Kast viajó a la recientemente inaugurada cárcel La Laguna —una de las más grandes de Chile, ubicada a unos 250 kilómetros (155 millas) al sur de la capital chilena, Santiago— para supervisar el traslado, que su gobierno describió como una iniciativa para aliviar el hacinamiento en las prisiones y evitar que líderes de pandillas encarcelados dirijan a distancia sus empresas criminales desde la prisión.

Imágenes difundidas por el gobierno mostraron a los internos apiñados en filas, con la cabeza agachada y los pies encadenados, lo que evocó escenas de El Salvador, donde el presidente Nayib Bukele ha hecho énfasis en difundir en redes sociales sus estrictas medidas de seguridad. La campaña de encarcelamiento masivo ha derivado en una reducción drástica de la violencia, pero ha suscitado denuncias de grupos de defensa de los derechos humanos por detenciones arbitrarias, abusos y el deterioro de las libertades civiles.

El presidente de Chile invoca a Bukele como modelo

Al igual que otros aspirantes presidenciales de derecha en toda América Latina, más recientemente en Colombia y Perú, Kast ha invocado a Bukele como modelo para sus propias promesas de combatir el crimen organizado. Durante la campaña del año pasado, Kast visitó El Salvador para estudiar las políticas de seguridad de Bukele y recorrer la tristemente célebre megacárcel del país, donde no se permiten visitas, recreación ni educación.

Las autoridades informaron que 295 reclusos fueron trasladados a La Laguna el jueves en la madrugada desde prisiones de todo el país, incluidos 37 integrantes de organizaciones criminales.

Se prevé que otros cien presos sean trasladados la próxima semana, a medida que el gobierno avanza gradualmente para llenar La Laguna, que puede albergar a 2.320 internos en más de una docena de unidades, incluidas alas de máxima seguridad. Está equipada con 1.500 cámaras de vigilancia, escáneres corporales y tecnología diseñada para bloquear señales de teléfonos celulares.

La nueva prisión es calificada como la más moderna y segura

La prisión, presentada como la instalación más moderna y segura de Chile, abrió sus puertas el año pasado bajo el predecesor de Kast, el presidente de izquierda Gabriel Boric, y comenzó a recibir reos meses antes de que Kast —aliado del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump— asumiera el cargo.

El intento de Kast de dar publicidad a la medida llega mientras busca cumplir sus promesas emblemáticas en materia de seguridad tras un inicio vacilante. Destituyó a su primer ministro de Seguridad poco más de dos meses después de iniciar su gobierno, y ha tenido dificultades para implementar su promesa central de campaña de deportar rápidamente a inmigrantes. Hasta ahora, su gobierno ha deportado a unos 878 de los aproximadamente 300.000 inmigrantes en Chile que carecen de permiso para estar en el país. Otros 7.501 inmigrantes se fueron voluntariamente durante los primeros siete meses de 2026.

Algunos votantes han expresado su frustración de que, hasta ahora, las políticas de seguridad de Kast han diferido poco de las aplicadas bajo Boric, ante lo cual Kast presentó la semana pasada un importante paquete de seguridad que otorgaría al Estado autoridad más amplia para combatir el delito. Las propuestas, muchas de ellas ya ante el Congreso, contemplan una presencia policial permanente en los barrios más peligrosos de Chile, sanciones más severas por pertenecer a pandillas, y una nueva agencia estatal para incautar y destruir bienes vinculados al crimen organizado.

La legislación también flexibilizaría las normas que rigen el uso de la fuerza por parte de la policía, y modificaría la Constitución para facilitar la declaración de estados de emergencia en respuesta a graves amenazas a la seguridad.

Chile sigue estando entre los países más seguros de América Latina, pero un incremento reciente de los secuestros, la extorsión y el narcotráfico —junto con la expansión de pandillas transnacionales como el Tren de Aragua de Venezuela— ha azuzado la ansiedad pública sobre el crimen organizado, lo que ayudó a impulsar a Kast a la victoria electoral en diciembre.

———

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

En declaraciones a un grupo de periodistas que lo acompañan en el viaje y antes de presenciar unos ejercicios militares multinacionales a orillas del Canal de Panamá, el jefe del Pentágono señaló que “estamos comenzando por nuestro hemisferio” y trabajando con países como Panamá, Ecuador y ahora Colombia en el tema de la seguridad.

Resaltó que la coalición de 19 miembros está compuesta por países libres y dispuestos a colaborar para enfrentar los cárteles. Lanzó seguidamente una advertencia directa a Cuba señalando que Estados Unidos no tolerará “ese tipo de influencia maligna en nuestro hemisferio”. No explicó a qué tipo de influencia se refería, aunque Washington sostiene que la isla, a la que impuso desde inicios de año un cerco petrolero para forzar cambios políticos y económicos, representa una amenaza a la seguridad de Estados Unidos. El gobierno cubano lo ha negado.

La víspera Hegseth instó a los países latinoamericanos en el encuentro de la coalición a no reconocer a la Corte Penal Internacional (CPI), mientras el ejército estadounidense ataca a presuntos narcotraficantes en la región.

Argumentó que estos esfuerzos “son totalmente legales según el derecho internacional humanitario”. Sin embargo, enfrenta interrogantes en su país sobre la legalidad de llevar a cabo ataques mortales contra pequeñas embarcaciones acusadas de traficar drogas.

No quedó claro en las declaraciones de Hegseth qué medidas, si las hay, ha tomado la CPI para obstaculizar las operaciones estadounidenses en la región. Instó a los países reunidos a “abandonar la CPI y rechazar sus intentos de arrebatarles la soberanía a sus gobiernos y tribunales”.

También anunció que el nuevo gobierno del presidente conservador Abelardo de la Espriella ha solicitado colaboración estadounidense en operaciones militares conjuntas en Colombia para combatir el “narcoterrorismo”, y el jueves le dio la bienvenida al nuevo socio de la coalición.

Presencia de militares de EEUU en Panamá

Sobre la presencia estadounidense en el país centroamericano sostuvo que se trata de una “asociación”. Refirió que “cientos de millones de dólares han sido invertidos en la economía panameña y en las fuerzas de seguridad”, y afirmó que “los estadounidenses están aquí y han venido para quedarse”.

Esta fue la segunda visita de Hegseth a Panamá. La anterior ocurrió en abril de 2025, cuando ambos países firmaron un memorando para ampliar la cooperación en seguridad, con entrenamientos conjuntos y presencia rotativa de personal estadounidense, lo que generó críticas de la oposición política y otros sectores que consideraron que el acuerdo afectaba la soberanía de la nación centroamericana.

En esa ocasión el jefe del Pentágono dijo que Washington no permitiría lo que llamó la presencia “maligna” de China en el Canal de Panamá y la región, en momentos en que Trump advertía sobre la posibilidad de retomar la operación de la vía marítima comercial.

Hegseth presenció por la mañana una demostración táctica que simuló la interdicción de una embarcación vinculada al tráfico ilegal de armas operada por una red transnacional, como parte de los llamados ejercicios PANAMAX.

El ejercicio, realizado frente al guardacostas estadounidense USCG Robert W. Ward a orillas del canal, incluyó la inmovilización de la nave, un abordaje multinacional con unidades de Panamá, México, Ecuador, República Dominicana y Estados Unidos, y culminó con la captura de los supuestos traficantes y el aseguramiento del cargamento ilegal,

PANAMAX 2026 es un ejercicio multinacional realizado de forma presencial y con operaciones prácticas en el que participan Estados Unidos, Panamá y otras 17 naciones. Durante 11 días, las fuerzas realizaron maniobras marítimas, operaciones aéreas, defensa cibernética y ejercicios de fuerzas especiales con el fin de fortalecer la protección del Canal de Panamá y la capacidad de respuesta conjunta ante amenazas regionales.

The mid-size twin-jet took off at 5:45 p.m. from the Opa-locka Executive Airport to land at 8 p.m. at the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Palmira, according to FlightAware.

“It’s going to be only for rescue teams” in Cali, said Ender Urdaneta, of the Help Land Foundation, a Miami-based nonprofit founded after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday morning in western Colombia. Jose Ecarri, of the Miami Pilots Association, said he was grateful to have been able to borrow the jet.

“I used to fly this plane. I am a pilot too, and I got in contact with the owner,” Ecarri said. “The owner is Colombian, and I told him, ‘Hey, I need a plane to send help to your country.’”

On Thursday evening, the earthquake’s official death toll was at 273 and climbing. Officials estimated there were 3,824 injured and 40,753 families affected.

Juan Rojas, of Legacy Aviation, was the jet’s pilot, and he planned to return to Miami-Dade on Friday morning.

Related stories

• Death toll rises to 273; 3,284 injured
• Miami Beach opens 4 aid drop-off locations
• Rescuers call for silence around earthquake rubble as window for survival narrows in Colombia

Rocket Classic champion Michael Thorbjornsen, Jake Knapp, Michael Kim and Kurt Kitayama also opened with 65s in the sweltering heat at the TPC Southwind. Spieth and Kim are outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the BMW Championship next week.

This is the second straight year Spieth, at No. 54 and winless in more than four years, has been on the bubble going into the postseason. He was at No. 48 a year ago and fell out of the top 50.

He said the difference is the way he feels he is playing, even though he is the only player from the top 70 who qualified who has yet to register a top 10 this year.

“I'm just in a very different place about the game of golf than I was the last couple seasons heading into this event,” Spieth said. “Again, if it’s going to work out, great. If it doesn’t, I know next year is going to be an awesome year for me. So it takes a lot of the stress off of this week.”

Kim is at No. 61 and likely would need to finish at least 11th to have a chance to move on.

But it's just one round, and it was crowded at the top. Seven players, including defending FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Gary Woodland and Adam Scott — were at 66. Four others were another stroke back.

So much emphasis is on getting into the top 50 because that locks up all the $20 million signature events for next season. Spieth has been on the outside the last two years and knows what's on the line this week.

More than half the field, however, already is assured of heading to Bellerive in St. Louis for the BMW Championship. For the likes of Woodland and Scott — both just inside the top 30 — a good week could lock them up for the Tour Championship and a shot at playing for the FedEx Cup.

It all comes with a reward of getting in all the majors.

“My only feeling has been make the most of this week, then it's all upside for me,” Scott said. “There's so much to gain from a good week right now, not only for the remainder of this season. It’s possible to lock up a spot in the Tour Championship this week, but also what it does into next year, the signatures and all the majors.

“It sets me up for what can be a year on my terms, which will be nice.”

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who has played the TPC Southwind more times (seven) without winning than any other course on the PGA Tour, opened with a 68. He was playing alongside Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who skipped last year knowing that his result had no bearing on his position the rest of the playoffs. McIlroy finished bogey-bogey-double bogey for 74.

The attention falls to Spieth, who won three legs of the career Grand Slam before his 24th birthday. But he had wrist surgery at the end of 2024 and has struggled to contend.

He opened with eight pars, finally got a putt to fall, and then ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch, including a 40-footers on the par-3 14th. Mostly, no bogeys on the card was a plus.

“I just tried to come into this week and just be as patient, nonreactive as possible, dumb it down to try to win the golf tournament and not worry about anything else,” Spieth said. “Just knowing that I’m a lot better golfer than I’ve been in a very long time and continue to believe in that. If low scores come, they come. If they don’t, it doesn’t change the fact that I know that I’m better than I’ve been in a long time.”

Jackson Koivun, who won the 3M Open in his third start as a pro and narrowly got the final spot in the postseason at No. 70, played as a single and shot 71. The 69-man field is due to Daniel Berger choosing not to play, and there are no alternates.

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”

Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ship and its equipment. While renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.

Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. can maintain the blockade “indefinitely.”

A new aircraft carrier is heading west from the Asia-Pacific

The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait.

A Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive ship details, confirmed that the Washington was in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Pacific and Indian oceans and puts the carrier on a course to head into the Indian Ocean. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East.

The move would leave the waters of the Pacific without a U.S. carrier presence for an unknown period of time. The Trump administration sees China, the dominant power in the region, as “a settled force” that only needs to be deterred from dominating the U.S. or its allies and not the top global adversary that it was under the Biden administration.

The Lincoln originally deployed Nov. 21 from San Diego, and it arrived in the Middle East in January, ahead of the launch of the Iran war on Feb. 28. The Navy conceded that the conflict created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.” That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement.

“Leadership prioritized mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the statement said, before assuring that sailors aboard the ship now have access to clean water and “healthy meal options.”

Democrats call for scrutiny, while the Pentagon defends conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

Democratic lawmakers are calling for investigations, more information and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship, which was originally set to return home in May.

“The Lincoln’s prolonged deployment is especially significant because it is occurring in the context of continuing military operations against Iran and the possibility that substantial US naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Navy leadership asking for a response to several questions.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on social media that he is looking to take a bipartisan delegation on an official oversight visit to the ship and that the way sailors are being treated is “not just disgusting; it’s dangerous.”

Hegseth told reporters during ​a visit to Panama that he wants the Lincoln’s sailors home and crews rotated as quickly as possible but pushed back against reports of problems aboard.

“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and ​I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than ​anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere ⁠conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible.”

Navy leaders, including acting Secretary Hung Cao, last week held a tense town hall for families of troops aboard the USS Lincoln, at which the commanders of the Navy’s air and surface forces promised to do everything they could to relieve the aircraft carrier. MS NOW reported earlier on the meeting.

When reports of food shortages aboard the ship first surfaced in April, the Navy pushed back, calling those reports “false.”

Reports of mental health concerns and more aboard the ship

Reports have since emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns. The Navy said in its statement that it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” but officials declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.

The Navy official said that a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but that the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say if it was being considered a suicide attempt.

Other carriers also have had long runs that have raised concerns about morale. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, that had it support the U.S. war with Iran and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

During its deployment, the Ford experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.

Concerns about the demands of battle and the dangers of overextending ships and their crew predate the Iran war, with a number of mishaps on ships battling Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2024 and 2025, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman on a longer-than-expected deployment.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

___

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. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

It’s been over 30 years since the state last elected a Democrat governor in 1994.

Current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection by about 20% in 2022, but he’s term-limited.

One of the Democrats running is former Republican Congressman David Jolly, who left the party and became a prominent critic of President Donald Trump.

“Look, this is a governorship,” said Jolly. “I don’t have to litigate the President of the United States.”

Jolly said he is focusing on kitchen table issues.

“This is about housing, healthcare, and education,” he said. “We need more workforce and affordable housing. We have to solve our insurance prices. I think we can cut insurance by 50 to 60%.”

Jolly says he worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in Congress and added that his approach can appeal to all kinds of voters.

“I’m in a very post-ideological space in my life,” he said. “I believe in the Democratic values, but this is bigger than one party.”

A top challenger to Jolly is State Rep. Dotie Joseph of North Miami.

“I’m somebody who’s not afraid to work across the aisle, but also not afraid to fight,” said Joseph. “There are times when we need to stand up and make sure our rights are protected.”

A former government and civil rights attorney, Joseph has served in the state house since 2018.

“I want to focus on our needs right here in the state of Florida,” she said. “And for me, that focuses on affordability.”

Joseph said she wants to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour.

In the Florida House of Representatives, she has proposed guaranteeing universal healthcare for all by creating a statewide publicly funded system.

“My message is just that I’m here for the people,” she said. “And I think for too long, we have a government that has only worked for its select few.”

There are four other candidates who are also running in the Democratic primary. They are Evelyn Castillo-Bach, Thomas Fernandez, Dayna Foster and Shephann Norman.

Olsen, who volunteers for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the state agency has been tracking him.

“A few weeks ago, I got a call from a friend who told me, ‘Hey, I’m being tracked by the FWC, and you might be as well.’ And I said, ‘What do you talk about? That’s kind of crazy,’” Olsen said.

A record made it clear he was the subject of a FWC investigation.

“As of April of 2024, they’ve searched me 14 times now in the DAVID system under a claimed criminal investigation,” Olsen said.

Records show the agency has pulled more than a dozen records of environmental activists like Olsen. The DAVID system helps investigators access tondrivers license numbers, social security numbers, and other sensitive information.

A spokesperson for FWC said the searches came after credible threats against commissioners and staff. Activists believe it’s to silence criticism.

“Anybody who’s actually making any commotion at meetings is finding themselves under the radar ... I’ve never made hateful comments online. I don’t use social media,” Olsen said.

The FWC released a statement saying the agency had complied with all applicable user agreements and all legal requirements governing access to and use of DAVID records.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” Olsen said.

The Hennepin County search warrant obtained by The Associated Press identified the man as Nathan Brown, 41. It says he stabbed his wife, 41-year-old Kristen Brown, and their daughter, Evie Brown, inside the daycare that Kristen Brown operated out of the family's basement in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis. He then fatally shot himself in an upstairs closet.

Hopkins police said in a statement Thursday that they are still investigating.

According to police records, a father dropping off two of his children for daycare heard screams coming from the basement. The father entered the home and initially thought Nathan Brown was performing CPR before realizing it was an attack. The witness called 911 and fled with his children and two other children.

Authorities said Wednesday that they believe Nathan Brown earlier killed a 78-year-old relative at her home in Burnsville, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Hopkins. Nathan Brown had recently been living there, investigators said. Police have not released the woman’s identity or said how she was related to Brown.

The warrant says the parent who witnessed the daycare attack told investigators that Kristen Brown had recently sent parents a letter that the daycare would soon be closing, citing “relationship issues with Nathan.”

___

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. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

___

Six other children were present, but none were physically harmed, authorities said.

Authorities have not released any information about a potential motive for the killings. They said there was no history of police calls to the Hopkins address.

Records show that Kristen Brown had been licensed by the state since 2019. The daycare had a capacity of 10 children and was found to be in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Family members of Kristen Brown declined to comment on Thursday.

Kristen Brown opened Brown Bear Childcare a few months after giving birth to Evie. In a 2019 post on the daycare’s Facebook page, Brown wrote that she hoped to help her daughter and other children “blossom into happy, intelligent, caring individuals.”

Kristen Brown had a bachelor’s degree in elementary education foundations from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and was certified in vision therapy, according to her daycare’s Facebook page. She incorporated music and cooking classes into her days with the children and would take them on field trips to a science museum and an orchard.

___

Rico reported from Atlanta.

Leer en español

At Miami Springs Preparatory Academy, sixth through 12th graders arrived before sunrise for the first day of classes. The school is now serving a larger student population after Miami Springs Middle School closed.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent José Dotres spoke at the school and said the changes are intended to give students access to better resources as the district responds to shifting enrollment.

He likened the drop to a hurricane.

“When do you lose 12,000 students from one year to the next? It’s never happened,” Dotres said, saying that perhaps the only similar situation was immediately after Hurricane Andrew in the 1990s.

Thursday marked Dotres’ final first day of school as superintendent. His tenure is scheduled to end in February.

“This role of mine is my the privilege and the honor of my lifetime and I’m just excited to see one more year of schools opening we’ve had,” Dotres said. “With my tenure, we’ve had terrific every single year has been excellent. I’m planning, specially this one more than ever.”

He said the enrollment drop, in part fueled by numbers of immigrant students dropping from up to 22,000 three years ago to only 3,200, reduced funding from the state.

Dotres said the district is keeping an eye on schools in the northeastern part of the county, the epicenter of the district’s Haitian American student population, with the end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians ending just before the school year began.

“There are concerns and fears,” he said. “But we as a school district (will) help students.”

The district is also reminding families about changes to its free and reduced-price meal program.

A total of 121 schools across the district will continue providing free breakfast and lunch to all students. Free breakfast will continue to be available at elementary schools, while families with students in middle or high school should check whether their school qualifies for free or reduced-price meals.

The M-DCPS website lists the schools that will continue to offer meals at no charge under the Community Eligibility Provision.

Families whose children are not already covered are being urged to apply through the district’s website before the application deadline.

Eighth-grader Jesus Perdomo offered some advice to other students starting the new school year.

“All the students out there should try not to like get in trouble, try and focus on their studies and just generally have a good time,” he said.

Angelica Rodriguez told Local 10 that her son normally takes the bus but did not have an assigned route listed in his schedule.

“He usually comes in the bus, but today something came out in the schedule,” Rodriguez said. “It says that he doesn’t have an assigned bus. I called transportation and they told me just to bring him to school and ask at the office what’s going on and it’s probably something in the system.”

District officials reminded families to make sure emergency contact information is updated and to double-check bus routes, stops and schedules as the new school year begins.

Families can also use the Dadeschools Mobile App, the district’s official mobile application, to access school-related information, including schedules and transportation information.

As students begin returning to classes across South Florida, Local 10 wants to help celebrate the milestone by sharing your favorite back-to-school photos.

She said thousands of people across the county chimed in.

“Seventy percent of the community expressed a high or very high trust in the sheriff’s office,” she said. “Seventy-seven percent wants faster emergency response, 64% of our community wants to see more deputies in their communities”

Respondents added that they’re seeing too many traffic violations going unnoticed and stressed a need for more patrols in areas near Southwest Eighth Street and Northwest 12th Street.

“They’re absolutely correct people are driving aggressively,” said Cordero-Stutz. “Regards to the areas of patrol, yes those areas are proactively addressed.”

Cordero-Stutz highlighted the reduction in crime across the board and said it hasn’t been an easy job, adding that she’s been fighting for funding to get the job done and keep deputies from going to other higher paying agencies.

She also commented on controversial Amendment 3, which if approved, would raise exemptions on property taxes. Some critics say it would come at the cost of public money for crucial services, like law enforcement.

“The amendment does not clearly identify how public safety will be funded,” she said.

The Florida Sheriffs Association has taken stance against the amendment and Cordero-Stutz was asked if her stance matches the association.

“The sheriffs association is its own place,” she said. “I am a member of the Florida Sheriffs Association. I absolutely work alongside them all the time, but that statement came from the organization.”

Cordero-Stutz added that MDSO is currently short 150 deputies.

The starting annual salary for a deputy is just over $66,000.

Officers from the Key West Police Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded at about 9 a.m. on Thursday to the park at 601 Howard England Way.

The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection also responded to the park, a natural historic landmark with a pre-Civil War fortress.

The agencies seized the vessel, and CBP took custody of the migrants.

Related social media

Wilton Manors police said on social media that they were working the incident in the area of the Manor Grove Village complex in the 1900 block of North Andrews Avenue.

Officers were seen at the complex with guns drawn. Fort Lauderdale police could also be seen at the scene in video from Sky 10.

Wilton Manors police did not provide any information about the “violent crime case.”

They asked neighbors to shelter in place and residents to avoid the area.

It was the clubs and concerts that beckoned tourists.

And it’s where 24-year-old model Alysha Hanin was living on and off.

Until she disappeared in January 2002.

On Jan. 6, between 2 and 4 a.m., Alysha left the Shore Club Hotel to walk to a diner off Washington Avenue and 11th Street.

Weeks later, a friend who assumed she was jet-setting somewhere reported her missing after not hearing from her.

Her belongings were left behind at the hotel, including her passport.

Her son, Adrian, was 3 at the time. He holds on to the little memories he has of her, along with pictures.

“I have a photo of my mom and dad together in Miami Beach and I can kind of see myself being there with them in a way,” Adrian said.

Adrian’s father died in 1999. He was raised by Alysha’s mother.

Weeks before Alysha disappeared, she dropped Adrian off at her mother’s home in New Zealand to undergo a medical procedure back in Miami.

She has never been seen again.

More than 20 years later, Adrian traveled from New Zealand to retrace her steps.

“I felt like not enough was done with the information we have, and I wanted to kind of unravel it, unpack it, and kind of get my boots on the ground, come here and see what it’s all about,” he said.

Police suspect foul play.

Adrian says there are several avenues they are exploring as far as possible persons of interest, including an ex-lover.

“Yeah, I mean, we have a lot of information and the night that she goes missing is very hazy,” he said.

He plans to meet with Miami Beach detectives to go over the case.

“My chosen route 24 years later is to be more public about it, get her face, her, you know, name out there, so that anyone that was around Miami Beach at the time in 2002 can come forward,” Adrian said.

He says anyone who may have worked valet at the Shore Club or worked at Stereo nightclub in Fort Lauderdale should contact him or submit a tip at FindingAlysha.com.

Miami Beach police say no one has been arrested in her case, but the case has been reopened and is active.

Clancy looked up suicide methods, bipolar disorder and insomnia at the end of December 2022 and, in January, went in search of information on postpartum depression. She also wrote a detailed note in October 2022 expressing doubts about her parenting choices, second-guessing her decision to stop breastfeeding her 8-month-old, and reconsidering plans for a fourth child.

The defense says she was in the grip of bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can alter a woman’s sense of reality after childbirth. A forensic psychiatrist diagnosed Clancy with those conditions following the killings.

In her note, the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse seemed most concerned with not being able to give her youngest child the same attention as her first two, ages 3 and 5.

“I’m terrified of something happening to my kids or doing something wrong to mess up their development,” Clancy’s note read. “Our generation is inundated with information about every aspect of parenting. ... It’s insane. For the last five years, I’ve just filled my mind with all things parenting and it’s just unhealthy.”

___

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.

___

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy. Their father found the children in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, south of Boston. Their mother was lying in the yard after jumping out a second-story window, and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Text messages with her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, show them juggling the routines of parenthood. Massachusetts State Police cellphone forensics expert Tim Chiappini read aloud texts between them from the day of the killings. They checked in on each other and Lindsay Clancy expressed relief that one of their children's kidneys were OK. There were also photos of the children.

“You're a good mamma,” Patrick Clancy texted, prompting Lindsay Clancy to respond with a heart and smile emoji.

Clancy's livestreamed trial has generated intense public interest, with journalists and spectators packing the courtroom as online audiences pore over the details of the tragedy.

Clancy’s attorneys do not dispute that she killed the children. But they say the jury should not hold her criminally responsible because she was mentally ill, believing she heard voices ordering her to take their lives and her own.

Prosecutors argue she was an intentional killer who contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to get takeout and to the pharmacy on Jan. 24, 2023, then strangled the children with exercise bands.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham has urged jurors not to view the trial as “a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women.”

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Her attorneys say Clancy did everything she could to seek help: She turned to multiple outpatient providers, tried various drugs they prescribed, called a suicide hotline, went to an emergency room, and approached but wasn’t accepted into a hospital-based, full-day treatment program for women with postpregnancy mental health problems. Clancy even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital for several days.

Rather than improving, her condition worsened on the ever-remixed cocktail of psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients, her attorneys and family say.

Prosecutors aim to show that Clancy had access to a range of mental health services but sometimes ignored doctors' advice and stopped taking certain medications. They've brought several of her medical providers who testified she never talked about having a plan to harm herself or her children. They say she never showed signs of psychosis or mania, although she did say she was having suicidal thoughts.

It was just before noon when crews responded to the 1900 block of Rodman Street after receiving reports of a unit on fire.

Officials said 12 dogs died in the fire while one canine was saved by a firefighter giving it CPR.

Owner Andrea Santos was at work when her boyfriend called and asked if she had noticed smoke on their ring camera.

She told Local 10 News she immediately thought of her dogs, five adult dogs and a litter of puppies, who were all trapped inside.

Santos says she took off running to save the dogs, but it would be too late by the time she arrived back at her home.

Officials said the dogs perished due to smoke inhalation.

Santos said she and her family are emotionally destroyed.

“They mean the world,” she said. “I’ve had her since she was born, I’ve had all of them since they were born. It’s a major heartbreak for me and my family.”

Authorities said signs point to an accidental fire, but the investigation remains ongoing.

The American Red Cross is now assisting Santos and her family find a place to stay.

Family members also created a GoFundMe page to help with expenses and vet bills.

“I commented a week ago on that,” Kiffin said after practice in Baton Rouge. “That's the comment that I had and we're moving forward.”

LSU's official online store has removed replica Daniels jerseys from the menu of those for sale, which include the No. 9 of 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and the No. 3 of former star receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Meanwhile, Pickett showed no interest in relinquishing the No. 5 when he spoke with reporters after Thursday's practice.

“I’ve been wearing the number my whole life, since I was 4 years old,” Pickett said. “That was the number I was promised. I wish Jayden the best. Good player — he did real good here.”

Daniels, drafted second overall by the Washington Commanders in 2024, said in a social media post on Thursday that the matter would not affect his preparation for the NFL season.

“I have been locked in on training camp and that has been my No. 1 focus,” Daniels said in the post. “I have a lot of gratitude for my time at LSU and I'm proud of what my teammates and I accomplished there.

“Obviously there are issues to get worked out” with LSU, Daniels continued. “My hope is that it will get done privately. ... I realize the business of football is unique and I trust that this can all be resolved.”

