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The incident occurred near Southeast Fifth Street.

According to Miami Fire Rescue officials, four people were transported to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital in stable condition. Several other people at the scene were evaluated by first responders but did not require transportation.

Boat operators at the scene told Local 10 News that the incident was caused by a mechanical issue aboard the boat, prompting passengers to request medical attention.

Operators said the boat did not collide with another vessel.

No other details were immediately released.

Riley shot a 7-under 63 to reach 15 under on Saturday and took a one-shot lead at Detroit Golf Club, where the relatively easy course will give a lot of players on the tightly-packed leaderboard a chance to win the last Rocket Classic.

Riley closed with consecutive birdies, making a 54-foot putt at No. 17 and a 10-footer at 18 to pull into a first-place tie with Michael Brennan

Riley is aiming for his third career win and first since the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge — and to get into the postseason.

He has missed 10 cuts, including last week’s 3M Open, and is No. 146 in the FedEx Cup standings.

The Rocket Classic and next week’s Wyndham Championship are the last two tournaments left before the top 70 advance to playoffs.

Riley had an opportunity to win the season-opening Sony Open as the third-round leader before closing with a 71 and falling into a tie for sixth.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I’m just excited that I’ve started to put the things together and have a chance.”

Brennan (64) had a strong round with seven birdies, but missed a 9-foot putt to bogey 18 and lost a share of the lead.

Rasmus Hojgaard (61), Chris Kirk (66), Rickie Fowler (67) and Cameron Young (68) were three shots back.

Xander Schauffele (67) is in a group another stroke back, going into the final round on Sunday.

Hojgaard became the third player in as many days to match the course record with a 61, giving him the lead before Brennan's birdies put him ahead.

First-round leader Peter Malnati opened with a 61 before plummeting to 4 under with a 71 and 74.

Young matched the mark on the second day, putting the third-ranked player in the world in a three-way tie for the second-round lead with Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn.

Young, playing for the first time since a second-place finish at the British Open, was in the final group on Saturday and had a rough round.

He missed 11-foot putts at Nos. 1 and 3, settling for par. His drive at No. 2 went wide right, landing on a berm with the ball above his feet, leading to another par.

The 24-year-old Brennan, a former Wake Forest star, is shooting for his second win and first since last year's Bank of Utah Championship in his first start as a professional.

Brennan also has a chance to improve his shot at being in the postseason after entering the tournament No. 106 in the FedEx Cup standings. He made eight straight birdies, one shy of the PGA Tour record, on Thursday to open with a 65 and shot a 67 on Friday.

Hojgaard of Denmark is vying for his first win on the PGA Tour after missing the cut in his last three starts — and just making it to the weekend at 3 under in Detroit.

Kirk, who was in a three-way playoff at last year's Rocket Classic before Aldrich Potgieter won it, earned his sixth career victory at the The Sentry early in 2024. Fowler's sixth and last win was the 2023 Rocket Classic.

The PGA Tour is moving to a new model for 2028, effectively creating two tours and Rocket Mortgage decided not to exercise its option to host another tournament next year.

The Detroit-based company isn't interested in continuing to spend $15 million a year to be part of the second tier in the new era and didn’t want to double the costs to be part of the elite tier.

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

Bob McGowan, who had managed Pastore since his run on “The Sopranos,” told The Associated Press that he learned of his death Saturday from another client and actor on the show, Vincent Curatola.

He said that he had been found in his home on New York’s City Island after not being heard from for a few days.

McGowan said he’d been trying to reach Pastore about a possible job.

“He was the most loyal client and he always gave to charity,” McGowan said, “and he was the kind of guy who would help anybody, which is rare in my business.”

Michael Imperioli, a longtime friend and collaborator with Pastore, said on Instagram that it seemed as though he had known Vinny forever.

“We did lots of work together and traveled all over the USA as well as Italy and Australia. Lots of good times. Lots of laughs,” Imperioli said. “Vinny was a kind hearted brother who cared deeply about his family and friends. I will miss him always.”

Pastore appeared in movies dating back to the 1980s and had roles in big movies including “Goodfellas” and “Awakenings,” both in 1990.

He often played gangsters. And it was one of those roles he’s best known for: his 30-episode run as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, the friend of Tony Soprano who becomes an FBI informant in “The Sopranos.”

He was born in the Bronx and grew up in suburban New Rochelle, New York. He enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later attended Pace University, according to his biography on IMDb.

He is survived by his daughter, Renee Pastore.

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Wilton Manors police identified the suspect as 20-year-old Daniel Selvin Nunez Bonilla.

The shooting happened around 5:15 a.m. at the Palm Gardens shopping center near North Andrews Avenue and Northeast 26th Drive, according to investigators.

Police said surveillance video from the shopping plaza shows people running for cover as gunfire erupted and a bullet struck the ground.

According to a witness, an argument happened before several shots were fired.

Dwayne Lewis told Local 10 News he was waiting at a nearby bus stop when he heard the gunshots.

“From the car, I probably heard three or four,” Lewis said.

Police said a woman was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital. Lewis said she appeared calm and alert after the shooting.

“I think she’ll be alright,” he said.

A bullet also went through the driver’s-side window of a Honda Accord parked at the shopping center.

Lewis said he saw an argument before the shooting.

“They were just arguing and I heard a woman say, ‘Baby, no; baby, no,’ then he just let off some shots,” Lewis said. “Then the two he was shooting at just ran inside the little office area there, the tax office. The shooter turned around and went away to his car.”

Police said the suspect initially fled the scene in a white vehicle.

Officers provided aid to the injured woman before Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue transported her to Broward Health Medical Center.

The victim remained hospitalized as of Friday afternoon. Police have not released additional details on what led detectives to identify Nunez Bonilla as the suspect.

Jail records show he is facing two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

As of Saturday evening, he was being held on an $85,000 bond at the Broward County Main Jail.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Wilton Manors Police Department or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Daniel Ramírez, de 47 años y residente de Lubbock, Texas, fue arrestado el viernes por la Policía de la Ciudad de Miami en la terminal de Royal Caribbean en PortMiami.

Durante su primera comparecencia ante el tribunal, un juez determinó que existía causa probable para un cargo de agresión con lesiones graves y fijó una fianza de $2,500 USD para Ramírez. El juez también le ordenó no tener ningún contacto con la víctima.

El arresto se produjo días después de que la Policía divulgara un video de vigilancia que aparentemente muestra a Ramírez empujando con fuerza a una mujer al suelo en Bayside Marketplace.

“Inmediatamente mi corazón empezó a latir muy rápido”, recordó la mujer al hablar del ataque.

La víctima, una mesera del Hard Rock Cafe que pidió no ser identificada, dijo que el ataque ocurrió el domingo pasado después de que confrontó a Ramírez por ingresar a un área exclusiva para empleados detrás de la barra y comer las guarniciones de las bebidas.

Las autoridades informaron que Ramírez respondió: “Perra, ¿qué quieres que haga, que lo escupa?”, y ambos salieron del área de la barra.

Sin embargo, según el informe de arresto de la Policía de Miami (MPD), el gerente de la mesera la llamó nuevamente después de que Ramírez presentó una queja.

“Según la víctima, Ramírez le dijo al gerente que ninguna mujer podía decirle qué hacer y que la víctima debía ser reprendida”, señala el informe de arresto.

La Policía indicó que el gerente le dijo a la mesera que fingiera que estaba siendo reprendida.

Según la víctima, Ramírez huyó después del primer enfrentamiento. Ella dijo que comenzó a tomarle fotografías mientras él abandonaba el lugar, pero asegura que él volvió a confrontarla, la derribó al suelo por segunda vez y provocó que perdiera el conocimiento.

“Fue algo muy, muy desagradable, y me pregunto cómo se sentiría si le hicieran eso a alguien de su familia”, dijo.

La Policía había estado buscando a Ramírez desde el ataque hasta localizarlo el viernes en la terminal de cruceros de Royal Caribbean en PortMiami.

La víctima agradeció a los detectives por identificar y localizar rápidamente al sospechoso.

“Estoy muy agradecida de que haya sido detenido y arrestado, y de que esté sentado allí pensando en sus acciones”, dijo la mesera.

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Daniel Ramirez, 47, of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested Friday by City of Miami police at the Royal Caribbean terminal at PortMiami.

During his first court appearance, a judge found probable cause for a charge of felony battery and set Ramirez’s bond at $2,500. The judge also ordered him to have no contact with the victim.

The arrest comes days after police released surveillance video that appears to show Ramirez forcefully shoving a woman to the ground at Bayside Marketplace.

“Immediately my heart started beating so fast,” the woman said, recalling the attack.

The victim, a bartender at the Hard Rock Cafe who asked not to be identified, said the attack happened last Sunday after she confronted Ramirez for entering an employee-only area behind the bar and eating drink garnishes.

Authorities said Ramirez responded, “B----, what do you want me to do, spit it out?” and both left the bar area.

However, according to an MPD arrest report, the bartender’s manager called her back over after Ramirez made a complaint.

“According to the victim, (Ramirez) told the manager that no woman was allowed to tell him what to do and that the victim needed to be reprimanded,” the arrest report states.

Police said the manager told the bartender to pretend like she was being reprimanded.

According to the victim, Ramirez fled after the initial confrontation. She said she began taking photos of him as he left the area, but alleges he confronted her again, knocking her to the ground a second time and causing her to lose consciousness.

“It was very, very disgusting, and I wonder how he would feel if it was done to someone in his family,” she said.

Police had been searching for Ramirez since the attack before locating him Friday at the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal at PortMiami.

The victim credited detectives for quickly identifying and locating the suspect.

“I’m really thankful that he was apprehended and arrested and that he’s sitting there thinking about his actions,” the server said.

Graham is serving in an interim role to fulfill her brother's current term. But as one of nine Republicans seeking to replace him more permanently in a special primary election set for Aug. 11, she is a relative political unknown facing off against some of the state's best-known GOP names.

On Saturday, she acknowledged that she has not spent decades in politics, but argued that she understands the real-world applications of the federal policy debates her brother knew well, like budgeting and the cost of health care. She reiterated that, like her brother, she's backed by Trump, who urged her to get into the race and has endorsed her.

“I certainly never expected to be on this stage, giving this stump speech,” Darline Graham said to a crowd gathered for the event in Lexington. “I've never had any desire to be a politician. I'm here today because I'm answering President Trump's call to serve. I want to stand up for South Carolina, and I want to fight for President Trump's agenda."

Graham found herself thrust into the political spotlight just three weeks ago, following her brother's sudden death from an aortic tear.

Given the compressed timeline of the special election, Darline Graham now has just more than a week to convince South Carolina Republican voters that she’s the best pick to represent the state. Up to this moment, she has been known to the state’s voters primarily through her brother’s origin story, including their hardscrabble upbringing and parents’ early death, and in the period of mourning for her brother, for whom funeral services in Washington and South Carolina took place just days ago.

All nine of the hopefuls were on hand Saturday for the event, with five minutes each to speak on stage. Former Gov. Mark Sanford, seeking yet another political comeback following a halted bid for Congress earlier this year, warned against deficit spending and debt accumulation, hallmarks of his decades in political messaging.

Reminding attendees of his endorsements in the race, including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman also stressed his support for a voting bill known as the SAVE America Act, among Trump's top policy priorities.

U.S. Rep. Russell Fry, a two-term House member, talked to voters of his own humble beginnings, saying that the things that held his family together “were our belief in God, hard work, blue-collar hustle.”

After the speeches concluded, hundreds of attendees got in line for free Chick-fil-A boxed lunches, as well as the chance to cast a vote in an informal straw poll for their preferred candidate — a survey in which Darline Graham eked out a victory, ahead of Fry and Norman.

Several attendees said they just wanted more information — and more time — to make their choices in the primary.

Charles Brentnell said his top three picks were U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, as well as Darline Graham, with whom he said he agreed on backing Trump’s demand to cut short its planned breaks to pass legislation, like the voting bill.

“Let’s keep the Senate in the Senate, instead of taking a month off,” Brentnell said.

Still mulling his choice as he stood in the straw poll line, Gary Atkinson said he was leaning toward picking Norman, but that he liked a lot of what he heard from several people.

“Those are all strong candidates," said Atkinson, who said he had supported Lindsey Graham in the past, but disagreed on some issues, like the war with Iran. “It's tough to make up your mind.”

If needed, a runoff election will be held Aug. 25. The Republican nominee will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the general election.

Other candidates speaking Saturday included Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner, Greenville businessman Mark Lynch, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, retired Air Force officer Glenda Gail Parker and entrepreneur Sam Shepherd.

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

El incidente ocurrió cerca de Southeast Fifth Street.

Según funcionarios de Rescate de Bomberos de Miami, cuatro personas fueron trasladadas al HCA Florida Mercy Hospital en condición estable. Varias personas más en el lugar fueron evaluadas por los socorristas, pero no necesitaron ser trasladadas.

Los operadores de la embarcación informaron a Local 10 News que el incidente fue provocado por una falla mecánica a bordo, lo que llevó a los pasajeros a solicitar atención médica.

Los operadores indicaron que la embarcación no chocó con otra.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Pulte said in a social media post on Saturday that he had spoken about the handover with Trump and Clayton — who was confirmed by the Senate this week.

Trump chose Pulte as an interim director when former director Tulsi Gabbard resigned. But the pick rankled Republican lawmakers who said the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency lacked national security credentials for the role.

Clayton, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a one-time Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, was confirmed along party lines on Tuesday.

The GOP-led Senate had hoped to confirm Clayton in June, but the president delayed his hearing. During Pulte's brief tenure, Trump delivered a speech from the White House doubling down on his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost, and released classified documents that he said were relevant to his arguments.

Clayton has emphasized his own government and national security experience, attempting to assuage senators in both parties. But he lost bipartisan support for his nomination after a contentious hearing in which he repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

Before the Senate vote on Clayton, Pulte released intelligence community documents from 2020 that described China’s capacity to interfere in the American political process as well as vulnerabilities in the election system.

The substance of the material was largely recycled and already known, but its disclosure is part of the broader Trump administration effort to raise concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections.

The White House has not yet announced details for when Clayton will be sworn in for his new job.

From small spaniels to large labs, the canines were judged on factors including how long they could stay on their board, the size of the wave and their confidence. In its 10th year, the contest in Pacifica, about 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of San Francisco, includes a pet adoption event and fundraising for local animal charities.

The dogs, sporting their colorful life vests, stood ready on their surfboards and were assisted by human participants, who spotted the best wave to carry the board to the beach. Spectators erupted in applause and cheered with each successful ride.

Sophia Sadlowski first put her Miniature Pinscher, Rusty, on her surfboard to capture fun photos when he was just a puppy.

"And then ... he didn’t want to get off,” said Sadlowski, of Huntington Beach, California. “I walk over to the beach, and I put him on a wave, and he surfed it.”

Small-, medium- and large- sized dogs competed in heats and then the highest scoring dogs in each heat faced off for the top prize. The day also included tandem contests, where multiple dogs, as well as dogs and humans, shared the surfboard.

Rusty's life jacket was green with animal print and a shark fin sticking up out of his back and his goggles gave the impression he was a fierce competitor for the small-sized and tandem dog competitions. Sadlowski said Rusty was in his first surf competition at four months old, and she and her pup are now both cancer-free.

“He was four months old, and he took third place. So we've been surfing since," Sadlowski said. “We got hooked.”

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An appeals court recently ruled that the agency is not protected by immunity and can be sued over allegations of negligence during the massacre, which left 17 students and staff members dead and 17 others injured.

The lawsuit was filed by survivors and families of the victims.

Former school resource deputy Scot Peterson is among the defendants named in the case. Prosecutors said Peterson stayed outside the building during the shooting and failed to confront the gunman.

Peterson was acquitted of child neglect charges in 2023.

The trial is expected to begin early next year.

"@bsosherifftony acknowledged that his deputies failed during the Parkland school shooting. Yet for the past 8 years, he has continued filing baseless motions to delay our case and have it dismissed. Today, he lost his final appeal,“ Max Schachter, who lost his son, Alex, in the school shooting, wrote on X Thursday. ”The trial begins in March 2027. Accountability is finally coming."

El alcalde César Docweiler encabezó la procesión junto a los pasantes y otras autoridades. Hasta la madrugada del domingo, 74 fraternidades con hasta un centenar de integrantes cada una llenarán de sonidos, colores y danzas de la rica cultura y religiosidad andina declarada por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural.

La festividad también es un motor económico que mueve millones de dólares en una economía en crisis, según las autoridades. Gran parte de los danzarines son comerciantes informales.

“Es cultura viva, es energía que renueva a la ciudad”, afirmó Andrés Zaratti, viceministro de Culturas.

Los danzantes participan por devoción al santo patrón.

“La única forma de agradecerle al tata es bailarle”, dice un danzarín de la danza morenos y exhibe una hermosa careta hecha por artesanos locales.

La festividad es una muestra del sincretismo religioso entre antiguas creencias de pueblos precolombinos con los ritos católicos y tiene fuerte presencia en ciudades del occidente boliviano. Nació hace un siglo en un barrio humilde y fue conquistando a la ciudad hasta convertirse en la principal identidad cultural. Surgió como una expresión de resistencia y de afirmación de sectores populares, mestizos y aymaras, según los expertos.

Las coloridas danzas andinas son también un orgullo de la diáspora boliviana por el mundo.

Los danzarines y músicos descienden por empinadas y estrechas calles hasta el centro de la ciudad a lo largo de cinco kilómetros atestados de espectadores.

Este año la festividad coincide con el inició del mes de ofrendas a la Pachamama (Madre Tierra). Cada 1 de agosto al amanecer, centenares de personas se dirigen hasta los cerros cercanos a la ciudad para hacer ofrendas a la Madre Tierra en agradecimiento por las cosechas y para pedir buenos augurios para los negocios y la salud.

Los rituales se realizan en altares de piedra, bajo una cruz, donde arden fetos de llama, dulces caseros en forma de botellas, lanas multicolores, pétalos de flores blancas, hierbas aromáticas e incienso al tiempo que un sacerdote aymara llamado “yatiri” murmura oraciones a la Madre Tierra.

Según la cosmovisión andina, la Pachamama despierta con sed y hambre tras el periodo seco y las ofrendas buscan saciarla antes de comenzar un nuevo ciclo agrícola. La costumbre arraigó en las ciudades donde se pide por la salud y los negocios. Los rituales se extenderán hasta el 31 de agosto.

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Coast Guard personnel said crews responded to the boat and provided assistance until commercial salvage crews arrived. The salvage team later towed the boat to Dinner Key Marina.

No injuries have been reported at this time.

Coast Guard officials reminded boaters that its crews are available to assist mariners 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mariners in distress can contact the Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16 or call 911 for emergency assistance.

The Coast Guard also encourages boaters to practice safe boating habits and remain prepared while on the water.

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#SAR @USCG Station Miami Beach assisted a boat taking in water w/ 10 people aboard near Rickenbacker Causeway, Fri. Commercial salvage arrived & towed the vessel to Dinner Key Marina. Our crews are ready to help 24/7. We can be reached on VHF Ch. 16 or by calling 911. #BoatSafe pic.twitter.com/bjc1PEEy3c

— U.S. Coast Guard Southeast (@USCGSoutheast) August 1, 2026

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Troopers said the crash happened at approximately 11:13 p.m. on Friday on the Turnpike, just south of Griffin Road.

FHP officials said a black 2001 Harley Davidson Road King motorcycle and a red 2012 Chevrolet Camaro were traveling southbound when the motorcycle moved from the outside center lane into the inside center lane, entering the Camaro’s path.

They said the front of the Camaro struck the rear of the motorcycle. The motorcycle rider, a 28-year-old Hollywood man, was thrown from the bike and died, according to investigators. Authorities are working to notify his next of kin.

Troopers said the Camaro driver, a 22-year-old Hollywood man, was not injured.

They said all southbound lanes were temporarily closed starting at midnight Saturday, but have since reopened.

Pittsburgh is sending prospects Omar Alfonso, a catcher, and Luis Cruz, an outfielder, to New York for Doval, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person told the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet official.

The 29-year-old Doval, an All-Star in 2023 when he served as the closer for the San Francisco Giants, provides Pittsburgh with a much-needed experienced arm as the Pirates try to hang around in the crowded race for a National League wild-card spot.

Pittsburgh's bullpen has been an issue all season. The club has blown 20 saves this season, perhaps the biggest reason the Pirates entered Saturday at 55-56 despite scoring the second-most runs in the majors. The latest setback came on Friday night, when a two-run lead in the eighth inning in Cincinnati morphed into an 8-7 loss.

Doval went 3-1 with a 4.54 ERA in 44 games this season for the Yankees. He has had issues with walks recently, issuing at least one free pass in four of his last five appearances with New York, including two while taking the loss against the Chicago White Sox on July 29.

Pittsburgh is hoping a new setting provides a fresh start. The Pirates could also use the help. The club designated former closer Dennis Santana for assignment last month and have few viable right-handed options near the back end of the bullpen.

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

Una cadena de alta presión retiene el calor cerca del suelo —lo que se conoce como domo de calor— desde Arizona hasta Montana, aunque la buena noticia es que durará relativamente poco, señalaron expertos del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.

El organismo pronosticó el sábado una máxima de 46 grados Celsius (115 grados Fahrenheit) en Las Vegas, la temperatura más alta del año. Se anticipa que Phoenix alcance los 47 °C (116 °F), mientras que se vaticina que El Centro, California, llegue a un récord de 48 °C (118 °F). Se prevé que varias partes de Montana alcancen una temperatura récord, y se pronostica que Great Falls llegue a los 40 °C (104 °F).

En Las Vegas, la máxima prevista para el sábado estaba 10 grados por encima de lo normal, y los meteorólogos advirtieron que habría un calor peligroso hasta el domingo, cuando se espera una máxima de 45,5 °C (114 °F), indicó la científica del servicio meteorológico Morgan Stessman.

Las mínimas nocturnas, de entre 26 y 32 °C (80 y 90 °F), harán que la situación sea especialmente peligrosa porque no permiten que el cuerpo de las personas se recupere. “Simplemente no hay alivio durante la noche”, manifestó Stessman.

Se insta a la población a permanecer en interiores y mantenerse hidratada.

Stessman explicó que el récord de agosto para Las Vegas es de 47 °C (116 °F), mientras que la temperatura más alta registrada ha sido de 49 °C (120 °F) en julio de 2024, que también fue el verano más caluroso del que se tiene registro.

En Montana, toda la parte este del estado estaba bajo una advertencia de calor extremo el sábado, informó el experto del servicio meteorológico Jeff Kitsmiller.

Se prevé que Great Falls alcance los 40 °C (104 °F), superando su récord anterior de 38 °C (101 °F), señaló Kitsmiller, mientras que se preveía que Helena igualara o superara su récord de 39 °C (102 °F).

Aun así, esta ola de calor no es tan grave como la de mediados de julio, cuando algunas zonas rompieron récords históricos, como Billings, que llegó a 44 °C (111 °F) el 12 de julio, apuntó Kitsmiller.

“Esa fue una ola de calor poco común”, señaló. “Esta encaja para esta época del año”.

El meteorólogo añadió que, para el domingo, gran parte del estado tendrá máximas de alrededor de 21 °C (70 °F).

El calor agrava los riesgos de incendios forestales

Los pronosticadores advierten que esta ola de calor, combinada con la sequedad causada por el calor previo, aumentará los riesgos de incendios forestales en todo el oeste.

“Definitivamente nos preocupa eso” en Montana, donde ya hay incendios activos y se pronostican vientos fuertes para el fin de semana, dijo Kitsmiller, y agregó que la mayor parte del estado estaba bajo una advertencia de bandera roja.

En Nevada, “con la llegada de este domo de calor, hemos perdido parte de la humedad que teníamos; por ejemplo, la humedad relativa por la tarde cae a un solo dígito en bastantes lugares”, explicó Stessman.

El Servicio Forestal de Estados Unidos señaló que existe un alto riesgo de incendios forestales hasta el domingo en la mayor parte del sur de California, excepto en la franja costera.

El cambio climático hace más frecuentes las olas de calor y los incendios forestales

El cambio climático derivado de la quema de carbón, petróleo y gas natural provoca olas de calor más grandes, más intensas y más duraderas, lo que genera sequías más severas y contribuye al surgimiento de incendios forestales más extensos y destructivos.

También se prevé que el clima de este año se vea afectado por El Niño, un calentamiento natural del Pacífico ecuatorial que altera los patrones meteorológicos y eleva las temperaturas en todo el mundo.

Se espera que el actual fenómeno de El Niño se ubique entre los más intensos desde que el servicio meteorológico comenzó a seguir el fenómeno en 1950, según los expertos. Ya ha batido récords de intensidad en sus primeras etapas, advirtieron funcionarios de las Naciones Unidas el viernes.

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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.

Pirro’s office, in a court filing on Friday, moved to drop criminal charges against a former Olympian, David Hearn, who had been accused of deliberately damaging the pool after it underwent a renovation ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration last month.

Trump, in a posting on social media, acknowledged that there “may have been some contractor difficulty” in the installation of a new pool liner. But he continues to insist “the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump added in his post.

The dismissal was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed Trump's claims and billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark, a pet project of Trump. Pirro's decision to drop the case is also a rare moment during Trump's second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.

The president, without providing any clear new evidence, continued to allege on Saturday that the majority of the damage to the pool was caused by vandals.

Government lawyers in their 20-page court filing on Friday said that additional documents provided by the Interior Department since the indictment of Hearn show that the damage was the result of a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

In addition, a recent visual inspection revealed damage throughout the pool, including in the middle — where prosecutors say a vandal would not likely have attempted to peel the lining.

Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, was accused of pulling up a two-foot square piece of the pool’s lining.

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” Pirro, a Trump appointee, said in her filing, which asked a judge to formally dismiss the case.

Pirro in the court filing also blamed the Interior Department for providing “less than fulsome information at the outset of the case.”

The filing added that had “DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment.” It was a jarring turn in position from Pirro, who claimed the government's case was built on “tremendous evidence” when she announced the indictment against Hearn last month.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a posting on X appeared to push back against Pirro's criticism, claiming some of the acts of vandalism were captured on video.

“We also provided the U.S. Attorney’s office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool,” Burgum added.

Hearn's legal team on Saturday criticized both Trump and Pirro and said it was weighing "legal remedies” on behalf of their client.

