Peters, who is retiring after 12 years in the Senate, said Stevens “will be ready on day one to fight for Michigan.” The endorsement, which was announced Monday, marks a reversal for Peters, who told The Associated Press in late May that he intended to stay neutral in the race.

But since then, Democratic leaders have increasingly rallied behind Stevens as the Aug. 4 primary approaches and concerns grow that El-Sayed is too far left to succeed in November. Holding the Michigan seat is viewed as critical to Democrats’ hopes of reclaiming the Senate majority.

Stevens, a four-term House member, has campaigned as a more moderate Democrat focused on manufacturing issues in the critical battleground state. El-Sayed, who has never held elected office, is running on a more progressive platform that includes Medicare for All and campaign finance reform. He's also been outspoken about the war in Gaza, which has been a fault line within the party.

Concerns about Michigan have only intensified after Democrats’ attempt to flip a Senate seat in Maine was thrown into turmoil when nominee Graham Platner withdrew from the race following a sexual assault allegation last week. Democrats there must now choose a new nominee to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Peters’ endorsement also comes after state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out of Michigan’s Democratic primary earlier this month, transforming the race into a head-to-head contest between Stevens and El-Sayed.

“Senator Peters knows what it takes to win in Michigan, and he knows what Michigan needs from our next U.S. Senator: grit, effectiveness, hard work, and Michigan common sense,” Stevens said in a statement. “I am honored to have his support.”

Peters won two Senate races in Michigan and led Senate Democrats’ campaign arm during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.

His endorsement adds to Stevens’ growing support from the Democratic establishment, with the race being viewed nationally as a broader fight over the party’s direction.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has also backed Stevens, along with Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. El-Sayed has support from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and, more recently, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

The campaign has grown increasingly contentious in recent weeks.

El-Sayed has attacked Stevens over tens of millions of dollars in outside spending supporting her campaign, including by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Stevens has criticized El-Sayed for not disclosing his personal financial records.

During a July 7 debate, each accused the other of running a negative campaign.

“Abdul has spent this entire campaign attacking me,” Stevens said.

The Democratic winner will likely face Republican Mike Rogers, a former member of the U.S. House running uncontested for his party's nomination, in what is expected to be one of the country’s most expensive and closely watched Senate races.

Photos from the Rong Beer Na Ladprao bar in a northern part of the Thai capital showed people fleeing as flames shot out the single-story building and thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Shoes lost and scattered as their owners sought to flee could be seen in pictures from the aftermath of the tragedy.

Bangkok city officials said the fire broke out shortly before midnight Sunday, and it was about half an hour until firefighters brought it under control.

By daylight Monday morning, the site had been cordoned off as dozens of Thai forensic officers combed through the burned remains for clues about what caused the fire.

The building’s street-facing windows had been blown out and debris littered the sidewalk, including charred television sets, speakers and an electric guitar. From outside, the scale of the devastation was visible through the shattered windows, where burned-out tables, some still holding empty beer bottles, stood inside.

Thai national police chief Kittharath Punpetch said most of the dead were found trapped in windowless bathrooms near one of the rear exits of the bar, where they may have sheltered to escape the flames in the hall.

He said the exit had not been used, and people may have been obstructed from reaching it by a table set up in the hall to sell candy, or because it was too dark to find it.

Access to another exit near the kitchen might also have been narrowed by shelving units and lockers, said Kittharath, who visited the scene Monday morning. There were signs that at least some of the exit doors might have been locked shut, he added.

Investigators are focusing on the ceiling above the performance stage, where they found materials that may have been used as decorative elements, he said. Police will examine whether flammable materials were used in the interior and how electrical wiring was installed across the ceiling.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that a musician who was performing at the bar told him that he saw smoke coming out of a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out, then an explosion was heard and thick smoke quickly filled the place.

According to Bangkok’s Erawan emergency services center, the number of injured people was 73, with 25 in critical condition. Bangkok Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt said most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation and that the authorities are working on identifying victims as many did not carry ID.

Some Buddhist monks visited the site Monday morning to pray for the victims, while nurses handed out face masks to people nearby to help protect them from smoke and lingering fumes from the burned-out building.

A registration spot was set up to gather information from relatives coming at the scene looking for their loved ones.

Singer Sukanya Wongwongwai said she was performing nearby when she heard news of the fire and rushed to the scene because several of her bandmates were performing at the bar. She said one of them died, three were hospitalized and one hasn't been located.

“From what I heard from people who were inside, when the fire started everything went dark. The power was out and there was smoke everywhere, so they couldn’t locate other people,” she said.

In 2022, 14 people were killed by a fire at a music bar in the eastern part of the country. And more than a decade before that, 66 people were killed and more than 200 injured in a fire during a Jan. 1, 2009, New Year’s Eve celebration at the Santika nightclub in Thailand's capital. That blaze was apparently sparked by an indoor fireworks display.

That suggests the generational divide on Israel’s actions since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in Gaza extends beyond politics to religious identity.

“I pray for people in the land of Israel. I don’t need to pray for the state,” said Cameron Bernstein, a 27-year-old medical student in New Orleans. She was raised with strong ties to Israel, where she celebrated her bat mitzvah, but said that now “it doesn’t play a role in my life, more than another country with people I love.”

The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that this split on support for Israel is particularly apparent among adults like her who identify as religiously Jewish. Jewish adults who are religiously unaffiliated but identify as Jewish in other ways tend to have less of an emotional connection to Israel in general.

Among the religiously Jewish adults — who make up 68% of Jewish adults overall — about 6 in 10 say that being Jewish is “extremely” or “very” important in their life, regardless of their age.

But about half of older religious Jewish adults say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity, similar to the percentage who say that about celebrating Jewish holidays. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jewish adults emphasize support for Israel, while about 7 in 10 say celebrating Jewish holidays is highly important.

Susan Boyer, 72, from Southern California, equates supporting Israel with supporting the right of the Jewish people to have a homeland in the Middle East.

Like many other Jewish Americans, the retiree believes Israel is an essential refuge against the possible repetition of large-scale massacres of Jewish people, like the Holocaust, especially as concern about antisemitism rises among Jewish adults.

“I’ve been defending myself as a Jew since I was a child ... getting mugged by girls in my classes for being a Jew,” Boyer said. “It’s invasive into your daily living that you have to constantly, constantly be defending yourself as a Jew, constantly making sure that nobody is redefining you or nobody is like insulting your land.”

To Ari Pollack, a 30-year-old arts fundraiser in Wisconsin, Israel’s military operations — especially in the last few years — provide fodder for antisemitism and thus make everywhere less safe for Jews.

“I’m personally pretty opposed to basically everything Israel’s doing these days,” said Pollack, who grew up attending religious school. “A source of a lot of frustration that I have for the Jewish establishment is that sort of dogmatic teaching of pro-Israel ideas that I’ve had to unlearn as an adult. And it’s part of what’s kept me away from, you know, attending regular synagogue services.”

Like about 3 in 10 religious Jewish adults under 45, Pollack says that Israel has committed genocide during the war in Gaza, a charge that Israel has vehemently denied. That’s compared with about 2 in 10 Jewish adults ages 45 and older.

The poll suggests that other elements of Judaism remain important to many younger Jewish adults. Americans under 45 who identify as religiously Jewish are more likely than older Jewish adults to say that marking or celebrating Shabbat or avoiding certain foods, like pork or shellfish, are highly important to their Jewish identity.

Phoebe Wapnitsky, a 32-year-old in Connecticut, also strongly opposes Israel’s military actions, which she perceives as unaligned with Jewish values.

“Standing against oppression, promoting social justice — those are the roles that Judaism plays in my life,” she said, adding that she felt disconnected from Israel even before the Oct. 7 attack.

Brian Ebarb, a 47-year-old attorney in Louisiana, also says his Jewish identity was about “action and community” — but those include supporting Israel.

“When the government makes mistakes, it should be criticized,” he said, but added that shouldn’t become an excuse for attacking an entire people. “The existence of the state of Israel is so precarious that we have to be careful and not allow criticism of Israel to become criticism of Jews worldwide.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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The AP-NORC poll of 3,040 adults was conducted June 11-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The poll included interviews with 1,022 Jewish adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points and the margin of sampling error for Jewish adults is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor’s social media page.

His death was “sudden and unexpected,” the statement said, adding that he “remained cancer free” when he died. A cause of death wasn’t specified.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,” his family wrote.

Actor came to world's notice with ‘Dead Calm’ and ‘My Brilliant Career’

Neill was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s, a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong. His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy “Sweet Revenge” to chopping off Hunter’s finger in “The Piano” to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror “Event Horizon.”

In “Omen III: The Final Conflict,” he played Damien the Antichrist and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in “The Tudors.”

The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film “My Brilliant Career,” which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s “Dead Calm,” a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.

Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s “Plenty” and — again for Schepisi — in “A Cry in the Dark,” a film about the sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 miniseries “Merlin” and another as narrator of 2017’s “Wild New Zealand.”

‘Jurassic Park’ was his best-known film

Perhaps Neill achieved his highest level of fame in “Jurassic Park” playing paleontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs. He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough.

His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”

Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn’t return for “The Lost World: Jurassic Park II” in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and “Jurassic World: Dominion” in 2022.

“It’s probably a little late to learn these things,” he told the Daily New of New York in 2001, “but I finally feel I’ve worked out how to be an action hero. I’m happier with Grant this time. He’s gnarly and grizzled, but he looks like he knows what he’s doing.”

Neill grew up in Northern Ireland, then New Zealand

Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 7. He was born Nigel Neill, but told interviewers he started to go by Sam because there were too many Nigels at his school.

His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch. After college, he took the lead in “Sleeping Dogs” in 1977, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade.

Neill’s other film roles included playing a Soviet submarine officer who memorably dreams of a home in Montana in “The Hunt for Red October” and an investigator in director John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness.”

On the small screen, Neill played the malign Chester Campbell in TV’s “Peaky Blinders” and Thomas Jefferson in the four-hour CBS miniseries, “Sally Hemings: an American Tragedy.” On Apple TV+, he was on “Invasion,” playing Oklahoma Sheriff John Bell Tyson, a man late in his career searching for his purpose. In 2024 he starred opposite Annette Bening in the Peacock series “Apples Never Fall.”

Actor beloved in New Zealand as an unassuming celebrity

The actor became known in New Zealand as a modest and unassuming person who didn't embrace celebrity. On social media, he often posted images of his farm animals, many of them affectionately named after celebrities and friends, like Laura Dern the chicken, Kylie Minogue the duck and Helena Bonham Carter the cow.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon mourned Neill as “one of the greats” in a statement posted to social media.

“He started out when there was barely a film industry to speak of,” Luxon wrote. “For more than fifty years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today.”

Neill was also a vintner and under his Two Paddocks brand, he produced pinot noir and riesling wines from his winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island.

His memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This?” came out in March 2023 and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to film,” a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” Neill told The Guardian in 2023, referring to his cancer diagnosis and treatment. “But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends.”

He is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.

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Kennedy reported from New York.

Conversation about adaptations often revolves around how closely they follow a source text. But in a country where Homer’s story is taught and retold at all schools, many point to how the epic has been kept alive for nearly 3,000 years: not despite reinvention, but because of it.

“What we want children to understand is that every new creation is exactly that — a new creation," Filippos Mantzaris, who teaches “The Odyssey” to seventh graders, told The Associated Press.

The film, starring Matt Damon as King Odysseus and a number of Hollywood stars, follows Homer’s outline: The king's return home from war through gods and monsters to find a palace overrun by rivals.

Students grow up interpreting Homer

In seventh grade, “The Odyssey” is taught in all Greek classrooms.

In Mantzaris’ class, students eagerly debate Odysseus’ encounters with monsters and other adventures. They are taught to compare the hero’s intelligence with his strength, ask whether revenge is moral, whether the battle-hardened king is truly a role model, and whether his killing of his wife’s suitors is justified. Role-playing exercises encourage children to imagine what they would do in Odysseus’ place.

“It’s an amazing literary text, with which children can identify, perhaps see Odysseus in themselves, but also see their own homeland,” Mantzaris said.

Kyriakos Agapiou, 12, said reading the poem in Mantzaris’ class taught him: “That everything is possible and we should never give up.”

Farm scientist Nikos Varelas attended a stage adaptation with his 4-year-old son, after the pair read youth versions of both “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” together.

“It is our duty as parents, as Greeks,” Varelas said.

Interpreting the story as theater, said actor Manos Pintzis, who portrayed Odysseus in the local production, helps children discover mythology in a way books alone cannot.

“You don’t tell a child, ‘Just read the story because you have to,’ because the child will resist when something is forced on them,” Pintzis said. “When the child sees all of this unfolding before their eyes — that becomes a valuable step toward learning, to willingly learn what they’re expected to study.”

Greeks are used to foreigners playing their heroes

In conservative circles in the U.S., much of the attention has focused on Nolan’s casting choices rather than his adaptation of Homer’s story.

Elon Musk claimed Nolan had desecrated “The Odyssey” after Black actor Lupita Nyong’o was picked as Helen of Troy — despite not having seen the movie. Conservative commentators including Matt Walsh argued the film prioritized identity politics, echoing past fan criticisms of sci-fi and fantasy reboots that cast Black and Latino actors as beloved characters of a different race or ethnicity.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan said backlash “comes with the territory,” adding “these conversations that happen before people see the film — they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”

Nolan told the AP he wanted to make the film accessible and relatable, and “not look back to sort of past Hollywood versions of how to take on the ancient world.”

“You want to question people’s assumptions about how things should be portrayed in movies and what those are based on," he said of his overall approach to the film. "There’s a challenge to that and a risk to that. But my hope is that by creating a cohesive world, people understand the world as they watch the movie and they feel they understand it.”

The controversy hasn't found much purchase in Greece, where people are used to foreigners playing ancient Greeks.

Scotsman Gerard Butler bellowed “This is Sparta!” as King Leonidas in “300.” Oklahoma-born Brad Pitt played Achilles in “Troy.” Ireland’s Colin Farrell starred as Alexander the Great alongside Angelina Jolie as his mother.

Anthony Quinn’s performance in “Zorba the Greek” way back in 1964 remains one of Greece’s most beloved screen portrayals of a Greek character.

Nolan’s version continues the tradition with a star-filled cast including Nyong’o, Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and Charlize Theron, with narration from rapper Travis Scott.

In Greece, the small nationalist party Niki objected to the casting and a Greek government decision to provide roughly 6 million euros ($6.9 million) in subsidies to support local production. The party said Greek taxpayers were funding an imposition of “woke-type ideology” on Greek history and cultural identity, citing Musk.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni offered a blunt rebuttal.

“It is not the state’s role to dictate to a creator how they should artistically interpret a work or a myth,” she told the Greek popular culture magazine, Lifo. “Can we seriously be having a conversation about whether the state should censor Christopher Nolan?”

History’s great stories survive through retelling

Christos Tsagalis, professor of ancient Greek literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said it's ultimately up to moviegoers to judge whether the latest interpretation of “The Odyssey” works. What matters, he said, is whether it captures something fundamental about one of history’s great stories.

Homer’s works — retold and reinterpreted across generations — have endured by becoming universal, he said.

“I think it’s wonderful that something that is created at a specific point in time by a given people is shared by so many people across the globe ... It’s shared culture,” Tsagalis said.

“It’s a fascinating story,” he said. “It is like a movie.”

Robert Tulloch, now 43, was automatically sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the 2001 stabbing deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory sentences of life without parole are unconstitutional for juveniles, and later applied that decision retroactively.

The rulings gave hundreds of juvenile lifers a shot at freedom, including five men serving life sentences in New Hampshire for murders they committed as teenagers. Tulloch’s resentencing hearing, the last of the five, begins Monday in Grafton County Superior Court.

The state hasn’t said what sentence it will seek. But in a court filing last week, Tulloch’s lawyers argue that a minimum sentence in the range of 30 to 40 years is appropriate, based on a review of other murders committed by juveniles in New Hampshire and cases nationwide that were affected by the Supreme Court rulings.

Attorneys Richard Guerriero and Oliver Bloom also said Tulloch’s prison records show he has matured, and that after some initial misconduct early on, he’s had no major infractions since 2012 and no minor infractions since 2017. “The vast majority of his write-ups are for possessing too many books,” they wrote.

Quoting from Tulloch’s therapy records, they said he has expressed “significant remorse” for what he sees as a heinous and unforgivable crime, his “warped youthful thinking,” and his “good capacity for empathy.”

According to Tulloch’s friend, James Parker, the teens were bored with their lives in Chelsea, Vermont, when they concocted a plan to kill strangers, steal their money and move to Australia. For several months, they knocked on doors in New Hampshire and Vermont pretending to be conducting a survey on the environment before being let in by the Zantops. Susanne Zantop, 55, was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department and her husband, Half Zantop, 62, taught Earth sciences.

Parker, who was 16 at the time, told prosecutors that Tulloch stabbed Half Zantop and then directed Parker to attack Susanne Zantop. Tulloch also stabbed her. Fingerprints on a knife sheath and a bloody boot print linked the teens to the crime, but after being questioned by police, they fled Vermont and hitchhiked west. They were arrested at an Indiana truck stop weeks later.

Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder, was released from prison on parole in 2024 at age 40, having served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.

“I think it’s unimaginably horrible,” Parker said during his parole hearing when asked by a board member what he thought of what he did. “I know there’s not an amount of time or things that I can do to change it, or alleviate any pain that I’ve caused.”

The Supreme Court rulings addressed only mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles, leaving the U.S. the only country that allows discretionary life sentences for minors. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have banned the practice, while another five states allow it but have no one serving such a sentence, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.

New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected attempts to end life sentences for juveniles, but Tulloch's case could bolster future attempts. After Tulloch argued in 2018 that sentencing juveniles to life without parole violated the state constitution, the judge asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in, but it declined. Last July, Superior Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod agreed with Tulloch, finding that the constitution categorically prohibits such sentences as “cruel or unusual” punishment.

Among the juvenile lifers nationwide who have been resentenced after the U.S. Supreme Court rulings, more than 75% have received sentences of less than 40 years, according to a study published in 2024 in the Journal of Criminal Justice.

In New Hampshire, one man was resentenced to life without parole after refusing to attend his hearing or authorize his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence. Others received sentences of 25-, 40- and 45-years-to-life.

The series of executions, due to be carried out by the end of this month, highlights the nation’s aging death-row population. One of Florida's prisoners scheduled to die in July, a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents in 1986, is 80 years old and would be only the second known octogenarian to be executed in the U.S.

For some, it renews questions about the humanity of administering capital punishment to inmates who might soon die from natural causes. For others, it illustrates how lengthy appeals designed to ensure constitutional protections and prevent innocent people from being executed can also delay justice.

“Is this intentional, as though to say, we’re not going to let a natural death help you escape executions?” asked the Rev. Dustin Feddon, a Catholic priest who has been ministering to Florida death row inmates since 2013. Noting the church's opposition to capital punishment, he added: "To execute those that are the most frail and elderly is even more cruel and unusual.”

Marilyn Gifford, whose sister's killer is set to die Tuesday, doesn't see it that way.

“I’m just happy it’s ever happening in our lifetime,” she said. “I wish my mother was alive to see it.”

Death warrants follow decades on death row

On June 25, Dusty Ray Spencer, who was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992, became the oldest person executed in Florida in modern history. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the 74-year-old's appeal that his liver disease rendered him susceptible to excruciating pain from lethal injection.

Dennis Sochor, convicted of killing 18-year-old Patricia Gifford just hours into 1982 after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party, would be just a week older if his execution is carried out on Tuesday. Marilyn Gifford said she and her family plan to be there.

Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, has spent nearly four decades on death row after being sentenced in the murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents. He is scheduled to die July 28 and would become the second oldest prisoner known to be put to death in the U.S., after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney.

There are three inmates older than Occhicone on Florida’s death row.

The scheduling of executions is up to the governor

It's unclear why Florida set the executions for the three prisoners consecutively. Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, noted that in Florida, the governor has practically sole discretion when it comes to the scheduling of executions. In many other death penalty states, the scheduling is up to the courts.

About half of Florida’s 242 death row inmates have exhausted their appeals and could see their death warrant issued at any time. The family of Michael Sheridan spent a year calling and writing to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, requesting he sign a death warrant, before Sheridan's killer was executed earlier this year.

DeSantis' office did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment. He oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state has executed nine inmates so far this year.

DeSantis said last year his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited for decades.

“Some of these crimes were committed in the ’80s,” the governor said last year. “Justice delayed is justice denied."

Death row gets older

The average age of inmates executed in the U.S. has crept up from the 30s to the 50s over the past half-century, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. While some inmates committed capital offenses later in life, lengthy appeals and mandatory reviews have resulted in many spending decades on death row, sometimes developing medical conditions that can complicate efforts to execute them.

Occhicone has several age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, according to his attorneys. He needs help getting in and out of the shower, they noted.

Under Supreme Court precedent, those who were under 18 when they committed their crimes cannot be put to death. But advanced age alone doesn't provide a legal case for avoiding execution, said Gerod Hooper, an attorney with Florida’s Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency that provides post-conviction legal representation.

“You’d have to say it’s unconstitutional to execute this 80-year-old because he’s mentally deficient, he doesn’t have capacity to be executed," Hooper said. "Or because of some underlying medical condition, the drug cocktail they inject would cause undue pain and suffering.”

Death row inmates with dementia in Utah and Alabama have avoided execution and later died of apparent natural causes. An inmate in Idaho received at least one stay of execution because of cancer and other health problems, but state officials continue to push for his death.

‘He could live another 20 years’

At the time of Gifford’s disappearance, Sochor was free on probation from a 1980 rape conviction.

“I knew him as a child, and he was a bully,” said Frank Frandel, who grew up as a family friend in Portland, Michigan. “I could believe he could be violent like that.”

Frandel offered no sympathy for Sochor's advanced age, pointing out that Sochor’s father will turn 99 this year.

“He could live another 20 years,” Frandel said. “So no, I don’t feel sorry for him being at that age.”

As the conservative state's senior senator and an influential ally of President Donald Trump, Graham was presumed to be on a glide path toward reelection.

Now, Gov. Henry McMaster must choose a temporary replacement who can serve until January while the state also prepares a special primary so voters can choose a new Republican nominee for the general election.

The rare open Senate seat has ignited a scramble among South Carolina's most ambitious conservatives, who have been eager to climb the political ladder.

Republicans just finished a sprawling and bruising contest to figure out their nominee for succeeding McMaster, who is wrapping up his second term. State Attorney General Alan Wilson won the nomination, overcoming a field that included Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Rep. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman — all of whom are now eyeing Graham's seat.

How will a special primary work?

According to South Carolina law, a one-week filing period for a special primary election begins on the second Tuesday after the candidate’s death, or July 21.

The special primary election would be held on the second Tuesday after that filing period closes, or Aug. 11. Any necessary runoff would follow two weeks after that, or Aug. 25.

From that point, the new nominee would have just over two months to campaign for the general election on Nov. 3.

All of this is problematic according to federal law, which requires military and overseas ballots to go out 45 days before any federal election. For the general election primary, that would have been June 27. Federal Election Commission officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking clarity about the process.

Who could replace Graham?

Graham died on Saturday night, and a preliminary medical examiner report said he suffered a tear in his aorta, known as an aortic dissection.

In the hours after Graham's death was announced, South Carolina’s Republican circles were already swirling with rumors about possible replacements. Given the proximity of November's election, it's likely that whomever McMaster appoints could be a top contender in the special primary, although it's possible that McMaster's choice will only serve as a temporary caretaker.

Evette, who has served nearly eight years alongside McMaster and received his endorsement in the governor's race, is one possibility. She lost the June 23 runoff to Wilson.

A person with knowledge of Evette's thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly said that she was getting encouragement from across the state and feels she would have good chances in the special primary.

It's unlikely that any House member would be appointed to finish Graham's current term, since Republicans have such a slim majority in the chamber.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a rumored replacement, said he assured Trump on Sunday that “my goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people!!!”

However, that doesn't mean that House members won't run for the next full term. A person with knowledge of Mace's thinking but not authorized to speak about it publicly said she was considering the race. Mace is not running for reelection to the House.

But another Republican from the state, Rep. Russell Fry, could be a possibility. The two-term lawmaker represents the growing area around Myrtle Beach, and he's been a top Trump ally.

A spokesman for businessman Mark Lynch, whom Graham defeated in the primary, didn't return a message Sunday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who lived in South Carolina prior to joining the Trump administration, has fielded calls about potentially replacing Graham but doesn’t have interest in the role and enjoys working for the president, according to a person who requested anonymity to describe private conversations.

How does Graham's death affect the general election?

No Democrat has won a Senate seat in South Carolina in decades, and Republicans in recent history typically take statewide seats by double digits. When he last ran in 2020, Graham defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.

So while history suggests that Graham was en route to a fifth term, Republicans are carefully surveying the landscape.

Charleston pediatrician Annie Andrews won the Democratic nomination last month and has raised more than $8 million in the race, and had just under $3 million cash on hand at the end of May, according to federal filings. Graham had taken in $6 million, with just over $4 million on hand.

In a statement Sunday, Andrews called on South Carolinians to join her “in setting partisanship aside and offering gratitude" to Graham for his service.

Noting that he and Graham “had our share of political disagreements,” Harrison wrote on social media that he “always appreciated that even in our fiercest political battles, we could still share a conversation, a laugh, and a mutual respect for South Carolina and the institutions we were both privileged to serve.”

What happens to South Carolina's Republican clout?

Graham leaves a major void in the Senate, where seniority can determine influence. He served more than two decades in the chamber, positioning himself to lead committees and set the agenda.

Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina's junior senator, has only been in office since 2012 — short by the state's standards. Fritz Hollings served for 38 years and Strom Thurmond was there for 47.

Scott, who co-chaired Graham's reelection effort, described his former colleague as “irreplaceable.”

“America lost a statesman, but I lost a friend,” he told ABC's “This Week."

___

Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Graham, 71, died Saturday evening after a tear in his aorta, according to a statement from his office on Sunday. The shocking news came after another prominent Republican senator, former Republican leader Mitch McConnell, has been hospitalized for almost a month. McConnell broke a weekslong silence about his health Sunday evening, saying that he was still recovering after suffering from pneumonia and falling in his home.

The continued absence of McConnell, R-Ky., and the surprise death of the South Carolina senator have shaken Republicans who were already at odds with Trump and stalled on several priorities as they return from a two-week recess. And the reduced Republican numbers in the 53-47 Senate are sure to add confusion to what was already expected to be a chaotic and difficult few months before the November midterm elections.

Despite consolidated power in Washington, Republicans have been unable to get much done as the Senate, House and White House have disagreed on legislative priorities and as Trump has criticized Senate Republicans, in particular, for not passing his legislation to require proof of citizenship for voters. Graham, who was one of Trump’s closest friends in the Senate, often served as a pivotal intermediary.

“He was a great — like a gauge, a temperature gauge of the Senate,” Trump said of Graham on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, noting he had talked to Graham on Saturday. “He could go in and get something approved. He would just get people on his side.”

Republican priorities are stalled

The Senate left town two weeks ago after a rough few weeks for Republicans. Trump blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war even as they questioned the strategy and endgame.

He also refused to sign a bipartisan, election-year housing bill that had the support of large bipartisan majorities in both chambers, arguing that they should pass his bill to require proof of citizenship, the SAVE America Act, instead. The bill became law on Friday at midnight after he declined to sign it but did not veto it.

The alliance between Trump and Senate Republicans has also been weakened after the president endorsed the opponents of two Republican incumbent senators who had been reliable votes, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. Cassidy challenged Trump directly on the Iran war in a Capitol meeting between Trump and Republicans just before they left town that did not go well.

Senate’s agenda is uncertain

Republicans return to a number of important agenda items, including the confirmation of Trump’s pick for attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the confirmation of Jay Clayton, who Trump selected to be director of national intelligence and later temporarily blocked.

They also must find a way to navigate Democratic opposition and Trump’s continued ire to keep the government open and prevent a government shutdown, again. Graham was a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, as is McConnell.

Graham also sat on the Judiciary Committee that will consider Blanche’s nomination and is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which has been under pressure from House Republicans and Trump to move a budget package with increased defense spending for Iran.

There is also bipartisan legislation to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions that Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut had announced on Friday after an agreement with the Trump administration.

Blumenthal told The Associated Press on Sunday that Graham was “absolutely focused on this moment” as they announced the sanctions package after months of negotiations. He said he hopes Graham’s memory will inspire the Senate to move forward.

“We’ve really reached this moment where all of the stars are aligned and we will be lacking Lindsey’s spectacular advocacy,” Blumenthal said.

Graham’s death came after a trip to Ukraine

Senate leaders have not yet announced how they will honor Graham, who died after a tear in the inner wall of the aorta, called an aortic dissection, related to hardening of Graham’s arteries, according to his office. An official cause of death will be disclosed after toxicological and microscopic testing, his office said.

Graham, a prominent South Carolina Republican and former Air Force lawyer who served in Congress for more than three decades, had just returned from a trip to Ukraine.

A number of Republican names began circulating as possible replacements to serve out the rest of Graham’s term, including three candidates who fell short for the party’s nomination for governor this year — Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

Also in the mix is Rep. Russell Fry, who was elected to the House in 2022.

McConnell not expected to return immediately

McConnell’s Sunday announcement revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about his condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

The Kentucky Republican, who is retiring in January, said in a statement that he was “briefly unconscious” around the time he was first taken to the hospital in June and has undergone a battery of tests to try and determine what led to his fall. He said he was also treated for mild pneumonia and has been moved to a rehabilitation facility.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages,” McConnell said, adding that he is now “regaining my strength.”

He said he cannot return to the Senate “quite yet.”

McConnell explained the four-week silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older.”

“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct — I can’t help it,” he said.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, gained 3.6% to $78.76 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added 3.5% to $73.97 per barrel.

Prices for both types of crude oil recently had slipped back to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran began after the two sides set an interim agreement on ending the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran into Monday morning over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the strait that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East.

U.S. stock futures fell, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.4% and that for the Dow nearly unchanged. The Nasdaq composite future lost 1.2%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.9% to 67,242.73, while in Seoul, the Kospi declined 9% to 6,806.93. It's now at its lowest level since April.

Shares in South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which soared 13% in their debut Friday on Wall Street, slumped 15.4% in Seoul. Its bigger rival Samsung Electronics sank 10.7%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.2% higher, to 24,212.36, and the Shanghai Composite index shed 2.1% to 3,913.79.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,808.50.

U.S. stocks ticked higher Friday after investors showed sustained appetite for winners of the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%.

SK Hynix's shares jumped immediately after trading began in the midday hours after it raised roughly $26.5 billion by selling American depositary shares at a price of $149 each.

SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul had already surged more than 600% over the last year thanks to euphoria around AI. The boom has created real profits due to surging demand for computer memory. But it has also raised worries that AI stock prices have shot have too high and that all the world’s spending on chips and data centers won’t be able to produce enough productivity and profit growth to make it worth it.

“The reason why this stock, along with other memory chipmakers, has gone parabolic is that AI demand has somehow created the perception that a sector historically defined by boom-and-bust cycles could remain permanently in the boom phase,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary.

SK Hynix plans to double its production capacity, or possibly more, to keep up with demand. However, “Technological breakthroughs, more efficient AI models or simply a slowdown in AI infrastructure investment could quickly turn the market into one of oversupply,” she said.

Similar concerns apply to many AI stocks as they've grown into some of Wall Street’s most influential because of their huge valuations. Nvidia was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500 Friday after rising 4%.

Beyond the uncertainty about AI, the focus on Wall Street is shifting to the upcoming reporting season for companies’ profits during the spring.

Companies across industries will need to produce big growth in profits to justify the big moves for their stock prices, which are broadly near records. Next week will feature earnings reports from many of the biggest U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone.

Worries about how continued fighting with Iran will affect the global flow of crude are clouding the outlook both for energy costs and overall inflation.

High bond yields have been weighing on financial markets worldwide since more expensive oil and high inflation could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates.

Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.15 Japanese yen from 161.72 yen. The euro rose to $1.1409 from $1.1408.

The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran maintained a chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating shippers.

Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders the Iran war fully could resume.

“A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

US says it strikes dozens of targets in Iran

The U.S. military’s Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment and small boats.

“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,” Central Command said. “Iran does not control it.”

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for the strait to be open as it was before the war.

“The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected America's statement.

“The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the Guard said.

Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country.

In Jordan, the kingdom's military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that "resulted in zero casualties or material damage.” Jordan also hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.

In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes on Sistan and Baluchestan province as well.

Iranian attacks on Sunday stretched Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and even Oman — whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. Oman, which long has been an interlocutor between Tehran and the West, summoned an Iranian diplomat to criticize the attack.

Meanwhile Monday, a base belonging to the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region, came under drone attack. Rebaz Sharifi, commander of the Kurdistan Militia Corps, said the strikes targeted the group’s Chamshar base, without giving details on casualties or damage. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Fighting focuses on the status of the strait

The U.S. military early Sunday said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites — a far-heavier set of attacks than in two previous rounds of strikes in the last week.

“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” U.S. President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it.

Iran described the strait as being closed, while the U.S. military and Trump asserted that the strait remained open.

Iran’s chokehold on the strait, however, has loosened as the U.S. military provided support to vessels moving along a southern route hugging the coastline of Oman. That new route has angered Iran, which launched repeated attacks on ships using it.

Iran’s grip on the strait led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the Mideast.

“Considering the memorandum of understanding’s fourteen clauses, the Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its various components,” Baghaei told journalists Monday.

Baghaei also said Iran wouldn't agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian nuclear sites bombed in 2025 by the U.S., where Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed still to be.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.

A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing.

___

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he’d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he’d built for his family on the city’s east side.

It’s what he’d done for decades, according to Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son. He said his father built hundreds of houses over 35 years, creating a life for his family and watching as his three sons headed off to college.

On Tuesday, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Salgado Araujo, 52, after he was pursued by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles while he was taking his crew to their latest job site. The shooting has outraged Houston leaders and renewed public scrutiny over ICE and Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Four Democratic members of Congress who represent the Houston area said at a vigil Saturday that they would push for an independent investigation into the shooting.

“We are never going to forget that his blood is on Donald Trump’s hands,” Rep. Christian Menefee said. “We are not at war. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not a casualty. He was a human being who was murdered by our government.”

Salgado Araujo was not the target of ICE’s operation

Federal agents were looking for someone else when they tried to stop Salgado Araujo’s white van, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said, citing a briefing she received from ICE’s acting director. The Department of Homeland Security has said an ICE officer fired at the van in self-defense after Salgado Araujo, who officials described as an “illegal alien,” rammed an ICE vehicle. They have provided no evidence.

The three men that Salgado Araujo was driving said he was shot through a passenger window and that the ICE officer who fired was not in front of the van or even in danger, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.

His family has also disputed the account from ICE. They said lawyers, who were helping him apply for a work permit, had explained how he should behave if immigration agents stopped him. Salgado Araujo was close to obtaining legal status when he was killed, they said.

“He knew what to do,” Ronaldo Salgado told reporters this week. “He knew not to sign anything. He knew that the first phone call he should make should be either to myself or to my mom. So that way we can get the process started of getting him out.”

He believes his father may have been scared that he was being followed by unmarked vehicles, worried someone was planning to steal his van or his tools.

The shooting in the heavily Hispanic neighborhood is at least the eighth death during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.

A kind, present husband and father

Salgado Araujo entered the U.S. more than 30 years ago, settling in Houston with his wife where they raised their three children.

Education was a constant focus in the house, said Ronaldo Salgado, who is now a teacher. One of his brothers is an engineer. The other is in college studying engineering.

Several childhood friends of Salgado recalled that his father was kind and soft-spoken, always inquiring about his wife’s day and how his sons’ friends were doing after a long day at work.

“We didn’t really see him until the end of the day when he came home to have dinner, but that just shows how much of a hard worker he was,” said neighbor Jessica Alanis Magdaleno. “Everything they have now is thanks to the dedication to that.”

Josué Flores, a friend of Ronaldo Salgado since their freshman year of high school, said he first saw Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at his son’s football game.

“I think it speaks volumes of the kind of person that he was,” Flores said, recalling how Salgado Araujo showed up for his son even after an arduous day of work.

Salgado Araujo’s wife, a relative said, is “inconsolable.”

“She is very upset ... angry, sad, disoriented,” Jose Torres Ramon, a nephew who lives in Mexico, told The Associated Press in a Facebook message.

Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son, said at the Saturday vigil that he hoped he was making his father proud.

“I’ll keep fighting for him,” he said.

His brother Lorenzo Salgado Jr. said the shooting of his father was “a hard moment to be an American.”

“Even though my government, my federal government took away my father, we the people will bring justice,” he said. “We the people are America.”

After coming home in the evening, Salgado Araujo liked to listen to music on the porch and pet the family dog. His family has described him as a simple man of routine.

“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream.”

___

Associated Press reporters Jack Brook in New Orleans, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

Graham’s office reported he had suffered from a “brief and sudden illness” before he died on Saturday night in Washington, D.C. He was 71.

D.C. Health Emergency Medical Services responded shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Saturday to a report of a man who was suffering “chest pains” and “cardiac arrest.”

Toxicological and microscopic test results were pending before the medical examiner’s office issued a death certificate with a cause of death.

President Donald Trump told ”Meet the Press” that Graham, one of his closest allies, “sounded a little bit tired” on Saturday evening after returning from Ukraine.

“One of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known is dead,” Trump wrote on Sunday on Truth Social. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!”

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, released a statement saying Graham spent “his final days” pressing the case for stronger U.S. sanctions against Russia.

“There is no better way to honor his final mission than for the Senate and the White House to swiftly send his bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation to the President’s desk,” Turner wrote on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot,” Netanyahu wrote. “I have lost a beloved friend.”

REPUBLICAN LEADER

Graham’s journey from a pool hall to the heights of political power

Lindsey Graham, the garrulous son of South Carolina pool hall owners, rose to become a fixture on the global stage and one of the most prominent advocates of American military might in the U.S. Senate. Read more >

FOREIGN POLICY

Graham remembered for a vision of American foreign policy that’s fading in Washington

For decades, Lindsey Graham traveled the globe selling a vision of the United States as a nation willing to use its military might to protect democracies around the world, even as his party was taken over by a president openly skeptical of that worldview. Read more >

REACTION

Florida lawmakers pay tribute to Graham

U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez: Deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. He leaves behind a legacy of dedicated public service, a commitment to national security, and an unwavering fight for freedom. Lourdes & I are praying for his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace. Read more >

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 7 a.m. del domingo, en el lado este de Hallandale Beach Boulevard, cerca de la avenida suroeste 55, en Pembroke Park.

Local 10 News estuvo en el lugar y observó una camioneta SUV Audi volcada de costado, tras aparentemente haber colisionado con una Range Rover.

Según un operador de grúa que llegó rápidamente a la escena, el conductor del Audi se quedó dormido al volante y estrelló su vehículo contra la Range Rover.

Bomberos informaron que no se reportaron heridos en el choque.

Las autoridades aún no han indicado si alguien enfrentará cargos.

El incidente ocurrió afuera de una vivienda ubicada en la cuadra 6200 de la calle suroeste 27 en Miramar.

Según oficiales de rescate, al llegar encontraron un vehículo completamente envuelto en llamas.

Los equipos lograron extinguir rápidamente el incendio antes de que causara daños a las viviendas cercanas, informaron las autoridades.

El Fiscal Estatal de Bomberos (State Fire Marshal) fue convocado a la escena para investigar las circunstancias que originaron el incendio.

No se reportaron heridos.

El templo está ubicado en el 872 SW 27th Ave. en Fort Lauderdale.

Afuera de la iglesia se observó una camioneta SUV de color oscuro con daños en la parte delantera, además de daños en la puerta de vidrio del templo.

Según el propietario de la iglesia, su hermana fue quien impactó la puerta, pero no sufrió lesiones.

Por el momento no se ha informado sobre las circunstancias que llevaron al choque.

Peter Silveira, said he was working on June 23 when his wife told him she had seen a viral video of their dog, Jonah, behaving despite the temptation.

“He is a very good boy,” Silveira said.

After a massive search, MLB fans helped the Miami Marlins team connect with Jonah, a 6-year-old Arubian Cunucu rescue living in Miami-Dade.

“Seeing that face, we knew we had to do something to make his day,” Alex Parker, the chief brand officer of the Miami Marlins, said.

Jonah wore a custom Miami Marlins jersey on Sunday at the loanDepot Park in Little Havana. Silveira threw out the ceremonial pitch before the Guardians vs. Marlins series finale.

“I think it’s every guy’s dream come true,” Silveira said.

Jonah and his family watched the game from a suite. Chewy made sure Jonah had plenty of toys and treats.

“We wanted to add to that dream and with a bunch of hot dogs,” Kari Hinojosa, of Chewy, said.

And finally, during the fourth inning, fans watched Marlins.TV’s Jeremy Taché feed Jonah hot dogs.

“Sports is about bringing people together and doing good in this community. When you have a lightning in the bottle moment like Johan that is the first thing we thought of,” Parker said.

The Miami Marlins also promoted New Life For Paws, the nonprofit that helped Jonah. Bark at the Park benefits the Miami Animal Rescue, a foster-based nonprofit.

How it started vs. how it's going 🌭

Jonah, the viral pup who just wanted a hot dog at the Marlins game, enjoyed his dream day at the ballpark this afternoon! pic.twitter.com/1yqe53QgKn

— MLB (@MLB) July 12, 2026

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Agentes y personal de rescate respondieron alrededor de las 10:30 a.m. del domingo a una vivienda ubicada en Pebble Beach Road, cerca de McNab Road, en North Lauderdale.

El personal de bomberos y rescate trasladó al niño a un hospital cercano, donde permanecía la noche del domingo, según agentes de BSO.

Al menos tres menores se han ahogado este verano en el condado de Broward.

Un niño de 2 años murió ahogado el 12 de julio en un lago en Plantation.

Cerca de ahí, una niña de 4 años murió ahogada el 5 de julio en un lago en Plantation.

Un niño de 4 años murió ahogado el 19 de junio en una piscina en North Lauderdale.

No había visto a Rosie, la perra de su difunto padre, en 10 años.

Becker perdió contacto con la novia de su padre tras el fallecimiento de este en Maryland, ya que ella era quien cuidaba a la perra.

De alguna manera, todos estos años después, Rosie terminó en Hollywood, Florida.

El personal de iHeart Dog Rescue recibió a Rosie y comenzó a buscar a su dueño, ya que la perra tiene microchip.

“Alguien llamó porque tenía una perra que le habían regalado y quería entregarla porque no podía quedarse con ella”, dijo la presidenta de iHeart Dog Rescue, Cindy Mucciaccio. Según explicó, terminaron localizando al hijo del dueño original, ya que este había muerto dos años después de adoptar a la perra, y su novia, quien la quería mucho, se la había quedado, aunque con el tiempo perdieron el contacto.

Tras localizar a Becker, quien vivía a miles de kilómetros de distancia en Maryland, este tomó un vuelo para ir a buscar a la vieja compañera de su padre.

El reencuentro ocurrió en Cool Cuts, en Pompano Beach.

“Al principio no la reconocí porque tiene el rostro muy canoso, pero cuando vi esos ojos, los reconocí”, dijo Becker.

Ahora Rosie regresa a su hogar en Maryland.

Lo que hace la historia aún más entrañable es que Becker adoptó a una compañera para Rosie.

Storm había sido entregada en estado de desnutrición y necesitaba cuidados, pero se encariñó rápidamente con Rosie.

Ahora ambas perras se dirigen juntas a su hogar definitivo.

Para donar a la recuperación de Storm, haga clic aquí.

La representante federal Maria Elvira Salazar, republicana antes de su campaña al Congreso, ganó el escaño en 2020 tras derrotar a la demócrata Donna Shalala, quien ocupaba el puesto.

Rodríguez, de 70 años, y Salazar, de 64, son ambos periodistas de televisión retirados y cubanoamericanos bilingües.

“Soy el tipo de demócrata que está cansado de perder elecciones, y creo que soy quien está mejor posicionado para ganar esta contienda”, dijo Rodríguez a la presentadora de This Week In South Florida, Glenna Milberg, el domingo.

Los reportes de financiamiento de campaña de los candidatos del distrito muestran que Salazar ha recibido la mayor cantidad de donaciones, con más de $1.37 millones hasta el momento. Peguero, de 40 años, exfiscal federal, le sigue con más de $820,000.

“He sido un luchador toda mi vida. Y me preocupaba el rumbo de este país, en particular el rumbo que nos ha dado nuestro presidente Trump”, dijo Peguero, quien investigó los crímenes del 6 de enero de 2021 en el Capitolio, durante su entrevista con Milberg en TWISF.

La concurrida primaria demócrata también incluye a Lev Parnas, Richard Lamondin, Michael Davey y Alexander Fornino.

“De lo que todos hablan es de la crisis del costo de vida que tenemos en esta comunidad, que en Miami está fuera de control”, dijo Rodríguez.

Peguero, graduado de Harvard y autor, coincidió con esa idea. Los candidatos acusaron a Salazar de respaldar políticas que han contribuido a la falta de asequibilidad en Miami-Dade.

“Mis padres pudieron comprar una casa en Hialeah con el salario de un cartero y el salario de una maestra. Eso hoy en día es imposible”, dijo Peguero. “Ese es el sueño americano al que quiero que volvamos. Necesitamos aumentar la oferta de vivienda asequible. El gobierno tiene un papel que jugar incentivando eso, y también tiene un papel al otorgar incentivos fiscales a quienes compran su primera vivienda.”

Rodríguez y Peguero también expresaron preocupación por las políticas de la administración Trump en materia de inmigración, seguro médico y aranceles.

La fecha límite para registrarse como votante es el 20 de julio. La fecha límite para solicitar la boleta por correo es el 6 de agosto. La primaria del Partido Demócrata es el 18 de agosto. La elección general es el 3 de noviembre.

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It was outside a home located along the 6200 block of Southwest 27th Street in Miramar.

According to rescue officials, they arrived to find a vehicle that was fully engulfed in flames.

Crews were able to quickly extinguish the blaze before it could cause any damage to nearby homes, officials said.

The State Fire Marshal was called to the scene to investigate the circumstances that led to the fire being started.

No injuries were reported.

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The place of worship is located at 872 SW 27th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.

Outside the church, a dark-colored SUV was seen with damage to its front end, and there was also damage done to the glass door of the church.

According to the church’s owner, his sister drove into the door but did not sustain any injuries.

There has been no word on the circumstances that led up to the crash.

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Deputies and fire rescue personnel responded at about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday to a house along Pebble Beach Road, near McNab Road, in North Lauderdale.

Fire rescue personnel took the boy to a nearby hospital, where he remained on Sunday night, according to BSO deputies.

At least three children have drowned this summer in Broward County.

A 2-year-old boy drowned on July 12 in a lake in Plantation.

Nearby, a 4-year-old girl drowned on July 5 in a lake in Plantation.

A 4-year-old boy drowned on June 19 in a pool in North Lauderdale.

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He hadn’t seen his late father’s dog Rosie in 10 years.

Becker lost touch with his father’s girlfriend after he passed away in Maryland, and she was taking care of the dog.

Somehow, all these years later, Rosie ended up down in Hollywood, Florida.

Workers at iHeart Dog Rescue took in Rosie and started working to track down her owner, since she is chipped.

“Somebody called and she had a dog that somebody gave her and she wanted to surrender it because she couldn’t keep her,” said iHeart Dog Rescue President Cindy Mucciaccio. “So she wound up finding the owner’s son, because two years after the dog was adopted, the owner died. And the owner had a girlfriend who loved the dog very much and took the dog with her. And after a few years, they just lost touch.”

After finding Becker, who was living thousands of miles away in Maryland, he jumped on a flight to pick up his father’s long lost best friend.

The reunion happened at Cool Cuts in Pompano Beach.

“I initially didn’t recognize her because her face is so gray, when I saw those eyes I recognized those eyes,” Becker said.

Now Rosie is heading back home to Mayrland.

What makes the story even sweeter is that Becker adopted a friend for Rosie.

Storm was surrendered, emaciated and in need of care, but bonded with Rosie quickly.

Now the two are headed to their forever home together.

To donate to the Storm’s recovery, click here.

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U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican before her congressional campaign, won the seat in 2020 after defeating incumbent Democrat Donna Shalala.

Rodriguez, 70, and Salazar, 64, are both retired television journalists and bilingual Cuban Americans.

“I am the kind of Democrat that’s tired of losing elections, and I believe that I am best situated to win this election,” Rodriguez told This Week In South Florida anchor Glenna Milberg on Sunday.

Campaign finance reports by the district’s candidates show Salazar had received the most donations with more than $1.37 million so far. Peguero, 40, a former federal prosecutor, followed with over $820,000.

“I have been a fighter my whole life. And I was worried about the direction of this country, in particular worried about the direction that our President Trump has taken us,” Peguero, who investigated crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, told Milberg during TWISF.

The crowded Democratic primary also includes Lev Parnas, Richard Lamondin, Michael Davey, and Alexander Fornino.

“What everybody is talking about is the cost of living crisis that we have in this community, which in Miami is on steroids,” Rodriguez said.

Peguero, a Harvard grad and author, agreed. The candidates accused Salazar of supporting policies that have contributed to Miami-Dade’s lack of affordability.

“My parents were able to own a home in Hialeah off a mail carrier’s salary and a school teacher’s salary. That is impossible nowadays,” Peguero said. “That’s the American dream I want us to get back toward. We need to increase the supply of affordable housing. The government has a role to play in incentivizing that, and it has a role in giving tax incentives to people who are buying their first home.”

Rodriguez and Peguero also raised concerns about the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, health insurance, and tariffs.

The voter registration deadline is on July 20. The mail-in ballot request deadline is on Aug. 6. The Democratic Party’s primary is on Aug. 18. The general election is on Nov. 3.

Watch Peguero on TWISF

Watch Rodriguez on TWISF

Watch Salazar on TWISF on July 5

McConnell, 84, said in a statement that he was “briefly unconscious” around the time he was first taken to the hospital and has undergone a battery of tests to try and determine what led to his fall. He said he was also treated for mild pneumonia and has been moved to a rehabilitation facility.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages,” McConnell said, adding that he is now “regaining my strength.”

McConnell’s statement came on the heels of the unexpected death of his fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. McConnell said he cannot return to the Senate “quite yet.”

Coupled with Graham’s passing, that will temporarily whittle the GOP majority in that chamber down by two, to 51-47, as Republicans try to increase military funding, advance President Donald Trump’s agenda and confirm Trump’s nominees.

McConnell explained the four-week silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older.”

“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct — I can’t help it,” he said.

McConnell said he will continue to work with his staff on Senate business. His statement included a smiling picture of the senator with his wife Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that McConnell had died or was incapacitated.

McConnnell’s disclosure comes after growing pressure

McConnell had provided little information since his hospitalization on June 14, his office insisting only that he was “receiving excellent care” and recovering. Speculation about his condition grew so intense that Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear took the extraordinary step last week of issuing a public letter asking McConnell to update the public in a “transparent manner.”

