian president alleged that the war was meant to push Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, warning that such an exodus would nullify the Palestinian right for statehood and would relocate militants on Egyptian soil.

Settlers block a Palestinian man from returning to his West Bank home

Over a hundred Israeli settlers scuffled with Israeli soldiers who were trying to escort a Palestinian man to his home in the West Bank village of Jalud.

The homeowner, Mahmoud Tubasi, told the AP that the soldiers initially brought him to his home but rioting settlers forced him to leave with his family in a military vehicle. He said he still can't access the house, which settlers have besieged for two months.

Israel’s military acknowledged that the overnight mission to return the family “was not completed” and said three officers were injured by settlers who threw rocks, blocked roads and set Palestinian property on fire.

Israeli police said they arrested three settlers suspected of participating in the riot, which was condemned by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gidon Saar and President Isaac Herzog.

The Israeli military has struggled to quell the latest wave of settler violence. Rights groups have accused the military of colluding with the settlers.

Four killed in separate Israeli airstrikes, Hamas commander dead

Israeli strikes Tuesday in the Gaza Strip killed four people, including a Hamas commander, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

A strike early Tuesday on an apartment west of Gaza City killed two people and wounded five others, officials at Shifa Hospital said.

Israel said the overnight strike targeted Izz al-Din Bik, a commander in the Hamas militant group. Israeli Defense Forces said Bik was involved in plotting attacks and recruiting new members. Hamas released a statement confirming the death of al-Bik, claiming he was one of the main overseers of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed over 1,200 people.

On Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli airstrike in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the Gaza Strip killed one and injured several others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. A separate strike at around the same time east of Gaza City killed another, officials at Shifa Hospital said.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond for comment on the afternoon strikes.

The deaths were the latest since a ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago.

Gaza refugee camp mourners hold mass funeral for dozens killed in war

A mass funeral was held Tuesday in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp for nearly 50 people killed during the war.

The remains, wrapped in white bags and draped with Palestinian flags, were recovered last week from the rubble of buildings destroyed almost three years ago.

Mass funerals have become more common in Gaza, where Israel has not allowed the heavy machinery needed to clear the rubble of destroyed buildings and recover the dead.

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

The hearing came as Republicans have pushed for Smith to himself be prosecuted, and offered a forum for them to assail him for what they contend were politicized prosecutions that unfolded during the 2024 presidential race. Democrats rallied to Smith's defense, eliciting testimony about the legal and factual basis for the criminal cases against the-then candidate and decrying the Trump administration's firing of prosecutors involved in the investigations.

Smith, for his part, defended his work in an hours-long Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — the latest congressional effort to revisit federal cases that accused Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 race and of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both were abandoned after Trump's 2024 election win.

“Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role. And I would just add that if you knew the people I worked with, they would not either," Smith said. He lamented what he called an unprecedented assault on the rule of law by the Trump administration, along with terminations of his team that he said had deprived the government of crucial expertise and made the country less safe.

“That has never happened in my career. I have never seen anything remotely like it in any Republican or Democratic administration,” he said.

The testimony did nothing to appease Smith's Republican critics, who called him a “villain," “dirtbag" and other pejorative names. In a particularly startling moment, one Republican senator even accused Smith of perjuring himself about his attendance at a basketball game in what appeared to be a misunderstanding over a team name.

The hearing focused heavily on subpoenas for lawmakers' phone records

Smith was pressed by Republican senators about his access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers as he investigated Trump’s efforts to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Prosecutors issued subpoenas for toll records of numerous Republican members of Congress who were contacted by Trump or his aides on Jan. 6, 2021, the day supporters of the president rioted inside the U.S. Capitol. Smith has said such subpoenas are common practice in investigations and were necessary in this instance to understand the “scope of the conspiracy” between Trump and his Republican allies.

The subpoenas, he said Tuesday, provided corroborating evidence that Trump and his alleged co-conspirators sought to exploit the violence of the day by invoking it to try to further delay the congressional certification of Biden's win.

“They were taking the fact that law enforcement officers had been brutally assaulted at this institution and using that to seek to delay the proceedings further in violation of the law,” Smith said. “It was an important part of our investigation.”

Toll records reveal the date, time and duration of phone calls between two parties but not the content of the communications.

There is no legal prohibition against obtaining the toll records of members of Congress, and Democrats pointed out that the first Trump administration Justice Department had sought records for representatives of their party during an investigation.

Nonetheless, the revelation that Smith’s team secretly obtained the records has animated Republican lawmakers, who consider it proof of overreach by the Biden administration Justice Department and the hard-charging prosecutor it picked as special counsel. Smith pointed out that he had consulted with and received approval from the Justice Department's elite Public Integrity Section.

In July, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, referred Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on allegations he lied at a previous hearing about the records collection — something Smith and his attorneys have vigorously disputed.

“I stand by my testimony before the House of Representatives,” Smith said Tuesday. “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others.”

Smith faced bitingly personal criticism from Republicans

Smith was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead investigations into Trump's efforts to reverse his election loss and Trump's retention of classified documents. Smith abandoned the prosecutions after Trump's 2024 win, citing Justice Department opinions that sitting presidents cannot be federally indicted.

Smith has remained a top target of retribution for Trump and his administration. Republicans on the committee followed that lead, confronting him in a hearing that frequently devolved into partisan sniping and name-calling. They sought to cast the prosecutions as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending procedures in pursuit of Trump.

“The Smith election case ultimately wasn’t just about Trump,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee chairman. “It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus.”

During one tense exchange, Republican Sen. John Kennedy grew exasperated as he asked whether the Biden White House instructed the Justice Department to prosecute Trump. Smith said he had “no idea about that,” and that the decision to prosecute Trump was his own.

In an effort to show Smith was being evasive, Kennedy asked Smith whether he believed in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. Smith said no.

“You make me want to throw up in my mouth,” Kennedy said.

In another notable moment, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Smith of traveling to Atlanta and attending a game for the city’s NBA team — the Hawks — in February 2024 while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with a special prosecutor in the Georgia 2020 election case.

But it appeared the Missouri senator got his teams confused. After appearing perplexed by the question and denying any travel to Georgia, Smith said the contest he actually attended was an Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball game in Maryland.

Schmitt appeared unbowed.

“You may think you’re a hero in this story, but let me tell you something: you’re the villain,” he said. “You will go down as a total dirtbag.”

Democrats, by contrast, used the hearing to affirm the legitimacy of the Trump investigations and draw out testimony on the scope of criminal conduct that Smith says he and his team found.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee's top Democrat, accused Republicans of spreading “baseless conspiracy theories” about Smith’s investigations in an effort to “whitewash” the history of Trump’s election loss and the subsequent Capitol attack.

“The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith, nonstop, are petty, personal and political. They are nothing but a smoke screen to distract from the president’s own clear, unlawful conduct," Durbin said.

Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that “such actions are absolutely unacceptable” and that Russia's charge d'affaires in Tallinn was being summoned to his ministry.

A fire broke out overnight on Aug. 15 at a building in the Estonian capital used by Milrem Robotics, but was quickly brought under control, the BNS news agency reported. On Aug. 17, two Latvian suspects were detained in neighboring Latvia, and a third followed the next day. The suspects were handed over to Estonia.

Milrem has supplied THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine.

The Estonian Internal Security Service said that it has concluded that the arson attack “was a deliberate and pre-planned act commissioned by Russian security services.”

It said in a statement that “the modus operandi of the Milrem attack is consistent with other acts of sabotage carried out in Europe on behalf of Russia,” adding that it “assesses that the attack is directly attributable to the Russian Federation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “such statements are unfounded, ill-considered, absolutely not reflecting the reality, not containing any substantiation whatsoever.”

“We cannot take such statements seriously, and we won’t,” Peskov said.

Moscow has been widely accused by Western officials of running a campaign of sabotage and disruption with the aim of undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations.

The Associated Press has tracked around 200 incidents of sabotage and malign activity across Europe blamed on Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

That includes organizing plots to set fire to warehouses, launching drones and trying to kill enemies abroad as well as stealing defense technology and carrying out cyberattacks on critical European infrastructure.

In a recent case that pointed to an escalation of such activity, Germany blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in early August using a drone laden with explosives.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal wrote on X that “we will not be intimidated.”

The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.

The Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions. But a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into free fall.

Meanwhile, Iran’s top diplomat said indirect negotiations with the United States aimed at reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz have become “more serious,” while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ chief spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi on Tuesday called on Americans to take to the streets and protest the conflict.

Iran's top diplomat raises the prospect of new talks

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media late on Monday that the “current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz,” the chokepoint of the war.

Araghchi made the comments shortly before departing New York — where he attended last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — and after meeting with Pakistani and Qatari mediators.

Araghchi said the Qatari intermediaries were expected to soon engage with the U.S. side.

“They are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final U.S. response will be conveyed to us,” Araghchi said. “If there is a response, the Qataris will convey it to us and a decision will be made in Tehran on that basis.”

Officials, including from the U.S., have confirmed to The Associated Press that mediators are working with Iran and the U.S. on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the strait.

The mediation efforts continue even after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in seven days if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz were underscored by a report Tuesday that a cargo vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” while moving through the strait on Monday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said it had received a delayed report from a third party.

The strike caused a fire on board that was extinguished, UKMTO said, and all crew members were reported safe, UKMTO said. The vessel, which wasn't identified, continued on its way, the report said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

US targets Iran’s military supply chain with new sanctions

The Trump administration said Tuesday that 10 individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan now face sanctions over accusations of procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran’s defense ministry as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

The United States is targeting people and companies around the globe that it accuses of being financial facilitators or enablers of Iran’s military supply chain, pushing ahead with economic warfare against Tehran at a time when renewed diplomacy between the two countries remains uncertain.

The latest action by the Treasury Department is part of the administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign, aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Iran sends a provocative message to the US public

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday made an appeal to everyday Americans to push their government to end the U.S. war against Iran, a provocative message that comes just weeks before critical midterm elections in the United States.

Mohebbi, the Guard spokesman, read a letter during a news conference in Iran's capital, Tehran, appealing to Americans to pressure their government and claiming that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave the Mideast.

Mohebbi’s remarks come as Trump’s Republican Party faces fierce headwinds as it looks to maintain control of Congress. But polling shows the war has darkened the American electorate’s mood ahead of the Nov. 3 election in which elevated gasoline prices, a byproduct of the conflict, loom large.

Mohebbi also accused the U.S. of using Iran’s nuclear program as a ruse to “plunder Iran’s wealth” and to turn the country “back into a colony.”

He added that the U.S. and others failed in their belief that military and economic action would get Tehran to submit and that Washington “has no choice but to acknowledge defeat and leave the region.”

“This is how the war will end,” he said.

Trump and his top aides are insistent that Iran’s economy cannot sustain a conflict much longer and have expressed confidence that Tehran will be forced to capitulate.

The U.S. president predicted soon after launching the war that the conflict would last a matter of weeks. More recently, he’s said that the war will likely end after the November elections in the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Monday appearance on Fox News said Iran was heading toward an economic “cataclysm.” Administration officials say that a combination of new sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian oil from going to market are having the intended effect.

“And so when you’re denying them money through oil sales and sanctions, you’re not just punishing them,” Rubio said. “You are preventing them from getting access to money that they will use to try and kill Americans and others around the world and their own people and build weapons and threaten the world and ultimately break out to a nuclear weapon program."

