Officials said at about 6:03 a.m., Boca Raton Fire Rescue crews responded to a vehicle crash in the southbound express lanes of I-95.

Authorities said while crews were clearing the scene, a fire truck was involved in a “serious collision.”

They said three Boca Raton firefighters were inside the truck. One was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, while two others were transported for evaluation as a precaution. The driver of the other vehicle was transported as a trauma alert to a nearby hospital, according to officials.

Authorities said the Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

Troopers said the crash happened at about 4:50 a.m. near Southwest 216th Street.

They said the driver of a Honda Civic was traveling south on the Turnpike when the driver struck a man who was standing outside a vehicle stopped on the right emergency shoulder.

The man, who has not been identified at this time, died at the scene from his injuries, according to investigators.

Authorities said the southbound lanes of the Turnpike were closed at Southwest 216th Street while authorities investigated the crash.

America's 250th birthday has been a banner year for the actors of Historic Philadelphia, Inc. who immerse visitors in Colonial history via first-person interpretations and true stories. In the last few months, Betsy, played by Carol Spacht, has waved the checkered flag at a NASCAR race, met Punxsutawney Phil the weather-predicting groundhog, and competed against the Eagles' Jordan Mailata in a karaoke contest— all to the absolute delight of crowds and social media commenters.

While the quirky requests for appearances have been fun, many of the actors also feel an almost patriotic duty to tell the story of America's founding from the place where it actually happened and from the perspective of everyday people often left out of history books.

“I got chills,” says Johanna Dunphy, artistic director for Historic Philadelphia. “I was tearing up listening to John Adams ask if anyone heard him or cared... in the place where these conversations happened. It was so moving to hear people in the audience say they still believed in this idea, and in what America could be.”

You can't have a short George Washington

Anticipating the influx of tourists, Historic Philadelphia expanded its programming — adding characters and storytellers, and increasing opportunities for visitors to interact with history in Philadelphia's Old City from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Overall, the troupe nearly doubled its cast to about 60 at the start of the season, but directors held rolling auditions throughout the year.

There are some physical requirements— you can't have a thin-faced Ben Franklin, or a short Thomas Jefferson — but engaging with the stories and audiences is the most important quality.

“Even if their face doesn’t match anyone we need, we can find someone from history they gel with," Dunphy says. “Part of our mission is to tell the stories of the underrepresented Philadelphians who played such a huge role in building our city and country. And for people of color and women, there aren’t a lot of portraits to work from, so you can be more forgiving on appearance.”

For example, the troupe added a portrayal of Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man to join the Revolutionary Army, and was the first woman to receive a pension for her service. There’s one portrait in existence, but most historians agree it is likely not an accurate portrayal— so the group has some leeway on the physical appearance of the actress playing her.

Even Betsy Ross's sewing techniques are authentic

Many of the actors started as storytellers dressed in green polo shirts and stationed at benches throughout Old City and armed with a cadre of real historical anecdotes tied to their locations.

Once they graduate to being a first-person interpreter, many play a cast of different characters depending on the need. Spacht plays the founder of the Girl Scouts, a suffragette, socialite women and Quakers in addition to Betsy Ross.

There are roughly a dozen Betsies. The group staffs the Betsy Ross House, providing actresses every day it's open to raise the flag in the morning and do actual sewing work in Ross's upholstery workshop.

Spacht trained most of the other Betsies, teaching them authentic Colonial sewing methods. When she's in costume, she keeps a period-accurate pair of sewing scissors tied to her waist by a ribbon and a stack of paper squares in her pocket. She pulls them out to tell the story of how Ross claimed to have persuaded Washington to change his design from a six-point star to a five-point star. A few folds, two quick snips, and out comes identical stars to represent the colonies.

It's that experience, the ability to stay in character without seeming hokey, that delighted spectators and made her a perfect choice to partner with Visit PA- Pennsylvania's official tourism arm — to appear at all of those quirky events throughout the year.

“The thing I take away from Betsy is her resilience,” Spacht says. “She lost two husbands by the time she was 29 and she didn't shrink back into her shell. She continues to run a business, to raise her children, to live."

Young Ben Franklin has an album dropping this fall

Many of the actors have other jobs throughout the year. Some come from several states away to participate during the prime season or on just weekends.

But even the actors who are full-time have side projects— one actor was cast in a play recently and another was hired to teach at a children's theater camp. Jackson Pavlik, who started playing Ben Franklin last year, has an album coming out this fall.

Pavlik says this has been a wild year full of unexpected bookings and experiences — mingling with baseball royalty like Derek Jeter at the MLB All Star game, for example.

“Being Ben Franklin... It's like you're Santa Claus,” Pavlik says. “Everybody treats you like they know you. They know the myth. But even in his time, Franklin was the most famous American. And you can use that when you're in character.”

It can take 500 freeze pops to get the Revolutionary Army through a summer

Thanks to Thomas Jefferson's diary, we know it was a cool 76 degrees on July 4, 1776. On the semiquincentennial, it was a less moderate 101 degrees, presenting a challenge for the actors as parades and celebrations across the country were shortened, canceled or moved inside for safety.

Dunphy says all the costumes at Historic Philadelphia are authentic down to their shoes— meaning the clothes are made from natural fibers that breathe. There's no polyester in their wardrobe.

“You'd be surprised how much that can help when it's hot,” she says. “I mean, corsets are still miserable if you're a woman.”

“But my secret weapon is to go to Costco before the season starts and buy those freezie-pops that come like 250 to a box,” she says. “I buy at least two.”

And when your cast is so dedicated that the regiment of soldiers refuse to remove their jackets even when given permission, those little tubes of flavored ice can be a lifesaver.

The group has spent decades focusing on underrepresented stories

From quirky stories about colonial-era prisoners being fed the overabundant lobsters of the time (and hating it) to accounts of a female Quaker spy hiding notes in her hair, their tales are meticulously researched and designed to pique people’s interest in history.

But as disputes about what parts of history are represented prominently at federal sites continue to roil in the courts, the group has maintained its mission of portraying diverse real characters that help people see themselves in history and in the nation’s founding. Philadelphia is appealing a federal court decision that allows the Trump Administration to remove an exhibit on slavery at the President's House in Philadelphia and replace it with an exhibit that opponents say has been whitewashed.

“There is that sort of added responsibility to tell the whole story. But in the same way … it wasn’t something that caused us to scramble because we have been doing this for 20 years,” says Jason Greenplate, the Once Upon a Nation Program Manager at Historic Philadelphia.

Greenplate says the group adds stories regularly about women, immigrants, both free and enslaved Black residents and poor people who joined the cause that became America.

Keith Henley has been portraying abolitionist and entrepreneur James Forten for more than a decade. The free Black man heard the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence when he was a boy and apprenticed as a sailmaker before serving in the Revolutionary Army.

“As historians and Americans, we know our situation seems somewhat bleak,” Henley says. “What the current administration is trying to do with American history as a whole, if we the people allow them to do that, then we have failed. So I make sure children and adults who walk away from James Forten — they will know the real story.”

The Penguin Random House imprint Crown announced Wednesday that “The Call of Freedom: Portraits of Political Prisoners and Dissidents” will be released March 9 and coincide with an exhibition of Bush's art at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. The new book will include Bush's portraits of such symbols of oppression as the late Mahsa Amini, whose death in 2022 while in the custody of Iranian authorities led to nationwide protests, and the imprisoned Nicaraguan bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos.

“The Call of Freedom,” the third collection of Bush's art, will include 44 paintings and biographical sketches of each subject. Former Soviet Union dissident Natan Sharansky is contributing a foreword.

“This book, coupled with our work at the Bush Institute, is a chance for me to send a message that the United States cares deeply about people seeking freedom,” Bush writes in the book. “And hopefully these stories will remind us that we who live in liberty have a duty to stand with those who do not.”

The book champions human rights even as Bush's own record as president has led to frequent criticism, whether the CIA’s use of waterboarding or the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Bush took up painting after leaving office in 2009. His previous books include “Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors” and “Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants.”

Temperatures at Levi’s Stadium are expected to be in the 70s, with low humidity and plenty of California sunshine. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

The Dolphins (0-1) are looking for their first win of the season against the 49ers (1-0), who are coming off a win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Local 10 viewers can also get the latest local forecast from our Weather Authority Team by clicking here and by downloading the free Local 10+ Platinum app.

Sunny, a 13-year-old Portuguese water dog the Obamas got in 2013 while living in the White House, died Tuesday.

“We got Sunny at the start of our second term in the White House, and all of us – including our first dog, Bo – immediately fell in love,” he said on social media.

He remembered Sunny as athletic, full of energy and protective of Bo. Despite Sunny's breed, she hated getting wet.

“We will miss her terribly, and imagine she’s with her big brother now, making sure he’s okay,” Obama said.

Bo died in 2021.

While many presidents have kept dogs as companions, President Donald Trump does not have any pets at the White House.

George H.W. Bush’s English springer spaniel, Millie, “wrote” the bestseller “Millie’s Book.” Bill Clinton’s chocolate Labrador retriever, Buddy, was in the family as Clinton weathered the scandal over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

George W. Bush’s Scottish terrier, Barney, had an official web page and starred in “Barneycam” videos that were filmed by a camera around his neck. Lyndon B. Johnson angered animal lovers by lifting his beagle, Him, by the ears in front of news photographers.

Harry S. Truman famously advised: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 1.2% last month after recording a revised 0.5% dip in July, according to Commerce Department data released Wednesday. Economists were anticipating a 0.7% gain for the month, according to FactSet.

The decline in July was notable because there had been few signs of fatigue from U.S. consumers. Americans spent heavily during the World Cup and Amazon Prime Day sales this summer. That followed heavy retail traffic in April and May as Americans dipped into their government tax refunds.

Even excluding business at gas stations, retail sales rose 1.1% in August, underscoring the resilience of the American consumer. The government figures aren’t adjusted for inflation.

The report showed that American consumers were spending on a wide range of goods from furniture and clothing to cars.

Business at motor vehicle and auto parts dealers rose 0.6% last month, according to the report.

Sales at clothing and accessories stores were up 0.7%, while furniture and home furnishings stores saw a 0.9% increase. Online retailers registered a 2.6% gain.

The data offers only a snapshot of consumer spending and doesn’t include activities like travel and hotel stays. But the lone services category – restaurants – also registered a solid gain.

The so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth — rose a strong 1.4% last month from the prior month.

Many Americans continue to spend despite skyrocketing gas prices that have accompanied renewed fighting in the Middle East. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose overnight to $4.37 on Wednesday, according to motor club AAA. That is about 47% more than a gallon cost before the war began, when it cost less than $3.

Diesel, which has an outsized impact because it’s used for shipping, transportation and manufacturing, has risen even faster, up 68%.

The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose 3.4% last month from a year earlier, and they’re up 0.4% from July, quadrupling the 0.1% registered in the previous month.

Still, Americans have grown more selective about what they buy, according to retailers who posted their quarterly financial results in the past few weeks, but some, like Walmart and Macy’s, are using some of their tariff refunds from the government to lower prices.

Macy’s received $116 million in tariff refunds from the government, Macy’s CEO Tony Spring said, and some of those proceeds are being used to lower prices on certain big-ticket items like furniture and fine jewelry.

Executives at the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said that retail sales have been better than expected this year.

Mark Mathews, chief economist at the NRF, also noted he’s seeing a softening of the K-shaped spending trends — the upper part of the K refers to higher-income Americans seeing their incomes and wealth rise while the bottom part points to lower-income households struggling with weaker income gains and steep prices.

“We have a consumer that’s willing to spend, and up until this point, we have had a consumer who’s been able to spend,” Mathews said. “Now looking forward that looks a little bit more challenged because if gas prices remain high, then you know you have to start questioning where the consumer is going to fund that spending growth from.”

The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.

And Trump will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to rally with Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley as the former national party chairman tries to shore up his campaign against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.

Here's the Latest:

Charlie Kirk’s family files wrongful death notice against Utah officials

Their lawyers blamed the activist’s assassination on a string of “reckless decisions” at Utah Valley University that exposed him to a rooftop sniper more than 400 feet away.

Kirk was shot while debating students in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings with about 3,000 people in attendance. An Associated Press review showed the campus did not apply some standard safety measures. Campus police staffing was far below recommended levels for a school of that size. No drone was flown to monitor rooftops, and local law enforcement wasn’t brought in to secure the event. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.

“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Kirk family attorney D. Loren Washburn wrote.

A spokesperson said the university’s “focus remains on supporting the campus community.”

Poll: Most Americans support limits on new data centers

About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, according to the new AP-NORC/EPIC poll. That includes majorities of Democrats and Republicans.

Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults support requiring data centers to use clean energy sources, the poll found, and about 7 in 10 support requiring companies that build data centers to pay for the electric grid upgrades needed to support them.

Most Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or the water supply in the communities where they are built, the poll found. Data centers are powered by tremendous amounts of electricity, raising concerns about where that energy will come from.

Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old Democrat from Waltham, Mass., told AP that she believes “decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they’re being built in.”

$177B in grants cut or frozen by Trump admin, new analysis shows

President Donald Trump’s administration has cut or frozen roughly $177 billion in federal grants since his return to the White House in 2025, according to a new tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists.

The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.

A message seeking comment was sent to the White House.

Two GOP lawmakers from battleground Iowa join in vote to halt Iran war

Four Republicans had previously voted in the House to halt the Iran war, but that number rose to seven during the latest war powers resolution vote.

GOP lawmakers from battleground Iowa, Rep. Zachary Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and retiring Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, joined GOP Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky in voting for the war powers resolution.

All Democrats also voted for the resolution to bring an end to the Iran war.

Trump to rally in North Carolina with his handpicked Senate nominee Michael Whatley

Trump will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to rally with Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley as the former national party chairman tries to shore up his campaign against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.

It's the first campaign rally for Trump since his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. The president, despite voter frustrations over the Iran war and his economic leadership, has promised dozens more trips ahead of Election Day. Trump’s involvement creates a balancing act for Republicans like Whatley, who will depend on the president’s core supporters to turn out while also trying to appeal to moderates and disaffected conservatives unhappy with the direction of the country.

Whatley was the president’s pick for the Senate race and Trump’s pick to lead the Republican National Committee before that. Republicans viewed him as a strong recruit to hold the seat being left open by Sen. Thom Tillis, who decided to retire after clashing with the president last year. But Whatley, who is making his first bid for public office, has trailed Cooper in fundraising in recent months and polling from over the summer showed Cooper with at least a slight lead.

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FBI chief Kash Patel defends hiring policy changes on bestiality at fiery hearing

FBI Director Kash Patel defended Tuesday a recent policy change to allow some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for employment, insisting that the move was made to enable victims of those acts to apply for a job without fear of automatic disqualification.

The subject arose during a fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Patel clashed with Democrats over his firing of agents who participated in investigations of Trump and suggested that agents might be dispatched to the polls on Election Day amid Justice Department and White House concerns about voter fraud.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is fulfilling its key mission -- keeping Americans safe.

The hours-long hearing featured the name-calling and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to define Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill, with Democrats characterizing the Trump appointee as unqualified, criticizing him for politically charged investigations into Trump’s enemies and highlighting travel that has included a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy in which he partied with U.S. hockey players and a snorkeling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii.

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Kennedy Center closing for renovations after judge forbids Trump’s name on building

The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.

In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.

The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.

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House votes for a third time to end the Iran war as conflict drags on

For a third time, the U.S. House has voted to end the war in Iran, approving a war powers resolution that would halt President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval.

The roll call late Tuesday, 220-204, was similar to earlier efforts this summer, with a few more Republicans joining all Democrats voting to bring an end to the conflict. None of the resolutions have made it to the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.

The action is likely the last House vote on the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections, where the conflict overseas is playing a substantial role in the political campaigns. The war that Trump launched Feb. 28 has dragged, with on-again, off-again deadly missile strikes being exchanged and causing havoc in the region for nearly seven months.

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The roll call late Tuesday, 220-204, was similar to earlier efforts this summer, with a few more Republicans joining all Democrats voting to bring an end to the conflict. None of the resolutions have made it to the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.

“Remember when Donald Trump said that this war would last just a few weeks?” said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who served as a Marine during the Iraq War and pushed the resolution forward.

He said it’s time for Congress to “actually ask tough questions, as the Constitution directs us to do, rather than be subservient to another warmongering administration.”

Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned which military resources Democrats would want to remove from the region where he said Iran remains a threat.

Mast said Trump is against “forever wars, and that is what he is ending” — the decades of hostilities from Iran.

“They are a continuous ongoing threat to the United States,” Mast said. “Enough is enough.”

Last war powers vote before the midterms

The action is likely the last House vote on the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections, where the conflict overseas is playing a substantial role in the political campaigns. The war that Trump launched Feb. 28 has dragged, with on-again, off-again deadly missile strikes being exchanged and causing havoc in the region for nearly seven months.

Lawmakers are heading home at the end of the week to campaign nearly full-time, with less than 50 days to go before the elections that will determine control of Congress as Democrats try to wrest power from Republicans.

Voters are confronting high prices, particularly for gas at the pumps, as the conflict disrupts the flow of oil resources through the vital Strait of Hormuz.

The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the war has cost more than $38 billion, as of Aug. 1, and is projected to be costing between $2 billion and $3 billion monthly, depending on the intensity of the fighting. The budget office projected inflation will be 0.5 percentage points higher than expected heading into 2027 due to the war.

Trump himself had promised not to involve the U.S. in foreign wars when he won a second term in the White House, and his actions against Iran are weighing on the Republican Party that controls the House and Senate. Most Americans say the war in Iran has not been worth fighting, according to an AP-NORC poll in July.

In the previous House actions, four Republicans voted to halt the war in Iran, but that number rose to seven in Tuesday’s war powers vote, including GOP lawmakers from battleground Iowa, Rep. Zachary Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and retiring Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

They joined GOP Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky voting in favor of the war powers resolution, with all Democrats.

War powers being put to the test

Congress has tried repeatedly to alter the trajectory of the war against Iran, but efforts to limit the Trump administration’s military action remain a longshot so long as the president is able to fend off or veto the measures.

The House first approved a war powers resolution in June, and followed up with another one in July, all seeking to halt U.S. action in Iran. The Senate on its 10th try also approved a war powers resolution to end the conflict, but GOP senators quickly reversed course the next day after Trump berated them during a closed-door lunch.

While the Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, it also gives the president authority as the commander in chief to engage in some military actions. The War Powers Act, created in the aftermath of the Vietnam conflict, sought to put a more specific time limit on the president’s power, requiring congressional approval for sustained military actions after 60 or 90 days.

House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged at a press conference Tuesday the need to bring gas prices down.

But the Republican speaker said he believes the Iran conflict is entering a “new phase” as allies step up to help stabilize the region. When that happens, he said, “you’re going to see, as the president said, anytime gas prices will go down again, the cost of groceries will as well.”

Johnson said Trump expects the shift after the election, and the speaker added, “I’d love it to happen today.”

Esta inestabilidad, señaló, la llevó a proponer un nuevo Plan Europeo contra las Olas de Calor, así como una futura flota europea de aviones para combatir incendios. Actualmente, la UE opera una pequeña flota propia, pero coordina una red de aeronaves, camiones cisterna y voluntarios que se desplazan por el bloque de 27 países a medida que se producen los incendios.

“Este verano fue el verano de la verdad. Casi ninguna parte de nuestro continente se salvó”, afirmó Von der Leyen durante su discurso anual sobre el Estado de la Unión Europea en Estrasburgo.

“Ríos clave como el Danubio, el Rin o el Garona están desapareciendo ante nuestros ojos. Más de 35.000 muertes adicionales durante las olas de calor. Residencias de ancianos y hospitales peligrosamente sobrecalentados”, añadió.

El calor extremo, que golpeó a Europa de forma excepcionalmente dura y temprana este año, parece haber provocado un aumento de muertes mucho mayor de lo esperado. No está claro de dónde proviene la cifra de 35.000 de Von der Leyen, pero triplica las estimaciones de “muertes en exceso” de grupos de monitoreo en julio.

Los incendios obligaron a cientos de miles de personas a huir de sus hogares en Francia y España, paralizaron reactores nucleares en Hungría y Francia, hicieron estallar municiones centenarias en la frontera de Bélgica con Alemania y revelaron barcos previamente perdidos hundidos en lechos de ríos, como un remolcador en Serbia.

El calor y la humedad que batieron muchos récords durante el verano no habrían sido posibles sin el cambio climático, según un estudio del grupo World Weather Attribution.

“Todo esto es apenas un anticipo. Estos fueron los meses de verano más calurosos jamás registrados, pero probablemente los más frescos de los años venideros”, advirtió Von der Leyen. “La ciencia es clara: Europa se está calentando al doble del ritmo global”.

Mientras elogiaba a quienes combatieron los incendios este verano, Von der Leyen señaló que ha pedido a los equipos de respuesta a emergencias y a altos mandos de bomberos que “piensen en grande y aprendan más rápido” para diseñar “nuevas capacidades” con las que la UE pueda afrontar la inestabilidad climática.

Cuando rindió homenaje a un piloto danés de helicóptero llamado Rune Kyndal, que murió en agosto mientras combatía incendios en Grecia, la asamblea estalló en aplausos.

"Rune dio su vida para salvar a otros y hoy toda Europa está en deuda con él”, dijo Von der Leyen.

___

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

Residents of Piddington, which has a population of about 350, voted overwhelmingly for secession in the non-binding referendum. The results announced on Wednesday showed 285 votes in favor of breaking away, with 26 villagers voting against.

“We have given an absolute message, not just to the region, not just to the country, but to the world,” said the parish chairman, Tim McNally. He said the district will henceforth be known as “the Principality of Piddington.”

The attention-grabbing vote was called to oppose plans to turn the former Ministry of Defense Bicester base — which is about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the village — into housing for male migrants. The government says the site is “designed to be largely self‑sufficient to minimize any impact on the local community.”

Residents in the Oxfordshire village have raised fears about safety, crime and the effect on house prices in the affluent area, 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

Supporters called the declaration of independence a victory for people power and local democracy. Some media coverage compared the gesture to the classic 1949 Ealing comedy film “Passport to Pimlico,” in which a London neighborhood breaks away from Britain.

Others said the campaign had a darker side and stirred up fear of newcomers. Some backers of the Piddington referendum compared their fight against the asylum accommodation to the 1940 Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany.

Villager Herbert Owen, 76, said after voting on Tuesday that the independence referendum “isn’t just about Piddington,” adding: “It means everything our grandparents, our parents fought for. Today is the Battle of Britain.”

Comparing unauthorized immigration to an invasion has become increasingly common among politicians including Nigel Farage of Reform UK, and far-right groups that have been active in organizing and attending anti-immigrant protests.

The U.K. has seen a wave of anti-immigrant demonstrations since riots erupted two years ago after a teenager killed three young girls during a dance class near Liverpool. The U.K.-born attacker had been wrongly identified on social media as a Muslim asylum seeker.

Protesters clashed with police last year outside hotels housing asylum seekers in London and several other cities.

In June, masked men in Northern Ireland set fire to several homes in Belfast they believed to house immigrants after a Sudanese man was arrested over a stabbing.

Earlier this month, masked demonstrators blocked the port of Dover, in southeast England, and tried to stop a boatload of migrants being taken ashore in Portsmouth on the country’s south coast.

The center-left Labour Party government of Prime Minister Andy Burnham says it is making progress in processing asylum claims more quickly, so that migrants spend less time in state-sponsored accommodation, and stopping people crossing the English Channel in inflatable dinghies.

More than 41,000 people made the hazardous journey in 2025, but the number so far this year is down by more than 40% from the same period last year.

The government has also pledged to move migrants from hotels and rooming houses — often in poorer neighborhoods — into more suitable accommodation.

“I understand the strength of feeling,” Burnham said on Wednesday. “I will look at the issues being raised by the community and in the referendum, but we have to ensure that we have a fair plan” that spreads the burden of accommodating new arrivals across the country.

Refugee groups said military barracks aren’t the right place to house asylum seekers, but cautioned that migrants should not be made scapegoats.

“For people who have fled war and violence and come to the U.K. to be safe, being accommodated in such remote and unsettling environments only exacerbates their sense of insecurity,” said Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council.

“And as we’ve seen from other sites, they’ve undermined social cohesion.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sent more humanitarian aid to Cuba, and it is being distributed by the non-governmental organization (NGO) associated with the Catholic Church, Caritas of Cuba.

At the same time, Rubio warned international banks and businesses not to collaborate with any Cuban business entities that have been sanctioned by the U.S.

Secretary Rubio also called for the Cuban government to change and become a democracy.

By now, we should understand that changing governments like Cuba, which have been under totalitarian control, is not easy and will take time. Especially countries like Cuba that, in their political history, have had unsustainable democratic governments.

Sept. 15: Cuba becomes a betting market for U.S. prediction markets

Cuba has become a betting market in the USA.

The betting site Polymarket shows how people in the U.S. are betting on everything from the removal of Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power to when and if the U.S. will invade Cuba or make an economic agreement with Cuba.

The last prediction is whether the U.S. will go and get indicted Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Sept. 10: Russia denies Cuba full membership in BRICS

BRICS is an organization of 11 emerging economies around the world. The organization works to influence their global importance and reshape economic governance.

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The membership includes Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Partner nations include Belarus, Cuba, Nigeria and Thailand.

The Russians turned down Cuba for full membership into the organization because of Cuba’s poor economic conditions and poor predictions by economists moving forward.

Sept. 9: Cuba and the U.S. stuck in diplomatic rhetoric

Cuba’s Brigadier General Emir Mesa Corona, who is in charge of personal security at the Ministry of Interior, sent a strong message to the U.S. not to even think of trying to kidnap Raul Castro or anyone in Cuba’s government or they will face serious consequences.

At the same time, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla admitted that backroom negotiations with the U.S. continue but the U.S. will not soften their positions. Cuba wants the economic embargo lifted while the U.S. wants regime change.

Sept. 8: Blind passion for Cuban politics leads to a political circus between Miami, Havana and DC

As a little boy growing up in Miami, I remember when every presidential candidate from both political parties would come to campaign in Miami and promised that if elected, they would work to see a “Free Cuba.” They would end their speeches with “Viva Cuba Libre.” Local politicians representing different municipalities in Miami-Dade would talk about U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba like they controlled it, and yet, they had nothing to do with it within their scope of responsibilities. But it got them the votes they needed to be elected and remain in power, while political leaders in Cuba continued to blame everything wrong on the island on the U.S. economic embargo, or as they call it, “the blockade.”

On Jan. 3, the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela with the assistance of their current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez and brought him to the U.S. to face justice. Shortly thereafter, President Donald Trump announced that Cuba would be next.

The Trump administration began to sanction Cuban organizations and individuals of the government in an attempt to squeeze them out of power. So far, they are still in power. The Cuban government began to prepare for a U.S. invasion. To this date, it has not happened and probably never will.

On May 20, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Raul Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996 in a theater-like political rally at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. So far nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen. There is no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba. A week ago, many media outlets across Miami reported, based on sources from inside the island, that Raul Castro was gravely ill. This past weekend, Raul reappeared surrounded by Cuba’s military elite.

Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the three Cuban-American members of Congress from South Florida had announced that by the end of 2026, Cuba would fall. Now it has been pushed back to 2029. Furthermore, Rubio recently said that the problem in dealing with Cuba is the Helms-Burton Law (Senator Jesse Helms and Richard Burton, both Republicans) that was enacted by Congress in 1996, also with the hard work of the late Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The three Cuban-American members of Congress made it clear that the goal was to return Cuba to democracy. What democracy? Cuba did not have a democratic government before Fidel Castro took power. How much do they really know about Cuban history? Or is it just a play on words and empty promises?

So as time passes each day, the Cuban-American community is beginning to ask itself, what is really going on in D.C.?

It would not surprise me that in the near future the Trump organizations would negotiate to buy the empty Melia Hotels in Cuba and put the Trump name on them. After all, we now own a big chunk of Venezuelan oil and there was no regime change as promised.

Will we ever learn? How much longer are we going to be blind by our passion?

Sept 6: Raul Castro makes public appearance

After much speculation about Cuba’s Raul Castro being close to death, the Cuban leader showed up at a military event yesterday accompanied by his grandson, Raulito, and Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Sept 3: Raul Castro stable, according to sources

Sources in Cuba say Raul Castro, 95, is stable despite reports about his declining health. According to sources, retired General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, known as “ El Fury,” is currently in worse condition. Colome Ibarra was head of the Ministry of the Interior and highly respected by the Castro brothers and the Cuban military.

Sept 3: President Trump’s hands are tied with regard to Cuba, Rubio says

After months of saying Cuba would be next, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the president’s hands are tied because of the Helms Burton Law which requires no normalization between the U.S. and Cuba unless there is regime change and a move towards a democratic government.

Even if Raul Castro was to die in the near future, I do not expect regime change.

Only the U.S. can change the Helms-Burton Law and I don’t expect that to happen anytime in the near future or after the mid-term elections.

Sept. 2: Children in Cuba start new school year amid more challenges than any other year before

Children in Cuba started the new school year Tuesday facing a lack of supplies, books, uniforms and teachers, and buildings that are falling apart, along with a lack of food to feed the children.

According to the Cuban minister of education, this will be a very challenging year unlike any others.

Cuban education was once one of the big accomplishments of the revolution. However, it was also used to indoctrinate the students in an ideology that no one on the island nation believes anymore.

Sept. 1: Raul Castro hospitalized, sources say

Reliable sources inside Cuba have informed me this afternoon that Raul Castro has been hospitalized. We need to be careful and not to over speculate what might happen until further notice.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

Authorities said Matt Pawlowski, 48, was last seen at about 9 a.m. while paddling east.