McConnell is retiring at the end of January after one of the most consequential careers in modern politics. Republicans have nominated U.S. Rep. Andy Barr to replace him, while Democrats have nominated former state lawmaker Charles Booker. He said he is determined to finish out his term.

“I still have unfinished business to complete on your behalf,” McConnell wrote in the statement addressed to Kentuckians, “and I have every intention of finishing the job you elected me to do.”

McConnell has a history of health problems

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs.

The physician’s office in Congress in the statement Sunday said McConnell has “experienced several falls through the year” due to his “post-polio condition.” The office said his physical therapy is aimed at reducing the risk of him falling again.

“A comprehensive evaluation by a multidisciplinary team determined that he had no fractures, cardiac abnormalities, stroke, tumor, or hemorrhage,” the physician’s office said.

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and was the Republican leader from 2007 until last year, serving as both majority and minority leader during that period. He has remained active as a rank-and-file senator, showing up for work when the chamber is in session, often using a wheelchair to get around.

But the senator’s physical condition has visibly declined in recent years.

He was hospitalized with a concussion in March 2023 and missed several weeks of work after falling in a Washington hotel. He twice froze up during news conferences after he returned, staring vacantly ahead before colleagues and staff. A year later, he fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a GOP luncheon.

The technique, known as “straw checkerboards,” is a simple yet widely used method to stabilize sand dunes against the wind and help plants take root by using water supplied through an irrigation system.

The widespread lattice it created across the sand has become the iconic image of China’s decades-long campaign against the spreading of desert conditions, known as the Three-North Protective Forest Program or the Green Great Wall.

The generations of work have yielded measurable progress, but scientists caution that preserving the gains will require decades of continued effort.

For a long time, drought, overgrazing and farming removed vegetation, harmed the soil and made areas vulnerable to wind and sandstorms. That kind of degradation of the land over time is known as desertification. The area of desertified land in northern China peaked in 2000, and it has been reduced by over 1,000 square kilometers (400 square miles) each year since then, according to data published by state media.

The Chinese government said the initiative launched in 1978 has played a crucial role in transforming vast regions covering nearly half of China from “the desertification advancing and people retreating” to “greenery advancing and the desertification retreating." Forests planted by the program now cover a cumulative 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) .

“The broad significance of the Three-North Program is not only the scale of restoration, but the long-term political commitment behind it,” said Barron Joseph Orr, chief scientist for the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. In a response to The Associated Press, he wrote that reversing desertification is possible when it becomes part of long-term development strategies.

Elsewhere, efforts to combat desertification have included a project launched in Africa in 2007 to plant trees across a number of countries to hold back the Sahara Desert.

Measuring the success of the Green Great Wall

The progress is the result of the efforts of frontline sand-control workers, along with top-level planning and substantial state investment, said Zhu Jiaojun, a scientist at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has long been dedicated to the construction and management of the program. He added that increased rainfall in recent years in some areas has made vegetation restoration easier.

“The achievement of desertification combat is due to people’s hard work and a bit of luck with climate,” he said.

According to long-term monitoring data by Zhu's team, China’s desertified land has shrunk by around 10% overall since 2000, and areas of severely or extremely desertified land have decreased by more than 40%. Forest cover in the program area has risen from around 5% in 1978 to 14% in 2022.

In a recent government-organized media tour to a corner of Kubuqi Desert, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) to the west of Beijing, 60-year-old Yin Yuzhen recounted her early days of being a sand-control worker as “very lonely.” Working alongside her husband near her hometown in the neighboring Mu Us desert, she said that it felt delightful to encounter any other creature.

"Even the passing of a bird across the sky made me happy,” she said.

Four decades ago, she recalled, the sand often blew so thick that it made it hard to see a short distance.

“But now we can see the sun. We can see the green in the distance. We can see the road,” said Yin.

She and her husband now work from dawn to noon every day, attending to trees and fixing or replacing checkerboards. They are joined by their children and sometimes local volunteers.

Zhu, the scientist, estimated that over 300 million rural laborers have been involved in the program, mostly on a paid, part-time basis.

Sustaining both land and livelihood

Orr said restored ecosystems in drylands can become increasingly self-sustaining over time, but they still require careful management and long-term monitoring, with success depending on factors such as water availability and soil health.

The environmental advocacy group Green Camel Bell in Gansu province works to explain desertification and its risks to farmers and herders, plant trees with them in dryland areas, and help restore and sustain vegetation.

“Efforts to combat desertification and restore forests should be linked to local livelihoods, so communities do not see economic development and ecological protection as an either-or choice,” said its founder Zhao Zhong.

Orr agreed that restoration efforts have a much greater chance of succeeding if they're structured to help communities benefit economically.

Zhu said that a key question for the project is how conservation can be sustained if the scale of human intervention and investment is reduced.

"This is what we are very concerned with and this is also the biggest challenge,” he said.

Yin hopes the younger generation will continue her work.

“We need to teach young people to love this Earth. If we love it with all our hearts, nature will love us in return,” she said.

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Video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this story.

___

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 decision paid off with a dominant victory.

Blaney emerged from a three-wide battle on the final lap of overtime in the weather-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta early Monday.

Blaney won every stage of the race and led 171 laps after starting on the pole, but the Team Penske Ford driver had to fight off challenges from Bubba Wallace and Christopher Hill, who finished second, on the final lap. Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top four.

Wallace was penalized for passing below the double yellow lines and finished 29th instead of second.

There was a delay of 3 hours, 9 minutes because of rain and lightning. The raced ended at 1:45 a.m. at EchoPark Speedway.

Blaney won the first two stages but brushed the wall with 29 laps remaining, causing possible damage on his right side, after he was cut off by Wallace. Blaney remained on the track despite telling his crew he felt a “terrible” vibration.

“I tried to make a move and just got loose and hit the fence,” Blaney said. “You know I think it’s just concrete in the wheels and paint and stuff like that but luckily it still drove really decent. ... It wasn’t too bad. Luckily it wasn’t enough damage we couldn’t keep running.”

Blaney's crew chief Jonathan Hassler said his team was able to view photos of the right side of the car and determine the best chance to win was to remain on the track.

“There were 30 cars on the lead lap at that point and not a lot of laps left,' Hassler said. ”Our best chance to win was to stay out there."

Multiple drivers, including Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst, were involved in a wreck with five laps remaining to set up the overtime.

There had been concern about approaching rain before lighting within eight miles of the 1.54-mile oval track near Atlanta led NASCAR officials to order cars off the track and advise fans to exit the grandstand. Rain began soon after the race was delayed. Following some caution laps and pit stops, the race went back to green at 12:02 a.m.

Blaney said he “took a nap and ate a little food” during the delay. Larson said the resumption of the race a few minutes before midnight “is definitely past my bedtime.”

Blaney won the pole and his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano joined him on the front row. A third Team Penske driver, Austin Cindric, moved up to third early in the race for an early strong showing for the Fords.

Cup Series points leader Denny Hamlin, who qualified 28th, finished 12th. Tyler Reddick was eighth.

Reddick, who won at EchoPark Speedway in February as part of his string of five wins in the season's first nine races, qualified only 31st on Saturday. By the 35th lap he already had moved up to fourth, proving early that he again would be a factor in Atlanta.

Clean start

The weather delay was the first caution for cause in the race, a dramatic departure from the weekend’s first race.

There were a track-record 13 cautions in Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race won by Justin Allgaier. That total included four red flag incidents, creating an ominous preview for the Cup Series race.

The first caution for an incident on the track in the Cup Series race came when AJ Allmendinger lost control of his Chevrolet with 67 laps remaining. Allmendinger blew a tire and hit the wall with 25 laps remaining to cause another caution.

Design to drive

This was Chase Elliott’s 10th year of his Design to Drive program with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He gave credit to the baseball-themed design of his No. 9 Chevrolet to two patients, 8-year-old Maximus Peace and 9-year-old Noelle Springer.

The program raised $545,500 for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in its first nine years. Elliott finished 13th.

Another strong start for Team Penske

Blaney’s Stage 1 win gave Team Penske Fords yet another strong start in Atlanta. Team Penske drivers have won Stage 1 in six of the last eight races at the track.

Blaney held off Reddick, who finished second in the first stage after qualifying 31st.

Up next

The Cup Series moves to North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, next weekend. Christopher Bell edged Joey Logano at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the NASCAR All-Star Race on May 18, 2025.

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

It happened around 7 a.m. Sunday on the east side of Hallandale Beach Boulevard near Southwest 55th Avenue in Pembroke Park.

Local 10 News was on scene and observed an Audi SUV that had flipped on its side after appearing to collide with a Range Rover.

According to a tow truck driver who responded quickly to the scene, the driver of the Audi fell asleep at the wheel and slammed his car into the Range Rover.

Fire rescue officials said there were no reported injures in the crash.

Authorities have no said whether anyone will be facing any charges.

According to his office, Graham died after a “brief and sudden illness.”

The message was posted on social media late Saturday evening.

The outpouring of messages and tributes to Graham have included U.S. senators and representatives, many oh whom are from Florida and worked with Graham over his many years working in politics, as well as other politicians and global figures.

You can read through them below:

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Lindsey was a true patriot and a devoted public servant who dedicated decades of his life to our country. His service and commitment to the American people leave a lasting mark on our nation.

My prayers are with his…

— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) July 12, 2026

Deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. He leaves behind a legacy of dedicated public service, a commitment to national security, and an unwavering fight for freedom. Lourdes & I are praying for his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/q0bmuD6CX2

— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) July 12, 2026

Tia and I are saddened to hear the news of @LindseyGrahamSC sudden passing. He was more than just a colleague he was a friend to both of us. I will miss working with him on our shared passion, protecting our national security. God bless you my friend. Our nation owes you a debt… pic.twitter.com/t9ftJqoaRL

— Mario Díaz-Balart (@MarioDB) July 12, 2026

My family and I mourn the sudden passing of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. There are people in this world who have the ability to change the air in a room through wit, humor, well-placed arguments, reason, or impassioned appeals. Lindsey Graham had the uncanny ability to pull them…

— Senator Ashley Moody (@SenAshleyMoody) July 12, 2026

Anne and I are shocked and heartbroken to learn of the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. We ask that you join us in keeping his family, friends, and team in your prayers during this time.

Lindsey was a good friend and a dedicated public servant for the people of South Carolina…

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) July 12, 2026

Woke up this morning to the news that Senator Graham had passed away. We are praying for his family during this difficult time.

— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) July 12, 2026

My heart is heavy this morning to learn of the passing of my friend and colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham.
 
Lindsey’s long and dedicated service in the Air Force and in Congress carried him to far-flung regions of the world. He was a strong advocate for the United States and a…

— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) July 12, 2026

Deeply saddened by the news of the passing of United States Senator Lindsey Graham. Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.

He visited Ukraine ten times during the years of Russia's full-scale invasion and was here with our people when it… pic.twitter.com/7oE2F5ZDAy

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 12, 2026

Sara and I grieve with the American people over the loss of our dear friend, Senator Lindsey Graham.

In our recent meeting, I said, "Lindsey is a great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine. We have no better friend than Lindsey."

Lindsey understood that the security… pic.twitter.com/JG2mUUAfFT

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 12, 2026

My heartfelt condolences on the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Estonia will remember him as a steadfast friend, a strong supporter of NATO's eastern flank, and an unwavering advocate for Ukraine. My thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues, and the American people.

— Margus Tsahkna (@Tsahkna) July 12, 2026

Sad to hear of the sudden passing of senator @LindseyGrahamSC.

A personal friend. A supporter of @NATO and Ukraine. A Transatlanticist. A friend of Finland.

Our link to South Carolina was a springboard for a great partnership. Not a week went by without an exchange of ideas.… pic.twitter.com/xNIgQRMFXa

— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) July 12, 2026

My statement on the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham: pic.twitter.com/hbrjnMXIQd

— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) July 12, 2026

The first time I met Lindsey Graham, I was 11 years old in a hotel lobby and he had just attended a political event with my Dad. He sat down next to me and told me that he loved my Dad. I remember liking his deep southern accent and smile and immediately felt comfortable around… pic.twitter.com/03mCGn9Xxl

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 12, 2026

Alexandra Rickham, director of sustainability at World Sailing, said this first-of-a-kind life cycle assessment project will give the organization the evidence it needs to make smarter choices and shape the future of Olympic equipment.

“Sailing naturally has a close relationship with nature, with the environment. It’s seen very much as this clean, green sport using the wind,” she said. “But the reality is that our equipment has an impact. It goes through some major industrial processes.”

Rickham said the project could be useful not just for Olympic sailing but for the broader sailing community and potentially other sports.

Competitive sailing, an Olympic sport since 1900, involves racing boats powered by only the wind and the waves. In the 2024 Olympics, one- and two-person crews sailed boats with hulls measuring as long as 17 feet (5 meters) around a course marked by buoys in the Bay of Marseille.

Outside the Olympics, competitive sailors race throughout the year in local events and larger regattas.

The boats are commonly made of carbon fiber, fiberglass and PVC foam, which take a lot of energy to produce in processes that emit carbon pollution. These materials don’t decompose and are challenging to recycle. So when elite sailors are done with them, the boats would need to be sold, passed onto junior sailors or sent for specialized recycling to avoid landfills.

As part of World Sailing’s initiative, the sustainability consultancy Marine Futures is collecting data from boat builders about their operations and surveying athletes about how many boats, sails, masts and other gear they use, how often they replace their equipment and how they travel with their vessels.

By the end of this year, the goal is to capture the environmental impact of a four-year Olympic cycle and identify which interventions by World Sailing could make the most difference, said Ollie Taylor, director of Marine Futures. Taylor said those could include encouraging builders to incorporate reusable materials, redesigning boats, shifting competition schedules to minimize travel and boat transport, or taking steps to ensure equipment is reused.

The goal is to remove guesswork and put data behind every decision, Taylor said.

Michelle Carnevale, president of the environmental organization 11th Hour Racing, said the effort shows how much progress has been made in recent years. Sustainability wasn’t talked about much in the sailing world a decade ago, and now environmental monitoring and benchmarking could become embedded into the rules of the sport, said Carnevale, whose organization sponsored the development of software being used in the project.

Walker Ross, an expert on sport ecology and sustainability at the University of Edinburgh, said he loves World Sailing’s leadership on sustainability and wishes more sports organizations were as thoughtful.

“Many sports have specialized equipment that can be quite resource intensive to produce and which are therefore difficult to recycle at the end of their useful lives,” he wrote in an email Wednesday.

Stuart Parkinson, executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, commended World Sailing for tackling the environmental impacts of boat construction. But Parkinson, whose organization calculates the environmental impact of major sporting events, said the biggest impacts of international sports come from travel, especially air travel by spectators.

Sailors want to be better stewards of the environment

At the Olympic level, sailors often buy equipment in multiples to pick out the best one in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge. That can add up to more waste, said Olympian Dave Hughes, who competed and coached for the U.S. team.

“There is a certain amount of competition to always have the best equipment and that can create a variety of opportunities for places where we can save on waste,” said Hughes, chair of the committee representing athletes at World Sailing.

Hughes said that if World Sailing can work with manufacturers to create higher standards, there would be less variation and less incentive to source multiple options for a given piece of equipment such as masts, foils or sails. That would help the environment and lower teams’ costs, said Hughes.

“Our connection to the ocean environment is daily, so therefore our experience of how the planet is changing is also daily,” Hughes said.

Santiago Sampaio, chief technical officer of the International Laser Class Association, which oversees a type of single-handed racing dinghy used in the Olympics, said he thinks it is possible to reduce the amount of equipment used by sailors annually and to use building materials that don’t harm the environment. The association is testing whether high-density PVC foam on the ILCA sailboat could be replaced with environmentally friendly recycled PET plastic.

Sampaio said it will be important to consider whether any change would impact a boat’s performance or longevity, render thousands of other boats already in use obsolete, or make it unaffordable for some teams to compete.

“We don’t want to make a boat that is too expensive. It’s great for the environment, but then we don’t have people in Fiji or in Ghana or Angola that can actually buy this environmentally sustainable boat, and then we lose those people.”

World Sailing hopes to inspire broader changes

Rickham said that ideally any changes or new regulations based on the project’s findings will be in place for the 2032 Olympics, if not earlier. The data could be used for selecting some equipment suppliers for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Starting in 2032, Olympic sailing classes will be required to provide an independently verified life cycle assessment.

Rickham said World Sailing hopes the wider sailing community and other sports organizations will follow its lead.

“That’s where our biggest area of impact is: the ripple effect that we can drive across Olympic sports and the industry of boating and recreational boating going forward,” she said.

Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto, thinks that could happen. World Sailing will have the data needed to push its suppliers to adopt more sustainable materials and circular options, and those suppliers’ other clients span the whole boating sector, Orr said.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A drone strike on a blacksmith shop in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood killed at least four Palestinians, according to officials at Shifa hospital, where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military acknowledged striking the area, saying it targeted “terrorist infrastructure,” without elaborating. It later said it struck a Hamas weapon production site.

Palestinians received an evacuation order from the military following the first strikes. Roughly an hour later, intense airstrikes targeted the same blacksmith shop. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance service said the strikes in Gaza City wounded 14 people.

Also on Sunday, Israeli gunfire killed 9-year-old Tala Abu Matar in a displacement camp in central Gaza, according to officials at the Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it was unaware of such an incident.

And an Israeli strike on a displacement tent in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis killed one Palestinian, according to health officials at Nasser hospital, where the body was taken. Israel’s military said it carried out a strike in that area and called it “part of routine activities.” The military said it was not aware of casualties.

Israeli strikes have lessened considerably since a ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, but they continue almost daily. Israel’s military says it targets Hamas and other militants, often asserting they were planning attacks. The strikes have also killed many civilians.

At least 1,098 Palestinians, including at least 260 children, have been killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in that time.

The Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 73,221 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals who maintain detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all deaths.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain largely deadlocked over the implementation of the ceasefire’s second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. Most of the population of over 2 million people remains displaced, with many living in crowded tent camps with little or no basic services or in the ruins of buildings.

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Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.

Footage circulating on social media from a residential security camera appears to capture the moment the car plunges into the stalls, while other videos show the driver being rushed to a nearby police car, as angry bystanders run after him shouting.

“The accident resulted in the deaths of several people and left others with injuries of varying severity,” the navy said, adding that it was cooperating with authorities to establish the circumstances surrounding the crash.

The navy statement did not provide an exact number of fatalities, but local media reported at least six deaths.

Officials at Gustavo Fricke Hospital said five injured people — including two babies — were admitted with various traumatic injuries that were not in life-threatening. Police, firefighters and paramedics treated numerous people at the scene. Two other injured people were discharged.

“At this stage of the evaluation, they are stable and out of life-threatening danger, but of course they are still awaiting the completion of all the examinations required in these cases,” Denise Cataldo, the hospital’s deputy director, said.

The off-duty member of the navy - the only person detained in connection with the incident - tested negative in a breathalyzer test, Interior Undersecretary Máximo Pavez said.

Col. Jorge Guaita, police prefect for Vina del Mar, told reporters the driver says he doesn’t remember anything and that the cause for the incident is yet to be determined.

“Witness statements from people who saw the crash indicate that the vehicle was traveling in the correct direction of traffic, at high speed,” Guaita said, adding that when the vehicle mounted the sidewalk, it spun around.

“Fortunately, the bus stop brought it to a halt. Otherwise, it might have continued forward and caused even more damage,” Guaita added.

Witnesses told local media the driver may have lost control of the vehicle after a collision.

Chilean President José Antonio Kast said on X that the incident had plunged “the entire country in mourning.”

“All state institutions are working to assist those affected and to establish with complete clarity the responsibilities for this painful event,” Kast said.

The Caupolican market is held every Thursday and Sunday in the upper part of Vina del Mar. It comprises more than 1,000 stalls, in addition to informal vendors in the surrounding area, and is typically visited by large crowds.

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

The sending off of Switzerland’s Breel Embolo in Saturday’s quarterfinal game against Argentina was the latest call that may have left fans scratching their heads, not least because of the confusing name of the newly implemented law that swung the match.

It is called the “mistaken identity” rule. Yet, technically, Embolo was not shown a second yellow card — resulting in a red — for a case of mistaken identity. It was because the referee Joao Pinheiro did not see in real time that the forward had simulated a foul under a challenge from Argentina’s Leandro Paredes.

Paredes was initially shown a yellow card, which is a key factor. Under FIFA rules, because Paredes was shown a card, the video assistant referee (VAR) can intervene and recommend that the onfield official reviews the sideline monitor.

After review the referee deemed Embolo to have committed a “clear simulation” and showed him a second yellow card and sent him off.

The rules state that the VAR can assist when the referee penalizes the “wrong team for an offense that results in a red or yellow card being shown to the wrong player.”

It was a pivotal point in the match, coming five minutes after Switzerland had made it 1-1. Argentina won 3-1 after extra time.

“The referee made the wrong decision,” Switzerland coach Murat Yakin said. “I know they will protect their referee but this rule destroyed our game today, and it’s very painful, and to be eliminated in that way hurts a lot.”

It is not the first time at this World Cup that teams have hit out against new rules or technology.

Germany infuriated by disallowed goal

Newly tightened regulations contributed to Germany’s shock elimination in the round of 32.

Defender Jonathan Tah’s potentially game-winning goal in extra time against Paraguay was ruled out after VAR review for a foul on goalkeeper Orlando Gill.

Replays showed Germany’s Waldemar Anton push Gill to the ground, but the minimal contact led to criticism of the decision. FIFA’s referees chief Pierluigi Collina said officials had been told to punish incidents when players try to block opponents and make no attempt to play the ball, especially where goalkeepers are concerned.

Germany went on to lose the game in a penalty shootout, with Tah firing a decisive spot kick over the bar.

Elimination could have a seismic effect on German soccer, with coach Julian Nagelsmann resigning and Jurgen Klopp expected to take over.

High tech ball costs Croatia

The words “connected ball technology” will likely haunt Luka Modric and Croatia for years to come.

The high-tech soccer ball fitted with “advanced sensors” used at this World Cup cost Croatia a dramatic late equalizer against Portugal in the round of 32.

Josko Gvardiol thought he’d scored in added time to make it 2-2, but the goal was ruled offside after VAR review because the in-ball sensors picked up the slightest of touches from Croatia’s Igor Mantanovic in the buildup that was undetectable to the naked eye or even video replays.

FIFA said the in-ball sensors, which capture data 500 times per second, were so finely tuned to be “capable of determining any slight contact ... allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions.”

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić, who has since stepped down, was not impressed.

“All these decisions take the joy out of football,” he said.

Egypt heartbroken against Argentina

It was shaping up to be one of the great World Cup upsets. Egypt led 2-0 against defending champion Argentina in the round of 16 and might have been 3-0 up if not for VAR.

With the score at 1-0 in the second half, Egypt’s Mostafa Zico finished off a sweeping attack. But wild celebrations were cut short when a foul on Argentina’s Lisandro Martinez earlier in the move was confirmed on video review and the goal was disallowed.

Argentina staged a spectacular late comeback to win 3-2.

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan launched a furious tirade.

“We have suffered injustice,” he said.

The Egyptian soccer federation went further.

“Several key incidents raised serious concerns and left profound questions about the consistency and fairness of decisions that directly influenced the course of the game,” it said.

Questions were raised about the amount time between the foul on Martinez, which happened deep in Egypt’s half, and the goal at the other end of the field.

FIFA referees chief Collina responded to criticism to say there was “no defined limit regarding either the distance from goal or the amount of time between the incident and the goal.”

“Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials,” he added.

A double blow for Norway against England

The high tech sensor was called into action again as England beat Norway 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

Norway’s players and staff were adamant the ball hit a cable that suspends overhead cameras in the buildup to Jude Bellingham’s equalizing goal in the first half. If it had, play would have been stopped.

But FIFA insisted there was no contact, saying the sensor “showed no peak in the ‘heartbeat of the ball’ when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire.”

Norway also had a goal disallowed when the score was 1-1 after VAR spotted a foul by Erling Haaland on England’s Elliot Anderson. The infringement came before the corner was taken and, under new rules to try to limit fouls by attacking teams during corner routines, VAR is allowed to intervene regarding incidents that happen even before the ball is kicked.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

El hombre, único detenido por el hecho, dio negativo su prueba de alcoholemia, confirmó el subsecretario de Interior Máximo Pavez, y todavía se desconocen las causas del siniestro, aunque testigos afirmaron a medios locales que el conductor habría perdido el control del auto tras una colisión.

En un comunicado, la Armada de Chile informó que el integrante de la institución “se encontraba fuera de servicio y conducía un vehículo particular”.

El presidente José Antonio Kast escribió en su cuenta de X que “la tragedia ocurrida en Viña del Mar enluta a todo un país”, y confirmó que “todas las instituciones del Estado están trabajando para atender a los afectados y establecer con total claridad las responsabilidades de este doloroso hecho”.

Autoridades del hospital Gustavo Fricke comunicaron el ingreso de cinco heridos -entre ellos dos bebés- sin riesgo vital, pero con diversos traumatismos. Personal de policía, bomberos y paramédicos atendieron a numerosas personas en el lugar. Otros dos afectados fueron dados de alta.

“Hasta este momento de la evaluación están estables, fuera de riesgo vital, pero por supuesto pendientes por completar todos los estudios que corresponde hacer en estos casos”, informó la subdirectora del centro asistencial Denise Cataldo.