Major Saudi pipeline is once again operating

In a separate development, a crucial oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia that was shuttered by the kingdom earlier this month after coming under attack is once again operating, according to a Saudi government official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said operations are near pre-attack levels and that the pipeline should be running at full capacity within a few weeks.

The kingdom relies on the East-West Pipeline, which runs the breadth of the country, to move its crude from oil processing facilities on the Gulf to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.

Saudi Arabia blamed an Iran-backed militia in Iraq for the drone attack that forced the temporary shutdown of the 1,200-kilomeer (745-mile) pipeline.

Satellite imagery indicated tankers on Sunday loaded some 12.5 million barrels of oil at the Yanbu export terminal, which is supplied by the East-West Pipeline, and the nearby terminal at Al Muajjiz, the data and analytical firm Kpler said in a report.

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Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany contributed reporting.

La capital del país, Bangkok, se recuperaba tras días de lluvias torrenciales e inundaciones generalizadas, pero persistían algunas interrupciones. El principal aeropuerto de Tailandia, que había sufrido cancelaciones de vuelos, lidiaba con un gran retraso en la entrega de equipaje.

Según el portavoz del gobierno, Ekkapob Pianpises, los fondos aprobados, por 4.100 millones de baht, serían distribuidos por el Ministerio del Interior para compensar a las personas afectadas por las inundaciones en todo el país.

La lluvia se ha detenido en gran medida en Bangkok, pero algunos vecindarios, particularmente en el este, siguen anegados. El gobernador de la ciudad, Chadchart Sittipunt, indicó que el tráfico debería volver a la normalidad en la mayoría de las vías principales en un plazo de dos días, aunque en algunas zonas bajas podría tardar hasta siete días en secarse el pavimento.

Aunque se esperaba que Bangkok se mantuviera seca, el Departamento Meteorológico de Tailandia indicó que se pronosticaban fuertes lluvias en otras partes del país para el martes.

El ministro de Industria, Varawut Silpa-archa, señaló que las inundaciones habían causado daños estimados en 22 millones de baht (unos 655.000 dólares) a empresas en todo el país. Funcionarios informaron que residentes de 29 de las 76 provincias de Tailandia seguían afectados por las inundaciones el martes. De las 19 muertes, cuatro ocurrieron en Bangkok.

Caos en el aeropuerto de Bangkok tras cancelaciones de vuelos

Thai Airways, una de las principales aerolíneas que gestionan el equipaje en el aeropuerto Suvarnabhumi de Bangkok, pidió disculpas a los pasajeros afectados por un enorme retraso de maletas, que la compañía atribuyó en parte a la escasez de personal causada por las inundaciones.

El martes se veían cientos de maletas alineadas en la zona de llegadas. La Fuerza Aérea tailandesa informó que había enviado personal al aeropuerto para ayudar con el problema del equipaje.

“Me disculpo sinceramente con todos los pasajeros por las molestias ocasionadas. Thai Airways está haciendo todo lo posible para garantizar que los pasajeros se reencuentren con su equipaje lo antes posible”, declaró Chai Eamsiri, director general de la aerolínea.

La aerolínea también canceló más de 10 vuelos nacionales e internacionales el martes y el miércoles.

Los vendedores mantienen el ánimo pese a grandes pérdidas

En Bang Kapi, uno de los vecindarios más golpeados de Bangkok, los residentes se movían por calles anegadas y algunos usaban pequeñas embarcaciones para desplazarse.

Poco después de las inundaciones se instaló un mercado improvisado en una pasarela elevada justo afuera de un centro comercial, y vendedores de un mercado cercano, donde el agua seguía a la altura de las rodillas, se trasladaron allí para vender carne, verduras y hierbas. La música sonaba a todo volumen desde altavoces y los vendedores llamaban a los clientes que caminaban entre el agua o atravesaban el centro comercial para llegar hasta ellos.

Lon Cheng, un vendedor camboyano que ha vivido en Tailandia por más de 20 años, llamaba alegremente a los clientes y bailaba al ritmo de la música detrás de su puesto de verduras.

Contó que había sufrido enormes pérdidas por las inundaciones.

“El primer día... gasté unos 70.000 baht (unos 2.100 dólares) y solo pude vender por 20.000 baht (unos 600 dólares)”, relató. “Fue una gran pérdida, pero aun con pérdidas necesito vender”.

Los países vecinos también han sido golpeados por las inundaciones. En Myanmar, al menos 10 personas murieron y decenas estaban desaparecidas después de que las fuertes lluvias provocaran inundaciones generalizadas y aludes de tierra en la región costera meridional de Tanintharyi, informaron medios locales.

Las inundaciones repentinas también afectaron al menos a 10 provincias de Camboya, impactando a 44.889 familias y obligando a casi 4.000 personas a evacuar, según funcionarios de gestión de desastres. En el complejo de templos centenarios de Angkor, trabajadores preparaban compuertas de agua y sistemas de desvío para reducir el riesgo de inundaciones en el sitio arqueológico.

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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.

But in the Aquarium of the Pacific's frog nursery, hundreds of critically endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles live comfortably under the watchful eye of animal conservationists before being released into the wild. Once the most populous vertebrate in their mountain habitat, the wild population of these tiny amphibians had dwindled to fewer than 200 by 2021.

The Long Beach aquarium last month celebrated its release of 1,000 frogs since 2020, when a wildfire destroyed much of its remaining habitat. More than 650 frogs were released in August, and nearly 400 of those were raised at the aquarium. Captive rearing and breeding efforts under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began in the early 2000s.

“Although they’re pretty slow growers, given the right conditions, frogs are pretty successful, so my hope is that we can get them back,” said Erin Lundy, the aquarium’s conservation initiatives manager.

Mountain yellow-legged frogs play an important role in native ecosystems. They are a source of food for several animals and, as tadpoles, they help keep waterways clean by eating large amounts of algae and other decaying organic matter.

Fungus, invasive species and fire devastated the frog population

Their populations were first threatened in the late 1800s when nonnative trout that fed on tadpoles were introduced to their habitats for recreational fishing. In areas where the trout were removed, frog populations began to recover. They are also susceptible to chytrid fungus, which has caused the decline or extinction of hundreds of species of amphibians worldwide.

The mountain yellow-legged frog was dealt a devastating blow in fall 2020, when the Bobcat Fire destroyed about 95% of its habitat. Subsequent rainfall turned burn areas into mudslides and filled waterways with runoff. Scientists were able to salvage a handful of tadpoles from the area, which the aquarium raised and released.

The Aquarium of the Pacific oversees the tadpole-to-frog metamorphosis of hundreds of tadpoles sent from the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos, which bred them.

Lundy could barely contain her excitement when a shipment of nearly 500 tadpoles recently arrived from the San Diego Zoo. The tadpoles — some descended from frogs in the San Jacinto Mountains and others from the San Bernardino Mountains — were separated into two groups because of their slight genetic differences.

“These guys look amazing,” Lundy said. “These are really, really healthy tadpoles.”

Human care — and instinct — help ensure the frogs' survival

The tadpoles are fed four to five times a day and eat “ravenously” at this stage of development, Lundy said. Scientists spread a mixture of spirulina, fish food and calcium on small plates, allowing the tadpoles to graze as they would on algae-covered rocks in the wild.

Some of the tadpoles were already growing legs, their bodies wiggling furiously in the water as they swarmed the plate of food Lundy set down.

In another tank, a cluster of tiny frogs not yet ready to be released into the wild had stacked themselves under a heat lamp. They were only about two weeks out of water, she said.

“Hi babies!” she cooed as she lifted the lid of their enclosure to show them off.

When they have all four limbs and no more tail, they're eligible to be released. About 60% to 65% of the aquarium's tadpoles survive to this stage, which is considered high, Lundy said.

Lundy and her care team periodically change the water flow rates in the tanks so the baby frogs grow strong limbs and are accustomed to swimming in different conditions. She was feeding them live crickets and fruit flies, but threw in beetles to better emulate their diet in the wild.

Nevertheless, she used to worry they wouldn’t know what to do when they were released.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way you guys have any idea,’” Lundy said. “The good news is, I don’t always think frogs think that hard.”

During one release, she watched as one precocious mountain yellow-legged frog jumped from its container, landed on a rock and immediately ate a housefly — something it had never seen before.

It turns out, a frog just knows how to be a frog.

Russia has used new jet-powered drones that fly too fast and too high for Ukrainian ground-based air defenses to shoot down.

Ukraine is scrambling to keep pace by developing faster interceptor drones in the latest example of how the war has driven military innovation, but making and deploying new weapons takes months.

Russia’s ballistic missiles have also penetrated Ukraine's defenses as the country is desperately short of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptor missiles needed to stop Moscow’s ballistic attacks.

Patriot stockpiles are low, largely because of the Iran war, and Ukraine has received only small numbers of them this year despite President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleading. Ukraine said its air defenses shot down two ballistic missiles overnight, which suggested that Kyiv might have recently received more Patriots.

“Russia’s terror against Ukraine is intensifying by the day,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “This is Russia’s deliberate escalation instead of accepting Ukraine’s offers to cease fire, negotiate and end the war.”

Moscow says it wants a comprehensive peace settlement, including a Ukrainian surrender of land — a demand unacceptable to Kyiv — before agreeing to a ceasefire.

U.S. efforts to broker peace over the past year have made no significant progress. Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev was in Washington on Monday for talks with American officials about ending the war and possible U.S.-Russia energy initiatives once it's over, according to a U.S. official familiar with the visit who spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the official wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The official described the conversation as constructive.

Air defense needs are mounting with the approach of the bitter winter months, which in the years since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, have brought an escalation of strikes on Ukraine’s power grid. That strategy denies Ukrainian civilians heating and running water, among other things.

Ukraine is working to scale up production of domestic interceptor systems able to counter Russian jet-powered drones, with new systems already being tested and deployed with some combat units, Ihor Klymenko, head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said Tuesday.

The work is urgent, as Kyiv has been under almost constant attack with more than 235 air raid alerts since Aug. 27, lasting a combined 261 hours, Klymenko said.

F-16 jets have been able to shoot down the jet-propelled drones, although at a much greater expense. Ukraine is due to receive three of the fighter jets from Belgium by the end of the year, Zelenskyy announced Tuesday.

The unrelenting attacks have disrupted everyday life in Kyiv. The National University of Kyiv is switching to remote learning for the coming weeks because of fears for the safety of staff and students.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces hit data processing centers in Kyiv that Moscow says are used by the Ukrainian military, which is increasingly deploying artificial intelligence on the battlefield.

Other Russian targets included facilities in the Ukrainian capital and the Kyiv region where drones and cruise missiles were stored, as well as an electrical substation, a drone manufacturing facility, and port infrastructure facilities in the southern Odesa region, the ministry said.

Ukrainian authorities said the barrage hit apartment buildings, houses and public transportation in Kyiv, wounding one person.

Meanwhile, in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, teachers and students evacuated from their school just before four powerful glide bombs struck during classes, Zelenskyy said. The bombs also hit a residential area where two people were killed, he said.

In southern Odesa, the attack wounded eight people overnight and damaged residential buildings, civilian infrastructure, a school, an animal shelter and port infrastructure, local officials said.

In the face of the Russian blitz, Ukraine's long-range drones have targeted Russian missile and drone manufacturing plants and launch sites. Ukraine also has hit Russian oil refineries, causing fuel shortages.