“Trump is mad at Pirro because she finally admitted what we made clear in our legal filings all along: Trump’s botched renovation was responsible for the damage — not Davey Hearn," the legal team said in a statement. “However, her claim that she and her office were previously duped by Interior is nonsense. Starting immediately after the arraignment, our motions repeatedly proved that the administration was to blame for the Reflecting Pool failures, not Davey.”

Trump on Saturday also posted a nearly four-minute video that appears to have been taken from a security camera, in which three individuals can be seen with their hands in the pool, including one for an extended period.

The president claimed the video shows “material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!”

It's not clear from the video, which appears to be shot from some distance, that any vandalism occurred. Workers can also be seen standing nearby and don’t appear to notice the people sticking their hands in the water.

In May, Trump announced plans to beautify the Reflecting Pool this spring. Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings did not respond to requests for comment.

Water was drained and Trump directed that the bottom be painted with what he called “American flag blue.”

But problems emerged within days of the project's completion, with chunks of the new liner peeling off.

Trump was quick to blame vandals. And the National Park Service reported to the U.S. Park Police a June 9 incident in which it claimed a sharp knife or razor cut the pool’s new liner.

The work on the Reflecting Pool is just one of a number of projects Trump has spearheaded across the nation’s capital. Most prominently, he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and plans to build a towering arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Earlier this week, authorities said cyberattacks targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota. The source of the attacks is being investigated, but they came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems.

The reports in Michigan surfaced after the state received a federal cyber alert Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology at water systems.

Soon after, the state received “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described,” said Dale George, the director of communications at the state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. He later said nine systems were impacted.

“All systems continued to operate safely, issues were addressed by local operators, and there are no known impacts that posed a public health concern,” George said in an statement.

The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit and a spokesperson declined to say Thursday who the bureau thought might be responsible. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical infrastructure sectors.

“The FBI is aware of recent public reporting around Water and Wastewater (WWS) sectors," the agency said in a statement Saturday. "The FBI and our interagency partners are fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure and we remain well-equipped to protect against cyber threats of all varieties.”

Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how to install the latest software patches or take other security steps. That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.

Iran’s interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New York City.

Minnesota IT Services said that as of Thursday, there were no active requests from Minnesota communities for residents to modify usage of their drinking water. The state agency said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment. It said that being impacted meant investigators confirmed there was malicious activity involving the system’s technology and didn’t mean every impacted community had their water service disrupted.

For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to minimize water use as they tried to determine why the water plant was offline. The city of about 1,700 people, located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, said in a news release that the water plant outage was due to a cyberattack, but it didn’t cause any issue with water quality.

The city said the attackers shut down the operating controls that shut down the well and water treatment plant. That left the city for a time only able to provide residents with the water held in the water tower.

In Plymouth, a city of about 80,000 located outside of Minneapolis, officials said on social media that their water infrastructure communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a cyberattack.

During a Cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that recent cyberattacks in Minnesota were the fault of the state, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

Waltz responded on social media, saying Trump "knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too."

“The world has lost one of mountaineering’s greatest climbers,” the company, Elite Exped, said.

Karrar Haidri, the vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, confirmed the news.

“This is heartbreaking news for all of us, and we extend our condolences to the families and friends of the climbers,” Haidri said.

The 10-member expedition was swept away by an avalanche Thursday on Pakistan’s Broad Peak.

Rescuers found four bodies and recovered three of them Friday in harsh weather that hampered flights by search and rescue helicopters. Rescuers backed by military helicopters had resumed a search earlier on Saturday for the others.

A local police official, Tahir Khan, said the remains of Omani climber Nathira Ahmed were being flown to the capital, Islamabad, while the bodies of American climber Mallory Geis and Nepalese climber Bahadur Gurung remained at a hospital in Skardu, the main city in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.

The team lost contact with their base camp Thursday after the avalanche struck Broad Peak as they attempted to scale the mountain.

According to the Alpine Club, the expedition included five Nepalese climbers, the Omani and American climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang and another foreign climber whose identity has not been released.

The expedition was led by Purja, the Nepal-born former British Army soldier widely known as Nims Dai. He climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019, an achievement featured in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.” His record was broken in 2023.

Moving Mountains, a travel company based in Pakistan, announced late last month that the expedition team was on its way to the small town of Askole and wished them a safe journey climbing Broad Peak.

The expedition was Geis’ first try at an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan, while it was expected to be the final one for Sakhi, who is a guide for the company, as well as a geographer and high-altitude photographer who has climbed some of the world’s major peaks, according to the Moving Mountains website.

Accidents are common on climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, high altitude and rapidly changing weather.

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Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.

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This version corrects the name of the expeditions company to Elite Exped, which is the company’s formal name.

A ridge of high pressure is holding heat close to the ground — what’s known as a heat dome — from Arizona to Montana, though the good news is that it will be relatively short-lived, National Weather Service meteorologists said.

Dangerous heat and warnings were plaguing the region Saturday, and the National Weather Service on Saturday forecast a high of 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) in Las Vegas, the hottest temperature of the year. Phoenix was expected to reach 116F (47C), while El Centro, California, was expected to hit a record 118F (48C). Even parts of Montana were expected to broil, with a record 104F (40C) forecast for Great Falls.

In Las Vegas, Saturday's forecast high was 10 degrees above normal, with meteorologists warning of dangerous heat through Sunday, when the high is expected to be 114, said weather service meteorologist Morgan Stessman.

Overnight lows in the upper 80s to low 90s will make the situation especially dangerous because it doesn't allow people’s bodies to recover. “There's just no relief overnight,” Stessman said.

People were being urged to stay indoors and hydrated.

At the Justa Center in Phoenix, which caters to seniors but opens to the public as a cooling center in the afternoon, the biggest challenge is keeping up with the need for water and electrolytes, said operations director Rudy Soliz. He said about 200 people come in daily.

“Anybody can come in, get a meal, sign up, get checked in through the cooling center, sit down, relax, watch a little TV, you know, catch themselves before they move on to another cooling center or their destination,” he said.

Several cities nearing record temps

The August record for Las Vegas is 116F (47C), while the hottest on record was 120F (49C) in July 2024, which also was the hottest summer on record, Stessman said.

In Montana, the entire east side of the state was under an extreme heat warning Saturday, though by Sunday, much of the state will be in the 70s, said weather service meteorologist Jeff Kitsmiller.

Great Falls was heading toward a record high of 104F (40C), which would top its previous record of 101F (38C), while Helena was expected to match or surpass its record of 102F (39C), he said.

Still, it’s not as bad as the heat wave in mid-July, when some areas broke all-time records, including Billings, which reached 111F (44C) on July 12, Kitsmiller said.

“That was a rare heat wave,” he said. “This one fits for this time of year.”

The Montana Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in Billings, opened its doors earlier than usual on Saturday to provide relief from temperatures that could reach 106F (41C). Dozens of people were expected throughout the day, and the shelter planned to provide dinner, beds and breakfast, a receptionist said.

Great Falls Parks and Recreation's four swimming pools and three splash pads were crowded with people trying to beat the heat, said Katy Houseman, who works at one of the city's recreation centers.

“They’re definitely hitting the pools and doing the splash pads outside and then trying to hide inside where there’s air conditioning,” said Houseman. “It's super, super hot today.”

Heat is exacerbating wildfire risks

Forecasters were warning that this heat wave, combined with drying from past heat, will add to wildfire risks across the West.

“We’re definitely worried about that” in Montana, where fires already are burning and high winds are forecast for the weekend, said Kitsmiller, adding that most of the state was under a red flag warning.

In Nevada, “with this heat dome setting up, we’ve lost some of the moisture that we did have — like relative humidity in the afternoon bottoming out in the single digits in quite a few places,” Stessman said.

The U.S. Forest Service has said there is an enhanced wildfire risk through Sunday in most of Southern California except for the coastline.

Extreme heat and drought also have created dangerous wildfire conditions in the Pacific Northwest.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency Saturday after unusually high temperatures and high winds exacerbated record wildfires across the state. He also banned most outdoor and agricultural burning through the end of September.

Ferguson’s proclamation went into effect ahead of an unprecedented “particularly dangerous situation” Red Flag Alert by the National Weather Service, which rated the weather risk as “extreme” across Eastern Washington. More than 312 square miles (808 square kilometers) are currently burning in 12 large fires.

A red flag alert also was given for eastern Oregon, where crews are battling several large wildfires, including the Rowe Creek Complex fire, which has grown to 490 square miles (1,269 square kilometers) with 57% containment.

Climate change is making heat waves, wildfires more frequent

Climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is causing larger, more intense and longer-lasting heat waves — which lead to more intense droughts and contribute to larger, more destructive wildfires.

This year’s weather is also expected to be affected by El Nino, a natural warming of the equatorial Pacific that alters weather patterns and spikes temperatures across the globe.

The current El Nino is expected to rank as among the most intense since the weather service began tracking the phenomenon in 1950, experts said. It's already broken records for intensity at its early stages, United Nations officials warned Friday.

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Associated Press writer Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.

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

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Health officials said the agency and Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control are coordinating surveillance, prevention and control efforts.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne illness that can cause flu-like symptoms, including severe muscle and joint pain, fever and, in some cases, a rash. Respiratory symptoms are uncommon.

Health experts say symptoms typically develop within 14 days after the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. Dengue is not spread from person to person.

The agency is urging residents to protect themselves from mosquito bites by taking basic precautions.

Officials say the agency continues statewide surveillance for mosquito-borne illnesses, including West Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, malaria, chikungunya and dengue. Florida residents are also encouraged to report dead birds to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

For more information, visit the agency’s mosquito prevention webpage or view the weekly mosquito-borne illness surveillance reports.

Anyone experiencing symptoms should call the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County at 305-324-2400.

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Urban Health Partnerships hosted its “Get Moving Miami Gardens” event at Rolling Oaks Park, where residents picked up pantry staples including bread, macaroni, beans and other nonperishable food items while also receiving free health screenings for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

The event, which marks the nonprofit’s 15th year serving Miami Gardens, also featured a neighborhood walking audit, community yoga, a resource fair and family activities aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles.

One of the day’s key initiatives was the walking audit, where residents, elected officials and community stakeholders evaluated neighborhood streets for safety and accessibility.

“So what’s great about this event is that we have food, we have services, all of these things that are needed right now, but we also have a walking audit which is a walk where community members, officials, different stakeholders actually go through like a street or an area and evaluate how safe it is, whether there’s improvements that can be made and in this particular case we’re going to create more green trails and create space for the community,” said Andrea Iglesias, CEO and executive director of Urban Health Partnerships.

“So from here they’ll be able to actually make some recommendations throughout the city and hopefully advocate for that space to be created,” she added.

Organizers said the event is intended to address both immediate needs, such as food insecurity and access to preventive health care, while also encouraging long-term investments in neighborhood infrastructure that support healthier communities.

Urban Health Partnerships realizó su evento “Get Moving Miami Gardens” en Rolling Oaks Park, donde los residentes recibieron productos básicos para la despensa, entre ellos pan, macarrones, frijoles y otros alimentos no perecederos, además de chequeos médicos gratuitos para detectar enfermedades como diabetes y enfermedades cardíacas.

El evento, que marca el año número 15 de la organización sin fines de lucro prestando servicios en Miami Gardens, también incluyó una evaluación a pie del vecindario, yoga comunitario, una feria de recursos y actividades familiares destinadas a promover estilos de vida saludables.

Una de las principales iniciativas del día fue la evaluación a pie, durante la cual residentes, funcionarios electos y líderes comunitarios evaluaron las calles del vecindario para revisar su seguridad y accesibilidad.

“Lo que hace especial este evento es que tenemos alimentos, tenemos servicios, todas estas cosas que se necesitan en este momento, pero también tenemos una evaluación a pie, que consiste en un recorrido donde miembros de la comunidad, funcionarios y diferentes líderes recorren una calle o un área para evaluar qué tan segura es y si se pueden hacer mejoras. En este caso, vamos a crear más senderos verdes y generar espacios para la comunidad”, dijo Andrea Iglesias, directora ejecutiva de Urban Health Partnerships.

“De esta manera podrán hacer recomendaciones para toda la ciudad y, con suerte, impulsar la creación de esos espacios”, agregó.

Los organizadores señalaron que el evento busca atender tanto necesidades inmediatas, como la inseguridad alimentaria y el acceso a la atención médica preventiva, como fomentar inversiones a largo plazo en infraestructura comunitaria que favorezcan comunidades más saludables.

El personal de la Guardia Costera informó que las tripulaciones respondieron a la emergencia y brindaron asistencia hasta la llegada de un equipo comercial de salvamento. Posteriormente, el equipo remolcó la embarcación hasta la marina Dinner Key.

Hasta el momento no se han reportado personas heridas.

Funcionarios de la Guardia Costera recordaron a los navegantes que sus tripulaciones están disponibles para asistir a los marinos las 24 horas del día, los siete días de la semana.

Los navegantes en peligro pueden comunicarse con la Guardia Costera por el canal 16 de VHF o llamar al 911 para solicitar asistencia de emergencia.

La Guardia Costera también exhorta a los navegantes a practicar hábitos de navegación seguros y mantenerse preparados mientras se encuentren en el agua.

Medios relacionados

#SAR @USCG Station Miami Beach assisted a boat taking in water w/ 10 people aboard near Rickenbacker Causeway, Fri. Commercial salvage arrived & towed the vessel to Dinner Key Marina. Our crews are ready to help 24/7. We can be reached on VHF Ch. 16 or by calling 911. #BoatSafe pic.twitter.com/bjc1PEEy3c

— U.S. Coast Guard Southeast (@USCGSoutheast) August 1, 2026

Noh, the 25-year-old Californian with only one LPGA title, played bogey-free on the back nine at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and finished at 7-under 206 to lead over five players.

One of them is Ryu, who is trying to become the first player since fellow South Korean Inbee Park to win three straight majors in the same year. Ryu was headed in that direction with a pair of birdies on the front nine to build a four-shot lead.

Her slide began with a bogey on the par-5 seventh, the start of five bogeys in an eight-hole stretch that cost her the lead and put her in a chasing mode the rest of the sunny day along the Lancashire coast of England.

Ryu finished with four straight pars for a 74 and saw the bright side. She kept double bogeys off her card, including the 10th hole when she was against a back lip of a pot bunker. She chipped it forward in the sand and got up-and-down from there for bogey.

Plus, she's still in range of adding a third major this year to victories in the Women's PGA Championship and Evian Championship.

“Tomorrow supposed to be wind the same as today," Ryu said. “Today my shot was a little higher than the other two days. So I'm just trying to keep lower and no bunker.”

Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player who captured the first two majors of the year, had her round ruined by a pair of double bogeys, one on the 18th hole that gave her a 73 and left her eight behind.

As surprise as Ryu's collapse was the emergence of Noh, who decided to return home last week instead of playing the Women's Scottish Open. She had missed her last three cuts coming into the final LPGA major of the year, and had not registered a top 10 since last October.

But she overcame a rocky start with three straight birdies starting on the par-3 ninth, including a birdie putt from 12 feet on the 10th, and avoided mistakes on the firm links coming in.

Noh, at No. 69 in the women's world ranking and No. 95 in the Race to CME Globe on the LPGA Tour, has only contended one other time in a major when she missed a playoff by one shot in the 2021 Evian Championship.

“It was good for me to go home and reset, refresh and come here with a different mindset,” Noh said of her decision to skip the Scottish.

The chasing pack also includes Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand, one of only two players to have been No. 1 in the world without winning a major. Thitikul closed with nine straight pars for a 72 to join the pack at 4-under 209.

Esther Henseleit of Germany (67), Lucy Li (69) and Shiho Kuwaki of Japan (72) also were three back. Kuwaki had a chance to get into the final group, but she missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th. None has won a major. Henseleit won Olympic silver in France two years ago. Li is best known for qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open in 2014 at age 11.

Noh said her fiancé, who plays amateur golf, has been a big support in reminding her to put some enjoyment into the game. They played last week at Sahalee, a tree-lined course near Seattle.

“Good practice for this week avoiding all those trees, helping me avoid these bunkers,” she said.

Now comes the big test, with a strong pack of contenders behind her and a chance at winning her first major championship.

“Just focus on playing the round,” Noh said. “I don't want to think too much about the lead. Just settle into a good tempo and have fun out there.”

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

The 6-1 decision further clouds the future of the 73-year-old pipeline owned by Canadian energy transportation company Enbridge that carries petroleum from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario.

The part of the pipeline in question, called Line 5, runs for 4 miles (6 kilometers) along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet.

Enbridge wants to bury the pipeline in a tunnel under the straits. Environmentalists and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer want to move the pipeline away from the waterway altogether saying a spill would be catastrophic to the Great Lakes and surrounding area.

The Michigan Public Service Commission granted a permit to build the tunnel in 2023. Four Michigan tribal nations along with several environmental groups sued.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Friday that when they granted the permit, regulators failed to consider if the tunnel project will extend the lifetime of the pipeline, resulting in more harm to the environment.

The ruling also said the Public Service Commission wasn't consistent when it compared alternatives to the pipeline like using trucks or trains to move the oil and didn't assess how the tunnel might impact fishing, boating and other public trust rights on the Great Lakes.

Opponents of the pipeline say this type of project has never been done anywhere else and would turn the Straits of Mackinac, which is a sacred site for the Indigenous Anishinaabe tribes, into a construction site for years.

“Whether Line 5 is suspended in the water or encased in a tunnel, it is simply a terrible idea to pump more than half a million barrels of oil every day through the middle of the Great Lakes,” attorney David Gover with the Native American Rights Fund said in a statement.

Enbridge is reviewing its legal options after the ruling and said it is disappointed for another delay in a project that has been under review for nearly a decade and would “enhance environmental protection of the Great Lakes while maintaining critical energy reliability for the region,” spokesman Ryan Duffy said in a statement.

Enbridge proposed the pipeline tunnel nearly a decade ago around the time a ship anchor dented part of the line. The company said the tunnel would massively reduce the possibility of an oil spill, but environmentalists said building the tunnel under the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac would cause noise, vibrations and permanent environmental damage.

In a different set of court cases, Gov. Whitmer and other state officials have been trying since 2020 to shut down the pipeline under the straits.

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The event, held Saturday at 17800 Northwest 25th Avenue, brought together children and families for a back-to-school celebration featuring games, snacks, face painting, prizes, and a lively dance party where kids joined in on the Cha Cha Slide and enjoyed a bounce house.

Before the celebration began, families lined up to receive backpacks filled with essential school supplies, including pencils, highlighters, folders, binders, crayons, and other classroom necessities. Children also enjoyed activities like Jenga, sweet treats and icy refreshments.

“I got a backpack and an umbrella,” said third grader Bella as she showed off some of the items received at the event.

Another children shared excitement over the supplies they collected, including a book bag, highlighters, pencils, and a binder.

This year marks the 21st year of Unity on the Bay’s Community Backpack Drive, an effort aimed at supporting children in underserved communities.

The organization plans to distribute more than 4,000 backpacks to students locally in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as well as to children in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and other communities.

Several nonprofit organizations joined the effort, including Boys & Girls Club of Miami Gardens, Touching Miami with Love in Overtown and Homestead, and Pridelines.

Organizers said the goal goes beyond providing school supplies — it is about helping families start the academic year with resources, encouragement, and a sense of community.

Here was an opportunity to give back for the Canadian-born Tinker and many of her WCHC members who have ancestral ties to the Caribbean nation. They did so by holding a three-day series of clinics that attracted about 150 Jamaican girls and boys in the nation’s capital of Kingston last weekend.

“A lot of gratitude. I mean very emotional,” Tinker said on Friday. “Just looking back and realizing that we got to impact a lot of our roots, and giving back to our community and introducing a game that we love, and we hope they’ll love as much as we do.”

Tinker is a former pro hockey player who has turned to broadcasting, and helped co-found what was then called the Black Girl Hockey Club Canada, and rebranded to the WCHC last year. The collective’s objective is making hockey more accessible to women and girls of color, and backed by the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

After holding clinics and offering programs in Canada, the WCHC decided to broaden its reach especially after hosting three girls from Kenya a year ago. The collective members include women of color playing at the collegiate and pro levels, with 15 making the trip to Jamaica, including Canadian national team and PWHL Vancouver defender Sophie Jaques,

“I think getting kids involved in any sport is great for them,” said Jaques, whose father is Jamaican. “Showing them that people of their heritage are very successful in the sport, and there’s opportunities for them in the sport I think is a great lesson."

In choosing Jamaica, the WCHC also brought on board Swift Hockey, a Canadian company that specializes in manufacturing and selling hockey sticks at more affordable prices. Swift was founded by Zechariah Thomas, a former minor leaguer who also played for the Jamaican national ice hockey team.

“Accessibility is something I speak on very publicly within hockey, where I felt a lot of people around me didn’t have accessibility,” said Thomas, who is from Oshawa, Ontario, and has Jamaican parents.

“A lot of kids I went to school with are now in jail or in prison or dead. And it’s such a big factor in my story noticing that none of them had sports,” he added. “So anything to make sports more accessible is super important.”

A majority of the Jamaican participants were new to hockey and included foster children.

“It was definitely very much grassroots learn to play, getting sticks in hands, teaching them how to stick handle,” Tinker said. “And then by the end of it they were running with the ball and stick-handling and shooting. So I think it was great.”

The WCHC left behind 75 sticks, goalie equipment, balls and T-shirts, while returning home with plenty of fond memories.

“As much as we teach the kids, there’s so much to learn from them,” Jaques said. “Their futures are so bright. And it’s just kind of opening their eyes to the fact that anything they want to do is possible.”

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

El evento, realizado el sábado en el 17800 de Northwest 25th Avenue, reunió a niños y familias para una celebración de regreso a clases con juegos, refrigerios, pintacaritas, premios y una animada fiesta de baile en la que los niños participaron en el Cha Cha Slide y disfrutaron de un inflable.

Antes de que comenzara la celebración, las familias hicieron fila para recibir mochilas llenas de útiles escolares esenciales, incluidos lápices, marcadores fluorescentes, carpetas, archivadores, crayones y otros artículos necesarios para el salón de clases. Los niños también disfrutaron de actividades como Jenga, dulces y bebidas frías.

“Recibí una mochila y un paraguas”, dijo una niña mientras mostraba algunos de los artículos que recibió durante el evento.

Otro niño compartió su entusiasmo por los útiles que recibió, entre ellos una mochila, marcadores fluorescentes, lápices y un archivador.

Este año marca la edición número 21 de la entrega comunitaria de mochilas de Unity on the Bay, una iniciativa destinada a apoyar a niños de comunidades desatendidas.

La organización planea distribuir más de 4,000 mochilas a estudiantes de los condados Miami-Dade y Broward, así como a niños en Haití, República Dominicana y otras comunidades.

Varias organizaciones sin fines de lucro se unieron a la iniciativa, entre ellas Boys & Girls Club of Miami Gardens, Touching Miami with Love en Overtown y Homestead, y Pridelines.

Los organizadores señalaron que el objetivo va más allá de entregar útiles escolares: se trata de ayudar a las familias a comenzar el año académico con recursos, apoyo y un sentido de comunidad.

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The energetic pup came to the shelter from another facility, and staff say he would do best in a home without cats. Families with other dogs can schedule a meet-and-greet at the shelter to see if they are a good match.

“He’s active, he’s cute,” Humane Society of Broward County spokesperson Cherie Wachter said. “If you’re looking for an active dog to go on adventures with, Stewie could be the guy for you.”

The shelter is also looking for homes for a bonded pair of long-haired rabbits, Mischief and Angel, who need to be adopted together. The rabbits were surrendered after their previous owner was no longer allowed to keep them.

HSBC is also seeking foster families, including for a 1-pound kitten recently rescued after being found wandering on I-95 by Local 10’s Jason Carter.

For information about adopting Stewie, the rabbits or becoming a foster, click here.

El enérgico cachorro llegó al refugio desde otra instalación, y el personal indicó que lo ideal es que viva en un hogar sin gatos. Las familias que ya tienen otros perros pueden programar un encuentro en el refugio para determinar si son compatibles.

“Es activo, es lindo”, dijo Cherie Wachter, portavoz de la Sociedad Protectora de Animales del Condado Broward. “Si busca un perro activo para salir de aventuras, Stewie podría ser el indicado para usted”.

El refugio también busca un hogar para una pareja de conejos de pelo largo, Mischief y Angel, que deben ser adoptados juntos. Los conejos fueron entregados al refugio después de que a su anterior propietario ya no se le permitiera tenerlos.

La Sociedad Protectora de Animales del Condado Broward también busca familias de acogida, incluso para un gatito de una libra que fue rescatado recientemente tras ser encontrado deambulando por la I-95 por Jason Carter, de Local 10.

Para obtener información sobre cómo adoptar a Stewie, a los conejos o convertirse en familia de acogida, haga clic aquí.

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At United Way Miami, dozens of volunteers gathered Saturday for the organization’s annual back-to-school drive.

Event organizers said between 75 and 100 volunteers from United Way Miami partner and sponsor organizations are packing nearly 1,000 backpacks with essential classroom supplies, including notebooks, pencils, folders, crayons and other materials.

The effort aims to help ease the financial burden many families face as school costs continue to rise. School supplies can cost up to $150 per child, making it difficult for some households to afford everything students need to start the year prepared.

The filled backpacks will be distributed next week to students across Miami-Dade County.

United Way Miami leaders said the goal is not only to provide supplies but also to give students the confidence to walk into their classrooms ready to learn on the first day of school.

“We want to make sure that parents aren’t having to make a decision between, ‘Do we buy a third meal or do I buy school supplies for the kids?’” United Way Miami vice president Ivette Diaz said. “This is our way, one of the many ways in which we support the community and the folks that we provide resources to.”

Organizers said the backpack drive is one of several back-to-school initiatives planned this month. The organization continues to work with local businesses, donors and volunteers to support students and families throughout Miami-Dade County.

The backpack assembly event will continue through the morning, with volunteers working to fill each bag with the supplies students need to begin the school year on the right foot.

En United Way Miami, decenas de voluntarios se reunieron este sábado para la campaña anual de regreso a clases de la organización.

Los organizadores del evento informaron que entre 75 y 100 voluntarios de organizaciones asociadas y patrocinadoras de United Way Miami están preparando casi 1,000 mochilas con útiles escolares esenciales, incluidos cuadernos, lápices, carpetas, crayones y otros materiales.