Daniels' statement came in the wake of reports about a letter in which his Miami-based attorney, Adam Kenner, demanded that LSU no longer use his client's name, image or likeness to promote the university or its athletic programs.

Pickett wore a No. 3 jersey as a freshman last year but was wearing No. 5 when August camp opened last week. The 6-foot-5 cornerback is a former five-star recruit who had three interceptions in 2025.

Kiffin said last week that Pickett was promised the opportunity to wear No. 5 when he signed with LSU in December 2024, when Brian Kelly was coaching the Tigers. Kelly was fired in October 2025, and Kiffin was hired at the end of the regular season.

“When a kid’s promised something to come to a school, he should wear it,” Kiffin said during an Aug. 5 media session. “So at that point, I don’t think it’s really my decision. We should honor what he was told.”

Pickett is the first player to wear No. 5 since Daniels left LSU. Under LSU policy, the only number football players cannot wear is No. 20, worn by the late Billy Cannon, who was the Tigers' first Heisman winner in 1959.

Top LSU officials, including Athletic Director Verge Ausberry, have declined to comment on the matter.

A number of images of Daniels that are on display at LSU would be considered in the public domain, and not subject to any contractual agreements between the university and the quarterback. But LSU has in the past featured Daniels in promotional videos shown in Tiger Stadium or and elsewhere, and it remains to be seen whether LSU might edit some of those out should the dispute become protracted.

___

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here

En Auburndale Elementary, los estudiantes escogieron mochilas gratuitas llenas de útiles escolares, con muchos colores y estilos para elegir.

“¡Estoy emocionada!”, dijo Keila, estudiante de quinto grado.

Camilla, estudiante de segundo grado, dijo que escogió una mochila morada porque también tenía color rosado.

El evento de Auburndale fue uno de varios realizados en las Escuelas Públicas de Miami-Dade en la víspera del nuevo año escolar.

Comisionados locales se asociaron con las escuelas para dar la bienvenida a los estudiantes y sus familias.

“Fui a una escuela pública a solo unas cuadras de aquí. Recuerdo el primer día de clases. Era aterrador, intimidante: nuevos estudiantes, nuevos maestros, director”, dijo el comisionado de Miami Rafael Rosado. “Lo que estamos haciendo es darles la bienvenida para que puedan ver nuestras sonrisas, nuestra emoción y nuestro apoyo para ellos”.

Los eventos también dieron a los estudiantes la oportunidad de conocer sus salones antes del inicio de clases y aprender más sobre los programas en los que participarán durante el año escolar.

En Bowman Ashe/Doolin K-8 Academy, en el suroeste de Miami-Dade, estudiantes y familias conocieron el programa STARTs de la escuela magnet, que incluye música y robótica.

Los maestros también se preparaban para dar la bienvenida a los estudiantes.

“Reunirnos con los padres y tener esa conexión, en última instancia, ayuda a que los estudiantes tengan éxito”, dijo Rachel Ruiz, maestra de Bowman Ashe/Doolin Academy. “Estoy sumamente emocionada. Los nervios son buenos nervios. Estoy lista para enseñarles”.

El inicio del nuevo año escolar trae desafíos adicionales para algunas familias de Miami-Dade afectadas por cambios migratorios, mientras las autoridades educativas aseguran que están preparadas para brindarles apoyo.

Para algunas familias, este año escolar comenzará con ajustes importantes en medio de cambios recientes en materia migratoria.

El Estatus de Protección Temporal (TPS) terminó recientemente para miles de ciudadanos haitianos en Estados Unidos, una situación ante la cual las autoridades de las Escuelas Públicas del Condado de Miami-Dade enviaron un mensaje a los padres afectados.

“Los padres no deben dejar a sus hijos en casa”, dijo el superintendente de Miami-Dade, José Dotres. “Por favor, llévenlos a la escuela”.

Los permisos de trabajo también vencieron para ciudadanos haitianos que trabajaban en el sistema escolar, por lo que las autoridades están realizando los ajustes correspondientes.

“Tenemos que tomar las medidas apropiadas, pero tratamos de asegurarnos de monitorear de cerca el impacto del TPS en nuestro distrito escolar”, señaló Dotres.

Las autoridades educativas dijeron estar preparadas para ayudar a las familias que puedan sentir preocupación o incertidumbre ante las actuales medidas de control migratorio.

En cuanto a los empleados, funcionarios del distrito indicaron que el área de servicios humanos está revisando la situación de cada trabajador, ya que las circunstancias migratorias pueden variar de una persona a otra.

Además, para la tarde del miércoles estaban programados varios eventos de regreso a clases, entre ellos una feria de recursos escolares en South Miami Heights hasta las 4 p.m., una actividad en Shenandoah Elementary a la 1 p.m. y otra en Citrus Grove K-8 a las 2:30 p.m.

Mientras los estudiantes comienzan a regresar a clases en todo el sur de Florida, Local 10 quiere ayudar a celebrar este momento compartiendo sus fotos favoritas del regreso a clases.

“Bristol was always one of Kyle’s favorite tracks,” Samantha Busch wrote on X. “He loved racing under the lights, found so much success there, and the iconic M&M’S car holds some of the best memories of his career and our life together.”

Busch, 41, died May 21 after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming complications.

Busch and the No. 18 Toyota M&M’s car were synonymous when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing from 2008-22. He moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2023.

Busch won nine Cup Series races and a total of 23 NASCAR races at Bristol.

Ty Gibbs, 23, is coming off his second win of the season at the Cup Series race in Iowa.

He posted pictures of the M&M's car on Instagram and wrote, “Excited for Bristol. Gonna be a cool (one)... So honored to drive this.”

Samantha Busch wrote it would be “heartbreaking” to be at Bristol without Kyle. The race is Sept. 19.

“He should be there,” she wrote. “But I’m so grateful to be able to tell you that those iconic M&M’S colors will be coming back to Bristol, one last time, on the 54 car. It’s a chance to honor him at a place he loved so much, surrounded by our NASCAR family and the fans who loved him too. I know Kyle would want us to be there, to keep showing up, keep racing, and keep carrying his legacy forward.”

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Meanwhile, a system designated Potential Tropical Cyclone One-C in the central Pacific, located about 800 miles southeast of Hawaii, is expected to organize into Tropical Storm Lala on Thursday and threaten the 50^th state this weekend.

Tropical twins plodding westward over the open Atlantic with a lackluster future

Two robust tropical disturbances – designated Invest 92L (westernmost) and Invest 94L (easternmost) – continue to gradually organize over the central and eastern Atlantic this morning and could each become a tropical depression or named storm in the coming days. The next names on the list are Dolly and Edouard.

The disturbance with the best development shot in the short term is the westernmost wave (Invest 92L), which has maintained persistent thunderstorms with an organizing circulation.

While 92L will probably get the nod as our next tropical depression or named storm — perhaps as soon as Thursday — like Crisobal before it, it’s time as a tropical cyclone will be short-lived.

By Saturday, it will be moving into the eastern Caribbean where a firehose of wind shear will mean lights out, and the system is expected to wash out over the weekend. 92L or what develops from it will not pose a widespread threat to the islands and may benefit drought-stricken areas of the Caribbean.

Meanwhile AI models that turned quickly bullish on Invest 94L late Tuesday have – in a similar fashion to 92L – since retreated in their enthusiasm. Models do suggest a longer shelf life for 94L than 92L but in general intensity guidance caps it as a low- to mid-tier tropical storm into early next week.

Unlike 92L which will sail deep into the Caribbean as a washed-out wave, 94L could maintain its designation as a tropical depression or tropical storm as it curls near or north of the easternmost Caribbean islands from Tuesday to Thursday next week.

Needless to say, this one has some obstacles ahead, including shear and dry air, which will tap the brakes on any significant organization.

For now, 94L doesn’t look to be a significant threat for the islands even if it develops.

Hawaii in the crosshairs of soon-to-be Lala

A disturbance about 800 miles southeast of Hawai’i – designated Potential Tropical Cyclone One-C – is likely to become Tropical Storm Lala later Thursday.

Models show Lala slowly strengthening to a strong tropical storm as it nears the Big Island early Saturday local time.

The good news since yesterday is forecast models have trended slightly south and away from the state but there remains a growing threat for impactful weather – including periods of heavy rains on east and south-facing slopes, flash flooding, strong winds, and dangerous surf and large swell along east-facing shorelines – for not only the Big Island but for Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai this weekend.

It’s been nearly two years since a tropical storm watch or warning has been issued for Hawaii and since Hurricane Douglas in 2020 that the state has been under a hurricane watch.

Only 11 tropical storms or hurricanes on record (since 1949) have been observed within 50 miles of the state and Tropical Storm Olivia in 2018 was the last named storm to pass directly over the island chain.

Residents and visitors should continue to closely monitor the forecast over the coming days.

Leer en español

“Jakey’s Army is not something to mess with,” said Karen Duque, the boy’s mother, after the statue was found.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded just after 1 p.m. Saturday to the park, located at the intersection of Northwest 154th Street and 89th Avenue, after receiving a report that the statue had been stolen.

Detectives with the agency’s General Investigations Unit said they took over the case and determined that the bronze statue, valued at approximately $8,000, had been removed by “unknown suspects.”

They said the statue remained missing for several days before investigators received information Wednesday about where it was located. With assistance from MDSO’s Robbery Intervention Detail Team, detectives were able to find and recover the statue, authorities said.

Investigators said they arrested 27-year-old Derick Coca on Thursday after he caught while attempting to move the statue to another location.

Duque told Local 10 News that it was Coca’s parents who turned him in.

MDSO detectives said they will continue to investigate whether other people were involved in the theft.

The statue holds special significance for the Duque family and the Miami Lakes community. Jakey died at age 5 after battling a rare form of cancer.

His parents have said they wanted his memory to remain present in the community and for the statue to serve as a reminder of the young boy’s strength and courage.

“Faith is knowing that no matter what life throws at you, God is going to equip you with what you need,” said Duque. “And that’s what Jakey showed us.”

Neighbors said they were relieved when the statue was returned.

“It has just been a long few days knowing that someone had taken it, something that means a lot to the family and to our community,” neighbor Patty Becerra said.

Becerra said the statue also serves as a reminder of how fragile life can be.

“How life is so very fragile, so very fragile,” she said. “So I’m glad it’s back. It means a lot to all of us.”

MDSO officials shared photographs of the detectives who helped recover the statue alongside Jakey’s father and mother after its return.

Jail records show Coca is facing one count of third-degree grand theft.

As of Thursday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, on a $2,500 bond.

The comments came two days after a fiery, 2 1/2-minute monologue by White during which she defended herself after some critics contended she didn't show enough support for guard Sophie Cunningham when she took a hit across the head and neck area last weekend at Chicago. Referees upgraded the foul from a Flagrant 1 to a Flagrant 2, resulting in an ejection of Sky guard DiJonai Carrington.

“I think Steph does a great job with us,” Boston said before practice. “We love her and appreciate her and so to hear (boos), it was really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful. But for us, the main thing is the main thing, and we said we’re going to come out here and get that win.”

They did win — in resounding fashion, 106-92 over the Commissioner's Cup champion New York Liberty.

Following the game, Cunningham and three-time All-Star Caitlin Clark both backed their coach. Cunningham told reporters she had no problem with White's comments after the Sky game that she thought the refs made the right call, but that she didn't think Carrington was intentionally trying to hit Cunningham above the neck.

Carrington also wrote “WHITE PRIVILEGE” and tagged the Fever account on social media after the ejection. She has since explained she never claimed the foul was a result of white privilege.

Before Tuesday's game, White said she had not seen a replay of what happened before her postgame availability Saturday. When she did watch it later, she said called the foul “egregious.”

But the delay put White squarely in the middle of yet another controversy and Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith even used his social media account to call for White's firing.

Clark, Cunningham, Boston and Mitchell disagree.

“I told her to her face, I said, ‘Coach, you know this is for you,’ in terms of a sense of confidence, a sense of awareness that she's not alone,” Mitchell said, referring to Tuesday's pregame conversation. “It's like it really hurt my feelings to see her kind of have emotions in terms of not feeling valued and not feeling wanted in a place where she has to coach. At the end of the day, this is her job and she has to shows up, too, and I think people don't really realize that but it's our job to remind her.”

The boos came as a surprise to some for such an iconic figure in her basketball-rich home state.

She finished her high school career at Seeger, a school located between Indy and Purdue's campus in West Lafayette, as the state's career scoring leader in girls basketball. She led the Boilermakers to the 1998-99 national championship, was one of the original Fever players in 2000 and was an assistant coach on the Fever's 2012 WNBA title team.

The league's 2023 coach of the year returned to Indiana as head coach last season and came within one win of taking a severely injury-riddled Indiana team to the WNBA Finals.

Clark didn't like what happened, but understands because she has also been the target of boos.

“I hated that our fans booed, to be honest, and you can disagree with this and that, I get it,” Clark said Tuesday. “It's professional sports, people are going to boo. But, at the end of the day, that's our head coach and we're going to ride for her and we're always going to have her back and that's never going to tear our locker room apart.”

___

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

“It’s another device to help someone get compliant when they are not,” Homan said Thursday in an interview on Fox News Channel's “Fox & Friends.” “You can't just go from 0 to 100, right, and the first thing you go for is lethal force.”

Homan's remarks were the Trump administration's first public defense of ICE's plan to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents. The devices are known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC. They have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments.

The plan has drawn intense criticism from civil rights groups, Democrats in Congress, and some use-of-force experts, who say ICE agents have been too quick to use force while carrying out President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. At least six people have been shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents since last year, including motorists last month in Maine and Texas.

Homan argued the gloves could help avoid such encounters. He said they would give another less lethal option to ICE officers, similar to Tasers or pepper spray, for use in potentially violent situations on the streets and in detention facilities. He said that it would “be awhile” before the gloves are deployed in the field by ICE officers because the agency is still working out training protocols and other policy issues.

In Bardstown, Kentucky, Nelson County Jailer Justin Hall said Thursday that his agency began using the gloves four years ago to try to gain compliance when inmates are out of control. He said that, unlike Tasers, the shocks do not incapacitate people and make them fall or leave contact or burn marks.

Hall estimated that he had been shocked by the gloves more than 10 times during training, and the pain was intense but stops once the gloves are no longer touching skin. He said the shock gloves have been used sparingly, but are helpful as an initial deterrent when de-escalation techniques do not work.

“It’s just a safer way. It’s safer on the inmate. It’s safer on the staff. And most of the time, most of the time we get compliance,” he said. “It's been a great tool for our facility.”

Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina who has written extensively about police use-of-force and tactics, said the devices should be studied more broadly to ensure departments have proper guidance on when and how they should be used. He said it might be a wiser investment for ICE to start with a smaller purchase, given how little is known about them.

“You are wholesaling these to a group of officers who may not be trained in other strategies like de-escalation or trained to interact with the public in non-enforcement ways, like most local police officers are,” he said. “User error is almost predictable at some level. The tech may be fine, but let’s take a minute and make sure that it is used in an appropriate custom and practice.”

___

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. AP reporter Claudia Lauer contributed to this report from Philadelphia.

Opening statements at the murder trial in Las Vegas are expected to begin Monday.

Family members and fans of the legendary rapper have been waiting for decades to learn the truth behind the 1996 drive-by shooting that left Shakur dead at the height of his career.

Shakur was just 25 when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip at a time when he was in the middle of a fierce battle for dominance in a music scene shaped by rival gangs.

Authorities three years ago charged Duane “Keffe D” Davis with murder, describing him as the “shot caller” who orchestrated the killing. Davis has pleaded not guilty and could be sentenced to life in prison if he’s convicted.

Sixteen jurors were picked for the trial, which is expected to last about a month. During the selection process, potential jurors were asked about their favorite books and movies, if they had any strong feelings about gangs, and whether they had listened to Shakur’s music.

Shakur still is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. With hits like “California Love” and “Dear Mama,” more than 75 million of his records have been sold worldwide, including seven albums released after his death.

He was in the passenger seat of a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight on Sept. 7, 1996, when shots were fired from a Cadillac at a red light. Knight survived but Shakur died six days later.

Prosecutors have not accused Davis, now 63, of pulling the trigger that night, instead saying that he made the calls that led to Shakur’s death and provided the gun.

In Nevada, a person can be convicted of murder for helping another person commit the crime.

Davis is the only person still alive who was in the car where prosecutors said the fatal shots originated.

The case against Davis was revived when Davis published the book “Compton Street Legend,” about the shooting and his time in the Crips, in 2019 as well as his statements during police and media interviews.

Davis’ attorneys unsuccessfully fought to block from the trial details written in the book and said during a 2008 police interview. They argued the book was fictionalized and had a co-author, making it impossible to know which parts Davis wrote.

They also argued Davis’ previous interview with a federal task force was supposed to be confidential and not used against him.

Among those who could be called to testify in the trial is Knight, the rap music mogul whose label represented Shakur. He continually has said that he wants no part in the trial.

Knight, who is serving a 28-year sentence for running over and killing a Compton businessman in 2015, is the only surviving person who was in the car with Shakur at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 witnesses, ranging from people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot to those who were associates of both Shakur and Davis at the time. Sean “Diddy” Combs, who Davis claimed wanted Shakur and Knight dead, will not be one of those witnesses, attorneys said.

___

Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

The ruling allows people to purchase silencers, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and certain other firearms without registration, while also removing an extra layer of background checks.

The order benefits parties that brought the lawsuit, including some dealers based outside northern Texas, but it is not a national injunction. Advocates say there are similar challenges in federal courts in other states. Separately, some states have their own prohibitions on silencers.

U.S. District Judge James Hendrix in Lubbock, Texas, said regulations in a 1930s-era law are unconstitutional. He said the rules must fall after the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump eliminated a $200 permit tax on the devices.

Hendrix said his Aug. 5 order would take effect in seven days unless the government appealed. There was no sign of a filing Wednesday in online entries at Hendrix's court or the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The government’s refusal to pursue an immediate appeal “is a failure to defend public safety,” said Emma Brown, executive director at Giffords, the gun violence prevention group.

An email Thursday seeking comment from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which enforces the law, was not immediately answered. Under court procedure, the government still could file an appeal in the weeks ahead, even while Hendrix's order stands.

Gun Owners of America said two members acquired suppressors at Silencer Shop in Leander, Texas, without having to register.

“Our members are putting the historic victory into action. The era of federal registration for constitutionally protected arms must end,” said Erich Pratt, the group's senior vice president.

The National Firearms Act has been around since 1934 in response to concerns about mafia violence. It regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, though gun-rights advocates say it conflicts with the Constitution's Second Amendment.

“The system of regulating these weapons has been effective. The need is no less today than it was after the Prohibition era almost a century ago,” said Giffords chief counsel Adam Skaggs.

Orange County deputies say they would steal family heirlooms from cemeteries.

The group, deputies said, broke into niches containing cremated remains and took everything from jewelry to family heirlooms.

Deputies identified them as Angela Garrett, 52; her son, Drake Lee Milam, 33; and his girlfriend, Porsche Bancroft, 32. All of them are from Indiana.

The sheriff’s office is asking everyone to stay vigilant. They asked anyone who hasn’t visited a loved one’s niche to check on it.

There are at least 20 reported cases across Florida, but detectives believe the number could be higher.

Miami is poised for a fun and exciting season following the acquisition of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who joins a group led by Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and head coach Erik Spoelstra.

Opening Night is set for Wednesday, Oct. 21 when Miami hosts the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center.

The majority of Miami’s games this season, at least 68, will be airing on Local 10 News in South Florida.

The full season schedule can be found by clicking here.

Matchups to circle on the calendar are a meeting with the Detroit Pistons on Friday, Oct. 23, the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday, Nov. 2, the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, Nov. 5, the New York Knicks on Thursday, Jan. 14 and the Boston Celtics on Saturday, March 27, all games that can be seen on Local 10.

Other marquee matchups include Miami visiting LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Nov. 25 and the NBA Champion New York Knicks two days later on Friday, Nov. 27.

Miami will also play on Christmas Day, visiting the Boston Celtics for a 2:30 p.m. afternoon tipoff.

Superstar center Victor Wembenyama and the San Antonio Spurs will visit Miami on President’s Day, which is Monday, Feb. 15.

Remember, you can watch Miami Heat games on Local 10 next season as WPLG Local 10 and the Heat announced a newly expanded media rights agreement, making Local 10 the home of HEAT basketball across South Florida! CLICK HERE for more information on how to watch!

Heat fans can also call 786-777-4375 for more information on how to purchase tickets for the 2026-2027 season.

The Tigers became the first team to blank an opponent without a strikeout since Rick Porcello did it to the Athletics on July 1, 2014. The feat has only been accomplished seven times since 2000.

Montero (9-7) allowed one walk over 6 1/3 innings, holding the Guardians scoreless despite not recording a strikeout. Tyler Holton worked 1 2/3 strong innings, and Kenley Jansen earned his 15th save in a perfect ninth.

Dillon Dingler drove in the game's first run with an RBI groundout in the third before Eduardo Valencia added his fifth homer of the season on a ball that sailed into the left-field seats.

Spencer Torkelson capped the scoring with a one-run single in the eighth.

Parker Messick (9-7) worked 5 2/3 innings for the Guardians, allowing two runs and three hits while fanning six.

Cleveland's Steven Kwan had his career-high on-base streak of 27 games snapped, finishing 0 for 4.

Up next

Tigers: RHP Jackson Jobe (1-0, 0.00 ERA) starts the series opener against the White Sox on Friday.

Guardians: RHP Gavin Williams (11-6, 3.55 ERA) starts the series opener versus the Padres this Friday.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

La inflación acumulada en lo que va del año alcanzó 19,3%, mientras que la variación interanual fue de 33,8%, informó el jueves el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC).

En junio, el costo de vida había marcado una suba de 1,9%, la menor en 10 meses.

De acuerdo al informe oficial, el aumento del costo de vida en el sexto mes del año estuvo liderada por el rubro Recreación y Cultura (5%), seguida por Restaurantes y hoteles (2,8%) en coincidencia con el receso de invierno. Las subas de alquileres y tarifas de servicios públicos también estuvieron por encima del 2%, lo que contribuyó a un registro más elevado respecto a junio.

El dato oficial de julio muestra una leve aceleración de precios que se había frenado a partir de abril y vuelve prácticamente inviable la promesa del presidente liberal Javier Milei de una inflación de un dígito a partir de agosto.

Poco antes de conocerse el dato oficial, el ministro de Economía, Luis Caputo, atribuyó la aceleración de precios en julio proyectada por consultoras a que “es un mes estacionalmente alto” y a factores externos.

“Más allá del número, tenemos una confianza plena en lo que estamos haciendo”, remarcó el funcionario el jueves en rueda de prensa. “El proceso de desinflación que estamos viendo es fenomenal. No tenemos ninguna duda que este es el rumbo y vamos a seguir por este rumbo".

La tasa anual, ahora en 33%, superaba el 200% cuando Milei asumió el cargo en 2023.

Sin embargo, una aceleración de la inflación, aunque sea leve, termina erocionando aún más el poder adquisitivo de los argentinos con salarios que se mantienen muy rezagados respecto al aumento del costo de vida de los últimos tres años y que han obligado a miles de familias a endeudarse para poder costear sus gastos diarios. Esta caída en el poder de compra ha impactado negativamente en el consumo y la rectivación económica.

“Para bajar la inflación hacen falta políticas contractivas que van en contra de la reactivación. Políticas de estímulo pueden ayudar, pero seguramente van a implicar una tasa de inflación más alta”, planteó la consultora Econviews en un reciente informe.

Las proyecciones para el segundo trimestre del año vaticinan una caída del PIB de entre 0,4 y 1%.

Al menos 3,284 personas resultaron heridas, informó David Tamayo, nuevo director de la Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres (UNGRD).

“De esas 273 personas fallecidas, 250 han sido remitidas a Medicina Legal; 227 ya fueron identificadas y 189 cuerpos han sido entregados a sus familias”, dijo Tamayo durante una conferencia de prensa.

Entre las víctimas mortales se encuentran 96 personas que murieron en Cali, 93 en Pereira y 13 en la región del Chocó, donde se localizó el epicentro del terremoto, según las autoridades.

Tamayo informó que unas 12,600 viviendas quedaron destruidas y más de 74,800 resultaron dañadas.

El funcionario agregó que la UNGRD mantiene bajo vigilancia el volcán Puracé, en la región del Cauca, y revisa la situación de los albergues ante la posibilidad de que sea necesaria una evacuación “debido al aumento de la actividad volcánica”.

También este jueves, el presidente de Colombia, Abelardo De la Espriella, anunció a través de X que los Emiratos Árabes Unidos donarán $10 millones para apoyar las labores de emergencia.

Por su parte, la Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (Conmebol) y la Federación Colombiana de Fútbol anunciaron una donación de $1 millón para las labores de reconstrucción en el oeste del país.

Conferencia de prensa

Leer en español

The nonpartisan race pits an incumbent touting academic gains against a former educator focused on equity, teacher pay and school safety.

Zeman is seeking to hold onto the seat he won in a runoff four years ago. He says the district has made significant academic progress during his first term.

“A year into my first four years we became an ‘A’ district. We’ve become an ‘A’ district for three years in a row,” Zeman said.

He also points to the number of students who have improved their academic performance.

“We’ve lifted over 25,000 students to above or at grade level that were below grade level before,” Zeman added.

Azim is running against Zeman. She is a former special education teacher and director who spent 14 years in education and previously served as dean of Renaissance Charter School.

Azim says Broward schools face inequities in everything from facilities and academic programs to discipline.

“We have an equitability crisis on Broward Schools where our students don’t all have the same access or equitability to the same facility, upkeep and maintenance, academic programs, and the way that the discipline is measured out is inequitable,” Azim said.

Teacher pay is another issue where the candidates say they want to see change.

Zeman has repeatedly called for higher salaries for teachers and says he would continue pushing for raises if reelected.

“We cannot underestimate the contribution that teachers make to the well-being of our community and to the economic vitality of Broward County,” Zeman said.

Azim also says she would fight for higher teacher pay. She is making school safety another key part of her campaign.

“And we need to have a comprehensive safety training program so that everybody, every employee in Broward Schools is prepared for the next critical day,” Azim said.

The School Board District 8 race is nonpartisan, so voters do not have to be registered with a political party to participate.

Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 18.

Click here to read more stories from Local 10’s Vote 2026 collection.

La contienda no partidista enfrenta a un titular que destaca los avances académicos logrados durante su gestión con una exeducadora que centra su campaña en la equidad, los salarios de los maestros y la seguridad escolar.

Zeman busca conservar el puesto que ganó en una segunda vuelta electoral hace cuatro años. Asegura que el distrito ha logrado avances académicos significativos durante su primer mandato.

“Un año después de comenzar mis primeros cuatro años, nos convertimos en un distrito con calificación ‘A’. Hemos mantenido esa calificación durante tres años consecutivos”, dijo Zeman.

También destacó el número de estudiantes que han mejorado su desempeño académico.

“Hemos logrado que más de 25,000 estudiantes que antes estaban por debajo del nivel correspondiente a su grado ahora estén en ese nivel o por encima”, agregó Zeman.

Azim, quien compite contra Zeman, fue maestra y directora de educación especial y trabajó durante 14 años en el sector educativo. También se desempeñó anteriormente como decana de Renaissance Charter School.

Azim sostiene que las escuelas de Broward enfrentan problemas de inequidad que abarcan desde las instalaciones y los programas académicos hasta la disciplina.

“Tenemos una crisis de equidad en las escuelas de Broward, donde no todos nuestros estudiantes tienen el mismo acceso a instalaciones, mantenimiento, programas académicos, y la manera en que se aplican las medidas disciplinarias también es desigual”, dijo Azim.

El salario de los maestros es otro tema en el que ambos candidatos consideran necesarios cambios.

Zeman ha pedido reiteradamente salarios más altos para los maestros y afirma que, si es reelegido, continuará impulsando aumentos.

“No podemos subestimar la contribución que hacen los maestros al bienestar de nuestra comunidad y a la vitalidad económica del condado de Broward”, señaló Zeman.

Azim también afirma que luchará por mejores salarios para los maestros y ha convertido la seguridad escolar en otro de los temas centrales de su campaña.

“Necesitamos contar con un programa integral de capacitación en seguridad para que todos, cada uno de los empleados de las escuelas de Broward, estén preparados para el próximo día crítico”, dijo Azim.

La elección por el Distrito 8 de la Junta Escolar es no partidista, por lo que los votantes no necesitan estar registrados en un partido político para participar.

El día de las elecciones es el martes 18 de agosto.

Haga clic aquí para leer más historias de la cobertura Vote 2026 de Local 10.

Leer en español

At around 5–6 years old and just under 50 pounds, she’s the perfect balance of fun and well-mannered.