They said Pawlowski was wearing a white hat, an orange shirt and gray shorts. He was on a 14-foot lime green and yellow paddleboard.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact the United States Coast Guard Miami Sector at 305-535-4472.

#Breaking @USCG crews are searching for a missing paddleboarder, 48 YOM, last seen @ 9 am approx 4 mi off Jupiter Beach, paddling east. He was wearing a white hat, orange shirt & gray shorts on a 14 ft lime green & yellow paddleboard. Call Sector Miami w/ info: 305-535-4472 pic.twitter.com/4bMatRPmD2

— U.S. Coast Guard Southeast (@USCGSoutheast) September 14, 2026

Vitale, a veteran fashion insider who spent some 15 years at Miu Miu, joins Armani after exiting Versace after just one season.

In a statement, Armani said Vitale’s appointment marked the “beginning of a new chapter” for the brand and “opens a dialogue between innovation and identity.”

Giorgio Armani, a defining figure of Italian luxury ready-to-wear, died in September 2025 at age 91.

The designer’s niece and head of womenswear design, Silvana Armani, and longtime menswear designer Leo Dell’Orco are carrying on his creative legacy at Armani's principal collections. Emporio Armani is the line for more youthful dressers.

Vitale’s debut collection at Versace in September 2025 was a colorful, full-throttle return to the overtly sexualized Versace of the 1980s and 1990s. Vitale left the house after just one season though. Prada, parent company of Miu Miu, acquired Versace in December.

Armani’s will instructed his heirs to sell a 15% stake in the company, which includes the Emporio Armani label as well as Armani/Casa and Armani Hotels, within 18 months of his death.

“We weren’t internet kids,” King said.

Instead, nature pulled him in

“My love just grew from there and continued over the years,” he said.

That curiosity eventually led King to South Florida, where the Everglades has become both his laboratory and his classroom.

At Everglades National Park, King studies the vast ecosystem and pays close attention to even its smallest creatures.

King holds a master’s degree in environmental biology from Florida International University and has conducted extensive research on soil across the Everglades.

The ecosystem he studies is critical to South Florida. The Everglades helps provide drinking water and serves as a natural buffer that helps protect communities from flooding, he said.

But before King can explain the science, he sometimes finds himself having to break down stereotypes.

“A lot of people see me at first, and they think I’m a rapper,” King said. “When I tell them I’m a scientist, they don’t believe me because of my appearance.”

And just like his work, King’s style stands out. He often wears grills in his mouth.

“I wanted it to symbolize my research journey in marine biology and also the Everglades,” King said while pointing to the different colors and shapes on the grills in his mouth.

His scientific journey extends well beyond the park.

On social media, King goes by “Kidflamess,” where he combines education and entertainment to teach hundreds of thousands of followers about the natural world.

During a recent trip to the Everglades, a park ranger stopped to congratulate King on earning his master’s degree and thank him for his work educating the public.

“Thank you for putting people on,” the ranger told him. “You’re doing a lot to help people in the community connect with the ecosystem.”

John Kominoski, one of King’s professors at Florida International University, has watched that passion firsthand.

“He genuinely cares that people understand and get excited about what he’s excited about,” Kominoski said.

Kominoski said King is also unafraid to approach his work with curiosity and enthusiasm.

“He’s unafraid. Nothing scares him. He approaches things with his whole heart,” Kominoski said.

For King, that passion comes back to the Everglades itself.

“I love how peaceful it is, how much diversity there is in nature,” he said. “There’s so much to see and learn about the system.”

Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, is Trump's newest pick after entrepreneur and wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means saw her path forward stall in the Senate over her background and vaccine views. Trump withdrew his first nominee, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, after questions arose about her academic credentials.

Saphier will face questions from the Senate health committee for a position that carries limited policymaking power but a loud megaphone as the nation's top communicator with Americans on public health issues.

While senators may scrutinize her credentials and background, Saphier will also be in the difficult position of navigating Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s more contentious policies, including his efforts to scale back vaccine guidance when measles outbreaks around the country are alarming the medical community. Lawmakers of both parties have criticized Kennedy's stances and are likely to grill Saphier over whether she'll more fiercely advocate vaccination if confirmed.

Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website. She has a doctor of medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, the profile said.

Like Means, who is a close Kennedy ally, Saphier has questioned whether every child needs to get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, a longtime recommendation that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken. Saphier has, however, disagreed with Trump and Kennedy on some issues, telling The Associated Press last fall that Trump's cautions to pregnant women who take Tylenol were oversimplistic and “patronizing.”

Her latest ethics filing, dated Sept. 7, shows holdings with various healthcare and insurance firms, as well as processed food companies, like Coca-Cola, Yum Brands, the Hershey Co. and cigarette maker Philip Morris.

Before entering politics and throughout his tenure at the health department, Kennedy has criticized big pharmaceutical companies and insurance firms for alleged corruption and decried ultraprocessed foods as contributing to a nationwide chronic disease crisis.

Additionally, Saphier owns DropRx, a firm that produces controversial, unregulated tinctures — concentrated liquid extracts promoting focus and calm — that contain ingredients, including kava kava root, described by the FDA as potentially causing severe liver injury.

Her filing says she will resign from her position with DropRx and Empower MD LLC, which owns DropRx, if she is confirmed.

She states in the document that she would partially or fully divest from holdings that would present a conflict to serving as surgeon general.

Also facing lawmakers' questions Wednesday is Chris Klomp, chief counselor of the Health and Human Services Department, who has been nominated to serve as Kennedy's second-in-command. Also at the hearing will be Timothy Westlake, chief of staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, who is seeking confirmation to be assistant secretary for mental health and substance use.

The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.

Among the grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed were ones related to maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa, the researchers found. California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina saw the highest amounts of interrupted grant money. The tracking tool is called Lost Funds.

“By bringing thousands of funding disruptions from the Trump administration together in a publicly accessible, verified database, Lost Funds puts the magnitude of their impact on full display,” Scott Delaney, co-founder of Grant Witness, said in a statement.

The $177 billion finding represents nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending, the groups said.

The tracker’s organizers said the disrupted grants were beyond the kind of cuts that typically happen when administrations change.

“Lost Funds shows the extraordinary scale and real human impact of these disruptions, and how states are once again on the front lines protecting their residents,” said Kelly Rader, States United Democracy Center’s research director.

In some cases, courts have ruled against the administration’s grant funding cuts.

The new tool, which is being made available for public use, relies on data from USASpending.gov, an open data source of federal spending information, according to the groups’ methodology. They said the tracker would be updated regularly as the administration takes new action and lawsuits move through the courts.

States United bills itself as a nonpartisan group dedicated to the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections. It was cofounded by Norm Eisen, an attorney who has been involved in prominent lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over the Kennedy Center.

Grant Witness is a group of scientists, researchers and attorneys who document how funding is changing under President Donald Trump's administration.

A message seeking comment on the analysis was sent to the White House.

The survivors said the collapse took place at al-Zara gold mine in the town of Nuhud in West Kordofan province, which is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that have been fighting against the Sudanese military for over three years.

The Sudan Doctors Network, a medical group tracking the war in Sudan, provided the death toll and said it could increase as rescuers continued to search for people trapped under the rubble. The group said the mine — an informal site that employs unregulated workers — lacked basic safety and protective measures.

Two survivors reached by phone and the physicians network said the tragedy took place on Tuesday evening. However, the Kordofan Observatory monitoring group said the collapse was on Sunday in a group of interconnected shafts at the mine that stretched over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles).

The Observatory said at least 70 miners were killed or missing at the site, which stretches across a wide swath of fragile, sandy soil. It described the miners as unregulated and informal workers.

The discrepancy in the accounts of when the collapse happened could not be immediately reconciled.

Survivors said many people remain missing. Khairal-Sayed Gabara, one of the survivors, said the collapse was “massive,” and that machinery needed to remove the collapsed soil and rubble was not available.

“We do not have the machinery to lift dirt and stones and search for survivors at depths of more than 30 meters,” he said. “There were dozens of people working in the mine.”

Al-Amin Suliman, one of the surviving miners, said they had recovered 60 bodies as of Wednesday morning, and that “there are still people stuck inside.”

Sudan is a major gold producer but deadly mine collapses are not uncommon in the country, where safety standards are not widely applied. A 2023 collapse killed 14 miners and one in 2021 claimed 38 lives.

The collapsed mine is one of thousands of small-scale and informal mines scattered across Sudan, engulfed in a war that has at times pushed parts of the country into famine.

Large quantities of gold have been smuggled out of the country to finance the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, who control gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to experts commissioned by the United Nations.

Sudan plunged into an all-out war in April 2023 as fighting erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese military.

The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a monitoring group. Aid organizations say the figure is an undercount, and the true number could be many times higher.

The strike occurred in the Nikopol district of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, near the war's southern front line. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said that all five were killed at the scene while the seven wounded were receiving medical care.

Zelenskyy described the vehicle as a minibus and said in an X post that the strike had “no military rationale,” and that the strike was connected to Russia's targeting of logistics and critical infrastructure that has continued “unabated.”

Zelenskyy said that a passenger train was also struck in the Mykolaiv region on Wednesday, damaging a railway station and a diesel locomotive. Nearly 170 passengers on board the train were evacuated before the strike. An electric locomotive in the northwestern city of Kovel was also struck, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine requests locomotives from partners

Russian strikes on Ukraine's rail network have resulted in more than 500 locomotives being damaged or completely destroyed since the beginning of the all-out war on Feb. 24, 2022, with more than half those strikes occurring this year, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Tuesday.

Sybiha described such attacks as “systematic” and aimed at disrupting logistics across Ukraine. He said that Ukraine urgently needs replacements for damaged locomotives, and called on the country's partners to assist in finding locomotives compatible with its 1,520 millimeter rail gauge and to assist in financing.

In another post on X on Wednesday, Sybiha said that Russian forces were striking passenger trains, locomotives, stations and railway routes “knowing exactly how essential they are for civilians, evacuations and Ukraine’s economy.”

“This is not collateral damage. It is a systematic hunt for people and an attempt to (paralyze) civilian life,” he wrote.

Zelenskyy says there is no truce on halting energy strikes

In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against an earlier claim by U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to mutually cease attacks on each other's energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to enter such an agreement, if Russia stops striking Ukrainian energy facilities.

Trump said in a social media post Monday that such a truce had been reached, but didn’t offer details on the purported agreement. Previous efforts to broker even a partial ceasefire have repeatedly fallen apart within hours, with both sides accusing the other of violations.

In the CBS interview, Zelenskyy said that the possibility of an energy truce was discussed during a recent meeting in Kyiv with Trump’s representatives, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, but that he had told them: “If the Russians are ready for an energy truce, that means there will be no attacks on energy facilities at all.”

Russia decorates ship captain that fired flares at Danish helicopter

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the captain of a Russian war ship that fired two signal flares toward a Danish helicopter on Monday, drawing ire from Denmark, has been awarded with a medal for his “competent and resolute action.”

The ministry said in a statement that the Soobrazitelny corvette war ship was on a mission in neutral waters in the Baltic Sea when its crew spotted an approaching Danish military helicopter, which failed to respond to calls made via the international communication channel.

“To prevent a provocation by the Danish helicopter, the corvette commander decided to fire two red signal flares, after which the helicopter left the area where the Russian warship was located,” the ministry said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow has no aggressive intentions toward Europe, but that if countries on the continent were to launch an attack on Russia, “it would be a completely different kind of war, and a very short one.”

Russian general killed in Ukrainian drone strike

The deputy head of the Russian armed forces’ military-political department, Lt. Gen. Apti Alaudinov, confirmed Wednesday that a decorated Russian general had been killed in the occupied Donetsk region.

Alaudinov, who didn't provide details on the circumstances of Maj. Gen. Anton Grunis' death, hailed the officer as “one of the most respected generals … a real man and officer and a great patriot.”

“He has died as a hero, who has fulfilled his sacred duty,” Alaudinov said.

The confirmation of Grunis' death came after Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, alleged on Wednesday that Grunis had been killed in occupied Donetsk by a Ukrainian drone while at a command post in the village of Kindrativka.

In July, Grunis reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his troops had captured the town of Kostiantynivka and he was later awarded with the Hero of Russia medal. Ukraine has disputed that Kostiantynivka was fully taken by Russian forces.

Grunis had previously fought in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, and also took part in Russia’s campaign in Syria.

In Ukraine, he commanded the 4th Guards Motorized Infantry Brigade.

Meanwhile, 17 other sites were damaged in Ukraine’s Kyiv region between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, Tymur Tkachenko. Eight private homes, five vehicles, a municipal building, a hangar and a production facility were among the sites damaged, Tkachenko said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said on X that the Kherson, Donetsk and Poltava regions had also come under attack.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight. In the Belgorod region, one person was killed and four others were wounded by Ukrainian strikes over the last 24 hours, according to acting governor Alexander Shuvayev.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Honda’s HR-V is the little sibling to the larger CR-V and sets a benchmark for what to expect from an extra-small SUV. Kia’s Seltos is less well known but enters 2027 with a full redesign that brings more space, revamped styling and a newly available hybrid powertrain. Both are compelling options, but which one is the better buy? Edmunds put these two SUVs head-to-head to find out.

Comfort and convenience

Both the Kia Seltos and Honda HR-V make good use of their compact dimensions, offering roomy cabins with generous space in both rows. The Seltos has an especially accommodating rear seat, even for taller passengers. Easy-access child seat anchors add to its family-friendly appeal. For a small SUV like this, the Seltos also boasts a reasonably smooth ride over bumps.

The HR-V is similarly roomy, with large door openings and a comfortable seat height that make entry and exit a breeze. It also has a pretty smooth ride. But Edmunds noticed a difference in seat comfort between these two SUVs. The HR-V’s overly firm front seat cushions and lack of lumbar adjustment take a toll on long-distance comfort. If you frequently have rear passengers, the Seltos has another advantage by way of its rear air vents. You don’t get them in the HR-V.

Winner: Kia Seltos

Power and fuel economy

Neither the 158-horsepower Honda HR-V nor the 147-horsepower Kia Seltos is quick off the line. In Edmunds’ testing, the HR-V needed 10.2 seconds to get from zero to 60 mph, while the Seltos posted a 10.6-second run to 60 mph. Thankfully, you can get a Seltos with a more powerful 190-horsepower turbocharged engine that livens up the car’s acceleration. The HR-V is only available with its base engine.

Both SUVs can deliver impressive fuel economy. The EPA estimates that the HR-V will get up to 28 mpg in combined city/highway driving. The Seltos gets up to an estimated 30 mpg combined, though the available turbocharged engine drops to 26 mpg combined.

There’s not much of a difference here, but the upcoming hybrid-powered version of the Seltos could tip the scales later this year.

Winner: tie

Cargo and utility

The Seltos offers 27.8 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind the second row and up to 64.2 cubic feet with the rear seats folded, putting it among the roomiest vehicles in its class. Front storage is less impressive since the narrow center console is deep but not particularly spacious, but there are plenty of additional compartments for smaller items.

The HR-V offers less capacity behind the rear seats at 24.4 cubic feet, but the cargo area is well thought out and makes good use of the space. The rear seatbacks fold nearly flat with the cargo floor, making it easier to haul longer items while expanding total cargo room to 55.1 cubic feet. Cabin storage is adequate, with a rubberized bridge compartment behind the shifter for wireless charging and a deep center-armrest bin, though the door pockets and glovebox are smaller than we’d prefer.

Winner: Seltos

Value

The HR-V makes a strong impression with a well-built, thoughtfully designed interior that features soft-touch surfaces and high-quality-feeling controls. It’s also reasonably priced, with the HR-V LX trim starting at $28,150 including destination fees. The HR-V EX-L tops the lineup at $32,000.

The Seltos has a lower starting price of $26,485, and while fully loaded trims can approach $40,000, you’re generally getting more for your money here. The Seltos has a bigger standard touchscreen, more available driver aids, and more convenience features — such as a power-adjustable driver’s seat or leather upholstery — at a lower price. Kia also has a significant advantage in warranty coverage, with five years/60,000 miles of basic coverage and 10 years/100,000 miles on the powertrain.

Winner: Kia Seltos

Edmunds says

The Honda HR-V covers the bases for what’s expected from an extra-small SUV. But the redesigned Kia Seltos has raised the bar to an all-new level with its generous passenger and cargo space, range of powertrain options, and appealing value. If you want top versatility and style from a small SUV, the Seltos is the way to go.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Bradley Iger is a contributor at Edmunds.

The high school was among 20 schools to receive facility upgrades as part of FPL’s effort to expand access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

The renovated aeronautical STEM lab includes flight simulators, updated computers and other technology designed to give students greater exposure to aviation-related careers.

Jay Schwartz, an adjunct professor involved with the program, said the cost of pursuing aviation careers can be a significant obstacle for young people.

“The biggest challenge to get young people into aviation is the financial barrier,” Schwartz said. “FPL has allowed us to break through that barrier, to allow these young minds to pursue great things in the future.”

FPL said the upgrades are intended to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM fields by providing modern facilities and hands-on learning opportunities.

The company said its investment is aimed at helping prepare and inspire the next generation of students interested in aviation, technology and other STEM careers.

The Office for National Statistics said rising prices at the pump and airfares were largely behind the increase in the U.K.’s consumer prices index to 3.1% in August from 2.9% the month before. The increase moved inflation further away from the Bank of England’s 2% inflation target.

However, rate-setters are widely expected to keep the bank’s main interest rate at 3.75% when they conclude their meeting on Thursday as a majority of the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee appear to want to see whether higher prices are feeding into higher wages that could further stoke inflationary pressures. A soft labor market is currently keeping wage demands in check.

“August’s inflation increase is unlikely to trigger a rate hike tomorrow, as policymakers will take some comfort from a cooling jobs market,” said Suren Thiru, chief economist at ICAEW. “However, it will probably harden the Bank’s hawkish tone and leave the door open to higher rates later this year.”

Interest rates in the U.K. had been trending downward from a 15-year high of 5.25% until the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. The Iran war led to sharp increases in oil and gas prices, partly because the crucial Strait of Hormuz has been largely closed to traffic ever since.

As well as impacting the cost of personal loans and mortgages, the uptick in interest rate expectations is a growing problem for the British government as the servicing of its debt accounts for a higher proportion of its spending.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham insisted the British economy is still showing “resilience across the board” and that next month’s annual budget statement would take a prudence-first approach.

“We won’t take risks with people’s living standards or with the economy as a whole," he said.

Attorneys for the family said Kirk's death resulted from a string of “reckless decisions” by officials at Utah Valley University that left him exposed to a rooftop sniper, who fired a fatal shot from more than 400 feet (122 meters) away on Sept. 10, 2025. The university has faced harsh criticism for a lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting.

Kirk, 31, had been debating students in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings and with several thousand people in attendance. An Associated Press review following the shooting showed the campus in Orem did not use several public safety practices that have become standard safeguards at events around the country.

Campus police staffing was far below recommended levels for a school of that size. They also did not fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event attended by about 3,000 people. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.

“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump, Charlie Kirk’s close friend and political ally, by a rooftop shooter the previous year,” Kirk family attorney D. Loren Washburn wrote in the notice to state and university officials.

The document, dated Sept. 9, a day before the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s death, is a required step under state law before his family can file a formal claim or lawsuit. It names the university and its then-president, Astrid Tuminez; the campus police department and its chief, Jeffrey Long; and the state of Utah.

A spokesperson for Utah Valley University said the school was aware of the notice and would address it “consistent with our established processes.”

“Our focus remains on supporting our campus community,” spokesperson Sharon Turner said in a statement.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office said it does not comment on potential litigation.

Attorneys for Kirk's family alleged additional lapses by officials, including not conducting an adequate risk assessment before approving the event, failing to establish a secure perimeter and having no first responders immediately available, resulting in Kirk being taken to a nearby hospital in a private vehicle rather than an ambulance after he was shot.

“Tragically, the UVU Parties took none of these safety measures — steps only they had the authority to take — resulting in a situation that rendered Mr. Kirk helpless before his assassin,” Washburn wrote.

Long said after the shooting that six of his officers staffed the event and coordinated with Kirk’s eight-person private security team. The school said it was expanding its police force following the shooting.

Utah resident Tyler Robinson turned himself in a day after Kirk's killing. Prosecutors say he told his romantic partner that he “had enough of his (Kirk's) hatred.”

Robinson is charged with aggravated murder, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. A judge on Sept. 1 ordered the case to proceed toward trial. A date has not yet been set.

Prosecutors during a preliminary hearing in July presented what they characterized as overwhelming evidence against Robinson. That includes surveillance video of Robinson on the campus, DNA tests linking him to a rifle found near the assassination site and a handwritten note he allegedly left for his romantic partner that read, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it.”

Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, and widow, Erika Kirk, attended the hearings.

State law allows heirs or personal representatives of people who die to file lawsuits seeking damages if the death was caused by a wrongful act or negligence. The notice from Kirk’s family did not specify what damages they may seek.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Un estudio publicado el miércoles en la revista Scientific Data señala que el calentamiento de la Tierra está acelerando el derretimiento de las dos principales capas de hielo del planeta. Según el estudio, cinco sextas partes del deshielo no provienen de un aire más caliente, sino de aguas más cálidas que van erosionando las capas de hielo por debajo y por los costados, mientras los glaciares fluyen hacia los océanos. Los autores del estudio afirmaron que eso son malas noticias para el futuro aumento del nivel del mar.

“Las capas de hielo se están derritiendo rápidamente. Estamos derritiendo las regiones polares, el nivel del mar está subiendo en todo el mundo y eso agravará la vulnerabilidad de las regiones costeras” indicó Eric Rignot, científico del hielo de la Universidad de California en Irvine y coautor del estudio.

Grandes cifras de deshielo, inundaciones en zonas habitadas

Las cifras detrás del deshielo son a la vez descomunalmente grandes y engañosamente pequeñas.

El informe indica que todo ese hielo derretido se convirtió en casi 11,3 cuatrillones de litros (3 cuatrillones de galones) de agua, lo que elevó el nivel del mar global alrededor de 3,1 centímetros (una pulgada) desde 1979, además de otros factores climáticos que están aumentando la altura de los océanos.

Puede no parecer mucho, pero por cada centímetro (o tercio de pulgada) de aumento del nivel del mar, entre 2 y 3 millones de personas más se inundan al menos una vez al año, explicó la autora principal del estudio, Ines Otosaka, científica del hielo de la Universidad de Northumbria, en Inglaterra.

Otosaka añadió que el glaciar Jakobshavn, en Groenlandia, ahora retrocede hasta 50 metros (164 pies) por día.

La colaboración internacional de científicos polares, encabezada por la Agencia Espacial Europea, antes solo había analizado el deshielo de las capas de hielo desde la década de 1990 con base en datos de satélites europeos. Pero al incorporar satélites de la NASA, los científicos pudieron trazar los volúmenes de hielo en la Antártida hasta 1979 y en Groenlandia hasta 1972.

El deshielo se está acelerando

“Hay una tendencia clara a que las capas de hielo están perdiendo más masa y eso ha ido aumentando de década en década, especialmente si se observa el hielo que se descarga al océano. Y es bastante evidente que hay un vínculo con el cambio climático”, afirmó Otosaka.

Otosaka indicó que el análisis mostró que en las décadas de 1970 y 1980, y hasta bien entrada la de 1990, las capas de hielo fueron relativamente estables, pero luego comenzó el deshielo y se intensificó de verdad durante la década de 2010.

El coautor del estudio Andrew Shepherd, también de Northumbria, advirtió: “Esto es algo que debe preocupar porque muestra que los cambios van con décadas de retraso respecto del calentamiento global, lo que significa que podemos esperar que continúen durante décadas más —incluso si logramos dejar de calentar el planeta”.

Los autores del estudio señalaron que las cifras aceleradas parecieron hacer una pausa de 2020 a 2023, pero que eso refleja más variaciones meteorológicas de corto plazo que tendencias de largo plazo. Otosaka precisó que el estudio se detuvo con datos de 2023, pero que ella ha revisado mediciones posteriores y encontró que la tendencia de aceleración se ha reanudado.

Los autores explicaron que gran parte de la estabilidad en la Antártida se debió a que la Antártida Oriental registró nevadas récord, lo que compensó el rápido derretimiento en la menos estable Capa de Hielo de la Antártida Occidental.

Rignot comentó que la pausa de tres años fue “solo un bache en el registro”. Añadió: “El aumento prolongado es climático y la amenaza es absolutamente clara”.

Preocupación por un escenario de colapso

Otosaka señaló que los mayores cambios que observaron los científicos están en lo que llaman procesos dinámicos, que son más abruptos y activos que el derretimiento lento y constante provocado por el aire, y que eso es algo propenso a detonar “puntos de inflexión” descontrolados.

El científico del hielo de la Universidad de Nueva York David Holland afirmó que eso es lo que le preocupa “porque la mayor parte de la pérdida de hielo es dinámica y eso es exactamente lo que cabría esperar en un escenario de colapso por inestabilidad de una capa de hielo”.

El equipo internacional utilizó 45 estudios independientes y 27 satélites diferentes. “El uso de métodos relativamente independientes me da mayor confianza en el resultado. La tendencia al alza es real”, señaló Holland, que no participó en el estudio.

El científico del hielo de la Universidad de Colorado Ted Scambos, que tampoco participó en el estudio, señaló que “los ‘comodines’ de la pérdida de masa en la Antártida siguen planteando un desafío para la gestión humana del planeta: un peligro claro y presente, pero a muchas décadas en el futuro. Ahora, como sociedad, somos lo bastante inteligentes para conocer el futuro, pero no lo bastante prudentes para actuar en función de ese conocimiento”.

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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.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he would revoke U.S. visas or reject visa applications from foreign nationals found to be responsible for, or complicit in, enacting or enforcing laws and policies that allow for uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination and the incitement of violence against minority ethnic and racial groups in South Africa.

“The United States will not allow such behavior to go unchecked,” Rubio said in a statement. “These actions directly undermine peace, economic stability, and the rule of law, and they are incompatible with the pillars of America’s foreign policy.”

The South African government has strongly rejected U.S. allegations of discrimination against whites, calling the claims made by the administration since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office last year baseless and a result of misinformation.

Rubio did not identify any officials who would be targeted with the travel restrictions, though a lobby group for minority whites in South Africa has previously called for the U.S. to sanction officials of the African National Congress party, the party of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the largest in South Africa's Parliament.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration to sanction South Africa over its claims that whites, and especially the Afrikaner group, are being discriminated against by their Black-led government. Afrikaners are descended from mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. They were at the heart of South Africa's previous apartheid system of racial segregation.

There are approximately 4.5 million white people in South Africa's population of 62 million, which also includes whites with British or other heritage.

The U.S. has cited a contentious South African law that allows for the expropriation of unused private land without compensation in some circumstances, affirmative action policies that advance opportunities for Blacks and others, and a small number of violent crimes against white farmers as evidence of a larger anti-white stance in South Africa.

The Trump administration has also strongly criticized South Africa's move to accuse U.S. ally Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a highly emotive case in the United Nations' top court. Israel vehemently denies that allegation.

The U.S. has enforced a series of other sanctions against South Africa during Trump's second term for purported anti-white and anti-American policies. They include barring South African officials from meetings of the Group of 20 economic bloc this year in the U.S., and phasing out aid for South Africa's HIV treatment program.

The U.S. has also launched a refugee program for Afrikaners and other whites, claiming baselessly that they are victims of a humanitarian emergency in South Africa.

The U.S. says the sanctions are because South Africa has not changed its policies.

“This visa restriction policy is only the first step in a series of escalatory measures that will show America’s firm resolve in this matter,” the official U.S. Ambassador to South Africa account posted on X on Wednesday, referring to Rubio's visa announcement.

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AP writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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More AP news on the Trump administration: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump

“It was interesting to see how many were going up,” said Tapia, a 30-year-old Republican from Arlington, Virginia, who works in higher education advocacy and policy. He said the data centers lend valuable computing power that can help keep the U.S. competitive with other nations, but he also worries about how much electricity they use.

Like Tapia, Americans have grown more concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence over the last year, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

The survey data say about half, 53%, of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about artificial intelligence's environmental impacts. That is up from 41% last year. Democrats are driving much of the increase in environmental concern, but the poll also reveals broader worries about the local impact of data centers, which power AI and cloud computing.

“We're undertaking a massive experiment in real time, and I don't think there'll be any putting the milk back in the bottle. Change is scary, and I think some of that is being reflected here,” said Michael Greenstone, who directs the University of Chicago institute that collaborated on the survey.

Rising concern among Democrats about AI's environmental impact

There are thousands of data centers in the U.S. with construction planned for more. Those include smaller, conventional centers that have been around for decades, as well as larger hyperscale ones that are being built to serve artificial intelligence’s added processing needs. Virginia and Texas have the most facilities currently in operation, and other top contenders include California, Ohio and New York.

While 87% of existing data centers are in urban areas, most new data centers are planned for rural areas, according to a Pew Research Center analysis from earlier this year.

“I think that decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they're being built in,” said Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old retired Democrat from Waltham, Massachusetts.

A recent United Nations University report predicted that data centers' environmental footprint, which already rivals some of the world's largest countries, will grow rapidly as AI is more widely adopted.

Democrats are increasingly worried about AI's environmental consequences. About two-thirds of Democrats say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about how AI will affect the environment, the poll found, up from about half in 2025. By contrast, about half of independents and about 4 in 10 Republicans are highly concerned about the environmental impact of AI.

Overall, Americans are more worried about the environmental impact of AI than other industries with a substantial environmental footprint. Only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults are highly concerned about the impact of meat production or air travel.

Most Americans support limits on new data centers

While concerns about environmental impacts are higher among Democrats, there is a broad sense of wariness about a rapid data center boom.