El esfuerzo busca aliviar la carga económica que enfrentan muchas familias mientras los costos escolares continúan aumentando. Los útiles escolares pueden costar hasta $150 USD por niño, lo que dificulta que algunos hogares puedan comprar todo lo que los estudiantes necesitan para comenzar el año preparados.

Las mochilas serán distribuidas la próxima semana a estudiantes de todo el condado Miami-Dade.

Los líderes de United Way Miami señalaron que el objetivo no es solo proporcionar útiles escolares, sino también darles a los estudiantes la confianza para llegar a sus salones de clases listos para aprender desde el primer día de clases.

“Queremos asegurarnos de que los padres no tengan que decidir entre “¿Compramos una tercera comida o compro útiles escolares para los niños?””, dijo Ivette Díaz, vicepresidenta de United Way Miami. “Esta es nuestra manera, una de las muchas formas en que apoyamos a la comunidad y a las personas a las que brindamos recursos”.

Los organizadores informaron que la campaña de mochilas es una de varias iniciativas de regreso a clases programadas para este mes. La organización continúa trabajando con empresas locales, donantes y voluntarios para apoyar a estudiantes y familias en todo el condado Miami-Dade.

El evento de preparación de mochilas continuará durante la mañana, mientras los voluntarios trabajan para llenar cada mochila con los útiles que los estudiantes necesitan para comenzar el año escolar con el pie derecho.

La investigación se desarrolla en el centro comercial Palm Gardens, ubicado junto a North Andrews Avenue y Northeast 26th Drive.

Michaila Hightower, de Local 10, se encontraba en el lugar cuando un hombre fue detenido y colocado en la parte trasera de una patrulla.

En el suelo del centro comercial se podían observar lo que parecía ser sangre y prendas de vestir.

Dwayne Lewis, quien presenció la balacera, dijo a Hightower que una mujer había recibido un disparo en una pierna, aunque la Policía no confirmó de inmediato esa información.

“La víctima estaba justo a mi lado. Estaba perdiendo mucha sangre”, dijo.

Lewis contó que esperaba en una parada de autobús cercana cuando ocurrió la balacera.

“Desde el auto, probablemente escuché unos tres o cuatro disparos”, dijo.

Lewis señaló que parecía haber una pelea en el centro comercial antes de la balacera.

“Solo estaban discutiendo y escuché a una mujer decir: “Cariño, no; cariño, no”. Entonces él simplemente comenzó a disparar”, dijo Lewis. “Luego, las dos personas a las que les disparaba corrieron hacia una pequeña oficina, la oficina de impuestos. El tirador se dio la vuelta y regresó a su auto”.

Además del concreto manchado de sangre, también se observó un impacto de bala en la ventana del lado del conductor de un Honda Accord.

“Lo único que decía era: “Por favor, llamen a una ambulancia”. Estaba hablándole a una joven”, dijo Lewis.

A pesar de haber recibido un disparo en una pierna, Lewis dijo que la víctima permanecía tranquila y consciente.

Los agentes informaron que el accidente ocurrió aproximadamente a las 11:13 p.m. del viernes en la autopista Florida Turnpike, justo al sur de Griffin Road.

Funcionarios de la FHP informaron que una motocicleta Harley-Davidson Road King negra modelo 2001 y un Chevrolet Camaro rojo modelo 2012 circulaban en dirección sur cuando la motocicleta pasó del carril central exterior al carril central interior, ingresando a la trayectoria del Camaro.

Indicaron que la parte delantera del Camaro impactó la parte trasera de la motocicleta. El motociclista, un hombre de 28 años de Hollywood, salió expulsado de la motocicleta y sufrió heridas mortales, según los investigadores. La notificación a sus familiares más cercanos aún está pendiente.

Los agentes informaron que el conductor del Camaro, un hombre de 22 años de Hollywood, no resultó herido.

Indicaron que todos los carriles en dirección sur de la autopista Florida Turnpike permanecían cerrados a las 12:06 a.m. de este sábado.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles sobre el accidente.

But it also clashed with the reality on the ground, where Israeli strikes have continued since Trump first touted the deal late Thursday in Washington, and where few steps have been taken to advance a broader ceasefire agreement that went into effect in October.

Most of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians are still displaced or live in tent camps, where poor conditions and overcrowding have led to rodent infestations and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as chickenpox.

“They can talk about withdrawal and disarmament," said Abdel Moneim Aboul-Roos, 24, a tuk-tuk driver who lost his leg in an Israeli airstrike. “I don’t care about any of it as long as there is no food or medicine.”

Israel and Hamas signed a U.S.-backed ceasefire plan last year that ended major combat operations, saw the return of Israeli hostages and allowed for an increase in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave. It also called for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops, the creation of an international stabilization force and a program to decommission weapons held by Hamas.

But as each side accused the other of violating the ceasefire, negotiations stalled. Hamas held onto its weapons and the Israeli military refused to withdraw. Since October, Israel has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians in Gaza and expanded the amount of territory it controls. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed in militant attacks.

Many Palestinians don't trust Israel or Hamas

The road map Trump announced — and that Hamas confirmed — addresses in more specific terms the type of weapons the militant group and its allies will be required to hand over to a new technocratic government. The document says Israel will not be involved in the decommission of Hamas' weapons and that it should halt all military operations in Gaza so the transition can proceed and recovery can begin.

But residents in Gaza say they have been repeatedly promised that the war will stop and their lives will improve. They see the road map as a positive development but remain skeptical that either Israel or Hamas will adhere to the terms.

“This is enough. We need improvement in our lives,” said Ayman Ahmed, a displaced Palestinian living in southern Gaza. He said he hopes Hamas gives up its arms but does not see it happening anytime soon.

“They don't care about Palestinians’ lives,” he said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 73,300 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which was part of the Hamas-run government.

The ministry maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

Because of the high death toll and ongoing attacks, other Palestinians say they believe Israel will refuse to make concessions.

In southern Gaza, Ghazal Astal lives among the rubble. She said there is near-constant Israeli gunfire and that the territory has been transformed into an “indescribable battlefield.”

Ammar Kaskeen, 30, said he doesn't believe the road map will force Israeli troops to withdraw. For Israel, according to Kaskeen, the goal is not only to disarm Hamas but to also drive the Palestinian population out of Gaza.

"They will make us suffer,” he said.

Even as Israel digs in, Palestinians dream of returning home

Israel has not commented publicly on the road map but Israeli officials, speaking anonymously over the past two days, have signaled that the document does not align with the country's interests.

The officials also reiterated that Israel would not withdraw from the Yellow Line in Gaza, which divides Israeli-controlled territory in the east with the western part of the enclave.

In recent months, the military has built a massive earthen barrier roughly along the same line, developing what it described as a “security zone” adjacent to the berm, equipped with intelligence and technological assets.

Israel has also carried out controlled demolitions and clearing operations across much of the territory it controls. Palestinians who lived there have yet to return — and are unsure whether their homes are still standing.

Anas Nakla was displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza during the war. He said he knows his house has been destroyed but still wants to return home with his wife and children.

“It doesn't exist anymore," he said. "But we can return and rebuild.”

Similarly, Mohamed Hamad, who had to leave his home behind in northern Gaza, hopes that the U.S.-backed road map will pressure Israel to leave some of the areas it controls. He believes that even if only a small number of people could go back to their homes, “it will give hope to the rest that some day they may also return.”

___

Melanie Lidman and Sam Mednick contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Authorities released an early note in the investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, hoping that someone will recognize the writing style. A second note said Guthrie died shortly after she was kidnapped and “is buried in nature now.” Both notes initially were sent to a Tucson television station days after Guthrie went missing from her home outside Tucson on Feb. 1.

Desperate plea

“We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward. Someone knows something. Someone suspects something. Someone recognizes the writing in the ransom demand notes,” Guthrie wrote on her Instagram account, alongside a photo of her mother.

“Someone has noticed something different, strange, troubling or just unusual - perhaps with someone they deeply love," she wrote. "Perhaps they are afraid to come forward. Perhaps they are conflicted. Perhaps they are angry or upset for being in this situation. There is a way out - to tell what you know.”

Guthrie went on to say they “wanted to find out what happened to her, so that we can give her the dignity of a proper goodbye - a celebration of her remarkable life that she so deserves.”

Missing since February

Saturday is the six-month mark since Guthrie disappeared. No suspects have been arrested. The investigation has been dogged by unanswered questions, such as how many people are believed to have taken part in her abduction and whether she was taken by someone who knew her.

The FBI in Washington did not respond to questions about the ransom notes, including whether both messages sent to the Tucson station have been deemed legitimate.

In releasing the notes, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said “we believe these distinctive linguistic characteristics may be recognizable to someone who knows or has interacted with the notes’ writer.”

Ransom notes released

The first note, sent Feb. 2, said Guthrie was safe but scared and would be released unharmed once her captors received $4 million in cryptocurrency, with the ransom amount increasing if the first demand was not met. It said Guthrie would be released within 12 hours if the payment was received. It also included a threat to kill her if the ransom wasn’t paid.

“Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands,” the first note read. “It is in the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible.”

The second note was sent Feb. 6 and said Guthrie died shortly after she was taken. “She is buried in nature now,” it said. “Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome.” The note ended with an apology: “We are truly sorry.”

The sheriff’s department said the notes reveal a distinctive pattern of word choices and provide insight into the writer’s mindset. The agency said someone who knows the notes’ writer may recognize the patterns.

Authorities similarly used a suspect’s own writings as a tool to apprehend Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI. Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured 23 others with mail bombs over a 17-year span, pressured The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to publish his 35,000-word manifesto in 1995.

Signs of preparations

The sheriff’s office also said Friday that two videos recovered from Guthrie’s doorbell camera might be from two separate days and indicate an unidentified male prepared ahead of when Guthrie was taken. Authorities are seeking information on anyone who was behaving differently, changed their physical appearance, suddenly left the Tucson area, or had a noticeable or unexplained interest or disinterest in the case.

“Investigators continue to pursue every available technological and investigative lead,” the sheriff’s office said. “However, community members remain a vital resource as we seek to provide answers for Nancy’s family.”

The FBI had released surveillance videos of a masked person who authorities said appeared to tamper with a camera on Nancy Guthrie’s front porch and block it with a plant. They described the person as a male about 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 meters) tall.

Las autoridades de salud informaron que la agencia y el Departamento de Control de Mosquitos de Miami-Dade están coordinando los esfuerzos de vigilancia, prevención y control.

El dengue es una enfermedad transmitida por mosquitos que puede causar síntomas similares a los de la gripe, incluidos dolor intenso en músculos y articulaciones, fiebre y, en algunos casos, sarpullido. Los síntomas respiratorios son poco comunes.

Los expertos en salud indican que los síntomas generalmente se desarrollan dentro de los 14 días posteriores a la picadura de un mosquito Aedes aegypti infectado. El dengue no se transmite de persona a persona.

La agencia insta a los residentes a protegerse de las picaduras de mosquitos tomando precauciones básicas.

Las autoridades informaron que la agencia continúa con la vigilancia estatal de enfermedades transmitidas por mosquitos, incluido el virus del Nilo Occidental, la encefalitis equina del este, la encefalitis de San Luis, la malaria, el chikunguña y el dengue. También se recomienda a los residentes de Florida reportar aves muertas a la Comisión de Conservación de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de Florida.

Para obtener más información, visite la página web del Departamento sobre prevención de mosquitos o consulte los informes semanales de vigilancia de enfermedades transmitidas por mosquitos.

Cualquier persona que presente síntomas debe llamar al Departamento de Salud de Florida en el condado Miami-Dade al 305-324-2400.

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Heat index values are expected to climb above 105 degrees this afternoon, creating hazardous conditions before scattered showers and thunderstorms develop later in the day, according to the National Weather Service.

Local 10 meteorologist Jennifer Collins said temperatures were already in the low 80s early Saturday morning, with readings of 82 degrees in Miami and 81 in Fort Lauderdale by 6 a.m. She says the highest heat index values will occur during the early afternoon before storms begin developing around 3 p.m.

Collins said South Florida has recorded 51 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 90 degrees, approaching the record of 54 straight days set in 2023.

With a primarily west wind, storms are expected to form inland across Miami-Dade and Broward counties before moving toward the east coast. Some storms could produce heavy rainfall.

Click here to receive the latest updates from Local 10’s Weather Authority team.

Se espera que los valores del índice de calor superen los 105 grados esta tarde, lo que generará condiciones peligrosas antes de que se desarrollen lluvias y tormentas eléctricas dispersas más tarde en el día, según el Servicio Nacional de Meteorología.

La meteoróloga de Local 10, Jennifer Collins, dijo que las temperaturas ya se encontraban en los bajos 80 grados durante las primeras horas de la mañana del sábado, con registros de 82 grados en Miami y 81 en Fort Lauderdale a las 6 a.m. Señaló que los valores más altos del índice de calor se registrarán durante las primeras horas de la tarde, antes de que comiencen a desarrollarse tormentas alrededor de las 3 p.m.

Collins indicó que el sur de Florida ha registrado 51 días consecutivos con temperaturas de 90 grados o más, acercándose al récord de 54 días consecutivos establecido en 2023.

Con vientos predominantes del oeste, se espera que las tormentas se formen tierra adentro en los condados Miami-Dade y Broward antes de desplazarse hacia la costa este. Algunas tormentas podrían producir lluvias intensas.

Haga clic aquí para recibir las últimas actualizaciones del equipo de la Autoridad del Tiempo de Local 10.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach, Francisco Javier Lara, de 55 años, quien es maestro de Austin, Texas, fue arrestado por dos cargos de negligencia infantil sin causar lesiones corporales graves.

La Policía informó que los agentes respondieron a reportes sobre un menor que corría entre el tráfico cerca de 33rd Street y Pinetree Drive alrededor de las 12:15 p.m.

Las autoridades informaron que los agentes localizaron al preadolescente corriendo hacia el sur antes de que ingresara a una vivienda en la cuadra 3000 de Pinetree Drive, donde pudieron ponerlo a salvo.

Los investigadores indicaron que el menor no pudo proporcionar mucha información, pero logró dar a los agentes un número de teléfono perteneciente a su padre de crianza. Posteriormente, el niño fue trasladado al Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach mientras los agentes trabajaban para localizar a su cuidador.

Utilizando bases de datos policiales e información de ubicación del teléfono celular, los detectives rastrearon el número hasta Lara y determinaron que se hospedaba en el hotel Catalina, en Collins Avenue, indica el informe de arresto.

Según el informe, cuando los detectives tocaron la puerta de la habitación del hotel, Lara finalmente respondió y aparentemente no sabía que uno de los menores estaba desaparecido hasta que los detectives le preguntaron por el paradero de su hijo de crianza.

“Con compasión y paciencia, pudimos obtener su nombre y un número de teléfono que permitió a nuestros detectives localizar dónde se encontraba su padre”, dijo el agente Christopher Bess, del Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach, a Rosh Lowe, de Local 10.

El informe indica que los agentes detectaron un fuerte olor a alcohol en el aliento de Lara. Cuando le preguntaron qué hora era, supuestamente respondió a los detectives que creía que eran alrededor de las 7 a.m., aunque en realidad eran aproximadamente las 2 p.m.

Dentro de la habitación del hotel, los detectives también encontraron al hermano de crianza del menor, de 10 años, quien no es verbal y también tiene autismo, informaron las autoridades.

El niño fue trasladado a la estación de Policía junto con su hermano, donde defensores de víctimas proporcionaron comida y zapatos a ambos menores, señala el informe.

Según las autoridades, durante una entrevista posterior a la lectura de sus derechos Miranda, Lara dijo a los detectives que había viajado desde Texas a Miami Beach con sus dos hijos de crianza para pasar unas vacaciones y que planeaba regresar con ellos el viernes.

La Policía informó que Lara aseguró que acostó a los menores alrededor de las 9 p.m. del miércoles antes de salir de la habitación del hotel cerca de la medianoche para comer en un restaurante mexicano cercano y consumir varias bebidas alcohólicas. Dijo a los detectives que tomó entre cuatro y cinco bebidas en el restaurante antes de ir a otro bar, donde consumió dos bebidas alcohólicas adicionales, indica el informe.

Según el informe, Lara dijo a los investigadores que regresó al hotel alrededor de las 4 a.m., encontró a ambos menores dormidos y luego “se desmayó”, sin recordar nada más hasta que la Policía tocó la puerta de la habitación más tarde ese día.

Sin embargo, los detectives indicaron que las cámaras de vigilancia del hotel mostraron a Lara regresando al hotel a las 5:10 a.m., saliendo nuevamente a las 9:03 a.m. y regresando otra vez a las 10:29 a.m. La Policía informó que Lara dijo a los investigadores que no recordaba haber salido nuevamente de la habitación y admitió que fue su culpa por haber bebido demasiado y perder el conocimiento.

Según el informe, las imágenes de vigilancia captaron al niño mayor saliendo solo del hotel mientras Lara estaba fuera, antes de correr hacia el norte por Collins Avenue.

Una revisión de los registros laborales confirmó que Lara trabajó el año pasado como maestro de escuela primaria para las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Miami-Dade. Actualmente vive en Texas y estaba de visita en Miami Beach por vacaciones, informaron las autoridades.

La Policía confirmó que ambos menores quedaron bajo la custodia del Departamento de Niños y Familias de Florida mientras Lara fue detenido.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, Lara permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $2,000 USD.

Según la Lotería de Florida, el caso surgió de una investigación conjunta entre la División de Seguridad de la agencia y la Oficina del Inspector General del Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos.

Los investigadores informaron que la investigación comenzó después de que una jugadora de la Lotería de Florida reportó que un boleto ganador de Pick 4 que había enviado por correo a través del Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos nunca llegó a su destino.

Según el informe de arresto, el boleto ganador fue comprado en una tienda Publix de Tampa y tenía un valor de $2,600 USD. Debido a que el premio superaba el límite máximo de $599 USD que puede cobrarse en un establecimiento autorizado de la lotería, el sistema indicó que el boleto debía ser devuelto a la jugadora, informaron los investigadores.

Indicaron que la ganadora posteriormente envió el boleto por correo a un familiar en Fort Lauderdale para ayudar a cubrir los gastos funerarios de otra persona, pero el boleto nunca fue entregado.

Un inspector de la Lotería de Florida determinó que el boleto fue cobrado el 19 de junio en la oficina del Distrito de Miami de la Lotería de Florida por Lekaysha Kenya Lockhart, de 28 años. Posteriormente, los investigadores identificaron a Lockhart como una cartera del USPS asignada a la oficina postal de Oakland Park.

Según el informe de arresto, Lockhart, quien tiene direcciones registradas en Lauderhill y Hollywood, “no era conocida por la propietaria del boleto ni estaba autorizada o aprobada por ella” para cobrar el premio.

Las autoridades informaron que agentes especiales de la Lotería de Florida e investigadores de la Oficina del Inspector General del USPS realizaron una operación conjunta que condujo al arresto de Lockhart el 23 de julio. Indicaron que, tras su arresto, Lockhart admitió haber robado el boleto ganador y haberlo cobrado en la oficina del Distrito de Miami.

“Nuestros jugadores merecen la confianza de que cada premio de la Lotería está protegido mediante sólidas medidas de seguridad y una supervisión rigurosa”, dijo en un comunicado el secretario de la Lotería de Florida, Reginald D. Dixon. “Reconozco el extraordinario trabajo investigativo de nuestra División de Seguridad y agradezco a nuestros socios de la Oficina del Inspector General del Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos y de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward por su colaboración para proteger la integridad de los juegos de la Lotería de Florida y lograr una resolución exitosa de este caso”.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Lockhart enfrenta un cargo de hurto mayor, uno por tráfico de propiedad robada, uno por presentar un reclamo falso de pago y dos cargos por uso ilegal de un dispositivo de comunicación bidireccional y robo de correspondencia.

Funcionarios de la Lotería de Florida informaron que, debido a que los delitos ocurrieron en múltiples circuitos judiciales, los casos serán procesados por separado.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, Lockhart no figuraba como reclusa en los registros de la cárcel del condado Broward.

Local 10 solicitó una declaración al Servicio Postal de Estados Unidos sobre su arresto.

Los agentes identificaron a los sospechosos como David Williams, de 44 años, de Miami, y Alexander Oscar, de 46.

Según el informe, videos de vigilancia captaron a Williams y Oscar entrando al Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami por el área de llegadas en la acera en múltiples ocasiones y caminando hasta las bandas de reclamo de equipaje, donde ambos retiraban maletas antes de salir de la terminal y abordar “vehículos que los esperaban”.

Los investigadores informaron que los robos ocurrieron en abril e involucraron múltiples casos en el aeropuerto.

Indicaron que, en uno de los casos, Williams y Oscar presuntamente robaron equipaje valorado en $6,305 USD de la banda de reclamo 26.

En otro caso, ambos presuntamente sustrajeron equipaje valorado en aproximadamente $4,000 USD de esa misma banda, según los agentes.

El informe también señala que Williams fue captado en videos de vigilancia en varios incidentes adicionales, presuntamente retirando equipaje de las bandas de reclamo 22, 23 y 25 del aeropuerto.

Los investigadores informaron que el valor total de la propiedad robada en todos los casos asciende a $27,205 USD.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Williams enfrenta seis cargos de hurto mayor en tercer grado, mientras que Oscar enfrenta dos cargos por el mismo delito.

Los registros también muestran que Williams había sido arrestado anteriormente por un cargo de robo a mano armada con un arma mortal en un caso no relacionado.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, ambos permanecían detenidos en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. La fianza de Williams fue fijada en $20,000 USD y la de Oscar en $7,500 USD.

Es posible que los padres les recuerden a sus hijos que terminen el trabajo, pero algunos estudiantes consideran que deberían tener más voz sobre cómo pasan sus vacaciones de verano.

Incluso algunos maestros no son partidarios de esta práctica.

Algunos dicen que se debería permitir que los estudiantes disfruten de su tiempo libre.

Otros dijeron que disfrutaron las asignaciones de lectura durante el verano a lo largo de los años, siempre y cuando los estudiantes no regresen el primer día de clases para enfrentar un examen sorpresa o entregar de inmediato un ensayo.

¿Y usted qué opina? ¿Las tareas de verano son útiles o las vacaciones deberían estar libres de tareas?

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Parents may be reminding their kids to get the work done, but some students feel they should have more of a say in how they spend their summer break.

Even some teachers aren’t fans of the practice.

Some say students should be allowed to enjoy their time off.

Others said they enjoyed summer reading assignments over the years, as long as students aren’t coming back on the first day of class facing a pop quiz or an essay due immediately.

So what do you think? Is summer homework helpful or should the break be homework-free?

Trump asserted in his Truth Social post that he would keep acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and press ahead on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” if Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refuse to back the former federal prosecutor who was a key member of Trump’s defense team at a time when the Republican battled four indictments.

The administration needs their votes, but both lawmakers have protested Blanche's selection because of a lawsuit settlement that created a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.

In a sign of apparent progress Friday, Trump pronounced the fund “dead.” As negotiations continued into the night, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, rescheduled a committee vote for Blanche that had been postponed earlier in the week.

A spokesperson for the committee said Grassley, R-Iowa, would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess and that putting the Tuesday vote on the calendar “gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee.”

But by Saturday morning, those plans were in jeopardy with a new announcement from Trump that appeared to put the fund back on the table — and dinged the two senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.

“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard” to restore the fund. The president insisted, as he previously has, that the fund “takes care of those who have been so badly treated” during the administrations of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Tillis, who is retiring, took note of the president's turnabout by saying in a post on X that despite Trump's comments Friday, he “clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against.”

He added: “It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday."

Blanche had said at a hearing two months ago that the anti-weaponization fund would not move forward after Republican senators revolted and held up an immigration funding bill.

But Tillis and Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, said they want to ensure that the White House does not reverse course, especially as Trump continues to argue that a fund is needed.

The Department of Justice has provided the senators with language that says Blanche’s May 18 order establishing the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is “rescinded and shall have no force or effect,” according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.

Cornyn and Tillis have said they also want clarification on a separate part of the settlement that would grant Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits. Cornyn said this week that it was his understanding the audits could extend to more than 100 Trump Organization subsidiaries in the future.

“Todd Blanche said it was limited to the parties to the litigation — and it was retrospective, not prospective,” Cornyn said. “And all we’re doing is asking them to put that in writing.”

Un tribunal de apelaciones dictaminó recientemente que la agencia no está protegida por inmunidad y puede ser demandada por acusaciones de negligencia durante la masacre, que dejó 17 estudiantes y miembros del personal muertos y otros 17 heridos.

La demanda fue presentada por sobrevivientes y familiares de las víctimas.

El ex agente de recursos escolares Scot Peterson figura entre los demandados en el caso. Los fiscales dijeron que Peterson permaneció fuera del edificio durante la balacera y no enfrentó al atacante.

Peterson fue absuelto de los cargos de negligencia infantil en 2023.

Se espera que el juicio comience a principios del próximo año.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday. The Aeon Mall, in the town of Kashima, was one of the hardest-hit sites, after an explosion that followed the quake caused the walls and a floor to collapse.

The explosion, which the company said it believes was due to a gas leak, occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot following the quake, but some employees remained inside. The mall’s second floor collapsed.

Rescuers extracted five people from under mall debris and retrieved the bodies of seven others over the past five days. On Saturday, officials said all the missing were accounted for and ended the operation at the mall.

The overall number of missing in the hit prefecture remains unknown, and search operations pressed on, with thousands of Self Defense troops, police, rescue workers and sniffing dogs deployed.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, at a government task force meeting Saturday, urged rescue personnel not to leave anyone behind.

At another hard-hit site in Kumamoto Prefecture, a chimney collapsed at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro city, trapping 11 employees. Nine have since been confirmed dead and two were rescued, officials said.

The earthquake has left 103 people injured in Kumamoto, authorities said, and two in addition to the reported deaths are being investigated to determine if they are quake-related.

The prefecture’s main challenge is the lack of fresh water affecting nearly 70,000 homes, and fuel shortages as Japan suffers sweltering heat, stoking fears of heat-related illness. Japan Meteorological Agency said temperatures reached an “extreme heat” level of 36.6 degrees Celsius (97.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Kumamoto city Saturday.

More than 9,000 people remain at crowded shelters, such as converted community centers, school gyms and classrooms. Many others slept in cars parked at town hall parking lots and parks, or outside of their homes, for privacy.