Staff members say she’s potty trained, walks well on a leash, knows basic commands, and loves to play. Tigress has also done well around other dogs and has calmly walked by cats, though proper introductions are always recommended.

She’s currently available for adoption at Miami-Dade Animal Services in Doral and is ready to find her forever family. Click here for more information on how you can adopt a pet.

Tiene entre 5 y 6 años, pesa poco menos de 50 libras y, según el personal del refugio, combina una personalidad divertida con un buen comportamiento.

Tigress está entrenada para hacer sus necesidades fuera de casa, camina bien con correa, conoce órdenes básicas y le encanta jugar.

También se ha llevado bien con otros perros y ha caminado tranquilamente cerca de gatos, aunque el personal recomienda realizar siempre una presentación adecuada entre los animales.

Actualmente, Tigress está disponible para adopción en el Departamento de Servicios para Animales de Miami-Dade, en Doral, y está lista para encontrar una familia que le brinde un hogar permanente.

Para obtener más información sobre cómo adoptar una mascota, visite el sitio web del Departamento de Servicios para Animales de Miami-Dade.

The Bears announced in June that they were moving forward with a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana. They have completed their review of what they are calling the Lost Marsh site, and they are doing their due diligence on the Wolf Lake Terminal site. They could merge the two options together in some way.

“Even though we’ve had occasional meetings with the state of Illinois, our sole focus at this point in time is working on a world-class stadium and mixed-use development in Hammond, Indiana,” team President Kevin Warren said Thursday.

The Bears also had been considering Arlington Heights — about 30 miles northwest of Chicago — as a potential location for an enclosed stadium. Wherever they end up, a name change is off the table.

“We will be the Chicago Bears whether we’re in Arlington or whether we’re in Hammond,” chairman George McCaskey said.

The Bears, a charter NFL franchise, have played in Illinois since the team’s founding in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. They moved to Chicago in 1921 and called Wrigley Field home before they started playing at Soldier Field in September 1971.

The Bears’ lease runs through 2033, but they can pay a fee to break the lease early. Soldier Field is about 40 miles south of Halas Hall — the team’s headquarters in Lake Forest — and Hammond is about 20 miles south of the team’s lakefront stadium.

McCaskey acknowledged the “anxiety” of a move to northwest Indiana for the team's fans.

“But when I’ve driven that route, other than a sign telling me so, I wouldn’t know that I’ve just crossed the state border,” he said. “And as Kevin said, once people see the building, once they get in there, once they understand that our top priority from day one was a world-class stadium experience, we think we’ll make that adjustment. We think Bears fans are up for that.”

The Bears ramped up their focus on Indiana after a proposal to provide financial incentives for the team to build its new home in Illinois stalled in the state legislature. A committee in the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in February that established a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium.

The Illinois Senate passed a bill that would have cleared the way for Arlington Heights and Chicago to create local stadium authorities, creating a pathway for the Bears to avoid paying property taxes on a new stadium. But the House adjourned without taking up the measure on the last day of the state’s spring legislative session.

McCaskey said the team has had minimal conversations with Illinois legislators since June. Asked if he was hopeful about Illinois coming up with a plan and building in Arlington Heights, McCaskey demurred.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “has said to us many times in league meetings, ‘Hope is not a strategy,’” McCaskey said. “We have to deal with the here and now. We have to deal with real circumstances, and these are the real circumstances.”

Speaking before McCaskey and Warren held their news conference, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said his office has been in contact with the team.

“We’re working hard to make sure that there’s an opportunity for the Bears to stay in the state of Illinois, whether it’s in Chicago or in Arlington Heights,” Pritzker said.

“I also want, at the same time, to protect the fans and the taxpayers of the state. So we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that that happens.”

The Bears have been pursuing a new home for years, but the process has been hampered by repeated twists and turns.

The team announced in September 2021 that it had signed a purchase agreement for 326 acres of land in Arlington Heights. The $197 million deal with Churchill Downs Inc. was finalized in 2023.

In September 2022, the team unveiled a nearly $5 billion plan for Arlington Heights that called for an enclosed stadium that could host Super Bowls and Final Fours. The conceptual illustrations also provided for a year-round entertainment district with restaurants and shopping.

But the Bears shifted their focus toward building a new stadium next to Soldier Field after Warren was hired as team president in January 2023, replacing the retiring Ted Phillips. The plan to transform Chicago’s Museum Campus got an enthusiastic endorsement from Mayor Brandon Johnson and a tepid reception from Pritzker and state legislators when it was announced in April 2024.

The team switched gears again in May 2025, announcing it had made “significant progress” with local leaders in Arlington Heights.

Amid lingering efforts to secure tax incentives in Illinois, along with as much as $855 million in public money for infrastructure at the Arlington Heights site, the Bears began to take a closer look at possible options in northwest Indiana.

“We’re in regular, almost daily communication with the state of Indiana working on this,” Warren said. “We have an excellent deal, a win-win partnership together. And the cost of the significance of this decision from a stadium standpoint, we will make sure that we take our time to get this right.”

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Leer en español

The suspect, Angel Angelitha Cure, was arrested Wednesday by the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, authorities confirmed.

According to an arrest report, Cure was screaming “f--k you” toward coaches during a football game when officers approached her.

The report states that Cure was “knowingly interfering with the activity of a school board event.”

Police said parents appeared “uneasy,” while school staff yelled for an officer to help escort her from campus located at 450 Bird Road, according to the report.

They said as officers attempted to de-escalate the situation, Cure continued cursing. The report states she told an officer, “F--k you, you are not going to do anything.”

The report states that Cure eventually moved to the school parking lot, where cheerleaders and parents left the stands to see what was happening. Police said she continued yelling profanities at school staff and officers.

They said Cure was taken into custody after she refused commands to leave the campus. She was then transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without incident.

Jail records show Cure is facing one count of interfering with or disrupting an educational institution.

As of Thursday afternoon, Cure remained at TGK on a $150 bond.

La sospechosa, identificada como Angel Angelitha Cure, fue arrestada el miércoles por el Departamento de Policía de las Escuelas de Miami-Dade, confirmaron las autoridades.

Según el informe de arresto, Cure gritaba “j--danse” a los entrenadores durante el partido cuando los agentes se acercaron a ella.

El reporte señala que Cure estaba “interfiriendo deliberadamente con una actividad de la junta escolar”.

La policía indicó que los padres parecían “incómodos”, mientras que miembros del personal escolar pedían a gritos la ayuda de un agente para escoltarla fuera del campus, ubicado en 450 Bird Road.

Mientras los agentes intentaban calmar la situación, Cure continuó profiriendo insultos. Según el informe, le dijo a uno de los agentes: “J--dete, no vas a hacer nada”.

Cure finalmente se trasladó al estacionamiento de la escuela, donde porristas y padres abandonaron las gradas para ver qué estaba ocurriendo. La policía indicó que la mujer continuó gritando insultos contra el personal escolar y los agentes.

Las autoridades dijeron que Cure fue detenida después de negarse a cumplir las órdenes de abandonar el campus. Posteriormente fue trasladada, sin incidentes, al Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Los registros carcelarios muestran que Cure enfrenta un cargo por interferir o perturbar las actividades de una institución educativa.

Hasta la tarde del jueves, Cure permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $150.

The 2026-27 NBA schedule was released Thursday, setting the dates for the two former NBA Finals MVPs to return to face the teams that traded them this summer.

The schedules for opening night and Christmas had already been unveiled earlier this week, so those two games were among the most intriguing matchups not yet known. Brown, who was dealt from the Celtics to the rival Philadelphia 76ers in a stunning move, will play his first game back in Boston on Jan. 21.

Antetokounmpo was expected to be traded by Milwaukee this offseason — at one point speculation was that he might be swapped for Brown — and was eventually dealt to Miami. The Heat will travel to face the Bucks for the first time on Jan. 28.

Both of those games, which will be on Thursday nights, will stream on Prime Video.

Other details about the schedule:

From start to finish

The season will open Oct. 20 with a tripleheader, highlighted by LeBron James, Brown and the 76ers visiting the Knicks, who will receive their rings after winning the franchise's first championship since 1973.

The regular season ends April 11. All-Star weekend is set for Feb. 19-21 in Phoenix.

Busy nights and nights off

Every team will play on Monday, Nov. 2, and there will then be no games the following night, which is Election Day in the U.S. The league is leaving that first Tuesday in November as an open day in hopes that fans and members of the NBA community will participate in the voting process.

No teams will play on Saturday, April 10, the second-to-last day of the regular season. Every team is then in action on the final day, with all the games matching Eastern Conference teams and the one interconference matchup scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT. The games involving West teams are set for 8:30 p.m.

Where to watch the games

There will be 90 regular-season games televised nationally on ABC or NBC, up from 79 last season. Every team will be scheduled to appear on national TV at least twice.

Throughout the season, games will stream on Peacock on Monday nights, be shown on NBC and Peacock on Tuesdays, be televised by ESPN on Wednesdays, and stream on Prime Video on Fridays.

Saturday night primetime games on ABC begin Dec. 12 with the Knicks visiting the Heat, while NBC's “Sunday Night Basketball” returns Jan. 24 with Oklahoma City visiting Golden State.

Prime Video will begin streaming Thursday night doubleheaders in January and some Saturday afternoon games starting Feb. 6 with Portland at Memphis, when Ja Morant returns to face the Grizzlies for the first time.

A lot of TV time

The NBA champion Knicks have the most appearances on ABC with six, while the Lakers, 76ers, San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves all are featured on ESPN eight times.

The Knicks, Spurs, 76ers, Thunder, Warriors, Nuggets, Lakers and Houston all get the maximum 11 appearances on NBC.

Back-to-backs and schedule breaks

Teams will average 14.2 back-to-backs this season, the lowest total since the NBA Cup was added to the schedule, and no team will have more than 16. No team will play eight games in 12 nights, or 18 in 30.

There are 59 back-to-backs involving at least 750 miles of travel, down from 74 last season.

No team will be scheduled to play the night before games in the NBA Cup, or if they are in nationally televised games on Christmas Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Sunday nights on NBC or Saturday nights on ABC.

Milestone moments

If Kevin Durant averages 26 points, as he did in his first season in Houston, he could move past Kobe Bryant into fourth place on the career scoring list sometime around Jan. 16, when the Rockets would be at the midpoint of their schedule.

Rick Carlisle is set to become the eighth man to coach 2,000 NBA games on March 8, when the Indiana Pacers play their 65th game of the season.

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Leer en español

Should a place with that many violations be serving you?

Rinconcito Miami 2 was not shut down, but the inspection found conditions that should concern anyone walking through the front door.

And one day later, during a follow-up inspection, 35 violations were still outstanding.

Inspectors found a mold-like substance inside the ice machine, mold-like substance on a blender, live flies flying around the kitchen and a dead roach on the floor.

Employees repeatedly handled food and clean equipment without washing their hands, including after touching a trash can and a soiled apron.

Raw pork and pork belly were sitting at 60 degrees, raw shrimp at 59 degrees and cooked noodles at 57 degrees in a walk-in cooler, with the food reportedly sitting there since the day before.

A stop-sale was issued.

Hot food was also being held at temperatures as low as 82 degrees.

And inspectors found handwashing sinks without adequate water, a broken soap dispenser and employees washing their hands in an improper sink.

Sixty-three violations during one unannounced inspection. This is unacceptable!

**RINCONCITO MIAMI 2

COUNTRY MALL PLAZA

15956 SW 137TH AVE.

WEST KENDALL/RICHMOND WEST(UNINCORPORATED SOUTHWEST MIAMI DADE)

INSPECTION DATE 8/11

63 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

“Accumulation of debris inside ware washing machine.”

“Bowl or other container with no handle used to dispense food. Observed at steam table black bowl with no handle used to scoop rice.”

“Buildup of food debris/soil residue on equipment door handles. Observed oven doors handle. Observed cooler doors handle.”

“Cardboard used on floor as anti-slip measure not replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first. Observed in front of walk in cooler.”

“Ceiling/ceiling tile shows damage or is in disrepair. Observed some ceiling tiles in the kitchen shows water damage.”

“Ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance. Observed ceiling vents soiled all throughout the kitchen with dust and good debris.”

“Clean equipment and utensils not separated from soiled equipment and utensils at ware washing area. Observed at shelves near the dishwasher.”

“Clean glasses, cups, bowls, plates, pots and pans not stored inverted or in a protected manner. Observed at shelves near the dishwasher.”

“Clean utensils or equipment stored in dirty drawer or rack.”

“Cold holding equipment not maintained in good repair. Do not store time/temperature control for safety food in this unit until the unit is repaired. Observed walk in cooler at 50F.”

“Cove molding at floor/wall juncture broken/missing. Observed cove molding missing at handwashing sinks in the kitchen.”

“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 1 dead roach on floor near the dishwasher.”

“Employee with no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation. Observed cook with no hair restraint in the kitchen.”

“Establishment charging operational charges without properly disclosing the information on the receipt.”

“Exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside. Observed exterior door near vegetables walk in cooler has a gap on the right and left side.”

“Floor area(s) covered with standing water. Observed in front of walk in freezer.”

“Floor soiled/has accumulation of debris. Observed floor under cooking and cold holding units soiled with heavy grease and old food debris.”

“Food storage container for time/temperature control for safety food not cleaned after being emptied prior to refilling. Observed Inside beans container, Observed exterior of blender with mold like substance.”

“Food stored on floor. Observed food stored on floor in walk in freezer.”

“Food-contact surface not cleaned and sanitized between working with unwashed produce and ready-to-eat food.”

“Hood ventilation system inadequate as evidenced by grease accumulation on walls/ceiling.”

“Ice buildup in reach-in freezer and/or walk-in freezer.”

“In-use tongs stored on equipment door handle between uses. Observed at oven door located in front of the steam table.”

“Interior of oven/microwave has accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”

“No suitable facilities provided to store employee clothing and other possessions. Observed employee shoes, aprons and other belongings stored all throughout the kitchen.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. Observed in gaskets walk in and reach cooler. “Observed can opener holder soiled.”

“Reach-in cooler interior/shelves have accumulation of soil residues.”

“Ripped/worn tin foil used as shelf cover. Observed in the walk in cooler.”

“Single-service articles stored on a soiled surface. Observed to go containers.”

“Soiled dry wiping cloth in use.”

“Standing water or very slow draining water in handwash sink, three-compartment sink, or mop sink. Observed at handwashing sink near walk in cooler.”

“Stored food not covered. Observed food stored in the vegetable walk in cooler not covered.”

“Walk-in cooler/freezer shelves with rust that has pitted the surface.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed wall soiled in the kitchen.”

“Water draining onto floor surface. Observed water draining onto floor from handwash sink near walk in cooler.”

“Water leaking from pipe and/or faucet/handle. Observed water leaking from pipe under the handwash sink near walk in cooler.” “Wet mops not stored in a manner to allow the mop to dry.”

“Wet wiping cloth not stored in sanitizing solution between uses. Observed in the cafeteria, in the kitchen, and server area.”

“Wet wiping cloths used for occasional spills on equipment food- and nonfood-contact surfaces not clean.”

“Working containers of food removed from original container not identified by common name. Observed container of salt at shelf near the triple sink.”

“Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands. Observed employee started preparing sandwiches, no handwash. Also observed cook started preparing food no handwash.”

“Employee failed to wash hands before putting on gloves to initiate a task working with food.”

“Employee touched soiled apron/clothes and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands. Observed employee touched soiled apron and then proceeded to handled clean equipment’s.”

“Employee touched soiled surface and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands. Observed employee touched trash can near fryers.”

“Employee washed hands with cold water.”

“Food-contact surfaces in contact with time/temperature control for safety food not cleaned at least every four hours. Observed ice cream and milkshakes mixer.”

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed 2 live flies flying in the kitchen.”

“Stop Sale issued on time/temperature control for safety food due to temperature abuse. Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed Raw pork (60F - Cold Holding); Raw pork chop (53F - Cold Holding); Raw chicken (47F - Cold Holding); Cooked pork (51F - Cold Holding); Pork belly (60F - Cold Holding); Raw whole fish (48F - Cold Holding); Cooked ground beef (52F - Cold Holding); Cooked noodles (57F - Cold Holding); Raw shrimp (59F - Cold Holding); Beans sprouts (52F - Cold Holding) in the walk in cooler from the day prior.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed Raw pork (60F - Cold Holding); Raw pork chop (53F - Cold Holding); Raw chicken (47F - Cold Holding); Cooked pork (51F - Cold Holding); Pork belly (60F - Cold Holding); Raw whole fish (48F - Cold Holding); Cooked ground beef (52F - Cold Holding); Cooked noodles (57F - Cold Holding); Raw shrimp (59F - Cold Holding); Beans sprouts (52F - Cold Holding) in the walk in cooler since the day prior.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food, other than whole meat roast, hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed cook onions (82F - Hot Holding); maduro (92F - Hot Holding); rice and beans (96F - Hot Holding) at room temperature in the cook line, as per operator for less than 2 hours. Observed Milk (127- Hot Holding) in the Cafeteria area. Observed cook chicken (106F - Hot Holding) in the kitchen. As per operator for less than 2 hours. Observed yucca ( 123- Hot Holding); Malanga cream ( 121- Hot holding) at steam table.”

“Certified Food Manager or person in charge lacks knowledge of employee health policy and health requirements.”

“Employee washed hands in a sink other than an approved handwash sink.”

“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Observed cutting boards soiled . Observed can opener soiled either old food debris.”

“Handwash sink does not have running water or enough water pressure to properly wash hands. Observed handwashing sink near dishwasher. Observed handwash sink near exit door.”

“Handwash sink not accessible for employee use at all times. Observed baking sheet and metal food container stored over hand sink at back preparation area.”

“Handwash sink used for purposes other than handwashing. Observed plastic containers stored inside of handwash sink near cook line.”

“Hot water supply not maintained during peak periods.”

“Non-pitting surface rust on food-contact equipment. Observed in the kitchen.”

“Probe thermometer not used to ensure proper food temperatures.”

“Soap dispenser at handwash sink not working/unable to dispense soap.”

“Water with a temperature of least 85 degrees Fahrenheit not provided/shut off at employee handwash sink. Observed hot water at 83F at handwash sink near kitchen exit door.”

¿Un lugar con tantas infracciones debería estar sirviendo comida?

Rinconcito Miami 2 no fue cerrado, pero la inspección encontró condiciones que deberían preocupar a cualquiera que entre al establecimiento.

Y un día después, durante una inspección de seguimiento, 35 infracciones seguían sin corregirse.

Los inspectores encontraron una sustancia similar al moho dentro de la máquina de hielo y en una licuadora, moscas vivas volando por la cocina y una cucaracha muerta en el piso.

Los empleados manipularon repetidamente alimentos y equipo limpio sin lavarse las manos, incluso después de tocar un bote de basura y un delantal sucio.

La carne de cerdo cruda y la panceta de cerdo estaban a 60 grados, los camarones crudos a 59 grados y los fideos cocidos a 57 grados dentro de una cámara frigorífica. Según el reporte, los alimentos estaban allí desde el día anterior.

Se emitió una orden para suspender la venta de esos alimentos.

Los alimentos calientes también se mantenían a temperaturas de hasta apenas 82 grados.

Además, los inspectores encontraron lavamanos sin suficiente agua, un dispensador de jabón averiado y empleados que se lavaban las manos en un fregadero no autorizado.

Sesenta y tres infracciones durante una sola inspección sin previo aviso. ¡Esto es inaceptable!

RINCONCITO MIAMI 2

COUNTRY MALL PLAZA15956 SW 137TH AVE.

WEST KENDALL/RICHMOND WEST

(SUROESTE NO INCORPORADO DE MIAMI-DADE)

FECHA DE INSPECCIÓN: 11 DE AGOSTO

63 INFRACCIONES DETECTADAS

“Acumulación de una sustancia negra/verde similar al moho en el interior de la máquina y el depósito de hielo”.

“Acumulación de residuos dentro de la máquina lavavajillas”.

“Se utiliza un tazón u otro recipiente sin mango para servir alimentos. Se observó en la mesa de vapor un tazón negro sin mango utilizado para servir arroz”.

“Acumulación de restos de alimentos o suciedad en las manijas de los equipos. Se observó en las manijas de las puertas del horno y de los refrigeradores”.

“Se utiliza cartón en el piso como medida antideslizante y no se reemplaza diariamente ni cuando está muy sucio, lo que ocurra primero. Se observó frente a la cámara frigorífica”.

“El techo o las placas del techo presentan daños o están deteriorados. Se observaron algunas placas con daños causados por agua en la cocina”.

“El techo, las placas o las rejillas de ventilación presentan acumulación de restos de alimentos, grasa, polvo o una sustancia similar al moho. Se observaron rejillas de ventilación sucias en toda la cocina, con polvo y restos de alimentos”.

“Los equipos y utensilios limpios no están separados de los equipos y utensilios sucios en el área de lavado. Se observó en los estantes cercanos al lavavajillas”.

“Vasos, tazas, tazones, platos, ollas y sartenes limpios no están almacenados boca abajo ni protegidos adecuadamente. Se observó en los estantes cercanos al lavavajillas”.

“Utensilios o equipos limpios almacenados en un cajón o estante sucio”.

“El equipo de refrigeración no se mantiene en buenas condiciones. No se deben almacenar en esta unidad alimentos que requieran control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad hasta que sea reparada. La cámara frigorífica se encontraba a 50 °F”.

“La moldura en la unión entre el piso y la pared está rota o ausente. Se observó que faltaba cerca de los lavamanos de la cocina”.

“La tabla de cortar presenta marcas de cortes y ya no puede limpiarse adecuadamente”.

“Cucarachas muertas en el establecimiento. Se observó una cucaracha muerta en el piso cerca del lavavajillas”.

“Empleado sin protección para el cabello mientras preparaba alimentos. Se observó a un cocinero sin protección para el cabello en la cocina”.

“El establecimiento cobra cargos operativos sin informar adecuadamente sobre ellos en el recibo”.

“La puerta exterior presenta una abertura en el umbral que comunica con el exterior. Se observaron espacios en los lados derecho e izquierdo de la puerta cercana a la cámara frigorífica de vegetales”.

“Áreas del piso cubiertas con agua estancada. Se observó frente al congelador”.

“El piso está sucio o presenta acumulación de residuos. Se observó una gran acumulación de grasa y restos de alimentos debajo de los equipos de cocina y refrigeración”.

“El recipiente utilizado para almacenar alimentos que requieren control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad no fue limpiado después de vaciarse y antes de volver a llenarse. Se observó dentro del recipiente de frijoles. También se observó una sustancia similar al moho en el exterior de una licuadora”.

“Alimentos almacenados en el piso. Se observaron alimentos en el piso del congelador”.

“Superficie en contacto con alimentos no limpiada ni desinfectada entre la manipulación de productos agrícolas sin lavar y alimentos listos para consumir”.

“El sistema de ventilación de la campana es inadecuado, como demuestra la acumulación de grasa en paredes y techo”.

“Acumulación de hielo en congeladores”.

“Pinzas en uso almacenadas en la manija de la puerta de un equipo entre usos. Se observaron en la puerta del horno frente a la mesa de vapor”.

“El interior del horno o microondas presenta acumulación de una sustancia negra, grasa o restos de alimentos”.

“No existen instalaciones adecuadas para guardar la ropa y otras pertenencias de los empleados. Se observaron zapatos, delantales y otras pertenencias de empleados almacenados en diferentes áreas de la cocina”.

“Superficies que no están en contacto con alimentos sucias con grasa, restos de comida, suciedad, residuos viscosos o polvo. Se observó suciedad en las juntas de las cámaras frigoríficas y refrigeradores. También se observó sucio el soporte del abrelatas”.

“El interior o los estantes del refrigerador presentan acumulación de residuos”.

“Papel de aluminio roto o desgastado utilizado como cubierta de estantes. Se observó en la cámara frigorífica”.

“Artículos de un solo uso almacenados sobre una superficie sucia. Se observaron recipientes para comida para llevar”.

“Paño de limpieza seco y sucio en uso”.

“Agua estancada o con drenaje muy lento en un lavamanos, fregadero de tres compartimentos o fregadero para trapeadores. Se observó en el lavamanos cercano a la cámara frigorífica”.

“Alimentos almacenados sin cubrir. Se observaron alimentos sin cubrir en la cámara frigorífica de vegetales”.

“Los estantes de la cámara frigorífica o congelador presentan óxido que ha deteriorado la superficie”.

“Pared sucia con acumulación de grasa, restos de alimentos o polvo. Se observó una pared sucia en la cocina”.

“Agua drenando sobre el piso. Se observó agua proveniente del lavamanos cercano a la cámara frigorífica”.

“Fuga de agua de una tubería, grifo o manija. Se observó una fuga en la tubería debajo del lavamanos cercano a la cámara frigorífica”.

“Los trapeadores mojados no se almacenan de manera que puedan secarse”.

“Los paños húmedos de limpieza no se mantienen en una solución desinfectante entre usos. Se observaron en la cafetería, la cocina y el área de servicio”.

“Los paños húmedos utilizados para limpiar derrames ocasionales en superficies de equipos, tanto en contacto como sin contacto con alimentos, no estaban limpios”.

“Los recipientes de trabajo con alimentos retirados de su envase original no estaban identificados con el nombre común del producto. Se observó un recipiente de sal en un estante cerca del fregadero de tres compartimentos”.

“Un empleado comenzó a trabajar con alimentos, manipular equipo o utensilios limpios o tocar artículos de un solo uso sin envolver sin lavarse primero las manos. Se observó a un empleado comenzar a preparar sándwiches sin lavarse las manos. También se observó a un cocinero comenzar a preparar alimentos sin lavarse las manos”.

“Un empleado no se lavó las manos antes de ponerse guantes para comenzar una tarea de manipulación de alimentos”.

“Un empleado tocó un delantal o ropa sucia y después comenzó a preparar alimentos, manipular equipo o utensilios limpios o tocar artículos de un solo uso sin envolver, sin lavarse las manos”.

“Un empleado tocó una superficie sucia y después comenzó a preparar alimentos, manipular equipo o utensilios limpios o tocar artículos de un solo uso sin envolver, sin lavarse las manos. Se observó que un empleado tocó el bote de basura cerca de las freidoras”.

“Un empleado se lavó las manos con agua fría”.

“Las superficies en contacto con alimentos que requieren control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad no se limpiaron al menos cada cuatro horas. Se observó en la mezcladora utilizada para helados y batidos”.

“Se encontraron pequeños insectos voladores vivos. Se observaron dos moscas vivas volando en la cocina”.

“Se emitió una orden de suspensión de venta para alimentos que requieren control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad debido a temperaturas inadecuadas. Se observaron alimentos refrigerados por encima de los 41 °F: cerdo crudo a 60 °F; chuleta de cerdo cruda a 53 °F; pollo crudo a 47 °F; cerdo cocido a 51 °F; panceta de cerdo a 60 °F; pescado entero crudo a 48 °F; carne molida cocida a 52 °F; fideos cocidos a 57 °F; camarones crudos a 59 °F y brotes de frijol a 52 °F. Los alimentos se encontraban en la cámara frigorífica desde el día anterior”.

“Alimentos que requieren control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad se mantenían refrigerados a temperaturas superiores a 41 °F. Se observaron cerdo crudo a 60 °F; chuleta de cerdo cruda a 53 °F; pollo crudo a 47 °F; cerdo cocido a 51 °F; panceta de cerdo a 60 °F; pescado entero crudo a 48 °F; carne molida cocida a 52 °F; fideos cocidos a 57 °F; camarones crudos a 59 °F y brotes de frijol a 52 °F en la cámara frigorífica desde el día anterior”.

“Alimentos calientes que requieren control de tiempo o temperatura por razones de seguridad se mantenían a menos de 135 °F. Se observaron cebollas cocidas a 82 °F, maduros a 92 °F y arroz con frijoles a 96 °F a temperatura ambiente en la línea de cocina; según el operador, por menos de dos horas. También se observó leche a 127 °F en el área de cafetería, pollo cocido a 106 °F en la cocina, yuca a 123 °F y crema de malanga a 121 °F”.

“El gerente certificado de alimentos o la persona a cargo desconoce la política de salud de los empleados y los requisitos sanitarios”.

“Un empleado se lavó las manos en un fregadero que no estaba aprobado para ese propósito”.

“Superficie en contacto con alimentos sucia con restos de comida, sustancia similar al moho o residuos viscosos. Se observaron tablas de cortar sucias y un abrelatas con restos de alimentos”.

“El lavamanos no tiene agua corriente o suficiente presión para lavarse las manos correctamente. Se observó en el lavamanos cercano al lavavajillas y en el cercano a la puerta de salida”.