About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, including most Democrats and Republicans.

“There’s a lot of water usage by AI data centers that’s taking away from other things like agriculture and farmers and places that really need it, and people who really need it,” said 21-year-old computer science student Gedeon Kebede, a Democrat from Cincinnati, Ohio.

A majority of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or the water supply in the communities where they are built.

Data centers' use of water to cool AI chips and computers is “nationally modest but potentially locally decisive,” energy systems engineer Fengqi You with Cornell University said in an email. While data centers aren't the U.S.' largest water gobblers, a single large campus can still place stress on a smaller municipal area.

The centers are also powered by tremendous amounts of electricity, particularly larger ones, raising concerns about where that energy will come from. Data centers could account for 11.8% of the U.S.' electricity consumption by 2030, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report.

“We’re talking about building electric infrastructure on a scale of entire cities, or in some cases, entire states just to serve one data center,” said Erik Nordman, director of Michigan State University's Institute of Public Utilities.

About two-thirds of U.S. adults support requiring data centers to use clean energy sources, such as wind or solar, to supply their electricity needs. About 8 in 10 Democrats support this, along with 56% of Republicans.

Still, some Americans say data center worries feel distant. Mary Fisher, 68, hasn't seen any come up in her Jacksonville, Florida, neighborhood.

“You know, it hasn’t come across my desk as something I should be concerned about,” said Fisher, who is retired and identifies as a Republican.

Republicans see more benefits to data centers than Democrats

About a quarter of U.S. adults say data centers are “extremely” or “very” beneficial when it comes to technological advancement, and about 2 in 10 say the same about job creation. Many U.S. adults say data centers are “somewhat” beneficial or aren't sure, while about one-quarter say they're “not very” or “not at all” beneficial for technological advancement, and about a third don't see a benefit for job creation.

“I see a huge increase in the number of temporary construction workers that are coming to areas, which is vitally important to the U.S. economy,” Tapia from Virginia said.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to see data centers' benefits. But about 3 in 10 Republicans still think the centers are “not very” or “not at all” beneficial for improved infrastructure and job creation.

Kebede, the computer science student, said he feels pressured to use artificial intelligence. Despite his concerns surrounding the technology, he still wants to be a competitive applicant for the jobs of the future.

“I think a lot of people just feel that it's very much a bubble,” he said. “Ultimately, when it pops, it's going to be very detrimental to everyone, whether you bought into the AI hype or not.”

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The AP-NORC poll of 3,424 adults was conducted July 6-24, 2026, using a combined sample of interviews from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population, and interviews from opt-in online panels. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. The AmeriSpeak panel is recruited randomly using address-based sampling methods, and respondents later were interviewed online or by phone. To incorporate the nonprobability sample, NORC used TrueNorth calibration, an innovative hybrid calibration approach developed at NORC to explicitly account for potential bias associated with the nonprobability sample.

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The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and 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.

F1 released a 24-race schedule for 2027 on Wednesday starting with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14 and then Saudi Arabia a week later, with events also scheduled for Qatar and Abu Dhabi at the end of the year. All have long-term contracts to host F1 and Bahrain also hosts preseason testing in February.

Races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were called off this year due to the Iran war. An extra race in Malaysia next month will have Bahrain Grand Prix branding.

The Qatar Grand Prix on Nov. 29 and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Dec. 6 remain on the schedule. F1 has considered a change to Europe if they can't go ahead but tickets remain on sale for both races.

Bahrain has opened most F1 seasons in recent years and was only moved from that position in 2025 and 2026 because of a clash with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Next year’s schedule avoids clashes with two other auto racing highlights, the Indianapolis 500 on May 30 and the Le Mans 24-hour race on June 12-13. F1 scheduled races on the same days as both this year. Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has said he wants to race at Le Mans in future.

More sprint races, including in Monaco

F1 is also expanding from six to 10 sprint races in 2027, including a first at the Monaco Grand Prix, where overtaking is almost impossible.

A sprint is also scheduled for the season-opening race in Bahrain. That would mark the first time an F1 season has begun with a short-format race before the first Grand Prix of the year.

F1 said race weekends that featured sprint races attracted an average viewership that was 12% higher than those without sprints. By increasing their number, F1 is “giving our fans even more intensity, drama, and the wheel-to-wheel action that make our sport so special,” chief executive Stefano Domenicali said.

F1 returns to Portugal in June for the first time since 2021 as the Portimao circuit replaces the Dutch Grand Prix, while the Turkish Grand Prix is also back in October 2027 after signing a five-year contract in April.

There will be no race at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona for the first time since 1990. It lost the title of Spanish Grand Prix to Madrid this year but stayed on under Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix branding. It will now alternate with the Belgian Grand Prix and next returns in 2028.

Racing in the Middle East is lucrative but comes with security concerns

There was no indication Wednesday that F1 is any closer to calling off or moving the Qatar or Abu Dhabi races.

Among potential alternatives in Europe, a season-ending race at Italy’s Imola circuit is widely considered the likeliest option. Domenicali indicated in July that a decision could come in mid-September.

The races in the Middle East are especially valuable for F1 and its teams. They contribute large hosting fees to F1, while Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco and Qatar Airways are major sponsors for the series.

Next week's Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be the closest F1 has been to Iran since the outbreak of the war earlier this year. Azerbaijan shares a land border with Iran.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem defended the wait for confirmation on this year’s races in an interview this month with The Associated Press, arguing F1 was right not to “jump the gun” on deciding.

“Are we going to allow our people, our staff, the drivers or the teams to go at risk? No, of course not. We will not,” he added.

Speculation over possible changes to this year’s Qatar and Abu Dhabi races heightened this week as Formula 2, which is due to support F1 in both venues, added an extra race to its schedule next week in Azerbaijan. F2 said it would still race in Qatar and Abu Dhabi with a “usual weekend format.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

A warming Earth is accelerating the melting of the planet's two major ice sheets, with five-sixths of the melt not coming from hotter air, but from warmer waters eating away at the ice sheets from below and the sides, with glaciers flowing into the oceans, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Scientific Data. That's bad news for future sea level rise, the study's authors said.

“The ice sheets are melting away fast,” said study co-author Eric Rignot, an ice scientist at University of California, Irvine. “We are melting the polar regions, sea level is rising worldwide and will exacerbate the vulnerability of coastal regions.”

Huge numbers for ice melt, people flooded

The numbers behind the melt are both mind-bogglingly huge and deceptively small.

All that melted ice turned into nearly 3 quadrillion gallons of water (11.3 quadrillion liters), which pushed global sea levels up about an inch (3.1 centimeters) since 1979, on top of other climate factors raising ocean heights, the report said.

An inch may not sound like much, but for every third of an inch (or centimeter) of sea level rise, another 2 to 3 million people get flooded at least once a year, said lead study author Ines Otosaka, an ice scientist at Northumbria University in England.

The Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland is now retreating up to 164 feet (50 meters) a day, Otosaka said.

The international collaboration of polar scientists, headed by the European Space Agency, had in the past only looked at ice sheet melt since the 1990s based on European satellite data. But by incorporating NASA satellites, the scientists were able to chart ice sheet volumes in Antarctica back to 1979 and in Greenland back to 1972.

The melting is accelerating

“There is a clear trend that the ice sheets are losing more mass and it has been increasing from decade to decade, especially if you look at the ice being discharged to the ocean,” Otosaka said. “And that’s quite clear that there’s a link to climate change.”

It showed that in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s, the ice sheets were relatively stable, but then melt started happening and it really kicked in during the 2010s, Otosaka said.

“That’s something to be concerned about as it shows that the changes are tracking decades behind global warming, which means we can expect them to continue for decades more — even if we are able to stop heating the planet,” said study co-author Andrew Shepherd, also of Northumbria.

The accelerating numbers seemed to pause from 2020 to 2023, but the study's authors said it more reflected short-term weather variations not long-term trends. Otosaka said the study stopped with 2023 data, but she's looked at measurements since and found the accelerating trend has picked back up.

A lot of the stability in Antarctica was because East Antarctica had record snowfall, which compensated for the rapid melting in the less stable West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the authors said.

The three-year hiatus was “just a bump in the record,” Rignot said. “The long rise is climate and the threat is crystal clear.”

Worrying about a collapse scenario

The biggest changes scientists saw are in what they call dynamic processes, which are more abrupt and active than the slow steady melting from the air, and that's something prone to trigger runaway “tipping points,” Otosaka said.

New York University ice scientist David Holland said that's what concerns him “because most of the ice loss is dynamical and that is exactly what you would expect in an ice sheet instability collapse scenario.”

The international team used 45 independent surveys and 27 different satellites. “The use of relatively independent methods gives me greater confidence in the result,” said Holland, who wasn't part of the study. “The upward trend is real.”

“The ‘wild cards’ of Antarctic mass loss continue to pose a challenge for human management of the planet — a clear and present danger, but many decades in the future,” said University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, who wasn't part of the study. “We are now as a society smart enough to know the future, but not prudent enough to act upon the knowledge.”

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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.

The sudden collapse of the building, which was known to be unstable due to damage from Israeli strikes earlier in the war, underscored how perilous and desperate living conditions have grown for the majority of the enclave’s population as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas stalls.

The 19 dead include at least 13 women and children, according to Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry.

The toll was expected to rise as more bodies were recovered from the wreckage. Around 100 people, including 50 children, were living in the building, said Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.

All of Gaza's roughly 2 million people now live in a stretch of land that makes up less than half of the territory. They remain dependent on aid and are surrounded by Israeli troops who carry out strikes or attacks on a near-daily basis.

There’s been no reconstruction work since the ceasefire was agreed to almost a year ago. Israel has said it will not allow any rebuilding until Hamas disarms.

The level of destruction means Palestinians have been forced to choose between crowded tent camps or what's left of the enclave's damaged buildings.

At least six displaced Palestinian families were living in the structure that collapsed early Wednesday despite knowing that it was teetering on the brink of collapse, according to Gaza's civil defense.

“The lack of options and alternatives left them with no other choice,” said Aboud Majdalawi, a rescuer with the force.

In the aftermath of the collapse, people were searching desperately for loved ones or their remains.

A group of men were seen carrying the headless body of a child. Others sat atop a pile of rubble, pulling desperately at flashes of color they believed could be clothing worn by a survivor. All they found were dust-caked blankets wedged in the debris.

The collapse comes as rescuers in the strip are trying to unearth hundreds of bodies from buildings collapsed by Israeli strikes earlier in the war with limited tools and only a handful of excavators. On Wednesday the U.N. human rights chief said he worried the bodies recovered so far are just the “tip of the iceberg.”

“It is heartbreaking that the loved ones of those missing for so long are only now having their worst fears confirmed," he said. “Much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives.”

Despite an October ceasefire that has reduced fighting in Gaza, Israel has continued to carry out strikes, killing at least 1,375 people since the agreement went into effect, according to local health officials.

The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,789 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. AP writers Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

She said that this instability led her to propose a new European Heatwave Plan as well as a future European firefighting fleet of airplanes. Currently, the EU operates a small fleet itself but coordinates a network of aircraft, water trucks and volunteers that move across the 27-nation bloc as fires ignite.

“This summer was the summer of truth. Almost no part of our continent was spared,” said the EU executive during her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg.

“Key rivers like the Danube, the Rhine or La Garonne are disappearing before our eyes. More than 35,000 additional deaths during the heat waves. Care homes and hospitals dangerously overheated.”

The extreme heat, which hit Europe exceptionally hard and early this year appears to have led to a much higher spike in deaths than expected. Where Von der Leyen's figure of 35,000 comes from is unclear, but it is triple the estimates of “excessive deaths” by monitoring groups in July.

Fires in France and Spain drove hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, shut down nuclear reactors in Hungary and France, ignited century-old munitions on Belgium's border with Germany and revealed previously lost ships sunk on riverbeds like a tugboat in Serbia.

The heat and humidity that broke many records during the summer would not have been possible without climate change, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution group.

“All of this is a mere preview. These were the hottest summer months ever, but probably the coolest of the years to come,” von der Leyen said. “Science is clear: Europe is warming at double the global rate.”

While commending those who battled blazes this summer, von der Leyen said that she's asked emergency responders and senior firefighters to “think bigger and learn faster” to design “new capabilities” for the EU to tackle climate instability.

When she praised a Danish helicopter pilot named Rune Kyndal, who died in August while fighting fires in Greece, the assembly erupted in applause.

“Rune gave his life to save others and today, all of Europe owes him,” von der Leyen said.

With the world’s biggest oil exporter under fire from the rebels backed by the Saudis' regional adversary, the kingdom needs a safe outlet for its crude as well as military assistance. There's no clear path to either.

A crucial Saudi pipeline has been shut down, reportedly for weeks, after an attack by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The Houthis have been targeting infrastructure in the kingdom and its shipping on the Red Sea, where they have seized several islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And Iran is still targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices remain above $100 a barrel.

The Houthis denied firing drones toward Mecca, about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from Yemen’s border. The Saudis said they intercepted and destroyed the drone before it entered the airspace over the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.

Turkey and Pakistan say the Saudis haven't asked for help

The attacks are the first test of a new defense pact among Saudi Arabia, NATO member Turkey and nuclear power Pakistan. But officials from Turkey and Pakistan told The Associated Press they have not received a Saudi request for support in response to the Houthis' escalation.

The Turkish official said efforts to “institutionalize” the alliance need to be completed before the pact becomes operational. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Amid the condemnation of the attempted attack on Mecca, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country and the Saudis stand “unwaveringly, shoulder to shoulder.” Turkey's foreign minister expressed solidarity and said no country can “remain indifferent,” state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Criticism also came from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, representing over 57 Muslim states, which said the attempt violates the “sanctity of holy sites.”

This was the second attempted attack by the Houthis against Mecca after the rebels fired a ballistic missile toward the city in 2017, according to Col. Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the rebels.

Houthis claim shooting down an F-15 fighter jet

Later Wednesday, the rebels claimed, without offering evidence, that they shot down an F-15 fighter jet operated by the Saudi-led coalition over Yemen's central province of Marib.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree didn’t say when it occurred, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim. The rebels at times take days to claim attacks.

Spokespeople for the Saudi-led coalition and the Saudi government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

For now, the US is staying out of the fight

The United States has sold billions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia and has committed to providing training and other support to protect the kingdom, but top U.S. officials in recent days have indicated a lack of desire to get involved in the conflict.

“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday, adding that the rebels appear focused on the Saudis.

Vice President JD Vance on Monday said Washington had been in “constant contact” with the Saudis and had been “engaged in direct conversations with the Houthis themselves,” calling it “a very fluid and dynamic thing” to be monitored.

On the ground, forces with Yemen's internationally recognized government have said they are regrouping to combat the Houthis after fleeing the rebels' advance. But those forces are a collection of armed groups with varying aims.

The number of Yemeni civilians fleeing the fighting in the Arab world’s poorest country soared once again to over 100,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said, as fears grow over a return to civil war.

Iran's top diplomat is in China

While Saudi Arabia appeared to face the choice of pursuing diplomacy or taking the fight to the Houthis, the top diplomat for rival Iran was in China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the U.S. and Iran to exercise restraint and reopen the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible, and expressed China’s concern about the spread of the fighting to Yemen and the Red Sea, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement after the meeting that Tehran seeks “the restoration of calm to the region and friendly and peaceful relations with our neighbors."

“In this regard we have begun dialogue with the countries of the region,” he added.

China has avoided direct involvement in the war, but President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in New Delhi over the weekend again offered Beijing's help in ending it.

Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered somewhat as tankers risk using a route near Oman on the other side of the waterway, with guidance from U.S. forces. Estimates vary because ships can turn off location systems but range from 5 million to 7 million barrels per day on average.

That's less than half the amount before the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey, Ahmed from Islamabad and Anna from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed to this report.

The Health and Welfare Ministry statistics released Tuesday show Japan now has 107,677 centenarians, up 7,914 from the previous year and exceeding the 100,000 mark for the first time. Nearly 88% of them are women.

Kyoto resident Fuyo Kishimoto was recently recognized as the oldest Japanese woman at age 114. Japan's oldest male is 112-year-old Hikaru Kato from Kumamoto in southern Japan.

The figures were released to mark this year’s Sept. 15 Respect the Aged day, when healthy and active centenarians are honored by the government with a letter from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a silver sake cup.

“I'm very pleased that many people are living a long, healthy and active lives,” Health Minister Kenichiro Ueno told reporters Tuesday, citing progress in medical technology, healthy lifestyle and diet as contributing factors.

Ueno noted the importance of maintaining a sustainable social security system as the population continues to age and decline.

Many younger people, however, are not optimistic about their future.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research last week released the results of a survey indicating more than 20% of both men and women who are single and aged between 18 and 34 have no intention of ever marrying, with nearly half saying they see no benefit in marriage.

Ueno acknowledged the reasons for marriage reluctance among young people include the high costs of raising and educating children and the mental and physical burden on working parents. He said the government will continue addressing their concerns and attempt to turn around problems related to Japan's aging population and dwindling births.

Japan’s drastic population decline is inevitable, experts say, noting the country's total fertility rate dropped to a record low 1.14 in 2025, far below the 2.1 children needed to be born to each Japanese woman to maintain the current population.

Japan’s total population during the 2020 census stood at 126 million, almost 30% of which were 65 or older. Experts estimate there will be a decline to 87 million by 2070 with nearly 40% aged 65 or older, according to the national institute.

There were 153 people aged 100 or older in Japan when centenarian surveys began in 1963. They exceeded 1,000 in 1981 and surpassed 10,000 in 1998, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry.

The plan outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen adds to global efforts to stop protect young people from online harm.

“I am aware that many perceive the power of Big Tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree,” von der Leyen said in her annual State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg.

“We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images,” she said.

Von der Leyen said that under her proposal “mini accounts” chaperoned by guardians would be granted to kids aged 13-15, with limits on features and the amount of time they can be accessed.

For 15-to-18-year-olds, platforms will need to provide a “safe design," she said. Further details of the plan are expected Thursday.

The EU’s 27 member nations still need to debate and vote on the proposal, which could take years and spark tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long criticized Europe’s tech regulations.

Von der Leyen used her speech to advance a plan that she foreshadowed earlier this year, when she said kids should be exposed to social media in a “phased and gradual” way.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok already prohibit anyone under 13 from opening an account, but authorities have accused the companies of failing to keep them off.

But some experts said the commission was failing to tackle a more fundamental issue with the social media industry’s core business practices based on getting users hooked on scrolling through addictive content while showing them ads.

The plan “merely delays young people’s exposure to the risks of online harm instead of addressing the business model and extractive practices which fuel it,” said Simeon de Brouwer, a policy advisor at digital rights group EDRi. The platforms will “unavoidably target them as soon as they’re a day older than the threshold.”

The commission’s proposal is part of a wider global push to protect young people online and represents the first move to introduce a bloc-wide age limit for social media.

Individual European countries such as Spain and Portugal have taken their own steps to ban teens from social media platforms, mirroring regulatory actions in other places like Australia and New Zealand

Some efforts have run into roadblocks. France’s top court last month struck down a law banning children under 15 from social media, saying it infringed on fundamental freedoms. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rework the proposal.

In the United States, social media company Meta Platforms last month agreed to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to resolve a trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by nearly every state.

Manfred Weber, the head of the largest group in the European Parliament, spoke after von der Leyen to propose that the EU follow Australia's lead in allowing citizens to switch off social media algorithms.

“Elon Musk will not like it, but probably that is a reason for doing it,” he said.

Von der Leyen also weighed in on the intensifying debate about artificial intelligence and the potential risks it poses to humanity, saying the commission would discuss efforts to slow down advanced AI development with leading AI companies.

She said the EU would work with “like-minded partners” like Canada and Britain.

“We want to team up on model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more,” she said.

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Chan reported from London.

“Europe needs its own counter-hybrid playbook. We urgently need a consensus on how to respond to certain incidents,” von der Leyen said, particularly for acts that “fall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security.”

Officials in Germany, Denmark, Poland have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in drone incursions, sabotage, arson, surveillance of defense facilities and planning to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport.

Italian fighter jets working with NATO shot down a drone over EU member Lithuania earlier this week, the first time one has been downed in its airspace. It was believed to have entered from Russia’s ally, Belarus.

But Europe and NATO are struggling to know how best to respond to acts that fall short of outright aggression.

Von der Leyen said that the system should be similar to Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, which allows countries believing that their territory is under threat to convene emergency meetings.

“When triggered by one member state, all member states would convene, to coordinate a European response, to deter further escalation, and to mitigate the impact,” she said.

NATO’s Article 4 is separate from Article 5, the collective security guarantee that obliges all member countries to come to the aid of an ally under attack.

Von der Leyen also said that the EU commission will also “set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality.” It would involve other international partners like Britain, Canada, Norway and Ukraine, she said. No details were provided.

Trump’s tariffs and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have soured the relationship between the North American neighbors. Canada is seeking to reduce its dependence on the United States, the destination for roughly 70% of its exports, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has called for a “unique alliance” with the EU.

In her annual State of the European Union address, von der Leyen said Canada and the EU would build on their existing free trade agreement, known as CETA, with a broader “Alliance for the Future” aimed at creating “a common prosperity and economic security space.”

She cast that closer relationship as rooted not just in trade but in shared democratic values.

“Above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy,” von der Leyen said to Carney, who received a standing ovation at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He is due to address the Parliament on Thursday.

Canada seeks a relationship just short of EU membership

A Canadian official familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press last week that Ottawa was exploring ties with the EU that could stop just short of membership. The official said Canada would seek an arrangement allowing its citizens to live and work in Europe without visas as part of a broader strategic partnership.

Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s ambassador-designate to the EU, said Wednesday that Ottawa had discussed associate membership with European officials before von der Leyen’s speech and “knew that that was something that was on the table.” He said Canada had talked to the EU about an “Alliance for the Future,” while European officials had raised associate membership.

Wilkinson said Canada is not seeking full EU membership because it would require surrendering some sovereignty. Instead, Ottawa wants “to get as close as we possibly can” to the bloc in a way that strengthens Canadian sovereignty rather than diminishes it, he said.

Carney’s office welcomed von der Leyen’s proposal, saying Canada was deepening ties with the EU “to strengthen our sovereignty” and supported a move beyond CETA.

Canada has already joined the EU's defense procurement program

Von der Leyen said the expanded partnership would cover advanced manufacturing, technology, defense production, the Arctic, energy, critical minerals, batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity and economic security.

“This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said. “In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.”

Because Canada joining the EU as an associate member would be a first, there is no rulebook on how that would work or what it would mean in practice. It is unclear who would need to approve membership, and how long that could take.

Wilkinson said Ottawa and Brussels are deliberately focusing first on the substance of the relationship rather than what to call it. “Before you actually get to the point where you decide what you’re going to call something, you should actually know the shape,” he said.

He said the shape is likely to become clearer at the Canada-EU summit in October, when the two sides expect to make an announcement and may settle on how to describe it.

Currently, all steps toward EU membership must be approved unanimously by the 27 member countries.

The idea of associate membership has been floated in the past for Ukraine, or for post-Brexit Britain, but no concrete steps have been taken.

Beyond trade: Canada and EU explore a broader alliance

The relationship between Canada and the European Union has reached a point where the two sides need to move beyond rhetoric and start building something more substantive, said Tobias Cremer, a German member of the European Parliament.

“Now is the time to stop sending each other love letters and put meat on the bone,” said Cremer, from the center-left Social Democrats.

He argued that any new arrangement should be more ambitious than another trade or defense agreement, describing the goal as a more holistic strategic alliance between Canada and the EU.

Existing frameworks such as CETA could provide a foundation, Cremer said, but should be used more fully and expanded. The case for closer ties, he said, is increasingly being driven by geopolitics as much as economics.

The aim, he said, should ultimately be bigger than a bilateral arrangement — potentially positioning the EU as a convener of middle powers, an idea Carney has also raised.

Canada this year became the first non-European country to join the EU’s 150-billion-euro ($173-billion) SAFE defense program, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement as Europe seeks to increase its defense readiness.

Iratxe García Pérez, president of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, praised Carney for showing “great courage confronting Donald Trump” and said allies were needed to defend “sovereignty, solidarity and international law.”

Carney said Tuesday that economic integration, once viewed largely as an asset, is increasingly “being used as a weapon by certain countries.” Discussions will ramp up at the Canada-EU summit in late October, he said.

Trump rupture accelerates Canada’s turn toward Europe

Canada has retaliated against U.S. tariffs and rejected trade terms Carney says would weaken its sovereignty.

The EU has taken a different course with Washington, reaching a trade agreement that set a 15% U.S. tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU exports while Europe eliminated tariffs on U.S. industrial goods.

That contrast has loomed over Carney’s push for closer European ties. In a closely watched speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he urged middle powers to work together to increase their leverage in an era of great-power rivalry.

“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered,” Carney said.

“This is not sovereignty,” he said. “It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

Carney’s Davos speech drew a personal rebuke from Trump, and von der Leyen's overture to America’s neighbor could raise the temperature again.

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Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

Merz’s authority was damaged by his party’s stinging defeat Sept. 6 at the hands of the anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany in Saxony-Anhalt, a small eastern state. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, finished just short of a majority there and has its best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II.

Merz, 70, became Germany's leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years, but has failed to lift a sullen national mood and has himself become deeply unpopular.

On Sunday, two more states hold elections: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, another largely rural region in the formerly communist and less prosperous east; and the capital, Berlin.

Both elections are difficult for Merz's party

AfD is expected to make significant gains, but has no realistic path to power in Berlin and faces a much stronger challenge from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's center-left governor than it did from Merz's party in Saxony-Anhalt.

Prospects for Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union are bleaker. It could lose the mayor’s office in Berlin. If things go very badly, it could fail for the first time to win seats in a state legislature anywhere by falling below 5% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it was already weak.

Merz said last week that “giving up is not an option for me.” But the CDU’s deputy local leader in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania called for him to go, and speculation has mounted that he might soon be replaced — although no top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many have warned against “personnel debates.”

Apparently anticipating a tough post-election period, Merz abandoned a planned trip to New York next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

“Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will bring a disastrous result for the CDU,” said Wolfgang Muno, a political science professor at the University of Rostock, the state’s biggest city. “And if the CDU also does badly in Berlin and loses the mayor, then a great deal of pressure will be exerted on Friedrich Merz.”

Two conservative governors, Hendrik Wüst of North Rhine-Westphalia and Markus Söder of Bavaria, have frequently been named as possible successors. It’s unclear whether they or anyone else might step up to take over, but the national governing coalition of Merz’s center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats could try to change faces and some policies, Muno said.

Still, the CDU's eight state governors on Wednesday publicly backed Merz, saying in a statement they're determined to tackle people's problems “together with the chancellor,” German news agency dpa reported.

Critics say Merz doesn't understand people's problems

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s governor, Social Democrat Manuela Schwesig, pointed to a central problem for Merz. “The chancellor doesn’t give people the feeling that he sees and understands their problems,” she said this week.

The government has struggled to persuade voters that it can get the chronically sluggish economy moving through potentially painful reforms, including to the pension system. And there are conflicts among the governing parties about their details.

Merz’s sharp-tongued style also grates on many voters. A comment last year that “the prosperity our country today has can’t be preserved in the future with a work-life balance and a four-day week, so we must work more” drew criticism. He also has complained that Germans take too many days off sick.

Merz's party risks being squeezed in one election

The national government’s unpopularity is working against the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but it also risks being squeezed in a head-to-head race between AfD and Schwesig.

Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have many similarities, Muno said. But “a significant difference is that, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the current governor is by a long distance the most popular and well-known politician in the state.”

Billboards advertise Schwesig as “the woman against blue,” the far-right party’s color, and she appears to be drawing voters away from other mainstream parties.

Her AfD opponent is Leif-Erik Holm, a federal lawmaker with a relatively moderate image in a party that has moved steadily further right over recent years. He's hoping for momentum from Saxony-Anhalt.

AfD lawmaker Beatrix von Storch said at a campaign event that “people are fed up and they want something different.” She argued that Merz “is carrying out the wrong reforms” and that cuts should be made to spending, including on Ukraine and development aid.

Holm lacks potential allies as mainstream parties refuse to deal with AfD. That’s even more of an issue for the far-right party in Berlin, where its support is considerably lower. The capital has tended to lean left in recent years.

Merz's party faces home-made problems in Berlin

Merz’s CDU has led Berlin since it rode a wave of discontent with local politics to take the mayor’s office in 2023. It faces a leftist challenge this time, along with home-made problems.

Mayor Kai Wegner abandoned his re-election bid in July after it emerged that he hadn’t told the truth about aspects of his crisis management when sabotage caused a large-scale power cut last winter. His deputy, Stefan Evers, is running instead. Berlin’s election is dominated by local issues, primarily rising rental costs.

Merz, meanwhile, has signaled that he's determined to stay on and doubled down rhetorically on his reform plans.

“We were elected for four years. I was elected for four years,” Merz said at a meeting of Germany's exporters association on Tuesday. “And I want us to use these four years to lead our country out of this difficult phase.”

Merz also dismissed suggestions that he could try to run a minority government without his center-left partners, saying that it's an “illusion” to believe his conservatives could push policies through parliament alone.

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Geir Moulson reported from Berlin. Pietro De Cristofaro contributed to this report from Rostock, Germany.

Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage can be found here.

Cause of building collapse not immediately known

A damaged building in Gaza City housing about six displaced families collapsed on Wednesday, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 25. Among the dead were at least eight children and five women, according to Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry.

The toll is expected to rise as the search for victims buried in the rubble continues.

Video footage taken at the scene showed civil defense crews surveying the wreckage and using bulldozers to dig out people, including children.

The building had been partially destroyed in an Israeli strike earlier in the war. It was not immediately clear what caused it to collapse.