Experts have long criticized Japan’s crowded conditions at emergency shelters, arguing that a lack of sanitation and privacy creates additional stress and increases the risk of health problems for disaster-hit people.

Water, food and other necessities, including portable toilets, as well as air conditioners and partitions, were being delivered to improve conditions at the evacuation centers, Takaichi said Saturday.

“The government is determined to do everything we can,” Takaichi said.

The prefecture said it has received more than 1,500 reports of power loss as of Saturday, but local power company serving Kyushu said it had no immediate reports of outages.

Over 180 homes were destroyed, officials said, and nearly 3,500 buildings were damaged — nearly double the number reported on Friday — with 20 of them severely affected, according to Kumamoto prefectural assessments.

Allegations against U.S. Rep. Max Miller, a White House adviser during President Donald Trump's first term, have been public for years but have recently drawn increased media scrutiny amid an escalating legal back-and-forth with his former spouse, who is the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. That has Democrats sensing Miller could be vulnerable in a district he won two years ago with just over 51% of the vote.

Over the past week, they have called for Miller to resign, requested a congressional ethics investigation and suggested more help could be directed in the fall toward his Democratic opponent, union ironworker Brian Poindexter. Miller has denied the abuse allegations and filed defamation lawsuits against his ex-wife and a second accuser.

The House Majority PAC, a super political action committee aimed at electing a Democratic majority, said it is monitoring the race's dynamics as part of its strategy to push deeper into GOP territory in this year's midterm elections.

“HMP is willing to do whatever it takes to take back the House, and nothing is off the table,” spokesperson CJ Warnke said.

Republicans stick by Miller

as Trump advisers keep tabs on the situation

Republicans have so far remained in Miller’s corner, saying he has delivered for his district and is electable in November.

At the same time, the difficulties that Miller faces have not escaped the attention of the president’s inner circle as they work to retain GOP control on Capitol Hill. Trump's closest advisers are actively monitoring the situation, according to a Republican with knowledge of White House discussions who requested anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive matter.

The deadline for replacing Miller on the ballot is Wednesday, though no Republican has publicly pushed to take that step. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told Ohio's Capital Journal that the accusations were troubling and “very serious” but that Miller's fate should be up to voters.

The tension comes as Republicans are defending their narrow majority in the U.S. House in the November races.

Terry Casey, a longtime Republican consultant in Ohio, said Miller remains in a strong position to win the Republican-leaning district, which stretches south from Cleveland and was won decisively by Trump two years ago.

That is unless Poindexter, who has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, can attract money significant enough to step up his advertising in the 7th Congressional District's multiple media markets.

“Unless serious people are willing to put in serious money, I’d say beginning around $2 million, it’s all nothing but lip exercises,” Casey said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee declined to discuss whether it would match any influx of Democratic cash. Miller has significantly outraised Poindexter, although the Democrat's campaign said it has seen a surge in social media followers in recent weeks.

Democrats call for an ethics investigation and some say Miller should resign

At issue in the couple's long-running dispute are claims leveled by Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, that he scalded, hit and threatened her while they were married. Miller has denied the allegations.

A recent article in the magazine Mother Jones revealed a new point of contention in their legal battle: a broken collarbone on their 2-year-old daughter that led Moreno to contact authorities. The pair, who were married in 2022 and finalized their divorce last year, presented different theories about how the injury occurred, according to court filings and police reports reviewed by the magazine.

Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, said it “would be wise” for Miller to resign. The House Democratic Women’s Caucus called for an ethics investigation.

“The recent reports of domestic violence and child abuse against Representative Max Miller are deeply disturbing and Congress can’t ignore them,” Democratic Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, Emilia Sykes of Ohio and Hillary Scholten of Michigan wrote in their letter. “Allegations of violence against women and children have to be met with the utmost seriousness.”

Bernie Moreno declined to comment on the allegations raised by his daughter or on Miller’s response, but his spokeswoman issued a statement saying the senator was focused on his family.

“Senator Moreno’s top priority is the safety and well-being of his daughter and granddaughter,” said the spokeswoman, Reagan McCarthy. “While he will not litigate these matters in the media or respond to baseless public attacks, he will do whatever it takes to ensure a just outcome for his family.”

Miller's controversies escalated in July and he is facing a lawsuit by an ex-girlfriend

Miller has denied all allegations of abuse. He did not respond to inquiries left with his campaign, his Washington office or on his personal cellphone.

Last spring, his spokesperson provided documentation to The Associated Press that showed several allegations that he had abused his daughter had been investigated by the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services and were deemed unsubstantiated. He has sued Emily Moreno for defamation.

The couple's dispute escalated this week.

On Thursday, lawyers for Emily Moreno asked a judge for a temporary restraining order barring Miller from contact with her attorney, Andrew Zashin. The filing alleges that Miller shouted insults at Zashin and goaded him to “Come at me!” outside a court hearing last May, then physically grabbed Zashin during a different proceeding on Tuesday.

The court filing quotes Miller’s own lawyer as saying his client “just can’t control himself.” The attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Earlier this month, Miller’s ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, filed a lawsuit against him. She accused Miller of violating terms of a confidential settlement agreement they struck to resolve his 2021 lawsuit against her.

That lawsuit alleged Grisham defamed him in her book and in a Washington Post op-ed when she said a former White House staffer — later identified as Miller — had physically abused her while they were dating. While the book is vague on the specific allegations, Politico reported at the time that Grisham and Miller’s relationship ended “when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her.”

Grisham alleged in the new lawsuit filed July 7 that Miller dragged her name into his dispute with Moreno and violated their agreement not to disparage each other.

A campaign distraction for Miller that could turn off some voters

For Poindexter, the Democratic candidate, the accusations against Miller provide a possible path to an upset in November if some conservative-leaning voters opt for him or enough Republican voters are turned off by the domestic abuse allegations and stay home.

“These are serious allegations and deserve the full attention of law enforcement,” Poindexter said in a statement. “If all the allegations against Congressman Miller prove to be true, Max Miller should be in jail, not worried about retaining a seat in Congress.”

Jim Trakas, a former state lawmaker and GOP party chair in northeast Ohio, said Miller is not helped by the fresh developments so close to the election.

“It's a difficult year for any incumbent,” he said. “Now you have to spend time on this when you want to focus on the main event, which is the pocketbook issues.”

Chocolate cake recipe (use your favorite recipe)

½ cup melted butter

½ cup brown sugar

1½ cups really good quality dark chocolate chips

2 large cans of good quality canned pears

For serving:

lightly sweetened whipped cream

Prepare your chocolate cake batter, stir 1 cup of the chocolate chips into the batter. And set aside.

Preheat the oven according to the instructions of the cake recipe.

Lightly grease a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Drain the pears from the cans, reserving the juice.

Place pears into the bundt pan to size how big they should be to fit snugly in the bottom. Cut according to the size of your pan and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and pour into the bottom of the bundt pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the melted butter.

Pour about ¼ - ½ cup of pear juice over the sugar and place the pears back into the bottom of the pan, cut side up. Scatter a few chocolate chips around. Slowly pour the chocolate cake mixture into your cake pan above the pears.

Bake according to recipe instructions until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

When room temperature, place a large serving plate upside down over the bundt pan and carefully flip the cake over to unmold. If any pears remain in the bottom of the pan, just tuck them back into the top of the cake.

Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

1 pound of gnocchi (can be purchased or use your favorite recipe)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup chicken stock or broth

zest of 1 lemon

Juice of ¼ lemon, freshly squeezed

8 basil leaves, torn in half

¾ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a large, wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the cream and stock, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add a few gnocchi at a time, and cook until they float, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the sauce and warm through.

Add the basil and cheese to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and toss well to combine all the ingredients. Serve immediately.

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

1 cup all-purpose flour

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1½ cups yellow onion, minced

1 cup red bell pepper, seeded, minced

½ cup dry white wine

1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ cup chopped Italian parsley leaves

1 teaspoons dried oregano

8 whole pepperoncini from a jar, drained of brine

½ cup water or chicken broth, if needed

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and dredge them in the flour, shaking off any excess flour.  Heat a wide, deep, heavy-bottomed braising pan or skillet over medium low heat and add the olive oil.  Add the thighs to the pan, skin-side down, and cook until rendered, golden and crispy, about 10-15 minutes.  Turn the thighs over and cook until for just a couple of minutes, then transfer the thighs to a large plate and set aside.

Pour out all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the skillet.  Add the onions, peppers and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened but not browned 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the wine and cook until the liquid has been reduced by half, about 2 minutes.  Add the tomato sauce and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the pepper flakes, parsley, and oregano, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan, skin-side up, and spoon the sauce over it. Add the pepperoncini, and season with salt and black pepper.  Cover the pan, transfer it to the oven and cook until the chicken is cooked through, 35 to 40 minutes, check the chicken thighs halfway through cooking, if the liquid is not at least ½ way up the thighs, add about ½ cup of water or chicken stock to the pan.  Serve over the potato gnocchi with basil cream sauce.

Wildlife officials are banning fishing during certain hours on rivers and streams across the U.S. West, following an exceptionally dry winter and amid widespread drought. Lower water levels mean rivers can heat more rapidly.

The restrictions aim to reduce stress on species including highly-prized trout. Anglers travel from around the world to find the fish in Yellowstone National Park or Western Montana’s Blackfoot River, featured in the movie “A River Runs Through It.”

More record temperatures are forecast this weekend as a heat wave in the Southwest expands north into the Rocky Mountains and east across the High Plains.

On the Yellowstone River near Livingston, Montana, California resident Mike Wever waded into the swiftly-moving water Friday with a fly fishing rod in one hand. He dipped his free hand into the water.

“Not very cold,” said Wever, 62.

He lacked the customary waders that keep fly fishers warm. Instead, he wore shorts. Stepping carefully across a rocky side channel, Wever said he was OK with the decision to close stretches of the Yellowstone to fishing after 2 p.m. daily.

“It's great for us to have this resource,” he said. “But we have to manage it.”

Many trout anglers let their catch swim free after netting it. But temperature-stressed rainbow or cutthroat trout can die if they're out of water even briefly for a commemorative photo, experts say.

Colorado has imposed restrictions this summer on 19 rivers totaling 635.5 miles (1023 kilometers), a situation state officials say is unprecedented.

Yellowstone on Wednesday expanded afternoon fishing restrictions to the whole park.

Also Wednesday, wildlife officials in neighboring Montana broadened afternoon fishing restrictions to now cover 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) of rivers.

Closures “have become very common over the last decade plus, some might even say very routine from late June through early September,” said biologist Adam Strainer, administrator of the fisheries division at Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

That trend coincides with rising temperatures as human-caused climate change warms the planet and droughts become more frequent and severe. Yellowstone, for example, has restricted fishing due to high water temperatures during five of the past six years. That’s much more often than in the past, according to park officials.

The consequences aren’t just ecological; trout fishing is closely entwined with the economy in many Rocky Mountain communities.

Dan Gigone, who runs Sweetwater Fly Shop along the Yellowstone River in Montana, says many visitors are pushing trips to the fall to avoid low and warm summer water flows.

“People are realizing August is a crapshoot here in terms of whether you're going to be able to fish and how good the fishing will be,” Gigone said. “I’ve been here 22 years and this is the warmest stretch I remember.”

Warm water contains less oxygen, making it harder for fish to breathe. It also slows their growth.

Full reservoirs usually help buoy water levels during dry summers and low-water years, said Kirk Deeter with the conservation group Trout Unlimited. But many of those reservoirs are at near-record lows.

In Steamboat Springs where Deeter lives, drought and warm waters in the mid 70s (23 C) killed a massive number of fish on the Yampa River. “That’s a bad harbinger for the trout,” he said.

In 2016, wildlife officials closed 183 miles (295 kilometers) of the Yellowstone River to fishing, rafting and other activities to prevent a parasite suspected of killing tens of thousands of fish from spreading further in the low and warm water.

A study last year found “river heat waves" are increasingly happening in snow-dominated areas such as the northern U.S. and the Rockies, said Li Li, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of the study.

Climate change, she said, is changing the size and timing of the mountain snowpack, and that's contributing to river heat waves. The researchers also found more days when rivers were warm enough to stress cold-water species like bull trout.

Todd Tanner’s School of Trout in Bigfork, Montana, typically organizes fly-fishing classes from May to October in the northwest. But “the window for those trips seems to be growing narrower” as conditions get hotter, drier and more wildfire-prone, said Tanner, 65.

The school has shifted classes to avoid adverse conditions.

“I’ve been in Montana full time for the last 34 years,” he said. “This wasn’t something that we even thought about 30 years ago or 25 years ago.”

___

Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

In an interview as he becomes chair of the National Governors Association, the potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender ticked through Trump's efforts to restrict voting by mail, obtain voter information from states and possibly deploy federal troops or agents to polling places. Moore said there was a role for the NGA, a bipartisan group, to ensure states are able to oversee elections as designed by the U.S. Constitution.

“I don't think that the president is trying to hide the ball on this,” Moore said. “It's not even am I concerned about what the president could do? I'm concerned about what he's already doing in broad daylight.”

Moore's national profile is expanding and so is speculation about the White House

The 47-year-old governor's national profile is rising as he assumes the top leadership post for the nation's governors on Saturday, a role once held by Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Moore is the subject of frequent speculation that he will announce a presidential run, a prospect he rules out, saying he will not “get distracted” before the November elections.

His travel to early presidential testing grounds such as South Carolina and Nevada, though, suggests he may run. Moore is proving himself a savvy digital communicator and crafts an image as a newcomer to politics while voters demand change.

The centerpiece of his agenda as NGA chair — a national program to build communities and draw young people into the workforce through service-oriented work — could be a pillar of a future campaign.

“Service will save us as a society because I know service saved me,” he said, recalling his time in the Army.

The “Service United” campaign opens with $10 million in philanthropic support to build on similar work Moore has done in Maryland, including a $5 million expansion of an apprenticeship program in the state announced this week.

“It's an opportunity to help people with a career path,” said Bechara Choucair, the executive vice president and chief health officer at Kaiser Permanente, which is building a youth mental health corps with Service United.

Dame Louise Richardson, the president of the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, which is supporting the program, said she hopes to “see the day when you meet somebody, they don't just ask, ‘Where did you go to college?’ but they ask, ‘Where did you do your service year?’”

The contours of the initiative have drawn support from some Republicans, including Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the outgoing NGA chair.

“One of the things I like is the apprenticeship model and getting kids out of the classroom and into more workforce learning,” Stitt said. “So I think that's brilliant.”

Divisions between parties run deep despite nods at bipartisanship

But that optimism masks the challenge facing Moore as he takes the helm of one of the few remaining political groups that bring top Republicans and Democrats together. For all the nods at bipartisanship, the divides between — and within — the parties run deep.

Even as he spoke warmly of Moore's program, Stitt warned against anything resembling a “big government program.”

Moore, meanwhile, spoke of public frustration with the government’s response to dramatic changes in the workforce, driven by advances in artificial intelligence that could erode entry-level work that has long helped young people start their careers. He said the White House has complicated the dynamic.

“We want to say that if a person goes on to a four-year college or chooses not to go to a four-year college, they still need to have pathways to long-term wages and wealth," Moore said. “What we have seen from the federal government thus far has just been simply executive orders that have told the states to stay out of it.”

Moore and Trump have sparred frequently and there's potential for more

Moore has a challenging relationship with Trump, who sought to bar him and Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colo., from a White House meeting organized by the NGA earlier this year. The president relented after Stitt intervened, though there is little to suggest that the relationship has recovered, raising the potential of another confrontation at the next NGA meeting, traditionally held February in Washington.

When asked about Trump, Moore noted his enjoyment at working with governors from both parties before saying “the president of the United States seems to consistently take an ideological view when it comes to securing the future of this country."

The White House did not comment on Moore's characterization.

But Moore also is contending with divides among his fellow Democrats.

At home in Maryland, where he is seeking reelection this fall, he has at times struggled to win over Democrats in the legislature, which reconvenes next week to consider a constitutional amendment on redistricting after an earlier effort he backed fell short.

Moore says party bosses should not rule

The Democratic National Committee is in turmoil. A string of democratic socialists has won primaries from New York City to Denver, prompting debate over whether the party is moving too far to the left and threatening its potential victories in the fall. Upcoming elections in Michigan and Wisconsin will further tug at the divide.

Moore did not take a firm stance with either of his party's ideological wings. He batted away questions about democratic socialists potentially imperiling Democratic wins, insisting it was up to voters to decide who their nominees would be.

“Party bosses shouldn't be determining who members of the party are,” he said, without specifying whether he was referring to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York as one of them. “The people should be the ones to have a final say on that.”

At the same time, Moore made clear that he did not support some of the left flank's positions.

“I know where I am on issues,” he said. “I don't believe in abolishing the police. I don't believe in abolishing prisons. I don't believe in open borders.”

Democrats sound alarm about Trump role in midterms

But perhaps the biggest test for Moore will be navigating the management of this year's elections without denting the bipartisan tone that typically defines the NGA. He will be in the middle of Republicans who are calling for tougher rules, particularly around voter identification and deadlines for mail ballots, and fellow Democrats who warn of voter suppression.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of North Carolina, who leads one of the most politically competitive states that includes a marquee Senate race this fall, echoed Moore's concerns about federal interference.

“I don’t think you can be a clear-thinking person and not be concerned because all the signals are very worrisome,” he said in an interview. “But that said, I have confidence that if the voters come out in droves and vote the way that they want to vote, that the government will represent their wishes.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that "if Democrats really cared about securing our elections, they would pass the SAVE America Act,” referring to a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill that is stalled in the Senate.

Stitt expressed confidence that states would hold elections without federal intervention while noting his support for the voting bill. But he also rejected federal intervention and said: "States should control their own elections.”

Moore said he used to associate states’ rights arguments with segregationists like Bull Connor, the infamous public safety commissioner in Birmingham, Alabama, who turned fire hoses and dogs on peaceful protesters during the Civil Rights era.

Now, Moore said, the Trump era has reshaped his views and reinforced “the importance of having actually strong governors.”

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Deputies identified the suspects as David Williams, 44, of Miami, and Alexander Oscar, 46.

According to the report, surveillance video captured Williams and Oscar entering MIA through the curbside arrivals area on multiple occasions and walking to baggage carousels, where the pair removed luggage before leaving the terminal and entered “waiting vehicles.”

Investigators said the thefts happened in April and involved multiple cases at MIA.

They said in one case, Williams and Oscar allegedly stole luggage valued at $6,305 from Carousel 26.

In another case, the pair allegedly took luggage valued at approximately $4,000 from that same carousel, according to deputies.

The report also states Williams was captured on surveillance video in several other incidents, allegedly removing luggage from carousels 22, 23 and 25 at MIA.

Traveler Asha Warner told Local 10’s Aaron Maybin that she wasn’t surprised to hear of the crimes at the popular airport.

“I mean that makes sense. It’s pretty easy to get right in here. People put valuables in their bag,” she said. “They put jewelry, money, whatever. It sucks and that’s unfortunate but it’s like not surprising.”

Investigators said the total value of property stolen in all cases was listed at $27,205.

Travelers are relieved detectives tracked down the men before more people became victims.

“That’s great on the airport security,” said Warner. “I’m glad they committed to that and found the people and did what’s right.”

Jail records show Williams is facing six counts of third-degree grand theft, while Oscar is facing two counts of the same charge.

Records show Williams was previously arrested on one count of armed robbery with a deadly weapon in an unrelated case.

As of Friday afternoon, both men were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, with Williams’ bond set at $20,000 and Oscar’s set at $7,500.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer also banned the pair from visiting MIA.

Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a six-planet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe.

Daytime darkness will descend Aug. 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky.

Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds, an appetizer for an even longer solar show next year — a 6 ½-minute extravaganza that will sweep from Spain to North Africa and the Middle East.

It will take 1 ½ hours for the umbra, or moon’s sun-blocking shadow, to race along the 5,130-mile (8,260-kilometer) course, most of it over an empty Atlantic. Maximum totality will occur off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it reaches a small patch of Portugal and then Spain with its massive crowds, totality will have dwindled to a minute or so. The spectacle will end in the Mediterranean.

Eclipse chasers gear up for the solar spectacle

Hundreds of millions more on the sidelines are in for a treat as well.

A partial eclipse will delight as far away as Alaska and Siberia, enveloping Canada, the northern U.S., and much of Europe and West Africa.

The closer to totality’s course, the more the sun will vanish behind the moon – 94% coverage in Dublin and 83% in Oslo, Norway. Montreal will see an 18% bite out of the sun, tapering to 9% in New York and 2% in Norfolk, Virginia.

Special eclipse glasses are crucial. even if a morsel of sun is showing.

Adding to the cosmic wonder, the day begins with six of our neighboring planets forming an arc in the sky before dawn and end with the Perseid meteor shower peaking after nightfall under the new moon. Streaking meteors could photobomb totality, with some of the brighter planets and stars visible in the background.

Eclipse mapmaker Michael Zeiler is chasing an even more elusive interloper: the northern lights.

For his 13th total solar eclipse, Zeiler will be on a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord, sailing as a guest lecturer. He’ll point a video camera toward the north to capture any aurora forming during totality. A massive outburst from the sun would be the icing on his eclipse cake.

“What gets me excited is viewing rare phenomena,” Zeiler said in an email.

He’s not the only one revved up.

See who's hosting solar eclipse watch parties and science experiments

The European Space Agency will host a live webcast from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and a public celebration in Leon. NASA will provide its own coverage, as will the Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project and others.

“For me, it’s not just a scientific moment. It’s not just an incredible alignment of heavenly bodies. It’s also a very human moment,” said ESA’s director of science Carole Mundell. “It’s a real human connection between us with our feet planted on the Earth and the cosmos.”

Two of ESA’s space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona, or outer atmosphere. Proba-3, the space agency’s artificial eclipse-making satellite duo, will be in the wrong part of its orbit during totality as seen from Earth, but will try to sneak in some before-and-after shots.

U.S. college research teams are also pitching in, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to study Earth’s atmosphere and other changes during the eclipse when the temperature momentarily drops. They launched 10 times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse that captivated North America.

“A couple of minutes isn’t a lot of time, but it’s still plenty to affect the atmosphere and to make that cold, dark shadow of the moon on Earth,” said Montana State University’s Angela Des Jardins, who leads the NASA-funded balloon project.

Southwest Research Institute’s Amir Caspi also expects a scientific bonanza from his study aboard a NASA high-altitude plane. Four cameras will record the corona in nine wavelengths as the jet chases the eclipse at 460 mph (740 kph), extending totality to nearly three minutes in the air. Caspi anticipates thousands of images gathered from each camera during those precious 180 seconds.

"It’s true the eclipse is short, but it’s still incredibly valuable," he said.

And there's more to come

An exceptionally long total solar eclipse is in store for 2027, yielding nearly three times more observation time.

The southern tip of Spain will take center stage on Aug. 2, 2027, with up to six minutes and 23 seconds of totality extending into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Then on Jan. 26, 2028, a ring-of-fire eclipse will round out Spain’s celestial trifecta — “a lucky coincidence,” according to ESA’s Mundell.

It’s all the more extraordinary considering Spain’s last full solar eclipse — not counting the Canary Islands — occurred two days before the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. Because that rare hybrid eclipse toggled between a ring-of-fire and just a few seconds of totality for Spain, some consider 1905 for the country’s last pull-out-all-the-stops solar eclipse.

The Royal Observatory of Belgium’s Andrei Zhukov can’t get enough of them regardless of their length or origin. His Proba-3 science mission has created more than 60 simulated total solar eclipses over the past two years, with the longest lasting five hours and 38 minutes from two satellites flying in formation.

“We’re looking forward to more eclipses,” Zhukov said, “natural or artificial.”

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

For Greece, the danger carried grim resonance: a 2018 wildfire at the seaside community of Mati, near Athens, killed 104 people, making it Europe’s deadliest wildfire this century.

In southwestern France, firefighters held a vast wildfire within its perimeter, with about 198,000 people now allowed home after what may have been the country’s largest peacetime evacuation.

Major fires in Spain were also no longer advancing, and Portugal’s main blaze was under control.

A second French fire stopped expanding overnight after racing across 10 square kilometers (4 square miles) in six hours Friday — “faster than a horse at full gallop,” according to the prefecture. But it remained active Saturday and 2,500 people were still unable to return home.

The gains in western Europe marked a sharp turn from the height of the crisis, when fires in France and Spain alone drove a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites, emptied towns during the summer holiday season and stretched firefighters, aircraft and emergency services across simultaneous emergencies.

Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.

Gale-force winds drive Greek fires

Nearly 500 firefighters battled Saturday to protect Porto Germeno, a popular resort on the Gulf of Corinth, as flames tore through thick pine forest and smoke blocked out the sun.

The fire broke out Friday near the neighboring coastal village of Agios Vasileios. About 300 people were evacuated by sea, and authorities issued further evacuation orders Saturday.

“A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire,” said Minas Tzortzanis, a 60-year-old farmer and local resident. “There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”

Theodore Giannaros, a wildfire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens, estimated that 40 to 50 square kilometers (15 to 19 square miles) had been affected. Authorities had not issued an official burned-area figure.

The operation also included specialized forest-fire teams, crews temporarily deployed from France and Romania, 19 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters.

New fires erupted elsewhere in Greece. A blaze east of Nafpaktos prompted evacuation alerts for at least four villages.

“The very strong to gale-force winds continue to create exceptionally difficult conditions,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas said.

Extreme turbulence was preventing some aircraft from collecting water or approaching the fires closely enough to make drops, he said.

Evacuation orders remain in western France

The Gironde fire has burned 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of pine forest west of Bordeaux, an area four times the size of Paris.

It remained contained within its perimeter Saturday but had not been declared “fixed” — the point at which crews determine that a fire is no longer advancing. Active sectors and buried hot spots persisted.

Authorities reopened more communities Friday, but several remained largely deserted Saturday. Much of the forested Cap Ferret peninsula stayed evacuated because a nearby hot spot could flare again, cut its limited road access and trap returning residents.

“Today, the fire is still not fixed. It is contained,” Lt. Col. Eric Pitault told reporters.

Crews used tactical burns overnight. Along 240 kilometers (149 miles) of fire edge, heat could remain hidden underground and erupt again.

Renewed blaze remains active in southern France

In the Mediterranean Var region, defensive lines around the Gros Bessillon fire held overnight and no additional ground burned, Var Prefect Simon Babre told French media Saturday.