“El lavamanos no estaba accesible para los empleados en todo momento. Se observó una bandeja para hornear y un recipiente metálico almacenados sobre el lavamanos del área de preparación trasera”.

“El lavamanos se utilizaba para fines distintos al lavado de manos. Se observaron recipientes de plástico almacenados dentro del lavamanos cercano a la línea de cocina”.

“El suministro de agua caliente no se mantenía durante los periodos de mayor actividad”.

“Óxido superficial en equipos que entran en contacto con alimentos. Se observó en la cocina”.

“No se utilizaba un termómetro de sonda para garantizar que los alimentos se encontraran a temperaturas adecuadas”.

“El dispensador de jabón del lavamanos no funcionaba o no podía dispensar jabón”.

“No se proporcionaba agua a una temperatura mínima de 85 °F en el lavamanos de los empleados. Se registró agua caliente a 83 °F en el lavamanos cercano a la puerta de salida de la cocina”.

Paz lanzó la medida desde la región de Guayaramerín, al norte de Bolivia y vecina de Brasil, donde la Policía boliviana realizó patrullajes terrestres, mientras que la Fuerza Naval lo hizo en lanchas a lo largo del río que comparten ambas naciones. También se efectuaban operativos en otras tres regiones bolivianas —Beni, Pando y Santa Cruz— las cuales comparten una frontera de 3.400 kilómetros con Brasil.

“¿Quién quiere venir a hacer turismo si tiene riesgo de que el día de mañana tendrá un conflicto de inseguridad?”, preguntó Paz en su discurso. “¿Quién quiere invertir en una ciudad donde no hay seguridad?”, acotó.

Esto ocurre días después de que se registró en otra localidad de la frontera una balacera que no dejó heridos, pero sí cuatro aprehendidos, dos de ellos eran miembros del Primer Comando de la Capital (PCC) y se encontraban en medio de una pelea por rutas de narcotráfico con su rival, el Comando Vermelho (CV). Ambas bandas delincuenciales son consideradas terroristas por Estados Unidos.

Los expertos aseguran que estas rutas estaban operadas por el presunto narcotraficante uruguayo Sebastián Marset, capturado en Bolivia y entregado en marzo a la Agencia Antinarcóticos de Estados Unidos (DEA, por sus siglas en inglés).

En medio de la disputa por las rutas de la droga —que en su gran mayoría van desde Bolivia hacia Brasil—, se ha incrementado en las últimas semanas los delitos en la frontera que han dejando al menos a 15 personas asesinadas, entre ellas un oficial de policía boliviano.

El plan “es para sentar presencia de Estado”, dijo el comandante de la policía, Mirko Sokol. Bolivia es considerado el tercer productor mundial de cocaína, después de Colombia y Perú.

El operativo es coordinado con Brasil con el objetivo de evitar que los delincuentes escapen por la frontera entre ambos países. En el acto Paz estuvo acompañado por varias autoridades brasileñas del estado de Rondonia.

“Como alcalde de Guajará-Mirim, reafirmo mi compromiso con una frontera más segura e integrada, preparada para nuevas oportunidades”, escribió en su cuenta de Facebook Fábio Netinho, alcalde de dicha ciudad fronteriza con Bolivia.

Paz indicó en el evento que en los casi 20 años de gobiernos de Evo Morales (2006-2019) y Luis Arce (2020-2025) se relajaron los controles en la frontera, lo que según el mandatario facilitó la expansión del crimen organizado. El ministro de Gobierno boliviano, Marco Antonio Oviedo, reconoció recientemente el aumento de delitos como asaltos y asesinatos en esa zona limítrofe.

The person, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that Mangione could change his mind. If he follows through, it would be a stunning development in a case that rattled business leaders while galvanizing their critics.

Mangione’s lawyers, and spokespeople for the Justice Department and Manhattan federal prosecutors, declined to comment.

Mangione is accused of traveling to New York City to ambush Thompson, 50, then shooting him outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive walked to UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference.

Mangione is due in court on Friday for a hastily scheduled hearing in the federal case, which involves two counts of stalking. It wasn’t clear what charge or charges Mangione is expected to plead guilty to. The hearing, in Manhattan federal court, comes as his lawyers have been talking with federal prosecutors about a possible resolution to one of two criminal cases against Mangione in Thompson’s death. Previous talks in June broke down.

Mangione, 28, has been charged in both federal and state court in New York and still faces the possibility of a trial in his unresolved state case. Mangione’s state murder trial is set to begin Sept. 8. Both sets of charges carried the possibility of a life sentence.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty and has spoken out publicly against the prospect of two trials, telling a judge in February: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

Under New York law, a state prosecution could be barred if the federal case is resolved first, but it isn’t automatic.

The state’s double jeopardy protections kick in if a jury has been sworn in a prior prosecution, such as a federal case, or if that prosecution ends in a guilty plea. Mangione’s cases involve different charges arising from the same course of conduct.

Once Mangione pleads guilty, his lawyers could then ask the judge in the state case to throw out those charges on double jeopardy grounds. State prosecutors argue their case is distinct and double jeopardy shouldn't apply.

Mangione’s federal charges allege that he traveled across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson and that he used means such as a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and staying at a hostel that serves out-of-state customers while planning and carrying out the attack. The state charges pertain to the killing itself, as well as firearms offenses.

In a letter last month, state prosecutors objected to the possibility of a guilty plea in the federal case wiping out the state case.

“Obviously, any guilty pleas in these matters must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, the loss of an innocent life, the impact of those crimes on the victim’s family, and the other state interests that are implicated, including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote.

Mangione’s decision to plead guilty comes after a series of setbacks for his defense.

In January, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett took the death penalty off the table but ruled that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him.

They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

In June, Mangione’s lawyers said they would pursue a psychiatric defense in the state case but reversed course a day later. The defense, involving claims that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing, isn’t allowed in federal court.

Surveillance video of the killing showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

He has become a cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry.

An online fundraiser for his legal defense fund raised more than $1.5 million, and several dozen supporters have shown up to his court appearances, some wearing green clothing — the color worn by the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi — and “FREE LUIGI” T-shirts.

___

Durkin Richer reported from Washington.

Detectives de la Unidad de Investigaciones Generales asumieron el caso y determinaron que la estatua de bronce, valorada en aproximadamente $8,000, había sido retirada por “sospechosos desconocidos”.

La estatua permaneció desaparecida durante varios días hasta que los investigadores recibieron información el miércoles sobre su posible ubicación. Con ayuda del equipo especializado de intervención en robos de la Oficina del Sheriff, los detectives lograron localizarla y recuperarla.

Las autoridades informaron que arrestaron el jueves a Derick Coca, de 27 años, después de que fuera sorprendido mientras intentaba trasladar la estatua a otro lugar.

Los detectives continúan investigando si hubo otras personas involucradas en el robo.

La estatua tiene un significado especial para la familia Duque y para la comunidad de Miami Lakes. Jakey murió a los 5 años después de luchar contra una rara forma de cáncer.

Sus padres han dicho que querían mantener viva su memoria en la comunidad y que la estatua sirviera como recordatorio de la fortaleza y el valor del niño.

Vecinos expresaron alivio después de que la estatua fuera recuperada.

“Han sido días muy difíciles sabiendo que alguien se la había llevado, algo que significa mucho para la familia y para nuestra comunidad”, dijo la vecina Patty Becerra.

Becerra agregó que la estatua también recuerda lo frágil que puede ser la vida.

“La vida es muy, muy frágil”, dijo. “Así que me alegra que haya regresado. Significa mucho para todos nosotros”.

La Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade compartió fotografías de los detectives que participaron en la recuperación de la estatua junto a los padres de Jakey tras su devolución.

Los registros carcelarios muestran que Coca enfrenta un cargo de robo mayor en tercer grado.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $2,500.

Leer en español

At least 3,284 people were injured, according to David Tamayo, the new director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management.

“Of those 273 deaths, 250 have been referred to the medical examiner’s office; 227 have already been identified; and 189 bodies have been returned to their families,” Tamayo said during a news conference.

The death toll included 96 who died in Cali, 93 who died in Pereira, and 13 who died in the Chocó region, where the earthquake’s epicenter was, according to officials.

Tamayo reported that about 12,600 homes were destroyed, and more than 74,800 were damaged.

Tamayo said his office was monitoring Puracé, a volcano in Colombia’s Cauca region, and reviewing the status of shelters in case an evacuation becomes necessary “due to increased volcanic activity.”

Also on Thursday, Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella announced on X that the United Arab Emirates was donating $10 million for relief efforts.

The South American Football Confederation and the Colombian Football Federation announced a $1 million donation for reconstruction in western Colombia.

News conference in Spanish

Related stories

• Miami Beach opens 4 aid drop-off locations
• Rescuers call for silence around earthquake rubble as window for survival narrows in Colombia

Platner won Maine's Democratic primary for the right to challenge veteran Republican Sen. Susan Collins, but he dropped out in July after Politico reported that a former girlfriend said he sexually assaulted her. Platner denied the allegation but said at the time he left the race that he was stepping aside because of the importance of defeating Collins.

Platner will appear at an event organized by Hancock County Activists called “Labor Day Rally for Labor” at Ellsworth City Hall, near his hometown, organizers said. Hancock County Democrats posted a notice about the event on the party's website, but removed the reference to Platner on Thursday afternoon.

“The rally will kick off a series of events leading up to the primaries, with musical performances and featured speaker Graham Platner, who will talk about the history of unions and the important role organized labor has played in our communities and our country,” the notice initially stated.

The event is not being hosted or organized by the Hancock County Democratic Committee and it has no affiliation with the Maine Democratic Party, a party source said. Posting information about the event online was consistent with Hancock County Democrats' past practice, said Marcia Myers, chair of the county Democratic committee.

“We felt people should be aware of it, and informed about it,” said Myers. “It's certainly notable that Graham Platner is a person scheduled to speak. We post this as information for people and they can decide whether to attend or not.”

Platner spoke at the rally last year, said Carol Leonard, who works with the community organization group Acadia Action, which is also helping to host the event. He’s not expected to talk about the campaign, but instead will focus on the history of the U.S. labor movement, she said.

The state party hastily called a special convention and nominated former state Senate President Troy Jackson after Platner dropped out.

Platner has kept a low profile since dropping out of the race and did not respond to requests for comment.

Jenny Racicot, who has accused Platner of sexual assault, and Lyndsey Fifield, who has accused Platner of domestic abuse, said in a joint statement Thursday that Platner is “trying to sweep the truth under the rug and pretend things are back to normal.” The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of abuse, but Racicot and Fifield came forward on their own. Platner has denied the allegations.

The Maine Republican Party also criticized Democrats for the event.

“If Graham Platner is still a heroic leader for Maine Democrats, as this speaking event indicates, their party is out of touch with Maine," said Maine Republican Party spokeswoman Kristina Parker, adding that Maine voters were “disgusted” by Platner's actions.

Platner, 41, is an oyster farmer and combat veteran who filled theaters around Maine with his booming voice and progressive politics. He has no experience in elected office, but fashioned a campaign focused on working-class issues such as the high costs of housing and healthcare.

Platner’s campaign was beset with controversies for months. Among them, media reports emerged that the candidate had previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women while he was married. He also had a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he said he didn’t realize until he was several weeks into the campaign. He later had it covered up with a different design.

Platner grew up in Sullivan, a tiny town near Ellsworth and about 170 miles up the coast from Portland.

___

Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.

The federal investigation also found that California's corrections department failed to provide victims with a way to report sexual abuse and harassment without retaliation. On top of that, staff who were tasked with investigating the misconduct were often themselves accused of sexual abuse or harassment.

The investigation, which began during the Biden administration, focused on two state prisons: the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino. It uncovered numerous instances where guards regularly sexually abused incarcerated women. In at least one instance, a guard was convicted of rampant abuse over roughly a decade and sentenced to 224 years in prison.

State says it's making improvements

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that it “enforces a zero-tolerance policy as mandated by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act,” a federal law passed in 2003 designed to prevent sexual assaults in prisons.

The state agency also said that audits conducted by independent entities trained by the DOJ found the two prisons were in compliance with federal standards as recently as 2024 and 2025.

“CDCR is fully committed to supporting victims of sexual assault and ensuring safe avenues exist for both incarcerated persons and staff to confidentially report misconduct,” spokesperson Will Matthews wrote in an email.

Over the course of the DOJ investigation, the prison agency independently investigated and prosecuted both staff and incarcerated people who violated federal rape prevention laws, he added.

But federal authorities said Thursday that there weren't sufficient mechanisms for victims to come forward.

Women don't have resources to report assaults, Justice Department says

Women were told to report misconduct on an online system that wasn’t confidential and that accused officers had access to, according to Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Dhillon said that women are “fully aware of this gap in confidentiality, and this serves as a deterrent from women reporting this misconduct.” She named at least one sergeant whose job was to investigate misconduct who was himself sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving child sexual abuse images at work.

“The upshot of our investigation is that California’s prison system, when it comes to women, has inadequate systems in place to deter, detect, and hold accountable rampant sexual misconduct and assault on female prisoners,” Dhillon said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Associated Press has previously exposed similar patterns of rampant abuse by federal prison staff against women held in a Dublin, California, facility that at the time was nicknamed the “rape club.” The prison was closed following the AP investigation.

Justice Department sets a deadline to address problems

The federal government on Thursday gave California's prison system 49 days to remediate the conditions that enabled the rampant abuse, warning that a failure to do so could result in civil litigation.

The measures include expanded camera coverage, enhanced confidential reporting channels and strengthened investigative protocols.

The corrections department was implementing many of those changes before the federal investigation, Matthews said.

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, appointed by President Donald Trump as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said California has to take action.

“The State must confront the persistent failure of its own employees to prevent and address sexual abuse at these facilities,” Essayli said in a statement, “and the systemic breakdowns that have permitted these conditions to persist.”

A fan blade in the Boeing 737-800's right engine broke loose, sending fragments flying out of the engine that broke the window and damaged the fuselage in several other places, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board. Greece turned the investigation over to the U.S. agency under international aviation rules.

The July 10 accident happened after the flight departed the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Investigators found bird remains inside the engine, suggesting the plane may have struck birds during takeoff, though they haven't determined what caused the fan blade to break loose.

The 61-year-old passenger suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns.

Panicked passengers helped the man after the window broke

The flight attendants told investigators they heard and felt loud, continuous vibration and saw smoke or fog fill the cabin before the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.

One flight attendant then noticed some passengers standing and calling for help. The man in a row 11 window seat was partially lodged in the damaged window, and other passengers pulled him back into the cabin.

The injured passenger was moved to row 12, where a doctor on board tended to him. Other passengers retrieved a metal box from the flight attendants and used it to try to block the opening until the plane could land.

A series of short videos recorded inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the broken window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.

The engine's fan blades were inspected in May

Maintenance records show the fan blades in the right engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May 2026 and November 2025, with no damage found. But flight crews had reported four suspected bird strikes to the same engine over the previous year, according to the NTSB. Bird remains were found after two of them.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration investigator who reviewed the preliminary report, told The Associated Press that the required maintenance appears to have been performed on schedule. Investigators, however, will likely examine how the inspections were conducted and whether the previous suspected bird strikes contributed to preexisting damage.

“We know what happened and even to some extent why it happened, but there’s still unanswered questions that the NTSB will get at,” Guzzetti said.

The NTSB last month reprimanded Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary after he told investors the investigation was focused on foreign object damage rather than the plane’s age or maintenance history. The agency said investigators had not ruled anything out and O’Leary wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation.

Ryanair said Thursday it would not comment further until the NTSB investigation is complete. Boeing and CFM International, the engine maker, said they are assisting with the investigation.

FAA had ordered fixes after similar accidents

The FAA issued three directives last year requiring airlines to strengthen parts of the engine coverings on Boeing 737s after two previous fan blade failures sent pieces of the engine coverings flying. In one accident, a Southwest Airlines passenger was killed in 2018 after debris struck the fuselage and knocked out a window, causing the cabin to rapidly lose pressure.

The directives, which took effect in April 2025, require changes aimed at keeping pieces of the engine covering from breaking away and striking the plane if a fan blade breaks loose. Among other things, airlines must replace certain fasteners and spacers that attach the engine’s inlet covering and revise their maintenance and inspection programs.

The FAA gave airlines until July 2028 to complete the major modifications, and the NTSB report says the required changes had not yet been made to the Ryanair plane.

Guzzetti said the latest accident could prompt the FAA and NTSB to examine whether that deadline should be moved up.

“It takes time to do the maintenance, to get the parts, and the risk at the time was assessed such that the industry could probably wait that long. Now with this event,” Guzzetti said, “that may change things.”

Asked whether the July 2028 deadline could change, the FAA declined to comment on the open investigation, saying it closely supports the NTSB and will “take any necessary safety actions based on the evidence.”

The plane returned about an hour after takeoff

The 737-800, which can seat up to 189 passengers, was delivered new to Ryanair in 2008, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

Flight records show the plane climbed above 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) about six minutes after departure before descending to about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) “to burn fuel for 30 minutes” and returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff, Flightradar24 said.

The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget carrier.

The plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground, the airline said in a statement at the time.

The New York Times reported this week that Randall Lane was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, worked with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Shook sold a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm a year ago.

A internal email dated July 23 and reviewed by The Associated Press confirmed that Lane, who had been editor and chief content officer, no longer worked for the company. It provided no other details of his departure. Lane had worked for Forbes for nearly 16 years and as its top editor since 2017.

“When this undisclosed conflict of interest was brought to our attention, we examined the situation closely and took the appropriate action immediately,” a spokesperson for Forbes said in an email Thursday. She added: “Forbes remains focused on delivering trusted journalism."

A person who works at Forbes and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue told the AP that the staff discovered the apparent reasons behind the firing by reading the Times story. A subsequent email sent out this week said the company could not comment on the matter further.

Former editor quoted as saying he ‘made a mistake’

The Times quoted a person familiar with Lane’s thinking as saying he considered the payment a gift in return for advice he had provided Shook over the years.

"'I made a mistake, and I take responsibility for it," Mr. Lane said in a statement to The Times. I should have disclosed the gift and failing to was a serious error in judgment. I deeply regret that, and I lost the job and team I love because of it."

Lane and a spokesperson for Forbes did not respond to requests for comment.

It's unclear why Shook paid Lane. But the company and Forbes apparently had a close relationship. On its website, for example, Shook Research lists 12 rankings of wealth advisers and management teams in partnership with Forbes.

Also unclear is why Lane thought disclosing the payment would have solved the ethical issues it may have raised. Traditional newsrooms typically forbid journalists from accepting payments from sources or business partners to avoid conflicts of interest — or even the appearance of conflict.

Forbes' statement of editorial values and standards says that the company "prohibit(s) all staff members and contributors from accepting compensation, privileges or favors of any kind from people, companies or groups featured in their coverage.

“Any real or perceived conflicts of interest or relationships at all (financial, professional, legal actions, personal or otherwise) must be avoided and/or discussed with the appropriate managing editor. If approved, it must be explicitly disclosed in the story to readers to maintain their trust,” it reads. “Any attempt to evade or failure to honor these solemn responsibilities is a serious offense and is subject to review and swift disciplinary action.”

Public trust in media is flagging

The Times report comes at a low moment for public trust in the media. A majority of Americans — 57% — said they have low confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public, according to a Pew Research Center analysis in February.

Forbes was founded in 1917 and developed into an influential biweekly account of corporate America, putting giants like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett on its cover.

Lane was apparently aware of trust issues in the news business. In 2024, he published a column titled, “How Forbes Delivers Journalism You Can Trust.”

“Thomas Jefferson famously noted that we get the government we deserve,” he wrote. “That’s true of our media too.”

___

Associated Press journalist Hannah Schoenbaum contributed to this report.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said that President Donald Trump's administration failed to prove an ongoing violation of federal civil rights laws. The judge said the lawsuit, filed in March, mostly focuses on incidents that took place in the 2023-24 academic year, with a few from March 2025.

The cases were “too isolated and episodic” to prove a persistent civil rights violation at the Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the judge said.

“We disagree with the ruling and are assessing next steps,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice. Harvard did not immediately provide a comment on the decision.

The lawsuit accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations that roiled the campus after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The Trump administration argued Harvard officials did nothing as Jewish students were “harassed, physically assaulted, stalked, and spat upon.”

In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, Harvard said it “cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus.”

Harvard President Alan M. Garber says the university formed a task force to combat antisemitism. The university also hired a new provost and new deans and reformed its discipline policies to make them “more consistent, fair and effective,” Garber has said.

The government's case sought to recover billions of dollars in federal research grants awarded to Harvard since October 2023. Trump officials argued they had a right to recoup the money under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal law barring discrimination based on race or national origin.

The lawsuit is among several actions the government has taken against Harvard since the Ivy League university refused a list of demands made by the White House after Trump, a Republican, returned to office last year. Trump officials have separately sought to cut Harvard's research funding and limit its ability to enroll foreign students and U.S. military members.

In a separate legal case last year, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reverse more than $2.6 billion in federal funding cuts to Harvard. That decision found that the White House put unconstitutional conditions on federal funding, using antisemitism as a “smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault” on universities.

Despite their bitter dispute, Harvard and the Trump administration have held some negotiations, and Trump himself said the two sides had been close to reaching an agreement. But when the Justice Department filed this civil rights lawsuit in March, it pointed to an extraordinary impasse. When colleges are found in violation of federal civil rights law, they almost always reach compliance through voluntary agreements.

His former sponsor should be along for the ride.

Take a look at pit road on NASCAR's brightest day and don't be surprised to see celebrities from the kitchen to the stage rooting on Johnson.

Even with the white flag about to drop on Johnson's racing career, he's still one of stock car racing's biggest stars — and by Daytona, he should have a spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to prove it.

“I'm going out swinging,” Johnson said with a laugh.

Maybe new Legacy Motor Club investor and Phillies slugger Bryce Harper can offer some tips.

The 50-year-old Johnson is busy in the boardroom these days looking for investors and growing his race team as the majority owner of Legacy. Almost as busy as he was on the track, when he was one of three drivers to win seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, earning a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Johnson is expected to make his 703rd and final — for real, this time — Cup start in February's Daytona 500.

Until then, the two-time Daytona 500 champion is spending his time sharpening Legacy's future.

Johnson growing into ownership role

Johnson used to spend his race weekends signing countless autographs in the garage. The fan requests are still there, for sure, only now his signature is needed more on the dotted line for deals including trying to back long-time sponsor Lowe’s to the 48 — a number Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman surrendered for the Daytona 500. Johnson also soon hopes to announce Legacy’s third driver for the 2027 season.

“I’ve approved press releases, rollout plans, all the elements have all been approved,” Johnson said. “It’s just a matter of slotting them all in.”

Johnson added some big-time winners to his race team last month as part of a strategic ownership group that includes championship athletes, Grammy Award winners, entrepreneurs, investors, motorsport greats and cultural leaders.

The Legacy investors include six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, a two-time National League MVP in Harper, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick, Grammy Award winner Darius Rucker, celebrity chef Guy Fieri, and six-time MLB All-Star Chase Utley.

“Jimmie's a good friend of mine and I like what he's doing,” Utley said. “It's interesting and it's going to be a good experience.”

Johnson said his star-studded friend group are true investors who are equitable partners in Legacy. More celebrity investors are expected to be announced later this year.

“Sure, I did well racing,” Johnson said. “But I don't have an enterprise like Penske or Hendrick to activate and utilize and drive that success year over year.”

Johnson became the majority owner of Legacy under a restructuring ahead of last season in which investment adviser Knighthead Capital Management bought into the Cup Series team.

Johnson has about enough investors in Legacy to fill a Daytona 500 grid.

“I knew at some point I'd probably want an investor, but I didn't know what that would look like,” Johnson said. “There was a lot of thought around other franchises and leagues, how you create profitability. The stick-and-ball sport and the way they do it makes a lot of sense. It's just a different way to generate the income to win races and championships. From there, to bring investors on, you need a pathway to profitability.”

The roadmap for Legacy turning a profit took a bit of a detour when the organization decided to add a third charter team for next season.

“It's over the horizon,” Johnson said. “A very short horizon. With the strategic ownership group like this, the IP internally, the assets they can activate with and help with, it only helps our case there.”

Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek are expected to return with Riley Herbst widely expected to join Legacy in 2027.

Jones is 20th and Nemechek is 28th in the Cup points standings. The drivers are winless and have a combined three top-five finishes as Legacy has yet to break through into a franchise that can at least compete for checkered flags.

“Some days look good,” Johnson said. “some days don't.”

Johnson dedicated to turning Legacy into winner

Johnson only raced in Cup this season at the Daytona 500 and the debut race at Naval Base Coronado.

He has a few races on deck in other racing series, just as much for fun and without the competitive pressures of NASCAR.

“I've been slowly weaning myself off,” Johnson said. “Now that I've found something that's keeping me so busy and so invigorated in the sport, I'm still competing, it's the race within the race, I am fully ready and also very excited for that day and the build up for it and all the great collaborations that will be announced shortly.”

Johnson has won 83 career races in his NASCAR career and a record five consecutive series titles. He is the only racer to be selected The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year.

Johnson and his team sent a submission for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was selected for one for next year.

“I sat and watched on YouTube and they announced my name and I was like, ‘holy smokes! It worked.’ So wild,” Johnson said.

Johnson is aggressively pushing for the Star to be unveiled on the Tuesday of Daytona 500 week.

Johnson found his comfort zone at Legacy

Johnson's last full-time season in NASCAR was 2020 and he spent the ensuing years chasing success in IndyCar. He even moved his family to England all while dealing with the aftermath of a family tragedy.

Johnson never had a podium finish in two years in IndyCar and wrecked out of his only Indianapolis 500 in 2022.

“That was really intentional for me go there and have fun and do it,” Johnson said. “As the two years went by, I was kind of shocked that I didn't ... I was having tons of fun, but I wasn't fulfilled. I was like, ‘what the hell is this?’ The opportunity with (Legacy) came about and I wasn't sure where it would go or how fulfilling it would be. While thinking through the two years of IndyCar, and slowing down my Cup career, what does it look like post-driving? What do I want to do?”

Johnson went on to compete in endurance races and worked in broadcasting. There was only one true calling for him and it was back at the race courses — even if not always behind the wheel — at Daytona and Dover and Darlington.

“I was going to end up back in NASCAR,” Johnson said. “I had no idea it was going to turn into this.”

He's ready for one final time — and one more win — at Daytona.

“Let's blow this thing up,” Johnson said. “Why not?”

___

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

Academy museum director and president Amy Homma said in a statement that the honorees,’ “extraordinary careers exemplify the creativity, innovation, and excellence that continues to move the industry forward.”

The event’s host committee includes Questlove, Judd Apatow, Teyana Taylor, Ludwig Göransson, Seth Rogen and Demi Moore. Co-chairs are Robert Rodriguez, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw.

The gala raises money to support the museum, from its exhibitions to its public screenings. Theron and Carpenter will be participating in several of those public programs — Theron for a conversation with the museum’s teen council and a screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and Carpenter for three nights of screenings of his films, including “Halloween,” which ties in to the museum’s new exhibition entitled The Horror Show.

Last year’s edition honoring Bruce Springsteen, Penélope Cruz, Bowen Yang and filmmaker Walter Salles raised over $12 million.

El puente —conocido como el Puente de Nerón, llamado así por el antiguo emperador romano— conectaba en su día el centro de Roma con la orilla derecha del Tíber.

“Nerón es la persona más famosa vinculada a esta zona, porque precisamente en el circo de Nerón, donde ahora se encuentra el Vaticano, el apóstol Pedro fue martirizado”, explicó la arqueóloga Antonella Bonini, de la superintendencia de patrimonio cultural de Roma.

Sin embargo, añadió que los estudiosos consideran que el puente es más antiguo (que la época de Nerón) y que fue construido por Calígula, tío de Nerón, y precisó que ya existía en el año 39 d.C.

El caudal del Tíber ha caído por debajo de los 80 metros cúbicos (2.825 pies cúbicos) por segundo, aproximadamente la mitad del promedio histórico para el mes de julio, según Giovanni Giganti, coordinador del centro de gestión del agua del servicio de protección civil de Roma.

“Nos enfrentamos a una gran crisis hídrica. Y es una crisis que también se debe al hecho de que este invierno sí tuvimos precipitaciones bastante abundantes, pero luego los periodos secos... fueron bastante largos”, sostuvo Giganti.

__________________________________

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

Blanche's speech inside the storied Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters represented an effort to reassure lawyers and law enforcement officials on the heels of a tumultuous confirmation battle that exposed deep concerns about the direction of the agency under Republican President Donald Trump.