Such incidents have become a major hazard in Gaza, where the majority of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Dozens of bombed-out multistory structures have collapsed, particularly during winter weather.

Displaced families have often returned from tent camps to homes damaged by bombardment during the almost three years of war.

Saudi Arabia says drone shot down near Mecca

Saudi Arabia said the kingdom's defenses intercepted and destroyed a drone on Tuesday evening before it entered the airspace over Mecca, Islam’s holiest city and a focal point for followers of the faith.

Mecca's security is “a red line,” military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said, adding that Saudi forces will not hesitate to act against “hostile and terrorist behavior.”

The city is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the location of the Kaaba, the black cube-shaped structure that Muslims around the world turn to five times a day when praying. Muslims believe Muhammad first received God’s revelations of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, in Mecca.

The Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen denied targeting Mecca. But the allegation drew condemnations throughout the Islamic world, including from Pakistan, Turkey and the 57-country Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

More oil tankers appear to transit critical waterway

Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered somewhat as tankers risk using a southern route near the coast of Oman with guidance from U.S. forces.

Estimates vary because the ships turn off their location systems, but range from 5 million to 7 million barrels per day on average, compared with 15 million barrels per day before the U.S.-Iran war began on Feb. 28.

Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline — another key oil route — was hit by a drone attack last week. The damage is expected to take weeks to repair, potentially cutting Saudi exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu by 2.5 million to 2.7 million barrels per day.

However, Saudi Arabia has enough tanker capacity to redirect as much as 3 million barrels per day through its Gulf terminal at Ras Tanura and the U.S.-guided Strait of Hormuz route, according to data and analytical firm Kpler.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

This one came at their expense — and still earned him a curtain call in Queens.

Alonso launched his 300th career homer Tuesday night, a tying shot in the ninth inning against his former team, and Coby Mayo’s inside-the-park homer in the 11th sent the Baltimore Orioles to a 7-5 victory at Citi Field.

“There’s a lot of history here with me,” Alonso said after receiving a beer shower from his Baltimore teammates. “It doesn’t matter where and when, I just want to help the team win. I’m just really, really happy for us to come back the way we did.”

The Orioles were two outs from a defeat that would have dropped them four games behind Cleveland for the last American League playoff spot when Alonso hit a 414-foot solo drive off Kodai Senga to tie the score 3-all.

A pumped-up Alonso, who hit a club-record 264 homers for the Mets before signing with the Orioles last December, fired his bat toward the Baltimore dugout and shouted in excitement. He rounded the bases as the Citi Field crowd of 28,097 — down from 35,800 for the slugger's return Monday night — roared.

Fans chanted his name until Alonso emerged from the dugout for a curtain call. Then chants of “Fire Stearns” began, aimed at Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns.

“Everyone in the dugout was saying go out there,” Alonso said. “And they were right.”

Said Orioles manager Craig Albernaz: “The dugout was fired up for Pete for a lot of different reasons. It was cool to get an acknowledgment from the crowd.”

The rare curtain call on the road continued an outpouring of support from Mets fans for Alonso over the past two nights — and apparently annoyed at least one of his former teammates.

“As the 2026 Mets, I know we have definitely underperformed. But we are — the guys in here work their (tails) off every single day and to have that kind of reaction to an opposing player — could be anybody — is crazy to me," said New York pitcher Sean Manaea, who started Tuesday night. "Again, I’ve got nothing but respect for Pete. But yeah, just never seen anything like that before.

“Pete’s not here," the veteran left-hander added. “He’s just not here. So, I know everybody loves him. He’s the man. But, yeah, he’s not here. So, to see the reaction from the fans like that, I don’t know, it’s just different.”

Alonso became the third player to hit his 300th home run against a team for whom he played in 1,000 or more games. Willie Horton hit No. 300 with Seattle against the Detroit Tigers in 1979, and Torii Hunter did so for the Tigers against the Minnesota Twins in 2013.

Alonso received a two-minute tribute video before the Orioles’ 2-1 win Monday night at Citi Field. He was showered with a thunderous ovation before his first at-bat minutes later, when he was accompanied to the plate by “Layla,” one of his walk-up songs, as “Welcome Back, Pete!” flashed next to his picture on the scoreboard.

He got standing ovations before each of his final three plate appearances as well on Monday, when rookie pitcher Jonah Tong was booed after walking Alonso in the third, and warm receptions prior to his first three at-bats Tuesday.

“I appreciate all the support for all the years I’ve been here, all the life I’ve lived here,” Alonso said Tuesday night. “Obviously, they’re recognizing that and they appreciate that. It’s a two-way street. Really appreciate it.”

Alonso was given his home run ball by the trio of Long Islanders — Michael Shaw, Nick Maldarella and Chris Makarius — who teamed up to catch the milestone drive, which caromed off the second deck of stands in left field and fell into the first deck.

“On the way here, we were saying we’re going to catch his 300th home run,” Maldarella said. “And sure enough, man. It’s crazy.”

Maldarella and Makarius said they each got a hand on it before sharing it with Shaw.

“Never leave a man behind,” Shaw said.

Alonso signed a bat and a ball for each fan in return. He also signed the shirts they were wearing — an Alonso Mets jersey for Shaw and Makarius and a Carlos Delgado shirt for Maldarella — and offered them tickets and batting-practice access at Camden Yards in Baltimore next season.

“Thank you, guys,” Alonso said to the trio outside the visitors' clubhouse. “You guys are so kind. Thank you so much.”

Alonso also posed for a group picture and for photos with each person individually.

“I mean, who doesn’t love Pete?” Shaw said.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The country signed a deal with China’s SANY Renewable Energy to develop a 2,000-megawatt wind project in the Gulf of Suez alongside Egypt’s first wind turbine manufacturing plant. The project is expected to connect to the national grid within 23 months of final agreements, while the factory is intended to supply Egypt and potentially export equipment across Africa and the Middle East.

Even though Egypt’s project is still in its early stages, energy experts say its emphasis on scale, local manufacturing and technology transfer could offer lessons for other African countries struggling to turn renewable-energy ambitions into functioning infrastructure.

That includes a project in Nigeria, where a 10-megawatt wind farm took nearly two decades to begin producing electricity. The difference highlights a broader challenge for Africa’s renewable-energy push: how to move beyond importing equipment and announcing projects to building the financing, industrial capacity and policy stability needed to deliver them at scale.

“The contrasts are stark,” said Fadhel Kaboub, an associate professor of economics at Ohio's Denison University. “We have a project in Nigeria that took two decades to come online, whereas we have this one project in Egypt that looks like it’s going to really take off.”

Egypt's deal has advantages and risks

Kaboub cautioned that Egypt’s deal is not yet proof of success. But its combination of scale, manufacturing and a Chinese technology partner could give it a better chance of attracting investment and coming to fruition quickly, he said.

“For manufacturing anything to be profitable, efficient and successful, you need economies of scale,” he said. “The problem with every African country is that our internal markets are too small. We don’t have the economies of scale to industrialize one country at a time.”

Egypt’s plan is part of a broader effort to localize renewable energy technology, increase local content, and leverage the country’s trade links to export equipment. The government has said the factory will help reduce reliance on imported equipment while building an industrial base around renewable energy.

That ambition comes with risks.

Kaboub said Egypt needs to ensure that cooperation with SANY results in meaningful technology transfer rather than simply creating another form of dependence on foreign manufacturers.

“If the Chinese partner fully retains control over the technology and there’s really no transfer of technology, then we’re looking at another cycle of dependence,” he said.

Design is one reason why Nigeria's earlier project stalled

Nigeria’s experience illustrates how project design can be as important as the technology itself.

The 10-megawatt Lambar Rimi wind farm in Katsina state was contracted to the French wind turbine manufacturer Vergnet in 2010, with completion scheduled for 2012. The project was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and was designed to use 37 turbines rated at 275 kilowatts each.

The project stalled for years before being taken over by the Katsina state government. It was eventually commissioned in September 2025 after the state added 10 megawatts of solar capacity.

Dr Dola Oluteye, founder of the PATNA Initiative and a senior fellow in energy and transport policy at University College London’s Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, said the comparison should not be framed simply as Nigeria’s failure versus Egypt’s success.

“The useful question is what Egypt has built into its project structure that Nigeria left unresolved for years,” Oluteye said. “The cost of capital is the binding constraint, not the resource.”

The International Energy Agency says the cost of capital for utility-scale clean-energy projects in Africa is at least two to three times higher than in advanced economies and China. Africa attracts around 2% of global clean-energy spending despite accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s population.

Oluteye said Egypt’s decision to structure the new wind project in local currency is particularly significant because it reduces the currency mismatch that can undermine African power projects that are financed in dollars but earn revenue in local currencies.

African countries could leverage their market to win better terms

The industrial component could also change the economics and politics of future projects.

“While Nigeria purchased 37 turbines, Egypt is attempting to buy the capability to make them,” Oluteye said.

African countries could use their collective market to negotiate better terms from technology providers, including requirements for local manufacturing and technology transfer.

“If we form a negotiating bloc with a joint industrial policy, we can probably get better terms for technology transfer and joint ventures that could transform the continent at scale,” Kaboub said.

For Nigeria, the challenge is therefore not simply finding more wind.

“If something is new, especially in Africa, you want to pilot it first,” Kaboub said, adding that stronger feasibility studies, affordable financing, clearer project ownership and policy continuity are critical.

“The implementation of policy is what is critical, not the fact that you have 50 policies on your website or in your government documents,” he said.

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

Thaci, who is 58, resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges. He was convicted by a panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers of murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. Both he and the prosecutors, who had asked for a stricter sentence, can appeal.

The judgment was a crushing blow for a man who was once embraced by the West, invited to the 1999 peace talks in France and seen as the leader who could guide Kosovo to independence.

Presiding Judge Charles Smith painted a very different picture, however, saying that Thaci actively participated in and encouraged crimes, including by promoting individuals involved in crimes.”

Thaci “showed a ruthless ability to remove and eliminate political impediments” to his and other commanders' leadership, Smith added.

Wearing a suit and tie, Thaci stood in silence as Smith read out the sentence.

Supporters swiftly slam Thaci's verdict

Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdicts. “This is a terrible judgment for Kosovo, for our people and for our liberation war,” he said.

Hundreds of supporters waited at a park near the courthouse in The Hague, and some clashed briefly with Dutch riot police.

In Kosovo's capital, Pristina, thousands of people watched the hearing live on a huge screen and were stunned at the sentence. Some started shouting “UCK,” the Albanian-language acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army that Thaci once led before entering politics.

One supporter, Bekim Fetahu, said the verdict was “a catastrophic decision.”

“They (judges) have put the victims together with the aggressors,” Fetahu added.

Smith, the presiding judge, said Thaci “used his position, leadership, authority and standing” to encourage crimes and failed to investigate or punish abuse by KLA fighters.

However, the American judge also stressed that the trial was “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or its ultimate goal of securing independence for Kosovo, which at the time was a province in Serbia.

Thaci was on trial with three other former KLA leaders who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war. They pleaded not guilty to all charges against them, and are widely regarded as national heroes in Kosovo.

The four were acquitted on six charges of crimes against humanity because the judges said the prosecutors failed to prove that crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.

They were found guilty of the war crimes of the arbitrary detention of 385 people, cruel treatment of 49, torture of 303 detainees and the murder of 96 people.

The prosecutors had asked for a maximum 45-year prison sentence for Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. All denied the charges against them. Veseli was sentenced to 18 years, Selimi to 13 years and Krasniqi to 25 years in prison.

Thaci was defiant to the end of his trial

Thousands of people rallied in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, over the weekend in support of the four men. The protesters filled a central square in the capital, many carrying red and black Albanian flags.

Portraits of the four former KLA fighters have been plastered across the city along with a huge digital clock counting down to Wednesday's verdicts.

As his trial ended in February, Thaci told judges: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”

But the court ruled that Thaci and his co-defendants targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.

“In reality, there is no indication that the victims in this case were spies or collaborators,” Smith said. Just having “Serbian friends or jobs in Serbian companies was enough to treat them as collaborators” of the enemy.

When fighting broke out, Thaci was a student who returned from what he described as political exile in Switzerland to join Kosovo’s struggle for independence. He earned the nickname “the Snake” for his ability to evade Serb forces during the conflict.

Thaci rose to political power after the war but resigned as president to defend himself before the court in The Hague.

Esther Major, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Europe, said the convictions “show that senior officials are not above the law.”

Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognize. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of EU-mediated negotiations supported by the United States.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said he plans to address the nation later on Wednesday over the verdicts and the “situation in the region.”

___

Associated Press reporters Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Molly Quell in The Hague contributed to this report.

The ex-leader is accused of murder and attempted murder for his alleged involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called war on drugs during his time in office. He denies the charges against him.

Dressed a black suit and a crisp white shirt, the 81-year-old joined a pretrial hearing that focused largely on scheduling concerns ahead of the trial's official start, expected in November.

Duterte was arrested in the Philippines in March 2025 and sent to The Hague. He made his initial appearance via video link from the court's detention center and had not attended another session until Wednesday.

His legal team had attempted to get the case thrown out on medical grounds, but judges denied a request for him to be released from custody and ultimately ruled earlier this year that he was healthy enough to stand trial.

The ICC has been looking into mass killings in crackdowns overseen by Duterte, first when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.

Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

According to the prosecutors, police and government hit squads carried out dozens of killings at Duterte’s orders, motivated by the promise of money or to avoid becoming targets themselves.

In June, the presiding judge in his case told Duterte’s lawyers that she wanted the ex-leader to turn up. “We would expect Mr. Duterte to be here unless there’s some medical issue,” Judge Joanna Korner said.

Earlier this week, his counsel requested additional medical evaluations.

Relatives of those killed in the drug crackdowns held a group watch in Manila, chanting “Justice for all victims of the killings!”

A small group of protesters also gathered outside the ICC ahead of the hearing to voice their support for the proceedings.

A month after the court in February 2018 announced a preliminary investigation into the violent drug crackdowns, Duterte said the Philippines would withdraw from the ICC.

Last year, judges rejected a request from Duterte’s legal team to throw out the case because of the Philippine withdrawal. They said that countries cannot “abuse” their right to withdraw from the court’s foundational Rome Statute “by shielding persons from justice in relation to alleged crimes that are already under consideration.”

Earlier this year, an attempt by authorities to arrest another man wanted by the ICC in connection with the drug killings dissolved into gunfire in the Philippine Senate in May. No one was hurt. The court had unsealed an arrest warrant for Ronald Marapon dela Rosa, who served as national police chief under Duterte. Dela Rosa went into hiding following the Senate standoff and remains on the run.

In July, the Philippine Senate, acting as an impeachment court, opened a trial of Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte. If convicted of her charges, which include amassing unexplained wealth and publicly threatening the family of the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she may be permanently disqualified from holding public office. She denies the charges.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, economists say, has largely boxed himself into a rate hike after delivering a high-profile speech last month warning that inflation remains well above the Fed’s 2% target. U.S. data released last week showing that inflation remains stubbornly high bolstered expectations for higher rates, which can slow borrowing and cool costs.

That puts Warsh on a collision course with President Donald Trump, who wants the Fed to cut interest rates. Trump lambasted former Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the issue before he nominated Warsh for the job this year.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.2% on Wednesday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.1% and the Nasdaq rose 0.4%.

Oil prices declined for the first time this week with Saudi Arabia’s crucial oil pipeline closure adding to pressure on global oil supply. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been targeting infrastructure in the kingdom as well as its shipping on the Red Sea, where they have seized several islands on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And Iran is still targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.1% lower to $107.61 a barrel, but is still far above the $70 per barrel before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 2% to $103.70 a barrel.

A gallon of gasoline in the U.S. rose again overnight, hitting $4.37 on average, according to motor club AAA. A week ago, gasoline averaged $4.22 a gallon. Diesel, which topped $6 a gallon on Friday, is now $6.31 a gallon on average, up from $5.94 a week earlier.

Higher U.S. Treasury yields have pressured on the stock market. Government bond yields have risen as the Iran war-driven energy crisis added to inflationary pressure while the U.S. national debt grew.

The 10-year Treasury was at 5% on Wednesday, after it briefly touched 5.04% this week, its highest level in years.

The Commerce Department releases retail sales data for August. In July, Americans unexpectedly cut their spending by the biggest amount in more than a year with retail sales falling 0.6%. Economists are expecting a rebound in August, with analysts surveyed by FactSet projecting a 0.9% increase

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 10,723.77. France's CAC 40 climbed 0.4% to 8,123.78, while Germany's DAX gained 0.3% to 25,466.60. Asian markets were higher.

The U.S. dollar rose to 155.19 Japanese yen from 155.10 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1535, down from $1.1544.

Asked how a team that works on the fringe of baseball's middle class has turned Champagne celebrations into a September ritual, Jacob Misiorowski shrugged.

“I couldn’t tell you,” the 24-year-old ace said. “You know, I’ve been trying to figure it out all year.”

The search will continue into October. The Brewers (94-57) won their fourth straight NL Central title on Tuesday night, when they rode their flame-throwing star and a couple of timely hits from role players Luis Lara and Joey Ortiz for a 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh.

When Atlanta rallied past the Chicago Cubs about 30 minutes later, there was a roar that seeped through the cinderblock walls outside the visitors' clubhouse at PNC Park. Bottles were popped. Cigars were lit. Beers — Miller Lites, of course — were chugged.

This part of the journey never gets old, not even for Christian Yelich, who has been a fixture during Milwaukee's run of eight playoff appearances in nine years.

“We're a good team,” the three-time All-Star and 2018 NL MVP said. “This is what we set out to do every season at the beginning of spring training. We just keep playing our game.”

Brewers win with a smart, unselfish style

Milwaukee doesn't overwhelm opponents with power or gaudy stats — outside of Misiorowski's stream of 100 mph-plus fastballs — and instead relies on singles, smart baseball and a selfless approach.

The Brewers gave Pittsburgh a glimpse in the second inning. Jake Bauers led off with a single to right field, advanced to second on a groundout and sprinted to third on a wild pitch. Luis Lara followed with a fly ball to center field deep enough to allow Bauers to dash home.

Just like that, Milwaukee was up 1-0 with the NL Cy Young favorite on the mound. While Misiorowski didn't think he had his best stuff on a night he tossed five scoreless innings to drop his ERA to an MLB-best 1.89, it hardly mattered.

“It’s just the boys grinding, them doing their jobs and putting a run across the board,” Misiorowski said. “So that’s all I can ask for.”

A lot of times, it's all he needs. The Brewers don't just, as Ortiz put it, “single you to death.” They largely avoid the mental mistakes that can make all the difference during the 162-game regular season.

The proof came in the fourth when the Pirates put together their only significant rally. Pittsburgh had runners on first and second with one out when Rafael Flores hit a sharp grounder that glanced off Milwaukee third baseman David Hamilton's glove and rolled into the outfield. Pittsburgh's Nick Gonzales stayed at third rather than race home after a mix-up with third base coach Tony Beasley.

In the chaos, the Brewers caught Pirates designated hitter Ryan O'Hearn in a rundown between second and third for the second out. Misiorowski got Spencer Horwitz to fly out and end the threat.

It's been like that all year. It's been like that most of the last decade.

“I think we do a really good job of knowing how to win, creating a winning culture and everybody knows, like, every night it's time to win,” Yelich said.

Yelich believes that culture starts with the ownership group headed by Mark Attanasio and trickles down to general manager Matt Arnold to manager Pat Murphy to a roster whose payroll of around $140 million is 19th highest in the majors.

The other National League teams that began Tuesday in playoff position — the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Diego and the Chicago Cubs — are all inside the top 10.

Brewers are no longer overlooked around the majors

Given the Brewers' success since their renaissance began in 2018, it's hard to paint them as underdogs.

“I wouldn’t say they underestimate us anymore,” Misiorowski said. “I think we’ve gotten to a spot where they kind of see it.”

The Pirates, who are on the cusp of having their playoff drought hit 11 years, certainly have.

“Other teams are definitely looking at what (the Brewers are) doing ... because they haven’t spent the money that the Dodgers have,” Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said. “Money doesn’t always buy wins or championships. It’s a game that we’re playing. You have to go out there and play good baseball, and the Brewers have done that consistently over the last few years.”

When Ortiz was a rookie in Baltimore in 2023, he remembers sitting around with teammates wondering “how was Milwaukee winning these games?”

Now he knows. And no, there is no secret sauce. Just good baseball.

“It’s just competing, focusing on the stuff we can control, worrying about today and nothing else,” he said. “I feel like we just have a bunch of competitors on the team who want to do what we can to win. I don’t really think we think too much.”

While the Brewers have locked up the division, they're hardly finished. The next step is trying to hold off the Dodgers for the No. 1 seed in the National League and the home-field advantage that comes with it.

For all of Milwaukee's success, one thing the club hasn't done is translate it into an extended October stay. The Brewers are still searching for their first World Series appearance since 1982. Yet they keep giving themselves a chance. They'll take it.

“I think we stick to our plan and stick to who we are,” Ortiz said, “and try and be the best at what we can do.”

___

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

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and other prominent industry leaders have said in recent days that AI’s development needs to slow down. The consensus came after an Anthropic researcher resigned with a dire warning about the threats the technology poses to humanity.

But obstacles including domestic and global competition, profit motivations and pushback from President Donald Trump all stand in the way of a coordinated effort to pace AI’s development.

Still, this moment could force the industry to wrestle with a “reframing of what we consider successful," said Nick Reese, former director of emerging technology policy at the Department of Homeland Security and an adjunct professor at New York University.

“What if we considered success in AI the same way that we consider success for airlines? On time and haven’t had a crash in who knows how long,” Reese said. “We don’t tolerate commercial airline crashes, but we do tolerate significant AI failures.”

Here's what tech leaders want an AI slowdown to entail

In theory, the leading AI startups could slow the progress of their models at any time. But leaps in the technology have partly sprung from competition to build even more powerful models, all with the blessing of a White House that doesn't want the U.S. to lose its edge over China. Anthropic and OpenAI also are racing toward potentially record-breaking public offerings on Wall Street, although the latter said it's holding off on going public this year while it continues its safety efforts.

That's why the proposals floated by industry depend upon mutual collaboration and, to an extent, government regulation.

Amodei recently published a lengthy essay in which he outlined a plan for slowing advanced AI development.

One proposal calls for companies at the forefront of AI, often called frontier labs, to commit to giving “ongoing, employee-like access” to independent outside evaluators. Evaluator teams would have offices, access badges and company laptops so they can monitor safety practices.

Anthropic is “unilaterally committing” to this step now, Amodei wrote. Altman called it a “great idea” on social media and said OpenAI will follow suit.

Altman said he welcomed a “federal framework” setting out safety standards for advanced AI, but said the company didn’t need to wait for legislation or an antitrust exemption before addressing AI safety.

Amodei's essay also called for government regulation and intervention, including coordination between frontier AI companies with the help of the U.S. government and the governments of other democratic countries. He said he hopes the leading labs could establish “common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress.”

Amodei's plan also includes the U.S. and other countries working to coordinate with “authoritarian governments.” He acknowledged the difficulty, specifically citing challenges in getting cooperation from China.

The Anthropic head outlined several levels of agreement that global leaders could sign off on. The most feasible, he said, would be an agreement banning “certain narrow and obviously dangerous uses of AI" like producing biological weapons or allowing users to do so. More difficult would be getting the U.S. and its adversaries to agree to test models before release, possibly through a global standards body, for risks in areas like cybersecurity or biological threats.

Still harder would be to set a “speed limit” on AI models that can develop improved versions of themselves on their own, known as recursive self-improvement.

“Slowing the rate from ‘extremely fast’ to ‘only somewhat fast’ gives up relatively little strategic advantage, while potentially greatly improving safety,” Amodei wrote.

He drew an analogy to Cold War-era treaties in which “capping the number of missiles limited the potential for destruction while preserving each country’s deterrent.”

Amodei said the most difficult proposal to implement would be a “full pacing, or even ‘pause,’" whereby participating governments agree to substantially limit the overall rate of AI development.

Writing on social media, Altman said the “pacing” of AI development does not mean stopping. AI progress will continue to be rapid, Altman said on X. “But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs.”

“Pacing will be well worth this cost,” he said, adding that “no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness.”

Questions swirl about AI slowdown's feasibility

While experts said the sense of agreement across the industry is promising, there are many unanswered questions.

A slowdown is possible “in theory,” said Sandra Wachter, professor of technology and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute.

But in practice, “it would require substantial coordination and cooperation between companies and governments across countries,” something she deems “highly unrealistic” due to “the current state of the world.”

Options for promoting a slowdown, she said, include governments doing more to hold AI companies responsible for the risks posed by their technology and pursuing regulation that limits their access to electricity, water and other resources that power data centers.

The idea of embedding external evaluators inside companies has been mostly well-received by the industry, but some critics questioned how independent the assessors could be and how the evaluation standards would be drawn up. The result could be even more concentration of power, Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of the Canadian AI lab Cohere, wrote in response to Amodei's essay.

“A handful of the most powerful labs based in one country would agree on shared standards and the limits to how fast the technology should advance,” Gomez said.

He also pushed back against Amodei’s idea to have the U.S. government give frontier labs waivers to bypass antitrust restrictions.

“If this is the most consequential technology in human history, then the rules for it cannot be written by a small group of commercially aligned companies behind an antitrust waiver," Gomez said.

Elham Tabassi, the director of the AI and Emerging Technology Initiative and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said until the measures companies are committing to are solidified and made public, having independent auditors would be a “voluntarily-provided, company-controlled” move.

Tabassi said it's crucial AI companies continue to invest in developing “scientifically valid” ways of testing and measuring their models as they aim for increased safety. Without this, regulation won't hold as much power, she said.

Trump resistance, pressure to beat China stand in the way

The Trump administration has long favored a light-touch approach to the AI industry in hopes that innovation would flourish and that AI development in the U.S. would surpass China.

The competition between American and Chinese AI companies has been likened to an arms race, which experts said is not conducive to collaboration. That creates “conditions where now we have this existential adversary,” Reese said.

Still, some industry leaders remain “cautiously hopeful" about AI development moving in a more safety-minded direction, said Zahra Timsah, the co-founder and CEO of governance platform i-GENTIC AI.

“Within days, you have CEOs that are competing — all of them, all of a sudden, found common ground. You have senators from both parties that started to advance different forms of oversight," Timsah said.

“It’s receiving attention, but attention is not the same as implementation. Will it really work? I don’t know.”

Election officials say nearly 200 candidates have served in Ukraine, and the Kremlin touts them as part of Russia’s “true elite” — its effort to show that veterans of the 4 1/2-year-old war will have an honored place in civilian life.

But few analysts believe that most of them will ever hold any real power among the country’s ruling class, dismissing the effort as a way to lure more volunteers to fight.

Independent Russian media regularly report about returning veterans involved in assaults, drunken brawls and even killings. Some of those crimes were committed by men who were recruited into the military from prison.

The vote that begins Friday for the State Duma — the lower house of parliament — is the first since the war began, and also will take place in areas of Ukraine that Russia captured and illegally annexed. The Kremlin is tightly managing the election, seeking to reinforce its narrative of widespread support for the war and provide a veneer of legitimacy for its actions.

Most of the Kremlin-aligned parties allowed on the ballot have candidates identified as participants in the SVO — the Russian acronym for its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

One prominent candidate is Vladislav Golovin, 29, of the ruling United Russia party, who fought in the battle for the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and lost part of his leg. He has appeared at events with President Vladimir Putin, who made him a Hero of Russia, the country's highest honor.

In 2024, Golovin took part in Putin's “Time of Heroes” program that prepares veterans for government careers. He now heads a military and patriotic youth organization, the Young Army — but also has been put on Western sanctions lists.

United Russia has several dozen candidates with a Ukraine war background. Another of its leading candidates is Yevgeny Poddubny, a well-connected state TV war correspondent who was wounded by a Ukrainian drone.

The ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party has a top candidate in Alexei Vereshchagin, who is described as having joined the Moscow-backed separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and leading a brigade of volunteers.

“We are the ones our homeland has called upon to fight for the ‘Russian World,’ and we will fight,” Vereshchagin, who was born in Kyiv, said in a campaign video, using a term popularized by Putin, especially after Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

Ukrainian police in March posted a photo of what appeared to be Vereshchagin and said they were investigating him for his role in home invasions and threatening civilians in the Kyiv region in 2022 before Ukrainian forces retook the area. They said he fought against Ukraine for over a decade. He hasn’t publicly commented on the allegations. The party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kremlin seeks to entice men to fight in Ukraine

By promoting veterans in the State Duma campaign, the Kremlin wants to show potential recruits that they would be fighting “for some higher cause, and that they have bright prospects ahead of them in the form of a career lift,” said Nikolay Petrov, senior research fellow at the NEST Centre, founded by exiled Russian tycoon and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

But Russia also “doesn’t know what to do” with those returning from the battlefield, Petrov told The Associated Press, and so it offers them largely insignificant positions with little real power, while focusing on promoting those who already held public office.

Former Putin speechwriter-turned-political analyst Abbas Gallyamov was more blunt, calling it “empty talk.”

To lure more men into enlisting, “you need to promise them everything they want to hear, from promises of payments to flattery and stories of their special greatness, their contribution to the cause of building a new Russia,” Gallyamov told AP.

Most veterans have a difficult postwar path

The postwar path is not simple for many veterans. Most of those who signed military contracts cannot terminate them under Putin’s 2022 “partial mobilization” decree, and those who were drafted that year have not yet been demobilized, either.

Those who are severely injured or have reached a certain age can be discharged, and some special units reportedly offer limited tours of duty.

About 167,000 servicemen have returned from Ukraine, presidential administration official Sergei Novikov said in December, although Russian media reports and experts say the number is probably higher.