La feria de Caupolicán se realiza jueves y domingos en el sector alto de Viña del Mar y la conforman más de mil puestos a los que se le suman vendedores informales alrededor del predio, por lo que es visitado por gran cantidad de personas.

McGregor's first fight in five years lasted just 1:09 due to a knee injury sustained while attempting an opening roundhouse kick.

“That opening jump switch kick was drilled daily for months, multiple times in warmup. Never an issue,” John Kavanagh wrote on Facebook. “Knee went when he (threw) the very first kick. Doesn’t get any worse than this.”

McGregor's highly-anticipated return to the octagon ended in disappointment when he awkwardly landed on his right knee in the opening seconds of Saturday's fight. McGregor tried to continue, but went to the mat twice more before the scheduled five-round match was halted by the referee.

McGregor and UFC President Dana White both said after the fight there was no pre-existing injury to the knee.

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

Monday will feature similar conditions. I am forecasting a high of 95° with it feeling like 105°. A heat advisory will be likely yet again across South Florida Monday. Showers will be limited as Saharan Dust prevails. Nonetheless, we will watch for a few isolated showers to pop inland while most of the metro will remain dry. Elevated temperature will remain on tap all week long.

In May, Benjamin Gliklich, the president and chief executive officer of Element Solutions since 2020, told Jim Cramer that he had been focusing on the AI infrastructure supply chain through electronics materials and industrial solutions.

“We are benefiting from the AI buildout, data center intensity ... 70% of our portfolio is electronics, and our portfolio speaks to all the places an electron goes in electronics hardware, so it’s one of the biggest electronic materials businesses in the world ... everything we sell is consumable and stays on the chip or the circuit board ... We see durable, long-term demand here,” Gliklich told Cramer.

On July 6, Element Solutions announced a cash-and-stock agreement with Solstice Advanced Materials, a New Jersey-based chemicals company that had separated from North Carolina-based multinational Honeywell in 2025.

David Sewell, president and chief executive officer of Solstice Advanced Materials, moved to defend the acquisition after Solstice’s stock fell 15% and Element Solutions 3% after the announcement.

“The combined company will be very well-positioned to benefit from generational tailwinds in high-growth end markets,” Sewell told The Wall Street Journal.

With cash on hand and $4.7 billion in bridge financing from Goldman Sachs to fund the cash portion of the transaction, the deal, which also includes absorbing the net debt, is slated to close in 2027, according to both companies.

“We believe this combination creates an unmatched electronic materials platform,” Sewell told MarketBeat, which reported on Sunday that Element Solutions shareholders are set to own about 44% of the combined company. Gliklich plans to join Solstice’s board.

More on AI business

• SK Hynix rises nearly 13% in debut on Wall Street as demand for memory chips soars amid AI frenzy
• European Union launches tech sovereignty initiative to boost chips, cloud and AI at home
• Meta plans billions for first AI data center in Canada, largest outside the US

Related links

• S&P Global: Solstice Advanced Materials Inc., Element Solutions Inc. ratings placed on CreditWatch negative on proposed acquisition
• Investopedia: Understanding the semiconductor supply chain and its importance
• Bloomberg: How AI is pushing the semiconductor supply Chain to the limit 

After following up his French Open title with a run to his first Wimbledon final, he's hoping to be more than that in the future.

Despite losing to Jannik Sinner on Centre Court on Sunday, the 29-year-old Zverev thinks he is closer than ever to challenging the top-ranked Italian and his main rival Carlos Alcaraz and giving tennis a Big Three again.

Sinner and Alcaraz had won the last nine Grand Slam tournaments between them before Zverev won his first major at Roland Garros this year.

“There was always this conversation, ‘who will be the third guy?’” Zverev said. “I’ve always been the third guy, but I was just far away from those two. But I’ve always been No. 3 in a way. So if I get closer to them ... it would be great.”

Alcaraz missed this year's French Open — and Wimbledon — with a wrist injury, and Sinner was eliminated in the second round in Paris after wilting in the heat. Zverev lost in five sets to Alcaraz in the semifinals at the Australian Open this year and lost 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 to Sinner on Sunday after overextending his knee in the third set.

“I think I’ve been pushing those guys,” Zverev said. “I haven’t beaten them this year, but I’ve pushed them to the limits, I would say.”

He may have been able to push Sinner even more had it not been for a slip during the third set, on Zverev's only break point of the match. The German fell to the ground and clutched his right knee in pain, with Sinner coming over to check on his opponent before helping Zverev up off the grass.

Zverev said he overextended his knee and that it hampered his serve — his biggest weapon — after that.

“I was struggling to push off on the serve a little bit. So my serve speed went down,” he said. “But everything else went fine. I was moving fine from the baseline and playing from the baseline fine.”

Despite the loss, Zverev will shed the “third guy” moniker in at least one way — he will overtake Alcaraz as No. 2 in the rankings on Monday.

Zverev had never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon before this year, but seems to have finally figured out how to play on grass.

“I’m 29 years old and this is the first time I actually believe I can win this trophy,” Zverev told the Centre Court crowd after his defeat.

Sinner seems to share that belief.

“Today you were so, so close. If you play like this, I'm very, very sure you're going to have this (trophy) at home as well," Sinner told his opponent. "I know the goal is for you to become the No. 1 in the world. You're very, very close. So we have to be very careful now.”

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

The 27-nation bloc unveiled a “tech sovereignty” package on Wednesday with measures to promote homegrown European alternatives to Big Tech services and hardware.

The efforts by Brussels have gained urgency as leaders worry about dependence on technologies from foreign providers, which they say could be “weaponized” against Europeans. Those fears crystallized after the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor was sanctioned by the Trump administration, which led to Microsoft canceling his email account, sparking fears of a “kill switch” hidden in U.S. tech services.

“Europe wants to be in the position to make its own choices, avoiding risky dependencies on single dominant suppliers, one company or one third country,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees tech sovereignty, told reporters in Brussels.

“Because we live in a world where geopolitics and technology go hand in hand. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this.”

A cornerstone of the package is a sequel to the EU’s 2023 Chips Act to further boost local production of semiconductors by cutting red tape for chip fabs and fostering a European chipmaking ecosystem.

Europe’s vulnerability to the global chip supply chain centered in East Asia was highlighted last year in a power struggle at the Chinese-owned, Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia.

Another key part of the package is supporting local cloud and AI development, with plans to triple Europe’s data center capacity by over the next five to seven years. The EU is pushing to expand data centers to keep up with the AI boom, which is driving demand for cloud computing services.

The proposals from the EU’s executive arm still need to be debated by the EU’s two other main institutions, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

The game was only in the 10th minute when Messi — who needed some help from a trainer after a blow near his right eye in the second half — helped to earn a corner kick with some nifty footwork. From there, the Inter Miami star delivered a perfect ball into the box, and Alexis Mac Allister was there to head it home for a 1-0 lead.

Switzerland equalized in the 67th minute and the game eventually went to extra time, but Julian Alvarez sent a rocket into the upper corner of the net in the 112th minute and Lautaro Martinez added a closing goal for good measure for the defending champions.

Now, Argentina will play England in the semifinals on Wednesday in Atlanta.

One of the first questions asked of Swiss coach Murat Yakin before the match was how to stop Messi, who had scored in his last nine World Cup matches, his last six in the knockout round. He also holds the tournament record with 21 career goals.

“This is a very surprising question,” Yakin replied, jokingly. “There are many solutions, and we will try to find the best solution. ... We can talk a lot about it, but in the end it has to really translate onto the pitch, and we do have our solutions.”

In truth, the Swiss did a good job of holding the dynamic goal-scorer in check.

Messi began his World Cup romp in the same building just over three weeks ago, when he scored his first-ever hat trick in the tourney while sending Argentina to a 3-0 win over Algeria. He had gone on to score eight goals as his team reached the quarterfinal round.

Not everything has been charmed for Messi during the World Cup, though. He missed penalty kicks against both Austria and Egypt, and the second one could have proven catastrophic given Argentina eventually found itself in a 2-0 hole.

But it also was Messi who helped get Argentina on the board in the 79th minute by assisting on Cristian Romero’s header, and it was the unflappable and ageless attacking midfielder who beat Egypt goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir four minutes later to level the score.

Enzo Fernandez eventually provided the winner in stoppage time to send Argentina into the matchup with Switzerland.

“He’s like a machine,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said of Messi, whose every World Cup match could be his last in a national team jersey. “Those that are not so much acquainted with him might be surprised, and at 39 years of age some people might think he will not rise to the challenge. But I’ve said this before, as long as he wants to be the best — and I’m not saying this because I’m coaching him — but because if he wants to continue, he will continue to be the best.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Blue Jays announced Sunday that Cease will be the American League's starter. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who is managing the NL, said Sanchez is his starter.

“I think he deserves it. He’s the hometown ballplayer and I think the city of Philly will enjoy watching him and supporting him,” Roberts said. “I had a conversation with him this morning. ... He was very grateful. In a time when guys are not wanting to participate, this guy in the Midsummer Classic for fans, I think this is a good thing. He’s very excited about pitching.”

Also Sunday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said New York's Cam Schlittler was not planning to pitch in the All-Star Game, then hours later said the right-hander could be available after all.

With less than 72 hours left before the game, there was no replacement planned for the AL roster if Schlittler wasn't going to pitch.

“The staff's had a lot of injuries this year ... I don't want to put that risk in there of kind of letting the team down,” Schlittler said after New York's win at Washington. “I'm on the roster, and if they need me I'll throw. That's a conversation I'll have within the next day or two.”

Schlittler was a candidate to start, boasting an AL-leading ERA of 2.05. He pitched for the Yankees on Saturday.

Sanchez is 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA this season. He's third in the major leagues with 144 strikeouts. The left-hander's streak of 50 2/3 scoreless innings was a highlight of the major league season so far.

Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski, who leads the majors in ERA (1.62), WHIP (0.76) and strikeouts (167), was replaced on the All-Star team earlier in the week, when it appeared he would be starting for the Brewers on Sunday. Then Milwaukee scratched him from that start because of arm fatigue.

Cease is 6-4 with a 2.56 ERA for the Blue Jays. He nearly threw his second career no-hitter Wednesday against San Francisco, but it was broken up in the ninth inning.

Cease is the first Toronto pitcher to start the All-Star Game since Roy Halladay in 2009.

Cease got the word from his manager, John Schneider, who will skipper the AL squad, during a team meeting before Sunday’s series finale at San Diego.

“It’s pretty surreal. I didn’t know what to say. Everyone’s saying, ‘Give a speech,’ and I’m like, I was pretty speechless, so it was just a really cool experience,” Cease said.

“It’s really cool how all of these things have lined up, you know, even being able to pitch in it and having a good enough first half to be in the running for it and all that. And the fact that pretty much our entire staff is going, it’s really a really great recipe," Cease added.

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AP freelance writers Bernie Wilson in San Diego and Doug Padilla in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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

The movie, which cost a reported $250 million to produce, earned just $43 million from ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Internationally, it earned $52 million from 50 markets, adding up to a $95 million global debut.

The studio bet big on “Moana,” one of its most popular franchises. The 2016 animated film is the most watched movie on Disney+. Its sequel, which was stitched together from a planned streaming series, made over $1 billion and scored a Thanksgiving record when it opened with $225 million in 2024. “Moana 2” was also released just 19 months ago.

This latest “Moana,” directed by Thomas Kail, brings Dwayne Johnson back as the demigod Maui and introduces Catherine Lagaʻaia as the adventuring Polynesian princess. Despite praise for Lagaʻaia, the film set sail on a wave of dismal reviews from critics for being essentially a shot-for-shot remake of the original.

What audiences say about “Moana”

It’s currently sitting at a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, the majority of whom were women (66%), were less negative: According to PostTrak, 63% said they would “definitely” recommend the film to their friends. Parent reactions were even stronger, with 78% saying they would recommend it to other parents. It also got a promising A- CinemaScore.

Disney’s live action remakes of beloved animated films, new and old, have had their share of successes and disappointments. Some have made over $1 billion, including “Lilo & Stitch,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Others have floundered, most notably last year’s “Snow White,” which made only $205 million worldwide. “Moana” opened more on par with “Snow White” ($42.2 million).

Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said “Moana’s” debut could also be a product of PG-rated oversaturation in the marketplace: Universal’s “Minions & Monsters” was in second place with $20.5 million and “Toy Story 5” was close behind in third place with $18.5 million.

“Families love going to the movies, but right now there are three of them,” Dergarabedian said. “That’s a lot of competition.”

PG-rated films outgrossed others in 2024 and 2025, so “Moana’s” performance may not be a case of “family movie fatigue,” he said, but simply shows there can be a ceiling. Families have to make a choice, and after four weekends, “Toy Story 5” is still going strong with a running global total of $879.1 million.

There also are signs that these movies might not sink or swim based on the opening weekend alone. Although “Minions & Monsters” opened below expectations over the Fourth of July holiday, it also had a modest 45% drop this weekend. Its running domestic total is currently sitting at $108.3 million.

Elsewhere at the box office, horror and history

The weekend’s other big new opener was definitely not PG: The R-rated horror “Evil Dead Burn,” a Warner Bros. release, opened in fourth place with $13.7 million. It’s a significant dip from the previous two films in the series, which both opened in the $25 million range.

Angel Studios’ George Washington movie “Young Washington” rounded out the top five films in its second weekend in theaters, with $6.4 million. Olivia Wilde’s chamber dramedy “The Invite” landed in sixth place in its first weekend in wide release, with $5.7 million from 1,610 theaters.

And though it has dropped out of the top 10 domestically, “Michael” has officially crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, only the second film this year to do so after “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” It’s also now the highest grossing musical biopic of all time, a title previously held by “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The total domestic box office for the year is currently sitting just under $5.2 billion, up about 10.7% from this point last year. While both May and June were very strong — both generating over $1 billion in North America — July, Dergarabedian said, has faced some headwinds with a string of underperformers, including “Supergirl.” Things will likely pick up next week with the arrival of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” followed by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” the weekend after.

“They could power a stronger August than July at the box office, which would be very unusual,” Dergarabedian said.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Moana,” $43 million.

2. “Minions & Monsters,” $20.5 million.

3. “Toy Story 5,” $18.5 million.

4. “Evil Dead Burn,” $13.7 million.

5. “Young Washington,” $6.4 million.

6. “The Invite,” $5.7 million.

7. “Obsession,” $3.8 million.

8. “Supergirl,” $3.6 million.

9. “Disclosure Day,” $3.2 million.

10. “Backrooms,” $1.5 million.

Footage shared online by first responders shows a huge blaze raging and plumes coming out of the front door of the Na Ladprao beer hall in the northern part of the Thai capital. People are seen trying to flee as thick black smoke billows into the sky.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, but Bangkok Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt said investigators would examine the ceiling materials and whether any emergency exits may have been obstructed, potentially making it more difficult for people to evacuate.

The Bangkok city government said the fire broke out shortly before midnight Sunday.

By Monday morning, the site had been cordoned off as dozens of Thai forensic officers combed through the burned remains for clues about what caused the fire.

The building's street-facing windows had been blown out and debris littered the sidewalk, including charred television sets, speakers and an electric guitar. From outside, the scale of the devastation was visible through the shattered windows, where burned-out tables, some still holding empty beer bottles, remained inside.

Some Buddhist monks visited the site Monday morning to pray for the victims, while nurses handed out face masks to people nearby to help protect them from smoke and lingering fumes from the burned-out building.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters at the scene that 27 people died.

Anutin said a musician who was performing at the bar told him that he saw smoke coming out of a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out, then an explosion was heard and thick smoke quickly filled the place.

Many of victims were found at the restrooms at the back of the bar, Anutin added.

Bangkok Gov. said 63 people were taken to the hospital, 22 of them in critical conditions. He said authorities are working on identifying victims as many did not carry an ID or were unconscious.

Firefighters took about half an hour to bring the fire under control. Photos of the aftermath show charred tables and chairs, and the damaged interior of the bar.

A registration spot was set up to gather information from relatives coming at the scene looking for their loved ones.

Singer Sukanya Wongwongwai said she was performing nearby when she heard news of the fire and rushed to the scene because several of her bandmates were performing at the bar. She said one of them died, three were hospitalized, and one hasn't been located.

“From what I heard from people who were inside, when the fire started everything went dark. The power was out and there was smoke everywhere, so they couldn’t locate other people,” she said.

In 2022, 14 people were killed by a fire at a music bar in the eastern part of the country. And more than a decade before that, 66 people were killed and more than 200 injured in a fire during a Jan. 1, 2009 New Year’s Eve celebration at the Santika nightclub in Thailand's capital. That blaze was apparently sparked by an indoor fireworks display.

A former military lawyer who reached the rank of colonel in the Air Force, the wisecracking Graham was known for his Southern drawl, political flexibility and reliably hawkish stance on foreign policy. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 as a determined opponent of Donald Trump, then became one of the new president's staunchest allies.

In his typical high-energy manner, Graham had just returned to Washington from a trip to Ukraine, having announced a deal with the Trump administration for a new package of sanctions against Russia. He was due to appear on NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday to discuss it. Trump appeared in the senator's place.

“I just can’t believe it,” Trump said. “He was like a member of the family.”

Graham died Saturday night after what a preliminary report from the Washington, D.C., medical examiner's office said was a tear in his aorta stemming from the hardening of his arteries. He was 71.

His death brought encomiums from world leaders and, closer to home, Republicans and Democrats alike, a mark of his influence and his ability to befriend colleagues of different political persuasions. In an outpouring of tributes, lawmakers expressed their shock and remembered his good humor, kindness and zest for the political arena.

“He is the quintessential boy makes good story,” said Bob McAlister, a communications consultant who long worked with Graham. “I don’t know of anybody who, or know very few people who, started out with less and gained as much from life as he did. I guess that may be my epitaph for him.”

Graham transformed from Trump critic to ally

Graham was part of the “Never Trump” movement during his 2016 run and feuded heatedly with his reality television star rival during the campaign. He was especially upset at Trump for “slandering” his close friend and political brother-in-arms, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “You know, run for president, but don’t be the world’s biggest jackass,” Graham said.

In response, Trump announced Graham's cellphone number during a campaign rally, leading Graham to muse about whether he should get an Android or iPhone to replace it.

By coming around to Trump, particularly in the years after McCain's death in 2018, Graham amassed influence as an intermediary to the White House. Graham and Trump enjoyed a close relationship and became frequent golfing partners, though their relationship ruptured for a time after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Still, a year later, Graham was urging Republicans to rally behind Trump again rather than side with critics calling for his political exile.

“Can I just say to my Republican colleagues — can we move forward without President Trump?" Graham said on Fox News in 2022. “The answer is no,” he said, adding “we can't grow without him.”

His journey from the pool hall to Congress

Graham was born to Millie and Florence James Graham of Central, South Carolina on July 19, 1955. The couple owned a restaurant, bar and pool hall in the town. Graham, his parents and younger sister all lived in one room in the back of the building.

“It was one room, where we all slept, we all ate, we watched TV, the sofa, everything was in one room,” his sister Darline recalled in 2015.

As a child, Graham had free reign of the Sanitary Cafe, where he occasionally would sneak a swig of beer or a puff on a customer's cigarette, he wrote in an autobiography. The patrons, who would take him hunting and fishing as if he were their own son, called him “Stinkball.”

“It was a good life,” Graham recalled to The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina. “I could go grab a Coke any time I wanted to. In my world, I was as rich as I could be.”

Like many institutions at the time, the Sanitary Cafe was segregated, Graham wrote. Black patrons had to take their alcohol to drink outside the establishment until the 1970s. But Graham said his father, known to all as “Dude,” would not tolerate his white customers using slurs against Black people.

Only a C student in high school, Graham still became the first member of his family to attend college at the University of South Carolina. While he was at college, his mother died of Hodgkin lymphoma. Months later, his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died of a heart attack as Graham started his first semester of law school.

Graham, a lifelong bachelor who never had children, became the guardian for his younger sister after his parents' death, and later in life often extolled the benefits of Social Security that helped keep them financially afloat.

After earning his law degree, Graham served as a judge advocate general in the Air Force, starting as a defense attorney for accused troops and eventually rising to the Air Force's chief prosecutor in Europe, based in Germany. He returned home in 1989 but remained a reserve or National Guard member for decades.

Even in the Senate, Graham briefly switched back to active status to help advise the Air Force during the Iraq War and was awarded the Bronze Star medal for service in 2014 before formally retiring as a colonel in 2015.

Graham had a lead role in Bill Clinton's impeachment

Upon returning to South Carolina, Graham soon dove into politics. He won a statehouse seat in 1992 and then a U.S. House seat in 1994. He became one of a group of young, combative Republican lawmakers who pushed to oust then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich for cutting too many deals with the Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

Graham took on a prominent role in Clinton's impeachment for an affair with a White House intern. “Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?" Graham asked at one House hearing. After the GOP-controlled House impeached Clinton, Graham became one of the managers of the case in the Senate, which voted to acquit the Democrat.

In 2002, when Strom Thurmond, South Carolina's senior senator, decided to retire at 99, Graham ran for his seat and won. He quickly took to the Senate and its emphasis on relationships, starting some mornings by eating alone in the stately Senate dining room, then throwing himself into the day’s bubbling political fights.

Vice President JD Vance recalled experiencing Graham’s approach to politics up close when Vance was first elected to the Senate.

“I remember getting into a shouting match with Lindsey about a Ukraine funding bill at lunch and then learning the very next day that he was pushing rail legislation I really cared about behind the scenes,” Vance said. “That was Lindsey Graham. He fought like hell for the things he believed in, and he was just as willing to go to bat for you when it counted.”

Graham had a gang of ‘Three Amigos’ in the Senate

Much of Graham's career was defined in large measure by his close relationship with McCain and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who later became an independent. Calling themselves “The Three Amigos,” the senators traveled the world and pushed for U.S. intervention in several places, particularly the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks.

When McCain died in 2018, Graham broke down in tears on the Senate floor as he memorialized his friend.

“He failed a lot, but he never quit,” Graham said. “And the reason we’re talking about him today and the reason I’m crying is because he was successful in spite of his failures.”

In the latter part his career Graham leaned on his legal background to take a key role in judicial appointments, especially to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2018, when Trump's nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, faced accusations of sexual misconduct, Graham helped turn the tide with an impassioned defense of the federal judge.

“Boy, y’all want power. Boy, I hope you never get it,” Graham said, accusing Democrats of setting up Kavanaugh and breaking trust in the nomination process. "I hope the American people can see through this sham.”

Still, Graham's partisan side was usually tamped down as he positioned himself as a dealmaker. Almost any bipartisan “gang” in the Senate always has had him as a member.

“He was a fierce Republican partisan one day and a key bipartisan ally the next,” recalled Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who worked with him on immigration legislation.

Kevin Bishop, who worked for Graham for 27 years and later ran for Congress himself, said the senator inspired fierce loyalty in his staff.

“He was incredibly fun to be around,” Bishop said. People would walk into his office with “pitchforks” and Graham would turn them around, he said.

“He was willing to accept a lot of criticism to move the ball forward,” Bishop said.

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Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, and Lisa Mascaro, Seung Min Kim and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

The turf was more brown than green, a sign of hot weather that has been baking Europe and an ominous sign for what figures to be a fast and fiery British Open starting Thursday. The wind was strong, not unusual for links golf along the Lancashire Coast.

From 256 yards away on the par-4 14th, Uihlein hit 6-iron that landed short of the green and wound up 40 yards beyond the hole. From 226 yards into the wind on the 18th, he smoked a 2-iron — he can't remember the last time he had a 2-iron in the bag — and was just short of the green.

But it was the 15th hole that gave him pause.

“What the hell?" he said from the back of the tee of a 241-yard hole. It was only a few holes later that Uihlein, a former U.S. Amateur champion now with LIV Golf, said to no one in particular, “I just don't remember a 240-yard par 3.”

That's because it wasn't there in 2017, the last time the Open was at Royal Birkdale.

It's the second time in four years the R&A has effectively built a new hole, and as Rory McIlroy said last week, it's sure to be a talking point.

Royal Birkdale began to fill Sunday for the final major of the year, a time to get reacquainted or to see it for the first time. Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka were among those who played, both coming down from the Scottish Open after missing the cut — a first for Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, in nearly four years.

Rickie Fowler shook off the jet lag on Saturday with a casual round at nearby West Lancashire and played all 18 holes on Sunday at Royal Birkdale with Akshay Bhatia, a Birkdale newcomer.

While the changes got their attention — No. 15 is the only new hole, but the reachable par-4 fifth has been redesigned and a few angles on other holes are different — what really stood out is the color of the grass, the firmness of the turf and the forecast.

Sunscreen might outpace the sale of fish and chips this week.

“It's as close to Carnoustie as I've seen,” said Joe Greiner, the caddie for Bhatia who worked at Carnoustie in 2018 when it was so yellow that players were driving the first green and Hideki Matsuyama hit a 3-wood into the burn nearly some 425 yards because the ball was rolling so much.

This is links golf at its best.

“It's windy and firm and you need creativity to land it short — very short — of the green and not be afraid of it,” Uihlein said. And then he flipped through the irons in his bag and said, “Loft means nothing when it's like this.”

Jordan Spieth arrived on the weekend to Royal Birkdale, where he won the third leg of the career Grand Slam in 2017 with an astonishing finish. He was in deep grass in the dunes well right of the 13th fairway, took a penalty drop and then got free relief on the driving range and managed to save bogey. He followed birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to win by three.

It would be a nice moment to relive, except that he can't.

The driving range has changed location, and that area where Spieth took his drop is now a Fan's Village and marked out-of-bounds. The par-3 14th where he began his big run no longer exists. Instead the 14th is what used to be the par-5 15th, the fairway shifted.