The blaze had been declared fixed earlier in the week before mistral gusts revived embers Friday and sent it racing through dry hills in temperatures approaching 42 C (108 F).

It remained active Saturday, with 1,300 firefighters deployed and about 2,500 people still unable to return home. The fire’s sudden return “defies understanding,” Babre said.

Twenty French departments were under an orange heat warning Saturday, mostly in the east and southeast. Eight departments faced a high forest-fire risk.

Returning residents confront what the fire erased

For residents returning to the Gironde fire zone, the easing emergency brought a first reckoning with what had been lost.

In Le Porge, one of the communities hardest hit, Matthieu Plessis returned Saturday to the ruins of a home that had been in his family for seven generations.

Just over a week earlier, smoke had turned the afternoon almost to night as flames raced along both sides of the road. Now the 40-year-old mechanic drove through blackened forest and struggled to identify what had once stood there.

“There are little details here and there that I recognize, but otherwise everything is unrecognizable,” Plessis said. “You don’t even know what was here anymore, or who lived where.”

He had to force open the property’s gate because its key had burned. A chimney and twisted metal frames were among the few clues to where the rooms had been. The tools and machinery from his bicycle-repair business were gone.

“It’s not easy. I’m trying to stay strong and help other people now,” Plessis said. “I don’t want to spend the next 10 years feeling sorry for myself.”

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Adamson reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, and Michael Varaklas in Porto Germeno, Greece, contributed to this report.

The social media posts of the world's most powerful man are going on sale Saturday when his Truth Social business begins offering sneak peeks of them to Wall Street traders willing to pay up. The move raises the prospect of big profits for Trump's company and big questions about insider trading and using public office for private gain.

Similar fast speed feeds are sold by other social media firms and media providers, but Truth Social doesn't just distribute the news, it makes it, regularly rattling markets as Trump posts policy changes on everything from war to central bank leadership to tariffs.

“If this was the CEO a public company, this would be jail time," said Irene Aldridge, head of Able Alpha Trading, which doesn't plan to buy the service. “We have a President of the United States who has the front seat to all the action, who makes all the decisions, and he's disclosing this ahead of time to a select group.”

Trump's company says critics just aren't capitalist enough

Asked about the propriety of the new service and whether White House lawyers had vetted it, Trump’s press office declined to comment, referring questions to Truth Social’s publicly traded parent. That company, Trump Media & Technology, issued a statement blasting Democratic critics for mischaracterizing the service “out of ideological opposition to free markets or a failure to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information — or, quite possibly, both.”

A prolific poster, Trump has sent stocks, bonds and currencies soaring and plunging with his online musings and threats. That presents opportunities for so-called high frequency traders that specialized in buying and selling within milliseconds, exploiting tiny, fleeting difference in prices.

Profits aplenty betting on oil, stocks and currencies

Just this month, Trump has threatened on Truth Social to slap higher tariffs on Canada, kill a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia and widen the Iran war. With advanced knowledge, traders betting on a plunge in the Canadian dollar, a drop in nuclear energy stocks and a jump in oil futures could have raked in big profits.

“For the big guys, it’s going to be something they need,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, who estimates about 100 of high frequency firms might be willing to pay for the service. “It’s market-moving information.”

Dubbed Truth API, the service comes as these firms are spending more on feeds and servers that bypass slower internet connections with direct lines to news and data sources. The chance for profits is greater than ever thanks artificial intelligence’s ability to read posts and articles more accurately for market-making changes and Trump’s penchant for making news online.

When Trump makes surprise announcements, traders pounce

Traders profit when prices jump up and down, and with his taste for cliffhangers, threats and policy reversals America's first reality-TV president provides plenty of potentially market-moving content.

The reversals are especially profitable, allowing traders to win both ways — jumping ahead of stocks moving up or down to a post threatening something, then cashing out within thousands of a second, then betting the other way.

In addition to Trump, the service will include posts from other “high ranking” Truth Social contributors, including possibly his two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who along with the father are heavily followed by users.

Truth Social has said that the information will be released to the traders and the general public at the same time so there really isn't an issue of fairness. But Themis Trading's Saluzzi, a critic of high speed trading, says that's a red herring because when the posts are received, not when they are released, is what matters.

“Somebody who buys the info and has a system built to process it will be able to act quicker than you and me,” said Saluzzi, adding in reference to everyday, small stock buyers, “The loser is always the retail investor."

Trump posts about a company he likes, and stocks jump

Aside from policy scoops, another reason to sign up has emerged in recent months: Trump is posting more about publicly traded companies, praising ones he likes in a way that sets off buying frenzies.

“The pimping of specific companies — obviously Wall Street would like to know that before other people,” said Dylan Hedler-Gaudette, a federal ethics rule expert at the watchdog Project on Government Oversight. “It's a real mess.”

In April, moments after Trump praised Palantir Technologies in a post that included its stock symbol, the price briefly jumped the most it had in an entire year. Later that month, Trump posted, “Congratulations on Intel doing such a great job,” and the stock immediately jumped in after-hours trading.

Just which firms are signing up for the feed is unclear. Asked for comment, none of the half dozen most well known high-speed traders such as Citadel Securities and XTX Markets replied. If just three sign up for the $100,000 a month fee, that would double revenue at Trump Media, which reported taking in $3.7 million last year.

Trump Media needs big money customers

The company can use their business.

Stock in the Truth Social parent has plunged 75% since Trump took office last year as the company keeps reporting hundreds of millions in losses despite the president's help driving traffic to its site by posting major decisions there.

In fact, the president breaks news on Truth Social so often that the White House press office will copy his posts into an email when responding to questions from the media seeking details on policies. If his posts aren’t available yet, journalists are sometimes told, “Wait for the Truth.”

Another problem for Truth Social is looming if the Democrats take control of Congress and launch investigations, as vowed by Massachusetts Senator Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a statement Friday specifically attacking the new service: “We will haul in those responsible for this open corruption to answer to the American people.”

If the losses keep mounting for the company, though, some predict the president will push things further, using the platform even more for policy announcements.

“That’s absolutely going to happen,” warns Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. “Trump knows how to sell products.”

—-

AP reporters Will Weissert and Josh Boak contributed from Washington.

Both notes initially were sent to a Tucson television station days after the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie went missing from her home outside Tucson on Feb. 1. Authorities have not said whether Nancy Guthrie is still alive.

Saturday is the six-month mark since Guthrie went missing. No suspects have been arrested in her disappearance. The investigation is dogged by unanswered questions, such as how many people are believed to have taken part in her abduction and whether she was taken by someone who knew her.

In her latest video about her mother’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie said earlier this week that her family has been living an unending nightmare and pleaded with the kidnappers to “tell us where to look for her.”

The FBI in Washington did not immediately respond to questions about the ransom notes, including whether both messages sent to the Tucson station have been deemed legitimate.

In releasing the notes, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said “we believe these distinctive linguistic characteristics may be recognizable to someone who knows or has interacted with the notes’ writer.”

The first note, sent Feb. 2, said Guthrie was safe but scared and would be released unharmed once her captors received $4 million in cryptocurrency, with the ransom amount increasing if the first demand was not met.

It said Guthrie would be released within 12 hours if the payment was received. It also included a threat to kill her if the ransom wasn’t paid.

“Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands,” the first note read. “It is in the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible.”

The second note was sent Feb. 6 and said Guthrie died shortly after she was taken. “She is buried in nature now,” it said. “Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome.” The note ended with an apology: “We are truly sorry.”

Investigators hope the writing itself will help identify its author

The sheriff’s department said the notes reveal a distinctive pattern of word choices and provide insight into the writer’s mindset. The agency said someone who knows the notes’ writer may recognize the patterns.

Authorities similarly used a suspect’s own writings as a tool to apprehend Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI. Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured 23 others with mail bombs over a 17-year span, pressured The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to publish his 35,000-word manifesto in 1995. Federal authorities encouraged its publication, leading Kaczynski’s brother and sister-in-law to recognize the syntax and anti-technology themes and tip off the FBI, bringing to a close the agency’s longest and costliest investigation at the time.

In a statement Friday, the sheriff’s department also appealed to people who may know something about the case, saying it may be difficult to come forward due to a personal relationship with someone involved or just for their own safety.

“We recognize relationships and loyalties change over time as do people and their perspectives,” the sheriff’s department wrote. “It is not too late to come forward.”

Authorities say new evidence suggests the kidnapping was planned

The sheriff’s office also said Friday that two videos recovered from Guthrie’s doorbell camera might be from two separate days and indicate an unidentified male prepared ahead of when Guthrie was taken. Authorities are seeking information on anyone who was behaving differently, changed their physical appearance, suddenly left the Tucson area, or had a noticeable or unexplained interest or disinterest in the case.

“Investigators continue to pursue every available technological and investigative lead,” the sheriff’s office said. “However, community members remain a vital resource as we seek to provide answers for Nancy’s family.”

The FBI had released surveillance videos of a masked person who authorities said appeared to tamper with a camera on Nancy Guthrie’s front porch and block it with a plant. They described the person as a male about 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 meters) tall.

On Feb. 4, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings first shared a video statement saying they were aware of media reports of a purported ransom letter and that they were ready to talk and listen, but they wanted proof that their mother was alive. Camron Guthrie, the brother of the “Today” co-anchor, said the following day that the family had not heard directly from whoever took their mother.

A day after the second note was sent, Savannah Guthrie said on Feb. 7 that the siblings received a message and “understand,” without sharing details. She said they were begging for their mother to be returned to them. “We will pay,” Guthrie said.

The family has continued to share their pleas for information in videos posted to social media.

Two men who were previously detained have filed a lawsuit

Also, two men detained and released early in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance are seeking a combined $3 million against a southern Arizona sheriff’s department. In a legal claim, they say they were wrongfully held by law enforcement.

The claim made Thursday against Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos’ department centers on the separate detentions of Carlos Alfredo Palazuelos and Daniel Maddow on Feb. 10. It said they were released hours later but have suffered from having been mentioned in the investigation.

Nanos’ office declined to comment on the notice of claim, a necessary precursor to filing a lawsuit against government entities.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.

The second half kicked off Saturday with what seemed a clear aim of ending Infantino’s decade-long presidency.

“No option should be off the table,” said European soccer body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.

“The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”

Later Saturday, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (CONCACAF) called for accountability, saying: “A (World Cup) proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident. It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first. This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behavior. A full review of this leadership must now take place.”

Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.

Infantino was forced to scrap the plan early Saturday after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

UEFA's blistering statement

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, issued its blistering statement hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.

“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game," UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.

“It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”

Norwegian soccer federation president Lise Klaveness, an elected member of the UEFA executive committee, said steps must be taken to protect the integrity of the sport.

“The entire framework of international football cooperation was unnecessarily put at risk in pursuit of individual interests rather than the best interests of the game,” Klaveness said Saturday. ”This has been visible to many for a long time, including those of us elected to positions intended to safeguard checks and balances and provide ongoing oversight. We have to recognize that these mechanisms have not worked well enough.”

The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, said “the future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game."

Infantino' audacious bid fell apart after UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

CONCACAF's statement added that FIFA leaders have “a duty of service over power. Where that duty is not upheld, accountability cannot be optional.”

FIFA's internal revolt

There was also an internal revolt.

Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.

“It is the project of one person,” wrote Lamour, a longtime colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and UEFA. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

Infantino had proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm launched by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

This is not Infantino's first big plan to flop

A tumultuous week in international soccer is at least the third time Infantino has rocked it with an ambitious plan many in the sport saw as reckless.

But the fallout from FIFA’s Kushner-backed plan is the first time UEFA has acted quickly to create momentum for removing the man who was its former long-time employee.

In 2018, Infantino pushed a secretive offer of $25 billion from Japan’s SoftBank to create new competitions, that posed a long-term risk to continental events for clubs and national teams.

In 2021, Infantino proposed playing World Cups every two years instead of four — an idea that also angered the International Olympic Committee where he is an elected member.

Both plans created big rifts in the sport and were eventually dropped by FIFA.

Despite the turmoil, Infantino was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

The third time shapes to be different.

Here is the calendar for the FIFA presidency

Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.

FIFA statutes allow Infantino one more four-year term in office. The failed spinoff venture seemed like a way to create a commissioner-like role for Infantino beyond 2031, likely paying much more than his current annual salary and a bonus deal of more than $6 million.

It would take 106 votes to ensure a majority in a contested election. Continents surely do not vote uniformly en bloc, but most of Europe’s 55, plus Asia’s 46 and CONCACAF’s 35 FIFA members would be a solid base.

The Qatar FA issued a statement in support of Infantino on Saturday.

Its president, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, said: “We welcome FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s decision to withdraw the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal in the interest of the global football community.

"While the proposal had merit, we applaud the wisdom behind prioritising unity among Member Associations. The Qatar Football Association fully supports President Infantino’s efforts to continue growing and strengthening the game globally.”

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona, Spain.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Some of those storms, mainly between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., could cause localized street flooding in poor-drainage neighborhoods. Similar conditions are on tap for Sunday, so plan your outdoor activities early and be prepared to spend your afternoon indoors.

In the tropics, all is quiet right now, although some models spin something up off the southeastern U.S. coast by later next week.

Hours later on Saturday, Kuwait said it responded to a new round of drone attacks from Iran while a tanker was struck in the strategic waterway.

Meanwhile, Israel carried out heavy strikes on the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to disarm.

Here are the most important developments in the Middle East today:

US threatens new strikes in the conflict with Iran

Speaking to reporters Friday during a meeting with members of his Cabinet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, Trump said “we just want to win” in Iran and signaled that he expected U.S. military action to continue for some time.

He said the U.S. will hit Iran “very hard” until they can’t take it anymore.

Later that day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the U.S. administration’s frustration anew, charging that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”

“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur,” Leavitt said in a statement Friday evening. “Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued new security alerts for Americans in 10 countries in the region to exercise heightened caution due to the escalating tensions with Iran.

The warnings — covering Bahrain, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates — urged U.S. citizens to prepare for the possibility of flight cancellations, temporary airspace closures and other travel disruptions.

New attacks on Kuwait and on shipping

Kuwait’s military said Saturday that its forces were responding to drone attacks which were part of Iran’s assaults on the country.

In a statement, Maj. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, spokesperson for Kuwait's Defense Ministry, said the drones hit “a number of vital facilities,” including a government structure in the country's north. He said there were no casualties.

The British Navy said Saturday that a tanker was struck and a separate explosion hit close to a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. No casualties were reported in either incident, it said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said an unknown projectile hit the vessel on Friday 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. The attack damaged the vessel’s engine room.

The group said that on Saturday a large splash and an explosion were reported close to another tanker while it was sailing 21 nautical miles northwest of Khasab city.

Separately, crude oil appeared to be leaking and spreading in recent days from a sanctioned tanker grounded off the coast of Oman, close to a marine protected area, satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show.

Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorization as part of its ongoing conflict with the U.S.

Israel strikes Gaza after Hamas says it will disarm

Intense Israeli strikes Friday night and Saturday killed at least four people in central and northern Gaza and wounded dozens more, according to local health officials.

The strikes overnight in Gaza followed evacuation warnings by Israel’s military, which said on Saturday that it had struck Hamas targets across the territory and dismantled five Hamas storage facilities.

The strikes came after Hamas confirmed Friday that it will disarm in a potential breakthrough for ending the war in Gaza, though major obstacles remain.

Palestinians in Gaza — most of whom are displaced or live in camps — received the news with both hope and skepticism. A 24-year-old tuk-tuk driver, Abdel Moneim Aboul-Roos, who lost his leg in an Israeli strike, told The Associated Press that he doesn't care about “talk about withdrawal and disarmament” as long as essentials like food and medicine remain lacking.

Israel has not officially commented on the Hamas deal, which is part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire announced last October.

That agreement called for Hamas to disarm and hand over power to an independent Palestinian administration. Israel was to withdraw and an International Stabilization Force was to be deployed.

In a post on X Friday, Israeli far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir called the deal “unacceptable” and said the killings in Gaza must continue. “Israel must win,” he said.

Egypt, a key Gaza ceasefire mediator, lauded Hamas and other Palestinian groups for “their positive response” in the phased peace plan, Egyptian state-run media reported.

The AP is tracking the progress of Trump’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas war.

Click here for full coverage from AP on the disarmament deal for Hamas.

Elsewhere in the region

— Houthi rebels forced eight Saudi ships to reroute from the Bab el-Mandeb strait after the Iranian-backed rebels announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the choke point. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson for the Houthis, said in a statement Friday that the vessels changed route to the Cape of Good Hope around Africa to avert the blockade.

— In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces set off explosions Friday to destroy an underground tunnel network under the Crusader-built Beaufort Castle that Israel says had been used by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants as a command center. The 12th-century castle, also known as Al-Shaqif, was seized by Israeli forces in May. It was recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List over Israel’s objections.

— Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said the Israeli operation sent “negative messages” ahead of upcoming talks in Rome. Israeli and Lebanese negotiating teams are set to meet again there to continue hammering out a plan under which Israel would withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

— An Israeli army officer was moderately wounded in an encounter with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon overnight into Saturday, Israel's military said. There was no immediate comment from Lebanese authorities or Hezbollah. Thirty-eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon or northern Israel since that conflict reignited when Hezbollah fired at Israel shortly after the start of the Iran war.

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Madhani reported from Washington.

At least 67 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday. The sudden arrival of 50,000 to 60,000 migrants in the territory on Thursday and Friday sparked a humanitarian crisis and reignited the immigration debate in Europe and beyond, though most of the migrants soon went back.

Critics of Spain’s socialist government, notably right and far-right politicians, seized upon the dramatic images of crowds storming into Ceuta, which sits on the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and has been a Spanish possession since 1580. Spain’s migration policy has focused on granting legal status to workers lacking authorization who entered the country before 2026 to boost its economy, in contrast with the anti-migration and pro-deportation policies promoted across much of the EU and in the U.S.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez slammed the reaction of some EU leaders to the events in Ceuta, saying calls for Spain to be suspended from the EU's borderless Schengen zone were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.” Despite the Ceuta crisis, Spain in recent years has had fewer illegal migrants cross into the country than Mediterranean neighbors Italy and Greece.

On Saturday morning, a handful of migrants who swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal beach were met by soldiers who escorted them across the border.

“We are relentless against those who break the law,” Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists.

Asked how the breach could have happened given the heavy security on both sides of the border and whether Morocco posed a threat to Ceuta, Marlaska defended the government in Rabat.

“The events require an evaluation by Spain and Morocco,” he said. But it was the cooperation with its neighbors that allowed Spain “to revert the situation in 24 hours.”

“Morocco is not a threat to Ceuta, or to the rest of Spain. It is a reliable partner,” Marlaska said.

EU leaders call for coordinated response

Other European Union countries called for urgent talks and a coordinated response to the situation in Ceuta.

“We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalization of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible. That a migrant’s illegal entry can turn into legal stay,” a letter to top EU officials, released Saturday by the Danish prime minister’s office, said. “Such a perception would encourage further attempts, undermine confidence in our common migration policy and have repercussions for all Member States.”

Leaders of Italy, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden signed the letter asking the EU’s current Irish presidency to convene a videoconference of interior ministers.

Sánchez also asked for a videoconference of EU interior ministers to “enable us to establish a common response to situations of this kind and reaffirm that the security of our external borders is a shared responsibility of all Member States, and not only of those on the Union’s front line.”

Italy has threatened to suspend the open-border Schengen agreement with Spain and was reimposing border controls for people arriving from Spain by air and sea. Ceuta is not part of the Schengen area, however, and border checks are carried out when traveling from the exclave to continental Spain or other European countries in the Schengen zone.

“In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction,” Sánchez wrote in his letter.

Migrants head back into Morocco

Hundreds of migrants continued to make their way back to Morocco on Saturday. Hungry and angry, some barefoot or shirtless and others nursing visible injuries, they said they were leaving Ceuta after what they described as degrading treatment on the Spanish side of the border.

Migrants walked along a long stretch of wave breakers before slipping into Morocco through a small breach in the border fence. Most of the migrants were Moroccans, while a smaller number were from sub-Saharan Africa.

“I decided to come back on my own,” said Ouail Lamzeiz. “I spent eight days in Ceuta, and I was about to get a bed at the migrant center, but I hadn’t eaten for days. Even the Moroccans there didn’t help,” he added, showing a document supporting his account.

Migrants said they spent their nights sleeping in the forests around Ceuta because they could not find shelter, and that they often fought over food.

Othmane El Merzoug asked passersby for a phone call so he could reach his family and ask them to send money for the journey back to his hometown, about 189 miles (305 kilometers) from the border.

Life along the border was disrupted

Along Ceuta’s Tarajal beach, sunbathers largely ignored the streams of migrants walking toward the border.

Ceuta resident Mohamed Abdelatif, 21, said the border rush had ruptured the city's peace.

“The reality is, it’s not good,” Abdelatif said, before wading into the water with his girlfriend.

To reach Ceuta, on the northern African coast, migrants often swim from the Moroccan town of Fnideq, covering about 3 miles (5 kilometers) to reach Spanish territory. In response to the influx, Spain deployed its armed forces and additional police in Ceuta. On the Moroccan side, security forces clashed with migrants. Authorities used water cannons, tear gas and warning shots to try to turn back migrants.

On Saturday, the road linking Fnideq to the border crossing bore the scars of the unrest. Burned-out vehicles sat along the roadside, while the acrid smell of smoke still hung in the air. Water cannons remained stationed nearby.

“Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident,” said Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas. “The return of people has begun satisfactorily, but the process must be completed.”

Some migrants remain determined to stay

But some who made it to Ceuta say they do not intend to go back. Among them was Mohamed Hatri, a 23-year-old Moroccan.

“They’ve closed everything down so that we can’t buy anything to eat, to force us to return to our country,” he said, adding that he and others were determined to stay “whether we’re hungry or not." —— Oubachir reported from Fnideq, Morocco. Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

Kelsey Mitchell also had 26 points for the Fever (19-10), who have won nine of their last 11 and had five straight games with 100 points.

Bridget Carleton had 26 points for the Fire (11-18), who have lost four straight.

The Fever pulled away in the third quarter, going up by 18 points to lead 90-72 heading into the fourth quarter. Makayla Timpson hit a layup that pushed the lead to 10 points to open the fourth.

Portland closed the gap, pulling to 98-88 on Carleton's 3-pointer with 4:08 left. She had a layup that made it 100-93 to get the Fire even closer. Clark hit free throws to make it 110-96 with just a minute to go and the Fire ran out of time.

There was a pregame rally outside of the Moda Center in support of Sophie Cunningham and her recent comments about barring transgender athletes from women's and girls' sports. A similar rally was held before the Fever's 105-94 victory at the Seattle Storm on Tuesday.

Cunningham was booed by the Moda Center crowd when she came into the game midway though the first quarter. Shortly thereafter, she hit a 3-pointer that put the Fever up 14-8. Cunningham finished with 13 points.

Megan DiLeo 3-pointer put the Fire up 36-30 but the Fever clawed back a 56-47 lead at the half. Clark led the Fever with 17 first-half points.

The game was a sellout with a Fire-record 19,959 in attendance.

Up next

Fever: At Minnesota on Sunday.

Fire: Host Los Angeles on Sunday.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The Manchester low-rise is home to “No. 10 North,” the flagship of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to be a different kind of U.K. leader. Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester before vaulting back into national politics, and one of his first acts was to set up a branch office in the city. It’s both symbol of and engine for his pledge to give local leaders more powers and spread economic growth around the country.

Burnham calls it “a North Pole that balances the South Pole" of Westminster politics in London. Critics have called it a gimmick.

It’s certainly a novelty. While past British leaders have spent weekends in their local constituencies, or at the prime minister’s official Chequers country retreat, none in living memory has had a large-scale office outside London. Burnham plans to work there at least one day a week, alongside a full-time staff of aides, experts and civil servants.

“It’s not another office," Burnham said Friday. "It is a fundamental change to the way the country thinks about growth and investment."

The king of the north goes nationwide

Burnham believes Manchester holds the key to avoiding the fate of Keir Starmer, his predecessor as Labour Party leader and prime minister.

Starmer stepped down in July after two years in office, following missteps, policy U-turns and his failure to get Britain’s sluggish economy growing.

During nine years as Manchester mayor, Burnham was praised standing up to central government on behalf of a proud, battle-scarred northern city that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution, movements for social change and a dynamic music scene. He gained the nickname King of the North for his championing of the city — and his political ambition.

Burnham promoted what has been called “Manchesterism,” a form of business-friendly socialism that involves harnessing private investment for major projects and decentralizing government to give communities more control over housing, transport, training and public services.

The city center boomed during his mayoralty. Skyscrapers sprouted from vacant lots, service industries grew, a thousand coffee shops bloomed and a municipally run network of bright yellow buses and trams crisscrossed the city.

Now Burnham wants to replicate the approach across the country, using No. 10 North as the engine room for redistributing wealth and economic opportunities to areas blighted by shuttered industries, lost jobs and an exodus of young people.

In a first step, Burnham announced Friday that mayors will get to keep a greater share of income and business tax revenue from their areas, calling it the “biggest transfer of power, funding and responsibility from Westminster in a generation.”

Many of the details haven’t been announced, however, including how much new money mayors will be getting.

Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said Burnham’s bold early moves suggest “he does mean business in terms of changing the overall mechanics of government.”

“We have one of the most centralized countries out of all developed democracies in terms of how much money and decision-making power gets hoovered into the center, how little there is for the provinces to do,” Ford said. “He does seem quite determined to change that, but that’s a huge job.”

Burnham's critics point out that Manchester’s boom hasn't spread to all its outskirts, and the anti-immigration party Reform UK has been a beneficiary of voters’ discontent.

Supporters welcome the government’s northern tilt

It’s envisioned that No. 10 North will eventually get a brand-new headquarters as part of an inner-city redevelopment project. For now, it shares a building with a chain pub, a civic register office and a branch of the cyberintelligence agency GCHQ.

It’s very different to cramped, stuffy 10 Downing St, a 350-year-old townhouse awkwardly converted into the hub of a government that has grown too big for it.

Supporters say No. 10 North is already a breath of fresh air. Rose Marley, chief executive of Cooperatives UK, an umbrella group for member-owned businesses, felt the difference when she was invited to a meeting there.

“It was so refreshing that it wasn’t us having to travel to London all the time,” she said. “Westminster might start realizing how bad the trains are and how much it costs when they have to come back the other way.”