The competition for the Time of Heroes program is fierce and requires higher education and management experience. Out of over 65,000 applicants in 2024-25, only 168 were accepted, according to its website. Of them, some 80 were appointed to various positions on national, regional or municipal levels.

The independent Russian news outlet Meduza reported in June that at least 1,300 veterans have been appointed to government posts, were elected to local legislatures and councils, or got jobs in state-backed companies or institutions. About 850 of those had some kind of government or related experience before serving, Meduza said, concluding that most beneficiaries were already part of the ruling class.

AP was unable to independently verify those findings, but reports about government officials or lawmakers serving in Ukraine and then returning to their civilian careers are common.

Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlyov, head of the Rodina, or “Homeland” party, has reported serving at the front while keeping his seat as a lawmaker, like some of his colleagues. He recently lashed out at a YouTube blogger who wondered why he's not fighting full-time in Ukraine. Zhuravlyov said later that he spends “more time on the front line than in the Duma.”

Tambov regional Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov, a United Russia candidate who also was the former mayor of his native Krasnodar and did a stint as a Duma lawmaker, served in Ukraine as part of a special military unit in 2022.

The U.K. government described his unit in 2024 as having “an unusually high number of United Russia party members and sons of Kremlin VIPs.” In a post on X, the British Defense Ministry said the unit is predominantly involved in drone operations far from the front, allowing elite political figures “to sidestep usual Russian military service requirements with guaranteed safety.”

After a tour of under a year, Pervyshov was accepted into the Time of Heroes program and later was appointed Tambov's acting governor before being elected in September 2025.

Enthusiasm sours for Putin's promises

Ivan Filippov, who studies propaganda and analyzes military and pro-war bloggers, says such examples fuel disappointment in the pro-war community, which initially was enthusiastic about Putin’s promise of a new “elite.”

“They were very happy when he said those words, but it turned out rather quickly that it’s not about (genuine) veterans,” he told AP. Rather, he added, it's about some who went to the battlefield once, “fired a howitzer, got their veteran credentials” and returned to office.

Now, war hawks understand that returning troops will face “a difficult life” when returning home, he said.

“They understand clearly that no one will let them into power,” Filippov said.

Novikov, the Kremlin official, said in December that “tens of thousands” of veterans remain jobless, and it “forms a dangerous risk zone.”

As for putting veterans in positions of power, the Kremlin naturally prefers “rational bureaucrats” who served in the military, said Petrov, the analyst.

“The authorities don’t at all need bandits that come back from there,” he added.

——

Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

“They’ve never had a person take his space for this region and yeah, we haven’t heard from them since,” said family friend Kayla Jackson.

The bureau's Missing and Murdered Unit was created in 2021 to address the crisis of violence against Native Americans and put new resources toward solving cold cases. But a recent federal audit by the Interior Department's internal watchdog found staffing issues have plagued the unit since its formation during President Joe Biden's administration, creating a backlog of cases and leaving families without required victim services.

Federal spending on the initiative grew from $12 to $17 million between 2021 and 2024. During the same period, the audit found that 39% of money for the Missing and Murdered Unit was redirected toward other Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement costs, including upgrading vehicles. Nearly half the unit's posts remained unfilled as of last year, even as the bureau overall has lost a third of its workforce due to staffing cuts under President Donald Trump.

The bureau says it has adopted many of the report's recommendations, from streamlining its case referral pipeline to training staff on victim services requirements. But federal auditors say weaknesses in its hiring process remain. And some families are still in the dark about their loved ones' cases.

“It is nothing but heartbreaking just to see how inadequate the response has already been for so many of these situations,” said David Adams, an Albuquerque-based attorney, former federal prosecutor and member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Hundreds of cases languished for years

The Missing and Murdered Unit had 83 open cases and nearly 400 pending referrals as of November 2024, according to the audit released Sept. 9 by Interior's Office of Inspector General. The unit did not have a timeframe for assessing referrals.

The audit also found agents had unmanageable caseloads, with some assigned administrative duties, like conducting research on referrals, on top of their active investigations.

Relatives of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places were hopeful when, in 2022, a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent was assigned to her still-unsolved case. Stops Pretty Places had just turned 18 when her body was found in a town bordering the Crow Reservation in 2019.

Her aunt, Grace Bulltail, said the agent was difficult to reach and provided few updates. Last year, Bulltail learned the agent never had full access to the files of local investigators before the agent was reassigned to other duties.

The Associated Press emailed bureau officials seeking comment about the case.

Sarah Deer, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said delays and dysfunction among federal investigators are compounding families' grief.

“These are families who have often experienced institutional failure already,” she said. “A system designed as a response to that history cannot ask families to keep waiting.”

Victims' families fell through the cracks

In 8 of 13 cases reviewed by the inspector general's office, the assigned agent did not contact bureau staff who specialize in helping victims' families. One staff member said they referred families to outside programs because the unit had only two victim specialists nationwide.

Martin was 31 years old when he was reported missing after a welfare check on the Fond Du Lac reservation in 2024. Relatives described him as an outgoing man who played sports with kids and took his nieces and nephews out trick-or-treating . Family members said they get periodic updates from the Fond Du Lac Police Department, but were never connected to BIA victim specialists.

The BIA website does not list a case agent in Martin’s case. The AP asked bureau officials for comment.

Federal efforts on missing and murdered cases

The Trump administration says it has been ramping up efforts to address high rates of violence against Native people. Last month, the FBI announced it would set a minimum reward of $25,000 for public information in dozens of cold cases on tribal land.

Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said in a statement they have taken steps under President Donald Trump to improve case processing and make sure families get support. They said most of the recommendations from the audit had been acted upon.

“The deficiencies identified in the OIG audit reflect operations under the previous administration that were inconsistent with the objectives outlined in Operation Lady Justice,” the statement said, referring to a presidential task force established by the first Trump administration in 2019 to address the crisis of missing and killed Indigenous persons.

In February, the Missing and Murdered Unit assisted in recovering and identifying two sets of remains on the Chickasaw Nation, closing a missing persons case that had run cold more than a decade before.

Deer said new federal and state task forces and specialized law enforcement initiatives have increased public awareness of the crisis.

“The government has stepped up in some ways to appropriate resources, but implementation matters,” she said.

Meanwhile tribal police departments, which are often the first to respond to cases involving Native people, remain under-resourced with limited capacity to investigate complex crimes, she said.

“What I always come back to is whether or not this money could be better utilized by tribes themselves,” Deer said.

The trip marks Trump’s first campaign rally since his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. The president, despite voter frustrations over the Iran war and his economic leadership, has promised dozens more trips ahead of Election Day. Trump's involvement creates a balancing act for Republicans like Whatley, who will depend on the president’s core supporters to turn out while also trying to appeal to moderates and disaffected conservatives unhappy with the direction of the country.

Whatley was the president’s pick for the Senate race and Trump’s pick to lead the Republican National Committee before that. Republicans viewed him as a strong recruit to hold the seat being left open by Sen. Thom Tillis, who decided to retire after clashing with the president last year. But Whatley, who is making his first bid for public office, has trailed Cooper in fundraising in recent months and polling from over the summer showed Cooper with at least a slight lead.

Trump has acknowledged the challenging landscape but believes his presence will be a clear boost.

“In North Carolina, you have a little more difficult case, because people don’t quite get it, but they’re going to find out,” Trump said during his keynote speech in Dallas.

Democrats have not won a Senate contest in the state since 2008, and Trump has carried North Carolina three times since. The seat is critical to Democrats' effort to flip control of the Senate. Cooper was perhaps Democrats’ best recruit this cycle, having never lost a statewide race in North Carolina through four terms as attorney general and two terms as governor.

Republican pollster Paul Shumaker, who worked for Tillis’s and North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd’s campaigns, said Trump will energize Republicans who may not be as excited about the campaign as Democrats. But he noted that registered Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina are split about evenly, while independent voters outnumber both. That cohort of more than 3.5 million voters, he said, are more concerned about the economy, an issue where Trump is weaker than he was in 2024, than with crime or immigration, issues where North Carolina Republicans might still have an advantage over Democrats.

“They see the White House more focused on everything but the economy,” Shumaker said. “So that narrative has to change to give them a path here in North Carolina.”

Whatley, for his part, has not distanced himself from Trump. During a brief speech in Dallas, he praised Trump’s agenda, especially the tax cuts included in his “big beautiful bill” last year. But instead of lavishing praise on the president himself, he spent most of his time unloading on Cooper as soft on crime and bad for North Carolinians’ wallets.

“Under Roy Cooper’s reign, North Carolina became the most expensive state in the nation for health care costs,” he said, countering the former governor’s emphasis on the economy under Trump, especially gas and grocery prices.

Cooper’s campaign pushed back against Whatley’s criticisms and noted that the Republican has faced scrutiny for recently having a convicted sex offender offer the opening prayer at one of his campaign events.

Whatley, meanwhile, is leaning heavily on Trump and national Republican donors to reach voters on TV and online. According to data from AdImpact, which tracks campaign advertising, total Republican spending on the contest has topped $50 million, while Democrats have spent almost $35.2 million, with Trump's MAGA Inc. and other conservative PACs accounting for the overall Republican advantage.

Cooper has no public events Wednesday but the state Democratic Party plans a news conference aimed at keeping attention on inflation under Trump.

This would be the fifth execution in Texas, while Georgia has yet to put anyone to death this year. The nation's busiest death chamber is in Florida, which accounted for more than half the 25 executions already carried out in the U.S. this year.

LeJames Norman, 40, was sentenced to death in the 2005 fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, inside the home they shared in a small, rural town. He is scheduled to die by injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown. He had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. EDT at the state prison near Jackson. A judge issued a stay of execution late Tuesday, but it's possible that stay could be lifted in time for it to go forward.

An attempted robbery turned deadly

Norman and Ker’Sean Ramey believed there was cocaine in the house in Edna, a small, rural city about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Houston, and hoped to steal it, according to court records. But they never found any drugs and fatally shot three people in the home. Lopez was shot four times, including three in the back of his head. Peacock was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck and head.

Norman was arrested about five months after the killings while trying to cross back into the U.S. from Mexico. He pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide his punishment.

Ramey was also convicted in the shootings and sentenced to death. His execution is set for next week.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday voted against commuting Norman’s sentence to a lesser penalty or recommending a 90-day reprieve of execution. After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday denied a motion from Norman’s attorneys for a stay of execution based on claims regarding actions by the prosecution, his attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.

In 2017 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Norman’s appeal raising questions about the competence of his trial attorneys.

Killings at a model home and allegations of a biased juror

The two women who Humphreys killed were working as real estate agents for a new subdivision in the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs. He entered the sales office in a model home around midday on Nov. 3, 2003, and forced them to strip naked and give him their bank PINs before fatally shooting them, according to evidence presented at trial.

Humphreys withdrew more than $3,000 from the women's bank accounts, according to court filings. He told police after his arrest that he had recently taken out some high-interest payday loans and needed money for a payment on his truck.

Witnesses told police they saw a man fitting Humphreys’ description at the sales office and a vehicle in the parking lot that matched his black Dodge Durango. Police zeroed in on Humphreys and tried to question him at his Dunwoody home days later. He fled and was arrested in Wisconsin after leading police on a high-speed chase.

A judge halted Humphreys' execution late Tuesday after his lawyers filed a petition seeking a resentencing under a new state law that allows victims of abuse to have their sentences reconsidered and reduced if they can tie their crimes to abuse they suffered.

A lawyer for the state told the judge that if he ordered a stay they would immediately appeal in hopes of keeping the execution on track for Wednesday evening. The judge wrote that if an appellate court rules before the scheduled execution time on Wednesday that Humphreys is not entitled to a hearing on his petition for a reduced sentence, he will consider lifting the stay so the execution can proceed as scheduled.

Humphreys’ lawyers have also argued that he should be resentenced because his death sentence was tainted by a biased juror who lied during jury selection and bullied other jurors into voting for a death sentence. Courts have repeatedly rejected those arguments for procedural reasons, though U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberal justices, argued last year that the issue should be further explored rather than leaving it “caught in a web of procedural barriers.”

Additionally, Humphreys' lawyers have argued that it was not fair that his clemency application was heard by only four members of the five-person State Board of Pardons and Paroles. A judge had ordered one member of the board to recuse herself, agreeing with Humphreys’ legal team that there was a conflict of interest because she previously worked as a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney’s office and had worked with the victims in his case. The parole board on Tuesday denied clemency for Humphreys.

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Brumback reported from Atlanta and Stengle reported from Dallas.

Economists expect that on Wednesday, Warsh and his fellow policymakers will side with the markets.

Warsh, economists say, has largely boxed himself into a rate hike after delivering a high-profile speech last month warning that inflation remains too far above the Fed's 2% target and might require higher borrowing costs to bring it down. A report last week showing inflation is still stubbornly high largely sealed investors' expectations.

Warsh has faced this dilemma before. Soon after becoming chair May 22, he delivered tough rhetoric on inflation, but in late July the central bank left its key rate unchanged. After he provided little explanation for his decision at a press conference, investors pushed up longer-term interest rates, accelerating a process that is still ongoing. This week, the rate on the 10-year Treasury bond reached 5% for the first time in three years. Mortgage rates, which closely follow the 10-year Treasury, have also risen.

If the Fed doesn't hike its key rate Wednesday, it risks a replay of what happened in late July, economists say. When investors expect inflation to stay high, they demand higher interest rates on government and corporate bonds to compensate.

“That is the paradox: A hike now could lower long-term rates later,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, wrote in an email. “Restore faith in the 2% target, then the inflation premium can fall. Fail, and markets will tighten instead through higher mortgage rates, business borrowing costs and interest on the debt.”

A quarter-point rate increase would be the first in three years and push the Fed's benchmark rate to about 3.9%.

While campaigning for the top job last year, Warsh said the Fed could lower interest rates. But since getting the nod, the Iran war has sharply raised gas prices, lifting inflation to 3.7% in July, according to the Fed's preferred measure. In April 2025, before Trump's tariffs, it had fallen to 2.3%.

Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, was 3.3% in July, up from 3% just before the Iran war.

If the Fed forgoes a rate hike, it would risk being seen as giving in to pressure from the White House, which could undercut its credibility with financial markets.

“Kevin cares about his legacy," said Kristin Forbes, an economics professor at MIT's Sloan School and former policymaker at the Bank of England. "And he knows that Fed chairs who follow political pressure instead of the economy do not go down well in the annals of history.”

Trump harshly criticized Warsh's predecessor, Jerome Powell, for not cutting rates quickly enough. His Justice Department even launched a criminal investigation into Powell over brief testimony he delivered to Congress last year, though that probe was eventually dropped.

Kevin Hassett, Trump's top economic adviser, was asked in an interview with Fox News on Sunday how Trump might react to a rate hike.

“I’m sure he’s not going to be super happy about it, but he will defend the independence of Kevin Warsh above all,” Hassett said.

Warsh might also have a measure of protection from the fact that his father-in-law is Ronald Lauder, a friend of Trump's and a billionaire donor to his campaigns.

Even if Warsh decides to support a rate hike, it's not clear how many more will follow. It's unusual for the Fed to change rates just once. Typically the central bank embarks on a series of hikes or rate cuts to push the economy in the direction it seeks.

There is one precedent for a single hike: In 1997, former chair Alan Greenspan lifted rates by a quarter-point in March of that year. Yet a financial crisis ignited in Asia that July, prompting the Fed to remain on hold. When the crisis worsened in 1998, the Fed ultimately cut rates three times that fall.

For now, Wall Street investors anticipate the Fed will hike three times, with additional increases in December and March.

But Jonathan Pingle, an economist at UBS, said it is possible that if future inflation data showed price increases cooling, the Fed could forgo more hikes.

“They don't have to follow through on that if the data goes their way,” Pingle said.

On Wednesday, the Fed will provide some hints about its next moves when it releases its quarterly economic projections, which will include a forecast of where its benchmark rate will be at the end of this year and next.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson also went deep for the Orioles (74-78), who stayed three games behind Cleveland for the last American League playoff spot.

Mayo snapped a 4-all tie with a three-run homer in the 11th. He connected on an 0-2 pitch from Jonathan Pintaro with two outs and sent a long drive to center field that glanced off rookie A.J. Ewing's glove as he crashed into the fence.

The ball rolled away from Ewing as he fell to the ground, allowing Mayo to circle the bases and score standing up.

Alonso, who hit a club-record 264 homers for the Mets before signing with the Orioles last December, was hitless in his first seven plate appearances of the series before launching a 414-foot solo drive off Kodai Senga to tie the score at 3 with one out in the ninth.

A pumped-up Alonso spiked his bat toward the Orioles dugout and rounded the bases as the Citi Field crowd of 28,097 — down from 35,800 for the slugger's return Monday night — roared.

Fans chanted his name until Alonso emerged from the dugout for a curtain call, after which chants of “Fire Stearns” aimed at Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns began.

It was Senga’s first blown save in eight chances this season.

The teams traded runs in the 10th, when Encarnacion-Strand raced home on a wild pitch and Marcus Semien laced a one-out RBI double for the Mets. Alonso struck out against Pintaro (2-2) in the 11th before Mayo’s inside-the-park homer made a winner of Alex Hoppe (1-1).

Andrew Kittredge earned his 10th save after allowing Bo Bichette’s two-out RBI single.

New York (69-82) lost its third straight and was assured of a losing season.

Carson Benge homered for the Mets, eliminated from playoff contention with Monday’s 2-1 loss to Baltimore. Jared Young had a sacrifice fly and Juan Soto delivered an RBI single.

Up next

Orioles RHP Chris Bassitt (7-5, 4.88 ERA) starts Wednesday’s series finale against Mets RHP Robert Stock (1-3, 5.93).

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Throughout that nearly half century, one man was the undisputed king of the puzzle board.

Pat Sajak took a simple game of hangman and transformed it into a nightly American institution, steering the ship through changing eras before finally passing the torch to Ryan Seacrest.

“This is a franchise that I grew up watching and loving as a kid,” said Seacrest. “My family, we get together. My dad would be home from work right at the time it started. We’d all hang out, then we’d have chicken salad for dinner afterwards.”

At the very heart of the show’s letter-spinning magic, co-host Vanna White was always by Sajak’s side.

Through it all, she’s been the epitome of grace, revealing every puzzle with that trademark smile.

“We’ve known each other for over twenty years,” she said of her new co-host. “So yeah, we’ve been friends, so it’s kind of easy. He’s so easy to work with, and he’s professional and he’s good at what he does. And he just, he just fit right in.”

Seacrest knows the history he is holding. Even as a broadcasting titan, he respects the monumental legacy Sajak built, fully recognizing the pressure of being the new guy in America’s living room.

“I’m filling the shoes of a legend, and I was, of course, nervous,” said Seacrest. “And I wanted people to still be comfortable watching the show and enjoy the show. And being the new guy can be nerve-wracking.”

It was the third most-watched women's World Cup game and it peaked at 1.5 million viewers. The top two also came from this year's tournament, which ended Sunday. The title game went up against the opening weekend of the NFL season and the U.S. Open men's final.

“It’s a little bit of the planets aligning,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer for TNT Sports. “It's not just this great FIBA World Cup tournament, but women's sports coming into the spotlight the last three or four years.”

The WNBA — which paused its season so players could participate in the World Cup — has drawn huge ratings this season, thanks in no small part to Caitlin Clark's star power and devoted fan base.

The U.S. had a roster of WNBA stars including Clark, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Angel Reese.

The Americans' three-point win over Italy drew the highest rating of the tournament, with 1.3 million average viewers and a peak of 1.7 million. The games were also shown on HBO Max, and the streaming service had its four most-watched women’s basketball games.

Ratings for the Americans' quarterfinal win over Hungary that started at 5:30 a.m. EDT weren't available, according to the network, because of the early start time.

Before this World Cup, the best ratings for a tournament game came in the 2022 gold medal contest between the U.S. and China that drew 446,000 viewers on ESPN.

TNT announcers called the games remotely from the U.S., with sideline reporter Allie LaForce providing reports from Berlin. The network also had a studio show. This was the first time that TNT had the rights to the women's World Cup; the network also has the men's tournament next year.

“We take a lot of pride in putting resources, assets, personnel around things,” Barry said. “The story isn’t just Team USA. It's who are the teams you love, who are the teams you love to beat. How does that come together? For two weeks, getting up really early in the morning, putting this together, the reward is the five highest-rated World Cup games ever.”

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Colleen Williams, an NBC4 Los Angeles anchor, confirmed during live broadcasts that two people were killed Tuesday when the chopper went down. At least one other person was killed on the ground, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

“We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it,” Williams said, her voice shaking with emotion. Moments later the coverage cut off.

There were no immediate details on what may have caused the helicopter to crash.

The helicopter went down near a large storage facility in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. News crews were reporting on a collision from earlier in the day, when an SUV slammed into the middle of a city bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others. Photos and videos online showed half the SUV lodged in the side of the bus.

At least four cars and two storage containers on the ground burned after the helicopter caught fire, which was quickly put out, according to officials. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik was at the bus scene and saw black smoke and rushed to the helicopter crash site. Dozens of police cars surrounded the scene as ambulances entered.

Two people were brought to a hospital, said Rico A. Gross, a fire department battalion chief. Their conditions were not immediately released.

News station identifies those on the helicopter

Williams and the station’s website identified the dead aboard the helicopter as Eliana Moreno, a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station’s aerial coverage, and pilot George Marciniw. Both were employees of Angel City Air, which operated the chopper.

Moreno, born in Orange County, joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several Southern California news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, the NBC4 website said.

Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.

“I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss,” NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado said during a newscast early Wednesday. She was standing near the crash site during the newscast and said a hazmat crew was cleaning up jet fuel.

In a tribute to Moreno and Marciniw, the newscast referred to them as “the team in the sky,” saying Moreno would often post videos from her job and was in awe of the view she had. News anchor Lynette Romero held a colleague’s hand and wiped away tears after hearing Moreno’s voice when one of her posts was played.

In an interview with the station, Esteban Jimenez, a pilot, said he had known Marciniw since the 1990s. He said Marciniw had been his instructor.

“I just talked to him on Sunday. We were talking about the aviation business and retiring,” he said.

Condolences for the victims and their families

NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said in a statement they “are deeply saddened” and extended “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”

“Losing five Angelenos is very painful,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the emergency crews responding to both crashes and said in a post on X that “our hearts are with the victims and families.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said personnel will arrive Wednesday to begin an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.

There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts. They include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed the pilot and a photographer aboard a helicopter used by Philadelphia station WPVI and a 2022 crash beside a Charlotte, North Carolina, interstate that killed a pilot and meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.

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This story has been updated to correct that Marciniw, not Moreno, graduated from Burbank High School.

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Golden reported from Seattle.

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It happened around 3:45 p.m. at the chain’s location at 15110 SW 56th St.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, crews arrived to the scene and discovered the damage to the building, as well as a gas leak.

Officials quickly notified the gas company, authorities said.

One woman was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital as a trauma patient, according to MDFR, while two other women taken to area hospitals.

Authorities said one of the injured women was the driver of the vehicle, which appeared to be a dark-colored SUV.

There was no word from authorities on the circumstances that led up to the vehicle crashing into the building.

Canada imposed reciprocal tariffs on about $20 billion (CA$27.6 billion) worth of U.S. goods last week after President Donald Trump placed import taxes on Canadian goods worth the same amount. In response to Canada's action, Trump said the U.S. also would ban imports of wine, whiskey, selected motorcycles and the dairy ingredient whey from Canada.

The tariffs so far involve about 5.5% of the neighboring nations' bilateral trade in goods. Analysts say the overall economic impact therefore will be muted. But small business owners who depend on cross-border sales say a tax of up to 50% on their products and ill will created by the conflict have an outsize effect on them, especially when higher energy costs stemming from the Iran war are eroding their balance sheets.

The owners of four small businesses, two in the U.S. and two in Canada, spoke with The Associated Press about the ways the trade war is affecting their companies.

A Vermont cheesemaker sees a trade war with a close ally hurting business

At Jasper Hill Farm, an artisan cheesemaker in Greensboro, Vermont, co-founder Mateo Kehler said Trump's opening salvo produced an immediate effect: canceled holiday orders from wholesale customers in Canada, whose border is only about 40 miles away.

Cheese wasn't among the products made subject to new U.S. tariffs last month. Kehler suspects his hopes for expanding business in Canada are stalling because residents there resent the way the president and members of his Cabinet treat their country, a longtime ally.

“The backlash on the market side is actually what’s affecting us the most,” Kehler said. “It’s the rhetoric that has inspired a boycott.”

Trump has needled America’s northern neighbor repeatedly since he returned to the White House. First, it was comments last year about wanting to absorb Canada as the 51st state. After trade negotiations broke down in August, he taunted Prime Minister Mark Carney and signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

The lost sales and higher prices for materials and equipment that Kehler buys from Canada are tough to swallow when the war with Iran has made fuel for Jasper Hill Farm's trucks and machinery more expensive too, he said. Some of his suppliers and distributors are adding surcharges to cover their costs, he said.

“It’s like death by a thousand cuts, because between the rising cost of energy and the tariffs, the inflationary pressure on the inputs across almost every aspect of our business — from the farming side all the way through to finished goods — is just being ratcheted up,” Kehler said.

A Vancouver Island company that serves craft distillers expects cost-prohibitive duties to put off U.S. clients

Revival Stillworks makes equipment for distilling liquor like vodka, agave and whisky and helps design spaces for producing craft spirits from the company's base on Vancouver Island, less than 20 miles from Washington state's San Juan Island.

Until last month, the equipment could enter the U.S. tariff-free under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade pact Trump negotiated during his first presidency. Now, the company's stills, fermenters and other products incur a 50% tax for crossing the border, co-founder Darcy Lane said. The customs charges are considerable because the equipment costs $250,000 to $2 million, Lane said.

“We’ve got millions of dollars worth of orders that are supposed to be happening over the next four to six months, and then all of a sudden this happens again,” he said, recalling how a U.S. customer called off a project last year when Trump threatened to put tariffs on some Canadian products.

Clients in the U.S. make up about half of Revival Stillworks' business. With rising oil prices during the war driving up shipping costs, many already were evaluating whether they should move forward with projects that involve imported equipment, Lane said.

He and his partner are looking into other kinds of work. Since they employ engineers, welders and fabricators, their business could service the local marine industry, Lane said.

“Hopefully, cooler heads prevail and everything works out, and we can continue along as business as normal," he said. “But if not, we have to put a contingency plan in place anyway."

A Nashville producer of guitar amplifier devices detects a chilling effect on sales to Canadian musicians

Cassandra Sotos is co-owner and CEO of AmpRx, a company in Nashville, Tennessee, that manufactures devices for musicians and recording studios to measure and adjust the voltage moving from a power outlet into a guitar amplifier.

Like Kehler, Sotos thinks the U.S.-Canada trade war is having a chilling effect.

Although the majority of her company's sales are within the U.S., Sotos counts musicians around the world as customers. The new U.S. tariffs do not apply to her bestselling product, a power adapter priced from $400 to $1,400, but demand from Canadian customers has fallen off anyway, she said.

Sotos said she isn't sure if customers are worried about unexpected import charges or if the stumbling block is “just optics with the United States” and how the country is perceived in Canada at the moment.

As a small business, "any piece of the puzzle that gets taken away from us is significant,” Sotos said. “There’s just as many guitar players in Canada as there are in the United States. And I’m currently only able to get to a tiny percentage of them because of all of this.”

She feels like trade policies are hampering AmpRx's growth at a time when fighting in the Middle East has brought unexpected expenses. Shipping costs for imported components are two to three times what they were before the war, Sotos said.

“At times, this aspect of the global situation acts as a silent killer for small to medium businesses,” she said. “Just as you figure out how to manage the increase from tariffs, you get the second punch to the gut with the shipping estimate.”

A British Columbia beekeeper fears for the future of Canada's honey industry

A new tariff on Canadian honey that the U.S. started charging in August came as a blow to beekeepers like Peter Awram, CEO of the family-owned Worker Bee Honey Co. in Rosedale, British Columbia. The U.S. was the market for about 60% of Canadian honey export volume, he said.

The reciprocal 50% tariff that Carney's government slapped on American-made honey does nothing to help because an influx from India and China of fake honey diluted with rice syrup has created pricing pressure on both sides of the border, said Awram, who began beekeeping more than 50 years ago.

“Most of what Canada is now tariffing is not American honey,” he said. “It is other countries’ honey carrying American paperwork."

Most Canadian beekeepers will likely try to increase their domestic sales, which could flood the market with honey and further depress prices, Awram said.

“The industry was in a precarious state before the tariff,” Awram said. “If this tariff stays in place for long, it will put a large number of commercial beekeepers out of business.”

Unos 80 intérpretes cubanos, incluyendo a Insua, se presentaron al concurso convocado por la embajada de México en La Habana para conmemorar el Día de la Independencia mexicana, conocido como el Grito de Dolores.

El principal diplomático mexicano en la nación caribeña indicó que esta gala cultural era, además, una demostración de apoyo a la isla ante las presiones impuestas por Estados Unidos.

Entre banderas mexicanas y cubanas, la gala de cierre de la competencia en uno de los principales teatros de la capital –el Karl Marx-- rindió homenaje especial al cantante Juan Gabriel y a las radios cubanas, claves para entender la enorme popularidad de los géneros del vecino país en la isla.

Unas 70 emisoras cubanas –-de las casi 100 existentes—- tienen programas especializados en música mexicana.

“México con Cuba tiene un compromiso histórico”, dijo antes de tocar solemnemente las tradicionales campanadas del Grito y dar paso al concurso, el embajador mexicano en la isla, Miguel Ignacio Díaz Reynoso.