The two armies are largely deadlocked on the long front line in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy says Moscow intends to increase recruitment for another battlefield push.

He said late Monday that another 10,000 North Korean troops are heading to Russia, adding to the 8,000 he said are already there.

Russia and North Korea have made no secret of their military cooperation.

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Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Michelle L. Price contributed to this report from Washington.

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

Police confirmed Tuesday that no explosives were found in three vans linked to the suspects, and said the decision to grant bail was grounded in “experience and strategy."

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday he was surprised that the five young British men who were arrested Sunday on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offenses near the RAF Fairford base were freed a day later.

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Trump said.

The base has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran. Counterterror detectives have said they were investigating “multiple lines of inquiry,” including whether the suspects had a link to Iran. Iran has denied involvement.

The head of U.K. Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, stressed that the suspects — all British nationals in their 20s — face stringent conditions and “absolutely remain under investigation.”

“Now I understand why this development was surprising to some, but I would like to reiterate that this is an investigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and strategy,” he said.

Taylor said people’s concerns about the incident were being “heightened by the international commentary that we are seeing.”

In an interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the case "clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor,” but did not name a specific country or give more details.

“I know a lot of people are disturbed by the news that some of these people have been released on bail, as some of the people are being investigated,” he added.

Police found no explosives in suspicious vehicles

A police cordon remained in place around three vans found close to the Fairford base on Tuesday, as armed police and counterterrorism officers continued to examine the scene.

A local farmer said she called police after seeing the vans blocking a road near the air base as she drove home in the early hours of Sunday. She said she came across a group of men, some with their faces covered, nearby, and that the men ran away when they saw her vehicle.

Earlier, army bomb-disposal experts used a robot to examine the vans. Taylor said “a quantity of petrol was recovered” from the vans, but no explosives.

Officials hint at possible Iran role

Taylor, the counterterror police chief, said lines of inquiry include whether the suspected offenses were committed by “proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.”

Investigators haven't concluded whether the incident was state-backed or what the motive was, but authorities have strongly hinted that Iran is possibly involved. They are also investigating a possible link to Russia or non-state militant groups. RAF Fairford has also been the focus of protests by anti-war campaigners.

Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said the U.K. “shouldn’t be cowed by saber rattling from Iran,” adding that “the Iranian regime is one that wishes harm to our country, our allies, and the freedom and democracy that we enjoy.”

The Iranian embassy denied the country's involvement in the suspected plot.

Iran and allied militant groups have been accused of plotting or carrying out attacks on U.S., British and Jewish targets in the past, allegedly acting through local proxies while denying responsibility.

The air base houses the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing and is a forward operating location for the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command. Fairford was used during the 1990 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq war and the U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran this year.

British officials have said the number of national security cases involving activity by hostile states, including Iran, increased by 50% in the six months to December 2025.

Questions about possible security or intelligence failures

It was unclear whether the arrested men had been on the security services' radars. Local residents described seeing heightened security around RAF Fairford in recent days, with heavy vehicles parked across entrance gates.

Trump said the suspects were detained following cooperation between the U.S. and Britain, and had been “under view” for some time. Police, however, said the arrests were triggered by a late-night call about the suspicious vehicles near the base.

The farmer who called the police, who didn't want to be named, alleged that her call to police may have foiled the suspected plot. She added that several hours passed between her call and when police “suddenly decided to evacuate people” in the area.

“But meanwhile, those vans were right in the middle of the village next to everyone’s houses and no one did anything,” she said.

Streeting, the defense secretary, said Monday that the farmer only had a “partial picture” of the operation.

Local lawmaker Roz Savage said there was “anger and anxiety” from residents, especially those who were evacuated from their homes and still haven’t been able to return.

“I have so many questions right now, more questions than answers," she said in a video message on X. “This should not have been allowed to happen.”

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Associated Press photographer Grant reported from Fairford, England.

El Centro Nacional de Huracanes de Estados Unidos (NHC, por sus siglas en inglés), con sede en Miami, informó que el huracán de categoría 2 impactó tierra justo al sur de Las Barrancas, México, unos 130 kilómetros (80 millas) al norte de Cabo San Lázaro y a unos 115 kilómetros (70 millas) al sur de Mulegé, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 175 kilómetros por hora (110 millas por hora), al dirigirse hacia el noreste a 20 km/h (13 mph).

Las autoridades mexicanas indicaron que Polo no dejó daños graves. Unas 700 personas permanecían en albergues el martes, pero se esperaba que regresaran a sus hogares, de acuerdo con autoridades federales.

El gobernador de Baja California Sur, Víctor Castro, dijo durante la conferencia matutina de la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum que el paso del huracán generó lluvias, pero no pérdida de vidas.

Para las 8:00 de la mañana hora local, Polo se desplazaba hacia el noreste a unos 28 km/h (17 mph) , con vientos máximos sostenidos cercanos a 120 km/h (75 mph) como huracán de categoría 1, detalló el NHC. El gobierno de México descontinuó varias alertas de huracán y tormenta tropical a lo largo de la costa.

El Centro de Huracanes indicó que Polo estaba cruzando el Golfo de California antes de internarse tierra adentro y se esperaba que dejara entre 15 y 30 centímetros (de 6 a 12 pulgadas) de lluvia en partes de Baja California Sur.

Los meteorólogos habían pronosticado que Polo azotaría el territorio continental mexicano con vientos que amenazaban la vida y con inundaciones repentinas previstas. Podría llevar lluvias intensas e inundaciones a partes del suroeste de Estados Unidos más adelante en la semana.

Por otra parte, el NHC informó que la tormenta tropical Rachel se desplazaba en paralelo a la costa de México la madrugada del martes. La tormenta se encontraba a unos 425 kilómetros (265 millas) al suroeste de Lázaro Cárdenas y a unos 570 kilómetros (355 millas) al sur de Cabo Corrientes, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 105 km/h (65 mph), al dirigirse al oeste-noroeste a 20 km/h (13 mph).

El huracán Nolo seguía siendo un huracán de categoría 3 el martes, pero se estaba alejando de Hawai.

Península de Baja California se prepara para Polo

El gobierno del estado mexicano norteño de Sonora anunció la noche del lunes que suspenderá todas las actividades “no esenciales”, incluidas la escuela, los deportes y el trabajo no esencial en la capital del estado y en más de una docena de municipios.

La Marina de México señaló que tenía personal listo a lo largo de la costa norte del Pacífico y desplegó tres embarcaciones que podrían transportar ayuda a comunidades costeras aisladas por Polo. Autoridades locales a lo largo de la península de Baja California indicaron que tenían albergues listos, que se suspenderán los viajes en la zona y se cerrarán los puertos en toda la región.

Una temporada de tormentas más intensa de lo normal en el Pacífico

La actividad de tormentas en el Pacífico ha estado por encima del promedio durante lo que ya es el pico de la temporada de huracanes, según Bob Oravec, meteorólogo principal del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. Explicó que ese patrón es coherente con los años de El Niño, cuando el Pacífico suele registrar más tormentas tropicales y huracanes.

Se esperaba que el impacto se extendiera al suroeste de Estados Unidos. Después de verse afectadas por la sequía y luego por inundaciones este año, Arizona, Utah, Nuevo México y Texas podrían recibir varios centímetros de lluvia. Los cañones áridos y las extensiones rocosas con poca vegetación favorecen las inundaciones repentinas, y el tiempo tropical añade más riesgo, afirmó Andrew Mangham, hidrólogo principal de servicios del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional en Albuquerque, Nuevo México.

Las fuertes lluvias ya estaban empapando partes de la región la mañana del martes y causando inundaciones.

“Nos alcanzará aquí en muy, muy poco tiempo. Y eso no es realmente lo que queremos. Queremos lluvias agradables, ya sabe, durante todo el verano”, comentó Mangham.

Se mantiene riesgo de inundaciones y deslaves en Hawai

El huracán Nolo el martes se había desplazado hacia el oeste más allá de las islas hawaianas y se ubicaba a unos 435 kilómetros (270 millas) al sur-sureste de French Frigate Shoals, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 175 km/h (110 mph), moviéndose hacia el norte, o 360 grados, a 15 km/h (9 mph).

Nolo empapó comunidades del sur y del sureste de la Isla Grande de Hawai durante el fin de semana. Integrantes de la Guardia Nacional de Hawai rescataron a 19 personas de las inundaciones durante el fin de semana, informó la Guardia Nacional de Estados Unidos en una publicación en Facebook.

Según el centro de huracanes, el huracán se acercaba al Monumento Nacional Marino Papahanaumokuakea, un área de conservación marina, y advirtió que la tormenta podría generar condiciones peligrosas en la zona a partir del martes.

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Janetsky reportó desde Ciudad de México. Eduardo Verdugo en Puerto San Carlos, México; Julie Walker en Nueva York; Mead Gruver en Fort Collins, Colorado; y Eugene Garcia y Gregory Bull en Hilo, Hawai, contribuyeron a este despacho.

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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 21-page filing to the court in the Southern District of Florida late Monday, and seen by The Associated Press, said UEFA was wrong to suggest the FIFA president sought to profit personally from the project that provoked a furor in July and was dropped within days.

UEFA later asked for authorization of discovery with three courts — including in Manhattan, against Josh Kushner’s New York-based investment firm, and Miami, where FIFA has an office base — aiming to help prepare a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for financial mismanagement.

“UEFA’s conduct demonstrates that its (court filing) was made in bad faith and for the purpose of harassment,” lawyers for FIFA argue in the document.

The filing also notes the Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to enter the FIFA presidential election contest next March in Morocco, where Infantino plans to seek a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

“This court should reject any attempt to influence FIFA’s presidential election based on these grounds,” FIFA lawyers wrote in the filing Monday.

UEFA led a global backlash to the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan and is preparing an election challenge to Infantino, who had seemed set to win unopposed until creating the biggest crisis of his near 11-year presidency.

Infantino’s plan was to create the FFE subsidiary and sell at least 20% of nonprofit FIFA’s future commercial rights for $4.2 billion to investors led by Josh Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

UEFA’s court filings one month ago claimed the value was a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit,” amid speculation he eyed a CEO-like role at the subsidiary on a higher salary than his current $6 million presidential pay package.

FIFA lawyers claimed UEFA “falsely asserts that Mr. Infantino sought to have a personal financial interest in the FFE project.”

The secretive plan was revealed July 28 by media reports and led FIFA’s now-ousted chief operating officer Kevin Lamour to criticize Infantino’s leadership. The FIFA boss’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner, also resigned in protest at the deal he said was bad for soccer.

Infantino later apologized for errors in how the sell-off plan was handled, and has since offered to open an independent external review of the soccer body’s governance.

FIFA has consistently said the commercial spinoff was intended to accelerate development of soccer worldwide, outside the wealthy power base of Europe.

Infantino open to pay members more cash from FIFA reserves

In a separate development Monday, Infantino wrote to the 211 member federations of FIFA accepting it could pay them more from cash reserves.

That follows a call this month by Infantino’s critics at UEFA, North American soccer body CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation that FIFA can afford to pay each of the 211 members a $10 million dividend from its cash reserves of about $6 billion.

Infantino had offered each member $20 million, from the intended $4.2 billion investment by Kushner and others, pending a mid-September deadline to approve the FFE project.