Blanche vowed to uphold the rule of law “without fear or favor,” and told staff he would welcome their ideas and encourage disagreement. Without mentioning specific moves that have raised alarms from critics that Blanche is still functioning as Trump’s personal lawyer, the attorney general acknowledged he would “not get every decision right.”

“Everything that I do will not be the right path or the right decision,” said Blanche, who served as Trump's criminal defense lawyer before entering the department last year as deputy attorney general. “No one does that, but I do promise you this: I promise you that I will work as hard as any of you. I promise that I’ll listen to you. That I will listen to the ideas that you have, or adjustments that we need to make, and if we need to make them, I will make them.”

Blanche is assuming control of the Justice Department at a turbulent time, with mass firings and resignations having hollowed out the workforce and a slew of politically charged investigations drawing concerns that the agency is being used as a weapon to target the president's perceived foes.

He was confirmed by the Senate early Saturday by the narrowest of margins, opposed by two Republicans who expressed concerns about what they described as the politicization of the Justice Department under Trump.

Blanche told the workforce he is proud of the department's work under the second Trump administration to tackle violent crime, illegal drug trafficking and violent gangs and cartels.

"It’s easy to focus on the negative or the news story that is critical of something we’re doing or something that we’ve done, or questions something that we're doing or something that we've done," Blanche said. “But do not forget that we have accomplished a tremendous amount of good, positive work in the past year and a half.”

Justice Connection, a network of alums, said in a statement that “Blanche’s platitudes will only resonate if his actions start matching his words." The group noted that the department under Blanche's leadership has pushed out employees who opposed decisions in high-profile cases or who were deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration's agenda.

“Thousands more have left because leadership has consistently violated the principles Blanche articulated: prosecuting defendants based only on the facts and the law; holding those who attack law enforcement accountable; and respecting the courts,” the group said.

The bridge — known as Nero's Bridge, named for the former Roman emperor — once connected Rome’s city center with the Tiber’s right bank.

“Nero is the most famous person linked to this area, because precisely in Nero’s circus, where the Vatican is now located, the Apostle Peter was martyred,” said Antonella Bonini, an archaeologist at Rome’s cultural heritage superintendency.

“However, scholars consider the bridge to be older (than Nero’s era) — built by Caligula, Nero’s uncle,” she said, adding that it existed as early as 39 AD.

The Tiber’s flow has fallen below 80 cubic meters (2,825 cubic feet) per second, about half the historic average for the month of July, according to Giovanni Giganti, coordinator of the Rome civil protection service’s center for water management.

“We are facing a major water crisis. And it is a crisis that is also due to the fact that this winter we did have quite abundant rainfall, but then the dry periods ... were quite long,” Giganti said.

The woman said she “felt bad” for Adriyel Manzoratte, who claimed he was wearing his underwear on the beach after a theft, so she “offered him a towel,” and he “sat down next to her,” according to a police officer’s arrest report.

The victim said Manzoratte masturbated in front of her before holding her down and sexually assaulting her on the beach, near Collins Avenue and 25th Street, according to the police report.

Police officers arrested Manzoratte, who later admitted to a detective that he had masturbated next to the woman before making more advances, according to the police report.

“The victim said stop multiple times, but he did not believe she was being sincere,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.

Police officers arrested Manzoratte shortly after 11:05 a.m. on Wednesday on the beach, and corrections booked him at 1:50 p.m. on Wednesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, records show.

Manzoratte faced a sexual battery charge.

Brett Favre felt the same after Green Bay drafted Aaron Rodgers.

Montana and Favre wanted to keep their starting jobs as long as they could.

Kirk Cousins has a different perspective on mentoring rookie Fernando Mendoza in Las Vegas.

“On one hand, certainly happy to be a resource, and he’ll learn — we’ll all learn from each other so much in the quarterback room,” Cousins said on the AP’s “On Football” podcast. “I’ve always said that the quarterback room is kind of a working force together, where we’re all giving each other feedback, giving each other thoughts, asking questions, wanting to get a feel from the pulse of the room.

“‘What do you think here? What should we do differently, or what are we doing well?’ So, there’s always good dialogue. You know, I’d hate to emphasize the mentoring thing too much in the sense that it makes it look like I know so much and he doesn’t, when I think, in reality, we all have something to share, we all can help one another, and that’s how the good quarterback rooms operate.”

The Raiders drafted Mendoza No. 1 overall after the Heisman Trophy winner led Indiana to its first national championship. Cousins knew the plan before he signed with Las Vegas in March, reuniting with new coach Klint Kubiak. The two were together in Minnesota when Kubiak was an assistant.

“I think it helps to kind of hit the ground running and have a shared history,” Cousins said. “I think any time you have continuity or shared history with coaches or players, it just helps you move faster and have built some trust. And so I think that’s a positive. But, you know, in today’s NFL, that’s more of a luxury than a common thing. It seems like there’s just so much turnover and so much change that you have to kind of be able to hit the reset button every spring. And so that’s part of it as well.”

Cousins, who began his career with Washington in 2012, is on his third team in four years. He spent six years with the Vikings and the last two in Atlanta before going to Las Vegas.

If the Raiders start slow or he struggles early, calls for the team to start Mendoza will be loud. Cousins has played long enough to know how to block out the noise.

“Well, you just go play football. You kind of insulate yourself,” he said. “You certainly listen to the voices that matter, your coaches, your teammates. When they’re telling you something, then that’s what we’re doing. But I don’t think you need to listen to outside voices. And then you just go do your job the way I’ve known to do it for 15 years. You do the best you can. And then, you kind of let outcomes go where they go.

“I think when you stay focused, you kind of stay in your lane, you keep blinders on. I think that’s when I play my best. And that’s kind of the process I’ve employed through every situation I’ve been in, every team, every season, no matter what the journey of that season brought on, you kind of keep a similar perspective, stay consistent, and that’s what we’ll do again this year.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Dozens of mourners, including cabinet ministers, gathered at Kariba’s Nyamhunga Stadium, where coffins were laid out in the middle of the field under tents.

The ferry capsized on Zimbabwe ’s Lake Kariba on Tuesday. Police and the government agency responsible for the ferry have yet to give an official count of how many people were aboard or how many remain missing. Estimates have put the number of passengers as high as 153, while authorities say the aging ferry has a capacity of 90. The country's disaster management agency on Wednesday said that 77 people had been rescued.

State broadcaster ZBC News reported that some families lost several members in the disaster. The ferry was traveling from Kariba town to rural communities and fishing camps, where residents rely heavily on fishing and on the vessel for transport because roads are damaged and public transport is scarce or virtually nonexistent.

Among those grieving was Collen Ndandalika, whom the broadcaster said lost his wife and three children.

“My wife and children all drowned. Two children have been recovered, but my wife and the other child are still missing. I still can’t believe this is a real world I am living in,” he said.

His wife sold goods bought in town to people in rural and fishing communities. She had asked their children to help with the business during the school holidays, he said.

“I have my brothers who are checking on the bodies to see if they can identify my wife and child. I am too traumatized to keep looking at dead bodies,” he said.

The disaster has also triggered criticism of the continued use of the aging ferry and what some say was a delayed rescue response to the sinking. Some survivors on Wednesday said they pleaded in vain with the captain of the overloaded ferry to turn back from strong waves shortly before it capsized.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in a condolence message, acknowledged that the tragedy had “exposed serious deficiencies in our maritime capabilities which we have to address immediately so that our places of recreation do not become death traps to the innocent.”

Mnangagwa declared a state of disaster and ordered government agencies to mobilize resources to assist victims and accelerate recovery efforts.

Kariba is the largest human-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam on the Zambezi River. The huge lake is now more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) long and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in places.

The report specifically highlights that China responded to new tariffs in 2018 by sending their goods to other nations ranging from Mexico to Malaysia for packaging and limited assembly — a practice known as transshipping. That pattern made it look like U.S. imports from China had dropped, but enabled Beijing to continue growing its manufacturing sector in ways that could challenge U.S. factories and employment.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, told reporters on a conference call that China is laundering its exports through more than 40 countries, though he claimed that the issues raised in the report were really more about other nations enabling the avoidance of tariffs.

“For years, the great transshipment scam has let communist China launder its exports,” Navarro said.

The report comes ahead of a planned September visit by Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, who President Donald Trump described in flattering terms during his own visit to Beijing in May.

The Chinese government has described its relationship with the U.S. as one of “strategic stability,” yet its government policies that support exports of manufactured goods have destabilized the auto, metals and electronics sectors in America, Europe, Japan and elsewhere.

Navarro said that other nations such as India could also transship to avoid new tariffs and said that new trade frameworks pursued by the Trump administration are going to contain provisions that ensure trade partners that engage in the practice will be penalized.

The Trump administration has levied high tariffs on much of the world in hopes of protecting U.S. manufacturers, hitting allies and rivals alike with import taxes. At the same time, those tariffs have created new inflationary pressures at home.

The report includes a range of estimates for the scale of transshipments to avoid tariffs, citing government and private sector numbers to estimate roughly $34.2 billion to $303 billion of goods transshipped each year. It used a central figure of $75 billion worth of goods being transshipped to estimate how much in tax revenues have been lost.

To address the challenge, Navarro said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has started to use artificial intelligence in a prototype program to stop transshipments. Navarro said that when an importer has been found to have falsified the origins of a good, its imports can be retroactively tariffed going back roughly a year.

The president’s tariffs during his second term have faced an array of legal challenges, with the Supreme Court overturning some of them in February. America continues to import more than it exports to the rest of the world, but the trade imbalance so far this year at $371 billion is running about $189 billion lower that it did during the same period last year.

Según los investigadores, una discusión entre dos hombres escaló hasta un intercambio de disparos alrededor de las 5:25 p.m. del miércoles en la gasolinera Mobil ubicada en 10300 NW 12th Ave.

Uno de los hombres resultó herido y condujo por sus propios medios hasta el North Shore Hospital. Posteriormente fue trasladado al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital, informaron las autoridades.

Las autoridades indicaron que buscan a la persona que disparó contra la víctima.

Un equipo de Local 10 News acudió al lugar el jueves por la mañana, donde se observó que al menos un vehículo había sido alcanzado por una bala.

Además, los detectives están revisando imágenes de cámaras de vigilancia e investigando las circunstancias que llevaron al tiroteo.

No se reportaron otras personas heridas.

Cualquier persona que tenga información sobre el sospechoso puede comunicarse con Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

La Agencia Meteorológica de Japón emitió su advertencia más severa por lluvias intensas para 14 municipios de la prefectura de Chiba, y alertó a los residentes sobre inundaciones y deslizamientos de tierra.

La Agencia de Gestión de Incendios y Desastres indicó que una persona fue hallada muerta en la ciudad de Ichikawa, mientras que dos personas fueron rescatadas tras quedar atrapadas dentro de un automóvil inundado en la cercana ciudad de Kashiwa. Se desconocía su estado.

Imágenes de NHK News mostraron a peatones fuera de la estación de tren de Ichikawa avanzando entre el agua hasta las rodillas, y vehículos atascados en carreteras inundadas en otros puntos. Algunos trenes de la zona fueron suspendidos.

NHK informó que se pronosticaron precipitaciones récord que superaban los 100 milímetros (4 pulgadas) en apenas una hora en la ciudad de Chiba y en varias otras ciudades cercanas. La agencia señaló que a casi 220.000 residentes de la zona se les recomendó refugiarse en lugares más seguros.

El funcionario de pronósticos de la JMA, Takuya Hosomi, declaró en una conferencia de prensa de emergencia televisada que se registraron niveles de lluvia sin precedentes.

Las fuertes lluvias se producen un día después de que una tormenta tropical azotara el noreste de Japón, dejando al menos siete heridos, derribando árboles y provocando apagones generalizados.

Las lluvias torrenciales y las inundaciones también causaron cortes de electricidad en 68.000 hogares, según TEPCO Power Grid.

__________________________________

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

Leer en español

The Colombian Geological Survey reported a 4.2-magnitude aftershock struck on Thursday in San José del Palmar, in the Chocó region. The death toll of Monday’s earthquake was at least 265 people.

Miami Beach Fire Rescue personnel will be collecting donations from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Friday to Aug. 31, at four stations: 1051 Jefferson Ave., 2300 Pine Tree Drive, 5303 Collins Ave., and 6880 Indian Creek Drive.

The city welcomes donations of new camping gear, hygiene supplies, first-aid kits, tarps, and canned food.

City employees plan to deliver the donations to Miami-Dade County-based nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission’s warehouse in Doral.

For more information about the city’s effort, visit this page.

Related story: Rescuers call for silence around earthquake rubble as window for survival narrows in Colombia

El Servicio Geológico Colombiano informó que una réplica de magnitud 4.2 se registró el jueves en San José del Palmar, en la región del Chocó. El número de muertos por el terremoto del lunes ascendía a por lo menos 265 personas.

Personal de Miami Beach Fire Rescue recibirá donaciones de 8 a.m. a 6 p.m., desde el viernes y hasta el 31 de agosto, en las siguientes cuatro estaciones:

1051 Jefferson Ave.2300 Pine Tree Drive5303 Collins Ave.6880 Indian Creek Drive.

La ciudad solicita donaciones de artículos nuevos para acampar, productos de higiene, botiquines de primeros auxilios, lonas y alimentos enlatados.

Empleados de la ciudad trasladarán las donaciones al almacén de Global Empowerment Mission, una organización sin fines de lucro con sede en el condado de Miami-Dade, ubicado en Doral.

Para obtener más información sobre la iniciativa, visite el sitio web de la ciudad de Miami Beach.

El tiroteo ocurrió alrededor de las 2 a.m. del 10 de junio en la vivienda de Ashley Marie Hosendove, de 32 años, ubicada cerca de Northwest First Court y 16th Street. La mujer había sido arrestada inicialmente por un cargo no relacionado con el incidente.

Según el informe de arresto, la niña, identificada por un familiar como Janova Park, sufrió heridas de bala en el abdomen y el torso y fue trasladada de emergencia al HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, donde posteriormente murió.

Hosendove dijo a agentes de la Policía de Florida City que el hermano de Janova, de 4 años, fue quien apretó el gatillo, según el informe.

“Debido a que [Hosendove] no aseguró adecuadamente el arma de fuego y mostró una indiferencia consciente hacia el bienestar de sus hijos, lo que provocó la muerte de la víctima, fue acusada de un cargo de homicidio involuntario agravado de un menor y un cargo de negligencia culpable”, concluyó en el informe el detective Paulo Klimick Pereira, de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

Hasta la mañana del jueves, Hosendove, nacida en Carolina del Sur, permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según los registros carcelarios.

En un comunicado, su abogado, Chad Piotrowski, calificó el incidente como “una tragedia absolutamente desgarradora”.

“Una madre perdió a su hija”, señala el comunicado. “No hay nada que el sistema de justicia penal pueda hacerle a esta mujer que se acerque siquiera a lo que ya está viviendo”.

Piotrowski dijo que su firma actuó “rápidamente” para lograr la liberación de Hosendove y agregó que “mañana por la mañana presentaremos un acuerdo para que pueda regresar a casa con su familia”.

“También existen verdaderas cuestiones legales en este caso”, continuó. “Ella es propietaria legal de un arma. El arma de fuego estaba dentro de una cangurera que había sido colocada en un clóset. Abordaremos esos asuntos ante el tribunal, pero por ahora nuestro objetivo es lograr que esta madre regrese a casa y trabajar rápidamente para resolver el caso”.

The shooting happened at around 2 a.m. on June 10 at the home of Ashley Marie Hosendove, 32, off Northwest First Court near 16th Street. She was initially arrested on an unrelated charge afterward.

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

Hosendove told Florida City police officers that Janova’s 4-year-old brother pulled the trigger, according to an arrest report.

“Due to the fact that (Hosendove) neglected to secure the firearm properly and displayed a conscious indifference of the welfare of her children, which resulted in the death of the victim, (she) was charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child and one count of culpable negligence,” Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Paulo Klimick Pereira concluded in the report.

As of Thursday morning, the South Carolina-born Hosendove was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.

In a statement, her attorney, Chad Piotrowski, said the incident was “just an absolutely gut-wrenching tragedy.”

“A mother lost her child,” the statement reads. “There is nothing the criminal justice system can do to this woman that comes close to what she is already going through.”

Piotrowski said his firm “moved quickly” to get Hosendove released “and tomorrow morning we’ll be entering a stipulation to get her back home with her family.”

“There are also real legal issues with this case,” he continued. “She is a lawful gun owner. The firearm was in a fanny pack and placed inside a closet. We’re going to deal with those issues in court, but right now our focus is getting this mother home and working quickly to get this case resolved.”

Leer en español

Investigators say an argument between two men escalated to gunfire at the Mobil gas station located at 10300 NW 12th Ave. Wednesday around 5:25 p.m.

One of the men was struck and drove himself to North Shore Hospital before he was later taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, authorities said.

Deputies said they are searching for the person who shot the victim.

A Local 10 News crew was at the scene Thursday morning, where at least one car was hit with a bullet.

Additionally, detectives are examining surveillance footage and investigating the circumstances that led up to the gunfire.

No other injuries were reported.

Anyone with information on the suspect is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Leer en español

It happened near Northwest 79th Street and Sixth Court, in the county’s Little River area, just before 8:30 a.m.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, a man was driving when he crashed into three other vehicles before running away from the scene on foot.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue rushed a man and two women to a local area hospital in stable condition.

Authorities did not provide a description of the suspect who fled the crash.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

The call for quiet was part of last-ditch efforts to find anyone else alive in the aftermath of the 7.4 magnitude quake that struck the South American country Monday, killing more than 270 people and leaving hundreds more missing.

Aid agencies consider the first two to three days after a quake to be the prime window for retrieving survivors. That time frame can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.

“There might be two more people alive here, and I’m hopeful,” rescuer Daiana Rojas told The Associated Press. “We have been hearing sounds since 2:30 a.m., so our hope remains.”

Rojas and her family were unharmed by the quake, the most powerful to hit Colombia in this century. She has been working as a volunteer to help search for survivors in Cali, one of the most heavily damaged cities, along with Pereira, Manizales and Quibdó.

“I thought that was going to be my last moment alive,” she said, recalling the terror of the quake. “Seeing this situation in my city breaks my heart.”

Rojas has witnessed two people being pulled alive from the debris, as well as the recovery of bodies.

“They are not a relative or a friend of mine, but it feels as they were,” she said of the survivors who have been found. “Whenever rescuers ask for silence, everyone stays still and tries not to move, speak or whisper. But when signs of life are found, all the teams start to applaud.”

Mayor says the next 20 hours will be critical

The mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, told reporters Wednesday that rescue teams continue finding signs of life under the rubble and trying to save anyone within reach. “The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said.

But authorities recognize that the rescue effort is entering a grim phase as search teams begin shifting toward recovering bodies.

“The removal of debris begins now; more than 72 hours have passed,” Milton Castrillón, who works in the Cali mayor’s office, told AP, adding that the teams now lean on “miracles from God to find survivors.”

The death toll rose Thursday to 273, authorities said.

Over 3,800 people were reported injured, with nearly 12,600 homes destroyed and more than 74,800 homes damaged, according to David Santiago Tamayo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management.

The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as they scramble to respond while aid groups seek to help the hardest hit communities.

De la Espriella said Wednesday that nearly 500 people were reported missing, though civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,200. In total, more than 25,800 families have been affected, de la Espriella said.

In other developments, a 4.2 magnitude aftershock struck Thursday in San José del Palmar, in the Chocó region — the epicenter of the earthquake. More than 160 aftershocks have rocked the country, according to the Colombian Geological Survey.

“We’re pretty shaken up, but we’re in good spirits. We can see everyone working hard to get through this very complex situation,” volunteer helper Jairo Galán said in Cali, where food and donation centers were set up.

Colombia, with a population of 54 million people, experiences an average of 2,500 earthquakes each month, most of them small. That's equivalent to about 80 tremors per day, according to the geological survey.

More international aid arrives

Meanwhile, Colombia received more international aid from around the world.

A group of rescuers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived Thursday to help with search efforts and structural engineering assessments. Other countries, including Peru, El Salvador, Mexico and Brazil, have also offered assistance.

De la Espriella announced on X that Colombia will receive a $10 million donation from the United Arab Emirates.

The Chinese ambassador to Colombia said China will provide $1 million in financial aid and more than $2 million in humanitarian assistance.

The South American Football Confederation and the Colombian Football Federation also jointly announced a $1 million donation to support reconstruction efforts.

“Soccer transcends the pitch and remains close to its people, especially in the most difficult times,” they said in a statement.

The Colombia disaster unfolded less than two months after neighboring Venezuela endured back-to-back earthquakes. The contrast between the two countries' responses was stark.

In Venezuela, acting President Delcy Rodríguez waited nearly four hours before addressing the nation. In Colombia, de la Espriella announced an emergency command post to oversee rescue efforts barely an hour after the earthquake. For weeks, Venezuelan civilians were clawing through rubble by hand. Hours after the earthquake in Colombia, rescue teams were searching for survivors with cranes and excavators.

The contrast was a reminder of the differences between the nations — their political systems, resources and the strength of their institutions — and a demonstration of how those can take on life-or-death importance.

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

In all, three ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthis struck the ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, just off Yemen’s coast, as it was coming into port, killing six people and injuring at least nine others, according to Yemeni authorities.

It was part of an escalating campaign by the Houthis and their first deadly attack this year on a vessel navigating the strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and accounts for roughly 12% of global trade.

“People were burning ... it was a strange scene of doomsday,” said Zaheer Ahmed, a Pakistani crew member recovering at a hospital in the port city of Mokha.

“I shouted for help and a Yemeni soldier came to my aid,” said Ahmed, who was injured in both legs.

All three of the crew members The Associated Press interviewed Wednesday at the hospital described intense fire, panic and damage aboard the ship, which was struck before dawn on Tuesday.

Muhammad Alteno, an Indonesian crew member, said he was in “complete shock” after witnessing another Indonesian crew member — a friend — die in the attack. Alteno said he had tried to rescue his friend, who was trapped inside the room they shared, after the first missile strike.

“But the flames were so intense that I couldn't breathe,” Alteno said. “I managed to escape with some of the (other) crew members.”

Two members of Yemen's government-allied National Resistance Forces were killed in the attack, as were three crew members from Pakistan.

The attack was one of many in recent weeks by the Houthis, who have killed government forces and civilians in an escalating campaign on the government-held city of Mokha and other areas, according to the Yemeni military. The rebel group has also intensified its attacks on troops and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government.

The attacks risk reigniting Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 U.N.-brokered truce, and could open a new front in the Middle East war.

The Houthis declared a blockade several weeks ago on Saudi-linked ships leaving the Bab al-Mandeb strait in retaliation for a yearslong Saudi siege on Yemen and recent attacks on the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa. The Houthis had said they would only stop vessels connected to Saudi Arabia or going in and out of its Red Sea ports.

During a similar blockade it announced during the war in Gaza, the Houthis attacked over 100 vessels before a punishing U.S. and Israeli air campaign put an end to the attacks in early 2025.

___

Ezzidin reported from Cairo.

Su vida cotidiana como entrenadora dio un vuelco la noche del lunes cuando un sismo de magnitud 7,4 — el de mayor intensidad registrado en este siglo — sacudió gran parte del país, incluyendo su natal Cali, una de las ciudades con más muertos y personas atrapadas bajo los escombros.

“Es inevitable no ser voluntario en una catástrofe de tu propia ciudad”, relató a The Associated Press Rojas, de 25 años, en medio de los restos de un edicidio que colapsó. “Me encargo de organizar todos los insumos: guantes, cascos, gafas, agua. Y de patinar, que es ir donde están los que levantan los escombros para facilitar su hidratación”, explicó.

Aún tiene esperanza pese a que se acorta la ventana de las primeras 48 a 72 horas cruciales para hallar sobrevivientes, un plazo que puede extenderse si tienen acceso a comida y agua.

“Acá puede haber dos personas más con vida... desde las 2.30 (de la madrugada) hemos estado escuchando sonidos, entonces tenemos la esperanza intacta”, dijo animada Rojas.

Cuando los rescatistas oyen un sonido entre los escombros levantan los puños cerrados. Es la señal para que todos callen.

“Cuando dicen ‘silencio’ todos tratamos de no movernos, no hablar, ni susurrar; pero cuando la persona da una señal de vida todos empezamos a aplaudir”, relató Rojas, quien presenció el rescate de dos sobrevivientes. “Fue una felicidad increíble, no es un familiar mío ni amigo, pero es como si lo fuera”.

Sin embargo, Milton Castrillón, miembro de la alcaldía de Cali, dijo a AP que el jueves inicia una fase difícil “porque empieza la remoción de escombros" y como ya han pasado más de 72 horas enfocarán el esfuerzo en recuperar cuerpos, atender a los familiares y esperar que "existan milagros de Dios para encontrar vida”.

Con la cotidianidad alterada por el sismo, se suspendieron las actividades escolares en Cali y se habilitaron centros de recoleccón de alimentos en los que trabajan voluntarios.

“Estamos bastante golpeados, pero con ánimo. Podemos ver a la gente, todo el mundo trabajando con ganas de sacar adelante toda esta situación tan compleja”, dijo a AP el voluntario Jairo Galán.

Miles de afectados

La cifra de fallecidos se elevó el jueves a 273, de los cuales 189 han sido entregados a las familias, informó a la prensa David Santiago Tamayo, director de la Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres. Además reportó 3.824 heridos y 377 desaparecidos; mientras que más de 12.584 viviendas quedaron destruidas y más de 74.800 dañadas.

Tras el terremoto del lunes se han registrado 160 réplicas, incluida una de magnitud 4,2 el jueves en San José del Palmar, Chocó —el epicentro del terremoto— que fue sentida en 16 departamentos, según el Servicio Geológico Colombiano.

Cali ha sido una de las ciudades más afectadas por el sismo, pero también de las más atendidas en la emergencia debido a su fácil acceso terrestre y aéreo. La ayuda ha tardado más en llegar a otros lugares como Chocó, el epicentro del terremoto y una de las zonas más pobres del país, a menudo asediada por grupos armados enfrentados. A gran parte sólo se llega en barco, a través de la selva o en avión.

El presidente Abelardo de la Espriella, recién posesionado en el cargo, declaró el desastre nacional y la emergencia económica para poder establecer impuestos temporales sin el aval del Congreso y prometió destinar ese dinero a la construcción de hospitales, centros educativos, inmuebles, vías y aeropuertos.

Colombia ha recibido ofrecimientos de ayuda de muchos países y organizaciones. De la Espriella informó el jueves que Emiratos Árabes Unidos donará 10 millones de dólares y la Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol y la Federación Colombiana de Fútbol anunciaron una donación conjunta de un millón de dólares.

Un grupo de rescatistas del Departamento de Bomberos de Los Ángeles llegó el jueves para colaborar en las labores de búsqueda y en las evaluaciones estructurales. Otros países han enviado ayuda humanitaria como El Salvador y Perú, y ofrecido rescatistas como México. Sin embargo, la presidenta mexicana Claudia Sheinbaum afirmó el jueves que el grupo de 255 militares especialistas en operaciones de rescate no viajó la víspera porque las autoridades colombianas no lo aprobaron y solicitaron sus certificaciones, mientras pidieron apoyo en alimentos, agua y medicamentos.

———

Suárez reportó desde Bogotá y Batschke desde Santiago.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade buscan a un conductor que, según las autoridades, provocó un accidente la mañana del jueves y huyó del lugar.

El incidente ocurrió poco antes de las 8:30 a.m. cerca de Northwest 79th Street y Sixth Court, en el área de Little River del condado.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, el hombre conducía un vehículo cuando chocó contra otros tres automóviles y posteriormente huyó a pie.

Paramédicos de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladaron a un hombre y dos mujeres a un hospital de la zona. Los tres se encontraban en condición estable.

Las autoridades no proporcionaron una descripción del sospechoso que huyó del lugar.

Cualquier persona que tenga información sobre el incidente puede comunicarse con Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

The company operates a vast nationwide network of automated cameras that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock's data across jurisdictions to aid their investigations.

Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes. But some critics say its pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance. Dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data can be accessed for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized tracking, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches.

CEO says changes will drive accountability

In an interview, Flock CEO Garrett Langley said many of the product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan. 1.

Among them: All law enforcement customers will have to implement an audit tool that's intended to flag abnormal search behavior. When the system detects abnormal behavior, the user would be locked out pending an internal review, the company said in a description of the changes provided ahead of Thursday's announcement.

Flock, which says its customers own the data that the cameras record, is also shortening the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. It said it will allow data to be preserved for longer when it is evidence tied to a case number.