“Cuba solo quiere vivir en paz, Cuba quiere trabajar en paz y en esa lucha Cuba sabe que no está sola, que cuenta con México”, agregó el diplomático, quien consideró que el cerco petrolero impuesto por Estados Unidos contra la isla es “brutal, inhumano, ilegal” y constituye un “castigo colectivo”.

El presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, impuso a la nación caribeña un bloqueo petrolero y financiero desde enero -–que se ajusta cada vez más--, y México fue uno de los aliados en el continente que hizo patente su rechazo a las presiones del titular de la Casa Blanca.

México envió miles de toneladas de alimentos, medicinas, insumos de aseo y paneles solares en una media docena de barcos desde febrero como ayuda humanitaria, y la mandataria Claudia Sheinbaum reiteró su rechazo a las medidas unilaterales estadounidenses.

La gala cultural y el concurso fue a teatro lleno y puso de manifiesto la cercanía de las relaciones de ambas naciones a todos los niveles.

“No hay quien quiera más a México que los cubanos”, aseguró emocionada a The Associated Press, Insua, conocida en el ambiente como Mari “la mexicana”, una de las participantes de mayor edad en la competencia. Ella no ganó ningún galardón, aunque dijo que ya era un premio interpretar la música del vecino país.

Moira Colley, senior director of media relations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in New York, said Tuesday that the group has plans to meet with Steven Kolb, longtime chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to discuss ending the use of wool and animal skins in clothing.

Kolb has apologized for his actions, which included forcefully restraining two PETA employees and putting his hand over their mouths, and is taking a leave from his job pending an investigation.

Colley said PETA's initial plan was to file a police report against Kolb. The group changed course after a visit to police and then consulting with attorneys, she said, and decided to seek the meeting with Kolb. He has agreed to meet, Colley said, adding that a time had not yet been set.

The group intends to show Kolb videos of how sheep are mistreated for the use of their wool.

“We are willing to drop everything if we reach an understanding that benefits the animals,” Colley said in a phone interview. She also said the group recognized Kolb’s previous involvement in getting fur banned from runway shows on the CFDA schedule — and hoped he would again “do the right thing.”

There was no immediate response Tuesday to a message sent to Kolb’s CFDA email address. The council is the fashion industry's main trade organization, and Kolb has worked there for two decades, becoming CEO in 2011.

Video of the incident from the Sunday runway show for Cos, a brand owned by H&M, quickly drew widespread attention.

It showed Kolb, who is well known and respected in the New York fashion world, forcibly restraining Andrija Barak and Mason Melito, identified by PETA as employees.

Barak was aiming to disrupt the runway show, calling out slogans about the use of wool. Kolb is seen in the video covering her mouth with his hands and restraining her with both his arms and a leg over her body as he seeks to let the show continue.

Separately he is seen pushing Melito and also putting his hands over his mouth.

Colley said the two were among six employees at the show. Three aimed to disrupt the runway, including Barak, and three were filming, including Melito.

It is up to voters in both districts whether to renew a tax that gives hundreds of millions to schools and staff.

In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the Broward County Public Schools superintendent, the teachers union president and other leaders came together.

It is not a new tax. This would renew the one already passed by voters.

The district is already closing schools and losing thousands of students every year.

“We’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions, especially the past two years with declining enrollment, which has also reduced our revenue source,” BCPS Superintendent Howard Hepburn said.

Hepburn said if the district lost the tax, more cuts would be inevitable.

“We would lose approximately $358 million. We would have to make some tough decisions that would definitely have an impact on our district,” Hepburn said.

The tax supports school safety workers and hundreds of mental health professionals.

But mostly, it supports teachers and staff, with $173 million a year.

Without it, the teachers union president said there is no question staff will leave after they lose a big chunk of their paycheck.

“More than teachers will leave,” Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said. “Again, it helps every rank-and-file worker paycheck. Everybody.”

Down in Miami-Dade County, district leaders also stood side by side Tuesday.

Their own tax, giving schools roughly $570 million, is also up for renewal.

“Today’s a proud day because here we are again standing for what we believe in: A better community,” Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Rafael Villalobos said.

Most of the money is dedicated to teacher salaries, with some going to school safety and security.

“I know this community understands the importance and the viability of education, and they will do the same in 2026,” Villalobos said.

Jones, the president of the nonprofit advocacy organization, said she and other members had been requesting that the city hire a full-time library specialist.

“We have so many teens coming into the library every day that we really need a person just to handle the load of students,” Jones told council members.

The council of Miami-Dade County’s sixth-largest city voted unanimously to approve the proposed $238.9 million budget — without addressing Jones’s request.

“I do see the need for additional help,” Kassandra Timothe, the vice mayor, said about the job opening at the library.

The city council’s vote to keep the 7.4 millage rate, which has remained flat since 2022, was also unanimous during the final budget meeting.

Councilman Kevin A. Burns, a former mayor who represents the city’s District 1, said he disapproved of the long list of “overpriced” special events included in the budget.

“We have such other crucial needs out there,” Burns said.

The budget authorized 18 new full-time and 22 new part-time positions, but not the library job Jones asked for.

“We are going to look mid-year to see if we can add someone part-time,” Theresa Therilus, the city manager, told the council about the compromise on a job opening at the library.

Councilman Pierre Frantz Charles thanked Therilus and her team for the “balanced” budget, which included a combined 5% merit and cost-of-living adjustment for PBA employees and 3% for general employees.

Deborah Davis, a resident, said she was grateful for the city’s support of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

“I think it’s a real star that puts North Miami on the map,” Davis said.

The budget’s major investments included $5.96 million for water and sewer improvements; $2.65 million for the Building Inspections facility; $1.52 million for sidewalks and roadway resurfacing; $1.27 million for parks and recreation improvements; $1.14 million for priority stormwater projects; and $591,000 for general government facility improvements.

Alix Desulme, the city’s mayor; Councilwoman Mary Estimé-Irvin; and Timothe have been campaigning for re-election on Nov. 3.

Desulme is running against George Morgan. Timothe is running against Brian Jinks. Estimé-Irvin, who represents District 3, is running against Joban Jules and Carolina Matamoros.

Related document: Here is the 369-page proposed budget

Watch the meeting

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• Judge rules North Miami council members violated city charter, not Sunshine Law
• Fort Lauderdale commissioners adopt $1.28 billion budget, keep same millage rate for 19th year

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Miami Fire Rescue officials said the two victims, an 18-year-old man and a 23-year-old man, were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in stable condition after suffering gunshot wounds outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen, located at 316 NW 24th St.

The restaurant is located across from the Wynwood 25 apartment building in an area known for its restaurants, shops and nightlife.

Authorities said Miami police received multiple emergency calls and found a man with a gunshot wound outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen.

Witnesses said officers later found a second victim outside Skinny Louie’s, the restaurant next door.

A Local 10 News crew was outside of the restaurant as police remained at the scene for hours, with officers monitoring the area behind police tape. A K-9 unit was also seen searching around the property.

An employee at a nearby business described the chaos after the gunfire and said he helped a wounded man.

“I seen a crowd of people just running straight towards us,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t hear the shots myself because I was further in the back. As I’m coming out, a lot of people are running inside.”

The employee said people inside the restaurant were told there was gunfire outside.

“So I got everybody inside and then I locked the doors. I thought it was like an open shooter, but the shots had already happened by the time everybody was running inside,” he added.

He said he later found a wounded man outside and helped provide first aid.

“I came outside and I seen a gentleman on the floor. He had a bullet wound to his right buttocks and he was kind of bleeding out. People were applying pressure to him,” he said. “I had a belt. I don’t have it no more now. But I took my belt off and I kind of wrapped it around him and I told him like, don’t move because we don’t know if the bullet’s still in you. It would be dangerous for him to move.”

Miami police have not released additional details about what led to the shooting or identified a suspect or possible motive.

Anyone with information on the shooting is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Local 10 reporter Saira Anwer contributed to this story.

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It happened just before 7 a.m. on July 24 at 785 81st St. in the Biscayne Point section of North Beach.

Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz released footage from two of the cameras deputies were wearing.

The video shows what is called a Special Response Team busting down the door. Once inside, they start shouting at a woman to raise her hands.

A moment later, 17-year-old Durrell Young swings his door open with a gun in his right hand and moves toward the room deputies are in.

The entire interaction happens very quickly.

The Sheriff’s Office says the deputy told Young to put up his hands, but he did not comply, so the deputy shot him.

Authorities released a photo of the gun they said Young was armed with.

The Sheriff’s Office says Young and another man named on the warrant, 18-year-old Valentino Berry, were known to deputies due to previous gun-related offenses.

Berry was taken into custody. Young was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating this shooting.

Los maestros fueron escoltados por la policía mientras se desplazaban por el centro de La Paz exigiendo al gobierno medidas para afrontar la crisis económica y el alza del costo de vida en el país andino.

Mostrando una olla vacía, la maestra Miriam Ayala, representante de los educadores urbanos, dijo a la prensa que las medidas que impuso el gobierno, como la subida del precio del diésel y el tipo de cambio del dólar flotante que ha aumentado el valor de la moneda estadounidense frente al boliviano, han generado una subida de precios. “Todo ha subido y el gobierno no hace nada”, se quejó Ayala.

El sindicato de maestros convocó a una protesta a nivel nacional pero las más representativas se desarrollaron en la región oriental de Santa Cruz y la amazónica de Beni. Los maestros dijeron que salieron a las calles en defensa de la educación pública y la protección de la carrera docente ante una posible reforma educativa.

"No es momento de protesta, es momento de propuesta”, dijo el ministro de Educación, Erick Sanjinés, en sus redes sociales, e invitó a la dirigencia a un diálogo. A su vez, negó que se vaya a realizar una reforma educativa sin un consenso.

El sector magisterial público está compuesto por unos 178.000 maestros, según el censo de población de 2024.

Este gremio protagonizó entre mayo y junio junto a otros sindicatos obreros, campesinos y afines al expresidente Evo Morales protestas con bloqueos que afectaron principalmente a las ciudades de La Paz y su vecina El Alto, dejándolas con pocos alimentos, oxígeno medicinal y combustible, lo que llevó al gobierno a decretar el estado de excepción para contenerlas.

El informe anual del grupo de defensa ambiental y de derechos humanos Global Witness documentó 105 asesinatos en América Latina en 2025. Colombia fue el país más mortífero por cuarto año consecutivo, con 39 asesinatos, seguido de Brasil con 26. Honduras y Filipinas registraron 12 cada uno.

Los defensores de la tierra y del medio ambiente son personas que trabajan para proteger su tierra, sus recursos naturales y sus comunidades contra amenazas como la minería, la tala, los agronegocios y otros proyectos de desarrollo, a menudo documentando daños ambientales, organizando a las comunidades o patrullando el territorio.

Entre los asesinados estuvo Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, de 36 años, un integrante del pueblo indígena guaraní kaiowá de Brasil, que recibió un disparo durante un ataque armado contra su comunidad en Mato Grosso do Sul en noviembre. Su comunidad ha participado en una prolongada lucha para recuperar territorio ancestral.

En conjunto, Colombia y Brasil representaron el 52% de todos los asesinatos documentados a escala mundial.

El saldo mundial disminuyó por segundo año consecutivo, pero en el informe se advierte que el descenso no necesariamente significa que los defensores ambientales estén más seguros. El grupo sostiene que el número de asesinatos registrados es inferior a la cifra real, mientras que las disputas por la tierra, el crimen organizado y la competencia por los recursos convergen cada vez más en regiones donde las comunidades intentan proteger los bosques, ríos y territorios ancestrales.

El grupo documentó 142 asesinatos y cuatro desapariciones en 2024, y 196 asesinatos en 2023. Sin embargo, a nivel de país, las tendencias variaron marcadamente.

Los asesinatos bajaron en Colombia de 48 en 2024 a 39 el año pasado, y en México de 19 a 10. En cambio, en Brasil pasaron de 12 a 26, mientras que Honduras registró el doble de asesinatos, con 12.

En el informe se documentaron 2.375 asesinatos y desapariciones de defensores de la tierra y del medio ambiente desde que la organización comenzó a registrarlos en 2012, uno de los pocos esfuerzos por compilar sistemáticamente estos casos en todo el mundo. Global Witness trabaja con más de 30 organizaciones en más de 20 países y contrasta los casos con fuentes que incluyen reportes de prensa y registros judiciales.

Los pueblos indígenas y los agricultores cargan con el mayor peso

Más de tres cuartas partes de las personas asesinadas en 2025 eran indígenas, pequeños agricultores o afrodescendientes, según el informe. Cuarenta y siete víctimas eran pequeños agricultores y 44 eran indígenas. Siete de las víctimas indígenas eran integrantes de sistemas de guardia comunitaria establecidos para proteger sus territorios.

Las disputas por la tierra estuvieron vinculadas a 84 asesinatos, más de la mitad del total mundial. La minería y las industrias extractivas se asociaron con 11 muertes; la tala, con ocho, y los agronegocios, con seis.

Según Global Witness, se sospecha que el crimen organizado y los sicarios estuvieron implicados en más de un tercio de los asesinatos, lo que refleja lo que la organización describe como una creciente superposición entre la actividad criminal y la explotación de la tierra y los recursos naturales.

Casi la mitad de los 39 defensores asesinados en Colombia eran indígenas y otros 15 eran pequeños agricultores. Treinta y cinco muertes estuvieron vinculadas a conflictos por la tierra. El grupo de defensa identificó presuntos vínculos con el crimen organizado en 17 asesinatos y otros cinco con asesinos a sueldo.

Trece de los asesinatos ocurrieron en el departamento suroccidental del Cauca, entre ellos, cuatro integrantes de la Guardia Indígena, grupos liderados por la comunidad que patrullan y protegen territorios indígenas. En el informe se documentaron 171 asesinatos de defensores en el Cauca desde 2012, más que en cualquier otro departamento colombiano.

Astrid Torres, coordinadora del grupo colombiano de defensa Somos Defensores, señaló que las autoridades indígenas pueden entrar en conflicto con grupos armados que buscan controlar el territorio para el narcotráfico y otras actividades ilícitas.

“Quieren imponer su orden en contra de los intereses de las comunidades y en contra de las autoridades propias”, manifestó Torres.

La ubicación de la región cerca de la frontera con Ecuador y de rutas de tráfico por el Pacífico la ha vuelto estratégica para los grupos armados involucrados en el comercio de cocaína.

Brasil registra un fuerte aumento de asesinatos

Los 26 asesinatos documentados en Brasil fueron más del doble de los 12 registrados un año antes.

Once de las personas asesinadas eran pequeños agricultores y siete eran indígenas. La mayoría de los casos tuvo que ver con demandas de reconocimiento de territorios ancestrales o de reforma agraria, y la mitad se concentró en los estados amazónicos de Rondonia y Pará, donde la tala y la minería ilegales, la ganadería y la expansión agrícola han contribuido a desatar conflictos de larga data por la tierra.

El aumento se produjo pese a una mayor participación indígena y a compromisos sobre derechos territoriales en la cumbre climática COP30 del año pasado en la ciudad amazónica de Belém. Brasil anunció la titulación de 10 territorios indígenas durante la cumbre, aunque cientos de solicitudes siguen pendientes.

En una respuesta por escrito, el Ministerio de los Pueblos Indígenas de Brasil dijo a The Associated Press que reducir la violencia contra las comunidades indígenas requiere proteger sus territorios, combatir las invasiones y las actividades ilegales y exigir que los autores de delitos rindan cuentas. Indicó que el gobierno ha reanudado la demarcación de tierras indígenas y ha realizado operativos para retirar a personas ajenas de 12 territorios, beneficiando a más de 67.000 indígenas.

Las amenazas se extienden más allá de América Latina

Se documentaron asesinatos en 15 países en 2025.

Asia representó el 12% del total mundial. Filipinas registró 12 asesinatos, la cifra más alta fuera de América Latina, y en el informe se indica que en cinco casos se sospechó de la participación de las fuerzas armadas en medio de operaciones de contrainsurgencia. También se documentaron asesinatos en India, Indonesia, Turquía, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua y Francia.

En África, se verificaron tres asesinatos, dos en Tanzania y uno en la República Democrática del Congo. En el informe se advierte que el conflicto armado, las restricciones a la sociedad civil y la inseguridad hacen que los ataques sean especialmente difíciles de documentar en la región.

En el Congo, el periodista Fiston Wilondja Mazambi fue hallado muerto en Bukavu tras investigar presunta minería ilegal de oro por parte del grupo rebelde M23, respaldado por Ruanda. Global Witness ha registrado 79 asesinatos de defensores en el Congo desde 2012, el total más alto que ha documentado en África.

El informe también se centra en estrategias de protección lideradas por las comunidades que se están adoptando a medida que los grupos indígenas responden a amenazas que los gobiernos a menudo no han logrado contener. Incluyen patrullajes territoriales, sistemas de alerta temprana y redes comunitarias de monitoreo.

En Perú, donde cuatro defensores fueron asesinados el año pasado, el informe destaca a la Guardia Indígena Kakataibo, cuyos integrantes patrullan territorio amazónico amenazado por el cultivo ilegal de coca y el crimen organizado.

“Defender nuestro territorio es importante para nosotros como comunidad y como pueblo, y nos enorgullece defender el clima del que todos dependemos”, expresó Segundo Ispón, comandante de la Guardia Indígena Kakataibo, en un comunicado. "En nuestra cultura, la labor de defender nuestros recursos y territorio se enseña desde temprana edad. Pero para la próxima generación, esta labor es más peligrosa que nunca”.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. La AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Encuentre los estándares de la AP para trabajar con organizaciones filantrópicas, una lista de las fundaciones y las áreas de cobertura que financian en AP.org.

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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.

Republicans and Democrats joined unanimously in the bipartisan vote after Black refused to appear this month for a sworn deposition and produce requested nondisclosure agreements. Black sued the panel, asking a federal court to block the subpoenas.

Black is the former chief executive of a private equity firm that lawmakers say funneled millions to Epstein. Republican Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, said Black is “hiding behind litigation to delay having to provide answers to the American people.”

“No one is above the law,” Comer of Kentucky said. “We have no choice but to hold him in contempt.”

The panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, said Black's behavior is “unacceptable.”

“We are going to stand up,” he said, and remind people that “subpoenas are not suggestions.”

The recommendation to hold Black in contempt would next go to the full House for a vote. If approved, it would send the contempt finding to the Justice Department, with the possibility of prosecution.

The House is scheduled to break later this week until after the midterm election in November, making next steps uncertain.

Black’s attorney said earlier this month that the committee is “on a fishing expedition.” The lawsuit claims the committee overstepped its authority in issuing the subpoenas.

Epstein investigation churns in Congress

The investigation into Epstein has become one of the signature developments of this Congress, a rare moment of bipartisan action. Survivors of Epstein's alleged sexual abuse have told personal stories of being young women in a trafficking enterprise organized by Epstein and his colleague Ghislaine Maxwell.

Black is among several prominent figures, including Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, who have been asked to appear as part of the probe.

In June, Black did appear for a voluntary interview at the committee. Lawmakers said later that he refused to answer their questions about the nondisclosure agreements.

The committee issued two subpoenas seeking to compel Black to produce the NDAs and to appear for a deposition July 16. The committee said it had accommodated Black’s request to delay the deposition to Sept. 3, but he refused to appear.

Black co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and stepped down in 2021 during the fallout over his ties to Epstein.

Lawmakers have alleged that Black paid Epstein $180 million during their yearslong relationship.

The lawmakers said Tuesday that Black's testimony would be crucial to their investigation as well as their recommendations going forward.

Comer said testimony from Black about Epstein and Maxwell would be “invaluable.”

Garcia said hearing directly from Black would help the committee understand the role of big banks in trafficking enterprises as it probes how the legal and law enforcement systems can do better to protect victims.

“El mantenimiento irrestricto del equilibrio de las cuentas públicas se consolidará como la regla fiscal inalterable de esta administración, previendo lograr por cuarto año consecutivo un excedente financiero en las cuentas públicas nacionales”, adelantó el Ministerio de Economía en un comunicado. “Se trata de un hecho inédito en la historia del país al lograrse en un contexto sin default”.

El texto oficial proyecta un superávit primario de 1,3% del PIB.

Milei, un economista anarcocapitalista que llegó al poder en 2023 levantado una motosierra como símbolo de su plan de austeridad, anunció que buscará la reelección para un segundo mandato en las elecciones generales de octubre del próximo año.

En lo que respecta a la inflación, el gobierno estima que será del 18% para 2027 contra 29% que se proyecta para el cierre de este año.

El tipo de cambio, según el cálculo oficial, rondará los 1.847 pesos por dólar, 15% más que este año.

En tanto que el gobierno proyecta un superávit de la balanza comercial de 15.000 millones de dólares.

La iniciativa se comenzará a debatir en la Cámara de Diputados en la segunda semana de octubre y luego debe ser respaldada por el Senado. El oficialismo necesita del apoyo de aliados para lograr su aprobación.

The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing — in which U.S. taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United States.

The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The conflict in Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the enclave. The U.S. brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has continued.

The package, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as Israel has faced increasing international isolation over its war in Gaza in response to the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.

The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are not impeding the closeness of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Trump has had a hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some frustration with Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest meeting in July at the White House.

In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.

Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.

The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground and cause widespread damage.

Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and blast fragments found on-site believe the U.S.-made bombs have been used there, targeting a tunnel network used by Hamas but also killing of people in densely populated areas.

While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile ceasefire took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in the territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that killed several people. That is even after Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key Mideast negotiator, met with Netanyahu last month in an effort to push the ceasefire deal forward and asked Israel to reduce its attacks.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other ceasefire violations.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza to retaliate has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

The Miami Gardens Police Department’s 2-year-old Labrador retriever was back home after vanishing for about six days.

Gael jumped out of the MGPD patrol car and bolted across Northwest Second Avenue on Sept. 7, police said.

A resident recognized Gael and called police on Sept. 13 to report the K-9 was at North Miami Avenue and Northwest 191st Street.

Killed in the crash was 4-year-old Christine Celine Varella Mejia, and two other children, 8-year-old Abraham Medrano Mejia and 7-year-old Yamilah Claudio, are now fighting for their lives at Broward Health Medical Center.

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“She was just a baby, she didn’t deserve this,” said Gabriella Derras, Meija’s aunt. “I still remember the last time I talked with her. She wanted me to take her to Disney, and I promise her and I didn’t.”

Christine Mejia, her parents, an adult cousin and two underage cousins were heading to get pizza Saturday night.

Behind the wheel was Christine Mejia’s mother, who was driving them along the 4100 block of west Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach and as she was about to make a U-turn to head westbound when traffic investigators said their car was hit by a motorcycle.

The motorcyclist has been identified as 18-year-old Maxwell Patel, who died at the scene.

The impact caused the Nissan to flip over and the car was left mangled. The adults were all taken to the hospital and two of the surviving children are in critical condition.

Abraham Mejia’s sister, Katherine Medrano, said her little brother is in a medically induced coma.

“He suffered multiple fractures around his whole body, he had severe brain trauma, he had to have brain surgery,” she said.

Derras said Yamilah Claudio also suffered multiple injuries.

“She had really bad head trauma,” she said. “At the moment just praying and hoping she makes it and gets better, she’s also in a medically induced coma.”

The family said they are leaning on to their faith and trying to stay strong during this very difficult time.

“This is every parent’s worst possible nightmare, losing your child, having your child in a comatose state, needing to have brain surgery, having your cousin in another room next to yours and not knowing what is going on with them in their little bodies,” said Medrano. “They are strong children and they are going to make it, I’m praying everyday.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Family members have created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses for Christine Mejia, and a separate GoFundMe page to assist with hospital expenses for the children who are still recovering.

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Authorities said a Pembroke Pines police officer was waiting at a red light at Sheridan Street and Flamingo Road just after 10:30 p.m. when he spotted the young girl “standing on the rear set exposing her upper body outside the right rear window” of a Lexus driven by her mother, Isabella Fernanda Saenz.

Police said Saenz, 26, crossed over a solid white line as the light turned green ― and her daughter was still hanging out of the window.

An arrest report states that the officer pulled Saenz over. The report states she was “unaware” her daughter was unbelted and hanging out of the window.

Police said Saenz smelled of alcohol and had “glossy” eyes. They said she later failed field sobriety testing and a breathalyzer test revealed a blood alcohol content of more than 0.12%, over the legal limit of 0.08%.

According to the report, Saenz told officers that she was coming back from “a kid’s birthday party in Miramar,” where she had a margarita.

After her arrest, she was booked into jail and given an $8,000 bond by a judge on Monday. She no longer appeared in Broward jail records as of Tuesday.

Records show Saenz has received multiple traffic tickets in Broward County dating back to 2023, some of which were later dismissed.

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A team used heavy-duty specialized equipment to push and pull more than 412,000 pounds out of the Sept. 6 crash site, along Northwest 67 Avenue, and to a nearby lot.

The National Transportation Safety Board continued to investigate what caused the jet to overrun the runway after landing and crash into a van and an SUV, killing five people and injuring five others.

The jet struck seven men — Julio Pineda, Rolando Aleman, Yoel Rodriguez, Carlos Acosta, Javierkys Reyes, Roosevelt Perdomo, and Ridoel Averhoff — who were in a white 2012 Ford E-150 Econoline van at MIA.

Pineda, 75; Aleman, 55; Rodriguez, 53; Acosta, 53; and Reyes, 47, died while working for Professional Ocean Service Corp., a company that cleans planes at MIA.

Perdomo, 36, and Averhoff, 32, were injured. The jet also struck Eugenio Corredor, who was driving a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV on Northwest 67th Avenue outside of MIA.

Corredor, 79, was also injured. Joseph Carroll and Jaime Silva, the pilot and the co-pilot of the Boeing 767-300 operated by 21 Air for Amazon, suffered minor injuries.

Carroll, 55, and Silva, 37, were released from the hospital to face scrutiny over the crash. Perdomo, Averhoff, and Corredor remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Tuesday night.

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Un equipo usó maquinaria pesada especializada para empujar y arrastrar las más de 412,000 libras del avión desde el lugar del accidente del 6 de septiembre, a lo largo de Northwest 67 Avenue, hasta un terreno cercano.

La Junta Nacional de Seguridad en el Transporte (NTSB) continúa investigando por qué el avión se salió de la pista después de aterrizar y chocó contra una van y una camioneta. El accidente dejó cinco muertos y cinco heridos.

El avión impactó a siete hombres que iban en una van Ford E-150 Econoline blanca de 2012 dentro de MIA: Julio Pineda, Rolando Aleman, Yoel Rodriguez, Carlos Acosta, Javierkys Reyes, Roosevelt Perdomo y Ridoel Averhoff.

Pineda, de 75 años; Aleman, de 55; Rodriguez, de 53; Acosta, de 53, y Reyes, de 47, murieron mientras trabajaban para Professional Ocean Service Corp., una empresa que limpia aviones en MIA.

Perdomo, de 36 años, y Averhoff, de 32, resultaron heridos. El avión también golpeó a Eugenio Corredor, quien conducía una camioneta Toyota Corolla Cross por Northwest 67th Avenue, fuera del aeropuerto.

Corredor, de 79 años, también resultó herido. Joseph Carroll y Jaime Silva, piloto y copiloto del Boeing 767-300 operado por 21 Air para Amazon, sufrieron heridas leves.

Carroll, de 55 años, y Silva, de 37, ya salieron del hospital y ahora enfrentan el escrutinio por el accidente. Perdomo, Averhoff y Corredor seguían internados en el Jackson Memorial Hospital el martes por la noche.

Las autoridades informaron que un policía de Pembroke Pines esperaba en un semáforo en rojo en Sheridan Street y Flamingo Road poco después de las 10:30 p.m. cuando vio a la niña “de pie en el asiento trasero, con la parte superior del cuerpo fuera de la ventana trasera derecha” de un Lexus que conducía su madre, Isabella Fernanda Saenz.

Según la policía, cuando el semáforo cambió a verde, Saenz, de 26 años, cruzó una línea blanca continua con su hija todavía colgando de la ventana.

El informe de arresto indica que el agente detuvo a Saenz, quien “no se había dado cuenta” de que su hija iba sin cinturón y con medio cuerpo fuera del vehículo.

La policía dijo que Saenz olía a alcohol y tenía los ojos vidriosos. Luego no pasó las pruebas de sobriedad y una prueba de aliento arrojó un nivel de alcohol en la sangre superior a 0.12%, por encima del límite legal de 0.08%.

De acuerdo con el informe, Saenz les dijo a los agentes que regresaba de “una fiesta de cumpleaños de un niño en Miramar”, donde se había tomado una margarita.

Tras su arresto, fue ingresada en la cárcel y el lunes un juez le fijó una fianza de $8,000. Hasta el martes, ya no figuraba en los registros de la cárcel de Broward.

Los registros muestran que Saenz ha recibido varias multas de tránsito en el condado Broward desde 2023, algunas de las cuales fueron desestimadas después.

About 6.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the 78th primetime Emmy Awards on NBC, according to data released Tuesday by the network.

“Widow's Bay” from Apple TV was Monday night's biggest winner by far on the telecast hosted by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay, setting a record for a comedy with 14 Emmys. “The Pitt” won best drama for the second straight year.

The show aired against the stiff competition of the first Monday Night Football game of the year between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos on ESPN.

The Emmys telecast brought in an estimated 6.87 million viewers on ABC in 2024, and 7.42 million on CBS last year.

This year's show was far higher than the all-time low of 4.3 million from the Fox telecast of January 2024, which was delayed by months because of Hollywood’s writers and actors strikes.

The telecast rotates annually between the four broadcast networks.

The Emmys always lag well behind similar awards shows, bringing less than half the viewers of the Oscars or Grammys and significantly fewer than the Golden Globes.