An Oct. 15 meeting of the 37-member FIFA Council, to be chaired by Infantino in Zurich, is set to debate proposals on finance and governance as he seeks to manage fallout from the divisive World Cup sell-off plan.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The Category 2 hurricane struck land just south of Las Barrancas, Mexico, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Cabo San Lazaro with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph).

About 700 people remained in shelters Tuesday. But they were expected to return to their homes, and no serious damage or deaths were immediately reported, according to authorities.

After the hurricane passed over the small fishing town of Puerto San Carlos on the Baja California peninsula, residents waded among downed trees through ankle-high water that flooded some homes. Seeing their roughened community largely intact brought relief to those who had prepared for the worst.

Shopkeeper Elbia María Bachomo, 40, picked through furniture strewn through her home. She and her three children had gathered their clothes quickly and left for a shelter Monday as water began flooding into their home.

Her husband was out on the water fishing for sardines when Polo hit. Bachomo said he was fortunate to escape alive.

“I thought, ‘Oh no, what are we going to come back to? We will be left with nothing.’ But we were lucky,” she said.

Polo was expected to produce 6 to 12 inches (about 15 to 30 centimeters) of rain across parts of Baja California Sur. By late Tuesday morning, a weakened Polo made a second landfall and moved inland in the Mexican state of Sonora after crossing the Gulf of California.

Forecasters predicted Polo would hit the Mexican mainland with life-threatening winds and flash floods. Sonora officials suspended all “nonessential” activities, including school, sports and nonessential work in the state capital and more than a dozen municipalities.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center reported Tropical Storm Rachel was moving parallel to Mexico's coast early Tuesday. The storm was about 265 miles (425 kilometers) southwest of Lazaro Cardenos with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (105 kph). It was moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

Southwest US sees heavy rains, floods

Bands of rain continued to sweep across the U.S. Southwest on Tuesday, causing desert rivers to surge and usually dry arroyos to rage with floodwater. Nearly all of the region was under flood watches as the complex system of tropical weather — with Polo the main event — spread northeast from Mexico.

Forecasters warned north-central New Mexico including Albuquerque and Santa Fe could feel the brunt, with as much as 3 to 4 inches (about 8 to 10 centimeters) of rain through Wednesday and possibly more.

“Definitely looking at the chances for urban flooding,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Carter Greulich in Albuquerque. “Don’t drive through flooded roadways. Remain out of the arroyos, especially in our urban areas.”

The system made a brisk pass through Phoenix early Tuesday, dumping up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain before tapering. North of the city, a truck was swept away in a wash in the New River area. The driver got out safely, Maricopa County sheriff’s officials said.

The rocky, desert area typically gets less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain annually with little vegetation to soak it up, making flash flooding a perpetual risk.

Near Zion National Park in Utah, the East Fork of the Virgin River raged with chocolate floodwater seen carrying a shipping container downstream.

In the small town of Orderville, Utah, where flooding began Monday night, Sabrina Dubay was driving home when her partner called and told her to stay away.

“The river came in and swept around the entirety of our house,” Dubay said, adding that her partner told her, “We’re about to lose everything.”

A camper, snowmobile trailer, and other items from Dubay’s yard were swept away by the river. Neighbors and friends arrived to dig a trench around the house as the water rose around their home.

“It was coming in through our front doors,” she said.

Flooding also was reported in southern New Mexico. An unusually soggy September across the region set the stage: When the ground is saturated, rainfall has nowhere to go but run off.

“Runoff is likely going to start much quicker and lead to those flooding impacts quicker,” Greulich said.

Forecasters said the flood risk would move into parts of the central U.S. beginning late Tuesday and into Wednesday. Starting late Wednesday, widespread heavy rain was expected to hit the Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio areas. Life-threatening flash flooding was possible, with low-lying areas especially vulnerable.

Parts of west Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa were under flood watch through Thursday, with some areas expecting up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain.

Pacific storm activity greater than normal this season

In the central Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Nolo remained a dangerous Category 3 hurricane on Tuesday as it edged away from Hawaii after drenching parts of the Big Island over the weekend.

Pacific storm activity has been above average during what is already the peak of hurricane season. That pattern is consistent with El Niño years, when the Pacific often sees more tropical storms and hurricanes.

Nolo was about 270 miles (435 kilometers) south-southeast of French Frigate Shoals with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph) moving north, at 9 mph (15 kph).

The hurricane was approaching Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a marine conservation area, according to the hurricane center.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Eduardo Verdugo in Puerto San Carlos, Mexico, Julie Walker in New York, Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix, Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Eugene Garcia and Gregory Bull in Hilo, Hawaii, contributed to this report.

The minister's remarks come as concerns mount that President Donald Trump could halt arms sales to Taiwan. China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a May summit in Beijing between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping. The United States paused the $14 billion arms deal after that meeting.

“As for arms sales, we are in continuous discussions with the Americans on this,” Taiwan's Defense Minister Wellington Koo told reporters in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. “We haven’t received any notice of any changes to sales or our cooperation.”

Koo said he received assurances from the U.S. side that its policy toward the island remained unchanged.

Koo also said that 66 advanced F16-V fighter jets have reached a production stage where they’re ready to be delivered. The jets for Taiwan were supposed to be delivered in 2024, according to local media, but the project has been delayed by the pandemic and production line issues.

U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are a major source of tension between Beijing and Washington because China claims the island as its territory. While the U.S. does not formally recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the island's largest informal ally and bound by law to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself.

Taiwan says it purchases arms so that it can defend itself in case of an invasion by China. China’s People’s Liberation Army sends fighter jets and ships toward the island almost daily.

Analysts said they expect U.S. arms sales to continue, though there may be a pause in the short term.

“There are two more summits between the U.S. and China scheduled within this year, so I think neither side really wants to break things off, and the Taiwan issue will be put aside temporarily,” Tamkang University professor Ma Chun-wei said. However, he said, Taiwan remains key from a security perspective, and "arms sales to Taiwan will still be inevitable going forward.”

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AP videojournalist Taijing Wu contributed to this report from Taipei, Taiwan.

The journalist is a prince who had long been employed as a broadcaster and editor with Uganda Broadcasting Corp. He picked the regnal name of Edward Rukidi Nyabongo. He performed rituals overnight, was ushered into the palace and was formally unveiled to his followers on Tuesday.

Traditional kingdoms were banned in the 1960s, after Uganda's independence from British colonial rule, by a republican president who said that he wanted to unify the country. They were restored in 1993.

Traditional leaders don't wield any formal authority in this East African country and are legally barred from engaging in partisan politics. But they wield immense authority among their people as guardians of traditional culture.

The coronation ceremony in Fort Portal, a remote town in western Uganda and not far from the Congo border, was watched by thousands in person and on televised broadcasts. Speaking at the event, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged traditional leaders to promote local languages.

In a brief speech at his coronation, Nyabongo pledged to be a unifying figure for all his people. Before his enthronement, the monarch told the local New Vision newspaper that “heritage must be matched by discipline and hard work. My family never let me treat royal descent as an entitlement; it was presented to me as a duty to prepare for.”

Nyabongo wasn't particularly high in the line of succession, but elders within the kingdom’s ruling clan, known as the Babiito, selected him from a pool of eligible princes after King Oyo Nyimba’s death from cancer at age 34 in August without a publicly known heir.

The queen mother, Best Kemigisa, disputed that decision and charged that the written will of King Oyo hadn't been followed in the selection of Nyabongo.

Kemigisa said that Oyo left behind a young son whose identity would be unveiled at the right time, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Nyabongo and the decision of the Babiito to choose him. Local media cited scenes of disagreement — including a brief squabble over custody of the king’s remains — at Oyo’s Sept. 12 funeral.

Although Oyo’s alleged son has yet to be revealed, purported photos of a “Baby Oyo” have flooded social media, giving hope to devotees of the deceased monarch. But critics say that the child, if he exists, should have been introduced to the kingdom's elders while his father was still alive.

“They have demonstrated that these are the norms of the kingdom,” Nicholas Sengoba, a prominent political analyst in Uganda, said of the Babiito's selection of Nyabongo. “Many of these positions may not be popular.”

Oyo was crowned in 1995, at the age of 3, after his father’s death. He was a curious child in colorful robes and an object of adoration for his hundreds of thousands of followers.

At his coronation, he went through a series of tribal rituals and was led into the royal cemetery to perform a coming-of-age ceremony: successfully tossing nine coffee beans into his father’s tomb.

Oyo once held the unofficial title of the world’s youngest king, a mesmerizing figure even for world leaders introduced to him at national events, including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was one of those who befriended the Tooro royal family as if they were part of his extended family. Gadhafi made multiple trips to Uganda and supported Oyo and Kemigisa for years before Gadhafi’s death in October 2011.

Oyo was guided by regents appointed by the kingdom until he became an adult at 18.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The 1,476 people being sent back are among 5,000 Myanmar nationals who will be repatriated in stages from Malaysia, where 10,388 Myanmar nationals were being held at immigration detention depots nationwide as of Aug. 15, according to Malaysia’s Home Ministry.

Buses believed to be carrying Myanmar returnees arrived at a stadium in Manjung town in Malaysia’s central Perak state early Tuesday, amid tight security. Ships believed to be from Myanmar were docked at the nearby Lumut naval base.

Home Ministry official Makhzan Mahyuddin was quoted by national Bernama news agency as saying the returnees comprised 1,370 men, 79 women, 20 boys and seven girls, aged between eight and 60.

The ministry said they would be sent back safely on two Myanmar navy warships and a hospital ship. It is unclear if any of the returnees were minority Muslim Rohingya, who are rejected by the Myanmar government. The ministry didn't provide further details of their identities and circumstances, but stressed their return was voluntary.

“This move also sends a clear signal that the government is serious about addressing irregular migration and the issue of undocumented foreign nationals through law enforcement, repatriation and more systematic management and data collection,” the ministry said in a statement.

Many refugees in Malaysia come from Myanmar's Rohingya minority

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and rights groups slammed the repatriation, saying the security and humanitarian situation in parts of Myanmar remains volatile and returnees could face serious risks such as persecution and forced military conscription in an active war zone.

Myanmar is involved in an armed conflict and political instability following the military’s seizure of power in 2021.

Malaysia is home to about 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR, including about 126,000 Rohingya who make up one of Southeast Asia’s largest refugee communities. Despite hosting them, Malaysia is not a party to the U.N. Refugee Convention and treats refugees as undocumented migrants.

The government recently launched a system to register refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia and to build a biometric database, as it seeks to manage and regulate the population independently from the UNHCR.

Rohingya have faced growing public hostility in Malaysia due to their growing numbers, fueled by concerns over jobs, public services and security.

Malaysia says Myanmar must accept the refugees' return

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has defended the repatriation policy as a diplomatic effort to find a long-term solution, saying Malaysia cannot host refugees indefinitely and Myanmar must take responsibility for its citizens.

Anwar said he plans to invite Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing to Malaysia to discuss the long-running refugee and undocumented migrant issue that has dragged on for decades.

“I am inviting him to say that we can be friends and trade, we can accept Myanmar, but Myanmar must accept them back,” he said in a podcast posted online Sept. 16. “To me, that’s better diplomacy than just shouting angrily at Myanmar.”

Myanmar Foreign Ministry official Han Win Aung has said the plan follows repatriation operations in 2021 and 2022, when Myanmar received more than 1,100 of its nationals stranded in Malaysia.

He said the repatriation involves genuine citizens and is not about bringing back the Rohingya people, who are not recognized as an ethnic group in Myanmar and denied citizenship.