Uihlein returned to Royal Birkdale as one of 20 players who went through 36-hole qualifiers in the U.K. Three more spots were added from the Scottish Open, including Johnny Keefer.

The final spot was to be decided in a “Last Chance Qualifier” at Royal Birkdale on Monday. The idea was to give 12 players one last opportunity to secure a spot in golf's oldest championship.

As for Scheffler, his next task was the ceremonial return of the claret jug he won at Royal Portrush last year. And then has four rounds to try to win it back.

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

Going deep in a major league ballpark sure gives hope in Tampa Bay that Flewelling could fit in fine once he gets there.

“I think I'm getting more ready every single day,” Flewelling said. “So I think it could be soon.”

Flewelling hit a two-run home run and earned MVP honors, and the American League team managed by 80-year-old Larry Bowa needed only five hits to beat the National League 6-1 on Sunday in the All-Star Futures Game.

Flewelling is rated the second-best prospect in Tampa Bay's organization and was a third-round pick in the 2024 amateur draft. Flewelling and Theo Gillen — Tampa Bay's top-rated prospect — combined for three RBIs in the seven-inning game that included most of minor league baseball's best players.

Flewelling catches for Class-A Bowling Green and the 20-year-old Gillen is an outfielder for Double-A Montgomery.

Flewelling has kept an eye on the standings with the Rays in first place in the AL East.

“I'm really willing to impact the race,” Flewelling said. “I'm excited to get up there one day and hopefully help them out.”

Wood shows promise in his inning

Phillies minor leaguer Gage Wood earned the start for the National League and allowed one run and threw 11 pitches in his one inning of work. Leo De Vries, a 19-year-old Athletics shortstop ranked as the No. 2 prospect by MLB.com, hit a leadoff single and stole second and third and scored on a groundout by Boston's Franklin Arias. Wood threw nine strikes and hit 97 mph on his fastest pitch.

“I know before that first pitch, my heart was pumping,” Wood said.

Former Phillies outfielder and NL Futures manager Shane Victorino made the call to tell Wood he would start the game.

“I hope it was a moment that he’ll never forget, other than the next call hopefully to the big leagues soon enough,” Victorino said. “It’s always an honor to hand the ball to someone obviously that’s a hometown or home-team kid and get that opportunity hopefully someday to pitch for that team.”

The Phillies drafted Wood in the first round (26th overall) last season and signed him for $3 million. He made eight starts this season for Class-A Clearwater and eight for Double-A Reading. Wood has a 3.44 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 55 innings total this season.

Wood naturally hoped to get the call one day to help the Phillies in a pennant race at Citizens Bank Park.

“When I went up those steps and I got out there on the grass, I looked up and I was like, ‘Wow, this looks way bigger than from the suite when we were here when we signed last year,’” Wood said. “That was awesome. The park's huge. Everybody here was like, man, you've got a good home park. I was like, yeah, this place is sick.”

Winners and losers

The NL tied the game at 1-1 in the third on a Jesús Made RBI groundout against Toronto's Nolan Perry. Made is a 19-year-old Milwaukee Brewers infielder who is rated MLB.com’s top prospect.

Wood's teammate and Reading closer Wen-Hui Pan allowed Flewelling's two-run shot into the second row of the right-field seats in the sixth. Flewelling was the third Rays player to ever win Futures MVP honors.

Boston's Anthony Eyanson earned the win and San Diego's Kash Mayfield took the loss.

Former Phillies are the managers

Victorino was the center fielder on the 2008 World Series champion Phillies and Bowa the starting shortstop on the 1980 World Series winners — the only two World Series championship teams in franchise history.

Bowa, a senior adviser to baseball operations for the Phillies, is still a fixture at games and usually can be spotted hitting grounders during infield practice.

He was a five-time NL All-Star and won a pair of Gold Gloves and later managed the San Diego Padres and was the 2001 NL Manager of the Year with the Phillies.

“I've been very fortunate, not only with health and the good man upstairs, but the organization” has been great, Bowa said. “We've had three or four managers; they all tell me to come down to spring training. (Owner) John Middleton's been great. The fact they're letting me do this, I mean without the help of those guys, I couldn't suit up the way I'm doing right now.”

By the numbers

Among past Futures Games players, 86.8% have gone on to play in at least one major league game, while 259 total players (21.3%) have been selected to play in at least one major league All-Star Game.

Twenty-five of the players that appeared in last season's game in Atlanta have played in the big leagues this season.

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

The agreement would resolve allegations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated U.S. and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City.

The accident was the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in the U.S. in nine years and surpassed all 22 previous ones on the same pipeline system combined, according to a 2021 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The total amount of oil spilled would have nearly filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

South Bow also would pay Kansas more than $3 million for environmental restoration projects under a proposed decree filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas. A judge would have to approve the proposed decree after a 30-day public comment period.

“The oil spill blanketed land and water, rendering the waterway lifeless and useless and requiring extensive cleanup and remediation,” Jeffrey Hall, the EPA's assistant administrator for its enforcement office, said in a statement. “The substantial penalty reflects the seriousness of the environmental harm.”

South Bow spokesperson Sara Hunter said in an emailed statement Sunday that the company “proactively” launched its response to the spill before receiving formal directives from government officials, including “comprehensive environmental remediation” completed in February 2024. She also said that since the spill, the company has done more than 12,000 miles (19,312 kilometers) of pipeline inspections and 400 excavations to examine pipe and make repairs where necessary.

“This work reflects our ongoing commitment to the safe, reliable operation of our pipeline system and to continuously strengthening pipeline integrity,” she said.

The company that built the pipeline, TC Energy, spun off South Bow as a separate firm in 2024, after the Kansas cleanup was done.

No pipeline workers or area residents were injured in the spill, and officials said public water supplies weren't affected. However, a complaint filed Friday by the U.S. government along with the proposed settlement said more than 2,700 animals were harmed or killed. The area is home to an endangered species, the long-eared bat.

In a May 2023 report for the U.S. government, an engineering consulting firm said that a bend in the Keystone system where the spill occurred had been “overstressed” since its installation in December 2010 — likely because construction activity itself altered the land around the pipe. The complaint filed Friday in court said soil under the pipe had been “improperly compacted” and that while the company re-excavated the site in 2013, it did not replace that section of pipe.

The 2,689-mile (4,327-kilometer) Keystone system carries thick, Canadian tar sands oil to refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas.

In April, President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead for South Bow and another company to build a second pipeline from Canada to Wyoming, a smaller version of a massive $8 billion pipeline project known as Keystone XL blocked by former President Joe Biden's administration in 2021 over environmental concerns.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

The full episode can be seen at the top of this page.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

The French leader and others were inaugurating a statue honoring Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful 19th century treason conviction exposed deeply rooted anti-Jewish bias in France. Sunday marked 120 years since Dreyfus’ exoneration by France’s highest court, where the statue now stands.

Hours before the ceremony, police evacuated some 300 people from the Paris suburb of Sarcelles because intelligence services identified a suspicious vehicle containing a military weapon near a synagogue. Sarcelles has a significant Jewish population, and prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the vehicle contained a ″long military weapon,″ and that it’s unclear if the weapon was meant to target the Jewish community.

France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population and saw a surge in antisemitic acts, including threats, vandalism and physical violence following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, accused Macron of further fueling antisemitism by deciding to recognize Palestine last year.

“We know that the old demons of antisemitism have never completely disappeared from our country,″ the French president said at Sunday’s ceremony for Dreyfus, calling for constant vigilance to prevent acts that ″target people because of who they are.″

Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was convicted of treason in 1894 after being falsely accused of passing military secrets to Germany, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Prominent intellectuals, including novelist Emile Zola, argued that Dreyfus had been made a scapegoat by the French military.

He was cleared of all charges on July 12, 1906 by the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court. Macron declared July 12 to be a national day of commemoration of Dreyfus’ innocence, starting this year.

After he was exonerated, Dreyfuss rejoined the French army and served in World War I. He died in 1935.

Dreyfus’ 99-year-old grandson Charles was among those attending Sunday’s ceremony.

“I must sadly admit that I would not have imagined, at my age, seeing antisemitism resurface with such virulence in our country,″ Charles Dreyfus said.

His sorrow, however, was tempered by what he called ″the deep joy″ at seeing his grandfather’s statue erected outside the Palace of Justice, depicting Dreyfus proudly wielding a broken sword.

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Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

A program. The Royal Box seating chart with their names on it. A hat.

They’re creating and cherishing memories now with their partners because of what’s ahead. The brothers have a rare gene mutation that is all but certain to lead to frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Their mother, Geraldine, died from the disease in 2016 at age 52.

The brothers, who expect symptoms to begin in their mid-40s, ran 33 marathons in 33 days on their mission to raise awareness of the brain disease.

"We have been able to turn adversity into something quite hopeful by advocating for other people and trying to bring the dementia community together and hopefully that will be evidence to them that they can live positive lives too,” Jordan, 31, told The Associated Press in an interview.

It started at the London Marathon, where Jordan ran all 26.2 miles with a refrigerator strapped to his back — symbolic of the weight family members bear for loved ones with FTD.

The next day, they began their “Irish Challenge,” a marathon per day in each of the island’s 32 counties. Their mother’s family has Irish roots and 12 relatives on that side have died of the disease, they said.

The outpouring in Ireland for the “FTD Brothers” was overwhelming, with supporters joining in to run and root them on, appearances on national TV, and an invitation from Ireland’s deputy prime minister to speak to government officials about how they can better support people with dementia.

From the British side, Prince William wrote to congratulate them on their “inspiring journey.” The All England Club then followed with an invitation to the Royal Box, where the brothers and their respective partners watched the men’s semifinal matches on Friday.

They planned to be special guests of the Gaelic Athletic Association on Sunday for the national Gaelic football semifinals at Croke Park in Dublin.

Cruel realities of FTD

The U.K.'s National Health Service describes FTD as an uncommon dementia subtype that is “highly heritable” and characterized by “changes in behavior, personality, language and motor function.” With a MAPT mutation — which the brothers carry — the disease is "fully penetrant," the NHS says, with the mean age of onset at 49 years “with a strong correlation with parental age of onset.”

The brothers' mother died at home in Redditch, just south of Birmingham, about six years after being diagnosed.

“It’s more of a guarantee that we’re going to get it," said Jordan, citing a 99.9% likelihood. “Rather than an if, it’s a matter of when.”

Both Jordan and Cian, 25, have undergone testing that confirmed the genetic problem. Their older sister, Kennedy, tested negative.

There is no cure for FTD.

“If I’m totally honest, and I’m quite brazen about this, I don’t believe that a cure will come in time for me and my brother,” Jordan said. “I’ve got the best part of 10 to 15 years before symptoms likely arise. ... We just want to move things forward in all different areas including vital research but welfare support and services is just as important and something that we get echoed a lot to us by the families and the people who we’re advocating for."

Working with Alzheimer's groups in Britain and Ireland, they've raised nearly 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) and remain focused on getting more government support for services so that “people living with dementia and their families don’t feel alone, don’t feel isolated and that’s just as important as finding the treatment and the cure," Jordan said.

Upcoming plans include running the Chicago Marathon in October and taking a group of people to hike Mount Kilimanjaro through their non-profit FTD Brothers Foundation.

Royal Box experience

The brothers were part of a Royal Box contingent that included actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Hugh Laurie. They chatted with West Indies cricket great Brian Lara and journalist/podcaster Louis Theroux.

“I’ve watched his stuff over the years," Jordan said of Theroux. “He asked what our connection was to the event. We opened up to him about that. He found that very interesting. Very humble man.”

Jordan said his family was “very grateful” for the All England Club's invitation in a bucket-list experience that their partners "can hold on to in those difficult times in the future when sadly we won’t remember them ourselves.”

“It seems silly, but we’ve collected artifacts and come away with a program and our little name placards and the seating plan for the day in the Royal Box and took away a hat each and things like that,” Jordan added.

“It’s things like that hopefully if we have families of our own, and we have children of our own, our partners will be able to show them that along with photographs of the day and show them what we were able to do in the face of adversity.”

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

“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president," an emotional Graham said once authorities cleared the rioters and allowed senators to reclaim their chamber. "All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”

It wasn't, of course.

Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died unexpectedly on Saturday night at age 71, realized that his party's future was inextricably tied to Trump and quickly reverted back to being a staunch defender. The shift made what had once seemed like a final rupture into just another twist in the topsy-turvy relationship between the powerful senator and the president who came to dominate their party.

“Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said in May 2021, just four months after the Jan. 6 attack. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”

Trump, who called Graham a "true American Patriot” in a social media post Sunday, appeared shocked by the lawmaker's sudden passing.

“I just can’t believe it,” the president told NBC's “Meet the Press." “He was like a member of the family."

Graham often advised Trump on foreign affairs, particularly on matters pertaining to Israel, Ukraine and Iran. He was a frequent visitor at the White House.

“At the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: 'I’ve never had this much fun in my life,’” deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. He said such gatherings "were filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter.”

Trump recalled that during his last conversation with Graham, he told his friend, “We’ll see you soon, come over anytime you want.”

Graham once said Trump's candidacy was like ‘being shot in the head’

The senator and Trump first clashed while competing for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Graham described Trump as “unfit for office,” and was angered when Trump denigrated the military service of Graham's close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Trump suggested, “I like people that weren't captured” when talking about McCain's years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Trump got mad enough at Graham to release the senator's personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. He smashed one with a meat cleaver and another with a golf club, then used lighter fluid, a blender and toaster oven to pulverize others before tossing one off the roof.

Graham eventually likened Trump's winning the nomination to “being shot in the head” and said he refused to vote for Trump that November. But the pair later bonded over golf and what Graham described as a mutual and irreverent sense of humor.

Trump and Graham began so frequently hitting the links together that the senator started seeing it as something of a career builder, leaning heavily into the kind of over-the-top flattery Trump relishes. In 2017, Graham joked that Trump had beaten him “like a drum” on the course — even worse than in the presidential primary.

“Their true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told ABC’s “This Week.” Scott said that relationship was forged as political adversaries but also strengthened by spending 100-plus hours golfing together.

During Trump's first term, Graham helped advance Trump's nominees to the Supreme Court, lent credibility to the White House's legislative agenda and even at times became part of the president's inner circle. He frequently said Trump was maturing in politics and growing on the job.

Graham's political divergence with McCain, who died in 2018, was never more clear than in 2017, when McCain voted against a Trump-backed plan to overturn Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. The effort had been co-sponsored by Graham.

A split that was short-lived, an alliance reignited

In his floor speech after the Capitol attack, Graham said “he’d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country.” But the break with Trump ended quickly.

Weeks later, Trump invited Graham for golf and dinner at the president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reigniting their alliance. During Trump's 2024 campaign, Graham was a frequent Trump surrogate on television, promoting U.S. military strength that he said would advance “America First” policies.

Graham never shed his more traditional Republican foreign policy views, including outspoken support for Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He was also a leading voice pushing the White House to more fully embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and take a harder line against Iran.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Graham remained hawkish, staunchly defending the action and working to counter many in Trump's “Make America Great Again” base who thought “America First” meant avoiding such military conflicts.

“To those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles,” Graham posted on social media June 19.

But Graham's admiration for Trump went far beyond Iran. When Graham clinched the South Carolina Republican primary last month, he suggested the president was just short of a deity.

“I want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,” Graham laughed. “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re gonna start with him.”

Lee is the first qualifier to win any Grand Slam boys' tournament since Noah Rubin did it at Wimbledon in 2014.

“Standing here with the trophy means a lot because very few people know what I've been through this past year and a half, dealing with a lot of injuries,” Lee said in an on-court interview. “A year ago at this time I was sitting at home on the couch, didn't know if I was going to play tennis again.”

The 17-year-old Hewitt is the son of 2002 Wimbledon men's champion Lleyton Hewitt, who was in the stands at No. 1 Court. The Australian was up an early break in the deciding set but Lee broke back for 4-4 and then again in the final game.

He sealed the victory with a backhand winner up the line on his first match point.

Lee is the first American player to win the boys’ singles title here since Samir Banerjee in 2021.

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

It was quite the weekend at the Evian Championship for Haeran Ryu, the latest South Korean sensation in women’s golf.

Ryu, the winner of the Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine on June 29, gave up a three-shot overnight lead, birdied No. 18 to make a playoff, and beat Brooke Henderson on the first extra hole Sunday to win the fourth women's major of the year.

“This," said the 25-year-old Ryu, drenched in Champagne and cradling the trophy in her left arm, “is just a dream right now.”

A day after rolling in nine birdies and an eagle to set the scoring record for women's majors, Ryu couldn't make a putt at Evian Golf Resort and found herself teeing off on the par-5 18th without a birdie on her card and in a tie for the lead with Japanese golfer Aki Iwai. Henderson — a two-time major winner and 2022 Evian champion — was a shot back and on a charge after back-to-back front-nine eagles, including a hole-in-one.

With Henderson hitting her second shot to 8 feet at the last, Ryu needed an elusive birdie from further out to ensure being in a playoff.

A putt finally dropped to complete her level-par 71, Iwai missed her birdie putt to fall out of contention and Henderson curled in for eagle and a 64 to take the championships to extra holes on a gorgeous day beside the Lake Geneva in the Alps.

Ryu and Henderson, who were tied on 19-under par for the week, went back up No. 18 in separate golf carts. Ryu found the middle of the fairway, while Henderson drove left into the rough and had to lay up.

Ryu hit her second onto the green and left an eagle putt 3 feet short. That proved to be the distance needed for the win after Henderson could only make par, and Ryu made no mistake.

“It was so tough today because my putt always missed the cup,” Ryu said. "Just made the one birdie on the last hole.

“Before these three weeks," she added, "I didn’t have a major championship — now two in a row. I am so happy, I can’t believe it.”

For the first time in women's golf, there have been double major winners in the same year.

No. 1-ranked Nelly Korda won the first two of 2026 — the Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open.

Henderson was looking to be the first repeat winner of the Evian Championship since it became women's golf's fifth major in 2013.

“Obviously very exciting to get into the playoff,” the 28-year-old Canadian said. “Wish I had played a little bit better, but Haeran has been playing great. Congrats to her.”

Iwai wept as she fell short of winning her first major title and becoming the fifth major champion from Japan since the start of 2024.

Still, third place was her best finish in a major.

“I got a little confidence," she said, fighting back tears. "I never give up.”

The year's final major — the Women's British Open — is at Royal Lytham & St. Annes starting July 30.

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

Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded not guilty to charges including murder in the shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school northeast of Atlanta.

In a court filing Friday, the judge overseeing his case set a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Hearing” to begin July 24. The judge had previously said that if Gray wanted to plead guilty ahead of trial, he must notify the state and court by this coming Wednesday.

A non-negotiated plea means that the state and the defense have not reached an agreement on a sentence. Unlike a negotiated plea, or plea deal, where a defendant reaches an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty in exchange for an agreed upon sentence and possibly reduced charges, this leaves sentencing entirely up to the judge who makes a decision after giving each side a chance to present a summary of the case and a sentencing recommendation.

Colt Gray's attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

Gray's trial had been set to begin in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Barrow County where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request to change the venue.

Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted by a jury in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he gave his teenage son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school. The elder Gray is set to be sentenced later this month.

The Sept. 4, 2024, shooting killed teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder, cruelty to children and 25 counts of aggravated assault.

Investigators testified that Colt Gray carried the rifle given to him by his father onto the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They said the teenager left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle, shooting people in a classroom and hallway.

Investigators have said the teenager carefully plotted the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the boy left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step instructions and a diagram to prepare for the assault, including an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others.

Colt and Colin Gray were interviewed by sheriff's deputies about an online threat linked to Colt Gray in May 2023. Colt Gray denied making the threat at the time. He skipped 8th grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year began, and then skipped multiple days of school.

Family members had been seeking psychological help for Colt Gray before the shooting, but it appeared he never saw a counselor.

Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with Colin Gray weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict Colt’s access. Instead, over time, he bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.

Colt Gray even created a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors said.

Kate is the patron of the All England Club and presented the trophy to winner Jannik Sinner after his match against Alexander Zverev. She also handed out the trophy to women's winner Linda Noskova on Saturday, but was not joined by any family members.

The couple's two eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, also attended Sunday's match. All four were on hand to watch Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz in last year's final as well. After the win over Zverev, the royals had an extended chat with Sinner in a room inside the tournament’s main stadium as he clutched the golden trophy.

“Fantastic achievement,” Kate told Sinner. “It's really inspiring to the children to see tennis at that level.”

Sinner then asked the young royals how often they play tennis themselves.

“Not every day, but weekends,” George said.

Sinner had a similar conversation with the four royals after last year's final.

“You can really see that they love the sport,” Sinner said Sunday. “This is exactly how we feel as players on court when we see them watching tennis. Staying there for four hours under the sun with the heat, it’s really nice. ... Having the whole Royal Box there, as well, the whole people staying for a match like this for four-ish hours, it’s amazing. That’s also the reason why we love to play tennis.”

Other dignitaries in the Royal Box included German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italy's sports minister Andrea Abodi.

Former Wimbledon champions Stefan Edberg, Lleyton Hewitt, Richard Krajicek, Jan Kodes and Stan Smith were also in attendance.

Other Hollywood celebrities in the crowd for the match included Jennifer Lopez, Tom Hiddleston and Andrew Garfield.

___

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

El mensaje fue publicado en redes sociales la noche del sábado.

La ola de mensajes y homenajes a Graham ha incluido a senadores y representantes estadounidenses, muchos de ellos de Florida y que trabajaron con Graham durante sus muchos años en la política, además de otros políticos y figuras globales.

A continuación puede leerlos:

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Lindsey was a true patriot and a devoted public servant who dedicated decades of his life to our country. His service and commitment to the American people leave a lasting mark on our nation.

My prayers are with his…

— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) July 12, 2026

Deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. He leaves behind a legacy of dedicated public service, a commitment to national security, and an unwavering fight for freedom. Lourdes & I are praying for his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/q0bmuD6CX2

— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) July 12, 2026

Tia and I are saddened to hear the news of @LindseyGrahamSC sudden passing. He was more than just a colleague he was a friend to both of us. I will miss working with him on our shared passion, protecting our national security. God bless you my friend. Our nation owes you a debt… pic.twitter.com/t9ftJqoaRL

— Mario Díaz-Balart (@MarioDB) July 12, 2026

My family and I mourn the sudden passing of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. There are people in this world who have the ability to change the air in a room through wit, humor, well-placed arguments, reason, or impassioned appeals. Lindsey Graham had the uncanny ability to pull them…

— Senator Ashley Moody (@SenAshleyMoody) July 12, 2026

Anne and I are shocked and heartbroken to learn of the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. We ask that you join us in keeping his family, friends, and team in your prayers during this time.

Lindsey was a good friend and a dedicated public servant for the people of South Carolina…

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) July 12, 2026

Woke up this morning to the news that Senator Graham had passed away. We are praying for his family during this difficult time.

— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) July 12, 2026

My heart is heavy this morning to learn of the passing of my friend and colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham.
 
Lindsey’s long and dedicated service in the Air Force and in Congress carried him to far-flung regions of the world. He was a strong advocate for the United States and a…

— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) July 12, 2026

Deeply saddened by the news of the passing of United States Senator Lindsey Graham. Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.

He visited Ukraine ten times during the years of Russia's full-scale invasion and was here with our people when it… pic.twitter.com/7oE2F5ZDAy

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 12, 2026

Sara and I grieve with the American people over the loss of our dear friend, Senator Lindsey Graham.

In our recent meeting, I said, "Lindsey is a great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine. We have no better friend than Lindsey."

Lindsey understood that the security… pic.twitter.com/JG2mUUAfFT

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 12, 2026

My heartfelt condolences on the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Estonia will remember him as a steadfast friend, a strong supporter of NATO's eastern flank, and an unwavering advocate for Ukraine. My thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues, and the American people.

— Margus Tsahkna (@Tsahkna) July 12, 2026

Sad to hear of the sudden passing of senator @LindseyGrahamSC.

A personal friend. A supporter of @NATO and Ukraine. A Transatlanticist. A friend of Finland.

Our link to South Carolina was a springboard for a great partnership. Not a week went by without an exchange of ideas.… pic.twitter.com/xNIgQRMFXa

— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) July 12, 2026

My statement on the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham: pic.twitter.com/hbrjnMXIQd

— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) July 12, 2026

The first time I met Lindsey Graham, I was 11 years old in a hotel lobby and he had just attended a political event with my Dad. He sat down next to me and told me that he loved my Dad. I remember liking his deep southern accent and smile and immediately felt comfortable around… pic.twitter.com/03mCGn9Xxl

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 12, 2026

The England and Wales Cricket Board announced Sunday that McCullum "will stand down," with the New Zealander saying in the ECB statement he was “gutted not to be continuing” with the test team — suggesting it was a decision taken by those above him.

“But I respect the decision,” McCullum added. “My focus now is on giving everything I’ve got to the white-ball teams and helping England keep moving forward.”

The announcement came two weeks after England's series loss to New Zealand — its first loss at home in a series of three tests or more since 2012.

That came on the heels of a 4-1 Ashes series loss Down Under in which the England team came under scrutiny for its perceived lack of professionalism.

Ben Stokes quit international cricket after the New Zealand series and now McCullum has gone, too, signaling the end of the so-called “Bazball” era — an entertaining but often flawed period for test cricket in England.

“Brendon breathed new life into England men’s test team during an exciting period which saw some amazing victories, and we’re grateful for all he has given to the role," said Richard Gould, CEO of the ECB. "We now believe that the time is right to make a change for the test team as we target victory in the Ashes next summer.”