The show's September spot on the calendar means it always has to contend one way or another with football, the one live event that has kept drawing the same big national ratings it always has.

As is typical when the Emmys are on NBC, the show moved from its usual Sunday spot to Monday, so that NBC could air Sunday Night Football. But that meant competing against Monday Night Football. And it did not have a football game as a lead-in as some networks do when they air the ceremony.

The show in the streaming and prestige TV era has had to reckon with nominees that bring with them special buzz but not big audiences. In the 1990s, “Seinfeld” and “ER” were drawing massive viewer numbers along with their Emmy tallies in a way that “Widow’s Bay” and “The Pitt” do not.

The last Emmys to reach more than 10 million viewers was 2018, when it drew in 10.2 million. The show had nearly 22 million viewers in 2000, a level it’s unlikely ever to hit again.

Los hechos ocurrieron poco antes de las 7 a.m. del 24 de julio en el 785 de 81st St., en la zona de Biscayne Point, en North Beach.

La sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz divulgó las imágenes de dos de las cámaras que llevaban los agentes.

En el video se ve a un equipo especial de respuesta (Special Response Team) derribar la puerta. Una vez adentro, los agentes le gritan a una mujer que levante las manos.

Un instante después, Durrell Young, de 17 años, abre de golpe su puerta con un arma en la mano derecha y avanza hacia la habitación donde están los agentes.

Todo sucede en cuestión de segundos.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff, el agente le ordenó a Young que levantara las manos, pero como no obedeció, le disparó.

Las autoridades publicaron una foto del arma que, según dijeron, tenía Young.

La Oficina del Sheriff indicó que Young y otro joven que figuraba en la orden, Valentino Berry, de 18 años, ya eran conocidos por los agentes por delitos anteriores relacionados con armas.

Berry fue detenido. Young murió en el lugar.

El Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) sigue investigando el tiroteo.

Harrity took one of the best-known photographs of the Vietnam War, of a baby girl lying in a box alongside her brother in what was then the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.

“Chick was an amazing photographer,” said retired photojournalist Nick Ut, another AP Vietnam War photographer. "We all walked by this homeless boy near a woman selling cigarettes, but Chick saw the photo.“

An eighth-grade teacher in his hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, urged Harrity to pick up a camera, launching him on “a lifelong journey documenting the world around him,” his wife of 51 years, Yvonne Henry, wrote in an online obituary.

He took pictures ‘of a group of pretty interesting people’

Harrity started his career in 1956 at a Reading newspaper and went on to spend 26 years at the AP, 13 of them in the Washington bureau. He then became chief photographer at U.S. News and World Report.

“I had the chance to run around the world taking pictures of a group of pretty interesting people. I was getting to witness history,” Harrity said in his family's obituary.

As a member of the White House press corps for 33 years, he covered presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to George W. Bush and was at the White House documenting Richard Nixon's resignation. One Aug. 9, 1974, photo shows a teary-eyed Nixon bidding farewell to members of the White House staff.

Harrity served in the Air National Guard and attended Kent State University. His hobby was “writing and photographing stories ‘as a unit,’” the AP wrote in an internal article describing Harrity as the organization’s Albany photographer.

Harrity had a great sense of comedy that imbued his work and personal lives, his wife said. “The guy had a fantastic sense of humor in every single part of his life,” Henry said. “He always looked for something funny.”

When asked about her husband’s obituary, she said, “”His quote would be, ‘It’s been a wonderful ride.’”

His family's obituary also makes a reference to Harrity's appetite for deep knowledge about the stories he was covering.

A page titled “Chick's favorite cartoons” shows one of two men looking a sign with one arrow captioned “You are here” and another captioned “Those in in the know are here.” Another shows a character from the cartoon “Shoe” who's sent out to do some aerial photography. Perched on a rooftop, the character says, “Luckily I just get paid to take the picture, not to figure out why.”

He was known for forming relationships that made his photography possible

Harrity covered 1960s and 1970s protests in Washington and Milwaukee, among other cities. Sent to Vietnam to help cover the effects of the Paris Peace Accords to end the war, he demonstrated his ability to swiftly form relationships that helped him take top-notch photographs of a country he didn't know intimately, said retired AP photographer Neal Ulevich.

“Chick was not only a top-notch shooter but outstanding at getting along with everyone in a situation that he was new to,” Ulevich said.

Harrity retired from U.S. News on April Fool’s Day 2001, his family wrote in his obituary. He moved to northern California, where he contributed to the Calistoga Tribune and local arts organizations.

During his long career, he received the Associated Press Managing Editors’ award for excellence in photography, the National Press Photographers’ Association's Joseph Sprague memorial award, the Leica Medal of Excellence for photojournalism and the White House National Press Association's lifetime achievement award. He was also named the White House News Photographers Association's photographer of the year.

Beside his wife, Harrity is survived by “interesting, amusing, and treasured family and friends,” his family obituary reads. “He loved well. He was well loved.”

___

Associated Press journalist Edith M. Lederer contributed.

En el choque murió Christine Celine Varella Mejia, de 4 años. Otros dos niños, Abraham Medrano Mejia, de 8 años, y Yamilah Claudio, de 7, luchan por sus vidas en el Broward Health Medical Center.

“Era solo una bebé, no se merecía esto”, dijo Gabriella Derras, tía de la niña. “Todavía me acuerdo de la última vez que hablé con ella. Quería que la llevara a Disney, se lo prometí y no lo cumplí”.

Christine Mejia, sus padres, un primo adulto y dos primos menores de edad iban a comprar pizza el sábado por la noche.

Al volante iba la madre de Christine Mejia. Según los investigadores de tránsito, circulaba por la cuadra 4100 de West Hillsboro Boulevard, en Deerfield Beach, y estaba a punto de dar una vuelta en U para dirigirse hacia el oeste cuando una motocicleta chocó contra el carro.

El motociclista fue identificado como Maxwell Patel, de 18 años, quien murió en el lugar.

Por la fuerza del impacto, el Nissan se volcó y quedó destrozado. Todos los adultos fueron trasladados al hospital y dos de los niños sobrevivientes están en estado crítico.

Katherine Medrano, hermana de Abraham Mejia, contó que su hermanito está en coma inducido.

“Sufrió múltiples fracturas en todo el cuerpo, tuvo un traumatismo cerebral grave y tuvieron que operarlo del cerebro”, relató.

Derras indicó que Yamilah Claudio también sufrió múltiples lesiones.

“Tuvo un golpe muy fuerte en la cabeza”, dijo. “Por ahora solo estamos rezando y esperando que salga adelante y se recupere. Ella también está en coma inducido”.

La familia dice que se apoya en su fe e intenta mantenerse fuerte en este momento tan difícil.

“Esta es la peor pesadilla de cualquier padre: perder a tu hijo, tener a tu hijo en coma, que necesite una operación del cerebro, tener a tu primo en el cuarto de al lado y no saber qué está pasando dentro de esos cuerpecitos”, dijo Medrano. “Son niños fuertes y van a salir adelante. Rezo todos los días”.

La Oficina del Sheriff de Broward informó que investiga las circunstancias del accidente.

Los familiares crearon una página de GoFundMe para cubrir los gastos del funeral de Christine Mejia y otra página de GoFundMe para ayudar con los gastos médicos de los niños que siguen recuperándose.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 3:45 p.m. en el establecimiento de la cadena ubicado en el 15110 SW 56th St.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR), al llegar al lugar los rescatistas encontraron daños en el edificio y una fuga de gas.

Las autoridades avisaron de inmediato a la compañía de gas.

Una mujer fue trasladada como paciente de trauma al HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, de acuerdo con MDFR. Otras dos mujeres fueron llevadas a hospitales de la zona.

Las autoridades indicaron que una de las heridas era la conductora del carro.

Hasta el momento, las autoridades no han informado qué llevó a que el vehículo se estrellara contra el edificio.

District Attorney Ryan Raybould said investigators determined the alleged conduct was not a misunderstanding or paperwork error.

The announcement came amid President Donald Trump's broader efforts to draw attention to noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections and claim it's a widespread problem, even though research shows it to be rare. Voting by noncitizens is punishable as a felony and can result in deportation.

The Texas charges were previewed earlier Tuesday by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche during a White House news conference. He told reporters there would be a “big development” on illegal voting in Texas.

Of those seven, Raybould’s office said, some voted while others attempted to vote in the 2024 and 2018 general elections. Others falsely claimed citizenship on a driver’s license or knowingly registered to vote. The office did not make any claim that the seven were colluding with each other.

Those charged ranged in age from 20 to 69 and had citizenship in countries including Mexico, India, Nigeria and Congo. Six of the seven charged were lawful permanent residents, according to a news release from Raybould's office. One had been ordered to be deported in July.

Trump’s efforts to turn the spotlight on noncitizen voting have included pushing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to voters verified as U.S. citizens, a plan that was rejected Monday by the Supreme Court, and having the Justice Department sue to force the release of detailed voter data in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Those lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.

Department of Homeland Security employees also have been examining state voter rolls in a hunt for noncitizens. A whistleblower statement released this week suggested the activity could run afoul of state laws.

In 2025, election officials in Texas investigated 2,724 registered voters flagged as potential noncitizens after the secretary of state’s office checked a federal database that is used to verify citizenship against the state's voter rolls.

That office announced Tuesday that it has referred 117 of those cases to the Texas attorney general's office for investigation of potential noncitizen voting after cross checking the results from the federal database with other agencies and passport information. That represents a minute fraction of the nearly 18 million registered voters in Texas.

One of the units involved in the investigation that led to the seven charges announced Tuesday is part of Attorney General Ken Paxton's office. Paxton is in one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races this year against Democrat James Talarico.

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Wilder 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.

The annual report by environmental and human rights advocacy group Global Witness documented 105 killings in Latin America in 2025. Colombia was the deadliest country for the fourth consecutive year, with 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26. Honduras and the Philippines recorded 12 each.

Land and environmental defenders are people who work to protect their land, natural resources and communities from threats such as mining, logging, agribusiness and other development, often by documenting environmental damage, organizing communities or patrolling territory.

Among those killed was Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, a 36-year-old member of Brazil’s Guarani Kaiowa Indigenous people who was shot during an armed attack on his community in Mato Grosso do Sul in November. His community has been involved in a long-running struggle to reclaim ancestral territory.

Together, Colombia and Brazil accounted for 52% of all killings documented globally.

The worldwide toll fell for a second consecutive year, but the report cautioned that the decline does not necessarily mean environmental defenders are becoming safer. The group says killings remain significantly underreported, while land disputes, organized crime and competition over resources are increasingly converging in regions where communities are trying to protect forests, rivers and ancestral territories.

The group documented 142 killings and four disappearances in 2024 and 196 killings in 2023. At the country level, however, the trends varied sharply.

Killings fell in Colombia from 48 in 2024 to 39 last year and in Mexico from 19 to 10. In Brazil, they more than doubled from 12 to 26, while Honduras also recorded twice as many killings, with 12.

The report documented 2,375 killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders since the organization began tracking them in 2012, one of the few efforts to systematically compile such cases worldwide. Global Witness works with more than 30 organizations in over 20 countries and checks cases against sources including media reports and judicial records.

Indigenous people and farmers bear the brunt

More than three-quarters of those killed in 2025 were Indigenous people, small-scale farmers or Afro-descendants, according to the report. Forty-seven victims were small-scale farmers and 44 were Indigenous. Seven of the Indigenous victims were members of community guard systems established to protect their territories.

Land disputes were linked to 84 killings, more than half the global total. Mining and extractive industries were associated with 11 deaths, logging with eight and agribusiness with six.

Organized crime and hitmen were suspected of involvement in more than a third of killings, according to Global Witness, reflecting what it described as an increasing overlap between criminal activity and the exploitation of land and natural resources.

Almost half of the 39 defenders killed in Colombia were Indigenous and another 15 were small-scale farmers. Thirty-five deaths were linked to land conflicts. The advocacy group identified suspected links to organized crime in 17 killings and another five to contract killers.

Thirteen of the killings happened in the southwestern department of Cauca, including four members of Indigenous Guard, community-led groups that patrol and protect Indigenous territories. The report documented 171 defender killings in Cauca since 2012, more than in any other Colombian department.

Astrid Torres, coordinator of the Colombian advocacy group Somos Defensores, said Indigenous authorities can come into conflict with armed groups seeking to control territory for drug trafficking and other illicit activities.

“They want to impose their order against the interests of the communities and their own authorities,” Torres said.

The region’s location near the Ecuadorian border and Pacific trafficking routes has made it strategic for armed groups involved in the cocaine trade.

Brazil sees a sharp increase in killings

The 26 killings documented in Brazil were more than double the 12 recorded a year earlier.

Eleven of those killed were small-scale farmers and seven were Indigenous. Most cases involved demands for recognition of ancestral territories or land reform, with half concentrated in the Amazon states of Rondonia and Para, where illegal logging and mining, cattle ranching and agricultural expansion have contributed to longstanding land conflicts.

The increase came despite greater Indigenous participation and commitments on land rights at last year’s COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belem. Brazil announced the titling of 10 Indigenous territories during the summit, though hundreds of applications remain pending.

Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples told The Associated Press in a written response that reducing violence against Indigenous communities requires securing their territories, combating invasions and illegal activities and holding those responsible for crimes accountable. It said the government has resumed demarcating Indigenous lands and has carried out operations to remove outsiders from 12 territories, benefiting more than 67,000 Indigenous people.

Threats extend beyond Latin America

Killings were documented across 15 countries in 2025.

Asia accounted for 12% of the global total. The Philippines recorded 12 killings, the highest number outside Latin America, and the report said five involved suspected participation by the military amid counterinsurgency operations. Killings were also documented in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua and France.

In Africa, three killings were verified — two in Tanzania and one in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report cautioned that armed conflict, restrictions on civil society and insecurity make attacks especially difficult to document there.

In Congo, journalist Fiston Wilondja Mazambi was found dead in Bukavu after investigating alleged illegal gold mining by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group. Global Witness has recorded 79 killings of defenders in Congo since 2012, the highest total it has documented in Africa.

The report also focuses on community-led protection strategies being adopted as Indigenous groups respond to threats that governments have often failed to contain. They include territorial patrols, early warning systems and community monitoring networks.

In Peru, where four defenders were killed last year, the report highlights the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, whose members patrol Amazonian territory threatened by illegal coca cultivation and organized crime.

“Defending our territory is important to us as a community and as a people, and we’re proud to support the climate that we all depend on,” Segundo Ispón, commander of the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, said in a statement. “But for this next generation coming up, the work is more dangerous than ever.” ___

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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A broad area of low pressure spinning about 1,000 miles southeast of Bermuda over the open central Atlantic is the only game in town for the next week but could make a run at breaking the quiet streak by this weekend.

As of Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center was giving the system a medium chance of developing, but not only later this week when upper-level winds become more conducive to organization.

As we discussed in Monday’s newsletter, computer models are split on this one. Traditional physics-based models indicate little to no appreciable odds of development while our newer AI camp of models is more bullish, though have waffled on those higher odds from run to run.

Both the Euro AI ensemble system and the Google’s DeepMind machine learning-based 1,000-member ensemble system suggest a medium chance of development as the system loiters over the central Atlantic into next week.

While the low-pressure system will initially move northwestward, by the weekend high pressure building to its north could drive it back south, allowing it to do a quick loop-the-loop, eventually turning back toward the northeast ahead of an advancing jet stream dip next week.

The uncertainty with this one is high – both with its future development and track – and while it won’t be a concern for the U.S., interests in Bermuda will want to monitor the forecasts as the system hangs around in the vicinity for the next week or so.

If the system becomes better organized in the coming days and is designated an invest, we’ll have more specialized intensity models to help us better gauge future intensity, but models do suggest it’ll be in an environment that could support strengthening should it form.

For now, it’s no near-term threat, but we’ll follow the trends for Bermuda in the days ahead.

As part of the plea deal, Alex Saab agreed to cooperate in continuing federal investigations, paving the way for his eventual cooperation against his former protector. He also agreed to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.

Saab, 54, was deported in May by Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez to the U.S., which has been targeting the Colombian-born businessman for more than a decade.

The money laundering offense carries a maximum 20-year penalty but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the recommended range and seek additional reductions should his cooperation prove substantial.

Saab was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.

But President Joe Biden pardoned Saab in 2023 in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon.

“This case sends a clear message: Political connections, wealth and proximity to a corrupt regime will not put anyone beyond the reach of American justice,” said Jason A. Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who attended Tuesday’s proceedings along with more than a dozen federal agents.

The new indictment centers on contracts for the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples — rice, corn flour, cooking oil — to poor Venezuelans at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.

High-level protection offered in exchange for bribes

In an eight-page statement of facts submitted as part of the plea deal, Saab admitted to skimming at least $195 million from at least six contracts awarded to companies he controlled to import food and medicine.

The scheme “had the approval, participation and protection of some of the Venezuelan government’s highest ranking public authorities,” including from an individual described only as “Government Official 1A,” who designated a surrogate — one of four unnamed co-defendants — to receive bribe payments on their behalf.

Also receiving $17 million in kickbacks was former Gov. Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora, a Maduro ally who with Government Official 1A’s support secretly awarded a Saab-controlled company a contract in 2016 to deliver 10 million boxes of food rations in Tachira state, prosecutors allege. Vielma Mora was previously charged in the conspiracy in 2021.

To conceal the criminal activity and hide the payments, Saab said he and his associates falsified shipping records and set up a network of shell companies and bank accounts in countries including Antigua, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, the Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

Over time, as U.S. sanctions deepened the country’s financial woes, Saab and his associates received payment in the form of Venezuelan oil, gold and other natural resources.

In court Tuesday, Saab told Judge Kathleen Williams that he takes the antidepressant Zoloft and other medicines daily for what he described as “post-traumatic stress disorder” following his 2020 arrest.

Saab could become a witness against Maduro

U.S. officials have long described Saab as Maduro’s “bag man” and could ask him to serve as a character witness against the former president, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a raid by the U.S. military in January.

The new U.S. prosecution of Saab and Maduro is taking place as the Trump administration overhauls relations with Venezuela, focusing its attention on tapping into Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. This month, Trump announced a partnership with Venezuelan oil entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt in which the U.S. government will gain a stake and access to at-cost crude shipments from oil fields with a potential to produce 65 billion barrels.

Saab was little known even in Venezuela until after his first arrest, in 2020, when Maduro’s government invested huge resources rallying public support for his release.

Rodríguez, then serving as Maduro’s vice president, helped mount an international campaign in which she referred to Saab as an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” by the U.S.

But after Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez distanced herself from Saab, firing him from her Cabinet and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela.

Saab amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts but became even more valuable to Maduro as U.S. sanctions forced Venezuela to conduct much of its oil sales and foreign trade outside of Western financial institutions.

___

This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Crisis in Venezuela.” Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App, on PBS stations and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

The Protect College Sports Act, a bill co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called “a bipartisan solution designed to bring order to the chaos” easily cleared the 60-vote threshold it needed to stop the filibuster.

Co-sponsor Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the lopsided nature of the vote left her “cautiously optimistic” it could get through the House, which has failed repeatedly in passing a different version of a college sports bill.

There remains, however, a persistent block of opposition.

“What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Notably, all four Black Democrats in the Senate — Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks — voted against the bill that is strongly opposed by the NAACP.

The vote came a week after college football's most recent crisis — a scheduled meeting of school presidents in the Southeastern Conference to expel LSU over its now-canceled plans to place players on the roster who had participated in NFL training camps.

Calmer heads prevailed. The eligibility lawsuit that triggered the mess is the sort of litigation the bill would outlaw.

“That was probably like a big lamp for some people who saw it and said, ‘Oh my God, this is so out of control,’" Cantwell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You can see how out-of-hand the situation was getting.”

Introduced in May, compromises finally got the bill to the floor in September

Cantwell and Cruz introduced the bill in late May and it nearly died without the support of the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences. Compromises helped get them on board, then it became a matter of getting the bill onto the floor of the busy upper chamber.

At around the time the vote took place, Cantwell released a report that outlined a “spending spiral” that has taken hold of college sports since name-image-likeness payments began.

Among its findings: There was a $519.9 million increase in institutional and government support of athletic programs between 2015 and 2025 among the 53 schools in the Power Four whose data was publicly available. The bill promises to harness that in a number of ways, including:

— Placing into law the 22% cap (around $21.5 million this year) on revenue colleges are allowed to share with their players — an amount agreed to in the House settlement that defined the rules over paying players. It would add a $27.5 million “retention pool” for schools to keep current players in a move that could bring some of the hard-to-regulate third-party NIL deals back in-house.

— Giving conferences the option of pooling their TV media rights, a move proponents say could raise between $4 billion and $8 billion in additional revenue. The SEC and Big Ten disagree and say they would not participate.

— Restricting players to one “free” transfer where they wouldn't have to sit out a year, which could limit bidding wars that take place year-round in the transfer portal.

— Placing into law the NCAA's new rule that allows players five years of eligibility, but no more.

Critics say the NCAA, which has struggled to police its business for the last 100 years, shouldn't be getting more power.

“Over and over again, courts have determined that colleges and the NCAA and conferences are violating the law,” Murphy said.

The bill, however, has gained support from a long list of sports leaders, including retired football coach Nick Saban and Deion Sanders of Colorado, and basketball coaches John Calipari of Arkansas and Mark Few of Gonzaga.

“I think this clears up about 75-80% of our issues,” Calipari said at a news conference in Washington on Monday, the eve of the vote. “Nothing is perfect. This is a bite out of the apple.”

There's a last-minute push before the elections

Though the bill passed on a bipartisan measure, some lawmakers view it as their best chance to do something with the uncertainty of the upcoming election looming. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber. Democrats are trying to flip the Senate in November’s midterms, which can complicate the legislative agenda.

“We’re going to get one shot at this, and I don’t know if we ever will again soon,” said another co-sponsor, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., just ahead of the vote. “We’ve got a moment.”

The bill, he said, could “define the trajectory of college athletics.”

___

Pells reported from Denver.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

The potential for stormy weather carries into Wednesday. The day will offer a cloud/sun mix and east-northeast winds, sustained 5 to 10 mph. The onshore flow could carry scattered showers and storms across the region-- morning, afternoon, or evening. Temperatures will make a run for 90°F-- that’s near seasonable.

“It was difficult, but I never lost my faith,” said Sanchez. “From the very beginning, my faith in God overruled everything else and I knew I was going to get out of there and get well and be cured.”

But the journey wasn’t easy.

Sanchez was diagnosed with adult leukemia three years ago. It all started with a routine check-up and blood work..

“The next day the doctor called and asked me to go to the hospital, to the ER, so that they could run tests because my platelets were at a 12 and they are supposed to be around 150,” she said.

Dr. Hugo Fernandez is the Chair and Medical Director of Moffitt Malignant Hematology and Cellular Therapy at Memorial Healthcare System.

“In these leukemias, what happens is abnormal immature cells, which don’t function normally, they start taking over the territory in the bone marrow and basically crowd out the normal cells,” he said.

Chemotherapy gets rid of the bad cells and new targeted therapies help the healthy cells function properly.

“Don’t be scared of the diagnosis,” said Fernandez. “People say you have leukemia and faces go white and they think it’s the end of the world, but it may not be. In fact, for most people these days it’s not.”

Symptoms of adult leukemia include fatigue, frequent infections, easy bruising and bleeding, and unexplained weight loss.

Thanks to an early diagnosis and targeted treatment, Sanchez is now cancer free.

Today, the proud grandmother is looking forward to the future, one that includes her own wedding next year.

“I don’t take anything for granted,” she said. “I thank the good lord every day when I wake up and every night when I go to sleep. I feel blessed that he gave me the opportunity to be in this thing they call life.”

Twenty farms have carved out large corn mazes to honor the late country music icon, actor and philanthropist and raise money for her Imagination Library, which provides free books to children.

The “Jolene” crooner's death due to cancer on Aug. 25 in Nashville at age 80 brought an outpouring of tributes. They ranged from a drive to rename the country music capital’s airport in Parton’s honor to a surge in online streams of “9 to 5,” “Islands in the Stream” and her many other hit songs.

Now she is being immortalized in corn, with the mazes located in about a dozen states and two provinces, from Alabama to California and Ohio to Texas. Most also feature a Parton-themed trivia game, photo ops and other offerings.

Mazes were planned months before her death

Brett Herbst, founder of The Maize Inc., the Utah-based consulting company that designed the mazes, called Parton a “true American treasure.”

“Dolly’s impact on the world and her love for farming is immeasurable, and our corn maze tributes now take on new meaning and significance,” Herbst said.

The company said the mazes were in the works months before Parton died and are part of its annual campaign honoring country music’s brightest stars. Previous honorees included Reba McEntire in 2023, Luke Bryan in 2024 and Lainey Wilson in 2025.

Parton, who famously grew up poor in rural Tennessee, thanked organizers for supporting her charity before to her death. In a statement provided by The Maize Inc., she encouraged people to “get lost in this year’s country music corn maze for a little fun, laughter and a real good reason to get lost.”

Cornfield tributes now take on greater meaning

One of the mazes is in an expansive cornfield next to Twins BBQ in Brookfield, Connecticut, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of New York. The likeness of Parton beams skyward, ringed by the words “Dolly” and “An American Treasure” and a series of stars.

Danielle Gallop, who co-owns the business with her husband, admits to not knowing much about Parton before attending last year’s corn maze convention at Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park Parton co-owned. But she came away impressed.

“They told us all about her integrity and how she ran all of her businesses and how smart and generous and kind and just really ethical and humble” Parton was, Gallop said, “which is all the things that we aspire to be as business owners.”

Parton’s passing “made it exponentially more meaningful” to be honoring her this year, Gallop added. “She was such an icon.”

The labyrinths can be tricky

Stephanie Chen and her young son, William, were among those winding through the Parton maze Sunday.

They said the easiest part was navigating the part where the “Dolly” is written out in capital letters.

“Because there’s only one way through,” Chen joked.

Gallop says the trickiest part is Parton’s hair. “She has a lot of it, and it comes to little tips,” the owner said. “You don’t know where the next little opening is going to be. I got lost several times.”

The most memorable part of the experience has been seeing visitors dressing up for the occasion.

“We’ve had people in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and Dolly Parton shirts,” Gallop said. “It’s been really great to see all the love pouring out for her.”

___

Marcelo reported from New York.

Bellingham used a neat long touch to get past an opponent near midfield and fed Mbappé in a breakaway into the area, and the France star quickly set up Espí's close-range score to give Madrid the victory and move the Spanish powerhouse even on points with Barcelona. The defending champion can regain the lead when it hosts promoted Racing Santander on Wednesday.

“We went from having it easy to losing control,” Real Madrid coach José Mourinho said. “But in the difficulty of the moment, facing the pressure of losing points, the team reacted and won the match, which in the end is the most important thing. The good thing is that nobody gets bored when Real Madrid plays. The games are always fun.”

Madrid had taken the lead against Elche with an own-goal by goalkeeper Matías Dituro in the 25th after the ball ricocheted off him following a well-struck free kick taken by Arda Guler. Mbappé added to the lead by scoring from close range after an assist by Yan Diomande in the 33rd.

Abiel Osorio pulled the hosts closer with a header in the 71st and Fer Niño netted the equalizer in the 83rd.

There was a bit of a scare immediately after Mbappé scored as he stayed on the ground in visible pain, but he eventually returned to the field after being attended by Madrid doctors.

The goal moved him to seven goals in six league matches, one goal more than Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Sergio Camello and Roberto Fernández.

Mbappé had scored a brace in Madrid’s 4-1 win against Rayo Vallecano in the previous round.

He had a goal disallowed for offside just before halftime on Tuesday.

Bellingham came into the match by replacing Guler in the 68th.

Madrid’s only league setback this season was at Real Betis two rounds ago.

Mbappé and Vinícius avoid T-shirt

Players from both clubs wore t-shirts showing words of support for Ceuta as they came onto the field before the match. But Madrid players Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté wore the shirt only halfway down their chest, without pulling them down, and obscuring some of the words on it. Mbappé and Vinícius removed their shirts before they saluted the other players and the referees.

They had not immediately explained why they did that.

In July, tens of thousands of migrants breached the frontier between Spain's North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco.

Valencia wins after shake-up

Valencia won 1-0 at Alaves to end a four-game losing streak and a winless start to the season.

The string of poor results had led to the firing of coach Carlos Corberán and soccer CEO Ron Gourlay this weekend. It then appointed Braulio Vázquez as its new sporting director and named B-team coach Óscar Sánchez as an interim manager.

Luis Rioja scored a 78th-minute winner for Valencia, which had been outscored 10-1 so far.

Valencia fans had been protesting and called players “mercenaries” after the 5-0 home loss to Barcelona. They have long called for the exit of owner Peter Lim.

Rayo Vallecano triumphs in Butarque again

Rayo Vallecano beat Espanyol 2-1 with first-half goals by Álvaro García and Adria Pedrosa in what may have been its last match before returning home to Vallecas Stadium.

It was Rayo's third home game played at Butarque Stadium — which belongs to second-tier club Leganes — because of unsafe conditions at Vallecas. It also beat Racing Santander 3-2 and drew Alaves 1-1 at Butarque.

Roberto Fernández scored for Espanyol in the second half for his sixth goal in six matches.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

El área afectada por la minería de oro en toda la Amazonía fue 20 veces mayor en 2024 que en 1985. El crecimiento fue aún más drástico en tierras indígenas, donde la minería abarcó 24 veces más superficie y se expandió casi siete veces solo entre 2016 y 2024.