Malaysia's Home Ministry said in the statement that subsequent repatriations would proceed once identity verification, documentation, logistics and operational coordination between the two countries are finalized.

Two advocacy groups, Amnesty International and Asylum Access, in a joint statement urged the government to halt repatriations, saying the government's new system must not be used to fast-track unlawful deportations. Rights groups have also urged the government to restore the UNHCR’s access to detention centers to screen vulnerable refugees.

Hurts was sacked twice and threw an interception during Monday night's 27-7 loss to the Chicago Bears. The Eagles were limited to 62 yards of offense in the second half and 248 for the game.

“We just got to take this brick by brick,” Hurts said. “So it’s an opportunity to learn from it. We have to choose to learn from it, and that was my message to everyone. Nobody’s gonna wait on us to do the things that we need to do. So we just gotta all dedicate ourselves to this cause, and keep pushing forward.”

Hurts directed Philadelphia (2-1) to two wins in the first two weeks of the season, throwing for 467 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions. He tossed a 3-yard TD pass to Darius Cooper with 9 seconds left in a dramatic 24-20 victory at Tennessee last weekend.

But Hurts was held in check by Chicago, going 16 for 25 for 153 yards. He also had four carries for 25 yards and a touchdown.

Trailing 7-0 in the second quarter, the Eagles drove into Bears territory. Facing a second-and-4 from the 15, Hurts absorbed a late hit by linebacker D’Marco Jackson along the sideline. Right tackle Lane Johnson was called for holding, and the down was replayed because of the offsetting penalties.

But Hurts was pulled off the field to be checked for a concussion. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni yelled at Jackson from the sideline after the big hit on his quarterback.

“I love our guys, and so the emotion of the game probably got the better of me today,” Sirianni said, “and I have to learn from that. In that particular moment, I have to be more steady in that situation. ... I didn't like how I handled that."

Andy Dalton came in and handed the ball off to Saquon Barkley for a 14-yard run that set the Eagles up with first-and-goal at the 1. But two more carries for Barkley went nowhere, and Dalton was intercepted by Dillon Thieneman in the back of the end zone on third down.

Hurts said he was waiting for clearance to go back in when Dalton turned it over.

“I was just waiting for the thumbs-up,” Hurts said. “I felt fine, we already checked it. I don’t know the extent of the process. Obviously wish we could have expedited things. I know I felt fine.”

Hurts scored on a quarterback sneak as time expired in the first half, but Chicago controlled the final two periods.

Hurts was picked off by T.J. Edwards on a fourth-and-5 play from the Chicago 46 in the final minute of the third. Edwards dropped a potential interception on third down on Philadelphia’s first drive of the second half.

“Situationally, I’ve got to play better ball,” Hurts said. "Third down is a very big down for us. I think that’s been a very big down for us in these first two games. Today, we were not good enough, and I wasn’t good enough. Fourth down, I wasn’t good enough as well. We were able to put some drives together. Situationally, I’ve got to be better and find ways to produce some points.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in afternoon trading after wavering between modest gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 119 points, or 0.2%, as of 3:05 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite edged up 0.1%.

Major indexes shifted lower after a quiet morning as rising bond yields undercut much of the heavy lifting being done by several technology behemoths. Nvidia, the market’s most influential stock, gave up an early gain and was down 0.2%. Broadcom also gave up much of its gain and was up most recently by 2%.

Stocks remain under pressure as oil prices swing sharply as the U.S. war with Iran drags on, helping to push Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years.

The price of Brent crude oil in the most actively traded part of the oil market fell 1.7% to settle at $96.16 a barrel. It briefly climbed above $100 on Monday before prices eased a bit, but it is still well above the roughly $72 it cost before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mediators continued to work with the United States and Iran on reaching a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend rejected an offer from Tehran to reopen the key waterway.

Energy stocks had some of the broadest losses. Exxon Mobil fell 1%.

Overall, rising oil prices have been fueling a jump in Treasury yields. Higher yields threaten to slow economic growth by making borrowing more expensive for individuals and businesses. They can also hurt prices for stocks, especially those seen as expensive, including many technology companies that have soared because of the frenzy around AI technology.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.26% from 5.24% late Monday, touching its highest level since 2002, according to Tradeweb, well before the financial crisis and Great Recession sent yields toward zero.

Shares of CarMax rose 6.3% after the used car dealership chain reported soaring second-quarter revenue and delivered profits that easily beat Wall Street expectations. The company also announced changes to its executive leadership.

Oura, the maker of wearable digital health accessories and jewelry, said Tuesday that it was postponing its initial public offering, despite strong demand, due to uncertainty in the IPO market.

Markets in Europe were mixed and markets in Asia closed mostly lower.

Wall Street will see several big economic updates this week that could help investors and the Federal Reserve get a better sense of where inflation is headed and how households and businesses are dealing with high prices.

The latest update on the jobs market Tuesday showed that U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in August. The Labor Department's monthly report said they slid to 7.08 million openings, marking a drop from July and registering below what economists had forecast. It also showed that layoffs fell and fewer people are quitting their jobs.

The jobs market has been resilient even as stubbornly high inflation squeezes businesses and households. Wall Street will get a broader update on Friday, when the U.S. releases its monthly employment report for September.

Households have been facing higher prices on everything from gasoline to clothing as the U.S. war with Iran curtails oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The latest update on consumer confidence from business group The Conference Board shows a slump in September. Consumer confidence dipped to its lowest level in 12 years.

“Americans feel jobs are more scarce and are pulling back on plans for homes, cars, and big-ticket purchases, emitting a warning sign for holiday spending even though layoffs data show employers aren’t yet cutting workers to match the gloom,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial, in a research note.

Stubbornly high inflation has been sapping consumer confidence and pressuring the Fed, which recently raised its benchmark interest rate in an effort to cool prices. The latest update of the central bank's preferred measure of inflation will be released on Wednesday. Economists expect the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, to show that the rate of inflation rose 3.7% August, matching July's reading.

Inflation rates have remained stubbornly above 3% most of the year and that is well above the Fed's target rate of 2%. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate again at its next meeting in October.

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Associated Press business writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Bronny is still with the Los Angeles Lakers after his 41-year-old father's departure for the Philadelphia 76ers. The younger James enters his third NBA season this week still working to win a rotation role with the team that drafted him in 2024 in the family's adopted hometown.

Bronny and LeBron spent the past two seasons as the NBA's first father-son teammates, an achievement LeBron said was comparable to any of his championship rings. But the top scorer in league history decided his hunger for another title was greater than his desire to stay by Bronny's side.

In his first extensive public comments on this unusual situation Monday, Bronny confirmed he isn't the least bit angry or disappointed by his dad's departure.

He's already well aware that when your father is LeBron James, many things are bigger than you.

“Happy for him, and excited for where their season goes,” Bronny said. “I’m excited to see him on Christmas, excited to play against him on Christmas. It’s going to be good.”

The 76ers visit the Lakers on Dec. 25.

While LeBron’s enthusiasm for being an engaged father to his three children is well-documented, Bronny said he didn't have extensive discussions with his father about the move.

“We’re men of very little words when it comes to talking about business and what we’re going to do and how we feel about each other,” Bronny said with a smile. “It wasn’t really much, to be honest with you. He’s got his own path and I’ve got my own, so he knows that I want to make a name for myself and want to continue my career and keep growing as a player, and he knows I’ll want to focus on that, so he decided to (move).”

And while LeBron meets his new teammates and settles into Philadelphia this week, his son is getting back to work with the Lakers. LeBron won't be a constant presence in the locker room and on the road to dispense guidance and leadership to his son — and he won't be around for Bronny's 22nd birthday next week, either.

That's all fine for Bronny, who wasn't fazed while he went through his first Lakers media day without his father's massive presence and booming voice nearby.

“Feels like he’s not here,” Bronny said at the Lakers' training complex. “I don’t really have an opinion on that. That’s my dad. I’ve spent almost 22 years with him, so just another experience that I’m going to be a part of, and I’m excited how it’s going to feel during the season. So I’m looking forward to it.”

LeBron said this week that he left the Lakers to chase his fifth championship ring. The unspoken part of that declaration is James’ apparent belief he’s closer to a title in Philadelphia than in Los Angeles, where his Lakers won just one playoff round in the past three seasons.

But Bronny is optimistic about the Lakers' chances to build an exciting — and pointedly younger — core around NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic and prolific guard Austin Reaves. New center Walker Kessler should be a sharp upgrade under the opponents' basket and on lob finishes, and he's just one of nine new players hoping to win roles with Los Angeles.

“Everyone is young, so there’s a lot of energy flowing around, and I think we feed off each other,” Bronny said. “I don’t know yet, because we haven’t played a game, but because we’re young and we’re finding a way to get close to each other, I think we can feed off each other’s energy. There’s going to be a lot of guys that can go out and give full effort, turn up the game, and we can probably play fast because of how young we are. … We have a good chance of making it far.”

LeBron ended this family partnership right when Bronny appeared to be on the verge of breaking through to a regular role. Bronny played regularly down the stretch last season and into the playoffs while Doncic and Reaves were sidelined by injury, teaming up with his father for significant minutes in the Lakers' first-round upset of the Houston Rockets.

Bronny wants to continue his growth as a secondary ballhandler and a point-of-attack defender, two roles in which he excelled for long stretches last spring. His father won't be around for tips and critiques, but Bronny is ready to figure out some things on his own — and with ample help from his teammates and coaches, of course.

“I think I did play my role pretty well in the Houston series, and that’s something I can grow off of,” Bronny said. “Showing up every day and playing my game and being relentless both sides of the floor and making sure I’m getting my teammates involved and disrupting on the defensive end of the floor.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

These things have often been true in recent years when world leaders orate at one another during their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, which concluded Monday. This year, though, the discourse seemed even more urgent than usual. Across the words of more than 150 speeches, two things emerged as clear: Many leaders deeply want the world body to work. And many have concluded that it isn't.

“Where are the United Nations?” Alexandra Hill Tinoco, the foreign minister of El Salvador, asked Monday. “Do we have an organization that is still relevant?”

That was the question that hung over the weeklong gathering as leader after world leader — in different words, with different details — probed at the very heart of the organization that was founded eight decades ago to prevent a conflict like World War II from ever happening again.

At the heart of the U.N. ethos sits a word that most regular people never use: “multilateralism.” The optimistic principle — that problems that cross borders, regions and oceans can be solved by cooperation and shared power — is a potent one, advocated by almost everyone (the United States under Donald Trump being a notable exception).

But that flavor of multilateralism was conceived and built in a different era, when globalized challenges like pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence did not sit quite so front and center. Even today, those that hold the true power — the ability to veto anything that comes before the U.N. Security Council without giving a reason — are the same five nations given it at the end of World War II.

“Multilateralism is under siege," said Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioʻo, Samoa's deputy prime minister.

It's not surprising, then, that the theme of this year's leaders' meeting at the General Assembly was “restoring trust.” From the barrage of remarks about it being broken, it seemed obvious that something needs to give in order to, as Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf put it, create “a shared home rather than an organization held hostage to the dominance of power politics.”

“There are problems,” said the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Vijitha Herath, “which no country can solve alone.”

There's a close relationship between multilateralism and trust

One sticking point that the scores of speeches revealed was the scratchiness between two vital notions — multilateralism and sovereignty. Nations from North Korea to the Marshall Islands invoked high principles to say that all must work together while simultaneously underscoring that they will never allow their sovereign rights to be violated. This produces contradictions that remain unsolved.