Law enforcement users will now also be required to enter a code from their records management system tying each search to a specific case before it is run, something Langley said civil liberties advocates have long been calling for. Overrides for emergencies would be automatically flagged for review, the company said.

Customers will also be allowed to decide which offense types — such as homicide or arson — outside agencies can search their data for, which would allow a customer to block outside searches related to immigration enforcement, the company said.

Langley said that change will give individual cities and departments control to use the system in a manner “consistent with community values.”

Critics say updates still leave room for abuses, supporters urge balance

Critics of the company reacted skeptically to the changes, which they said appeared designed to address the growing bipartisan anger about the cameras but could still leave room for police to abuse the system.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a blog post that the shortened evidence retention window could be “a step in the right direction,” but it characterized the other changes as “retreads” of inadequate safety measures.

Robert Frommer, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that's led closely watched litigation over the technology, called the changes “window dressing” from a company in “panic mode.”

“This is window dressing that doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that police officers are the ones deciding who and when to search, and that should be done by judges with real warrants,” he said.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University Law School whose scholarship has focused on policing, big data surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, said Thursday’s shifts were “better than the opposite” but called for further scrutiny of the technology in the form of “sustained democratic engagement with the rules and judicial checks on access at a minimum.”

Ferguson said he’s been surprised to see the “growing community backlash” against Flock specifically, given that the technology isn't new and other companies sell it as well. But Flock and the movement against it have “captured people’s sense that maybe they don’t want to be surveilled all the time,” he said.

More than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have canceled, suspended or rejected a contract or deactivated their cameras since the beginning of the year, according to a tracker maintained by DeFlock, a grassroots group formed to track the use of license plate reader technology and push back against it. Cameras around the country have also been vandalized.

In Congress, Republican representatives filed at least two bills aiming to restrict the use of the technology in July.

Ian Adams, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina currently working on a Flock-related research study, said many of the concerns raised about how the company's data can be used are not new concerns in law enforcement.

“Anyone with policing experience could have reasonably foreseen that what have been termed as ‘curiosity searches’ by officers, searches for private reasons not related to police work, were going to be a problem this technology faced,” he added, noting that other technologies and platforms like the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information had faced those issues.

Law enforcement experts said it's a common tension of “policing in a democracy” — balancing useful technology that officers say helps solve and prevent crime with the community's interest and right to privacy.

“It's a balancing act. A community has a legitimate interest in how information is used, but it also has a legitimate interest in the effectiveness of a police department in preventing crime,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. “I think a balance can be struck, but it's more likely to come from department policy than company changes.”

Successes and failures have captured attention

Flock, based in Atlanta, Georgia, often posts to its website what the company deems to be everyday examples of success stories for its cameras, including finding missing seniors and catching car thieves.

But the tech has also been used in high-profile cases that have garnered national attention, such as the search for a suspect in a fatal shooting at Brown University and in tracking and arresting a former North Carolina police officer who authorities say had made threats that he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a festival in Louisiana. A grand jury declined to bring charges in that case in June, and state authorities said the former officer's family had taken him to a treatment facility out of state where he does not face further charges.

Abuses have also drawn widespread attention. The Washington Post reported earlier this month finding nearly 50 instances of police officers charged or accused of using the cameras for unauthorized purposes, many for tracking current or former romantic partners or family members.

Just this week, six employees — including four officers — of the Savannah Police Department in Georgia were fired after they were accused of searching for friends and family using the tool and allowing an officer from an outside agency to use the city’s cameras.

The Savannah department said it was made aware of the misuse through Flock’s voluntary audit function.

___

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

Leer en español

Prosecutors called them a major flight risk.

The two have been in the downtown Miami Federal Detention Center since July 19.

Several social media posts used by prosecutors point to self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate boasting online in 2021 that he is untouchable.

“I can be in another country under a different name, with a penthouse and $300K if things go bad,” he previously said.

Another post from the same year said in part, “Court date. I absolutely do not care.”

U.K. authorities are seeking their extradition for 59 charges related to rape and human trafficking.

The allegations took place between 2010 and 2017.

Prosecutors say Tristian Tate may have a Mexican passport under the name Vladimir Scorpius.

A photo of it was included in the filing.

Officials in Mexico say they have no record of issuing a passport in that name.

The document says the U.K. has not received travel alerts for the brothers’ true passports.

Prosecutors referenced a video of Andrew Tate appearing on Patrick Butler’s podcast.

“I have 7 passports, I have 15 drivers licenses,” he said during the appearance.

The Tate’s lawyer says they have no plans to evade the law and wrote in a recent motion following their 2022 arrest in Romania, “The brothers traveled to nine other countries and on every occasion they returned to Romania to check in with authorities because their release conditions required it.”

Since being arrested, someone has been posting to social media on Andrew Tate’s behalf.

A post from two days ago reads, “Bugattis, money, federal prison, prosecutors after you, street notoriety, professional fights, children with endless women etc. It’s GTA6. I live what everyone is waiting to play.”

The Tates claim they are innocent of the accusations against them.

After the court’s consideration, the final decision on extradition falls on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The hearing will now take place on Aug. 27, meaning they will remain there at least until then.

Nuevos documentos judiciales revelan que los fiscales consideran que Andrew y Tristan Tate cuentan con varios pasaportes e identidades que podrían utilizar para evadir a las autoridades.

Los fiscales señalaron que ambos representan un importante riesgo de fuga.

Los hermanos permanecen detenidos en el Centro Federal de Detención del centro de Miami desde el 19 de julio.

Los fiscales citaron varias publicaciones en redes sociales, entre ellas una de 2021 en la que Andrew Tate, quien se ha autodefinido como misógino, presumía en internet de ser intocable.

“Puedo estar en otro país con un nombre diferente, un penthouse y $300,000 si las cosas salen mal”, dijo en una publicación.

En otra publicación de ese mismo año escribió, en parte: “Fecha en la corte. No me importa en absoluto”.

Las autoridades del Reino Unido solicitan la extradición de ambos por 59 cargos relacionados con violación y trata de personas.

Las acusaciones corresponden a hechos que presuntamente ocurrieron entre 2010 y 2017.

Los fiscales aseguran que Tristan Tate podría tener un pasaporte mexicano bajo el nombre de Vladimir Scorpius. Una fotografía del documento fue incluida en el expediente judicial.

Sin embargo, autoridades mexicanas señalaron que no tienen registro de haber expedido un pasaporte con ese nombre.

Los documentos también indican que el Reino Unido no ha recibido alertas de viaje relacionadas con los pasaportes que contienen las identidades reales de los hermanos.

Los fiscales hicieron referencia además a un video de Andrew Tate durante una aparición en el podcast de Patrick Butler.

“Tengo siete pasaportes, tengo 15 licencias de conducir”, afirmó Tate durante la entrevista.

El abogado de los hermanos Tate sostiene que no tienen intención de evadir a la justicia. En una moción reciente, recordó que después de su arresto en Rumania en 2022 “los hermanos viajaron a otros nueve países y en cada ocasión regresaron a Rumania para presentarse ante las autoridades, porque las condiciones de su liberación así lo exigían”.

Desde su arresto, alguien ha continuado publicando mensajes en las redes sociales en nombre de Andrew Tate.

Una publicación de hace dos días dice: “Bugattis, dinero, prisión federal, fiscales persiguiéndote, notoriedad en las calles, peleas profesionales, hijos con innumerables mujeres, etc. Es GTA6. Vivo lo que todos están esperando jugar”.

Los hermanos Tate sostienen que son inocentes de las acusaciones en su contra.

Una vez que el tribunal analice el caso, la decisión final sobre la extradición corresponderá al secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio.

La audiencia se celebrará ahora el 27 de agosto, por lo que los hermanos permanecerán detenidos al menos hasta esa fecha.

Like yesterday, we will have some spotty showers and thunderstorms developing this afternoon, especially after 3pm. They will favor inland areas around and west of the Florida Turnpike. We will be drier near the beaches. This pattern is on repeat into the weekend.

Leer en español

The winning ticket was sold at Hy-Vee Gas station in Quincy, Illinois. The winning numbers drawn Wednesday night were 4, 26, 66, 67 and 69, with a Powerball of 9.

The jackpot winner has not yet been identified. The winner can choose between annual payments or a lump-sum payment estimated at $433 million before taxes.

Many South Florida residents were out Wednesday trying to snag the lucky numbers. Lottery officials said a ticket sold at a Circle K in Lakeland, Florida, matched all five white-ball numbers for a $1 million prize.

Local 10’s Jason Carter spoke with South Florida residents on Wednesday about what they would do if they won a billion dollars.

“I think I would give away at least $200 million to charity or to people, and then I would buy myself a huge, huge mansion,” a woman said.

The game recently expanded to allow players in the United Kingdom to participate.

Alguien ganó el premio mayor de $1,040 millones del Powerball, el más grande desde el año pasado, según funcionarios de la lotería.

El boleto ganador fue vendido en una gasolinera Hy-Vee en Quincy, Illinois. Los números sorteados la noche del miércoles fueron 4, 26, 66, 67 y 69, con el Powerball 9.

La identidad del ganador aún no ha sido revelada. El afortunado podrá elegir entre recibir el premio en pagos anuales o un pago único estimado en $433 millones antes de impuestos.

Muchos residentes del sur de Florida salieron el miércoles en busca de los números de la suerte. Funcionarios de la lotería informaron que un boleto vendido en una tienda Circle K en Lakeland, Florida, acertó los cinco números de las bolas blancas y obtuvo un premio de $1 millón.

Jason Carter, de Local 10, habló el miércoles con residentes del sur de Florida sobre qué harían si ganaran $1,000 millones.

“Creo que donaría al menos $200 millones a organizaciones benéficas o a otras personas, y después me compraría una mansión enorme, enorme”, dijo una mujer.

El juego se amplió recientemente para permitir la participación de jugadores del Reino Unido.

Leer en español

Investigators said Matthew Holloway, 21, surrendered to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Monticello, Florida, on Sunday and was extradited to Broward County on Wednesday.

Holloway faces one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted felony murder in connection with the May 8 shooting near the 7900 block of Southwest Seventh Court, according to jail records.

Deputies with the Broward Sheriff’s Office said they responded to reports of a shooting at around 1 a.m. and found 19-year-old O’Mari Doe inside a 2020 Ford Mustang suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. They said Doe was airlifted to Broward Health North, where he later died.

Authorities said 20-year-old Maurice Vorroto was found outside the vehicle with a gunshot wound. His injuries were not considered life-threatening.

According to investigators, Doe, Vorroto and two other people were inside the Mustang when five suspects arrived in a black Honda Accord. Witnesses told detectives that the suspects got out of the vehicle armed with handguns and fired multiple shots into the Mustang before fleeing.

A Fort Lauderdale police officer later spotted the Honda Accord, leading to a pursuit. The suspects eventually abandoned the vehicle near the 900 block of Southwest 13th Street in Fort Lauderdale.

Authorities previously arrested Aamir Dennard Adams, 19; Anthony Adams, 18; Amari Adams, 16; and Romayne Smith, 17, in connection with the shooting.

Detectives later identified Holloway as the fifth suspect and sought the public’s help locating him through Broward Crime Stoppers.

With Holloway now extradited to Broward County, all five suspects identified in the case have been apprehended.

As of Thursday morning, Holloway, Aamir Adams and Anthony Adams were being held without bond at the Broward County Main Jail.

Los investigadores informaron que Matthew Holloway, de 21 años, se entregó el domingo a la Oficina del Sheriff del condado de Jefferson, en Monticello, Florida, y fue extraditado a Broward el miércoles.

Holloway enfrenta un cargo de asesinato en primer grado y tres cargos de intento de asesinato durante la comisión de un delito grave por el tiroteo ocurrido el 8 de mayo cerca de la cuadra 7900 de Southwest Seventh Court, según los registros carcelarios.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward (BSO) informaron que atendieron un reporte de disparos alrededor de la 1 a.m. y encontraron a O’Mari Doe, de 19 años, dentro de un Ford Mustang 2020 con múltiples heridas de bala.

Doe fue trasladado en helicóptero al Broward Health North, donde posteriormente murió.

Las autoridades también encontraron a Maurice Vorroto, de 20 años, fuera del vehículo con una herida de bala. Sus lesiones no fueron consideradas potencialmente mortales.

Según los investigadores, Doe, Vorroto y otras dos personas se encontraban dentro del Mustang cuando cinco sospechosos llegaron en un Honda Accord negro.

Testigos dijeron a los detectives que los sospechosos descendieron del vehículo armados con pistolas y realizaron múltiples disparos contra el Mustang antes de huir.

Posteriormente, un agente de la Policía de Fort Lauderdale localizó el Honda Accord, lo que dio inicio a una persecución. Los sospechosos finalmente abandonaron el vehículo cerca de la cuadra 900 de Southwest 13th Street, en Fort Lauderdale.

Las autoridades habían arrestado previamente a Aamir Dennard Adams, de 19 años; Anthony Adams, de 18; Amari Adams, de 16; y Romayne Smith, de 17, en relación con el tiroteo.

Los detectives identificaron posteriormente a Holloway como el quinto sospechoso y solicitaron la ayuda del público para localizarlo a través de Broward Crime Stoppers.

Con la extradición de Holloway al condado de Broward, los cinco sospechosos identificados en el caso se encuentran ya bajo custodia.

Hasta la mañana del jueves, Holloway, Aamir Adams y Anthony Adams permanecían detenidos sin derecho a fianza en la cárcel principal del condado de Broward.

The man died in Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, after traveling there from Isiro in Haut-Uele province, said Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

He was a motorcycle-taxi driver who had sought treatment at several hospitals before he died, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo’s National Institute ​for Biomedical Research, said. His colleagues tried to forcibly take his dead body, prompting police intervention and concerns that more people may have been exposed to the virus, Muyembe added.

The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing one yet, is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history, which erupted over a decade ago and killed over 11,000 people, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak.

It has killed over 2,100 people out of more than 4,500 cases, according to the latest government figures. This death toll has been reached almost three times faster than in the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa — the worst in history.

The outbreak is unfolding in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

Bas-Uele is a vast province in northeastern Congo that borders the Central African Republic, where there is recurring armed violence that has forced thousands to flee and take refuge in the province. Access can be difficult due to bad and poorly connected roads as well as limited communication networks, and there are frequent population movements related to gold mining and displacement from conflict.

As of Thursday, six out of 26 of Congo’s provinces have been impacted. About 90% of all cases and 80% of deaths are concentrated in Ituri province, the WHO said Wednesday.

Mercy Corps, an aid group, warned Thursday that Ebola cases have been reported along a major travel route about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Congo's border with South Sudan, expressing concern over the outbreak's “widening footprint.” No cases have been confirmed in South Sudan so far.

Unpaid health workers' strikes and low contact tracing hamper response

Meanwhile, health workers at the Nizi Treatment Center in Ituri province, one of the most affected in the area, went on strike Thursday, leading to the temporary closure of the center after they said they have not been paid for three months.

Kaseya on Thursday called on the Congolese government to pay the outstanding salaries.

“We need to pay health workers,” he told reporters. “This is the responsibility of the government, not partners. And they told us that money is available.”

The real scope of the outbreak remains unknown. It was declared on May 15, but the WHO now says sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February.

Health authorities have said between 60% and 70% of new cases are recorded outside contacts being monitored, and that the disease is spreading at an “alarming” rate. Contact tracing helps break chains of transmission by finding exposed people early and reacting quickly if they show symptoms.

“We are chasing the virus; the virus is ahead of us,” the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, said this week.

On Thursday, Kaseya from Africa CDC said “the concept of contact tracing in DRC has become useless.”

Trials for treatments and vaccines are underway

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and from contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for this type of Ebola began last month in Ituri, the most affected of the five provinces in Congo where cases have been reported.

Two vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus are now being tested in people for the first time, the WHO said Wednesday.

WHO also plans to test whether an existing Ebola vaccine could protect people against the virus after studies in animals showed promising results.

Kaseya said on Thursday that the Africa CDC supports the use of Ervebo, a vaccine authorized against the Zaire Ebola strain in provinces impacted by Bundibugyo virus. He said some studies show some cross-protection from the available vaccines.

“We are in a gray area,” he said. “And when you are in a gray area, you have to make strong decisions to stop seeing people dying."

___

Associated Press reporters Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo, Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo and Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa contributed.

Estudiantes de todo el condado de Miami-Dade regresaron a las aulas este jueves, algunos de ellos en nuevos planteles tras el cierre o la consolidación de nueve escuelas públicas debido a la disminución de la matrícula.

En Miami Springs Preparatory Academy, alumnos de sexto a 12.º grado comenzaron a llegar antes del amanecer para su primer día de clases. La escuela recibe ahora a una mayor cantidad de estudiantes tras el cierre de Miami Springs Middle School.

El superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas del Condado de Miami-Dade, José Dotres, visitó el plantel y señaló que los cambios buscan brindar a los estudiantes acceso a mejores recursos mientras el distrito se adapta a las variaciones en la matrícula.

“Este cargo ha sido el privilegio y el honor de mi vida y estoy emocionado de ver el inicio de un año escolar más”, dijo Dotres. “Durante mi gestión, cada año ha sido excelente. Tengo grandes expectativas, especialmente para este año, más que nunca”.

Este jueves marcó el último primer día de clases de Dotres como superintendente. Su gestión está programada para concluir en febrero.

El distrito también recordó a las familias que se implementaron cambios en su programa de comidas gratuitas y a precio reducido.

Un total de 121 escuelas del distrito continuarán ofreciendo desayuno y almuerzo gratuitos a todos los estudiantes. El desayuno gratuito seguirá disponible en las escuelas primarias, mientras que las familias con alumnos de secundaria deben verificar si su escuela califica para ofrecer comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido.

Las familias cuyos hijos aún no estén cubiertos por el programa deben presentar una solicitud a través del sitio web del distrito antes de que venza el plazo.

Jesus Perdomo, estudiante de octavo grado, ofreció algunos consejos a otros alumnos que comienzan el nuevo año escolar.

“Todos los estudiantes deberían tratar de no meterse en problemas, concentrarse en sus estudios y, en general, pasarla bien”, dijo.

Angelica Rodriguez contó a Local 10 que su hijo normalmente utiliza el autobús escolar, pero que en su horario no aparecía una ruta asignada.

“Normalmente viene en autobús, pero hoy apareció algo en el horario”, explicó Rodriguez. “Dice que no tiene un autobús asignado. Llamé a transporte y me dijeron que simplemente lo trajera a la escuela y preguntara en la oficina qué está pasando, porque probablemente sea un problema del sistema”.

Funcionarios del distrito recordaron a las familias que deben asegurarse de que la información de contacto de emergencia esté actualizada y verificar las rutas, paradas y horarios de los autobuses escolares al comenzar el nuevo ciclo escolar.

Las familias también pueden utilizar la aplicación móvil oficial Dadeschools Mobile App para consultar información relacionada con las escuelas, incluidos horarios y datos sobre transporte.

Mientras los estudiantes regresan a las aulas en todo el sur de Florida, Local 10 quiere ayudar a celebrar este momento compartiendo sus fotos favoritas del regreso a clases.

Western officials have previously warned that Russia stepped up a campaign of targeted killings since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, saying they have disrupted several plots across Europe. But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this incident was unprecedented.

The suspect, who was allegedly recruited by Russia's secret services, was detained by Polish authorities on Aug. 7. He will be held in custody for three months, the Warsaw police said in a statement.

The American Ukrainian citizen “was uncomfortable for the Putin regime,” Tusk said in a news conference, without elaborating.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, said Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services. He said the targeted victim was a U.S. citizen “of Ukrainian origin.” Officials did not immediately provide further details.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the reports but said it had no additional information.

Western countries believe Russia seeks to undermine Ukraine's allies

Russia has long been accused of targeting its enemies abroad, including by using rare poisons. But intelligence officials previously told The Associated Press that Russia’s security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine as well as military defectors.

“We must assume that the Putin regime will try to eliminate people who are inconvenient for various reasons, in various places around the world,” Tusk said on Thursday. He said that Poland and others must be prepared to counter such actions.

Western officials see the campaign as connected to Russia’s broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine. The AP has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the war that officials have linked to Russia. President Vladimir Putin told the AP in June that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

In 2006, British authorities accused Russia of being behind the killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London with radioactive polonium. The U.K. also blames Russia for the attempted killing of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with the nerve agent Novichok.

German authorities said Russia organized the 2019 killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen rebel commander who was shot in a Berlin park by Vadim Krasikov, a hitman who was later greeted by Putin after he was exchanged in a spy swap.

In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk said at the time that the killing of Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, had the hallmarks of a political assassination. He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it but Polish officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.

Last year French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s war. Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.

Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.

“This campaign is not by accident or chance,” a senior European intelligence official previously told the AP. “There is political authorization.”

___

Burrows reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The ticket that won the jackpot Wednesday night was purchased at a Hy-Vee station in Quincy, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of the state capital of Springfield along the Missouri border, Illinois Lottery officials said. The winning numbers were 4-26-66-67-69 with the Powerball number of 9.

It wasn't immediately clear if the winner has come forward yet.

The prize comes in the form of either an annuity of $1 billion paid over 29 years or a lump-sum payment of $450.5 million. Winners almost always take the lump sum.

It was the first Powerball jackpot won since May 2, when the top prize was $20 million, and the first since ticket sales began in the United Kingdom last month. At $2 per play, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292 million.

The $1.04 billion grand prize was the eighth-largest in Powerball history, game organizers said. Another lottery game, Mega Millions has also had a $1 billion jackpot winner.

“Congratulations to our newest Powerball jackpot winner in Illinois,” Stephen Durrell, chair of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Kansas Lottery, said in a statement. “For more than three decades, Powerball has shown that a winning ticket can be sold anywhere the game is played, giving every $2 ticket the chance to change not only a winner’s life, but generations to come."

Four tickets sold for Wednesday's drawing — in Arizona, California, Florida and North Carolina — hit five of the numbers but missed the Powerball number. They were worth $1 million apiece. A ticket sold in Massachusetts also matched all the numbers except the Powerball number, but won $2 million because of the “Power Play” multiplier option costing an extra $1 per play.

More than 3 million tickets won lesser cash prizes.

The Powerball jackpot resets to $20 million for the next drawing on Saturday.

The record lottery jackpot still stands at just over $2 billion, won with a Powerball ticket purchased in California in 2022.

It's the same for most runners, as the body can't cool down during exertion, and heat makes that even harder.

“One thing about marathoners is typically we're kind of stubborn,” said Grinvalds, 68, from West Des Moines, Iowa, who finds even temperatures in the 50s F (10 C) a bit warm. “So if we have a goal and it's hot, a lot of times we're still going to try to do that goal, which is just stupid because you're almost guaranteed to have a very painful experience.”

Such an experience can also be dangerous, a reality that marathon organizers are having to confront as climate change, caused mostly by the burning of fuels like coal and gasoline, pushes temperatures up. To improve the chances of having the 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) race in cooler weather, organizers are shifting race dates, starting earlier and even giving options for participants to cut their runs short.

Starting in 2027, the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St. Paul will shift its more than 40-year tradition of holding the race on the first Sunday in October to later in the month. That decision comes after cancellation of the marathon in 2023 because of record heat and humidity, and starting temperatures near 70 F (21 C) for the 2025 race.

Organizers of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, marathon last year similarly moved their annual race from August to September after canceling the 2024 race due to hot conditions. And other races, including the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio, the Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas, and the Long Beach Marathon in Southern California, all moved their start times to earlier in the morning in search of cooler temperatures.

In Los Angeles in March, warm conditions prompted race organizers to give runners the option of stopping after 18 miles and still receiving a finishers medal. Less than 5% of participants opted for the shorter finish and only 14 of roughly 27,000 runners were treated at a hospital, with all released the same day. Still, the move led to some online derision.

“We welcome the feedback and it's certainly something that caused a lot of discussion, but when we're grading ourselves on it, it has to do with how safe our runners were on the day of the event and we're very happy with the outcome,” said Meg Treat, a spokesperson for the marathon.

At the Twin Cities Marathon, race director Ed Whetham called the decision to cancel the 2023 marathon “devastating” for runners and the organization. Whetham said it prompted an extensive analysis of weather patterns that resulted in the decision to permanently delay the race by a couple weeks.

That analysis showed that by holding the race later in October, runners would have a far greater chance of optimal conditions. Given that snow sometimes falls in the Twin Cities in late October, there is a greater chance of chilly conditions, but Whetham said, “We’ll take a 39-degree (4 C) start over a 70-degree (21 C) start.”

Temperatures are expected to keep rising

The contiguous U.S. just had its warmest July ever recorded, and the Earth had its hottest year on record in 2024. The World Meteorological Organization forecasts that between 2025 and 2030 the Earth's average global temperature will likely rise by more than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) compared to the 1800s.

The warming is already making conditions worse for most marathons, according to a study of 221 races by the climate research group Climate Central. By 2045, optimal conditions for recreational runners — in the low 40s (6 or 7 degrees C) — would be less likely at 46 of the 51 U.S. marathons analyzed.

“The ability to go outside, to exercise, to take advantage of your human body and being healthy, that’s something that’s getting challenged by climate change,” said Andy Pershing, who led the Climate Central research.

Jessica Murfree leads a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill lab studying climate change's effect on sports. She said organizers of marathons, bicycle races and other competitions — from tennis to college football — increasingly must consider changing event dates and times and adopting other safety measures, as climate change makes the weather hotter and more volatile.

Murfree said the concern extends beyond organized sports to whether people can even get outside on increasingly warm days, pushing people to exercise indoors or opt for activities like swimming.

“If we can't walk, if we can't exercise or go for runs, it's too hot, can we still stay physically active while remaining cool?” she asked.

Marathons are especially hard in warm weather

Any kind of exercising in the heat can be challenging, but running a marathon in warm, humid conditions is especially difficult because it's hard to prevent overheating when a person keeps pushing themselves for hours. And the faster a person goes, the more heat their body produces.

Chris Minson, a University of Oregon professor who researches how people can adapt to extreme heat and other environmental conditions, said the optimum temperature to run a marathon is about 50 degrees (10 C). As the temperature creeps into the upper 50s and 60s, the body has a tougher time supplying blood to muscles while also keeping the body cool.

“As you get to warmer temperatures you end up having a bigger competition between blood supplying your muscles to keep running, to keep nutrition going, and blood flow to your skin for thermal regulation,” Minson said.

Minson said it takes a tremendous amount of energy to run quickly. But of that energy, only about 25% is used to move the body forward. The rest goes to deal with the heat that is created by rapid movement.

Even worse than high temperatures is high humidity, which prevents sweat from evaporating and cooling the body.

Minson adds, though, that by regularly exercising in warm weather, people can acclimate to high temperatures and perform better in the heat, though likely not as well as they would in cooler conditions. Athletes who acclimate to high heat also can perform better in lower temperatures than if they hadn't exercised in warm weather, he said.

Some athletes like John Seals even run in the midday heat and endure a sauna after a workout to acclimate their bodies. That all forms part of Seals' training for an annual 135-mile ultramarathon held in July in Death Valley, California.

“We had a heat wave this week and for me, that's a great thing,” said Seals, of West Des Moines.

Still, running in the heat can be dangerous without taking precautions.

Douglas Casa, a kinesiology professor who leads the Korey Stringer Institute, which studies sudden deaths in sports, said the Twin Cities Marathon's change was prudent, especially considering the way in which many runners approach races.

“If someone was smart enough to say, 'OK, it's a little hotter today than usual, I'm going to run a 7 minute mile instead of a 6:30 mile,' then they won't get any hotter than normal,” Casa said. “It's just that runners are sometimes very locked into what they normally do and what their goals are.”

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The Labor Department’s producer price index — which captures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 4.7% in July from a year ago, down from a much larger 5.5% increase in June. On a monthly basis, wholesale prices were unchanged from June to July, after they ticked down 0.1% the previous month.

The figures follows the government’s consumer price inflation report, released Wednesday, which also showed a modest cooling last month. Still, consumer prices have risen faster than wages for the past four months, underscoring the challenges many Americans have affording necessities such as rent and utilities. If prices continue to outpace wages, many consumers may be forced to dial back their spending in the coming months.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core wholesale inflation dropped to 4.2% in July compared with a year earlier, down from 4.7% in June. On a monthly basis, core prices 0.2%, down from 0.4% from May to June.

After falling in early July, gas prices then rose later that month and in early August, threatening to push inflation back up when August figures are reported next month.

“The soft (producer prices) reading for July points to reduced inflationary pressure for businesses in coming months,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. “While the renewed rise in fuel costs is concerning, input costs beyond energy are cooling.”