Marley, who advised Burnham when he was mayor, likens the impact to when the BBC moved production of some programs to Salford in Greater Manchester.

“For the first time ever, the likes of me were asked onto the BBC sofa,” she said. “It meant voices like mine started to appear on the sofa and a diversity of thinking started to be heard.

“The voices that are furthest away from what you’re saying and what you believe, that’s when you need to listen the most," she said. "Westminster really does need to listen to all the parts of the country.”

Burnham urged to look beyond Manchester

Most Mancunians are proud of their city, and many support the idea of it getting more control over its own affairs.

“I think it makes sense,” said Sam Turner, a nursing lecturer. “Because the north is very different to the south, there are different house values, there’s different land values, with different salaries.”

But Ford says Burnham will need to show that he is giving power to all parts of the country, not just Manchester.

“You could go to Liverpool down the road, or Leeds, or Sheffield and they’ll say, ‘Well, you know, an office in Manchester isn’t necessarily an office for us,’” Ford said. “So that’s an argument he still has to win.”

Lesley Lebbon, visiting Manchester from Newmarket in eastern England, said No. 10 North is “a start,” but that other regions need attention, too. She’d like to see “more No. 10s, maybe an East and a West No. 10.”

Still, “I like the idea of what No. 10 North represents,” she said. “I think any progress has got to be better than no progress.”

Dozens and often hundreds of immigrants' cases a day are being assigned to individual judges in courthouses across the country, in what are known as “mega” master hearings, which have seen a significant increase this year. More than 1,300 such hearings were held in June alone, a nearly threefold jump from the previous June, according to data analyzed by Mobile Pathways, a nonprofit that tracks immigration court data to help immigrants, their lawyers and other organizations.

At the same time, the data shows, courts have severely cut the length of time many people are getting to prepare for complex immigration proceedings, from about six months to often just a little more than a month.

They're subsequently missing hearings, receiving deportation orders and being told they've abandoned any asylum claims at unprecedented rates.

“The combination of collapsed lead times and packed hearing blocks is a schedule designed for people not to have their case heard,” said Bartlomiej Skorupa, chief operating officer of Mobile Pathways. “The data shows valid claims are closed before being adjudicated.”

Those who favor stricter immigration laws see the swift hearings as a course-correction for a longstanding problem.

“There’s no credibility in the system that never reaches an end,” Andrew Arthur, a fellow at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said.

Still, he worries that these rapid-fire hearings could affect judges’ performance.

“You don’t want to put so many cases on that the judges get burned out or that there’s a danger of denying due process to anybody,” Arthur said.

The Justice Department office that handles immigration courts said in a statement that judges were adjusting their schedules to resolve cases more quickly, while making sure all cases get handled fairly and lawfully. It said court delays harm immigrants who have valid claims, and that the public interest is served when the government deports people without legal grounds to stay.

Immigration courts are overwhelmed

Attending immigration court in Harlingen, Texas, on days where there are mega master hearings can mean waiting outside in the hot, crowded entrance for over an hour until the lobby can accommodate the next wave of people. Adults with cases often are accompanied by relatives and attorneys, and detained children are brought in with shelter case managers and legal advocates.

The courts call it a “mega” day when a judge has more than 50 cases scheduled. Although the practice is not new, it became much more frequent starting in mid-May.

On a recent day, about 90 cases were scheduled with Immigration Judge Delia Gonzalez. More than 20 people did not show up, but even so she ran out of time to hear each case and rescheduled a handful of people who had waited more than eight hours.

“There’s a real limit to how many cases a judge can hear with any care in one morning,” said former immigration judge Elizabeth Young. “When you cram that many hearings into a single docket, you’re working through a list, not holding court.”

Some immigrants requested more time before their next hearings, presenting evidence of having been defrauded by unscrupulous attorneys profiled in local news reports. Others without any attorney asked for more time to figure out the proper evidence filing procedures.

A Colombian man who submitted more than 1,500 pages as evidence in his asylum claim said he still wanted to obtain more documentation from members of the military, businesses and politicians back home.

Gonzalez declined the requests. Most cases lasted less than five minutes.

There is no leeway for no-shows

That same day in West Valley City, Utah, Immigration Judge Brock Taylor was assigned 159 cases. By noon, Taylor recited a dozen names of people from Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela who failed to show up. Without elaborating, he said each was properly notified of their hearing date and failed to appear. He ordered them removed from the United States and they would have no right to appeal.

In Chicago, attorney Peter Meinecke, a lawyer for the Resurrection Project, which runs a legal clinic for immigrants, said one of his clients was issued a removal order when he couldn’t attend a mega master hearing across the country in Seattle after a vehicle accident fractured both of his legs and confined him to a wheelchair.

At the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025, about 20% of people missed scheduled immigration court hearings nationwide, according to Mobile Pathways. As hearing notice times shrunk, that no-show rate doubled to 40% by this June, the organization said. A nonprofit group that tracks and analyzes immigration court data and gives that information to immigrants and other organizations.

Deportation orders have risen alongside the no-show rates. Almost 33,000 deportation orders were issued in January 2025. This June, there were about 79,000, according to Mobile Pathways' data. And once a deportation order is issued, an immigrant’s asylum claim is almost always considered “abandoned.”

The national rate of cases considered abandoned is now nearly five times the historical average dating back to 2009; in New York and Chicago specifically, it’s roughly six times higher, according to Mobile Pathways.

“That’s a recipe for disaster, because more people are going to be ordered removed in absentia who truly have a valid case,” said Katie Fleming, a director at Acacia Center for Justice, a network of legal service providers.

Some people have even been issued deportation orders while they were inside the building that houses the Chicago immigration court, but confused about where to go and how to get help, according to Alex McGriff, an attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center, which runs a legal help desk there.

“The court ordered them removed despite the fact that they were not absent,” McGriff said.

The backlog is shrinking, but caseloads are not

Advocates for stricter immigration policies call the strategy a time-saver.

“It really is economizing the judge’s time,” said Arthur, the Center for Immigration Studies fellow. “It is increasing the number of final orders that are going out, so that’s decreasing the backlog entirely.”

The backlog, which grew significantly under the Biden administration, has decreased for the first time in at least 10 years. The number of pending cases with the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, decreased from 3.7 to 3.5 million in fiscal year 2025 and continued to drop this year.

“It can be a tough job when you’re doing it at scale,” Arthur said.

Attorneys representing immigrants have similar challenges keeping up as their own caseloads intensify.

Jaime Diez, a veteran immigration attorney based in Brownsville, Texas, recently had almost 20 cases called in one day, nearly 10 times his previously normal pace.

“Due process is being thrown out of the window,” Diez said standing outside the courtroom with a six-inch thick file for one client. “It’s very worrisome, I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”

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Mayes-Osterman reported from Chicago and is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed from West Valley City, Utah.

Suddenly, the 2-year-old blue heeler mix wanted nothing to do with Brian’s textured brown skin or furiously rattling tail. Ripley was never in danger because Brian had his venom glands removed years ago.

Dog trainer J.J. Belcher of Sublime Canine in Tucson, Arizona, said the single shock delivered one recent morning from an electronic training collar should be sufficient to keep Ripley away from venomous snakes that can sicken or even kill a dog. Belcher said Ripley can come back in a year for a free training session to make sure the lesson stuck.

Ripley’s owners, Amber Schneider and Wendy Timm, said they opted for the training because the dog regularly hunts small animals.

“We have an acre of natural desert and respect all the snakes, but she’s very curious about wildlife,” said Timm. “We are doing this because we want to keep our dog safe.”

How common are dog-snake interactions?

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says as many as 150,000 dogs are bitten by venomous snakes each year in the United States. In the rattlesnake hot spot of Arizona, emergency veterinarian Dr. Sarah Carotenuto says the Veterinary Specialty Center of Tucson treats four to six dogs daily for rattlesnake bites, along with an occasional cat.

Training programs to protect canines from poisonous snakes are offered around the U.S., especially in the Western deserts, woods and grasslands that are home to western diamondbacks. The snakes can reach over 5 feet long (1.5 meters) and strike in less than a second when they feel threatened.

There are also classes from Illinois to Florida to guard animals against eastern diamondbacks, timber rattlers and other venomous snakes.

Carotenuto said the snakebite survival rate for pets is 94% with quick treatment, which can cost thousands of dollars depending on how much antivenom and hospitalization is needed.

“Do bring us your dog quickly, but please don’t bring us the snake!” emphasized Carotenuto. Some people have brought in the guilty snake, but it’s unnecessary to identify the exact species before administering antivenom effective against all kinds of rattlers.

Which method is best?

Carotenuto, who teaches at the University of Arizona’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said she’s participating in a research study there into whether rattlesnake-aversion training works, and which method is most effective.

Like Belcher, most trainers insist that the use of the electronic collar is necessary to ensure a dog will avoid poisonous snakes.

“It’s a very fast and effective form of training,” said Belcher, who has traveled around the Western U.S. for more than two decades teaching rattlesnake avoidance to thousands of pet and working dogs, including search-and-rescue animals and the occasional police dog.

He acknowledged the growing debate about the use of electronic training collars, a method that the American Humane Society has opposed as cruel.

The ASPCA doesn’t explicitly oppose electronic collars, but insists they be used correctly.

“This type of training can be highly effective — however, we recommend that such training be conducted only under the guidance of a trainer knowledgeable in the principles of avoidance learning,” said Pamela Reid, vice president of ASPCA's behavioral sciences team.

“It is imperative to weigh the dog’s risk of a snakebite against the potential fallout from using an electronic collar,” she said.

Training a dog to come reliably when it’s called and to “leave it” when it is interested in something dangerous “can go a long way toward keeping a dog safe,” she said.

Belcher said he has developed an alternative positive-reinforcement program for clients who are squeamish about electronic collars, but nobody has wanted to pay the $2,500 he would charge for the multiple sessions. A single visit with the collar costs $125.

Another trainer, Mike Parmley in Salt Lake City, teaches as many as 500 dogs every year, usually in small classes of four to six. He uses an electronic collar set on a low level, emphasizing, “You don’t have to shock the hell out of the dog.”

He aims to help dogs steer clear of the Salt Lake area's Great Basin rattlesnakes.

“They are a pretty big problem up here in the foothills,” said Parmley, who owns Barley’s Canine Recreation Center. “They came out a lot earlier this year because of a trend of warmer weather, and we had more than 100 dogs signed up by early June.”

Other steps to prevent encounters with snakes

Here are some tips from trainers and veterinarians for protecting your dog:

— Learn about snakes in your area. Venomous snakes exist across the U.S., with various rattler species not only in the West but as far east as New York and North Carolina.

— Clear your yard of long grass and other foliage or debris that can attract small rodents hunted by snakes. Trimming back growth can eliminate hiding places.

— Stay on well-worn trails while hiking and keep your dog on a leash.

— Don’t let your guard down even if your dog has had avoidance training. A viper can surprise and attack a person or pet without warning.

— Seek emergency care immediately if your dog is bitten because the venom will move quickly through its body, destroying tissue.

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For more AP pet stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/pets

The president likes to vilify high rates as an affront to the size and strength of the U.S. economy, saying that America deserves the cheapest borrowing costs in the world. Trump for months publicly pressured the Federal Reserve to slash its benchmark rates, claiming it would be “Rocket Fuel!” for growth and make housing more affordable.

But since the war in Iran began at the end of February, borrowing money has become more expensive, meaning fewer families can afford mortgages or auto loans. The government is getting squeezed, too — as it has spent $827 billion so far this fiscal year to service the national debt, more than it has devoted to national defense.

The scope of the problem became clear this past week when Kevin Warsh, the Fed's new chair picked by Trump, said in his second press conference on the job that inflation continues to run hot but offered no clear guidance on how to fix the problem.

Interest rates are rising, even though Trump pledged they would fall

Rates on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit their highest levels in nearly two decades, the exact opposite of what Trump had pledged to voters. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note saw its interest rate shoot up above 4.7% on Friday, surpassing what the president inherited when he returned to the White House last year.

But Trump has largely ignored the jump in interest rates and has portrayed the economy as booming, even though the government recently reported that the annual growth rate for the prior three months was a sluggish 1.5%.

“We have the most successful environment that we’ve ever had,” Trump told his Cabinet on Friday. “There’s never been anything like it from the standpoint of investment into our country.”

Neither Trump nor his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, discussed interest rates during the public portion of the meeting. But White House spokesman Kush Desai said the end of the Iran war would ultimately reduce energy costs and allow the Fed to reduce rates. “Oil prices — and thus overall inflation — will plummet again when President Trump forces a successful resolution with Iran, further paving the way for additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve,” Desai said.

Higher interest rates are weighing on voters ahead of the midterm elections

The prospect of higher borrowing costs has become troublesome for Republicans in the November elections, as Trump’s own policies helped drive the increase.

His tariffs that began last year caused rates to jump so quickly that he backed off and reformulated them. Trump has championed the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence, but the bonds financing those projects appear to have helped push up interest rates. And the war in Iran has fueled rising oil prices.

Republicans had hoped to show clear progress on affordability to voters ahead of the midterms. Trump can point to a low unemployment rate and solid consumer spending as proof that the economy remains stable, yet there are few signs that these arguments have connected with the public.

One possible reason why Trump's economic messaging has struggled is that voters care more about whether their incomes are outpacing inflation, according to research released in June by Georgetown University's Juan Felipe Riaño and the University of California, Berkeley's Francesco Trebbi.

Trump and Republicans not only promised lower interest rates in the 2024 elections, but they indicated that prices could fall outright if their policies were in place. But over the last 12 months, inflation has nearly kept pace with hourly wage gains — and that understates the extent of the problem because debt service costs are not included in the consumer price index.

“It cut against Democrats in 2024, and if prices and borrowing costs keep outrunning wages into the fall, the same logic points at Republicans now,” Riaño, the Georgetown University economist, told the AP.

Housing affordability has been a sore point for voters

Earlier this year, the Trump administration directed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two mortgage firms under government conservatorship, to buy at least $200 billion in home loans to bring down mortgage rates.

Earlier this year, Republicans had hoped to campaign on falling rates and a bipartisan bill to increase home construction to help defend their House and Senate majorities. One GOP lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy, said the hope was that Trump would sign the bill as mortgage rates fell below 6%, which could improve housing affordability and public sentiment toward the overall economy.

However, Trump called the bill a “big yawn” and allowed it to become law without his signature. And the mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday that 30-year rates were averaging 6.66%, essentially unchanged from a year ago.

Markets don't expect interest rates to drop before the election

Warsh, the Fed chair since May, has said he has been content to let the financial markets do more to set the rates, rather than the central bank. Even though the Fed has held its benchmark rate steady this year, the markets on their own have chosen to charge a premium for holding U.S. government debt.

“Markets reflect the higher inflation, policy uncertainty,” said John Silvia, the CEO of Dynamic Economic Strategy. “They are the product of events.”

Warsh on Wednesday portrayed that as a positive, even if the result goes against what Trump expected from his new Fed chair.

“Market participants are learning to play the ball, not the referee — and market prices will continue to respond in the direction and magnitude they see fit,” Warsh said. “This is, in my view, a change for the better — and we are just getting started.”

But time might not be on Trump's side for fixing high interest rates. The next Fed meeting on rates will conclude on Sept. 16. Markets currently expect Fed officials to vote to raise rates in order to reduce inflationary pressures, according to CME FedWatch.

Cunningham made the comments before the Fever's game Friday night against the Portland Fire. Outside, a group rallied for the second straight game in support of Cunningham and her recent comments about transgender athletes.

“I think at the end of the day, I come in and I do my job,” Cunningham said. "I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me. I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn’t even cross my mind. Doesn’t cross my teammates’ minds.

“And again, I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me, and I’m not gonna like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”

Portland's rally came after a similar rally for Cunningham earlier in the week before the Fever's game at the Seattle Storm. Both rallies only attracted about two dozen participants and a bevy of onlookers.

“I have honestly had nothing to do with them,” Cunningham said. “I think it’s people just practicing their rights of freedom of speech and doing what other fans have been doing since the WNBA has started. And so props to them, props to everyone who is able to be competent and be bold and courageous enough to to speak their truths.”

Another rally was planned for Sunday in Minneapolis when the Fever play the Minnesota Lynx.

In Seattle on Tuesday, two Cunningham supporters sat courtside at Climate Change Arena holding signs. A co-owner of the Storm, Celeste Keaton was later fined an undisclosed amount and suspended for five games by the WNBA for an exchange with the two supporters.

The Storm also apologized for the incident, but did not provide details about the exchange, releasing a statement that said: “We remain committed to creating a welcoming and respectful environment for anyone who attends a Storm game.”

The Seattle rally promoted statewide ballot initiative, IL26-638, that would bar transgender students from participating in girls’ athletics at Washington schools. It also praised Cunningham, who voiced support for barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports in recent interviews.

“I am here to be a cheerleader for Sophie Cunningham, who has so bravely put her head above the parapet to protect women and girls in our sports and in our locker rooms,” said Amy Souza, who was among those at the Portland rally. “I was an organizer of this event, I was a co-organizer of the Seattle event. I’m also here, standing in solidarity with those teen girls who, unfortunately, were harassed when they were just trying to be fans of the sport, fans of Sophie Cunningham.”

Cunningham was booed by the Moda Center crowd in Portland when she entered the game midway though the first quarter. Many waved small pink, blue and white transgender flags.

The Fever downed the Fire 112-98 for their fifth straight win. Cunningham finished with 13 points and Caitlin Clark had her fourth career triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Coach Stephanie White said she was concerned that the controversy was distracting from the team's play.

“You know there is a frustration, of course, because we want to we want to talk about basketball and we want to continue to work on our game and we want to continue to grow as a team.,” White said. “But I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league, right? It’s part of our growth as a league, and we have to to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The strikes follow a major Russian attack two days earlier that killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 50 others across Ukraine, as Moscow apparently looks to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses. The relentless cycle of attacks dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

Deaths and damage across Kyiv

A five-story residential building in the city's Solomianskyi District was damaged by falling debris and a fire broke out. Rescue workers evacuated 35 people from the upper floors of the building and two people died, with eight reported injured, including two children, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.

In the Darnytskyi District of Kyiv, seven people were killed and another 14 injured after the attack caused fires and damage to houses, vehicles, an administrative and non-residential building, the emergency services said.

Elsewhere, emergency workers extinguished a fire in a non-residential building in the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district. There was no additional information about earlier reports by the district mayor that people were trapped in another residential building.

Damage to commercial and residential buildings was reported in two other city districts.

Lithuania’s foreign minister said the country’s embassy in Kyiv was damaged when missiles struck nearby overnight.

Russia’s defense ministry said Saturday it had launched a “massive strike” against “Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities and logistics centers in Kyiv.”

Zelenskyy presses for more air defense

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the United States and other Western partners over Ukraine’s need for more Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense systems to counter missile attacks from Russia.

“Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties,” he wrote on X following the latest attacks.

The Ukrainian leader late Friday said he spoke to U.S. Vice President JD Vance and discussed a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this week in Washington, which Zelenskyy described as “positive and productive.”

“The Russian air strikes on our country continue and air defense, specifically interceptors for Patriot systems against ballistic missiles, remains a top priority,” Zelenskyy said Friday in a post on Telegram.

At a NATO summit in Ankara in July, Trump said the U.S. would give Ukraine a license to make Patriot systems, but he appeared to move away from that commitment on Friday during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, saying he had not yet made a final decision on the matter.

Resident describes more frequent attacks

From a basement shelter where she was taking cover as a second air alarm sounded for another wave, Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, described how she was woken by loud explosions at 1:30 a.m.

“I ran into the corridor and was standing there when the bathroom door was blown off its hinges and struck me in the leg,” said Nakonechna, whose health is poor after undergoing cancer treatment. “I heard the sound of shattering glass. My balcony was covered in glass and it was completely blown apart, while the windows in my bedroom were also blown out.”

Nakonechna had not taken cover in a shelter since Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, but the stress became too much, she said.

“It’s getting worse by the day,” Nakonechna said. “Whereas before there was an attack once every two weeks, or maybe once a week, now it happens practically every day. It is incredibly hard to bear this psychologically.”

In other developments

— A Russian airstrike killed one person and wounded five more in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, local officials said Saturday.

— In Russian-occupied Crimea, the Moscow-appointed head of the city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Saturday that a 60-year-old woman was killed and two other people wounded in a drone attack on the city.

— Ukrainian drones struck three Russian oil refineries overnight in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, Zelenskyy said Saturday. The refineries “process millions of tons of oil each year” and are located nearly 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on social media.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported Saturday that a Ukrainian drone set an oil refinery in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, ablaze. Local officials said debris from a downed drone caused “smoke” at an unnamed “industrial zone.”

Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities for months. The operation has brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin more than four years after Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor.

— A sanctioned Russian container ship, the Yanina, sank in the Black Sea after being hit by Ukrainian drones, Zelenskyy said Saturday, listing the ship as among “facilities that sustain the war effort.”

Russia’s state nuclear energy company, Rosatom, whose shipping subsidiary FESCO operates the vessel, said the ship was carrying “civilian goods” such as frozen food and construction materials.

School presidents from both conferences voted to back the bill after receiving last-minute concessions over language regarding third-party name-image-likeness deals and the so-called “associated entities” that often broker those arrangements between players and schools.

More details need to be worked out, but the headline is that the bill still has a chance to earn the 60 votes it needs to halt debate and head to an up-or-down vote before the Senate heads for summer break next Friday.

The summer recess is increasingly looking like an intractable deadline for the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan effort headed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

After the conferences, which had balked at large sections of the bill, put out a short release announcing they supported the act “as currently drafted,” Cruz put out a short statement on social media thanking the leagues and saying: “Let's save college sports.” And Cantwell said: “Good. Now progress can be made in protecting women and Olympic athletes and moving the legislation closer to the President’s desk.”

President Donald Trump, who has also been seeking fixes for an industry that now pays its players millions, got involved late Thursday, which helped push the parties back to the negotiating table.

Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech regent who has played a big role in shaping this policy, called the SEC and Big Ten support “ a major breakthrough that moves us closer to a Senate vote — and a better future” for college sports.

Increased salary cap, new language entice holdout leagues

The most groundbreaking part of the reworked deal is the $27.5 million that schools would be allotted to retain players, in addition to the $21.3 million cap that already exists.

It could represent a major reworking of the House settlement — the groundbreaking agreement that governs paying players. The idea is that the extra money will take the place of payments from “associated entities” that were allowed above and beyond the $21.3 million cap. It was those payments that, many schools complained, obliterated any idea of a cap or controlled cost.

The SEC and Big Ten sought stronger language in the bill to guarantee that any third-party deals are truly outside deals and not coming from the schools’ multimedia-rights partners, which currently arrange the majority of those deals.

Among the questions still unanswered are whether the new cap will comport with the House settlement, which had very specific instructions about the hard cap (22% of a certain part of athletic department revenues, which equals $21.3 million this season).

Also, what would happen to the College Sports Commission, the main NIL enforcement arm that spends the bulk of its time analyzing third-party NIL deals that would be greatly reduced under this arrangement?

Even with a victory, a long road remains for bill

Even with Friday night’s victory, the bill has a long road ahead. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has been a staunch opponent of the bill since the beginning. Before the latest compromise, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said that “as written today,” the act “creates chaos and eliminates opportunity for student-athletes.”

Whether the SEC’s approval is enough to get those senators and others from SEC states on board is one issue. If the bill clears the Senate, it would still then need to pass the narrowly divided House, which flailed on another college bill called the SCORE Act, for more than a year.

There’s also the matter of whether smaller conferences, long in favor of the bill, would remain so now that their bigger competition is being allowed to directly pay players more than double what was previously allowed.

Compromise comes on a day where NCAA loses two more court rulings

Almost everyone involved in college sports agrees that the status quo isn’t working.

The news broke only hours after the NCAA lost a pair of key court cases involving its new rule that would give most Division I athletes five years to complete five seasons of eligibility.

Using those losses as another chance to urge for passage of the bill, NCAA President Charlie Baker said “It is long past time leaders across college sports call for the immediate passage of the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act.”

Two-time national champion hoops coach Dan Hurley of UConn used social media to outline the stakes in more colorful terms: “Somebody please come and fix College Sports. It’s a complete (expletive) show,” he said, using an emoji where the expletive would go.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver, expected to be appealed, undercuts the NCAA's plan to have the so-called “five for five” rule go into play starting with athletes who enroll in college in fall 2027.

It also has potential to wreak havoc on rosters across the country — for instance, opening the possibility that an undrafted player in an NFL training camp could decide to try to head back to college for a fifth year this upcoming season.

In granting the preliminary injunction, Sweeney said the players “will suffer irreparable harm without” it. She did not sign onto the governing body’s argument that applying the new rule retroactively would create “roster chaos.”

But NCAA President Charlie Baker said it would in responding to the rulings while referencing a bill in Congress designed to provide the NCAA antitrust protection on the eligibility issues.

“Today's rulings and the chaos they bring to college sports are exactly why it's time to pass this bill,” Baker said.

The Colorado ruling came hours after a Tennessee court granted Jalen Washington, who most recently played at Vanderbilt, and 18 other basketball players a fifth season of eligibility.

In June, the NCAA approved its new eligibility model for Division I athletes that will allow five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

While the ruling in Tennessee applied to those 19 basketball players, the one in Colorado cast a wider net, granting the class certification the plaintiffs sought. It means the ruling applies to all Division I players who started their college careers in the 2022-23 season, not just a select list.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Bader has been out since late May dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The team said the injury got worse following the accident early Sunday morning in San Francisco.

“Over the weekend, Harrison Bader was involved in an accident that has delayed Harrison’s prior treatment timeline for plantar fasciitis and, unfortunately, his return to the field,” Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey said in a statement Friday. "We are still investigating the circumstances of the accident, but will be suspending payment to Harrison until he is able to resume performing services for the club.”

Bader signed a two-year, $20.5 million contract with the Giants before this season that includes a $4.5 million base salary for this season. He is owed $1.42 million for the remainder of the season.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Bader was involved in a vehicle collision while riding his scooter around 2 a.m. Sunday morning in San Francisco's Marina District. He was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The 32-year-old Bader was batting .170 with five homers, 14 RBIs and a .557 OPS in 30 games before going on the injured list.