“We have never been so connected, yet we are increasingly unable to trust one another," said Grand Duke Guillaume, Luxembourg's head of state.

The tradition of American individualism plays a role here, as embodied by Trump's consistently aggressive tone toward the U.N. To many in the United States, multilateralism hints at dark echoes of “one world government” and the notion of giving up power — and thus liberty — to other stakeholders. This trait, while often recessive in U.N. meetings, is true of many nations that fear incursion, war and domination.

In reality, though, multilateralism is the way the world works today — economically and, arguably, politically. From AI to rising temperatures, many nations just aren't equipped to go it alone. And while cooperation on AI was a centerpiece this year, so too was the outlook that nations such as China offered — that each country must make its own decisions about the emerging technology.

“States alone cannot make progress," said Christophe Mirmand, Monaco's minister of state.

The hue and cry for multilateralism, always present when smaller nations meet larger ones, has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, when most of the meetings were held remotely. It has been amplified further as members — particularly island nations, whose very existence is threatened by warming oceans — increasingly assert that the world is happening at them rather than with them.

If bigger countries with different interests can make all the major decisions on problems and opportunities that transcend map borders, these smaller nations say, then they will be left in the dust. The only answer, they say, is a United Nations that truly equalizes voices and has the fortitude to make that principle stick.

“The message to small nations is clear: Be as sovereign as we allow you to be," said Philip Edward Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas. "A sovereignty that requires permission is not a sovereignty.”

Fixing the imbalance of political oomph is difficult

Whenever the United Nations gathers, its origin story is always lurking in the background: World War II. Nowhere is that more evident than when talk of expanding the Security Council and its permanent members comes up.

The 15-member Security Council, which holds the U.N.'s only real authority, has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France — that hold veto power. While other nations rotate in and out, their power is limited; they can neither veto nor prevent vetoes. Those five nations have held the power since the beginning (in Russia's case, as the Soviet Union). For so many other nations, that's not OK.

“The veto is a relic," said Matthew Wale, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, whose existence is threatened by climate change. Many island nations want permanent representation on the council. José Antonio Kast, Chile's president, put it more forcefully: “We simply cannot continue to play by the same rules of an order that was established in 1945 in 2026.”

The notion of permanent representation for Africa, which currently holds three rotating seats, has long been a goal of African leaders, who speak about it every year. They're getting louder, and they're getting more adamant.

“Africa can no longer remain on the sidelines of situations that shape its destiny,” said Constant-Serge Bounda, the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister. He and others want two permanent Security Council seats for Africa — with veto power. “Africa is not asking for a favor,” he said. “It is claiming its rightful place.”

Taken together, these various outcries point back to the theme of the meeting. Everyone respects the United Nations. Everyone sees potential in its optimistic, egalitarian vision of a fraternity of nations. But even as they praise the possibilities, the fact that so many leaders denounce the reality left an echo after this week that is hard to ignore: Stop talking. Start doing. Yes, let all voices be heard. But then act.

Or, as Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Austria's minister for European and International Affairs, framed it: “The United Nations was not created to discuss international problems. It was created to solve them." To many who ascended to the rostrum this past week, that simply is not happening.

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Ted Anthony has overseen Associated Press coverage of the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting of leaders since 2018 and has been covering international affairs since 1994.

Republicans haven't abandoned the Southern battlegrounds, which Donald Trump carried narrowly in the 2024 presidential race, though they are shifting greater resources to states they see as more competitive. The party now is spending heavily to defend reliably Republican Texas, and Trump is planning to campaign for the Republican incumbent in Ohio, both places Trump won easily in 2024.

Some Republicans also have become more vocal in their complaining that Trump has squandered an opportunity to more comfortably hold off Democrats this fall. Among their grievances, they say the president failed to bring the unpopular war in Iran to a close, has dismissed the pinch of high fuel prices and engaged late in the midterm campaigns.

And though Democrats must still win several seats Republicans hold to win back the majority, the GOP is looking more at protecting seats they already hold than picking up Georgia, and they are signaling serious problems in North Carolina.

“There is a Republican turnout problem due to the administration's failure to address the economic concerns of voters,” North Carolina Republican strategist Paul Shoemaker said of the state's U.S. Senate race.

GOP Senate leaders look beyond Georgia

Republican Senate campaign leaders are looking past Georgia businessman Mike Collins' challenge of first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff to states they viewed as more competitive to focus future spending, according to two Republican Senate campaign officials familiar with Senate leadership's thinking. The campaign officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Ossoff has swamped the successful trucking company executive in fundraising. Collins has also struggled to broaden his support beyond Georgia's Republican base.

Despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune's two-day campaign and fundraising trip to Georgia this month, some local party leaders were publicly pessimistic.

"He just doesn’t have what it takes to beat Ossoff,” said Tim Waters, Peach County Republican Party chair. “It’s hard enough trying to beat an incumbent, and you have the president of the same party in a tough midterm, right? I don’t think he’s got much of a shot.”

Republicans had viewed Georgia early in the 2026 campaign as a potential firewall, should Democrats win in a critical number of states where Republican seats are on the ballot. Democrats must win a net of four seats to win back the majority.

But Ossoff has already spent $57 million in advertising and had $13 million reserved through the election, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. And while outside groups aligned with Collins had spent more than $52 million, AdImpact shows, Collins' campaign confirmed it had no advertising time immediately reserved.

Tillis is among the NC Republicans warning about Senate race

Retiring Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis stopped short of suggesting GOP candidate Michael Whatley's chances of holding the seat for the party had vanished, but implied it was time to take a hard look at how long to continue spending heavily against Democratic former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper.

“We've got to place our bets on the candidates that are the best run, either ahead or within striking distance,” Tillis told reporters Monday in the Capitol. “You've got to change your posture going into the last — we've got 36 days.”

Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman, has been a darling of Trump, who campaigned for him this month. But enthusiasm for Trump seems to have fallen even with a number of Republicans who voted for him, said Shoemaker, a Tillis adviser. Trump narrowly won North Carolina in 2024.

“The blue-collar, working-class voters that Donald Trump brought to the Republican Party is the one that's being most impacted by higher energy prices, and it's dampened their enthusiasm to turn out and vote,” Shoemaker said.

Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP's leadership super PAC, had $19.5 million in advertising booked in North Carolina, having spent $30.4 million to date.

“Do I think Roy Cooper is going to win the race? I absolutely do,” said Michele Woodhouse, former Republican chair for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District and a devout Trump supporter.

“Roy Cooper, for Republicans, is the worst Democrat candidate who could be running for this seat," Woodhouse said. “He’s never lost in a statewide race. He’s very popular.”

Senate GOP PAC spends heavily in Texas as Trump heads for Ohio

In Texas, where Democrats have not won a Senate election since 1988, Republicans' Senate Leadership Fund is spending more than it is in any of the states it set out to defend early in the year. The group this month pumped more than $100 million into advertising in Texas to back up state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in a race viewed as very competitive.

Trump endorsed Paxton over four-term incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary. GOP campaign leaders considered Paxton a potential drain on Republican resources because he has for years faced legal, ethical and personal questions. They include a felony indictment, impeachment charges and extramarital affairs, though Paxton was never convicted.

Senate GOP leaders had suggested Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., would carry a good portion of the advertising load after Paxton beat Cornyn in the May GOP Senate runoff. Neither the National Republican Senatorial Committee nor SLF had included spending on Texas in its midterm budget.

As of Monday, MAGA Inc. has committed more than $20 million to ads supporting Paxton so far this month, compared with the $124 million from SLF.

Should Democrats win North Carolina and Texas, they would only need to win two of the remaining competitive Republican-held seats — in Alaska, Iowa, Maine and Ohio — as well as hold competitive Democratic-held seats in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire to capture the majority.

Trump plans to visit Ohio on Saturday to support Sen. Jon Husted as the Republican tries to fend off a competitive challenge from Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown. The president plans to campaign with Husted in Vandalia, near Dayton in southwest Ohio.

Senate Republican campaign leaders have complained that spiking gas prices, a result of the seven-month-long war with Iran, are among the issues weighing against candidates that Trump has exacerbated.

Campaigning with Whatley last week, Trump called higher fuel prices “a very inexpensive price to pay” for preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Though gas prices are near historic highs, they are still below the nationwide record set in 2022.

It's prompted some candidates, such as Iowa's GOP Senate nominee, Rep. Ashley Hinson, to speak out.

“Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” she said last week.

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds dismissed that the Republican majority was slipping away, but suggested senators needed to act on fuel prices.

“We have to stay focused on the fact that we know that gas prices are too high, and diesel is way too high," the Republican said.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Sloan from Washington. AP reporter Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

Much of Reed's first three decades of life had been shaped by abuse and neglect: first, she says, at the hands of her biological mother, then in foster care and, when she became an adult, in a series of romantic relationships. She had lost custody of three older children a decade earlier, in part because she lacked stable housing. By March 2022, when she had finally landed an apartment in a transitional housing program, she had lost all faith in herself.

None of that was apparent this September, when she traveled to the nation's capital to tell members of Congress how her life changed when she enrolled her children in Head Start.

Reed says Head Start helped her heal from three decades of trauma and abuse. Staff connected her to job training, taught her how to be a better mother, helped her advocate for her son’s disability accommodations at his elementary school, and urged her to join the council that oversees Head Start across Spokane County, Washington. She was elected the council's president last year.

Head Start was, Reed says, “a warm blanket in a time where I constantly felt cold.”

That could be changing.

Last month, President Donald Trump’s administration proposed gutting Head Start regulations that spell out how programs must support families with financial, education or housing concerns. Many of the services now mandated would become optional.

Head Start was founded to help both kids and parents

Reed’s transformation was no fluke: Head Start’s services for low-income parents have been central to its model for decades.

“Being told that somebody believes in you and thinks you’re a good parent after so much loss — it didn’t feel real at first,” Reed said. “It took probably a year or two for me to be like, ‘OK, maybe I am. Maybe I just went through something that was really hard, but I was doing the best that I could.’”

Head Start, a six-decade-old preschool program, works to lift children and their families out of poverty. Its two-generation approach is rooted in the idea that improving caregivers' lives is as essential to a child's success as what happens in the classroom. Parents can also serve on committees that help set the direction of their kids' preschool.

“It’s always had that family connection,” said Loukisha Smart-Pennix of the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, which oversees several Head Start centers. “That’s been part and parcel of what Head Start was built on.”

Smart-Pennix said she's proof the approach works. When she was in the program as a preschooler in the 1970s, Head Start connected her mother with a factory job. Two decades later, when Smart-Pennix enrolled her son, the center employed her and pushed her to go to college. By the time her daughter was old enough to enroll, she earned too much to qualify. (Generally, families qualify for Head Start if their income is at or below the federal poverty line, currently $33,000 for a family of four.)

Under current regulations, Head Start asks parents to set goals — to return to school, to buy a home — and then helps them stay on track to achieve them. Parents have described how Head Start has helped them stay sober, finish school, pay off debt or simply keep the lights on. Operators are required to give hiring preferences to current and former Head Start parents, so many end up working for the program. Some eventually run their own preschools.