The ECB called the “Bazball” era — when McCullum's team played aggressive, fearless cricket — one of the most “exciting and progressive periods” in England's test-playing history.

“It’s been an absolute privilege to watch him shape the mentality of the team," ECB director Rob Key said, "to one the players have loved, and see him develop a new generation of talent who will be at the heart of England men’s teams for years to come.

"He leaves the test team well-set and poised to achieve great things.”

McCullum said there had been “some unbelievable highs and a few tough days along the way, but that’s all part of taking on a challenge like this.”

“I wish the test team nothing but success," he said. "There’s a hell of a lot of talent in that dressing room and they’re a special bunch of lads. I’ll always be backing the boys, with a smile on my face, and hoping they keep taking the game on. I know they’ll continue to make people proud.”

England's next test series is against Pakistan starting next month.

McCullum has combined his white and red-ball roles since January 2025.

England's T20 team has just thrashed India 4-0 in a home series to become the No. 1-ranked side in the world.

___

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

There’s very little chance of cooling thunderstorms in the forecast through midweek with Saharan dust clogging our skies and lowering our rain chance to only 10%. A slight easterly breeze will keep it a little more bearable at the beaches, otherwise try to stay in the shade or the air conditioning as much as possible with no heat relief in sight through the upcoming week. All remains quiet in the tropics with no development expected through at least the next seven days.

This year it was about demonstrating that he still has the physical toughness to win a major after a debilitating second-round meltdown at Roland Garros in a Paris heat wave

Whatever gets thrown Jannik Sinner's way in the French capital — it seems lately — only makes him stronger across the Channel in London.

For the second straight year, Sinner responded to adversity in Paris with a title at Wimbledon.

The top-ranked Sinner beat Alexander Zverev 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday for his second consecutive title at the All England Club after his German opponent appeared bothered by a knee issue following a slip to the grass on a key point in the third set.

When Sinner ripped a forehand winner up the line on his first match point, the Italian dropped to the grass on his back in an unusually dramatic celebration for the normally low-key Italian.

“This one means a lot because (it) was a tough one after Paris again,” Sinner said. “I’m proud of myself and my team, which continues to push me in the right direction.”

Amid stifling heat and humidity in Paris in late May, Sinner had his 30-match winning streak ended after coming within one game of a straight-set victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who was ranked No. 56.

Sinner went in for medical exams in Milan after the Paris defeat and didn’t play an official match again until he arrived at Wimbledon, where he twice had to come back from a set down in a five-set marathon against Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round.

Sinner then didn’t drop a set the rest of the way until the final, having dominated against Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

“It goes to show the maturity of the player that we’re working with,” said Darren Cahill, one of Sinner’s coaches. “That he can take a kick in the guts like that.

“What makes us the most proud of him and working with him is the way he comes back from those," Cahill added. "It doesn’t put him down for too long.”

It was Sinner’s fifth Grand Slam title.

“I don’t think this one was any more important than any of the others that he’s played," Cahill said. “But it felt damn special, that’s for sure.”

It was Sinner's 10th straight victory over Zverev, who was coming off his first Grand Slam title at the French Open.

Zverev’s previous best performance at Wimbledon was reaching the fourth round three times.

“I’m 29 years old and this is the first time I actually believe I can win this trophy,” Zverev said.

Prince William joined his wife Kate and two of their children for the final in a star-studded Royal Box that also included actors Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman and Ben Stiller.

“There’s no better place to play tennis,” Sinner said during the trophy ceremony.

Linda Noskova beat Karolina Muchova in an all-Czech women’s final on Saturday for her first Grand Slam title.

Zverev slips

The top two seeds appeared perfectly matched until Zverev earned his only break point of the match at 3-3 in the third set -- 2 hours and 42 minutes in. Sinner produced a drop shot and Zverev slipped and appeared to hyper-extend his right knee as he attempted to change directions behind the baseline.

Zverev grasped his knee in apparent discomfort and Sinner went around the net and helped his opponent up off the grass. Zverev quickly resumed playing but he appeared slightly hampered and slung his racket across the baseline in frustration when he missed a forehand and handed Sinner the first break of the match and a 5-3 lead in the third. Sinner then served it out.

Zverev had also lost 14 straight sets to Sinner and when he claimed the opening set of the final with a forehand winner up the line to conclude a tight tiebreaker, he let out a loud roar toward his box as he bent over in celebration.

Zverev continually cranked out serves at up to 139 mph (224 kph), while Sinner produced a series of well-placed aces at a slightly lower speed.

But Sinner began to read Zverev’s serve better in the second-set tiebreaker and Zverev started to miss forehands.

“He showed once again," Zverev said, “why he’s the best player in the world.”

Sinner produced 58 winners to Zverev’s 49 and had only 25 unforced errors to Zverev’s 45.

Zverev led 17-15 in aces.

Sinner became the first player to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon without conceding a service game in either the semifinals (against Novak Djokovic) or the final since Roger Federer did it in 2003 against Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis, respectively, en route to the first of his record eight titles.

Sinner conceded one break point in both the semifinals and final and saved both of them.

Despite the defeat, Zverev will leapfrog Alcaraz into the No. 2 spot in the rankings on Monday.

Alcaraz missed both the French Open and Wimbledon this year due to a right wrist injury.

___

Associated Press writer Mattias Karén contributed.

___

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

The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and put in only enough effort to pass, found renewed purpose to come to school everyday.

“It motivates me. I like making connections with the kids, I like helping them,” Dillon said.

It began in his junior year when he enrolled in career training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college for a teaching degree.

Administrators at the school say a shift in focus to technical training and career readiness is paying off, with more students not only staying in school but graduating on time.

Those gains are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 primary and secondary schools serving over 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high schoolers at BIE schools graduated within four years. That number soared to a record high of 79% by 2025.

Some BIE educators attribute that surge to local innovations. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. In addition, the way graduation rates are reported across BIE schools was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed the numbers.

But concerns loom that changes reshaping the BIE under the Trump administration — including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and continued fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE — could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.

Reporting standards net more accurate data

The surge in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting rather than a sudden leap in student academic improvement, according to agency officials.

For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.

“We had to come to a consensus and set an accountability framework for our schools,” said Carmelia Becenti, the agency’s chief academic officer.

Beginning in 2018, BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since, Becenti said, the data has painted a more accurate and encouraging picture.

An AP analysis of BIE data found that graduation rates across the system are up 55% since new reporting standards began rolling out, with nine of its secondary schools reporting 100% growth or higher.

New approaches help students connect

Less than one-third of BIE schools are operated by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. At some of those, educators say data collection is only part of the story.

Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a “disconnect” between the high school's previous laser focus on getting students ready for college and many students’ goals of finding a job upon graduation.

“We devalued the trades. That was a mistake,” Brummett said.

The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who might otherwise have dropped out instead enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.

Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training was a better match for his learning style.

“It was kind of the first time I felt excited to go to school,” said Dillon, reflecting on his time helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.

Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates rose from 53% to 87%.

A focus on trades is just one of the ways tribal-controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, administrators said a COVID-era experiment in virtual learning contributed to a surge in graduation rates from roughly 70% to 93%.

“For certain kids that have more responsibilities at home, kids that need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and an opportunity to earn their diploma,” said principal Alaric Keams.

When pandemic lockdowns lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high schoolers.

But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these kinds of programs or take over management of BIE schools.

Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school serving his community is chronically understaffed and crumbling under a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sinking walls and a rodent infestation. It has reported graduating fewer than 60% of students on time in recent years.

“If we were able to, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,” said Lengkeek. “We have to rely on the government to fulfill its treaty promise.”

Tribal leaders push back against education changes

From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to DOGE reductions that swept out longtime staffers, as well as repeated threats of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress that has been made could be undermined.

In November 2025, the Department of Education began handing off oversight of dozens of programs that serve Native students to BIE.

At a tribal consultation session in February in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke in opposition, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and stretched BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility to seek their input before moving forward.

“We are here too late,” said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “The ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were ever notified. That should never, ever happen.”

Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said turmoil at the agency's Washington office trickles down to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that aimed to turn the BIE into a school choice system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.

“That caused some delays and disruptions to services,” Dropik said. “When drastic changes go into motion without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.”

Lengkeek worries the BIE could be consumed by political upheaval while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.

“This system holds the future of our nations in its hands,” Lengkeek said. “We need stability. We need increased funding. We need infrastructure.”

——

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

Graham — who died unexpectedly at 71 on Saturday night — was a rare bridge between President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and the traditional Washington consensus prioritizing alliances with Europe and Israel, one falling out of favor with many in both political parties.

With that idea of the U.S., Graham remained a staunch defender of Ukraine to the end, even as Trump’s commitment wavered.

Graham represented South Carolina in the House and Senate for more than three decades. He died after what a preliminary report from the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said was a tear in his aorta. The senator's death triggered praise from leaders and diplomats around the world and condemnation from Iran and other countries where he’d agitated for military action.

“In an increasingly isolationist America, Sen. Graham was one of the last titans of the Senate who favored a muscular and engaged U.S. foreign policy,” said Paul Foldi, a former diplomat and top Republican staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He is irreplaceable.”

Trump, whom Graham opposed, then embraced, won the White House partly by harnessing voters' disgust with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — both of which were championed by Graham's wing of the Republican Party.

Graham tied himself to Trump

When Trump returned for a second term, Graham cheered his aggressive approach to Iran but was largely silent as the president dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, questioned the value of NATO, suggested using military force against allies to seize Greenland and praised dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“His moral flexibility over the last few years has been disappointing to many who saw him as a principled patriot,” Dan Baer, a former State Department official under President Barack Obama who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

Matthew Kroenig, a vice president at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., said Graham once told him there was no point in trying to defy Trump.

“As a good politician, he recognized Trump commanded the Republican Party and the Republican base and if you tried to work against him you'd get nothing done,” Kroenig said.

He argued Graham's approach has paid off in Trump's second term as the president hasn't abandoned Ukraine while also green lighting interventions in Iran and Venezuela that the senator advocated.

“Look at Trump's foreign policy — it's more of a Lindsey Graham foreign policy than a Tucker Carlson foreign policy,” Kroenig said, referring to the conservative commentator who is a prominent opponent of American intervention overseas.

Hailed as a friend of Ukraine

On Friday, shortly after returning from a trip to Kyiv, Graham announced an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of sanctions against Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Graham, whom he met twice in the past week, had visited Ukraine 10 times since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and “was here with our people when it was most needed.” He said that “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer.”

Graham also drew tributes for his longtime commitment to NATO and trans-Atlantic friendship at a time when those ties have been under severe strain.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Graham was “a powerful advocate for America who believed strongly in the NATO Alliance and was actively working to bring an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine.” Rutte's predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, lauded the South Carolina senator's “tireless commitment” to NATO and the trans-Atlantic bond, and his “staunch support” for Ukraine.

Graham commanded respect on NATO's eastern edge, where Russia's intentions are viewed with deep concern.

Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that “Estonia will remember him as a steadfast friend, a strong supporter of NATO’s eastern flank, and an unwavering advocate for Ukraine.” Latvian counterpart Baiba Braže said that he was “among the strongest supporters of NATO and trans-Atlantic relations (and) assistance to Ukraine in countering Russian aggression.”

Advocated attacking Iran

Baer, the former State Department official under Obama, said that Graham deserved credit for helping push Trump to retain at least some support for Ukraine. But he noted the South Carolina senator also advocated for the president to attack Iran, sparking an ongoing conflict that Baer argues the U.S. is losing.

“I don't think the historic record of Lindsey Graham's foreign policy record will be black and white,” Baer said.

Graham long backed policies aimed at isolating Iran and limiting its missile and nuclear programs, cheered Trump's decision to strike nuclear sites last year and was a supporter of the latest conflict there.

At one point, Graham advocated using ground troops to seize Kharg Island, a crucial site for Iranian oil processing.

"We did Iwo Jima, we can do this," he told Fox News in March.

Iranian state television announced Graham’s death during a live broadcast in openly hostile terms.

“I congratulate the great nation of Iran on Lindsey Graham, the warmongering and anti-Iranian U.S. senator, having gone to hell,” the anchor said.

A strong ally of Israel's

While Graham was admired in Israel, his position toward the war in Gaza in particular angered many in the Middle East, including U.S. allies who advocated a diplomatic solution.

He was outspoken in supporting Israel’s devastating military operations in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.

In May 2024, after Washington paused some military aid to Israel, Graham urged then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “give Israel what they need to fight the war.” He likened the threat Israel faced to “Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.” He posted on social media later that year that “the Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him “a great friend of Israel” and “a cherished friend of mine.”

Netanyahu said Graham understood that the security of Israel and the United States are inseparable and the prime minister said that Graham devoted his life to defending America, strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance and standing up for the free world.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Netanyahu said.

But the Gaza war has also helped trigger a shift against Israel among American voters, with 58% of Democrats saying in a recent AP-NORC poll that the U.S. gives Israelis too much support.

In addition, younger Republicans are more likely than their older counterparts to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israelis, raising the possibility of a generational shift.

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Riccardi reported from Denver, Colorado. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Zelenskyy, who has remained in office under martial law because wartime elections are prohibited, has periodically reshuffled his government in an effort to bring fresh momentum to his administration.

Svyrydenko, who has served as Ukraine’s economy minister, was named prime minister in July 2025 at the age of 39 after playing a lead role in securing a mineral agreement between Ukraine and the United States, seen as an important way of tying U.S. interests to Ukraine’s security.

In a statement on social media, Svyrydenko said she was “proud to have had the honor of leading the government during one of the most difficult periods in Ukraine’s modern history.” She also said she had discussed “next steps” with Zelenskyy, but did not provide further details.

“I remain ready to serve the Ukrainian state and carry out every task aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s position, defending our national interests and bringing a just peace closer,” she said.

Zelenskyy announced her resignation in a post saying that Ukraine was “changing its political strategy.” He also said he had offered Svyrydenko the opportunity to lead “a new, important area” in Ukraine’s relations with a key international partner.

“Each priority area of foreign policy will be assigned to a specific person with substantial experience who is capable of implementing what we agree on at the leaders’ level and what the Ukrainian people expect,” Zelenskyy said, describing the impending reshuffle.

The Ukrainian leader also said there would be changes among the top ranks of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies.

Zelenskyy met with a series of senior officials following the announcement, including Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The overhaul, which Zelenskyy has yet to explain in detail, would be the fourth major reorganization of his government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Ukraine continues strikes against Russian oil sites

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian attack in southwest Russia killed one person and wounded three more, local officials said Sunday, as Kyiv’s forces continued to bombard Russia’s oil facilities.

The head of Russia's Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said that a child was among the injured. He also said that residential homes and apartment buildings were damaged in the strike, as well as an unspecified “industrial site.”

Russian media outlets reported that the attack’s target was the region’s Syzran Oil Refinery, with many sharing images that appeared to show plumes of black smoke rising over the site. The refinery, which is owned by oil and gas giant Rosneft and sits some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border, has been a repeated target for Kyiv's forces.

Meanwhile the governor of Russia’s Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar, said that a tanker had been damaged in a drone attack in the Azov-Black Sea maritime canal. The tanker was empty and there is no threat of an oil spill, Slyusar said.

Ukraine’s drone strikes on oil refineries and other infrastructure across Russia have triggered a widespread fuel crisis with gasoline shortages and rationing in multiple regions and motorists waiting for hours to fill their tanks. Moscow has responded by intensifying its bombardment on Kyiv and other cities, exposing Ukraine’s vulnerability to ballistic missile strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure as part of Kyiv’s campaign of “long-range sanctions” carried out in response to Moscow’s refusal to halt its four-year invasion of its neighbor.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had attacked the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region. Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the claims.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company faces pressure to cut costs at home and increasingly intense competition in the lucrative Chinese market, in particular.

Last week, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” over the past three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half.

It didn't provide specifics, and questions remain over how else it will cut costs. There has been renewed speculation about the future of several plants in Germany.

“There are more intelligent solutions than closing plants,” CEO Oliver Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

He added that a cost-cutting program in Germany already is producing effects. “We were able to improve our factory costs in Germany by an average 20% last year alone,” he said, describing that as “strong progress.”

Blume argued that Volkswagen's products are very popular, but “we just earn too little money with them. So we must continue to reduce our costs. In all kinds of costs.”

The tear in the inner wall of the aorta, called an aortic dissection, was related to the hardening of Graham's arteries. An official cause of death will be disclosed after toxicological and microscopic testing.

Graham, a prominent South Carolina Republican and former Air Force lawyer who served in Congress for more than three decades, had turned 71 years old just two days before dying on Saturday night. His office had originally said he had suffered from a “brief and sudden illness."

Trump, who talked to Graham frequently, said he was “like a member of the family. It’s very tough.” He said on NBC’s ”Meet the Press" that Graham had called him on Saturday night after returning from a trip to Ukraine and “sounded a little bit tired, but perfect.” The president ordered that flags across the country be flown at half-staff until next Saturday evening.

A noted foreign policy hawk, Graham was one of the most influential figures in Washington on international affairs and he advised Trump on matters such as the Iran war and Russia. On Friday, Graham had announced an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions.

As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Graham also had a central role during Trump’s second term as Republicans pushed major legislation on party-line votes while holding a narrow 53-47 majority in the chamber.

Under South Carolina law, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster will appoint a temporary replacement for Graham, who was seeking a fifth term in November. A new nominee will be selected in a special primary, which is required to be held within weeks of a vacancy. The winner of November's general election will start a full six-year term in January.

Graham had a close, complicated relationship with Trump

Graham, elected to the Senate in 2002 after serving in the House, long promoted a policy of robust U.S. military interventionism and strong national defense that in later years would put him at odds with the growing isolationist wing of his party.

Over time, Graham became well-known for his close ties with Trump, whom the senator briefly ran against for the presidential nomination in 2016.

Their relationship would begin on a rough note, with Graham calling the then-New York businessman “unfit for office.” Graham used a profanity to describe Trump after Trump made disparaging comments about Arizona Republican John McCain, Graham's best friend in the Senate and a Vietnam War veteran. McCain and Graham, along with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., were known as the “Three Amigos” and frequently traveled together to promote their foreign policy views around the globe.

During a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump read out Graham’s personal cellphone number and continued to belittle him throughout the 2016 race as Graham made it clear he would not support Trump.

Graham, however, shifted significantly once Trump won the White House and emerged as one of Trump's top allies — speaking with him frequently and becoming a regular presence on the golf course alongside the president — even as McCain remained a critic.

In a 2018 interview with The Associated Press, Graham explained his pivot by saying McCain taught him that the country must move forward after elections and that meant “you have an obligation” to help the president. McCain ran twice for the White House.

“And I’ve tried to be helpful where I could because I think he needs all the help he can get,” Graham said of Trump. “You can be a better critic when people understand that you’re trying to help them be successful.”

Graham was a prominent defender of Trump during the president's two first-term impeachments — a reversal from Graham's role as a House prosecutor during Democratic President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998, when he urged senators not to make up their minds before listening to all of the arguments. Both Trump and Clinton were eventually acquitted.

Graham appeared to break with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying in a dramatic speech on the Senate floor that night, “Count me out. Enough is enough." But the senator soon returned to Trump's side and the two remained close during Trump's second term.

Foreign policy was a focus for Graham

Graham had just been in Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the senator visited his country 10 times during the years since Russia invaded in February 2022. “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Zelenskyy said.

He was also one of the chief backers of Trump's war in Iran, having advocated for years for direct confrontation between Washington and Tehran. Graham continued to defend Trump this summer even as many of his fellow Republicans questioned a tentative June ceasefire agreement that they worried could send billions of dollars to Iran.

“I’d rather try diplomacy than take it off the table,” Graham said of Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Tehran.

Graham's travels made him a familiar face to dozens of world leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Graham understood that the security of Israel and the United States was inseparable.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Netanyahu said.

Graham led both the Senate Budget and Judiciary committees

As Budget Committee chairman, Graham helped oversee a Senate procedure that allowed Republicans to pass significant policies such as last year’s tax law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

He had previously led the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020. The senator was in line to regain that gavel if the party kept its majority after the midterm elections and had pledged to confirm "as many conservative judges as possible.”

Graham was a key player in the Senate’s efforts to craft a massive immigration overhaul in 2013 as a member of a bipartisan group. The legislation passed the Senate with 68 votes but was never taken up by the House, so it did not become law.

Graham’s views on immigration, particularly an endorsement of a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. without legal status, put him at odds with some Republican factions.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat who was his ally on that issue, said Graham was “part of every important policy issue and an indispensable player” in bipartisan negotiations.

An ‘irreplaceable’ force in the Senate

Graham often worked across the aisle, even as he remained fiercely loyal to Trump. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, said in a statement that “personal relationships often mattered more to him than the political disagreements of the day."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Graham was “over the moon” with the Russian sanctions deal announced Friday. “The last thing in the world I would have guessed was that he was sick or ill or in any way vulnerable,” Blumenthal said.

Jaime Harrison, a former national and state Democratic Party chairman who unsuccessfully ran against Graham in 2020, said that even during their “fiercest political battles” the two men "could still share a conversation, a laugh, and a mutual respect for South Carolina.”

Graham was unique in the Senate for his influence not only on Trump, but also with his fellow Republicans who were aware of his ability to sometimes move the president’s thinking. He was also known for his sense of humor, often deployed to defuse tensions.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican, said Graham will be missed for his “quick wit and infectious laughter.”

McMaster said in a statement that Graham was “irreplaceable.” Former Republican President George W. Bush said Graham “understood how the world works” and “was a kind and funny man who loved our country and loved serving it.”

Graham often spoke about his humble roots, growing up in the back of a South Carolina bar and helping to raise his sister, Darline, after his parents died at a young age. Graham was not married and did not have children.

Special election to replace Graham could be within weeks

Graham won 57% of the GOP vote in South Carolina's primary in June and was up against Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, and several minor party and independent candidates in November.

His death will likely prompt a scramble to fill a rare open Senate seat.

A number of Republican names began circulating as possible replacements to serve out the rest of Graham’s term, including three candidates who fell short for the party's nomination for governor this year — Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

Also in the mix is Rep. Russell Fry, who was elected to the House in 2022.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C. Associated Press writers Chris Megerian and Will Weissert in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Brian P. D. Hannon in Bangkok and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four Vietnamese crew members when it overturned less than half a kilometer (0.30 mile) from shore Saturday afternoon, shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai island near Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, authorities said.

The captain, Nguyen Hong Hai, 57, is under investigation for alleged violations of waterway transport safety regulations, state media reported.

Sixteen survivors of Saturday’s speedboat accident have been discharged from the hospital and are returning to India, the Indian Embassy in Hanoi said on social media Sunday. One remains in critical condition in a Vietnamese hospital.

The bodies of the victims were being transported to Ho Chi Minh City before being flown to India after official formalities, according to the embassy.

The boat capsizes moments after departure

All 15 victims were on a company trip organized by India’s Lava International, a smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturer, for its employees, distributors and retail partners, the company said.

Ashish Kumar, a 48-year-old distributor for the company from the Indian city of Guntur who took part in the trip, said the party had split into three groups to travel between islands when he witnessed the accident from shore.

The first boat had already departed while the other two were still docked when it capsized.

The boat was relatively close to shore when it flipped, he told The Associated Press over the phone. "We screamed, ‘Help! Help!’”

Nearby boats immediately rushed to the rescue. “But by then it was too late,” he said.

Rough seas hamper rescue efforts

Ha Van Loc, piloting a nearby boat at the time of the accident, told state media VN Express that he spotted the overturned vessel at around 12:40 p.m. local time. He saw about a dozen people clinging to the boat’s hull, while others — without life jackets — were struggling in the water.

“They were being submerged by the waves but still waving their hands for help,” Loc said.

He said he couldn't get close to the upturned speedboat because of the rough seas and was afraid his boat's propeller could injure those in the water. He and his crew threw life buoys attached to ropes and pulled four survivors aboard within 10 minutes.

Realizing others were still trapped, Loc recorded a short video and alerted other boat operators in the area.

Within minutes, nearly a dozen boats and rescue teams arrived at the scene.

Rough seas with waves up to 3 meters (10 feet) high hampered the rescue. Jet Skis were able to reach survivors more easily than larger boats and brought them ashore one by one.

State media VN Express cited passengers as saying the captain told everyone to wear life jackets before departure, but many carried them in their hands. When the speedboat capsized, some passengers were trapped inside and had to escape through the bow or windows, the report said.

Kumar, the eyewitness, said that there was no emergency medical care available at the shore when survivors were brought back.

On shore, tourists and tour company staff took turns performing CPR and giving oxygen to the victims, state media said.

The 17 injured were admitted to Phu Quoc Sun Hospital after two emergency resuscitation doctors and one nurse were dispatched.

The Indian Embassy in Vietnam said 10 of the dead were from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, three from Andhra Pradesh and two from Kerala.

Hundreds of thousands of Indian tourists visit Vietnam each year

Hon May Rut island is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Phu Quoc, one of Vietnam’s most popular beach destinations. Both are known for their white sandy beaches and clear waters, drawing millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year.

India is one of Vietnam’s fastest-growing tourism markets. The Southeast Asian country welcomed about 750,000 Indians in 2025, up nearly 50% from the previous year.

Officials attribute the growth to an expanding network of direct flights between major Indian and Vietnamese cities and Vietnam’s liberal e-visa policy.

—

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 state-run Qatar News Agency reported his death. It offered no cause.

Sheikh Hamad, who stepped down in June 2013 after 18 years as emir, was the architect of energy-rich Qatar’s stunning ambitions that turned it from a backwater into an international crossroads in less than a generation. Qatar owns the Harrod’s department store in London and founded the powerful Al Jazeera satellite news network.