This isn't the first time Bader has gotten into trouble in a scooter accident. He was suspended in college at Florida in 2014 after he hit a curb and ran into a truck while driving a motorized scooter, according to a report from the Gainesville Sun. He was unresponsive on the ground and, according to the incident report cited, smelled of alcohol.

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

El exmandatario salió en un auto plateado vestido de terno azul y dijo en una desordenada y breve declaración a la prensa que “yo, mi familia y el Partido Nacionalista (el nombre de su partido político) hemos sido víctimas de una persecución política y judicial; el 15 de abril de 2025 fui secuestrado por el Estado”.

El Tribunal Constitucional indicó que Humala fue condenado en 2025 por lavado de activos en la modalidad de receptación patrimonial, una conducta que recién fue sancionada desde 2016 y que castiga a quien recibe o posee bienes de origen delictivo con conocimiento o posibilidad de conocer su procedencia ilícita.

La máxima instancia constitucional usó el mismo razonamiento por el que hace nueve meses ordenó el archivo de otra pesquisa contra la actual presidenta, Keiko Fujimori, que fue investigada por el mismo delito y para quien la fiscalía pedía 35 años de cárcel. A Humala y Fujimori se les acusaba de haber recibido dinero ilícito para sus respectivas campañas presidenciales de 2011 y 2016.

La noche del 15 de abril de 2025 la Corte Superior Nacional condenó a 15 años de prisión a Humala y a su esposa, Nadine Heredia. Humala se presentó a la Corte y, tras la sentencia, fue rodeado de policías y encarcelado de inmediato. Su esposa no asistió y se asiló en Brasil junto al hijo de 15 años de la pareja.

Humala fue enviado a una cárcel construida para expresidentes. En la actualidad alberga a Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) condenado a 20 años por lavado de activos, Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020) sentenciado por corrupción a 14 años y Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) condenado a 11 años por conspiración para una rebelión.

La Corte Superior sostuvo que Humala y su esposa recibieron 3,6 millones de dólares de Odebrecht y del gobierno del entonces presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez (1999-2013). La pareja realizó actos para ocultar el origen del dinero, incluido el uso de más de 100 personas —varias de modestos recursos— presentados como aportantes. Algunos incluso se enteraron que fueron aportantes cuando fueron requeridos por la justicia.

Humala y su esposa estuvieron presos de forma preventiva entre 2017 y 2018 a pedido de la fiscalía para evitar una posible fuga. Keiko Fujimori también estuvo encarcelada por más de 16 meses durante la investigación de su caso en periodos que abarcaron parte de 2018, 2019 y 2020.

En septiembre de 2025, el abogado de Humala, Wilfredo Pedraza, dijo a The Associated Press que el expresidente —militar retirado de 64 años— dedicaba sus días en prisión a revisar su proceso judicial, correr en el patio y entrenar con un equipo básico de gimnasio.

The British designer was creative director at Christian Dior for nearly 15 years, the very pinnacle of the fashion world, before he made a series of antisemitic and racist comments in 2010 and 2011 that went viral, leading to his conviction in an antisemitism trial. Dropped by Dior, he spent several years involved in public and private efforts to rehabilitate.

He made a comeback in 2014 when he was hired by Paris fashion house Maison Margiela, where he remained for a decade.

Now, he'll become only the third living designer to be the subject of a solo show at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Long a red carpet favorite for his flamboyant, even fantastical style, Galliano and his creations should make for an intensely watched carpet at next May’s Met Gala — which every year launches the spring exhibit at the Costume Institute.

Not surprisingly, the museum is taking pains to emphasize that the exhibit will not shy away from the problematic aspects of Galliano’s history.

“Alongside Galliano’s extraordinary creative accomplishments, the exhibition will address the derogatory conduct that fundamentally altered his career and public reception,” said a statement issued by the museum on Friday. “In doing so, the exhibition will consider how artistic achievement should be understood alongside ethical accountability.”

The show’s main curator, Andrew Bolton, who curates nearly all the Met’s big fashion exhibits, noted that the exhibit “considers both how Galliano has remapped the world through fashion and how his conduct, its consequences, and changing cultural values have reshaped our understanding of his work.”

Even so, organizers had to tread carefully when planning the show. Preparation included meetings with Jewish community leaders in New York to gauge their feelings, the museum said, confirming a report in The New York Times. Those meetings included Bolton, Galliano and Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor who masterminds the Met Gala every year.

The show will be organized into three parts, the museum said.

The first, “Bearings," will “directly address the rupture caused by his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label and his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity, or origin," the museum said. It will also deal with his treatment for substance addiction and later public acknowledgment of his actions.

The second, “Horizons,” will examine the designer's sources of inspiration — such as history, geography, art, storytelling and performance. And the third, “Atlas of Transformation,” will focus on "Galliano’s creativity, craftsmanship, experimentation, and technical innovation," the museum said.

The 2024 documentary “High & Low — John Galliano” suggests Galliano was overworked and abusing alcohol and drugs when he made a series of antisemitic and racist comments in 2010 and 2011. A video of him saying “I love Hitler" in a bar went viral.

The Times quoted Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, as saying of the planned show: “We believe John Galliano has genuinely worked through the issues that led to his antisemitic outburst years ago in Paris, and we have long since accepted his apology."

"His efforts to repair the damage his words caused and to learn from that incident should be applauded.”

The show, John Galliano: Horizons, will run from May 9, 2027, through Jan. 9, 2028.

Petro aterrizó en horas de la tarde y en su agenda se incorporó una reunión con su homólogo cubano en la Plaza de la Revolución, aunque no se ofrecieron más detalles. La Cancillería cubana indicó que el líder colombiano volvería a Bogotá el sábado.

Petro defendió el viernes su visita a Cuba y resaltó el apoyo dado por la isla en los esfuerzos de paz en Colombia.

“Quiero desde Cuba oponerme a una guerra en el Caribe”, expresó el mandatario colombiano en X. “Ahora se habla de invasiones y misiles en la isla de Cuba que ha educado 2.000 médicos y médicas colombianas, que ayudó (al entonces presidente Juan Manuel) Santos a hacer la paz en Colombia con las FARC y que salvó centenares de miles de personas en el mundo con su vacuna anticovid”.

“Ni los misiles, ni la invasión ni el bloqueo son soluciones dentro de los problemas de la humanidad”, agregó el líder colombiano.

Petro comparó en abril el bloqueo económico hacia Cuba con un “genocidio” que podría “matar un pueblo de hambre”, por lo que abogó por una solución basada en el diálogo. La isla sostiene un fuerte programa de cooperación para la formación de colombianos, sobre todo en medicina.

Al iniciar su mandato en 2022, Petro dio un giro en las relaciones con Cuba al estrecharlas después que su antecesor Iván Duque (2018-2022) apoyara la inclusión de Cuba en la lista de estados patrocinadores del terrorismo en 2021, cuando Estados Unidos acusó a la isla de refugiar a “terroristas”, incluyendo a miembros de la guerrilla Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) que sostenían conversaciones con representantes de la propia administración colombiana.

En la pasada década, la isla fue sede durante cuatro años de las conversaciones de paz y actuó de intermediaria para un acuerdo entre las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) y el gobierno de ese país que llegaron a buen término y que ahora destacó Petro en sus comentarios en X.

Se espera que la relación se tense nuevamente con la llegada al poder el 7 de agosto del presidente electo de Colombia, el conservador Abelardo de la Espriella, apoyado por el presidente Donald Trump y quien anunció que romperá relaciones con Cuba y Nicaragua al considerar que son “tiranías”.

Esta semana, el gobierno cubano lamentó la decisión de De la Espriella porque dijo que “subordina” la política del país a las exigencias de Washington.

Esta será la tercera ocasión en que Petro viaje a Cuba como mandatario. Los dos viajes anteriores fueron en junio de 2023 cuando llegó para el cierre de un ciclo de diálogos con el ELN, y en septiembre del mismo año, para asistir a una Cumbre de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno del Grupo G77 + China.

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La corresponsal en Colombia, Astrid Suárez, contribuyó con este reporte.

“It was kind of motivating as a kid to watch it because even though there wasn’t a platform for us to play professional baseball when I was growing up, playing Little League and youth baseball, like there was a vision that there could be,” Schroder said. “And we’re here now.”

They sure are.

The inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League begins on Saturday — weather permitting, with rain in the forecast — when Denae Benites and the New York Heights face Mo’ne Davis and the Los Angeles Queens. The other two teams in the league — the Boston Hunters and San Francisco Firebells — play on Sunday.

Each team will have 15 active players for the seven-inning games. The 15 regular-season games for each club and the playoffs will be held at Springfield's Robin Roberts Stadium, a historic ballpark that has a seating capacity of 5,200 and opened in 1925.

“What excites me most is having the chance to compete against players who have been my teammate, as well as Team USA players, and other athletes I’ve always considered rivals,” Japanese right-hander Ayami Sato, one of Los Angeles' top pitchers, said Friday through a translator. “Being able to play against them in this league is something I’ve been really looking forward to.”

The opening weekend of the WPBL marks another major moment in a scattered history for women's professional baseball in the United States. The AAGPBL, which ran from 1943-54, was the first professional women’s league in the U.S. There were at least two attempts to start a league in the 1990s, but each one was short-lived.

The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who became the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Athletics in 2015. And its players, taking the field in an era of unprecedented popularity for women's sports, have big dreams.

The fledgling league got a lift Thursday when it announced a media rights deal with ESPN and the Scripps Sports Network to air regular-season and postseason games in its inaugural campaign.

“We want to make this thing last forever and ever,” Los Angeles infielder Ashton Lansdell said. “We want this to become the MLB of women’s baseball.”

Lansdell, Benites, Schroder and Kelsie Whitmore were named team captains on Friday. Schroder plays for Boston, and Whitmore was selected by San Francisco with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

“We were talking earlier today, I was telling them we’re a family now,” Whitmore said. “This is our new team, this is our crew, all 15 of us. And my goal is just to lead them the best way that I can, both on and off the field.”

Whitmore and the Firebells will be managed by Matt Williams, a five-time All-Star during his 17 years in the major leagues. Former Boston Red Sox closer Keith Foulke is the manager of the Hunters, and former big league infielder Eric Young is the skipper for the Queens. Rachelle “Rocky” Henley, a former player with a long history in women's baseball development, rounds out the managers with the Heights.

With only 15 active players for each team, the managers and their coaching staffs are going to be busy as they execute their strategy for each game.

“When I saw them play down in (Florida) this spring, it was like, ‘Wow. These aren’t women playing baseball, these are athletes playing baseball,’” Foulke said. “And I just want to bring that passion to my club, to the league, help build this and just be able to go out there and have a good time, put on a good product.”

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This story corrects Ayami Sato's team to Los Angeles.

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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Infantino’s decision came after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a statement early Saturday. “Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family, but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday's announcement.

UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions over Infantino’s plan on Thursday. North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro said in a statement, just hours after FIFA insisted: “Nobody is selling football.”

Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino's lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour, a longtime colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and European soccer body UEFA, wrote. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The next FIFA competition is the Women’s Under-20 World Cup starting Sept. 5 in Poland — which UEFA members said they would boycott.

The misstep could prove costly for Infantino, particularly after the interventions by Lamour and Cordeiro.

Reelected unopposed in 2019 and 2023, Infantino is allowed one more four-year term under FIFA statutes. The deadline for the next presidential contest is Nov. 18, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.

Infantino's job seemed secured despite long-term unease with his style and previous attempts to force through unpopular projects, but could become more tenuous with the failed private equity proposal.

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AP Sports Writer John Marshall contributed from Phoenix.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Despite survival rates steadily improving in the U.S., nearly 125,000 people are expected to die from lung cancer this year alone, making it the deadliest cancer.

Over the past five years, the lung cancer survival rate has increased by 26%, but the disease remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among both women and men.

“We still have a ways to go to draw the right awareness around this very deadly and morbid disease,” said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association.

A new national survey by the American Lung Association reveals a critical gap. Only about one-third of those surveyed were aware that quick, low-dose CT scans are available for people at the highest risk of developing the disease.

That’s a growing concern, as catching lung cancer early significantly raises the odds of survival.

“It’s a little challenging to see that it’s so underused and so underutilized,” Galiatsatos said.

Those considered high risk and eligible for screening include smokers between the ages of 50 and 80 with a 20 pack-year smoking history — such as smoking one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years — as well as former heavy smokers who quit within the past 15 years.

“We have a good deal of patients who are very not forthcoming to their doctors to say that they actively still smoke, because they don’t want to be judged or shamed,” Galiatsatos said.

Experts say smoking stigma is part of the problem. They also note that lung cancer screening is relatively new, having only been recommended since 2013. The scan does not require an IV or contrast and takes less than a minute to complete.

“It probably takes longer to fill out the forms for the lung cancer screening than it does to actually get the test done,” Galiatsatos said.

While lung cancer screening is currently only recommended for current or former smokers, experts say more people who have never smoked are being diagnosed with the disease.

They say talking to a doctor about your risk factors is important, including whether you have a family history of lung cancer or have received radiation therapy for other cancers.

I’Ashea Myles of the Davidson County Chancery Court issued a temporary injunction to Jalen Washington and 18 other players to retain their eligibility.

“Defendant shall recognize Plaintiffs as eligible for the 2026–2027 basketball season and shall not deny or impede their recruitment, transfer, or certification on the basis of the challenged eligibility determination,” Myles wrote in her 33-page ruling.

A few hours later, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney in Colorado granted a preliminary injunction giving student-athletes from the high school Class of 2022 another year of eligibility for the upcoming school year. Former Minnesota basketball player Cade Tyson was among the 12 athletes named in the Colorado case.

Sweeney ruled that the injunction should cover the entire class of 2022 high school graduates facing similar circumstances.

Myles, who heard motion arguments July 22, also ordered that the transfer portal open at noon Monday until 8 a.m. on Aug. 10 for any player wanting to enter and schools wanting to reach out.

The NCAA referred The Associated Press to a statement from President Charlie Baker on X on proposed legislation to regulate college sports. Baker called the “chaos” from Friday's rulings are why it's “long past time” leaders in college sports call for the immediate passage of the Protect College Sports Act.

“Failed professionals will continue to use college sports as a fallback option — robbing the next class of young athletes of college scholarships," Baker said.

On June 23, the NCAA approved a new eligibility model for Division I athletes that will allow five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

Washington, who played last season at Vanderbilt, was the lead plaintiff in the complaint filed July 6 by the Texas Trial Group seeking the injunction. Others include Chendall Weaver, last at Texas; A.J. Storr, Mississippi; Jason Edwards, Providence; Daniel Egbuniwe, St. Bonaventure; and Zachary Davis, Memphis.

“On the eve of congressional consideration of the Protect College Sports Act, the NCAA points to its inevitable judicial losses as evidence that Congress should grant it broader legal protections,” the Texas Trial Group said in a statement to The Associated Press.

"The timing is difficult to ignore. First create the litigation. Then point to the litigation as the reason judicial oversight should be curtailed. No one should be surprised to learn that Mr. Baker is a career politician paid millions of dollars a year to essentially running a lobbying campaign under the guise of a `voluntary association.'”

Myles wrote in her 33-page ruling granting the injunction that “the NCAA has not applied the challenged eligibility rules uniformly among similarly situated student-athletes" with a pattern of extending years of eligibility to “certain groups of players.”

She noted a waiver for the 2025-26 season for those who played at least one season at a junior college or NAIA school, and Myles wrote each plaintiff played against students who got waivers to play additional seasons or attended junior colleges.

The chancellor's order also enjoined the NCAA from enforcing its rule of restitution against the athletes and colleges they play for this season.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

“I was thinking 55,” he said.

Young cooled off with two birdies on his back nine in a bogey-free round, closing with a Detroit Golf Club-record tying 61 to reach 10 under for the tournament to tie Patrick Cantlay (66) and Patrick Fishburn (66) atop the leaderboard Friday.

“You hate to call it a disappointing 61,” he said, lamenting missing many birdie opportunities that preventing him from breaking Jim Furyk's record 58 that has stood for a decade.

Young, the No. 3 player in the world with three wins this season, shot a 59 in 2024 at the Travelers Championship and had a chance to join Furyk with multiple sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour.

“It felt like I had a 10-footer for birdie on pretty much every hole,” Young said.

A lot of players took advantage of one of the easiest courses on the PGA Tour.

Matt Wallace (64) and Rickie Fowler (68) were two shots back.

Fowler surged into the lead — briefly — at 11 under before falling back to the pack. He three-putted from 24 feet to bogey No. 11 and went from thigh-high fescue to a greenside bunker at No. 13, leading to his second of three bogeys on the back nine.

“Nice to finish with birdie on 18,” said Fowler, whose sixth and last win was the 2023 Rocket Classic. “A lot of good stuff today and nice to be in a good spot for the weekend.”

First-round leader Peter Malnati, who followed up his 61 on Thursday with a 71, was another stroke back in a large group that included Xander Schauffele (66).

Hideki Matsuyama (68) extended the PGA Tour’s longest active cuts streak to 30 by getting to 5 under with a slew of players, including Tony Finau (67), who is hoping to improve his positioning to be among the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings after next week's Wyndham Championship.

“I check it pretty much every tournament just kind of see where I’m at, even on off weeks,” said Finau, the 2022 Rocket Classic champion, who entered the tournament No. 87 in the standings.

Matt Kuchar was another stroke back, getting a boost from his seventh career ace with a 9-iron on the 156-yard, par-3 5th hole. Kuchar invited a kid to join him inside the ropes to retrieve the ball, which he signed with a black marker.

“I saw a little boy that was kind of the right age where you know they’re so excited to be out here, just very impressionable,” Kuchar said. “One of those things where it’s easy to make their day. I think anytime you get to make a kid’s day, it makes your day.”

The Rocket Classic, which is in its eighth and final year, drew a stronger than usual field and some notable names missed the cut at 3 under.

U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (74) was 5 over. Chris Gotterup, a three-time winner this year and ranked No. 7 in the world, was 1 over to end his streak of making the cut in 14 straight starts. Akshay Bhatia (71) — No. 12 in FedEx Cup standings — also dropped out at 1 under.

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

There's no lesson learned more vital than this: Cool first, transport second.

Almost an hour and a half passed from when Stringer exited a blocking drill during training camp and arrived by ambulance at a hospital with a core body temperature of 108.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Though he was moved to an air-conditioned trailer by the practice field that morning in Mankato, Minnesota, the lack of effective diagnosis and treatment by the team's medical staff during that time made his outlook all the more dire. About 15 hours after he collapsed, Stringer was pronounced dead, the only known NFL player to die from exertional heat stroke.

“I’ve been an expert witness in 85 court cases of people dying from heat stroke, and in every single one the person didn’t need to die if they were properly treated and cooled,” said Douglas Casa, the executive director of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut that was established in 2010 as part of the settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit his family brought against the league. “With a $150 tub of ice and water, these people would still be alive.”

Casa got connected with Stringer's widow, Kelci Stringer, and agent, Jimmy Gould, through the litigation. The professor of kinesiology had a personal interest in the subject of heat safety, from his own brush with death at age 16 while running a 10-kilometer race at the Empire State Games in New York.

Casa collapsed on the final lap with 200 meters remaining, got back up and fell again with about 80 meters to go. He was unconscious for two hours.

Fortunately, a quick-thinking physician placed him in a cold water immersion tub. Though that came after he was taken to a hospital, the effective on-site care he received from an athletic trainer and in the ambulance from emergency medical technicians gave him a fighting chance to survive.

“If Korey had gone in a cold immersion tub, we would not be chatting right now,” Casa said in a recent interview. “He would’ve had dinner with his teammates that night.”

Casa, who is on the NFL's general medical committee, regularly advises the league on player safety matters. The mandatory presence of cold tubs near the practice fields for every team, one of many protocols enhanced in the 25 years since Stringer's death, can be traced to the work that's been done in his honor.

“When I tell Korey’s story, it takes it from such a sad, morbid place to a place of such action,” Kelci Stringer said. “It’s better to be proactive than reactive.”

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

The onetime Republican lawmaker from New York said he settled with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission to “put this matter behind him,” noting that he did not admit to doing anything wrong.

“He chose a prompt, practical resolution, rather than protracted, costly litigation, and that choice should not be mistaken for admission of any wrongdoing, because it is not one,” Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray said in a statement Santos shared on X.

The commission said Friday’s settlement represents the more than $17,000 Santos earned from the unlawful trading as well as a fine of $17,500. The agency also imposed a three-year trading ban on Santos.

Kalshi, which had reported Santos to regulators, said it will also pursue its own enforcement action and work to reimburse traders if monetary penalties are recovered.

Leading up to Trump's February speech, Santos had talked frequently about his plans to be in the crowd. But minutes into the speech, he posted on X to say that he had been waylaid at the airport and couldn’t make it to Capitol Hill.

Social media users called him out, noting that Kalshi had put the odds of Santos attending the address at close to 75%.

Santos shrugged off the complaints at the time.

“I guess people lost money,” he said on his podcast in March. “Some people made unexpected money. That’s to show you how fragile these markets are.”

But the federal probe into the Kalshi trading prompted rival online prediction platform Polymarket to cut ties with Santos in June.

Santos’ lawyer, in his statement Friday, said his client had a “genuine intention” to attend the State of the Union, even booking a hotel and plane ticket before a winter storm scuttled the plans.

“Mr. Santos concealed neither his intention to attend, nor his change of plans to not attend the SOTU, from anyone," Murray said. “There was absolutely no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market."

Santos, who is set to appear on Fox’s reality contest “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” this fall, shot to political fame after winning a seat representing parts of the New York City borough of Queens and Long Island.

But his bogus life story of being a wealthy Wall Street player with a college degree and other accomplishments quickly unraveled.

Santos was eventually expelled from Congress and charged with federal wire fraud and identity theft charges as investigators probed how he funded his campaign. He pleaded guilty and served less than three months of a more than seven-year sentence before Trump granted him clemency last year.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo.

But there’s something else that people are selling: medicines.

In 2021, due to a severe lack of medicine, the government allowed Cubans to bring pretty much as much medicine as they wanted into the country, but legally, they cannot sell it. The police turn a blind eye.

“I have a heart condition. I am on a heart transplant protocol. My medication has not come in anymore,” Havana resident Eulises Darias said. “Where do I have to buy it? On the black market, at exorbitant prices.”

That is set to change.

On Wednesday, the Cuban government announced that the private sector will soon be able to open its own pharmacies.

“There need to be more medications in the pharmacy so people do not have to buy them on the street,” Havana resident Yudisleisis Garbey said.

Shelves in many pharmacies are completely barren. But it didn’t used to be like that.

Up until 2020, pharmacies in Cuba had most of the medicines people needed and they were sold at affordable prices that regular people could afford.

“All our lives, the state accustomed us to buying medications at the pharmacy at a low price,” Havana resident Iván Miray said.

Then came the pandemic and also maximum-pressure U.S. sanctions that bankrupted the country.

The Cuban government says that state pharmacies won’t shutter; they’re going to coexist with private sector pharmacies.

Hopefully, that will mean that regular Cubans have more access to medicine.

The Cabinet meeting, the 13th such gathering of Trump’s second term, came just three months before the November midterm elections that could serve as a check on his power if Democrats take control of one or both chambers of Congress. His warnings about Spain echoed language he used ahead of the 2018 midterms, when he warned of caravans of migrants headed to the southern U.S. border.

“You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people,” Trump said. “And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected. Except worse, much bigger.”

Some 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s tiny Ceuta territory over the past 24 hours. Roughly half of them have already made their way back voluntarily, according to the Spanish government, but at least 57 have died on the journey.

Separately, he deflected blame for a series of cyberattacks that targeted 30 water systems in Minnesota on the state’s “grossly incompetent” Democratic leadership. Officials have not publicly identified who was behind the attacks, though the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical infrastructure sectors.

“They blame it on Iran,” Trump said, without offering evidence. “I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent.”

The president regularly convenes his Cabinet throughout his terms as a setting to promote his administration’s policies while fielding questions on the news of the day, but what made Friday’s unusual was that it was at Camp David, the government-owned retreat nestled in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains where Trump held one Cabinet meeting during his first term.

Trump began the meeting by noting it was “something very unique.” The White House called it the first-ever televised Cabinet meeting from the presidential retreat.

“It’s Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room,” Trump said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the Cabinet officials who spoke before Trump took questions from journalists. The public portion of the meeting ended after about an hour.

Trump fields questions on Iran, Hamas deal and Blanche confirmation

In the lengthy question-and-answer session, Trump commented on the latest developments regarding the war in Iran and a deal he announced Thursday that would lead to the disarmament of the Palestinian group Hamas. He also lamented that a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate his allies was “dead” and appeared to back off a pledge he made earlier this month to grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot air defense systems.

“I don’t think this would ever happen, but, you know, there’s people that, you give that technology, they can someday turn on you,” Trump added. “You look at war, that’s happened a couple of times over the years, right? So we have to be very careful.”

On the Hamas agreement, Trump acknowledged that the agreement that would also lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza will have “ups and downs.” Still, he called it a “great breakthrough” that has been helped along by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, which has served as Hamas’ prime backer.

Trump also remarked on the anti-weaponization fund that is holding up the confirmation of Todd Blanche as his attorney general, saying the pot of money is “dead” and that “I wish it weren’t, to be honest with you.”

The president continued to defend the people who could potentially benefit from the fund, mainly those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over him.

“Their families have been ruined,” Trump said. Those people “wanted to go to a rally or an event and ended up spending the rest of their lives in horror.”

Trump said Blanche has been a “pawn in this whole thing.” Blanche, who was present, did not speak in the public portion of the Cabinet meeting.

Camp David has been a retreat for presidents since FDR

The camp’s primary purpose is to provide presidents a place to rest, relax and recharge. It was established in 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency and has been used by every president since.

Roosevelt had enjoyed relaxing aboard a presidential yacht, but the military and the U.S. Secret Service began to worry about his safety on open water during World War II. As a result, Roosevelt asked the National Park Service to find sites within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the White House that he could use for rest.

He chose what is now known as Camp David. He gave it the original name of Shangri-La, from James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon.” President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, after his grandson and father.

Trump spent more weekends at the retreat in his first term but has visited sparingly in his second, most recently in June for Father’s Day.

In 2019, during his first term, Trump announced on social media that he had canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders — scheduled for just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — after a bombing in the capital of Kabul killed a dozen people, including a U.S. soldier.