The Trump administration proposal would water down many of the family support regulations. Goal-setting with families would be optional, as would hiring preferences for Head Start parents. It would also scrap requirements for an open-door policy that gives parents liberal access to their child's classroom and cancel a mandate that staff visit homes and hold parent-teacher conferences at least twice per year. Programs would no longer be required to help parents navigate Medicaid, even as the government-funded health insurance program's rules are becoming more complex.

Head Start preschools would also have the option of eliminating parent committees, formal groups that weigh in on curriculum and programming. And policy councils, which have parent members, would see their authority weakened under the proposal.

Alex Adams, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services office overseeing Head Start, said the goal of the changes is to empower local leaders and to increase efficiency, enabling programs to serve up to 236,000 more children without additional funding.

“A one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington cannot fully account for the realities facing these 1,600 grantees” that operate Head Start preschools, Adams told reporters in August. “Federal mandates can certainly hinder local decision-making, drive up costs and limit the program’s reach.”

The Department of Health and Human Services said the proposal still recognizes the importance of parents in a child's learning, “but substantially reduces hyper-specificity for how to fulfill requirements, specifically around how programs must engage parents and families in education and child development services.”

“The proposal gives programs room to make thoughtful adjustments when local circumstances call for them,” the department said in a statement.

A push to enroll more children in larger classes

Head Start backers see the proposal not as a chance for flexibility but as another effort by the Trump administration to undermine the longstanding program. Days after Trump, a Republican, took office in early 2025, some Head Start programs temporarily closed their doors due to problems accessing their federal money. Later, a White House budget draft proposed eliminating funding for Head Start. The funding was restored after widespread backlash.

Adams emphasized programs wouldn't have to use the flexibility in the proposal if they want to continue operating as they have.

“It’s not a mandate," Adams told reporters. "The opportunity for these programs to make a different decision does not necessarily mean they must make a different decision.”

But advocates are skeptical. The administration's proposal eliminates requirements for small class sizes and scraps caseload limits for family support specialists. Centers instead would abide by their state's early learning regulations, which are often more lenient.

With more kids, fewer teachers, rising costs and no material increase in funding, advocates worry programs would be forced to dilute some of Head Start’s signature offerings. The Trump administration's own projections show that to add 236,000 slots for kids, Head Start centers would have to eliminate about 25,000 teacher jobs, increase class sizes and cut three-quarters of the staff who provide in-home education for new parents.

Reed says she worries the changes could mean fewer success stories like hers.

That's how she ended up in Washington, D.C. When Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., took a seat next to her, Reed grew nervous.

“Is it OK if I just read something from my phone?” she asked, shaking. Murray nodded.

She told the senator, a former preschool teacher, about the day she moved from a domestic violence shelter into transitional housing.

“At the bottom of our stairs was a Head Start center,” she said. “I had no idea how much it would change our lives.”

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of annual two-way trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Donald Trump’s second-term trade war with America’s longtime ally and trading partner.

The import ban “certainly won't do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,'' said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.

The latest sparring began over the summer when Trump reached back to a Great Depression law to impose 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, charging that Canada discriminates against U.S. dairy, auto and alcoholic beverage producers. Canada promptly counterpunched with tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50%, matching U.S. imports dollar for dollar.

To punish Canada for retaliating against his tariffs, Trump decided to ban a list of Canadian products, effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

Economic impact likely to be modest

The economic impact is likely to be minimal. Childress noted that the products on the banned list were already facing Trump’s tariffs. ”For a lot of these goods, the 50% was already acting as a de facto ban by making importation from Canada into the United States uneconomical,″ he said.

Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the center-right American Action Forum think tank, calculates that the ban would cover $967 million worth of Canadian imports, based on 2025 numbers. Of that, 87% would be alcoholic beverages that the U.S. targeted because of some Canadian provinces responding to Trump’s provocations by banning U.S. booze from store shelves.

Also banned are some dairy products — including the milk byproduct whey. The two countries have long clashed over Canada’s attempts to protect its dairy industry from foreign competition by imposing hefty tariffs once dairy imports have exceeded a quota.

The ban also covers motorcycles. Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) in Quebec confirmed that its three-wheel Can-Am Spyder and Canyon motorcycles “will be excluded from importation into the U.S.’’ But BRP said the impact likely won’t be felt until next year because it has completed most production and shipments for the current season.

Independent spirit distillers and beer brewers are expected to bear the brunt of the ban more than some well-known Canadian brands that may have workarounds. For example, Crown Royal can ship its whisky in bulk for processing, bypassing the ban. And beer maker Labatt Brewing Co. has some bottling operations in the U.S., exempting some of its beer from the ban.

Diageo, which owns Crown Royal, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Labatt, did not respond to requests for comments.

A distillery just across the Detroit River in Canada has stopped shipping whiskey to Michigan due to the ongoing tariff war and Trump’s ban on Canadian alcohol. “It’s really unfortunate,” said Danielle Moldovan, director of marketing at the Wolfhead Distillery in Amherstburg, Ontario. “We are a border town. The Americans are great friends of ours, and they visit our distillery on a daily basis.”

Moldovan is worried about the long-term impact on Wolfhead’s business. Buyers in Georgia were interested in importing the distillery’s Coffee Whisky. And its Michigan importer was considering its Vanilla Almond Biscotti and Banana Caramel Vodka. But “those products are going to be put on hold right now until we have further clarification about what’s going to happen, how long this ban’s going to last,” Moldovan said.

“This marks yet another escalation in the trade war that may result in further retaliation on the Canadian side,” Jensen said. He expects Canadian exporters and U.S. importers “impacted by these bans will be highly motivated’’ to demand that trade officials on both sides find some way to reach a “resolution of this whole ordeal.’’

A threat to US goal of a powerful North American trade pact

The impasse imperils efforts to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a North American trade pact Trump pressured America’s neighbors into accepting in his first term and which he once declared “the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country.’’

The deal allowed most goods to cross North American borders duty free. But since returning to the White House last year, Trump has announced a series of tariffs that have clouded the future of trade in the region.

Longtime ally Canada moves rapidly to find new trading partners

Trump has directed most of his ire at Canada. He is openly seeking to pull Canadian manufacturing south. And he has inflamed public opinion in Canada by repeatedly suggesting that the country become America’s 51st state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came to power last year on a promise to stand up to Trump. In addition to retaliating against Trump's tariffs — China is the only other country to do so, with very different results — Carney has sought to reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States, which last year accounted for more than 70% of Canadian exports.

“There is now a price to be paid for access to the United States market,” Carney said earlier this month. The Canadian prime minister wants to double Canada’s non-U.S. trade over the next decade.

Carney has embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union’s first associate member.

And he said last week that trade negotiations with India are making “good progress” and that the two countries are aiming to conclude talks by the G20 summit in mid-December.

Carney also broke with the U.S. earlier this year, striking a deal with China to allow a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles into Canada at a sharply reduced tariff in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian canola.

“We take note of the coming into force of the Administration’s previously announced trade measures," said Gabriel Brunet, a spokesman for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc. "Our first priority remains on protecting and supporting Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses from these unjustified actions. Our core focus is on what we can control: building strength at home, diversifying our partnerships abroad, and building Canada strong for all Canadians.”

Trump expressed confidence that the Canadians would cave in.

“They’re gonna come in and they’re gonna say, ‘Sir, we are sorry,’” he told reporters Monday. “They’ve treated the United States very, very badly. I think a deal will be made but it’s gonna be fair.”

Trade attorney Childress said the standoff is likely to continue for months, not weeks. The import bans and the tariffs so far “probably won’t cause enough economic upheaval to force either party back to the negotiating table,’’ he said.

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Associated Press writers Mae Anderson in New York, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Mike Householder, reporting from Amherstburg, Ontario, contributed to this story.

“This entire case is based on speculation,” attorney Kevin Reddington said during the first hearing since Clancy's trial ended Sept. 4 with a deadlocked jury. They were split 11 to 1 in her favor.

During that trial, Reddington didn't dispute that Clancy killed the children at the family's home in 2023. Instead, the defense sought to persuade the jury that the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse was not criminally responsible because of mental disease, a rare condition called postpartum psychosis.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Clancy's lawyer now says there is not enough evidence to prove she did it

But at Tuesday's hearing, Reddington sought to persuade Judge William Sullivan — the same judge who presided over the first trial — to acquit Clancy.

There is, Reddington contended, not enough evidence “that this woman killed those children.” He pointed to matters ranging from her condition when she was found, badly injured and bleeding in the yard outside her home, to her lack of memory of what happened when she woke up in a hospital. At the first trial, her now ex-husband and first responders testified that they arrived at the house and discovered she had tried to kill herself right after killing the children.

“Where is the admission? Where does she say that she did this?” Reddington asked, going on to recap his arguments that she also was psychotic and delusional at the time of the children's deaths. He didn’t offer any alternative theories or evidence about who might be responsible.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called his argument “laughable,” pointing to various evidence raised during the trial. In court papers filed Monday, prosecutors recapped their arguments that there was enough evidence to convict Clancy.

The prosecution maintains that Clancy knew her actions were wrong when she used exercise bands to strangle 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy. They said she contrived to get her husband out of the house that evening by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

It's still unknown whether Clancy will face a second trial

The judge didn’t immediately decide, and no trial date was set.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to retry Clancy, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after the hearing. They could choose to retry her on first-degree murder charges or seek to try her only on lesser charges, including second-degree murder or manslaughter, or drop the case entirely.

“We are going to do what we can for the children,” Cruz told reporters outside the court. “That is what this case is about.”

Legal wrangling over the holdout juror is also unresolved

Clancy's attorneys have also asked the judge to dismiss the criminal case. Among other things, they have argued that the judge should have ousted the one juror who favored a murder conviction after the jury foreperson complained he was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.

The juror, Michael Desronvil, has said through his lawyer that he had no doubts about his stance. Desronvil told Fox News’ “Hannity” in a brief video statement on Monday that “the whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels,” meaning the children.

Clancy's high-profile case is still capturing people's attention

The livestreamed trial generated intense public interest and drew attention to maternal mental health after childbirth. About a dozen Clancy supporters, most dressed in pink, stood outside court Tuesday waiting for her to arrive.

Clancy remains charged with murder and is expected to stay at a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved.

Clancy could have been sentenced to life in prison if convicted of murder. If acquitted, the judge could have ordered her confined to a mental health facility.

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Peltz reported from New York.

Curtis Wilkie Beasley was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto in a 1995 attack on Carolyn Monfort. The Florida Supreme Court last week rejected appeals that executing a man his age who is suffering from cognitive decline would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Beasley, who would become Florida's seventh prisoner over the age of 70 to be executed this year, is set to receive a three-drug injection at the state prison starting at 6 p.m.

It was one of two executions scheduled this week in the U.S. Tennessee plans to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years on Wednesday by administering a lethal injection to Christa Pike, 50, who was convicted of killing a classmate in a jealous rage when they were both teens.

Beasley awoke at 5 a.m. Tuesday and remained compliant while awaiting execution, Florida Department of Corrections spokesman Jordan Kirkland said at a news conference. The official said Beasley had grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream for a last meal and met with three visitors and a spiritual adviser.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the inmate's last appeal without comment.

Arrested while working under a fake name

According to court records, Beasley had been staying at Monfort’s Dundee home, south of Orlando, in August 1995 while he was pressure washing and painting nearby apartments owned by her son-in-law. Monfort's daughter went to her home after being unable to reach her for two days and found her body in a blood-splattered laundry room.

Monfort suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head, and a bloody hammer head was found wrapped in a towel nearby, according to investigators.