Qatar’s political reach today stretches from North Africa to Afghanistan and it hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched soccer event. Sheikh Hamad, though long out of power, received thunderous applause from Qataris attending its opening match.

But Qatar’s rise under Sheikh Hamad also rankled regional and Western allies with its independent-minded policymaking, including its close ties to Shiite powerhouse Iran, the Palestinian militant Hamas group and Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Al Jazeera’s blunt reporting, though a much-praised departure from the traditionally deferential habits of Arab media, also was criticized and accused of slanting coverage to suit the views of Qatar’s rulers.

“The future lies ahead of you, the children of this homeland, as you usher into a new era where young leadership hoists the banner,” Sheikh Hamad said as he announced his abdication and the carefully crafted transition to his son, the British-educated crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was then 33.

Sheikh Hamad handed over power to his son

The peaceful, voluntary transfer of power was rare in a region where such change usually results from death or overthrow. Sheikh Hamad himself seized control after deposing his father, Sheikh Khalifa, in a bloodless palace coup in 1995.

His abdication was seen as Qatar’s attempt to stay ahead of Arab Spring-inspired calls for reforms and leadership more attuned to the region’s large and powerful young population. Qatar, a peninsula half the size of New Jersey, is believed to have around 300,000 citizens.

At the time, Sheikh Hamad also was thought to have been in poor health for years. In December 2015, Qatari officials said he was flown to Switzerland for surgery after breaking a leg while on holiday.

Sheikh Hamad attended Britain’s military academy, Sandhurst, and became commander of Qatar’s armed forces and defense minister. He was named crown prince in the late 1970s and gradually broadened his duties to include planning for Qatar’s vast oil and gas reserves.

Sheikh Hamad created Al Jazeera, a powerful voice in Arab media

After seizing power from his father, who then lived in exile for nearly a decade, Sheikh Hamad quickly moved to open an inward-looking nation to outside influences, epitomized by Al Jazeera, which became a major force in global media.

Its reporting not only angered other Arab leaders, sometimes to the point of diplomatic rupture, it also riled Washington. Al Jazeera aired statements from the terror network al-Qaida, even as Qatar hosted one of the key Pentagon logistical hubs following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sheikh Hamad, meanwhile, aggressively sought international prestige through sports, an effort crowned by Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup, though marred by accusations that it used its huge wealth to woo poor countries’ support.

Qatar’s brand is also prominent across the sporting world from sponsorship deals with the Spanish football giant Barcelona to a majority stake in the football club Paris Saint-Germain.

Sheikh Hamad also pushed Qatar Airways to expand into a major international carrier, trying to rival neighboring carrier Emirates. The country’s international airport in Doha, Qatar’s capital, which cost at least $15 billion to construct, also bears his name.

Qatar became a powerhouse for diplomacy

Sheikh Hamad had wide-ranging visions for Qatar’s role as a diplomatic broker. Over the years, its mediation was brought to bear on the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, Lebanese factional feuding and the rift between the Palestinians’ Hamas and Fatah factions.

In October 2012, Sheikh Hamad became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control five years previously, promising a total of $400 million in projects and investments. During the visit, Gaza radio stations played a song entitled “Thank you, Qatar.”

Qatar also reached out to Hamas’ main foe, Israel. Sheikh Hamad met in 2007 with Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, at the United Nations General Assembly. Qatar allowed an Israeli trade office to operate in Doha until it was ordered closed in response to Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008.

While neighboring Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, Qatar maintained its distance. Israelis at the World Cup also faced a multitude of Palestinian flags and anger over its occupation of lands Palestinians claim for their future state.

During the Arab Spring, Qatar sent warplanes to the NATO-led missions in Libya against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and provided key military and financial aid to the successful Libyan rebels. In Syria, Qatar was a main political sponsor of the opposition to then-President Bashar Assad and led calls to increase the flow of weapons to the Syrian rebels.

However, its backing of Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood has caused rifts with other nations in the region. Those tensions culminated under Sheikh Tamim, when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a yearslong boycott of Qatar, in part over the policies of his father that continued during his rule.

In one of the last initiatives before Sheikh Hamad’s abdication, Qatar formally opened an office for Afghanistan’s Taliban, which set the stage for talks between the United States and the Taliban that ultimately led to NATO and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

That challenge is emerging even as clean energy reaches a historic milestone globally. Renewables generated 34% of the world’s electricity in 2025, overtaking coal’s 33% share. Together with nuclear power, renewables are expected to provide half of global electricity by 2030.

As industrialization, artificial intelligence and electrification push demand higher, experts say the bottleneck in transitioning to cleaner energy has shifted from technology to the systems supporting it, including funding. Overcoming such obstacles is vital for securing access to power for the 600 million people in Africa who are yet to be connected.

“Clean energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in virtually every part of the world,” former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, said in late June while announcing a new $285 million Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative to strengthen clean energy industries in emerging and developing economies.

“But fixable obstacles are still slowing down deployment, and with energy demand rising at an unprecedented speed, we can’t allow those obstacles to continue standing in the way,” he said.

Rather than financing solar farms or wind projects directly, the initiative will invest in strengthening market design, regulatory capacity, technical expertise and industry institutions, areas increasingly viewed as essential for attracting private investment and accelerating use of renewable energy.

It reflects a growing consensus that Africa’s energy transition is constrained less by a lack of renewable resources or viable technologies than by the institutional capacity needed to turn those advantages into financially viable projects and electricity on the grid.

Many projects remain delayed by weak market design, limited grid planning, slow permitting processes and fragmented regulatory systems.

“What has been missing is not the potential, but the institutional infrastructure and capabilities to unlock it,” said Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation. “Philanthropy that targets those gaps directly is the kind of intervention that can shift the trajectory of a continent’s energy system.”

Across Africa, renewable energy costs have fallen sharply while investment appetite continues to grow. However, investors say policy uncertainty, slow permitting processes and limited regulatory capacity are hindering projects.

Wangari Muchiri, founder and chief executive of RE.Think Energy, said the commitment signals that “the next phase of the energy transition is not about proving clean energy works, it’s about removing the barriers preventing it from scaling fast enough.”

The Bloomberg initiative is looking beyond ambitious renewable energy targets to focus on helping projects attract long-term investments and connect to national grids.

“The next chapter of Africa's renewable energy story will not be only by the projects it builds, but the institutions that make these projects possible,” Muchiri said.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A joint statement issued by the nations said they rejected “destabilizing” actions in the disputed waters that threaten regional peace.

The announcement commemorated a July 12, 2016, arbitration ruling by a tribunal established in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, saying the landmark decision is “a significant milestone and is final, legally binding and definitive.”

China refused to join the arbitration initiated by the Philippines in 2013 after a tense standoff in the contested waters a year earlier that ended with Beijing effectively seizing a disputed shoal.

Beijing rejected the 2016 ruling and continues to defend its claims to virtually the entire sea passage, a key global trade route that has long been feared as one of Asia’ most active flashpoints. The areas has been the scene of repeated territorial standoffs involving China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

“We reaffirm the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision that there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including those based on `historic rights,’” the statement said.

The arbitration tribunal largely decided in favor of the Philippines, ruling that under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, “there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources” in the South China Sea outside of its regular territorial areas recognized under the convention.

The convention, largely regarded as the treaty governing the world’s oceans and seas, took effect in 1994 and has been ratified by more than 170 countries and parties, including China and the Philippines.

In addition to the U.S. and Britain, the other countries listed in Sunday's statement included the Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia.

“We reiterate our strong opposition to any destabilizing or unilateral actions including by force or coercion that threaten peace and stability in the region,” they said.

The nations stressed “our strong opposition to the use of coast guard, military and maritime militia forces to harass, obstruct, intimidate lawful operations by other states at sea or in the air and in so doing endanger the safety of personnel and fishermen and seriously degrade regional peace and security.”

“Freedom of navigation and overflight as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea as reflected in UNCLOS” must be upheld, the countries said, adding that the territorial disputes should be resolved peacefully based on the 1982 U.N. convention.

China did not immediately respond Sunday, but in a statement issued recently through its embassy in Manila, Beijing said it would never recognize the 2016 ruling that it called “illegal, null and void.”

“The award will not alter the historical and factual basis for China’s sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea and their adjacent waters,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said, adding that the ruling “will not weaken China’s resolve and determination to safeguard its sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”

Territorial confrontations in the disputed waters have become more prevalent in recent years, particularly between Chinese and Philippine and Vietnamese forces and fishing fleets.

Chinese coast guard ships and support vessels have used powerful water cannons, military-grade lasers and dangerous blocking maneuvers against Philippine forces and fishermen from rival claimant countries that have led to collisions in the high seas and high-risk encounters in the air.

The United States has repeatedly called on China to comply with the arbitration ruling.

The former Biden and current Trump administrations both warned that Washington is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, vessels or aircraft come under an armed attack in the disputed waters.

Its intensity continued to weaken as it moved northwestward across eastern China into the province of Anhui as of Sunday afternoon, according to China’s national weather center.

Strong winds and heavy rain are expected to impact many eastern and northeastern Chinese cities on Sunday and Monday, China’s National Meteorological Center said, adding that heavy to torrential rain was recorded Sunday afternoon in provinces including Anhui.

In Zhejiang province, more than 2.2 million people were evacuated due to Bavi, according to state media. Shanghai evacuated over 290,000 people from at-risk areas, while Fujian province evacuated more than 180,000 people.

In the coastal city of Yueqing in Zhejiang province, more than 1,300 trees were toppled, including at least 700 uprooted, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao International Airport were expected to cancel around 653 inbound and outbound flights due to Bavi, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Bavi passed north of Taiwan on Saturday but did not make a direct landfall. Taiwan’s fire department said at least 134 people across the island were injured, some sustaining injuries while riding motorcycles or bicycles in strong winds or due to slippery road surfaces.

Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said investigators recovered two firearms after the shooting that was reported at 8:12 p.m. near St. Clair Avenue West and Arlington Avenue, where the Salsa on St. Clair festival was underway.

No suspect or suspects had been arrested by the time of a late-night news conference, where Barredo confirmed both of the deceased victims were men.

Officers initially urged the public to avoid the area before later announcing the scene had been secured.

“There was some concern about an active shooter. That turned out not to be the case,” Barredo said. But the two gunmen involved in the shooting “indiscriminately put vast numbers of people in danger.”

Valerie Rodriguez said she was sitting outside a nearby restaurant when people suddenly began screaming and running.

“A bunch of people … told us to lay down onto the floor,” she said. “We got scared because we didn’t know exactly what was happening.”

Festival vendor Patsy Gutierrez said she was serving customers when she saw “a huge wave” of people fleeing.

“Everybody started getting frantic and then we stopped serving,” she said. “I don’t think it should be something that’s happening at these types of events.”

A large police presence remained around the festival, an annual celebration of Latin American culture that draws thousands of people to Toronto’s St. Clair West neighborhood for live music, dancing, food and cultural performances.

“I’m deeply disturbed and angry about this reckless and irresponsible act of violence right in the middle of a festival attended by families,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post that his thoughts were with the victims, families and others affected by the shooting.

“I am devastated by the senseless violence at the Salsa on St. Clair Festival that has claimed two lives and injured others,” Ford said.

Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is among North America’s safest major cities. Fatal shootings, particularly those involving multiple victims in public places, are relatively rare.

“Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world but we are 3 million people and unfortunately we are not immune,” Barredo said.

• Argentina
• England
• Spain
• France

France and Spain are set to play at 3 p.m. on Monday in Dallas.

Argentina and England are set to play at 3 p.m. on Tuesday in Atlanta.

The two winners will advance to the final at 3 p.m. on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The two others will compete for third place at 5 p.m. on July 18 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

More World Cup coverage

• Alvarez’s 112th-minute goal helps lift Argentina past Switzerland 3-1 and into World Cup semifinals
• England advances to World Cup semifinals, beating Norway 2-1 on Jude Bellingham’s extra time goal
• South Africa World Cup midfielder Jayden Adams dies at the age of 25
• Erling Haaland is Norway’s World Cup machine — and the internet’s ‘babygirl’

• English newlyweds cross the Atlantic for World Cup honeymoon at Miami Stadium
• Is that Erling Haaland or the winner of the look-alike contest in Miami?

Related link: View the knockout bracket

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Semi-finals

July 14

France vs. Spain is at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15

Argentina vs. England is at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

Fighting for the first time in more than five years, McGregor flew across the ring with a flying left roundhouse kick when the match started and landed awkwardly on his right knee.

After attempting to kick and strike Holloway (28-9-0) two more times, it was clear McGregor (22-7-0) couldn’t finish the scheduled five-round welterweight bout.

“My head gasket is gone. Destroyed," McGregor said on social media. “I had no injury / injuries going into the fight. I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell.”

Asked if there may have been an existing injury, UFC President Dana White said there were no signs of it Friday at the ceremonial weigh-in.

“Five years off in this sport is rough,” White said. “We’re assuming a blown ACL. That’s what I assumed when I saw it, and that’s what the doctors think, too.”

White added that with the millions of social-media views of McGregor rushing Holloway at the weigh-in, someone would have noticed if anyone was injured.

Holloway said he kept telling referee Mike Beltran to stop the fight because it was apparent McGregor was injured, but the former champion kept saying, “Fight!”

“During the fight, you could see his demeanor change,” Holloway said. “When I saw him hurt, I said, ‘Call this, he’s hurt.'

“I just hope for a speedy recovery.”

Holloway closed a -300 favorite at Bet MGM Sportsbook, which means a bettor would have to lay $300 to win $100. McGregor was a +240 underdog, which means a bettor would win $240 with a $100 wager on the Irishman.

McGregor, who strolled to the ring to the sounds of Notorious Biggie Smalls’ “Hypnotize” and the roar of the sold-out crowd, last fought exactly five years and a day before Saturday night.

The fans were also treated to Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham serving as a guest ring girl before the first round of the main event. White said it was decided eight minutes before she strolled around the cage in a black top and sequenced shorts, stopping occasionally to replicate her highly popular finger point from the recent game against the Phoenix Mercury.

To the delight of a frenzied audience just hours after his home country of England won its quarterfinal match over Norway in the World Cup, Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett (24-4-0) made quick work of Benoit Saint Denis (17-4-0) with a first-round TKO. Pimblett, who closed a +120 underdog, blocked a roundhouse kick, shot in and quickly applied a D’Arce Choke to put Saint Denis to sleep for the win in 52 seconds.

“Light work,” Pimblett said with a smile at the post-fight press conference. “Mother (expletive) got slept.”

In a bantamweight battle, Mario Bautista (18-3-0) defeated Cory Sandhagen (18-7-0) by unanimous decision, after taking advantage of a first-round leg kick and applying pressure in each round after. A flurry of punches in the third round secured the decision.

In a scheduled three-round flyweight bout, Brandon Royval (18-9-0) applied a rear-naked choke on Lone’er Kavanagh (10-2-0) to win by submission at the 3:40 mark of the final round.

In an absolute shocker to start the main card, a bloodied King Green (36-17-0) overcame a beating for nearly the entire first round before landing a right hand to the jaw of Terrance McKinney (18-9-0) with roughly 20 seconds left, and then finished him off for a TKO at the 4:59 mark.

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

The rally in Little Havana marked the anniversary of Cubans’ nationwide protests on July 11, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are here to continue to push for what we want, which is true, free change for Cuba,” said Alian Collazo, an activist with the non-profit Cuban Freedom March.

Organizers set the main stage between Miami’s Domino Park and the Tower Theater on Eighth Street and Southwest 15th Avenue.

The Tower Theater showed “Cuba y La Noche," a documentary about the protesters in Havana’s San Isidro neighborhood, and had an art exhibit with works by Yulier P., Dagoga, El Sexto, Tixxapura, Floyd, Osiris Cisneros, Nando, and Taiko.

The event comes as President Donald Trump puts pressure on the Cuban government after Nicolás Maduro’s capture in Caracas.

“Hundreds of Cubans remain unjustly detained, suffering brutal conditions, for the simple sin of asking why Cubans cannot freely own businesses, participate in the political process, or provide for themselves and their families. The regime must release these political prisoners immediately,” State Secretary Marco Rubio wrote in a statement. “President Trump and I want a better future for Cuba.”

Miami Commissioner Rolando Escalona, who was born in Havana, said Cuban Americans need to be prepared for political change on the island.

“If you remove the regime right now, day one, somebody needs to be there to run the country. You can have a committee; you can have a board.”

Andy Gomez, the former director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said the Cuban government is divided.

“Raúl’s grandson said he was willing to negotiate directly with President Trump,” Gomez said. “What I know now is he did not have the authority from the full Cuban government to make that kind of statement, so it also tells me, which is what I’ve been seeing, that within the inner circle, his grandfather is 95 years old, within the circle, there’s a struggle.”

Today marks five years since the Communist Cuban regime brutally suppressed the peaceful July 11 demonstrations and yet again silenced Cubans’ cries for basic rights, dignity, and opportunity. To this day, hundreds of Cubans remain unjustly detained, suffering brutal conditions,…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 11, 2026

The 17-year-old son of Rev. D’Angelo Missik and Nezzie Missick, a church overseer, was described on social media as “respectful,” “kind,” and “sweet.” D’quan’s aunt Akedria White agreed.

“He was special,” White said on Saturday during a memorial service near the canal where he was found dead on July 7.

D’quan had vanished on July 6 after he was last seen at Wawa at Southwest 12 Avenue and West Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach.

“He was always talking about God, what he was going to be, and how he was going to conquer the world,” White said.

D’quan had been helping to babysit his younger cousins before he vanished, according to relatives.

“We weren’t expecting this,” D’quan’s cousin Trice Clark said during the memorial.

Rev. D’Angelo Missik said he and his family need answers. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were conducting the investigation.

“We are still waiting on the autopsy, we are still waiting on police,” the grieving father said. “We’re trying to process everything. We have our moments; it’s hard.”

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Missile alert sirens sounded at dawn Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. There was no immediate word on damage.

Iranian state media acknowledged the latest attacks on its soil early Monday, describing explosions in several locations with at least one person being killed.

Iranian attacks on Sunday stretched Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and even Oman — whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, which once saw a fifth of all oil and natural gas pass through it, has become the key issue challenging an interim deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of that deal, which was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders the Iran war could resume.

“A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

Fighting focuses on the status of the strait

The U.S. military earlier Sunday said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites — a far-heavier set of attacks than in two previous rounds of strikes in the last week.

“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged in a statement early Monday it had begun a new round of strikes across the Middle East.

“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a main negotiator, wrote. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”

Iran described the strait as being closed, while the U.S. military and Trump asserted that the strait remained open. Iran since the war began back on Feb. 28 with the killing of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has used attacks on vessels in the region to intimidate shippers into not traveling through the waterway.

Iran's chokehold on the strait, however, has loosened as the U.S. military provided support to vessels moving along a southern route hugging the coastline of Oman. That new route has angered Iran, which launched repeated attacks on ships using it.

Iran’s grip on the strait led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.

A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing.

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Weissert and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

U.S. Central Command said a short time later that its forces began a third round of strikes against Iran. There were explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik, two towns along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported.

“The United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” the American military said.

A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.

Senior U.S. officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month’s deal to end the war will be unable to progress without the strait being secure — and even said they wanted Iran to offer public statements to that effect.

Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”

Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

A little more than an hour later, the U.S. announced its own new round of strikes.

“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

The latest flurry of shots from both sides followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels.”

Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said before the new round of strikes that he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.”

The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The U.S. urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Iran’s top diplomat also accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.

“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote on social media.

Trump says he responded to threats to kill him

Trump said he’s personally been the target of an Iranian plot, and he said the U.S. military would automatically retaliate if he was killed.

He wrote on social media early Saturday that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”

However, such retaliation would have to be ordered by Vice President JD Vance, who would become commander-in-chief if Trump were to be killed.

Trump said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. president has declared the ceasefire over but said the U.S. would continue negotiations.

U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round came as a result of what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners who were trying to sabotage the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.

After the U.S. wrapped up strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The strikes in Iran over two days — and prior to the ones in the wake of the warning shot — killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

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Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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The extension came in a newly released Department of Homeland Security memo, which says the move is the result of active litigation.

The news broke just as union members at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport were beginning a rally.

Airport officials say close to 200 workers at FLL are on Haitian TPS. Union leaders say many of those workers had been told Friday would be their last day on the job.

County officials and the airport are bracing for the economic impact.

Union members used the rally to call on not only the Trump administration and Congress to act, but also their employers.

The extension brings some relief for Haitians with TPS, but it is not a resolution. The clock is still ticking.

“I’m going to stay and fight,” a TPS worker said.

Dozens of Vikings made noise to make their choice among 17 contestants on Saturday in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.

The winner, Perry Tegnander, won two tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026 quarter-final match between Norway and England in Miami Gardens.

Sadly for Tegnander, who was visiting from Norway, England won 2-1 after 15 minutes of extra time at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Haaland scored for Norway, and Jude Bellingham scored both goals to push England forward to a semi-final match against France at 3 p.m. on July 14.

Spain also advanced to play a semi-final match at 3 p.m. on July 15. The opponent will be the winner of the Argentina vs. Switzerland match on Saturday night.

More World Cup coverage

• England advances to World Cup semifinals, beating Norway 2-1 on Jude Bellingham’s extra time goal
• South Africa World Cup midfielder Jayden Adams dies at the age of 25
• Erling Haaland is Norway’s World Cup machine — and the internet’s ‘babygirl’
• English newlyweds cross the Atlantic for World Cup honeymoon at Miami Stadium

Related link: View the knockout bracket

TOURNAMENT’S SCHEDULE

Semi-finals

July 14

France vs. Spain at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15

England plays at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

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

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

On Friday, Mexican volunteers with the Brigada Internacional de Rescate Topos Azteca told The Washington Post that they had detected “signs of life,” as they searched for a 9-year-old boy in the coastal town of Caraballeda.

Francisco Bastardo told El Pitazo that his 9-year-old son, Fabio, and his mother, Kiriaki Navarro, were in a 6th-floor apartment at Las Residencias Tahití, one of the buildings that collapsed.

Jean Sosa, a volunteer, told Reuters that he believed he had communicated with Fabio until July 2nd. Others had tried to find him with drones, dogs, and a ground-penetrating radar, but failed.

On Saturday, Venezuelan officials reported the official death toll had increased to 4,333, there were 16,740 injured, and about 18,000 people were displaced.

More on Helping Venezuela

Related list: Aid for Venezuela drop-off locations in South Florida

• USS San Antonio serves at Port of La Guaira
• Miami mayor honors search-and-rescue team’s service in La Guaira
• Amazon partners with Airlink to support cargo flights from MIA to Caracas

• Faith-based nonprofit Mercy Chefs team arrives at Caracas
• A week after quakes, reports of hurdles abound
• Doral-based nonprofit GEM dispatches over $1 million in aid from community

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• World Vision asks for ‘disaster relief fund’ donations
• World Central Kitchen asks for donations for fresh meals

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Lombard, a 6-foot-3 right-handed hitter and shortstop, also played soccer in high school. His father, George, was a Major League Baseball outfielder for six seasons.

His brother, George Lombard Jr., also plays shortstop for the New York Yankees.

Lombard received scouting grades of 55 for hitting, 60 for power, 65 for running, 50 for arm strength, 55 for fielding, and an overall grade of 60 on MLB’s 20-80 scouting scale, according to MLB.com.

Frankie Piliere, the vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives for the Marlins, released a statement.

“The evaluation is the evaluation, and if he was from anywhere, it’d be really great,” Piliere said. “We’d be just as excited.”

Miami Marlins Select Five Players on the First Day of the 2026 First-Year Player Draft pic.twitter.com/b2RJO2u7t2

— Marlins Communications (@MarlinsComms) July 12, 2026

It runs in the family ⚾️ https://t.co/6gm7K3PBtF pic.twitter.com/GN0prjHuV6

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) July 11, 2026

It runs in the family ⚾️ https://t.co/6gm7K3PBtF pic.twitter.com/GN0prjHuV6

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) July 11, 2026

Perhaps it is simply its ability to suffer.

Whether it was tiny Cape Verde taking them to extra time, or Egypt burying them in a two-goal hole late in their match, Lionel Messi and La Albiceleste have always been able to survive. And that was the case once more on Saturday night, when Julián Alvarez's long-range strike in the 112th minute and Lautaro Martínez's finish later in extra time sent them back to the semifinals with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Switzerland at raucous Arrowhead Stadium.

“We’re among the best four,” Alvarez said, “so we’re meeting our objectives, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The whole match was hard, and we would have loved to have the win earlier, but we tried to get the win however we could.”

“It seems like if there’s no suffering, it doesn’t count,” Argentina’s Leandro Paredes added, “but as long as the results come through.”

Alexis Mac Allister had the other goal off a corner kick from Messi for La Albiceleste, helping to send them into a showdown with England on Wednesday in Atlanta. The Three Lions beat Norway 2-1 earlier in the day.

Messi's nine-game World Cup scoring streak ended, but his pursuit of a second World Cup title continues. With Argentina and England joining France and Spain in the semifinals, it's the first time the top four teams in the FIFA rankings have advanced that far.

“A match is coming up,” Paredes said, “that every kid dreams of playing.”

The game against Switzerland swung on a call sure to rile up those who think Argentina has been favored by World Cup officials.

The Swiss had just tied the game on Dan Ndoye's goal in the 67th minute when Paredes was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Breel Embolo. But video showed the Swiss player falling before the Argentina midfielder made contact with him, and since Embolo received a yellow card earlier in the match, he was sent off and Switzerland was left to defend with 10 players.