Last month’s cooling gives Federal Reserve officials more leeway to avoid a rate hike when it meets next in September. Fed officials are debating whether they should raise their key interest rate to combat inflation, or keep it unchanged in hopes that inflation continues to cool on its own.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably healthcare and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index. That price index will be released in about two weeks.

The PCE index uses data from the consumer price index as well. With both those reports now released, economists forecast that when the Fed's preferred gauge is issued Aug. 26, it will show yearly core inflation likely remained unchanged in July, at about 3.3%, unlike both the consumer and producer price indexes, which have slowed a bit. That could raise concerns among some Fed officials that inflation is too far above the central bank's target of 2% and showing little sign of easing.

Fed officials are considering whether to hike rates after leaving them unchanged so far this year. Last week, the government said employers actually cut jobs in July, a sign of economic weakness that could discourage the central bank from raising borrowing costs.

The campus was sold through bankruptcy court in an auction won by the Hill City affiliate, according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Spirit Airlines abruptly shut down operations May 2 during its second bankruptcy filing.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 209,000 people filed jobless claims last week, up from a revised 200,000 the week before and higher than the 205,000 forecasters had expected. The four-week average of applications, which smooths out week-to-week-volatitlity, was unchanged at 199,000.

The overall number of people collecting employment benefits the week that ended Aug. 1 dropped by 22,000 to 1.78 million.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and they've been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week for the past year, suggesting that Americans who have jobs enjoy unusual job security. The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, as the economy has proven resilient despite a spike in energy prices caused by the fighting with Iran.

"The labor market has yet to show any sign of wear and tear from the surge in oil prices since the start of the war with Iran and the global energy supply shock,'' Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary.

The story is less encouraging for those trying to break into the job market and for those who lost their jobs and are looking for new work. Companies, scarred by worker shortages that followed the end of COVID-19 lockups four to five years ago, are reluctant to let go of staff; but they aren't eager to take on new workers. Economists regularly refer to a "no hire, no fire'' job market.

Last month, in fact, companies, government agencies and nonprofits together cut 23,000 jobs instead of increasing them, the Labor Department reported last week. So far this year, employers are adding 61,000 jobs a month. That is an improvement on the 9,700 they averaged last year — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. The lingering effects of high interest rates and President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies discouraged companies from hiring in 2025.

Still, hiring this year remains well below the 166,00 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro, a man whose narcissistic personality took control of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. He made promises to the Cuban people that he later betrayed for his own selfish ambitions and thirst for power.

At his trial on Oct. 16, 1953, following the failed attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, he famously said, “History will absolve me.”

In the end, history will judge him as a ruthless dictator who destroyed Cuba, impoverished its people and inflicted tremendous suffering on an entire nation.

Aug. 12: Cuba poses a tough foreign policy challenge for Rubio

“Who is on first, what is on second, I don’t know is on third.”

The famous comedy routine by Abbott and Costello can be compared to the Trump administration’s foreign policy strategies these days. Diplomatic negotiations are complex and complicated, especially when dealing with countries, governments, and individuals with whom the United States has not had good relationships.

Leer en español

Reliable sources tell me there are tremendous differences between the staffs at the White House and the Department of State over how to handle negotiations involving Ukraine, Russia, Israel-Gaza, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. It does not help when those negotiating on behalf of the United States have limited to no diplomatic experience.

For now, let’s stay within the area of expertise: Cuba. While President Trump thinks Cuba can be resolved in two months, Secretary of State Marco Rubio knows very well, as does his senior staff, that negotiating with Cuba is not easy.

The Cuban government is willing to continue introducing cosmetic changes to its moribund economy without relinquishing political control. The United States can continue to sanction everyone on the island, and the Cuban government could not care less. All the while, the people of Cuba continue to suffer tremendous hardships. Yet the people are unlikely to turn against the government. The consequence of doing so can mean spending years in jail.

Meanwhile, in Miami, the guessing game continues over who will replace Raúl Castro when he dies, along with preparations for possible transition plans for Cuba. A transition to a democratic system of government in Cuba will take time. A civil society cannot be built overnight. It is also important to remember that Cuba did not have a democratic government before 1959.

For Rubio, expectations from the Cuban American community are high. Yet most in the community understand that it will not be easy to get the Cuban government to make political changes short of a U.S. military invasion. However, Rubio needs a win, especially if he is considering another presidential run. The failures of the Trump administration’s foreign policies around the world could affect Rubio’s future presidential campaign.

So, what will be Rubio’s next step on Cuba? The clock is ticking.

Aug. 10: Will the cat catch the mouse this time?

While U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to put pressure on the Cuban government to change, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went on Cuban television this past weekend and announced to the Cuban people that the government was making major “transformational changes” to the economy.

Díaz-Canel also told the Cuban people that it would take time and patience -- two things the Cuban people do not have anymore. Díaz-Canel went on to say that the benefits of these changes will begin to show by 2029.

Sources in Washington, D.C. have told me that the Trump administration is looking to see if there is someone in the Cuban government, like Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela, to hand over Raul Castro or even take over the current government and be willing to negotiate with the U.S.

The Miami Herald reported this weekend that General Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, currently the Cuban Minister of the Interior, may be acceptable to the U.S. General Casas is considered a hardliner and therefore unlikely to break with the Cuban leadership.

As I have said before, the case of Venezuela is quite different than Cuba. While Raul Castro is alive, I believe the Cuban government will continue in power and make promises to the Cuban people they cannot keep.

Aug. 8: Cuban opposition leader says Cuba’s transformation must include those on the island

According to Cuban opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, any plans to transform Cuba must include Cubans on the island.

But do Cubans on the island have the capacity and capabilities to participate in such a process? After living for almost 68 years under a totalitarian system that has shaped the population’s personal values and attitudes, it could take time not only to change it but, more importantly, to sustain those changes.

Democracies are not built in one day. It will take time and patience. Let’s also remember that before the Cuban Revolution, Cuba had a dictatorship under Batista.

Aug 6: US announces new set of economic sanctions against Cuba; 2 of Cuba’s top generals also sanctioned

The U.S. State Department announced a new set of economic sanctions against Cuba on Thursday. At the same time, two of Cuba’s top generals were also sanctioned, Alvaro Lopez Miera, Minister of Defense; and General Roberto Sotolongo, head of the armed forces.

Aug. 5: CIA Task Force on Cuba created, per report

The New York Times has reported the creation of a CIA Task Force on Cuba with the purpose of putting additional pressure on the Cuban government to make political and economic changes to their system.

This news will probably be received by Cuba as an additional threat by the U.S.

Aug. 5: Cuban president confirms ongoing conservations between Havana, US

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed today that there are ongoing conversations between Havana and DC for the purpose of avoiding a military confrontation and trying to find solutions to the issues between both nations.

The Cuban government understands that they are running out of options and most likely will need to reach an agreement with the U.S. Will it include regime change?

Aug. 3 update: Rubio speaks about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the US

This past weekend, in an interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio spoke about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the U.S.

Rubio went on to say that Cuban spies continue to infiltrate the U.S. government, financial institutions, organizations, and academic institutions. Rubio claimed that Cuba continues to be a national security threat to the U.S.

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.

Police said the blast at Europe’s biggest port happened late Thursday morning and that a crime scene has been set up to try to establish what caused it. In a post on social media, they said the explosion “appears to be a workplace accident for the time being,” without elaborating.

At the scene, Rotterdam police spokesperson Daan Valkenburg told The Associated Press that no definitive conclusions had been drawn and that “we are keeping all possibilities open.”

The explosion occurred at a refinery and fuel terminal operated by Gunvor Energy in an industrial section of the sprawling port. Dutch broadcaster NOS said that a maintenance team had been working on a section of pipes there.

Rotterdam's emergency services coordinator also reported a major power failure in another part of the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances. Several companies halted their operations and evacuated workers.

By mid-afternoon, power was fully restored to the area, where a number of oil and gas companies are based. Emergency services later ruled out any link between the blackout and the explosion.

Also, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the Trump administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her young family. Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision” in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down.

Here's the latest:

Vance appears to be lowering expectations for the Strait of Hormuz to return to the way it was

He predicted in an interview on Fox News Channel on Thursday that the war will end with the U.S. in a stronger position, with Iran not having a nuclear weapon, and with the Strait of Hormuz “returned to a place where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people.”

He did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.

Vance’s comments also seemed to suggest that the administration was more focused on the war’s economic impact than the original aims of the war.

“That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” he said.

The second goal, according to Vance, is to ensure Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

“I feel confident we’re accomplishing both of these goals, but it’s an inherently unpredictable thing because the Iranians themselves are unpredictable and they sometimes don’t honor the commitments they’ve made to us.”

Blanche seeks to rally a depleted Justice Department workforce in first speech as attorney general

Attorney General Todd Blanche sought to rally a depleted Justice Department workforce Thursday in his first speech since taking the reins of the beleaguered agency, promising rank-and-file staff that he will lead them with integrity.

Blanche’s speech inside the storied Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters represented an effort to reassure lawyers and law enforcement officials following a tumultuous confirmation battle that exposed deep concerns about the agency’s direction under Republican President Donald Trump.

Blanche vowed to uphold the rule of law “without fear or favor,” and told staff he would welcome their ideas and encourage disagreement.

Without mentioning specific moves that have raised alarms from critics that Blanche is still functioning as Trump’s personal lawyer, the attorney general acknowledged he would “not get every decision right.”

▶ Read more

Hegseth says the military can maintain the Iranian blockade ‘indefinitely’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters in Panama, said that “the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have and we’ll continue to.”

The statement comes as the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln heads into its ninth month and has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Pentagon for accountability over conditions aboard the carrier, including increasing reports of morale and supply issues.

Hegseth dismissed those reports as “completely misrepresented” and claimed that “every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment.”

Wall of US Embassy in Brazil’s capital is vandalized as relations remain tense

One of the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Brazil’s capital was vandalized on Thursday as tensions between the countries remained high. Police said they detained one man in connection with the case but that he has already been released.

The messages against the U.S. government sprayed on the wall of its Brasilia embassy come as President Donald Trump places high tariffs on some Brazilian goods and revokes the Brazilian ambassador’s visa to Washington.

Brazilians rarely vandalize embassies and consulates of any country.

A message that read “The USA makes war and profits from death” was written in Portuguese and English outside the embassy.

The American embassy in Brasilia said in a statement that it is committed to Brazilians and to staffers’ security.

Brazil’s government did not comment on the incident.

Judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit alleging antisemitism at Harvard University

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that accused Harvard University of turning a blind eye to harassment of Jewish students.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said the administration failed to prove an ongoing violation of federal civil rights laws. The judge said the lawsuit, filed in March, mostly focuses on incidents during the 2023-24 academic year, with a few from March 2025.

The cases were “too isolated and episodic” to prove a persistent civil rights violation at the Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the judge said.

The lawsuit accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations that roiled the campus after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The Trump administration argued that Harvard officials did nothing as Jewish students were “harassed, physically assaulted, stalked, and spat upon.”

▶ Read more

Democratic senator calls for Hegseth to discuss civilian deaths from US strikes

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling out the number of civilian deaths from U.S. military operations under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island cited a recent Pentagon report to Congress that said 153 civilians were killed last year from U.S. airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Reed also said the Pentagon has yet to release a report into a U.S. airstrike in Iran this year that involved a missile hitting an Iranian primary school, killing up to 168 people.

“This did not happen in a vacuum,” Reed said in a statement Thursday, noting that Hegseth had “gutted” an office focused on reducing civilian harm.

Reed called for Hegseth to explain the incidents before Congress.

Judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit alleging antisemitism at Harvard University

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that accused Harvard University of turning a blind eye to harassment of Jewish students.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns said the administration failed to prove an ongoing violation of federal civil rights laws. The judge said the lawsuit, filed in March, mostly focuses on incidents during the 2023-24 academic year, with a few from March 2025.

The cases were “too isolated and episodic” to prove a persistent civil rights violation at the Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the judge said.

The lawsuit accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations that roiled the campus after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The Trump administration argued that Harvard officials did nothing as Jewish students were “harassed, physically assaulted, stalked, and spat upon.”

▶ Read more

New aircraft carrier heads toward the Middle East after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln

The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East, according to Navy statements and open-source information.

It comes as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose long deployment in support of the Iran war includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

The Navy acknowledges the war has created an environment “where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.” That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the Lincoln.

“Leadership prioritized mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the Navy statement said, before assuring that sailors aboard the ship now have access to clean water and “healthy meal options.”

Several Democratic lawmakers have called for investigations, more information and greater visibility into conditions aboard the USS Lincoln.

Kennedy Center board votes to add Trump’s name to the building’s facade

The Kennedy Center board has voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the facade of the performing arts building. That’s according to Rep. Joyce Beatty and lawyers.

The move Thursday comes after the board decided to move forward with a two-year closure to allow for substantial renovation work, while some outdoor programming may continue.

Kennedy Center board moves forward with a 2-year closure to allow for renovations, AP sources say

The Kennedy Center will move forward with a two-year closure of the sprawling performing arts venue to allow for substantial renovation work, while some outdoor programming may continue, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The decision, made Thursday by a board largely composed of President Donald Trump’s allies, amounts to a doubling down on the institution’s initial plan so changes could be made that leaders said were necessary for safety. Critics have raised concerns that Trump could move ahead with more drastic renovations as part of his second-term effort to remodel Washington in his image.

The two people were not authorized to publicly discuss the board’s action before an official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in May blocked a closure set to take effect July 5. It was not immediately clear whether the board’s move would prompt another round of legal challenges. Cooper had ruled that the board’s March 16 vote backing the move appeared “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”

In moving forward, board members may face pressure to prove they have thoroughly considered their options.

___

Associated Press reporter Steven Sloan contributed to this report.

Trump White House says it’s losing $19B-$26B a year in revenue as countries dodge tariffs

The Trump White House said in a new report on Thursday that countries are routing their exports through third countries to avoid U.S. tariffs, estimating tax revenue losses of $19 billion to $26 billion annually.

The report specifically highlights that China responded to new tariffs in 2018 by sending its goods to other nations ranging from Mexico to Malaysia for packaging and limited assembly — a practice known as transshipping. That pattern made it look like U.S. imports from China had dropped, but enabled Beijing to continue growing its manufacturing sector in ways that could challenge U.S. factories and employment.

▶ Read more

Democrats are gathering to give final approval to their 2028 presidential primary calendar

Democrats are gathering to finalize their 2028 presidential primary calendar this week, setting the stage for a wide-open contest to succeed President Donald Trump and chart a path ahead as the party’s voters oscillate between progressive and more moderate candidates.

The Democratic National Committee is expected to vote at its summer meeting in Austin, Texas, on the new order that frontloads states with more diverse populations.

The meeting comes ahead of bitterly contested midterm elections that will decide control of Congress later this year. Democratic voters have delivered mixed messages on the direction they want to see the party go — backing candidates viewed as more left-wing as well as moderates in consequential primaries across several states.

The group also is convening at a time of internal turmoil, with some members calling for DNC Chairman Ken Martin to be replaced.

▶ Read more

Did you pay tariffs last year? You might be due a refund from FedEx or UPS

If you bought something from an overseas vendor last year, it might be time to check your bank account.

Shippers including FedEx and UPS that acted as customs brokers for imported packages and received tariff refunds from the U.S. government have started to pass on those refunds to the customers that originally paid the tariffs.

The refunds to consumers are the last step in a monthslong process that kicked off in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump in March 2025 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods from almost every country. The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.

So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies who paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

▶ Read more

US unemployment claims rise but remain at historically healthy levels

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 209,000 people filed jobless claims last week, up from a revised 200,000 the week before and higher than the 205,000 forecasters had expected. The four-week average of applications, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, was unchanged at 199,000.

The overall number of people collecting employment benefits the week that ended Aug. 1 dropped by 22,000 to 1.78 million.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and they’ve been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week for the past year, suggesting Americans who have jobs enjoy unusual job security. The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, as the economy has proven resilient despite a spike in energy prices caused by the fighting with Iran.

▶ Read more

US stocks rise toward records as oil prices drop and inflation gets less bad

The stock market is rising toward an all-time high Thursday following the latest sign that inflation is getting less bad. Stocks also got a lift from easing oil prices in their latest yo-yo move.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was on track to top its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Wall Street relaxed after a report showed prices at the U.S. wholesale level were 4.7% higher last month than a year earlier. While that’s still very high, it’s not as bad as June’s 5.5% inflation rate at the wholesale level, and it was slightly better than economists expected.

▶ Read more

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says party is in a moment of ‘generation change’

During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta, Jeffries said progressive wins in recent congressional races show generational change.

“I think transition, change, renewal will continue to be an important part of the story, and that energy is being brought to the House in a variety of different ways, including from our progressive members,” Jeffries said.

But he also highlighted his own ascent to Democratic leader and some moderate wins as part of the same trend.

“I think we’ll see what happens in terms of what the caucus looks like on the other side of the midterm election,” Jeffries said when asked if the party’s progressive wing would have greater influence. “Our focus right now is making sure that we win as many seats as we can in November.”

But Trump’s vaccine order is not legally binding

Despite the precedent-breaking nature of Trump’s order, some experts are skeptical it will result in meaningful changes.

Neither the White House nor the FDA can compel drugmakers to develop and seek approval for new vaccines. And from a business perspective, companies have little incentive to develop individual versions of vaccines they already sell in combination shots.

“They’d be competing against themselves, and there’s no reason to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser.

While Trump’s order calls for more federal research and recommendations, only state governments have the legal authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order simply advises states to consider updating their laws to reflect the Trump administration’s approach.

“I think states will ignore this,” Offit said. “I think that bottom line is that we don’t need to look to Donald Trump for our medical advice.”

Trump’s vaccine plan would require manufacturing overhaul

Under Trump’s executive order, federal officials are instructed to develop within 90 days plans for breaking up the MMR shot and spacing out other vaccines.

But pharmaceutical scientists and former regulators say those changes would likely take years and require drugmakers to spend tens of millions of dollars on new studies and manufacturing facilities.

Currently, there are no individual vaccines in the U.S. for measles, mumps or rubella. All the vaccines approved for those viruses by the Food and Drug Administration are combination shots. That three-in-one approach has been the standard in the U.S. since the early 1970s.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA vaccine chief, said companies would have to conduct large studies showing new individual shots produced immune system-boosting reactions in children similar to the current versions.

US ambassador condemns settler siege of Palestinian homes in the West Bank

Israeli settlers have besieged three homes in the occupied West Bank for several days, including one owned by a Palestinian American, in what the U.S. ambassador called a “horrific act of terror” on Thursday.

Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violence in the region.

Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, according to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi, and Ridi’s brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled.

Israeli troops have intervened to try to restore order. On Thursday morning, Ridi’s brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area.

▶ Read more

USAID fallout: In Nepal, when the aid workers stopped coming, the women and babies started dying

One baby at a time, the world is marching toward a grim milestone: Because of global cuts to foreign aid, the Gates Foundation has predicted 2025 will be the first year this century where child deaths will increase.

And while global child mortality data for 2025 won’t be available for several months, health officials are already bracing for a surge in deaths among the world’s youngest and most vulnerable.

The decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to dissolve the United States Agency for International Development — once the world’s largest humanitarian donor — gutted maternal and neonatal care, decimated nutrition programs for millions of pregnant women and children and left scores of birthing centers devoid of equipment, medicine and staff.

The U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that no one — and, particularly, no children — have died because of its funding cuts. But The Associated Press has documented the deaths of women and children from Myanmar to Nigeria.

▶ Read more

Reflecting Pool’s botched repairs threaten to tarnish the National Park Service’s reputation

President Donald Trump’s botched repairs at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have landed the National Park Service in a political predicament.

The beloved federal agency, its iconic park rangers and other employees have been serving the public while managing controversial demands by the Republican president — from revising exhibits at parks and other sites to the demolition of important structures under its stewardship, such as the White House’s East Wing, to arresting visitors for alleged vandalism at the pool.

Critics say the monthslong Reflecting Pool saga and other demands by Trump risk undermining the integrity of a federal agency that’s long been held in high esteem by the American public.

“Never — not once in decades — have I witnessed such systematic degradation, disrespect and dismantling of the National Park Service as I see today under the thumb of President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” said Bill Wade, a former park ranger and superintendent.

▶ Read more

Rubio and Bessent stayed on decoy flight from Turkey as Trump switched planes, official says

The two most senior members of Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane following an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had stayed on the plane. The official said Bessent was likely aware but did not know for sure.

The official, however, noted that security precautions for the president — especially one who has been the target of several assassination attempts — are more robust than those for even top members of the Cabinet.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the secretaries of State and Treasury follow the vice president and the highest ranking member of each chamber of Congress in the presidential line of succession.

▶ Read more

— Matthew Lee

Kennedy Center board set to vote on whether to move forward with closure

The Kennedy Center’s board is expected to meet Thursday to consider plans for the performing arts venue’s future after a federal judge blocked an earlier move for a two-year closure that would allow for substantial renovations.

Ahead of the meeting, the Kennedy Center’s management said it would present the board with three approaches for consideration.

The options would include a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”

In blocking earlier plans for closure, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the board’s March 16 vote backing the move appeared “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” In moving forward, the board, which is largely made up of President Donald Trump’s allies, may face pressure to prove they’ve thoroughly considered their options.

▶ Read more

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the Trump administration

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the Trump administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her young family.

Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision” in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down. She recently returned to the White House podium after the birth of her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May. She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt wrote.

Trump did not outline plans for who might replace her in the high-profile role.

▶ Read more

The beloved federal agency, its iconic park rangers and other employees have been navigating a new reality under Trump, from orders to revise exhibits at parks and other sites to the demolition of important structures under its stewardship, such as the White House’s East Wing, to arresting visitors for alleged vandalism at the pool.

Critics say the monthslong Reflecting Pool saga and other demands by Trump risk undermining the integrity of a federal agency that has long been held in high esteem by the American public.

“Never — not once in decades — have I witnessed such systematic degradation, disrespect and dismantling of the National Park Service as I see today under the thumb of President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” said Bill Wade, a former park ranger and superintendent.

Wade, who now serves as executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, wrote an op-ed for The Denver Post lamenting what he called the Trump administration's “assault on the people, the mission and the values that have made the National Park Service one of America’s most valued institutions.”

The park service has been at the center of some of Trump's most contentious actions during his second term. An executive order targeted funding and demanded reviews at national parks and other sites that Trump said advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” resulting in changes to some exhibits on slavery or climate change.

The president has also ordered sweeping changes to historical monuments and buildings in Washington that fall under NPS' purview, including the creation of a White House ballroom and a 250-foot-tall (76-meter-tall) memorial arch. The agency meanwhile has lost at least one-quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump began his second term, through layoffs, forced retirements and resignations.

Park service employees “are being politicized and drawn into the absurdities and corruption of this administration” on a regular basis, said California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. He cited the pool project, the proposed arch and the executive order on exhibit materials.

The ongoing political assault on the agency “is unlike anything we’ve seen in this country, and it makes life miserable at agencies like the National Park Service,” Huffman said.

Reflecting Pool saga continues

Trump launched repairs at the Reflecting Pool earlier this year, hoping to address longstanding problems at the iconic site ahead of the America 250 celebrations. But the $16 million project faced immediate problems, including peeling blue sealant and a fierce return of green algae.

Trump blamed the sealant issues on vandalism without providing evidence, and felony charges were brought against a former Olympic canoeist, David Hearn, after he was accused of vandalizing the pool.

The U.S. Park Police, a unit of the National Park Service, arrested Hearn, who denied wrongdoing and said he briefly touched a chunk of the coating.

Charges against Hearn were dropped on July 31 after prosecutors acknowledged that damage was caused by a bungled installation rather than vandalism.

The advice and counsel of career officials and rangers — instantly recognizable by their signature flat hats and green-and-gray uniforms — has been ignored or pushed aside as Trump and Burgum make decisions regarding the failed pool repair, according to an Interior Department employee who was not authorized to discuss internal discussions and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s tragic,” said Ed Stierli, vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, another advocacy group. “The whole thing is a master class in how not to go about a public rehabilitation project.”

In the days since the dismissal of the charges, Trump has continued to lean on NPS in his repeated claims that vandals damaged the pool’s lining.

“A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn ... in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating,” Trump posted Aug. 9 on his Truth Social site. Hearn's legal team said Trump “is continuing to attack an innocent man.”

Stierli, of the parks conservation group, called Trump’s reference to the unnamed park employee an example of the awkward position agency workers now face under Trump and Burgum, who has publicly backed Trump’s claims about vandalism at the pool.

“I think the public understands that unfortunately, you have the president of the United States directly driving decisions, both here in Washington and around the country,” Stierli said. The park service — and especially its career staff — “has very little control over this,” he added.

The White House and the Interior Department did not directly respond to requests for comment on the park service. The White House defended the pool project, saying Trump “promised to make D.C. safe and beautiful, and he’s delivering."

“For years, the Reflecting Pool sat neglected, plagued with algae and leaking millions of gallons of water,” the White House said in a statement. "Fixing it was common sense.”

Park service morale is at its lowest point, a former official says

Wade, the former park superintendent, called the pool repair “a comedy of errors” and “a continuation of the incompetence” shown by the Trump administration.

“Most people realize the NPS is under the gun and can’t do much about it, even though they’d like to,″ he said, adding that morale at the agency is at the lowest point he can remember.

Edicts from Washington have made clear that speaking honestly about what is going on could cost staffers their jobs, Wade said. “There’s a very strong fear among employees at NPS,″ he said in an interview. “It’s very frustrating for them, as you can imagine.”

Trump’s proposed memorial arch has faced some pushback. A recent report by park service staff warned that the proposed gilded arch could disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites around its planned location near the Lincoln Memorial.

The arch, which last month received initial approval from a key federal commission, would impact the “integrity” of dozens of historical properties because it would change “character-defining visual and spatial relationships” between them, the report said.

Americans view the National Park Service favorably

The park service is popular with Americans. About three-quarters of U.S. adults — including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans — have a favorable opinion of the agency, according to Pew Research Center polling from 2025. Only about 1 in 10 have a negative impression, and about 15% are unsure.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll from July found that about two-thirds of Americans say they are “dissatisfied” or “upset” about Trump’s Washington area projects, including construction of a new ballroom at the White House, painting the Reflecting Pool and building his triumphal arch. Republicans are more likely to be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied” with the projects.

About one-quarter of U.S. adults say Trump’s goal is to “make Washington more beautiful,” while about half say he has a “different goal.” In an open-ended question, many respondents speculated that Trump wants to glorify himself or leave his mark.

The pool and other recent controversies including the exhibit reviews jeopardize the agency's credibility, Wade said.

“Whether interpreting the Civil War, discussing climate science or describing the complex stories of Indigenous people, rangers have sought to present evidence, not political ideology,'' he said. ”That is now being lost.”

___

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this story.

The headliners, announced Thursday, are a fitting choice. The annual gathering in New York's Central Park rallies attendees to pressure world leaders to fund a range of antipoverty initiatives at the end of the United Nations General Assembly 's yearly high-level meetings. Joining them on Sept. 26 are rocker Lenny Kravitz, R&B-pop singer John Legend, country music star Lainey Wilson, chart-topping Grammy winner Shaboozey and K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER.

The two Fugees are fresh off several performances marking the 30th anniversary of their landmark album, “The Score." They were in London, where Hill also brought her music festival celebrating the sounds of the African diaspora, and Rio de Janeiro, where they closed out Global Citizen's weeklong climate programming.

It's also the first festival since Global Citizen produced the World Cup's first halftime show. That collaboration helped raise more than $60 million for the education fund launched with FIFA. Global Citizen co-founder Hugh Evans hopes to leverage next month's gathering to shore up some outstanding commitments.

Festivalgoers gain entry by taking actions such as petitioning countries to dip into their international development budgets. This year's priorities include mobilizing $100 million to provide 2 million children with access to education, nutritious food and healthcare; gathering $100 million to improve food security for 1.5 million smallholder farmers; and moving $1.5 billion to expand clean energy in the Indo-Pacific region.

The countries facing asks this year include Spain, Norway, Ireland, Kenya, Japan, Denmark and Australia. Evans specifically called on France to support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, Gavi, Education Cannot Wait, or any of their other education partners. “Macron will often talk a lot about their leadership on issues of education,” Evans said of the French president. "But I think, when the rubber hits the road, are they actually stepping up?”

One country that isn't on the list? The United States. Once the world's single largest aid donor, the U.S. now provides for Evans “an example of a country that should be a leader on the global stage that is such an incredible laggard at this point.” The U.S. wasn't worth targeting, according to Evans, given that the administration "butchered its entire foreign aid budget" and “dismantled the entire apparatus” of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Still, while acknowledging a “world of shrinking foreign aid,” Evans expressed optimism that the pendulum will shift.