Presidents throughout history have turned to Camp David when they needed security and privacy for sensitive diplomatic talks with foreign leaders. Jimmy Carter took the leaders of Egypt and Israel there in 1978 for talks that produced the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between the two countries.

The 180-acre (73-hectare) retreat, which is run by the Navy and guarded by Marines, has a cabin named Aspen that’s reserved for the president, plus about a dozen other cabins for guests. A main lodge has conference rooms, a dining room and an office for the president.

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Superville and Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Collin Binkley, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.

“She doesn’t deserve this,” Fischbein, 87, said. “She is so giving.”

Fischbein said she lost more than someone who worked for her.

“I lost, not a lady working for me, I lost a friend,” she said. “I don’t know if this is enough to describe why I did not sleep all night today.”

Miriam Singer, the CEO of Jewish Community Services of South Florida, said the agency had to terminate Fischbein’s aide and 17 others when their work permits expired after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the path for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals.

“So here is another level of trauma for a group of individuals that have already experienced horrific trauma in their lives and horrific loss,” Singer said. “Here is another separation from the person that they trust to care for them.”

Singer said two areas of work at Jewish Community Services included team members who were Haitian nationals with TPS, including home care services, “mostly serving Holocaust survivors and some other seniors.”

Also stripped from Haitians who were in the U.S. on TPS: deportation protections.

Attorney Lourna Rosembert-Joseph said immigration authorities can now enforce the fact that people no longer have protection.

“So let’s say ICE has a raid and they are looking for individuals, can they deport anyone that they arrest? Yes,” Rosembert-Joseph said. “Can they arrest you? They can. Because technically you don’t have a status inside the United States as of now.”

Leonie Hermantin, director of special projects at Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, said conditions have not improved in Haiti.

“Temporary is attached to the country condition,” Hermantin said. “But it is clear that in the past 10 years we have seen that, particularly in the case of Haiti, things have gotten worse — gang violence — making it unsafe to return.”

She added, “To say that it is temporary, fine, if the situation ends. But in the case of Haiti, it had not ended.”

Fearing their safety if deported to gang-riddled Haiti, some TPS Haiti advocates have told Local 10 News that families are considering a move to Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency told World News that, as of July 26, the most asylum claimants being processed at land border ports of entry this year are from Haiti, followed by the United States.

Julia Sande, an Amnesty International Canada lawyer who specializes in refugee and migrant rights, said anyone considering a move to Canada should know there are legal mechanisms that can make that move difficult.

“Under the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S., unless you qualify for one of the limited exceptions — for example, you’re an unaccompanied minor or you have a close family member in Canada — Canada says that the United States is a safe third country and will send you back to the United States and tell you to make your claim there,” Sande said.

She added, “They won’t consider your refugee claim in Canada. So the only way, really, to get around the agreement, unless you qualify for one of those limited exceptions, is to cross in between a port of entry and make a claim for refugee protection after 14 days.”

But she said that still leaves Haitian asylum seekers in a difficult position.

“The problem is that for Haitian asylum seekers, if you’ve crossed in that way — or if anyone crosses in that way — their claim is deemed ineligible to be referred to the Refugee Protection Division, the administrative body that hears claims in Canada,” Sande said. “So while Canada won’t send you back to the States, your claim becomes ineligible.

“But Haiti is on the list of countries that Canada does not deport to, and so, while that’s a good thing, you would not be facing deportation to Haiti.”

Sande said people can become stuck in “legal limbo” with no real pathway to regularize their status, which can make it “difficult to reunite with family.”

“They’re outside of the Safe Third Country Agreement if they have a close family member in Canada,” she said. “They won’t be sent back to the United States. But Canada is not going to hear their claim and because they’re not actively facing deportation, they don’t have that final sort of avenue to regularize their status.”

Sande said Amnesty International is currently challenging the Safe Third Country Agreement in Canadian court.

She said Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the constitutionality of the agreement depended on the existence of “safety valves” being available at the border for people who could face a “real risk of unfair detention if they’re sent back to the United States.”

“Canada has failed to make any sort of safety valve available at the border, and so we launched our newest challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement,” Sande said.

Sande said Amnesty International’s position has been that the agreement is unconstitutional and that Canada should withdraw from it.

“Given the Trump administration’s dismantling of the asylum system, the mass detention and deportation agenda, it’s abundantly clear that the United States is not safe for asylum seekers, and that Canada cannot be relying on the United States to discharge its legal obligations,” Sande said.

According to Canada’s Border Services Agency, the CBSA “gives serious consideration to the conditions in destination countries of removal.” If existing conditions could “endanger the lives or safety” of a person, an Administrative Deferral of Removal is imposed.

It is a temporary measure in Canada to prevent individuals from being deported to a country facing a humanitarian crisis. According to the Canadian government’s website, an Administrative Deferral of Removal is in place for certain regions and countries, including Haiti and Venezuela.

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Superintendent Howard Hepburn did not shy away from the challenges facing the district, saying enrollment is down and more schools will have to close.

“We will have to close schools again this year. We have to align ourselves to our enrollment realities and inherently align ourselves to our budget realities,” Hepburn said.

The superintendent said the district has about 50,000 vacant seats, and projections show the decline is continuing.

At the same time, Broward schools are expanding their curriculum to attract and support students.

All elementary schools will now offer at least three special courses, including art and physical education.

“These are challenging times for us financially, but we prioritize our students first and went through the budget line by line, and we did some trade-offs to make sure something like this could happen,” Hepburn said.

The district is also adding special space programs and expanding access to high-tech tools, including 3D printing and virtual reality. Technology currently available in a lab at Nova Middle School will be offered across the district.

Students using the virtual reality equipment can create 3D drawings while building skills like spatial reasoning.

Hepburn said the goal remains to provide opportunities for all students.

El superintendente Howard Hepburn no evitó hablar de los desafíos que enfrenta el distrito y dijo que la matrícula ha disminuido y que será necesario cerrar más escuelas.

“Tendremos que cerrar escuelas nuevamente este año. Tenemos que ajustarnos a la realidad de nuestra matrícula y, por ende, a la realidad de nuestro presupuesto”, dijo Hepburn.

El superintendente indicó que el distrito tiene alrededor de 50,000 cupos vacantes y que las proyecciones muestran que la disminución de la matrícula continúa.

Al mismo tiempo, las escuelas de Broward están ampliando su currículo para atraer y apoyar a los estudiantes.

Todas las escuelas primarias ofrecerán ahora al menos tres cursos especiales, incluidos arte y educación física.

“Estos son tiempos financieramente difíciles para nosotros, pero nuestra prioridad son los estudiantes. Revisamos el presupuesto partida por partida e hicimos algunos ajustes para asegurarnos de que algo como esto pudiera hacerse realidad”, dijo Hepburn.

El distrito también está incorporando programas especiales de ciencias espaciales y ampliando el acceso a herramientas de alta tecnología, incluidas impresión 3D y realidad virtual. La tecnología que actualmente está disponible en un laboratorio de la escuela secundaria Nova Middle School será ofrecida en todo el distrito.

Los estudiantes que utilizan los equipos de realidad virtual pueden crear dibujos en 3D mientras desarrollan habilidades como el razonamiento espacial.

Hepburn dijo que el objetivo sigue siendo brindar oportunidades para todos los estudiantes.

Craig won 66.3% of the votes in a runoff with Sian Astley from the anti-immigration party Reform UK.

“To those that voted for me, thank you,” Craig said after the result was declared. “And for those of you that didn’t vote for me, I will still be your mayor. I will defend this city region with every bone in my body and I will fight for a better life for all of us.”

Turnout in voting held Thursday was only 25%, the lowest in any of the four elections since the northwest England city got a directly elected mayor in 2017.

Voters were able to mark a first and second choice on their ballots. Since no candidate reached 50% of the votes in the first round, the top two competed in a runoff in which the second-preference choices of five eliminated candidates were added.

Craig is the outgoing leader of Manchester City Council, one of the 10 boroughs that make up Greater Manchester. She fell just short of getting 50% of the first-round votes, so didn’t match the performance of Burnham, who won three straight elections without ever facing a runoff.

But the decisive result is still a boost for the center-left Labour Party, which was trounced by Reform UK in elections for local council seats across Greater Manchester less than three months ago.

Labour’s rout in those local elections across England helped trigger the resignation of then- Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Burnham’s rapid rise to the prime minister’s office.

“Labour got an absolute pasting, a shellacking in those local elections,” said Rob Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester. He said Craig's rebound from that low ebb is “a really powerful moment" for the party.

Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester for nine years until he won a special election for a seat in Parliament and was selected as Labour leader after Starmer resigned. Burnham became prime minister on July 20.

Daniel Ramirez, de 47 años y residente de Lubbock, Texas, fue arrestado la mañana del viernes por el Departamento de Policía de Miami en una terminal de cruceros de Royal Caribbean en PortMiami. Enfrenta un cargo grave de agresión.

La Policía de Miami informó que el incidente ocurrió el domingo por la noche después de que la empleada sorprendiera a Ramirez “dentro de un área exclusiva para empleados consumiendo guarniciones” y le pidiera que dejara de hacerlo.

Las autoridades indicaron que Ramirez respondió: “Perra, ¿qué quieres que haga, que lo escupa?”, y ambos abandonaron el área del bar.

Sin embargo, según el informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami, el gerente de la mesera la llamó nuevamente después de que Ramirez presentara una queja.

“Según la víctima, (Ramirez) le dijo al gerente que ninguna mujer podía decirle qué hacer y que la víctima debía ser reprendida”, señala el informe de arresto.

La Policía informó que el gerente le pidió a la mesera que fingiera que estaba siendo reprendida.

Las autoridades indicaron que más tarde, después de que la víctima entró por la puerta principal para hablar con otro empleado, Ramirez “la empujó con fuerza, provocando que cayera contra un perchero metálico”.

“Como resultado de la caída, la víctima se golpeó la cabeza y se fracturó uno de los dientes frontales”, señala el informe.

La Policía informó que la víctima logró tomarle fotografías antes de que se marchara, pero cuando Ramirez “se dio cuenta de que ella lo estaba fotografiando, se dio la vuelta, le golpeó el teléfono celular de la mano, la empujó en el rostro y provocó que cayera al suelo” y perdiera el conocimiento. Luego, Ramirez huyó, según la Policía.

Según el informe, un agente del Departamento de Policía de Miami “intentó entrevistar a la familia que permanecía en la mesa con el acusado para obtener la identidad de (Ramirez)”, pero todos se negaron a cooperar o proporcionar información.

La Policía informó que, tras recibir la pista de Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers, logró identificar a Ramirez y la víctima lo reconoció en una rueda de reconocimiento.

Alrededor de las 6:40 a.m. del viernes, la Policía indicó que la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP) informó al Departamento de Policía de Miami que había detenido a Ramirez en el puerto.

Los investigadores señalaron que, al ser detenido, Ramirez “de manera espontánea manifestó que había ‘chocado con una mujer’”.

La Policía indicó que posteriormente se negó a hablar con los investigadores del Departamento de Policía de Miami.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, Ramirez permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight y, según los registros de la cárcel en línea, su fianza figuraba como “pendiente de fijarse”.

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Early voting starts Monday, and election workers spent Friday putting the finishing touches on all 23 early voting locations, including the Office of the Supervisor of Elections in Doral.

Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia said her office is focused on making the voting process smooth and efficient for voters.

“It’s five minutes, but you have to do your homework,” Garcia said. “People take long because they don’t know who their candidates are.”

Early voting will run through Aug. 16.

For specific hours and voting locations, check your county elections website or by clicking this link.

La votación anticipada comienza el lunes y los trabajadores electorales dedicaron el viernes a ultimar los preparativos en los 23 centros de votación anticipada, incluida la Oficina de la Supervisora de Elecciones en Doral.

La supervisora de Elecciones de Miami-Dade, Alina Garcia, dijo que su oficina está enfocada en hacer que el proceso de votación sea ágil y eficiente para los votantes.

“Son cinco minutos, pero hay que hacer la tarea”, dijo Garcia. “La gente se tarda porque no sabe quiénes son sus candidatos”.

La votación anticipada se extenderá hasta el 16 de agosto.

Para conocer los horarios específicos y los centros de votación, consulte el sitio web de elecciones de su condado o haga clic en este enlace.

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Daniel Ramirez, 47, of Lubbock, Texas, was taken into custody by the Miami Police Department Friday morning at a Royal Caribbean cruise terminal at PortMiami. He’s facing a felony battery charge.

Miami police said the incident happened on Sunday evening after the employee spotted Ramirez “inside an employee-only area consuming garnishes” and told him not to eat them.

Authorities said Ramirez responded, “B----, what do you want me to do, spit it out?” and both left the bar area.

However, according to an MPD arrest report, the server’s manager called her back over after Ramirez made a complaint.

“According to the victim, (Ramirez) told the manager that no woman was allowed to tell him what to do and that the victim needed to be reprimanded,” the arrest report states.

Police said the manager told the server to pretend like she was being reprimanded.

Authorities said later, after the victim went inside through the front entrance to talk to another employee, Ramirez “forcefully shoved her, causing her to fall into a metal garment rack.”

“As a result of the fall, the victim struck her (head) and chipped one of her front teeth,” the report states.

She was able to snap photos of him before he left, police said, but when Ramirez “realized she was photographing him, he turned around, struck the cellular phone out of her hand, pushed her in the face and caused her to fall to the ground” and lose consciousness. Ramirez fled, police said.

According to the report, an MPD officer “attempted to interview the family who had remained at the table with the defendant in an effort to obtain (Ramirez’s) identity,” but they all refused to cooperate or provide information.

Police said after receiving the Crime Stoppers tip, they were able to identify Ramirez and the victim picked him out of a lineup.

At around 6:40 a.m. Friday, police said U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed MPD that they apprehended Ramirez at the port.

Investigators said Ramirez, upon being apprehended, “spontaneously stated that he had ‘run into a lady.’”

Police said he later declined to speak with MPD investigators.

“I’m really thankful that he was apprehended and arrested and that he’s sitting there thinking about his actions,” the server, who has asked to remain anonymous, told Local 10 News. “It’s very disgusting ― and I wonder how he would feel if it was done to somebody in his family.”

As of Friday afternoon, Ramirez was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set” in online jail records.

The focus is a one-of-one Shohei Ohtani dual gold Logoman autograph card, now believed to be the third-highest sale ever for a sports trading card.

“It’s crazy to think we had a $10 million card sitting here in my store,” said David Davidov of Boca Sports Cards.

Davidov said collectors everywhere had been chasing the rare Ohtani card.

“Everybody was trying to pull this card, buying up hobby boxes, retail boxes,” he said.

Also searching for the card was Secure Collectibles, an investment group made up of three men who own some of the world’s rarest sports cards. The group’s collection is worth more than $32 million.

On July 25, Michael Allen of Miami and Secure Collectibles announced a $6.5 million bounty for the card.

Meanwhile, back at Boca Sports Cards, a loyal customer was opening multiple jumbo boxes.

“He was trying to chase the big card,” Davidov said. “He came and opened up boxes. He didn’t hit anything here.”

Before leaving for vacation, the customer bought one more jumbo box. Inside was the redemption card.

“I’m sitting having dinner. He FaceTimes me, he says, ‘You’re not gonna believe it,’” Davidov said. “I said, ‘Don’t tell me.’ He showed me the redemption card and it was just — I was so happy for him.”

The customer, who requested to remain anonymous, later connected with Secure Collectibles and sold the card for $11 million.

The sale makes it one of the most expensive sports cards ever sold, behind a Michael Jordan-Kobe Bryant card and a Mickey Mantle card.

“Ohtani is going to end up being the greatest player of all time for what he’s doing and continuing on doing,” Davidov said. “Will there be other cards? Probably.”

The excitement isn’t over. Davidov said the next big chase begins next week with the release of Topps Chrome Debut Basketball, featuring Cooper Flagg’s autograph and a patch from his NBA debut. He said that card could sell for more than $5 million.

Saturday will feature a sun/cloud mix with the possibility of afternoon showers and storms.

A touch of Saharan dust could reach the area on Sunday and bring a hazy hue to the sun/cloud mix. There may be spotty, morning showers, followed by scattered showers and storms during the afternoon.

Temperatures will make a run for the low and mid 90s this weekend -- factor in humidity and it will feel like 100°F+.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami Beach Police Department, Francisco Javier Lara, 55, who is a teacher from Austin, Texas, was arrested on two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.

Police said officers responded to reports of a child running in and out of traffic near 33rd Street and Pinetree Drive at about 12:15 p.m.

Officers located the pre-teen running southbound before he entered a home in the 3000 block of Pinetree Drive, where officers were able to safely secure him, authorities said.

Investigators said the boy was unable to provide much information but was able to give officers a phone number belonging to his foster father. The child was then taken to the Miami Beach Police Department while officers worked to locate his caregiver.

Using police databases and cellphone location information, detectives traced the number to Lara and determined he was staying at the Catalina Hotel on Collins Avenue, the arrest report stated.

According to the report, when detectives knocked on the hotel room door, Lara eventually answered and appeared unaware that one of the children was missing until detectives asked about his foster son’s whereabouts.

“Utilizing compassion and patience, we were able to get his name and a phone number which allowed our detectives to get a location of where his father was at,” MBPD Officer Christopher Bess told Local 10’s Rosh Lowe.

The report states that officers detected a strong odor of alcohol on Lara’s breath. When asked what time it was, he reportedly told detectives he believed it was around 7 a.m., although it was approximately 2 p.m.

Inside the hotel room, detectives also found the child’s 10-year-old nonverbal foster brother, who also has autism, authorities said.

The boy was taken to the police station along with his brother, where victim advocates provided both children with food and shoes, the report stated.

According to authorities, during a post-Miranda interview, Lara told detectives he had traveled to Miami Beach from Texas with his two foster children for a vacation and planned to return home with them Friday.

Police said Lara claimed that he had put the children to bed around 9 p.m. on Wednesday before leaving the hotel room around midnight to eat at a nearby Mexican restaurant and have several alcoholic drinks. He told detectives he consumed four to five drinks at the restaurant before going to another bar, where he had two additional alcoholic beverages, the report stated.

According to the report, Lara told investigators he returned to the hotel around 4 a.m., found both children asleep and then “passed out,” remembering nothing else until police knocked on his hotel room door later that day.

However, detectives said hotel surveillance video showed Lara returning to the hotel at 5:10 a.m., leaving again at 9:03 a.m., and returning once more at 10:29 a.m. Police said Lara told investigators he had no recollection of leaving the room again and admitted it was his fault for drinking too much and blacking out.

According to the report, surveillance footage captured the eldest boy leaving the hotel alone while Lara was out before running north on Collins Avenue.

A review of employment records confirmed Lara worked as an elementary school teacher for Miami-Dade County Public Schools last year. He now lives in Texas and was visiting Miami Beach on vacation, authorities said.

Police confirmed that both boys were handed over to the Florida Department of Children and Families as Lara was taken into custody.

As of Friday afternoon, Lara was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,000 bond.

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According to an Opa-locka Police Department arrest report, the suspect was identified as Kolei Kulani McKinney, 41, of northwest Miami-Dade. His attorney, Stephan Lopez, said McKinney is a Miami Gardens police officer and a U.S. Navy veteran.

The report states that McKinney and the victim had been in a romantic relationship for about eight months but maintained separate residences.

Investigators said the incident began around 5:45 a.m. July 17 after the couple, who were driving separately, stopped near Northwest 22nd Avenue and State Road 9 in Opa-locka following what the victim described as McKinney driving erratically.

According to the report, McKinney got into the passenger seat of the victim’s vehicle, where the two argued.

The victim told detectives McKinney said, “I can’t f---ing take this no more; I’m just going to end this s---,” before pulling a black handgun from his waistband, pointing and waving it toward the windshield," investigators said.

The report states the victim asked McKinney to put the firearm away. Instead, investigators said he threw it onto the dashboard, continued acting erratically and repeatedly struck the passenger-side dashboard.

According to the report, when the victim asked McKinney to leave her vehicle, he grabbed her by the neck with both hands and began choking her. Investigators said he then placed the handgun in the vehicle’s center console and told her, “Here, you want to end it, just f---ing end it.”

The victim told detectives she feared for her life because she did not know what McKinney intended to do after he pulled out a gun, according to the report.

Authorities said the victim reported the incident to the Miami Gardens Police Department on July 19, and an Opa-locka police officer completed the initial incident report.

According to investigators, McKinney was served with a temporary injunction on July 20. The victim later told detectives that McKinney contacted her and asked her to recant her statement and stop cooperating with the investigation, the report states.

The report also states that McKinney also contacted the victim by phone on July 22 while she was at work, prompting her to file a separate report with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department alleging he violated the temporary injunction.

Investigators noted they observed no visible injuries on the victim’s neck during an interview, and there were no known witnesses or surveillance video capturing the altercation.

Police said McKinney voluntarily surrendered at the Opa-locka Police Department on Thursday while accompanied by Lopez. He was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Jail records show McKinney is facing one count each of aggravated assault with a firearm, illegal use or display of a firearm while committing a felony and misdemeanor witness or victim tampering.

As of Friday evening, he remained jailed at TGK on a $6,000 bond.

In a statement to Local 10 News, Lopez said McKinney “vehemently denies these allegations” and alleged the claims were “manufactured by an obsessed woman” who had been stalking and harassing his client. Lopez also said McKinney previously sought, but was unable to obtain, an injunction against her for alleged stalking and harassment.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Opa-locka, el sospechoso fue identificado como Kolei Kulani McKinney, de 41 años, del noroeste de Miami-Dade. Su abogado, Stephan Lopez, dijo que McKinney es agente de la Policía de Miami Gardens y veterano de la Marina de Estados Unidos.

El informe indica que McKinney y la víctima mantenían una relación sentimental desde hacía aproximadamente ocho meses, pero vivían en residencias separadas.

Los investigadores informaron que el incidente comenzó alrededor de las 5:45 a.m. del 17 de julio, después de que la pareja, que conducía en vehículos separados, se detuvo cerca de Northwest 22nd Avenue y State Road 9, en Opa-locka, luego de que la víctima describiera que McKinney conducía de manera errática.

Según el informe, McKinney entró al asiento del pasajero del vehículo de la víctima, donde ambos comenzaron a discutir.

La víctima dijo a los detectives que McKinney expresó: “Ya no puedo soportar esta m—; simplemente voy a acabar con toda esta m—”, antes de sacar una pistola negra de la cintura, apuntarla y agitarla hacia el parabrisas, informaron los investigadores.

El informe indica que la víctima le pidió a McKinney que guardara el arma de fuego. En cambio, los investigadores señalaron que él la arrojó sobre el tablero, continuó comportándose de manera errática y golpeó repetidamente el tablero del lado del pasajero.

Según el informe, cuando la víctima le pidió a McKinney que saliera de su vehículo, él la sujetó del cuello con ambas manos y comenzó a estrangularla. Los investigadores indicaron que luego colocó la pistola en la consola central del vehículo y le dijo: “Toma, si quieres acabar con esto, hazlo de una maldita vez”.

La víctima dijo a los detectives que temió por su vida porque no sabía qué pretendía hacer McKinney después de sacar el arma, según el informe.

Las autoridades informaron que la víctima denunció el incidente al Departamento de Policía de Miami Gardens el 19 de julio y que un agente del Departamento de Policía de Opa-locka elaboró el informe inicial del caso.

Según los investigadores, McKinney recibió una orden de protección temporal el 20 de julio. Posteriormente, la víctima dijo a los detectives que McKinney la contactó y le pidió que se retractara de su declaración y dejara de cooperar con la investigación, indica el informe.

El informe también señala que McKinney contactó a la víctima por teléfono el 22 de julio mientras ella estaba en el trabajo, lo que la llevó a presentar un informe por separado ante el Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale, alegando que él violó la orden de protección temporal.

Los investigadores señalaron que no observaron lesiones visibles en el cuello de la víctima durante una entrevista y que no había testigos conocidos ni videos de vigilancia que captaran el altercado.

La Policía informó que McKinney se entregó voluntariamente el jueves en el Departamento de Policía de Opa-locka acompañado por Lopez. Fue detenido sin incidentes y trasladado al Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que McKinney enfrenta un cargo de agresión agravada con arma de fuego, un cargo por uso o exhibición ilegal de un arma de fuego durante la comisión de un delito grave y un cargo menor por manipulación de un testigo o una víctima.

Hasta la noche del viernes, permanecía detenido en el TGK con una fianza de $6,000 USD.

En un comunicado enviado a Local 10 News, Lopez dijo que McKinney “niega enérgicamente estas acusaciones” y aseguró que las denuncias fueron “fabricadas por una mujer obsesionada” que, según él, había estado acosando y hostigando a su cliente. Lopez también afirmó que McKinney intentó previamente, sin éxito, obtener una orden de protección contra ella por presunto acoso y hostigamiento.

Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing that additional documents provided by the Interior Department since the indictment of David Hearn show that the damage was the result of a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.” In addition, a recent visual inspection revealed damage throughout the pool, including in the middle — where prosecutors say a vandal would not likely have attempted to peel the lining.

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” said the filing from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, which asked a judge to formally dismiss the case.

Hearn's lawyers said in a statement that the case against him should never have been brought.

“Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology,” the lawyers said.

The dismissal marks an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark where President Donald Trump had launched a massive renovation project before the country's 250th anniversary celebrations. Trump, without providing evidence, has alleged the damage was caused by vandals.

But the case has long been saddled with evidentiary problems and challenges. Hearn has for weeks maintained his innocence and his supporters have characterized the prosecution as a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.

Earlier this week, Hearn's lawyers sought access to grand jury transcripts because of what they said were “irregularities” in the process. They said a National Park Service official testified that the pool already was damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it, couldn’t quantify any damage attributable to Hearn and said the same repairs would have been required regardless of his conduct.

“The witness’s testimony established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn,” his lawyers wrote. “According to the witness, the pool was leaking more than one million gallons of water per week; its expansion joints had exceeded their service life; and the liner already contained a rip.”

Hearn pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of property destruction and had a trial scheduled to start Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accused Hearn of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool.

In court papers Friday, prosecutors said they had only recently received new information that undermined the basis for the prosecution.

“It was not until after these documents were produced that (prosecutors) first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented” by the Interior Department. Prosecutors could “only rely,” they wrote, on the initial information suggesting that the damage was caused by vandals.

Hearn has told The Associated Press he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool, but said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.