Authorities began searching for Beasley after a witness reported seeing him driving what turned out to be Monfort's car. Investigators determined Beasley had traveled to Miami and later relocated to Alabama, where he was arrested while working under a fake name for an electrical company, officials said.

Beasley was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1998.

Florida has carried out more than half of the nation's executions this year

Beasley would be the nation’s 29th execution this year, most of which have taken place in Florida.

The state is getting closer to last year's 19 executions, which was a record in Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

Two more are scheduled for this year, but Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has temporarily paused the next one.

William Lee Thompson, 74, is scheduled to be executed Oct. 13 for raping and fatally beating a woman at a Florida motel in 1976. After a doctor this month determined Thompson might be suffering from dementia, DeSantis ordered a panel of three psychiatrists to examine him Thursday to determine if he is competent to be executed.

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, issued similar stays in 2023 and 2025 but both executions proceeded following evaluations.

William Reaves, 77, has an Oct. 20 execution date. He was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy outside a convenience store in 1986.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

It turns out the third-string quarterback for the Chicago Bears is pretty good, too.

Keenum passed for two touchdowns in his first start in almost three years, and the Bears shut down Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles for a 27-7 victory on Monday night.

Stepping in for Caleb Williams, Keenum was 24 for 34 for 247 yards. He also scored his first rushing touchdown since 2019 on a 1-yard plunge with 7:19 left, capping a 13-play drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock.

“He knows where everyone is supposed to be on every single play and so he is really quick to recognize coverage,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said. “He knows why we’re calling the play and what we’re looking for and if we’re not getting that he’s accelerating through it really quickly. That’s what you get when you’re 15-plus years playing that position in this league.”

It was Keenum’s first action since he started for Houston in a 36-22 loss to Cleveland on Dec. 24, 2023. Williams was sidelined by a right hamstring injury, and Tyson Bagent backed up Keenum after he cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol on Sunday.

“To get a shot again like this? Yeah, you dream of it,” Keenum said. “That’s why I'm still here doing this when I get knocked down. I got knocked down my whole career. I just keep getting up, coming to work, just keep bouncing back.”

Kalif Raymond had six receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown as Chicago (2-1) rebounded from an ugly 9-3 loss to Minnesota.

Philadelphia (2-1) turned the ball over three times and failed to record a takeaway for the third consecutive game to begin the season. Hurts was 16 for 25 for 153 yards, and Saquon Barkley rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries.

“I think we all have to own that loss right there,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I don’t think anybody coached well. I don’t think anyone played well. It was a true team loss. And when it’s a true team loss, you know I have to look at myself first.”

Down 20-7, the Eagles lined up to go for it on fourth-and-1 at their own 49 with about four minutes left in the third quarter. But Hurts was unable to draw a flag for offside, and the Eagles took a delay-of-game penalty before punting it away.

Hurts was picked off by T.J. Edwards on a fourth-and-5 play from the Chicago 46 in the final minute of the third. Edwards dropped a potential interception on third down on Philadelphia’s first drive of the second half.

“I liked the decision to go for it on fourth-and-5,” Sirianni said. “Hindsight, I feel like I should have went for it on that fourth-and-1 1/2.”

Keenum capped Chicago's first drive with a shovel pass to Luther Burden for an 8-yard touchdown, and he connected with a wide-open Raymond on a 41-yard TD in the second half.

On the drive that ended with his seventh career rushing touchdown, making it 27-7 with 7:19 remaining, Keenum drew an offside penalty on Moro Ojomo on a fourth-and-2 play from the Eagles 39.

“Poised, calm and honestly a guy who was having a lot of fun,” Raymond said of Keenum. “The whole week he was like, you guys having fun, because I am. That's the way he was. He loves the game.”

Trailing 7-0, Hurts drove Philadelphia deep into Chicago territory in the second quarter before he absorbed a late hit by linebacker D'Marco Jackson along the sideline. Hurts was pulled off the field to be checked for a concussion, and backup Andy Dalton was intercepted by rookie Dillon Thieneman in the back of the end zone with 6:14 left.

Hurts said he was waiting for clearance to go back in when Dalton turned it over.

“I was just waiting for the thumbs-up,” Hurts said. “I felt fine, we already checked it. I don’t know the extent of the process. Obviously wish we could have expedited things. I know I felt fine.”

Hurts scored on a quarterback sneak as time expired in the first half, but Chicago controlled the final two periods. Philadelphia gained just 62 of its 248 yards in the second half.

Chicago finished with 24 first downs and 128 yards rushing. The Bears had 28 first downs and 281 yards on the ground in a 24-15 win at Philadelphia last season.

He is back

Zach Ertz had one reception for 9 yards for Philadelphia in his first game of the season. The veteran tight end rejoined the Eagles when he was signed to the team's practice squad last week.

The 35-year-old Ertz spent his first eight-plus seasons with the Eagles, earning three Pro Bowl appearances.

Injuries

Bears: LT Braxton Jones departed with 10:22 left in the third because of a knee injury. ... Raymond was shaken up on a punt return with 3:12 remaining in the third, but he returned to the game. ... DB Cam Lewis had a hip injury.

Up next

Eagles: Host the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Bears: Host the New York Jets on Sunday.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Klitschko, a Ukrainian former world champion boxer, has had full custody of the girl, Kaya, for most of her life, and she has lived with him in Ukraine. Kaya is Panettiere's sole heir. The filing in a Los Angeles County court cites items seized in a federal investigation of the actor’s death, unnamed and unauthorized people accessing her residence in Los Angeles, and valuables that are missing.

The petition says it is “urgent and essential” that Klitschko be granted the legal status of temporary guardian of his daughter's estate.

“Without an immediate appointment for these purposes, there is a high probability that property belonging to Hayden’s Estate may be lost, damaged or dissipated before a duly appointed personal representative can be in place to protect it,” the filing says.

Klitschko's lawyers filed the petition on Thursday, but it did not become publicly known until Monday, when it was reported by TMZ. The filing emphasizes that his intention is solely to protect his daughter's future assets until a permanent administrator can be put in place.

Panettiere, the former star of the TV series “Heroes” and “Nashville,” died Aug. 16 at age 36. A coroner's report obtained by The Associated Press said her death was from an accidental overdose of several drugs, including fentanyl, and she had been in rehab just weeks before. She was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina.

The petition says that federal agents have taken Panettiere’s property in an investigation, and there is no authorized person to deal with them and assure it is returned.

The filing says that before her death, Panettiere and Klitschko hired security to protect her home because an unnamed person had gained unauthorized access. The petition says it's expected the same person will continue to try to “misappropriate” property belonging to her estate.

A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Oct. 8.

In her memoir released earlier this year, Panettiere acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and having postpartum depression after her daughter's birth in 2014. Kaya went to live with Klitschko full-time when she was 2. Panettiere's father told investigators that when she died she had plans to visit her daughter in Ukraine days later.

Klitschko, 50, an Olympic gold medalist, held several heavyweight titles between 2000 and 2015. He and Panettiere began dating in 2009 and got engaged in 2013.

His older brother Vitali, also a former champion boxer, is mayor of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. The two brothers, sons of a Soviet major general, have worked to protect their country during its war with Russia.

For residents, the steel barriers have become an unmistakable warning of what may follow: blocked streets, snarled traffic and long detours across Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi.

The latest deployment came ahead of a march by supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan demanding his release. Cranes have lifted red, blue and green containers from trucks and lowered them into place along roads.

Originally scheduled for Sept. 27, the march was postponed until Oct. 4, but many of the containers remain in place. Since last week, police have positioned them along key routes leading to the Red Zone, home to Parliament, government offices and foreign embassies.

Khan, a former cricket star turned politician and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s main political rival, has been imprisoned since 2023. He is serving multiple prison sentences following convictions on corruption and other charges. Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party say the cases are politically motivated.

Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. Sharif returned to office after lawmakers elected him prime minister following the Feb. 8, 2024, parliamentary election. Khan’s party says its mandate was stolen in that vote, an allegation the government denies.

The containers are hard to miss in the city

Now against Islamabad’s green hills and tree-lined avenues, the rows of brightly colored containers are hard to miss. Some sit beside busy roads, ready to be moved. Others are stacked two high or positioned across traffic lanes, turning broad avenues into narrow, controlled passages.

“It looks like a city of containers,” Islamabad housewife Sahiba Bibi said.

She said this time the disruption began before demonstrators had even set out for Islamabad from across the country, particularly from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Khan’s party governs.

PTI's top leadership said it delayed the march because authorities had blocked key approaches to the capital, including Attock Bridge, a major crossing for convoys traveling from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Containers and spiked metal sheets had been placed along the route that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and his supporters were expected to take, party organizers said.

Even where roads remained open, the preparations narrowed traffic lanes and created long lines of vehicles. Commuters searched for alternate routes, while shopkeepers along potential protest paths weighed whether to close their businesses, fearing damage if unrest or clashes broke out.

Authorities say they pay rent to owners of container trucks for the use of the containers. But some drivers say police stop them on highways, seize their vehicles and take their keys.

Rehmat Gul, a container-truck driver, said police stopped him and took his keys before impounding his truck. The container was later placed on a road near Rawalpindi, he said.

When the containers arrive, people know their lives will be disrupted

“Fuel prices have almost doubled because of the ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran,” said Abdul Hafeez, a government employee who commutes from Rawalpindi to Islamabad for work and also drives his children to school. “At a time when we are already struggling to keep our kitchens running, roadblocks force us to travel farther.”

“If the government does not block the roads, we have no problem with these protests,” he said.

For many residents, the containers are no longer merely a security measure. Their arrival signals that another political confrontation is approaching and that ordinary life may be disrupted.

The government, however, says the precautions are necessary.

“PTI has a track record of disruption and vandalism during protests, and its supporters would not be allowed to enter the capital,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters in Peshawar last week.

Afridi rejected the government’s characterization, saying PTI’s sole purpose was to hold a peaceful rally demanding Khan’s release.

Authorities used similar measures in November 2024, sealing roads into Islamabad as Khan’s supporters attempted to reach the capital despite a ban on rallies. Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

That experience has taught residents not to wait for a formal road-closure announcement.

Once cranes begin lowering containers into place, many start changing their routes, and some begin stocking up on food.

OpenAI’s decision to hold back the model, called GPT-6.1 Astra, comes amid a broader push within the industry to slow the development of increasingly autonomous systems until safety measures can catch up. The announcement comes a day before AI executives are set to huddle with President Donald Trump in Washington as technology companies face new pressure to be accountable for how their models can be abused.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the delay of OpenAI’s model release.

In a statement from OpenAI's head of safety systems Saachi Jain, the version “didn't quite meet the bar.” It had become more persistent in completing tasks, but OpenAI needed to balance that capability against unauthorized behavior.

Jain insisted the company was committed to ensuring the model was safe whether in the company's testing or is in the hands of users. "We have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment,” she said.

OpenAI paused training of its most advanced models last week, saying training would resume “only when we are confident that we have additional safeguards.”

That was after it disclosed instances in which AI agents exceeded their instructions, including by accessing government websites without authorization.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has joined other industry leaders in calling for a slowdown, warning that companies do not yet have adequate safeguards to control the most capable systems. Altman was scheduled to deliver the keynote address for OpenAI's annual conference for software developers on Tuesday in San Francisco. OpenAI President Greg Brockman is expected to attend the White House's event Tuesday.