“I believe that the future belongs to political leaders who are willing to understand the nuance of how power works," Evans said. "Power doesn’t have to be a negative thing. It can be a very positive thing if you’re wielding it for good. As Spider-Man taught us: with great power comes great responsibility.”

This year's festival offers a new way for people to gain admission. Fans can still enter the free ticket lottery by completing calls to action on the Global Citizen app. But they can also get automatic entry by making a $25 charitable donation. The funds raised will go toward New York's City Parks Foundation and organizations that serve those experiencing homelessness.

Evans hopes that artists such as Wilson and Shaboozey, both country music acts, can bring a new audience to his movement. He noted that Wilson, who expressed interest in the festival's support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, comes from a family of farmers.

“It’s been quite some time I’d say since we had this level of a country presence in our lineup," Evans said. “So, I’m super excited about that. I’m hoping that the fans are, too.”

___

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.

“Coyote vs. Acme” was finished. Director Dave Green, inspired by “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” had completed the editing on the Looney Tunes blend of cartoon and live action. The whole project, which takes an Ian Frazier “Shouts and Murmurs” column from The New Yorker as its source material, was an audacious comic gambit that seemed to be paying off.

Hopes were high. Audience test scores were good. But days before Forte, who stars as Wile E. Coyote’s attorney, could see “Coyote vs. Acme,” Warner Bros. canceled it. Not just the screening — the movie. The studio hadn’t delayed it or sent it to streaming. They were canning it altogether.

“I just thought: ‘Well, they’re canceling the movie. It’s gotta be bad,’” Forte recalls.

Forte and his wife, suspecting the movie must have turned out poorly, joined the cast and crew to say goodbye to the film no one else was going to see.

“That was when the real emotions started,” Forte says. “It was everything I wished the movie could have been and more. It was so special, which made it so frustrating and so devastating. The confusion was amped up, then frustration, then just searing anger.

“Then it made even less sense,” he adds. “We all looked around, like, ‘What’s happening here?’”

The abrupt termination of “Coyote vs. Acme” sent shockwaves through Hollywood. Everyone in the movie business is accustomed to sudden, painful twists of fate. But the wholesale elimination of a finished film faster than you can say “Meep! Meep!” was something new.

David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros., was intent on pivoting away from the straight-to-HBO Max projects of his predecessor. The expected marketing spend — roughly $30-40 million — for releasing “Coyote vs. Acme” wasn’t worth it to the studio. It was better, the studio said, to take a tax write-off on the $70 million production. Along with two other releases — “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” — “Coyote vs. Acme” was put in mothballs.

But nearly three years after that “funeral screening,” the movie is, like its ever-undaunted protagonist, back from the dead. After an outcry, Warner Bros. put “Coyote vs. Acme” up for sale. Ketchup Entertainment, an independent distributor that last year released the Looney Tunes movie “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” picked it up for about $50 million. On Aug. 28, “Coyote vs. Acme” will finally see the light of day.

It’s been a dizzying turn of events for everyone involved. Eric Bauza, who voices Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and others in the film, didn’t really believe it until he saw “Obsession” at his local cinema.

“Upon exiting the theater, there in a little marquee box was the poster for ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’” Bauza says. “It hit me: This is going to be seen by people.”

In a recent interview, Green was still in disbelief.

“I must be dreaming,” said Green. “It’s a total surprise I’m sitting here talking to you today.”

Wile E. Coyote has his day in court

The filmmakers and their new distributor have leaned into the project’s tortured history, promoting it as “the film ACME didn’t want you to see.” More than that, “Coyote vs. Acme” now has a newfound meta quality. The premise of the film is that Coyote, after suffering years of defective products, takes Acme to court. Like the drama surrounding the film, it's an underdog victimized by a big corporation.

“I couldn’t help but look at the movie in a completely new way because there are meta crossovers between the story and what the movie had come to represent,” Green says. “It almost felt like we had written the movie after the news had broken.”

When “Coyote vs. Acme” was canceled, its fate became a rallying cry. Filmmakers like Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert championed it as too good to disappear. Even politicians, like Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, urged the Justice Department to investigate Warner Bros.'s decision.

Bauza, a veteran voice actor, pushed the hashtag #ReleaseCoyoteVsACME on social media. His most dramatic effort, though, was at the Annie Awards in 2024. There, he drew hearty applause for making that case from the podium — in the voice of Daffy Duck.

“He’s the go-to cartoon character above anyone else when it comes to begging and pleading,” Bauza says. “It seemed appropriate.”

So many people came out fighting for the film that Green never felt alone throughout the ordeal.

“I would open my phone one day and see someone dressed in a Wile E. Coyote costume outside of the studio protesting with a sign in the rain — these kinds of things you couldn’t believe,” says Green.

‘The pipeline has changed’

At the same time, the entire episode suggested a dark new chapter in the movie business that has left many involved with “Coyote vs. Acme” shaky. This wasn’t a young filmmaker getting turned down on their first film. It was two years of work on one of Warner Bros.’ most iconic franchises — a movie even produced by DC Studios chief James Gunn.

“I don’t know what their judgment was,” says Bauza. “Did they even know or were they just looking at numbers? It’s tough looking in from the outside, thinking: ‘If that’s how the Looney Tunes are being treated, what about my story?’”

“The pipeline has changed,” he adds. “How we get to the finish line is different.”

“Coyote vs. Acme” was greenlit when studios were trying to find their way through the pandemic and theaters were struggling to stay afloat. But Green’s film now arrives at a much different point in time. Theatrical is thriving thanks in large part to the visions of filmmakers, from Christopher Nolan to Curry Barker.

For Green, that “Coyote vs. Acme” is finally having its day in the court of public opinion is a sign of Hollywood returning to its foundations.

“The film business, as much as it might not feel that way, is led and dictated by artists and filmmakers and actors and writers wanting to create,” says Green. “There will be nothing able to take that want away from creators. As long as we keep creating, there will be a movie business.”

Forte is still struggling to find a happy ending. The movie’s initial cancellation felt, he says, “cruel and heartless.”

“The downside is: Trust no one,” says Forte. “And the positive is: Don’t give up hope. And that’s the one I think I will keep.”

The backing came from 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Mauritania, Lebanon and Sudan, with four of the signatories being FIFA council members.

“We, the undersigned leaders of our respective football associations, express our full support for Mr. Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and reaffirm our confidence in his leadership and continued commitment to the development of football worldwide,” the statement read.

“We deeply appreciate Mr. Infantino’s sustained efforts to advance football globally, expand opportunities across all regions and strengthen the game’s role in bringing people and communities together.”

The statement said the signatories “look forward to continuing our close cooperation with him towards a stronger and more prosperous future for world football, expanding opportunities and further enhancing Arab football’s contribution to the global game.”

Infantino is facing a revolt after his plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. He withdrew the $20 billion proposal after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA, which has warned of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.

UEFA teamed up with CONCACAF — the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean — and the AFC — the confederation in Asia — and issued an open letter Monday saying Infantino’s plan was a “fundamental breach of trust” and described it as “deception.”

And on Thursday, the Football Association of Ireland said in a statement it has withdrawn its support for Infantino to be re-elected as FIFA president in March, saying “recent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation.”

The soccer federations in England and Wales did the same last week, while Northern Ireland said it was backing UEFA's stance.

Schism in Asian bloc over Infantino support

By expressing support for Infantino, Qatar and Lebanon aligned against the Asian Football Confederation. Infantino’s official Instagram account previously has posted letters of support from several member federations, including Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The four FIFA council members among the signatories were Qatar Football Association president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Egyptian Football Association president Hany Abo Rida, Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa and Mauritanian Football Federation president Ahmed Yahya.

The other two were Lebanese Football Association president Hashem Haidar and Moatasem Gafar, president of the Sudan Football Association.

Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next year in Morocco.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, with oil providing an economic mainstay as its military tries to push deeper into Ukraine in a slow and costly advance more than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

The attacks have dented Russia’s refining capacity, causing shortages at gas stations. Kyiv officials say the onslaught is meant to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a peace deal, but there's no sign that strategy is working.

The targeted refinery is one of Russia's biggest

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refining and petrochemical complex in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan overnight, causing a fire at the facility.

The complex, located southeast of Moscow about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine’s border, is one of Russia’s largest such facilities, the General Staff said in a Telegram post. The plant processes up to 74 million barrels of oil annually, producing gasoline, diesel fuel and other products, it said.

Bashkortostan Gov. Radiy Khabirov said only that a drone attack wounded two civilians and started a fire in an industrial zone of Salavat.

Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer whose giant warehouses have repeatedly been struck by Ukrainian drones, said a fire started at one of its facilities in the Salavat industrial zone after the overnight attack. The company said the facility was evacuated but that goods were not being stored there.

The attack came a day after Ukrainian missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.

Elsewhere, four explosives experts from Russia’s Emergency Ministry and a security guard were killed Thursday after an unspecified Ukrainian weapon blew up in Sevastopol, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor for the port city in illegally annexed Crimea.

They were inspecting the site of a Ukrainian attack when “an enemy weapon detonated,” he said.

Also in Sevastopol, a Russian serviceman was killed by an explosion, and a Russian woman, allegedly acting on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence agencies, was detained as a suspect, the Crimean branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service said Thursday.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s reports.

Russian official says refinery repairs could take 6 months

Meanwhile, a Russian refinery in Orsk that was hit by Ukrainian drones earlier this week has suspended operations, Orenburg region Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev said.

He said that “key infrastructure, which cannot be restored at this time” was attacked, including foreign equipment, and repairs could take up to six months because of international sanctions, Solntsev said in a rare public admission in Russia of the problems Ukrainian attacks are causing.

Ukraine’s General Staff had reported striking the Orsk refinery near the border with Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

Russian drone hits a Ukrainian passenger train, killing 2

Russia has responded by hammering Ukraine with ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones and glide bombs, all of which are hard to intercept. The strikes have killed more than 16,000 civilians since the war began, according to the United Nations.

Russian attacks featuring 133 long-range drones killed at least four people and wounded eight others across Ukraine overnight, officials said.

A jet-powered Shahed drone struck a passenger train in the southern Odesa region, killing the engineer and his assistant, said Ukraine’s state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia.

A Russian drone killed two men Wednesday evening in the southern city of Kherson, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Ukraine makes little headway on obtaining Patriot missiles

Ukraine desperately wants more U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles that can counter Russia's ballistic missiles, but stocks of the air defense system reportedly are low because of the Iran war.

Ukraine has two and a half times fewer Patriot interceptors than in 2025, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he makes calls every day to try to source some more.

He said he is asking the United States to sell 5% of the interceptor missiles they have in stock to help Ukraine make it through next winter, when Russia’s strikes focus on the power grid, according to an interview with CNN broadcast Wednesday, parts of which he posted online. So far, he said he has obtained only 1%.

In the first half of this year, European countries paid U.S. defense companies at least 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for military equipment they sent to Ukraine, according to a report Thursday by Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.

The Trump administration won’t provide its own aid to Ukraine but is allowing other countries to buy U.S. equipment that is sent on.

Military aid provided to Ukraine in the first half of 2026 was close to last year’s level, the Kiel Institute said, but financial and humanitarian aid was 41% lower than in 2025.

___

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

Some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, swiftly began referring to the nominee by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, while depicting him as a danger to America. “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic,'' said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in a post on X.

El-Sayed says such attacks betray a weakness in those who launch them.

“We all pray for the same things. ... We want what’s good for our kids and our families,” he told MS NOW after his primary victory. “They're going to use Islamophobia, because their ideas are tired.”

The vitriol extends far beyond the political class. Tensions related to anti-Muslim sentiment have heightened in several communities around the country, where some residents have bitterly opposed proposals to build new mosques.

“American Muslims have made incredible political and societal progress in recent years,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. He cited increased visibility in entertainment and sports and the election of Democrat Zohran Mamdani as New York City's first Muslim mayor.

“But there also is a very concerted backlash to this progress,” Mitchell said. “You've seen this in the resurgence of anti-Muslim hate and rhetoric, the targeting of mosques.”

A Dallas suburb is a flashpoint

McKinney, Texas, a large suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is one of the flashpoints. Despite angry anti-Islam remarks at a heated city council meeting on Aug. 4, the council voted unanimously to approve a site plan for the McKinney Islamic Association’s proposed new mosque, classroom building and gym.

Among those urging the council to give the plan fair treatment was George Fuller, a former mayor of McKinney, a nonpartisan position. Opponents of the mosque project booed him, and some shouted “traitor” as he left the council chamber. One woman could be seen on video physically accosting him.

“I have never witnessed so much hate, anger and lack of humanity in our beautiful community gathered in one place as I did today at City Hall,” Fuller later wrote on Facebook.

During the hearing, which lasted more than four hours, the speakers included U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a Republican whose district includes McKinney. To loud applause, he urged the council to reject the mosque proposal.

“I know you’re in the accommodation phase, but the intimidation phase follows quickly,” Self said. “Child marriage. Honor killings. Don’t tell me it can’t happen here.”

Fuller also went to the microphone, evoking the broader phenomenon of divisive political rhetoric.

“Sadly, we live in a time when some have discovered that the easiest way to gain attention or win elections is not by offering solutions but by manufacturing fear, dividing communities, demonizing neighbors and turning misinformation into a political strategy,” he said.

In North Carolina, anger flares over approval for a new mosque

The scenario was similar in Mooresville, North Carolina, when town commissioners held a public comment session on Aug. 3 about a proposed mosque that had already been approved, with early phases of construction underway.

Angry residents at the meeting voiced hostility to Islam and assailed the commissioners for not being more forthcoming about the project as it took shape over previous months. One speaker cited violence in Nigeria by Islamist extremists as a reason for concern in Mooresville. Another depicted Islam as “a political regime with the ultimate goal of takeover in regions and nations.”

CAIR’s regional manager, Al Rieder, issued a statement denouncing “the hateful and conspiratorial anti-Muslim rhetoric” that surfaced at the meeting and expressed concern about the safety of Muslims in the area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Charlotte.

“Muslims are your neighbors, your doctors, your teachers, your local politicians, your police,” he said.

A few hours after the public meeting, the town commissioners released a summary of the mosque project, which calls for a two-building Islamic center on a parcel acquired in 2019 by a local Muslim organization.

The commissioners said that the parcel is in an area zoned to allow religious assembly and that the mosque proposal was handled the same way as a proposal for a new church.

“All decisions must be based on adopted ordinances, objective standards and legal requirements, which do not allow for different rules for different religious groups,” the commissioners said. “We encourage all members of our community to remain respectful in their discussions and interactions as this project moves through the appropriate processes.”

In Oklahoma, Muslim leaders fight against the rebuff of a new mosque

A mosque controversy has been raging for many months in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Tulsa's largest suburb.

Back in January, at a stormy meeting attended by hundreds of people, the city council voted 4-1 to reject a rezoning proposal by the region's Islamic Society to build Broken Arrow's first mosque. Before the vote, dozens of residents voiced anti-Muslim views while opposing the project.

Council members who rejected the mosque had raised concerns about its potential impact on infrastructure such as roads, sewers and flood plain management.

But the Islamic Society is persisting with its quest. On Aug. 3, it filed a lawsuit against the mayor and four councilors, alleging that the vote reflected “a wave of bigoted opposition from members of the community and local politicians.” The lawsuit contends that the council violated state and federal laws governing religious land use, treating the mosque proposal differently from other comparable rezoning requests.

“They did not want a mosque in their city. They did not want Muslims here,” said Meghan Murphy, an attorney with CAIR’s Legal Defense Fund, at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. ”So they made up a reason, and in doing so they violated the law.”

Some see a terrorism threat while others see baseless scaremongering

Opposition to mosque construction isn't a new phenomenon: In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, an effort launched in 2010 to block a mosque project dragged on for more than three years. The mosque was built anyway as the case moved through the courts, but members of the Muslim community faced public protests, vandalism, arson and a bomb threat during that span.

The latest anti-mosque campaigns coincide with a broad wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric from Republican officeholders over the past year. In Congress, several bills were introduced targeting sharia, the moral and spiritual framework that guides Muslims in prayer and ethical conduct. Some Republicans say they’re concerned about growing Muslim populations in major cities and potential ties to terrorism — fears that CAIR and other civil rights groups say are unfounded and being exploited for political purposes.

Republican governors in Texas and Florida have endorsed efforts to shut down CAIR, saying it has ties to terrorism. CAIR has denied the allegations and filed lawsuits calling the governors' efforts unconstitutional.

Muslim American leaders view the vitriol as political scaremongering.

“Every election year, we expect a rise in anti-Muslim hate,” said CAIR's Mitchell. “It's been worse this year than it has been in years.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

El Centro Nacional de Huracanes indicó que la tormenta podría llevar lluvias intensas, vientos fuertes y oleaje peligroso a las islas hawaianas a partir de última hora del viernes.

El centro, con sede en Miami, señaló que Lala se encontraba a unos 1.127 kilómetros (700 millas) al este-sureste de Hawái, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 64 km/h (40 mph). Se desplaza hacia el oeste.

Se pronostica un fortalecimiento, y Lala podría estar cerca de alcanzar fuerza de huracán a medida que se acerque a la Isla Grande. Una vigilancia de huracán significa que son posibles condiciones de huracán y, por lo general, se emite 48 horas antes de la posible llegada de vientos con fuerza de tormenta tropical.

El sistema podría dejar acumulados de lluvia de entre 13 y 25 centímetros (de 5 a 10 pulgadas) en el archipiélago, con la posibilidad de hasta 51 centímetros (20 pulgadas), dijeron los meteorólogos. Eso podría provocar inundaciones y deslaves, advirtió el centro de huracanes.

Además en el Pacífico, la tormenta tropical Hernán se formó el jueves pero no suponía una amenaza a tierra.

Hernán se encontraba a unos 2.350 kilómetros (1.460 millas) al oeste del extremo sur de la península de Baja California, en México, indicó el Centro Nacional de Huracanes (NHC, por sus siglas en inglés). Sus vientos máximos sostenidos rondaban los 72 kilómetros/hora (45 mph) y se movía en dirección oeste-suroeste .

En el océano Atlántico, la tormenta tropical Cristóbal se debilitó a una remanente postropical el jueves, indicó el centro. Se encontraba a unos 805 kilómetros (500 millas) al oeste de las Azores y no suponía una amenaza a tierra.

__________________________________

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

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Yemeni soldier killed in clashes with Houthis

At least one government soldier was killed and another critically wounded in clashes with the Houthis in the mountainous province of Taiz, Yemeni military officials told The Associated Press.

The fighting came as part of a spate of recent Houthi attacks on government-held areas across the country. Dozens of government troops have been killed since last week, the Yemeni military said.

The Houthis also said they launched another drone attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials did not immediately comment on the reported attack in the city of Jazan. Last weekend, the Houthis fired drones at the refinery, where the Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire but no casualties.

The conflict dates back to 2014, when the Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year on the side of Yemen's internationally recognized government. Last month, the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi shipping, threatening another key trade route in the region.

Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing Thursday that Yemen is at greater risk of returning to large-scale conflict than at any time since a 2022 truce paused the fighting.

Yemen faces “catastrophe” from rising hunger and from health services crumbling amid the fighting, said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. He said 6 million people in Yemen face emergency levels of food insecurity bordering on famine, “the highest number globally.”

Peace laureate calls for UN pressure to resolve Yemen conflict

Yemen’s Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman said Thursday at the United Nations that Houthi rebels bear the primary responsibility for the “collapse of the state” in her home country.

But the human rights campaigner also blamed Iran for backing the Houthis, Saudi Arabia for its intervention on behalf of the government ousted by the Houthis, the United Arab Emirates for its involvement in the conflict and the international community for its failure to do enough to protect civilians.

Karman had been invited to brief the U.N. Security Council as an independent civil society voice on Yemen, but was blocked from speaking because of “strong opposition,” Danish Deputy Ambassador Sandra Jensen Landi said. Instead, Karman spoke to reporters outside the council chamber.

Iran and Oman working to clean oil spills off their coasts

Oil spills spreading off the coasts of Iran and Oman are raising concerns about environmental damage as oil shipments have come under fire in the Iran war.

Iran said Thursday it's working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Images distributed by Iran’s semiofficial news agency ISNA showed oil fouling the island's beaches.

While Iran hasn't said what caused the spill, the firm TankerTrackers.com says it appears to have started with an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman. Iran has repeatedly attacked shipping in the strait since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

Oman is responding to another spill in the Arabian Sea, coming from a tanker grounded off its southern coast. The tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — has been grounded since reporting an explosion in June. No party has claimed responsibility and the cause is unknown.

A British maritime risk and response company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage the tanker and stop the oil leak off Oman. Oil from the ship has been spreading for weeks, reaching shores hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of the vessel.

JD Vance says Iran war will end with US in stronger position

Vice President JD Vance appeared to be lowering expectations for the Strait of Hormuz to return to the way it was before the war. He predicted in an interview on Fox News Channel that the war will end with the U.S. in a stronger position, with Iran not having a nuclear weapon, and with the Strait of Hormuz “returned to a place where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people.”

He did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.

Vance’s comments also seemed to suggest that the administration was more acutely focused on the economic impact of the war than the original aims of the war itself.

“That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” he said.

The second goal, according to Vance, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

Hegseth says military can maintain Iranian blockade ’indefinitely'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely” amid increasing reports of morale and supply issues aboard an aircraft carrier in the region.

Hegseth, speaking to reporters in Panama, said that “the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have and we’ll continue to.”

The statement comes at the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln heads into its ninth month and has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier.

Hegseth dismissed those reports as “completely misrepresented” and claimed that “every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment.”

——-

Click here for full AP coverage on developments in the West Bank.

It's the first time the music extravaganza is held in the Balkan country, which scored its first-ever victory in the contest in May, when Bulgarian singer Dara beat 24 other competitors with her infectious party anthem “Bangaranga.”

Bulgaria’s public TV broadcaster BNT, which will organize the largest live music event, and the European Broadcasting Union announced the location on Thursday. The two semifinals will take place on May 11 and 13, 2027, while the final will be held on May 15.

Bulgaria’s capital city, Sofia, also had applied to host the event.

Eurovision director Martin Green said “Burgas will bring something truly special to Eurovision.”

“It is a dynamic and welcoming city on the Black Sea coast with a strong musical and cultural identity, which possesses the ambition, infrastructure, and passion needed to welcome the big Eurovision family,” he said in a statement.

Milena Milotinova, head of BNT, told a news conference that together with the EBU and Burgas they “will face intensive joint work to organize a contest that will live up to the high expectations of millions of viewers around the world.”

Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov said hosting the contest was a major honor for the city.

On Wednesday, Eurovision organizers introduced new rules barring countries affected by an armed conflict or other security risks from hosting the contest. Under the new rules, the winning broadcaster will be ineligible to host if an armed conflict, sensitive geopolitical situation or other circumstances threaten the security, safety or stability of the country or surrounding region.

The contest has faced security concerns in recent years as tensions rose over the participation of Israel over its conflicts in Gaza and elsewhere. Five longtime participants — Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia — boycotted in protest.

The new rules also raised the minimum age for competitors from 16 to 18. Organizers say the change aims to boost safeguarding and protection of younger artists from the pressures associated with competing.

__

Valentina Petrova contributed to this report

The storm is forecast to bring rain to the Hawaiian Islands starting late Friday as well as high winds and dangerous surf, the National Hurricane Center said.

Lala was about 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) east-southeast of Hawaii with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph), the Miami-based center said. It's moving west.

Strengthening is forecast, and Lala could be near hurricane strength as it approaches the Big Island. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible, and it is typically issued 48 hours ahead of potential tropical-storm-force winds.

The system could bring rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) in the island chain, with up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) possible, forecasters said. That could produce flooding and mudslides, the center said.

Also in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Hernan formed Thursday but that storm wasn't threatening land.

Hernan was about 1,460 miles (2,350 kilometers) west of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, the center said. Maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph (72 kph) and it was moving west-southwest.

In the Atlantic Ocean, former Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened and degenerated into a post-tropical remnant low on Thursday, the center said. It was about 500 miles (805 kilometers) west of the Azores and didn't threaten land.

Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for separating combination shots — including the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine — into separate injections. Appointments for that and other vaccinations should be spaced out whenever possible, the order states.

To accomplish that, drugmakers would need to revive a slate of individual vaccines that have not been widely used in the U.S. for decades. They would also have to build new manufacturing plants capable of producing millions more vaccine doses than the nation currently uses.

For parents, unbundling the MMR vaccine and spacing out the shots would mean returning to the doctor’s office many more times than is currently needed. Those appointments could also strain pediatricians who typically administer the shots, while driving up costs tied to syringes and other medical supplies.

Studies in the U.S. and other countries have shown that combination vaccines increase the likelihood that children will be fully protected from infectious diseases before starting school.

Health experts say there is no scientific basis for changing course.

“We do things that are less convenient and more expensive if there’s a good reason to do it,” said Dr. Anna Durbin, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “There is no good justification for this. I think it’s very bad public health policy.”

Trump's plan would require vaccine manufacturing overhaul

Under Trump's executive order, federal officials are instructed to develop within 90 days plans for breaking up the MMR shot and spacing out other vaccines.

But pharmaceutical scientists and former regulators say those changes would likely take years and require drugmakers to spend tens of millions of dollars on new studies and manufacturing facilities.

Currently, there are no individual vaccines in the U.S. for measles, mumps or rubella. All the vaccines approved for those viruses by the Food and Drug Administration are combination shots. That three-in-one approach has been the standard in the U.S. since the 1970s.

Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA vaccine chief, said companies may have to conduct large studies showing their new individual shots produce immune system-boosting reactions in children similar to the current versions. The specifics would depend upon the quality of data from the original standalone vaccines and how it's viewed by FDA regulators.

“The question is how much has changed since then and how comfortable will the FDA and the companies be relying on those comparisons?” said Goodman, who is now a professor at Georgetown University.

Manufacturers may also have to demonstrate the safety of new manufacturing facilities and procedures, given that individual measles shots haven’t been widely produced in the U.S. for decades.

Designing, constructing and getting federal sign-off for new vaccine plants typically takes about five years, according to industry experts.

Additionally, Goodman said the FDA would have to review and license each unbundled vaccine separately, a process with no precedent.

“I don’t think there’s any comparable example of removing hugely effective public health measures that protect babies for no documented scientific reason,” he said.

Individual shots for measles and related diseases tend to be used by lower-income countries that can’t afford the MMR shot. Merck, GSK and the handful of other companies that supply U.S. childhood vaccines make only the combination shot.

In separate statements, Merck and GSK said they stand by the safety and effectiveness of their products. Neither discussed plans to unbundle their shots.

“To date, there has been no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots,” Merck said in an emailed statement.

Parents would need to make many more trips to the doctor

The MMR shot is currently delivered in two doses — the first at the age of 1 and the second dose after age 4. Splitting up the shot into its three separate components would mean six office visits. Spacing out other shots for pertussis and other infectious diseases could multiply the number of visits many more times.

As the number of visits goes up, parents are more likely to miss appointments or stop making them, according to Durbin.

“It’s going to be less convenient, more expensive and you’re going to have fewer people getting vaccinated,” she said.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that American children receive too many vaccines and that they should be given in smaller doses over a longer period of time. Last year he called on called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to look at reducing the number. Kennedy and other officials have pointed to smaller countries, such as Denmark, that recommended slightly fewer vaccinations than the U.S.

But breaking up combination shots will result in kids receiving many more individual shots than other comparable nations, Durbin notes.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said the Trump administration’s efforts on the MMR vaccine “will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”

Vaccine order is not legally binding

Despite the precedent-breaking nature of Trump’s order, some experts are skeptical it will result in meaningful changes.

Neither the White House nor the FDA can compel drugmakers to develop and seek approval for new vaccines. And from a business perspective, companies have little incentive to develop individual versions of vaccines they already sell in combination shots.

“They’d be competing against themselves, and there’s no reason to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser.

While Trump’s order calls for more federal research and recommendations, only state governments have the legal authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order simply advises states to consider updating their laws to reflect the Trump administration’s approach.

“I think states will ignore this,” Offit said. “I think that bottom line is that we don’t need to look to Donald Trump for our medical advice.”

___

AP videojournalist Mary Conlon in New York contributed to this report.

___

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

___

Follow the AP's coverage of immunizations at https://apnews.com/hub/immunizations.

High temperatures will be in the low 90s, but heat indices will reach into the triple digits, sparking a heat advisory from noon until 7 p.m.

Lighter winds will help keep storm chances slightly closer to inland Broward and Miami-Dade, mainly just west of the Turnpike.

So, grab your rain gear. You may need it later today!