It was the second time a yellow card has been overturned using the “mistaken identity” protocol at the World Cup. The rule allows the video assistant referee to intervene when an incorrect player is shown a yellow or red card.

“We were punished because of a rule that in my opinion is completely unacceptable,” Switzerland coach Murat Yakin said. “I don't understand. It's very painful that we were eliminated that way. I don't think we deserve that today, in my opinion.”

It was a maddening end to the Swiss' first World Cup quarterfinal appearance since 1954. They still have never made a semifinal, nor have they beaten Argentina in eight meetings — three of those in the tournament that matters the most.

“It was just a disaster,” Switzerland's Remo Freuler said of the red card.

Argentina has made its base for the past month in Kansas City, training at the home of Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City while winning over thousands of new fans. And on Saturday night, they filled Arrowhead Stadium for the second time this tournament, hoping to see Messi make more magic after his hat trick against Algeria in the same building a few weeks ago.

It was brutally hot and humid throughout the day, but the temperatures began to fall with the setting sun, producing a picturesque setting for the 100th match of an expanded World Cup, and the final match of the quarterfinal round.

The defensive-minded Swiss had only conceded three goals in five games, and they dominated the ball in the opening minutes. But leave it to Messi, whose eight goals in the tournament are tied for the most with France’s Kylian Mbappé, to send a jolt through that heavily pro-Argentina crowd which included Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

He helped to earn an early corner kick with some nifty footwork, then delivered the ball that Mac Allister turned into a 1-0 lead.

For most of the match, the Swiss struggled to break down an Argentina back line that had conceded two goals apiece in its last two games. And it didn’t help their cause that they were playing without Johan Manzabi, one of their best goal-scorers, who remained out with a knee injury after missing their round of 16 penalty shootout win over Colombia.

But after forcing Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez into making a couple of tough second-half saves, the Swiss broke through when Ricardo Rodriguez slipped a tidy pass to Ndoye and he easily found the back of the net.

Whatever momentum the equalizer gave the Swiss disappeared with Embolo's red card a few minutes later.

Argentina turned up the pressure with Mac Allister missing wide with a header in the 89th minute, and Messi creating an opportunity in front of the goal that he sent just wide in the second minute of stoppage time, leaving the game tied into extra time.

There, just as they have all tournament, La Albiceleste found a way to keep their quest for back-to-back championships alive.

“We knew this could happen,” Argentina midfielder Thiago Almada said. “They have top players, very good position, they were trying to find people inside. We knew how to hold up and we made it through.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Vikings' biggest star didn't shine Saturday.

Haaland was a nonfactor for much of his team's quarterfinal against England and — at least in part because of the strain of dealing with hot and humid conditions in South Florida — was taken out with Norway's hopes hanging in the balance going into the final 15 minutes of extra time.

The final score: England 2, Norway 1. Haaland was kept off the scoresheet for the first time in this World Cup; he had scored seven times in his four appearances going into Saturday, but barely had a chance to add to that total Saturday.

“This has been an insane journey,” Haaland said.

Haaland acknowledged afterward that his energy was gone as the game, which was played with a heat index topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), wore along.

“It was not a tough decision to take him out,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said. “He was finished. Maybe I should have taken him out 10 minutes before. ... He also got a dead leg in the second half, so that combined with the fatigue. He did everything he could.”

The Manchester City striker was, without question, one of the stars of the tournament — but England silenced him. And his former Borussia Dortmund teammate, Jude Bellingham, wound up stealing the show by scoring both goals.

Haaland and Bellingham shared an embrace when the game ended, before the Norwegian striker made the long, slow walk from the field to the locker room for the final time in this World Cup.

He was already a star within the sport coming into the tournament — but his larger-than-most-in-soccer frame and larger-than-life personality, combined with his long blond hair and unique mannerisms, turned Haaland into a soccer folk hero.

“I think this has changed my life, to be honest,” Haaland said.

England's plan — forged in part by his Manchester City teammates and others who have played with and against him at the club level — was clear: Do not let Haaland get the ball. It was largely successful.

Haaland had two shot attempts in the game, one on goal, and was virtually silenced after the first half. There was a 2-on-1 chance late in the first half where a pass didn't go his way; if it had, that may have been his best scoring opportunity.

There wasn't much for him to get excited about the rest of the way. He stayed on the field for a few minutes after the final whistle, saluting Norway's fans after the team's best World Cup run ever. When the 2030 tournament rolls around, it won't be a surprise if Norway makes another deep run — and that's clearly going to be the goal.

“I think we put Norway on the map,” he said.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

While a very light passing shower cannot be ruled out, most of Miami-Dade and Broward counties remain dry.

Sunday showers will be limited. Temperatures are set to blaze. Highs will reach the lower 90s with feel-like temperatures over 105 degrees.

The Saharan dust will intensify during the week ahead, and rainfall will remain slim across South Florida.

The plane departed from the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau and crashed before reaching San Andros Airport, according to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority of the Bahamas.

The Bahamas Musicians and Entertainers Union announced on Saturday that the five members of Da Pond Band were among the victims.

After another Flamingo Air plane caught fire on Friday in Nassau, Bahamian authorities temporarily suspended the airline’s license.

Location

The Khosla family entered into a formal agreement to purchase the defending Super Bowl champions for $9.612 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke to the The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is still subject to approval by the NFL.

The Khosla family will become the team’s controlling owner, according to a social media post by the Seahawks.

“We are honored to be entrusted as the next stewards of the Seattle Seahawks,” Vinod Khosla said in a statement. “We look forward to building on the winning legacy Paul Allen created and to earning the trust of the Seahawks organization and fans everywhere.”

Allen’s estate announced on Feb. 18 it had begun the process of selling the team, which is coming off its second Super Bowl victory in franchise history. Investment bank Allen & Company LLC and law firm Latham & Watkins led the sales process, which was estimated in February to continue through the offseason.

Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

His current net worth is $13.7 billion, Forbes reported this month.

The company invests in experimental technologies such as biomedicine, robotics, and was the first venture firm to invest in OpenAI, per Forbes.

The Khosla family will be required to relinquish its ownership stake in the San Francisco 49ers as part of the deal. Khosla joined 49ers ownership group as a minority owner in 2025, purchasing 3.1% of the team.

NFL owners still have to ratify a final purchase agreement and they are expected to meet in August to approve the deal, ESPN reported.

The Seahawks have been in the Allen family since 1997, when Paul Allen bought the team for $194 million from then-owner Ken Behring. Allen was critical in keeping the Seahawks in Seattle, which is where the team is expected to remain after the sale is finalized.

The Seahawks have a lease at Lumen Field that runs through 2032 with three 10-year options.

Since Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at 65, the Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers have been owned by his sister, Jody.

The estate agreed in September to sell the Trail Blazers to an investment group led by Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. The Trail Blazers will remain in Portland as part of the deal, which is awaiting final approval from the NBA Board of Governors.

The last NFL team to be sold was the Washington Commanders in 2023. A group led by Josh Harris that includes Magic Johnson bought the team from longtime owner Dan Snyder and his family for a record $6.05 billion.

The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in the Super Bowl in February.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of the family purchasing the team to Khosla throughout.

___

AP NFL writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.

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

You'd better BELIEVE he's paying attention.

The fictional coach of soccer club AFC Richmond — or rather, Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character on the Apple TV series — was hosting a watch party at CPKC Stadium near downtown Kansas City on Saturday night, when La Albiceleste were playing upstart Switzerland at Arrowhead Stadium in their quest for back-to-back championships.

The fourth season of the comedy-drama, which has been on hiatus since May 31, 2023, is due to premiere on Aug. 5.

“As much as we've loved football before we got started, I've grown to love it more as we got more immersed in the soccer culture,” said Sudeikis, who grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and still has a deep affinity for the city.

In fact, many of the scenes in the new season of “Ted Lasso” were shot around Kansas City.

That includes riverfront CPKC Stadium, the home of the National Women's Soccer League club Kansas City Current. It's the first of its size built specifically for a women's professional club, and a fitting locale for several thousand people to attend a watch party, given that the new season of “Ted Lasso” will focus on the newly formed AFC Richmond women's team.

It was a concept that the character Keeley Jones — played by the award-winning Juno Temple — subtly pitched at the end of the third season, when it was still unclear whether “Ted Lasso” would return for another run.

“It feels like a perfect moment to be talking about women's football, and representing it — not that I play, obviously,” said Temple, who sported a teal Kansas City Current jersey Saturday. “So that's first and foremost. I hope that's something people really treasure. And I also hope people enjoy the journey each of the characters are going on.”

As for the World Cup, the cast hopes fans of the show have become fans of the game over the years. That has certainly been the case in the Sudeikis household; he played a little soccer as a kid before realizing basketball was more his game.

“I've certainly heard from some people that didn't care about soccer at all until they started to watch ‘Ted Lasso,’” said Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and is one of the show's writers, and who reflected on the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.

“As opposed to 1994 when we had the World Cup and people knew even less about soccer, including me, people were ready for it,” Hunt said. “Yes, the world has come with this great energy, but we were more ready to be aware of their presence, and reciprocate energy. And we're not as far behind as far as the sport's popularity as it's made out to be, and this World Cup is showing it.”

The fact that Argentina and Switzerland were playing a World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday night? In Kansas City?

“Luck of the draw,” Hunt said with a wry, bearded smile. “The actual show about to come out after the World Cup? I think someone manipulated that. Might have been a corporate choice.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Deputies and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded to the shooting shortly before 8:40 p.m. on Thursday at 13170 SW 233rd St.

Witnesses reported two men were arguing before one of them fatally shot the other, according to MDSO deputies.

Video recorded by a Ring surveillance camera shows when stray bullets struck the car of a woman who was delivering a package. She wasn’t injured.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.

Location

Los memorandos de entendimiento con Hummingbird AI Holdings, con sede en Florida, y Ernst and Young LLP, con sede en Nueva York, se firmaron el viernes, según un comunicado de la oficina de la primera ministra de Trinidad y Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Se trata de los primeros acuerdos de este tipo con un país del Caribe.

El acuerdo con Ernst and Young LLP establecerá el marco de colaboración para desarrollar centros de datos a gran escala, y la empresa planea “asociarse con terceros en el desarrollo” de un centro de datos de 300 megavatios, indicó el comunicado.

El acuerdo con Hummingbird AI Holdings establece el marco para la “cooperación preliminar, la debida diligencia y la coordinación” de una propuesta de instalación de infraestructura de IA y centro de datos de 150 MW.

Los centros de datos se describen con una cifra en megavatios para indicar su capacidad de potencia eléctrica para operar a su carga máxima. El centro de 300 MW tiene una capacidad de 300 millones de vatios de electricidad.

Los acuerdos generaron preguntas en internet sobre el impacto ambiental de los centros.

El reconocido activista social, el doctor Wayne Kublalsingh, dijo a The Associated Press que le preocupaba el consumo de energía de los centros de datos previstos.

El gobierno “trata de presentar algo que parece desarrollo, pero que no es desarrollo”, manifestó.

Durante mucho tiempo, Trinidad y Tobago ha lidiado con la escasez crónica de agua y un suministro intermitente, lo que suscita inquietud de que los grandes centros de datos, que requieren grandes cantidades agua, podrían añadir presión a un sistema ya sobrecargado.

La mayor parte del país de dos islas funciona con horarios de agua establecidos por la empresa estatal de servicios públicos. La mayoría de los hogares tiene tanques de agua, ya que el suministro en los grifos puede ocurrir tan solo una vez por semana. En algunos casos, distintas comunidades han pasado semanas sin que la empresa estatal les suministre el líquido.

Los centros de datos podrían representar casi el 3% del uso mundial de electricidad proyectado para 2030, con 935 billones de vatios-hora, según un informe reciente de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas. La huella ambiental de estos centros ya rivaliza con la de algunos de los países más grandes del mundo, de acuerdo con el informe.

El suministro eléctrico en Trinidad y Tobago ha mejorado con los años. Aunque todavía hay cortes de energía ocasionales en distintas partes del país, son poco frecuentes.

El gobierno de Trinidad y Tobago firmó un tercer acuerdo con otra empresa estadounidense, Pinnacle Steel and Vanadium Corporation, que adquirió recientemente una planta local de hierro y acero. Funcionarios del gobierno señalaron que el acuerdo permite continuar las conversaciones para volver a poner en marcha la operación de la planta.

El gobierno indicó que se espera que las tres iniciativas, en conjunto, generen más de 5.000 empleos.

La primera ministra ha sido una firme partidaria del gobierno de Trump. Su oficina dijo que el gobierno de Estados Unidos desempeñó un papel de facilitador para las partes que intervienen en los acuerdos.

“Van a invertir aquí para trabajar en centros de datos, dos para centros de datos, y uno para ayudarnos a rejuvenecer y reconstruir nuestra industria del acero”, afirmó Persad-Bissessar el viernes por la noche en una ceremonia de celebración del aniversario de la independencia de Estados Unidos organizada por la Embajada estadounidense en el país.

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

El padre de Lombard, George, fue jardinero de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol durante seis temporadas.

It runs in the family ⚾️ https://t.co/6gm7K3PBtF pic.twitter.com/GN0prjHuV6

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) July 11, 2026

Bellingham certainly earned the serenade.

He scored twice on Saturday — an equalizer in the first half and the go-ahead goal in the third minute of extra time — to lift England past Norway 2-1 and into the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 2018.

The Real Madrid star has now matched Kane with six goals in this tournament, two behind France’s Kylian Mbappé and Argentina’s Lionel Messi and one shy of Norway's Erling Haaland, who was held scoreless by England. Bellingham also scored twice in the round of 16 as England beat co-host Mexico.

England, winner of the 1966 World Cup and facing pressure to return to the title match, is now one win away from getting there. The Three Lions will face Argentina in the semifinals.

“The game is split into loads of different facets. Some of it is technical, tactical,” Bellingham said. “For me, the biggest one is psychological and how you can manage setbacks, how you can manage adversity. This team showed yet again that they can do it and that’s a really valuable skill and trait to have.”

Not everyone was thrilled with England's performance.

“We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,” coach Thomas Tuchel said in a contentious interview with Fox Sports. “The result is fantastic. We’re in the last four. It’s amazing, but not happy with the performance ... in every sense.”

Tuchel clarified in his news conference that he was “proud and happy” with how his squad has overcome adversity, but added, “I'm also a football coach and I also have demands. ... I think we can play faster. I think we can play more clinical.”

Bellingham seemed to disagree with his coach's critique after England prevailed in the heat and humidity of South Florida, with temperatures reaching 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) at the start of warmups.

“Well, whatever,” Bellingham said, shaking his head. “It's difficult out there. It's a tough shift. My thoughts and appreciation goes to the players out there who put in a great shift.”

Andreas Schjelderup scored in the 36th minute for Norway, a squad that reached its first quarterfinals and took the internet by storm with its “Viking row” and the charisma of Haaland, their fearsome 6-foot-5 striker.

Haaland was kept off the scoresheet for the first time in this World Cup. The Manchester City star sat dejectedly on the bench after he was subbed out for Jorgen Strand Larsen in the second half of extra time.

“It was not a tough decision to take him out,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said. “He was finished. Maybe I should have taken him out 10 minutes before. ... He also got a dead leg in the second half, so that combined with the fatigue. He did everything he could.”

Norway nearly went ahead 2-1 in the 56th minute when Torbjørn Heggem put a rebound past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford after a corner kick. Following a video review, the goal was disallowed because of a foul by Haaland in the box. Haaland was also denied by Pickford on a point-blank header in the first half.

Schjelderup, making just his second start of the tournament, fired a shot that caromed off the right post and into the net to stun an England team that had dominated possession to that point. Bellingham’s equalizer from close range elicited a roar from that crowd that included Mick Jagger and England great David Beckham.

Schjelderup, who set up both of Haaland’s goals in Norway’s round of 16 win over Brazil, celebrated by stretching his arms wide and looking at the crowd as his teammates lifted him onto their shoulders. Meanwhile, Kane sat near midfield, grabbing his leg and looking toward the officials. No foul was called.

Moments before Bellingham evened the score, a Norway goal kick resulted in the ball appearing to make contact with an aerial camera cable before landing at the feet of England’s Elliot Anderson. The ball was eventually played to Bellingham, who beat Ørjan Nyland with a low shot to the far post. By rule, if the ball had been noticed hitting the cable, play would have stopped and a drop ball would have been utilized to determine possession. FIFA later said the sensor in the ball indicated it did not touch the cable.

There was a brief moment of silence before the match in honor of Jayden Adams, the 25-year-old midfielder for South Africa whose death was announced earlier Saturday.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

La búsqueda de sobrevivientes se mantiene activa en dos puntos gracias al apoyo de equipos internacionales con tecnología que permite detectar latidos o calor corporal, indicó el titular de la Asamblea, Jorge Rodríguez, en rueda de prensa.

“En esta etapa tiene que ser de manera lenta, porque si se hace de manera abrupta y se meten máquinas de gran calado … no sabemos si podemos llevarnos una vida en ese proceso”, agregó el funcionario. También se busca recuperar los cuerpos para que sus familiares puedan llevar su duelo".

En cuanto al número de fallecidos, Rodríguez indicó que 315 cuerpos siguen sin ser identificados a pesar de que se les tomaron fotografías, huellas dactilares y muestras de piel para su reconocimiento en caso de que sean reclamados más adelante.

A su vez, añadió que hay casi 1,3 millones de toneladas de escombro que, en la medida de lo posible, serán utilizados en el proceso de reconstrucción, “pero lo que sí es seguro es que eso no se va a lanzar al mar”, dijo al desmentir versiones de redes sociales.

El doble sismo del 24 de junio, que según expertos es el de mayor magnitud en el país sudamericano en el último siglo, ha tenido 1.203 réplicas, y fueron responsables del colapso de 190 estructuras, dejando sin vivienda a 17.000 personas, según el reporte oficial.

Las autoridades han instalado 94 refugios temporales para asistir a los damnificados, principalmente en escuelas que deberán estar desocupadas para el inicio de clases en octubre, señaló el presidente el funcionario. Por ello se acelera el proceso de reparación de las viviendas afectadas, la construcción de nuevas y la compra o alquiler de otras.

El registro de beneficiarios inició el sábado en los albergues. Rodríguez estimó que se necesitarán 25.000 viviendas para los afectados. El gobierno venezolano ha anunciado la entrega de créditos hipotecarios con subsidios de hasta el 80%.

Según Rodríguez, su hermana y presidenta interina de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, adelanta trámites para obtener recursos financieros, incluidas cartas a países como Inglaterra, para solicitar la liberación de oro y activos venezolanos “retenidos ilegalmente”.

Sismos causaron desplazamiento de tierras en Venezuela

Datos del radar NISAR de la NASA revelaron que la ciudad más afectada por los sismos, La Guaira, y otras zonas cercanas tuvieron un “desplazamiento significativo” de terreno. La mayor parte “fue horizontal” en dirección oeste-este, identificó el reporte emitido la víspera.

Los mapas satelitales revelaron el movimiento de la superficie terrestre después de comparar imágenes obtenidas entre el 25 y 30 de junio con las de la semana previa.

Reddick won five of the first nine stops on this year's Cup Series schedule, including at EchoPark Speedway on Feb. 22, one week after winning the Daytona 500, to take a dominant lead in the points race.

Reddick’s points lead has disappeared in recent weeks. Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, enters Sunday night’s race leading Reddick by 44 points.

Overall, Reddick has two wins in three starts on drafting tracks this season in his 23XI Racing Toyota, giving him reason for optimism. Reddick said Saturday he is “extremely” confident he can enjoy more success in his return to the track formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“In my opinion, we’re stronger when we come back here in the summer race,” Reddick said. “We’re still plenty good in the spring, but what we do well at EchoPark Speedway really shows up in the summer. ... Our strength typically is handling and I feel like the more that’s in play the better I do with these kind of races.”

Hamlin was third while Reddick finished 36th in last week's race at Chicagoland Speedway won by Chase Briscoe. Reddick has finished 25th or worse in four of the last five Cup Series races.

“For us to still be second in points ... all things considered I think most people with a race car would do anything to have that,” Reddick said.

Larson looking to end 2 droughts

Kyle Larson is trying to end a 43-race winless streak and also claim his first Cup Series win at the 1.54-mile oval track in Atlanta. He finished third in February 2025.

The winless stretch is his longest since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2021. His last win came at Kansas in May 2025. Larson, who won Cup Series championships in 2021 and 2025, finished 34th after qualifying second last week in Chicago. He was in the top five before losing several laps following a spin in Stage 2.

Larson said he feels his Hendrick Motorsports team has been making gains each week.

“I feel like we’ve noticed each week, I feel like Hendrick as a whole has gotten just a little bit better and closed the gap a little,” Larson said. “I think it feels like a large chunk still left to get, but I feel like in this sport ... you’re probably closer than it really feels out on the track.”

Chase Elliott, Larson’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, won last summer’s race at EchoPark Speedway to end a 44-race winless streak.

Despite his streak, Larson is sixth in the points race, only one point behind Elliott.

In-Season Challenge continues

The second year of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge continues with the third round. The winner of the five-race, bracket-style tournament will earn $1 million. A compelling matchup is Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell.

“I guess probably we'll be the underdog against Christopher,” Hamlin said before adding “whoever doesn't wreck” has the advantage.

Elliott is matched against Briscoe, another Joe Gibbs Racing driver. The other matchups are William Byron against Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland against Alex Bowman.

Four drivers will advance to next week's race in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina and the championship round is scheduled for July 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bell injury update

Bell will again wear a cast on his left wrist that was broken during a hit at Michigan International Speedway on June 7. He had only a wrap on the wrist Saturday but said he'll add the cast for the race “just in case something happens." He said he hopes this will be the last race with the cast.

“I'm close if not 100% right there,” Bell said.

Billboard fun

Ryan Preece worked with EchoPark Speedway to purchase billboards to promote the race.

Preece put his RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher on each billboard. One billboard on Interstate 75 near the track promotes Buescher's hometown by proclaiming “Visit Prosper, Texas. 843 miles” with an image of Buescher in his racing uniform. Another billboard says “Come see me race this weekend” with an image of Buescher wearing a red wig.

Preece promoted the prank on his Facebook account.

Buescher smiled Saturday when he said “So Ryan’s back to shenanigans” and added he was planning to return the favor.

“It is fine, because I’m currently in the process as well, and I look forward to unveiling that before too terribly long,” Buescher said.

Added Buescher: “Ironically I did have that same haircut as a kid. It just wasn’t that red.”

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She carried cold water in one hand. She had an unfolded fan in the other, flapping it with hopes of creating her own little breeze. And the elements seemed to be winning; no matter what she tried, the England fan was still, at best, uncomfortable.

“I can’t imagine playing 90 minutes in it,” said Gregory, who came to the U.S. with her husband from their home in Telford, England to follow their team through the World Cup.

Norway had Harry Kane to worry about. England had Erling Haaland to worry about. And both sides — in what has been a theme for this World Cup — had the weather to worry about. It was 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) when the teams started warm-ups Saturday afternoon, and with the humidity factored in it felt like 104 F (40 C).

That’s a far cry from the seasonable 72 F (22 C) in London or 59 F (15 C) in Lillehammer at that time.

“I think we have trained very lightly,” Norway manager Ståle Solbakken said on the eve of the match. “We haven’t done much hard work. We obviously have tactical sessions, but at a lower tempo and have not trained for long periods.”

In other words, rest and hydration took precedence for Norway — which spent much of the week in South Florida to acclimate. England didn’t arrive in the Miami area until later in the week.

“Up until now we’ve played in cool conditions, I would say,” England defender Nico O’Reilly said. “But we’re ready for it.”

This wasn’t England’s first trip to South Florida on its World Cup journey. The team arrived in Palm Beach Gardens — about 90 minutes north of Miami Gardens — on June 2 for more than a week of training and to get a feel for the heat and humidity.

England also had to adjust to the high temperatures of its Kansas City base camp, and survive Mexico’s altitude to beat the co-host in the round of 16, but hadn’t faced anything like the combination of heat and humidity that greeted the teams Saturday.

Gregory said she felt for the players.

“It’s hard just sitting and watching it,” Gregory said.

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Gracie Fisher is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here.

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said in a release on Saturday that he had received a whistleblower disclosure from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection group, alleging that “the Center rushed a series of renovations driven by the President’s aesthetic whims and his desire to star in a series of televised events in December.”

“The Center’s subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices have resulted in steel columns that are rusting through fresh paint, a reflecting pool that may have to be torn out and rebuilt, and a brand-new bathroom floor torn out over an offending tile color,” Whitehouse continued. “This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”

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

Trump seized control of the arts and culture venue, named after former President John F. Kennedy, at the beginning of his second term. Trump ousted the center's prior leadership and replaced it with a Board of Trustees that named him chairman and added his name to the building.

Democrats sued to remove it and a federal judge ruled Trump's name must come off the venue, which had been wracked with boycotts by artists during the turmoil. He tried to close the center for two years, only to be ordered to keep it open by the court because only Congress could change its name.

Whitehouse released a letter he wrote to the center's executive director, Matt Floca, demanding answers by July 23. He said the whistleblower report included “firsthand accounts of multiple former Center project managers, supported by contemporaneous documents and photographs.” He also included an 83-page appendix full of internal center documents, emails and photos of apparently shoddy construction.

The allegations include that the center rushed work before it was authorized by Congress because it wanted it to be complete for Trump to accept the new FIFA Peace Prize that the soccer federation awarded him. In doing so, the letter alleges the center didn't follow required contracting guidelines and wasted money replacing a bathroom because the president didn't like the color and inking no-bid contracts. One $8 million contract to replace the concert hall's floor went to a firm with no experience in concert halls, Whitehouse contended.