Los precios récord del oro, impulsados en gran medida por la demanda de los inversionistas de activos seguros en medio del aumento de los riesgos globales, han alimentado una renovada fiebre minera en la Amazonía, disparando la deforestación y la contaminación por mercurio de comunidades ribereñas e indígenas.

El IPAM indicó que la minería agrava los riesgos climáticos que enfrentan las comunidades indígenas. El cambio climático, impulsado principalmente por actividades humanas que incrementan las concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero en la atmósfera, ha intensificado las sequías y el calor en la Amazonía.

“La ocurrencia de fenómenos meteorológicos extremos amenaza el acceso al agua, los alimentos, el transporte y la atención médica”, señaló la organización. “Al mismo tiempo, la expansión de la minería ilegal contamina los ríos, acelera la degradación ambiental y alimenta problemas de salud y violencia, debilitando aún más la capacidad de las comunidades indígenas para adaptarse”.

Casi el 90% del área afectada se concentra en tres territorios. Uno de ellos es el Territorio Indígena Munduruku, ubicado en el estado norteño de Pará.

Representantes de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos viajaron a Pará a principios de este mes para realizar una serie de audiencias con el pueblo munduruku, que incluyeron sesiones en su territorio. La visita buscó evaluar el cumplimiento de Brasil de las medidas provisionales recomendadas por la corte en 2022 para proteger los derechos de las comunidades indígenas.

Líderes munduruku presentaron pruebas —incluidas imágenes satelitales e informes de monitoreo en terreno— que muestran que mineros ilegales de oro habían regresado al territorio tras ser expulsados en operativos federales realizados en 2024 y 2025. También informaron que entre los impactos en la salud se encuentra un aumento de casos de malaria, mayores tasas de mortalidad infantil y contaminación por mercurio vinculada a retrasos en el desarrollo del lenguaje y la motricidad en niños.

En el gobierno del presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, las autoridades brasileñas han intensificado los esfuerzos para combatir la minería ilegal. La policía y las agencias ambientales han llevado a cabo grandes operativos contra redes criminales, mientras que los investigadores han recurrido cada vez más a la ciencia forense para rastrear el oro e identificar metal extraído ilegalmente.

Aun así, la aplicación de la ley no ha eliminado la minería ilegal en toda la Amazonía. Cuando las autoridades destruyen equipos de minería en un área, los mineros a menudo se trasladan a otro lugar o reanudan las operaciones después de que las autoridades se van. En el territorio munduruku, vigilantes indígenas habían identificado 10 nuevos sitios de minería ilegal hasta agosto.

En un comunicado emitido el 10 de septiembre, el Ministerio de Derechos Humanos de Brasil afirmó que funcionarios del gobierno asistieron a las audiencias y abordaron la continuidad de la fiscalización territorial, junto con mejoras al suministro de agua y la seguridad alimentaria. El ministerio también reconoció la necesidad de una “respuesta técnica más detallada” ante la contaminación por mercurio.

Según la ley brasileña, la minería está prohibida en tierras indígenas. El lunes, la Articulación de los Pueblos Indígenas de Brasil, conocida por el acrónimo en portugués Apib, manifestó en un comunicado que proteger el territorio munduruku requiere más que retirar a quienes lo invaden.

“Esta actividad forma parte de una economía criminal transnacional en la que grupos armados que controlan la extracción, el oro y las drogas se desplazan por las mismas rutas fluviales, y los permisos mineros se utilizan para dar una apariencia de legalidad al oro extraído ilegalmente”, expresó la Apib.

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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.

He’s heard the not-so silent chorus of Celtics fans who bemoaned the front office’s decision to jettison 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown in the July trade with Philadelphia that sent the 36-year-old George to his fifth NBA team.

But George also isn’t shying away from his new situation.

“I understand my circumstances. I understand how huge JB was, not only for the organization, but here in the city. So, I didn’t take it personal,” George said. “To be honest, they should have a relationship, emotionally, to that trade. But my job is to kind of come into a great opportunity for me. Obviously, the last few years have been rough, just with injuries. But for myself, personally, I feel great again. I feel like I’ve turned that corner of dealing with injuries, and now, kind of re-establishing myself from a physical standpoint again. And with that, I can carry it over to the court.”

George, along with acquisitions Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley, Jr. represent president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’ attempt to shore up the roster alongside Jayson Tatum.

The franchise centerpiece, Tatum is embarking on his first full season since tearing his Achilles tendon in May 2025 and then having his return late last season end with him being sidelined for the Celtics’ Game 7 first-round playoff loss to George and the 76ers.

Robinson comes in fresh off winning a championship with the Knicks, and the 38-year-old Conley will be suiting up with his fourth NBA team as he prepares for his 20th NBA season.

Robinson missed Tuesday’s news conference for a personal matter, but Stevens said he’s liked what he’s seen over the past few weeks during workouts between the three newcomers and returning members of Boston’s roster as they prepare to open training camp in two weeks.

The trio also joined Tatum and other current Celtics for informal workouts this summer.

The team held its annual season launch event on Monday and Stevens said there was only one image behind him when he spoke to everyone – a photo of the TD Garden court being refurbished.

“That happens every year right around the end of July. And to me, every single year you go through it looks like the blank canvas of a court being absolutely redone,” Stevens said. “Nobody’s stepped on it. And now it’s that year’s team. To write its own chapter. And I felt that way every time they do it.”

Characterized as a facelift or a complete renovation, the key players of the Celtics teams that hoisted the franchise’s 18th title in 2024 have changed over the summer.

Whether those alterations wind up paying off will depend on what this new trio — and particularly George — can provide at this stage of their careers.

Conley will be a role player behind Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, with Robinson likely backing up starting center Neemias Queta.

But for a player such as George, who has nine All-Star and six All-NBA selections, expectations are higher as he looks to step into the role of Tatum’s tag team partner in the starting lineup.

Conley insisted he’s “still got a lot left” and thinks two things he and George enter on Day 1 with are leadership and instant motivation to produce.

“It’s two guys who haven’t had a chance to win a championship,” Conley said. “So, it’s that sense of urgency that maybe reignites that for the guys who’ve been on this team, who’ve already won it.”

George reiterated several times that a run of injuries he had with the Los Angeles Clippers and Sixers, including knee surgery prior to last season, are in the rearview, and that he is a “great” place physically and mentally.

“It’s a new group, a new opportunity,” George said. “I think they’re getting, someone that’s ready to, not fill the shoes or fill the void of JB, but I think from a personal standpoint myself, I think I can come in and kind of still keep us in that contention. Give us a chance to win.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

But the case was just one example of the Republican president’s numerous attempts to assert federal control over the upcoming midterms. Several others remain in various states of play, even as mail ballots have been sent out in at least three states and early voting starts in others this week.

Recently, the Department of Justice ordered officials in more than two dozen states to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of a campaign to force them to turn over detailed voter data despite repeated court losses.

And lacking the sensitive voter data the administration wants from many states, the Department of Homeland Security has launched its own probe to find noncitizen voters on state rolls, an effort that a federal whistleblower says is rushed, error-ridden and potentially violating state laws.

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to falsely claim that mail ballots are corrupt, that noncitizens are abundant on voter lists and that Democratic election fraud is widespread. During the recent Republican convention, the president goaded his fans in a verbal pledge to “cheat like hell, like they do.”

In response to Monday's Supreme Court ruling, Trump lashed back at the justices, saying they lacked the “courage necessary to save our America.”

The Constitution gives the power to run elections to states, rather than to the federal government. Election officials have said they’re prepared to run a safe, secure election even if Trump continues to fan the flames.

Democratic groups have signaled they are building out contingency plans in case Trump sends armed federal officers to the polls or Republicans make other attempts to improperly interfere in the election, a high-stakes contest that will determine which party controls Congress next year.

With his mail ballot reforms blocked for now, here's a look at Trump's other, ongoing efforts to reshape election procedures:

Trump has pressured states to use a controversial federal voter lookup tool

The president insists, contrary to reams of research, that large numbers of noncitizens are illegally voting around the country.

In his second term in office, he has sought to use the might of the federal government to crack down on the issue, including through a massive overhaul of a federal voter eligibility database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE.

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that the Department of Homeland Security help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. Trump last year directed changes to significantly expand its abilities for mass searches by election officials.

Then, his administration sent letters and filed lawsuits to push states to run their sensitive voter data through the tool – a prospect some states have agreed to, but many have resisted to keep their residents’ personal information secure.

Since last year, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls. Some registrants have already been wrongly flagged.

A federal judge in June barred the new version of the SAVE program, calling it an illegal violation of Americans' privacy. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and block that ruling with an emergency order. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the case.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to push states to give up voter registration information that contains addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in July warned that state officials could lose funding or face investigations if they failed to go along with Trump's election security demands. And the DOJ last week sent letters to 29 states and the District of Columbia ordering them to preserve 2024 election documents and advising them that they were “under investigation” and subject to ongoing litigation for their failure to give up the data.

Numerous investigations have found that while noncitizens have occasionally appeared on voting rolls and cast ballots, it is extremely rare.

DHS is conducting its own noncitizen voter investigation

In a last-ditch effort to hunt for noncitizen voters without detailed data from all states, DHS in August ordered a group of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to pivot to a full-time manual investigation of state voter rolls, according to a whistleblower's report released Monday.

The anonymous federal whistleblower said federal employees are being directed to misrepresent themselves on the voter lookup tools in a way that likely violates state laws as they compare DHS-provided data with state records in an attempt to identify noncitizens who are illegally registered.

The probe known as the “Unlawful Voter Initiative” also asks employees to create federal law enforcement records about voters based on unreliable data, the whistleblower account warns. It's a prospect that could wrongly implicate U.S. citizens in documentation that could spur further investigation.

Asked about the initiative, DHS didn't deny its work but said the investigation was being conducted “diligently and professionally.”

“The department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross referenced them with known aliens in our systems,” a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections.”

Administration has signaled other efforts are in the works

Trump has repeatedly run up against the courts in his attempts to more widely reshape election administration, including through two executive orders tied up in lawsuits that allege the changes he wants are unconstitutional.

He also has been stymied in his attempts to get the Republican-led Congress to pass a strict proof-of-citizenship bill called the SAVE America Act. The legislation doesn't have enough votes in the Senate to pass.

But his administration also has used its law enforcement power to take unprecedented steps that have been successful. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia's most populous county without offering an explanation. The FBI has also demanded 2024 ballots from Michigan's Wayne County, and received records related to the 2020 election from Arizona's Maricopa County.

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday signaled the Trump administration will be undeterred by the Supreme Court's ruling in its efforts to investigate and combat voter fraud.

“I expect you’re going to see that work continue," he told reporters at a Rose Garden press briefing.

Tammy Patrick of The Election Center, which has nearly 2,500 election officials as members, said those who run voting offices breathed a collective sigh of relief at the high court's decision on mail voting Monday night. It removes the main threat that could have immediately disrupted balloting nationwide.

She and various election administrators insisted that time-tested processes will hold for the 2026 midterms and that voters' voices will be heard.

“Voters should realize the midterms are going to be secure,” Patrick said. “They’re going to be legitimate.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Nicholas Riccardi in Mason, Michigan, contributed to this report.

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He never expected to be taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Pourrain, 34, an Argentine center midfielder for Miami United FC, a semi-professional club in the United Premier Soccer League, is now back in South Florida, reliving what he calls some of the worst weeks of his life.

“It’s really a horrible situation, horrible situation,” Pourrain said.

He spent more than three weeks in ICE custody across three different facilities, including one in Miramar that he described as having inhumane conditions.

“Miramar was the worst thing that happened to me in my life,” he said.

Pourrain has lived in South Florida since 2019. He said he has had a work permit for years and renewed his Florida driver’s license in July.

“It hurts because I love this country and I’ve lived here seven years,” he said. “I don’t deserve any of this. I never got any criminal records. I never had any kind of problem.”

On Aug. 6, Pourrain was flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a semifinal match in Los Angeles. After passing through security, he said ICE took him into custody.

At a detention facility in Miramar, Pourrain said he was shackled to a chair for the first 24 hours.

“Handcuffs on the hands and the feet. A chain all over my body here,” he said.

He said he was then moved into a small room that was overcrowded with inmates.

Pourrain said the food was moldy, so he did not eat for days.

“It was a little room. It was 68 of us inside there -- I couldn’t even move. I was just like this, trying to put my head on the wall, tried to sleep a little bit. There was no bed,” he said.

Eventually, Pourrain was moved to another facility in Florida and then to Texas.

He was released on a $20,000 bond on Aug. 28, more than three weeks after he was taken into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 that Pourrain only had permission to stay in the U.S. for six months and overstayed his welcome.

DHS also denied his claims of inhumane treatment.

“Claims that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the agency said in a statement.

For Pourrain, he said he knows what he saw and worries about those still inside.

“It’s inhumane what happens inside. They don’t deserve it either,” he said.

While his court proceedings continue, Pourrain is back training with his team and teaching kids soccer.

But the memories have not gone away.

“I think I’ll never forget about this. Because it was tough on me, it was tough on my wife,” he said.

Hundreds of people filled the church on Tuesday on the 63rd anniversary of the bombing. The church marked the anniversary with the opening of a new visitors center that leaders said is aimed at educating people about one of the most horrific events of the Civil Rights Movement and urging a recommitment to continue the struggle for justice.

Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and the guest speaker for the annual memorial service, said the remembrance falls at a time when politicians are trying to take content out of museums, attacking the Voting Rights Act and turning to the politics of division.

“We’re in a critical moment in America. There is a narrative struggle. There are people who are preaching the politics of fear and anger, and they want to govern through fear and anger,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson, who helped build memorials and museums tracing the legacy of slavery in America, said a “whole network of elected officials" — not only the Klan — shared responsibility for the climate that led to the deadly bombing.

“And today we have those same voices, and we have to stand against those voices by being committed to truth and justice,” Stevenson said.

Klansmen had placed a bundle of dynamite outside the church under a set of stairs. The bombing came during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, eight months after then-Gov. George Wallace pledged “segregation forever.”

The girls were gathered in a downstairs washroom before Sunday services when the dynamite exploded at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963. The explosion killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, all 14. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of Addie Mae, was in the room and was severely injured but survived.

Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted in the blast: Robert Chambliss in 1977; Thomas Blanton in 2001; and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

The opening of the education center comes at a time of uncertainty about how history is presented in national parks and museums. President Donald Trump in March 2025 signed an executive order aimed at defunding museum exhibits and programs that he said promote “divisive narratives.”

The church sits within the bounds of the National Park Service's civil rights monument in Birmingham, an area that includes the park where Black protesters were met by police dogs and fire hoses. But the church independently runs the visitors center.

The new center has space for exhibits, oral history initiatives, artist residencies, community quilting projects, public speaker series and other programming.

Church leaders envision the center as a place where people can reflect after visiting the church and bombing site.

“I want them to take away that history is not just in the past. History is also present, and that there’s still work to do,” said the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., the pastor of 16th Street Baptist. “When we talk about the challenges in our country, when we talk about the injustice, the inequity, and the inequality, there’s still a whole lot of work for us to do.”

Lisa McNair’s sister, Denise, was one of the girls who lost their lives in the 1963 bombing.

“It’s part of our shared American history, and if we don’t know our history, we’re destined to repeat it,” McNair said at Tuesday's event.

It is a court he shaped with three nominees during his first term and he has frequently expressed admiration when the court rules his way, only to turn sharply critical when it delivers him a defeat.

On Monday, the court rejected his administration’s planned restrictions on mail ballots for the midterm elections and by the morning on Tuesday, Trump took to social media to denigrate the decision and the justices he had appointed who rejected Trump's argument.

None of the three justices wrote about their rationale for joining the majority opinion, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he might see things differently if the election wasn’t coming up so quickly. Of the nine-member court, only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully agreed with the administration.

Trump's rebuke also resurfaced his frustration over losses on tariffs and birthright citizenship — two other issues where the conservative majority court has checked the power of the Republican president.

The court has let Trump move ahead with much of his agenda

The justices have handed the president nearly two dozen victories in emergency appeals, often lifting lower court orders that had blocked key aspects of his boundary-testing second-term agenda. While technically temporary, those decisions have largely allowed his administration to push ahead with his crackdown on immigration, ban on transgender people serving in the military and dismantling of the Department of Education.

He also got significantly more power over federal regulatory agencies that Congress had created to operate independently when the court found presidents can fire those leaders at will. Another ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act allowed his call for redistricting for partisan advantage to proceed.

Those decisions, though, achieved longtime goals of the conservative legal movement. “They’re the kind of cases that, for the most part, it doesn’t matter what administration would have brought them, the court would have come out the same place,” said Erin Murphy, an appellate attorney who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. She spoke at a Tuesday panel at Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute.

Trump also has been dealt high-profile losses

Trump’s record has been more mixed, though, in cases where the court has gotten a full briefing and heard arguments. The justices struck down his far-reaching tariffs on nearly every other country, his restrictions on birthright citizenship and put the brakes on his push to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

His administration is still pursuing those goals in new ways, but for Trump the losses have rankled. On Tuesday, he assailed the justices “for shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”

He referenced his own role in appointing three of the nine justices, writing that “these are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court.”

The missive came after a high-profile loss on the emergency docket: the high court’s rejection of his proposed restrictions on mail ballots before the fast-approaching midterm elections. Trump has long targeted mail voting even while using it himself, falsely blaming it for his 2020 election loss despite a lack of evidence of fraud.

“I think it's certainly right that this is not a MAGA court. The court is asserting its independence from the president,” said Don Verrilli, a former Solicitor General under President Barack Obama, also speaking at Georgetown.

The justices have twice rejected Trump-backed cases ahead of the midterms

The mail ballots decision was the second time in as many weeks that the court rejected a Trump-backed appeal related to the election. The high court also refused to allow Missouri to use new elections maps redrawn at Trump's urging to help Republicans gain an extra seat in the U.S. House.

The high court’s majority didn’t explain either decision in detail, as is typical on their emergency docket. But taken together, the decision seems to signal an unwillingness to intervene in election litigation before the pivotal November contests.

“My guess is there's a robust majority that doesn’t want to be the decision maker allowing the chaos to happen,” said attorney Roman Martinez, another former Roberts clerk who frequently argues before the court.

The court will likely end up being drawn into election litigation again, though, before or after the votes are cast. “As the rest of this electoral cycle unfolds, I think there is going to be a lot of turbulence around these issues,” Verrilli said.

The area affected by gold mining across the Amazon was 20 times larger in 2024 than in 1985. The growth was even more dramatic on Indigenous lands, where mining covered 24 times as much land — and expanded nearly sevenfold between 2016 and 2024 alone.

Record-breaking gold prices, driven largely by investor demand for safe assets amid rising global risks, have driven a renewed mining rush in the Amazon, spiking deforestation and mercury contamination of riverine and Indigenous communities.

IPAM said the mining is aggravating the climate risks facing Indigenous communities. Climate change, driven primarily by human activities that increase greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, has intensified droughts and heat in the Amazon.

“Extreme weather events threaten access to water, food, transportation and healthcare,” the nonprofit said. “At the same time, expanding illegal mining contaminates rivers, accelerates environmental degradation and fuels health problems and violence, further weakening Indigenous communities’ ability to adapt.”

Almost 90% of the affected area is concentrated in three territories. One of them is the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, located in the northern state of Para.

Earlier this month, representatives of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights traveled to Para for a series of hearings with the Munduruku people, including sessions in their territory. The visit sought to assess Brazil’s compliance with provisional measures recommended by the court in 2022 to protect Indigenous communities’ rights.

Munduruku leaders presented evidence — including satellite imagery and field-monitoring reports — showing that illegal gold miners had returned to the territory, after federal operations in 2024 and 2025 expelled them. They also reported that health impacts include a surge in malaria cases, higher infant mortality rates and mercury contamination linked to delays in children’s language and motor development.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian authorities have stepped up efforts to combat illegal mining. Police and environmental agencies have carried out major operations targeting criminal networks, while investigators have increasingly used forensic science to trace gold and identify illegally mined metal.

Still, enforcement has not eliminated illegal mining across the Amazon. When authorities destroy mining equipment in one area, miners often move elsewhere or resume operations after officials leave. In the Munduruku territory, Indigenous watchdogs had identified 10 new illegal mining sites as of August.

In a Sept. 10 statement, Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights said that government officials attended the hearings and discussed continued territorial enforcement, along with improvements to the water supply and food safety. The ministry also acknowledged the need for a “more detailed technical response” to mercury contamination.

Under Brazilian law, mining is prohibited on Indigenous lands. On Monday, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, known by the Portuguese acronym Apib, said in a statement that protecting the Munduruku territory requires more than removing those who invade it.

“The activity is part of a transnational criminal economy in which armed groups control extraction, gold and drugs move along the same river routes, and mining permits are used to give a veneer of legality to illegally extracted gold,” Apib said.

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About three-quarters of U.S. adults said press freedom is “extremely” or “very” important to society's well-being, according to a newly released Pew Research Center study. But at least half said they also support government restrictions on reporting in specific circumstances, such as protecting national security or preventing inaccurate information.

At the same time, many Americans said it is “never acceptable” for the U.S. government to give journalists access to public figures in exchange for positive coverage, or to revoke a news organization's broadcast license.

“People are not all or nothing,” says Katerina Eva Matsa, director of news and information at Pew Research Center, when asked what was striking about the findings. “When you give them options and scenarios … they are negotiating. That was a very interesting perspective that the data gave us.”

The study, which was based on two surveys conducted earlier this year, also found that Americans were divided about whether the media is completely free to report the news, with Democrats and Republicans expressing very different levels of worry about restrictions on the press.

The polling comes at a bumpy time for media in the US

The analysis comes as the relationship between the U.S. media and Donald Trump's second administration becomes ever more fraught as the president, in his second term, seeks to restrict press coverage not to his liking. He or his administration has attacked, sued or taken administrative action against media outlets that have drawn his ire.

Matsa said that tension was one impetus for doing the report now. Other reasons: the changing media environment and the evolution of what “the press” is now, as well as the emergence of tech companies as gatekeepers of the news.

“Overall, there’s a lot of public conversation — and it’s the 250th anniversary of our nation,” she said. “So, it kind of felt like a good moment to look at how Americans think about this.”

Most Americans, about 7 in 10, said the Trump administration and the U.S. news media have a “very” or “somewhat” bad relationship. That's a slight increase from 2025, when 64% of U.S. adults said this.

They're more divided on whether the press faces additional restrictions under Trump's second term, although few think the press is freer than it was before. About 44% of U.S. adults said the press has become less free under the second Trump administration, while about 26% said there has been no change. Only 12% said the press is more free, and 17% said they're not sure.

Americans hold complex views on when the government can intervene

Despite U.S. adults' broad belief in the ideal of press freedom, the survey found, they're willing to contemplate restrictions in specific circumstances.

Most U.S. adults said the government should not be able to require a news organization to take down a story if it is critical of the government or clearly favors one political side. But about half say it should be able to force a retraction if a story contains false information, and about 6 in 10 said this about a story that poses a risk to national security.

The findings indicate most Americans are open to some form of government restriction on the media, despite their broad embrace of press freedom as a concept. At the same time, there is unlikely to be uniform agreement about what constitutes a national security risk, for example, or who gets to determine that — and the poll did not probe those distinctions further.

When asked whether it was more important for the press to be free to report news even if some reporting is inaccurate, or if preventing inaccurate reporting should be prioritized even if it limits press freedom, about half, 53%, of U.S. adults said it was more important to prevent inaccurate reporting, and 45% said press freedom was more important.

But they see limits for government too. Just over half of Americans say it is “rarely” or “never” acceptable for the U.S. government to force journalists to reveal the identities of unnamed government sources or take away a news organization's license to broadcast. About 2 in 10 say these actions are “sometimes” acceptable, and only about 1 in 10 say they are “usually” or “always” acceptable.

Political affiliation helps determine perspectives

Perhaps not surprisingly in a highly politicized environment, views on press freedom differed sharply according to political leaning.

Democrats were more likely than Republicans to prioritize a free press to begin with, the study found. About 8 in 10 Democrats said a free press is “extremely” or “very” important for society's well-being, compared to about two-thirds of Republicans.

Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to say the government should be able to require a news story be taken down in cases of national security. About 7 in 10 Republicans said this should be allowed, compared to about half of Democrats. A similar gap emerged on the publication of false information.

The share of Americans who said the media was “completely” free to report the news fell slightly from 33% last year to 28% in the latest survey. About half — 48% — said the press was “somewhat” free and about 2 in 10 said it was “not very” or “not at all” free.

There were differences between the parties there, too.

—In the new study, only about 2 in 10 Democrats saw the media as “completely” free to report the news.

—Meanwhile, most Democrats, 64%, said they were “extremely” or “very” concerned about potential restrictions on press freedom, while only about 3 in 10 Republicans held similar worries. The reverse was true during the Biden era.

The report is accompanied by a knowledge quiz based on the surveys that users can take to test how much they know about the First Amendment. It has eight questions, all of which were included in the survey. Matsa noted that while many Americans understand the basics of the First Amendment, many don’t know the mechanics of who it protects — and from whom.

For example, the study found that while 58% of U.S. adults know the Constitution protects the press from interference by the U.S. government, only 33% know that it does not protect the press from interference by private companies, such as a social media company or a web-hosting service.

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The Pew-Knight analysis was based on two polls conducted using samples drawn from the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, which is probability-based. One survey of 3,507 U.S. adults was conducted March 23-29, 2026, and the other was conducted among 3,488 U.S. adults from June 22-28, 2026. The margin of sampling error for the March survey of 3,507 adults is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for the June survey of 3,488 U.S. adults is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

The opposition coalition C64 organized demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, and several other cities, including Lubumbashi and Kindu in eastern Congo, despite restrictions on mass gatherings imposed due to the fast-spreading Ebola outbreak.

The protest in Kinshasa drew hundreds of people and began peacefully, but was dispersed by police with tear gas and warning shots after protesters clashed with pro-government supporters.

“The Congolese state is working with a political party militia,” said opposition leader Martin Fayulu. “God is great; I made it out alive. There was a massacre, and the police were firing at us.”

Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya condemned the opposition for disrupting activities by falsely claiming schools would be closed on Tuesday. “The right to protest is recognized in the Constitution, but it must be exercised properly,” he said.

Police also dispersed a June rally in Kinshasa that C64 organized against the constitutional changes. Several people, including Fayulu, were injured.

Congo is plagued by multiple crises, including an Ebola outbreak and an escalation of the decades-long conflict with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in the eastern provinces.

Tshisekedi, 62, has been in office since 2019 and is due to complete his second five-year term in 2028. He has said he would be willing to seek a third term if approved by voters in a referendum.

The Congolese Constitution bars any revision of presidential term limits. However, a bill under consideration in the National Assembly, the lower chamber, would allow the president to amend those provisions in the event of a “major dysfunction” that paralyzes state institutions, potentially following a referendum.

The country’s main opposition parties, which have been divided in recent years, joined forces in May under the banner of C64, or Coalition Article 64, to oppose what they describe as an attempt by Tshisekedi to remain in power. The coalition has called the proposed changes a “serious threat” to the country’s stability.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The public works employee told a 911 dispatcher shortly after 10:40 a.m. on Saturday that he had parked the truck and left the key in the ignition at 1000 Atlantic Boulevard, records show.

“I left my truck running, and somebody jumped in the truck and took off,” the city employee told the dispatcher, according to the redacted audio released by police on Tuesday.

During the investigation, Ralph Major, another city employee, admitted that he had driven away in the city truck to “prove a point,” according to Officer Bradley Fox’s report to dispatch.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Major, 59, on Monday after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to inmate and court records. He surrendered at the jail, according to Shannon Perzel, a Key West Police Department spokesman.

On Tuesday afternoon, Major faced a first-degree misdemeanor charge of misuse of the 911 or E911 system. His bond was $15,000. Monroe County Circuit Judge Albert Kelley was set to preside over the case.

Major is the facilities superintendent for Key West Parks and Recreation, according to the city’s directory. He also advertises dog training services on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Last year, Keys News identified Major as the president of the Key West Junior Football League, a volunteer-led youth sports organization with cheerleading, dance, and football programs.

Read Fox’s report to dispatch

Location

On Sept. 6, a 21 Air Boeing 767 cargo plane overran the runway while landing at MIA, killing five people and injuring five others. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what happened.

The accident has renewed attention on what can happen when an aircraft leaves the paved runway environment.

In April 2025, Local 10 News Investigates reported on dozens of Florida East Coast Railway tank cars parked along tracks near FLL, close to the airport’s runway.

Some of the cars were marked with UN1987 hazardous-material placards, identifying flammable liquids.

At the time, aviation safety experts questioned whether staging potentially hazardous rail cars so close to an active runway created an unnecessary risk in the event of a runway excursion.

One expert interviewed by Local 10 called the location “the worst possible place to store those train cars.”

Local 10 also reported that airport officials had previously expressed concerns about the rail cars to FEC.

After our investigation aired, Broward County Aviation Department officials said they contacted FEC about the issue.

FEC did not indicate that it planned to change its practice of staging the rail cars near the airport.

Now, more than a year later, the county says the situation is being revisited.

In response to questions from Local 10 following the MIA crash, BCAD spokesperson Arlene Satchell said the department “does intend to contact the FEC to revisit the subject of its parked railcars near FLL.”

The county says it wants to determine whether FEC is considering any changes to its current staging practices following the MIA accident and whether the two sides can explore options to move the cars elsewhere or at least farther from the immediate vicinity of the airport’s runway.

“Maintaining a safe and secure airport is always a top priority,” the county said.

There is also a new wrinkle in the county’s response.

BCAD says that during the past year there have been no emails, letters or other formal communications between the Aviation Department and FEC about the railcars.

The county says there have only been informal exchanges.

BCAD said that following Local 10’s May 2025 follow-up report, an FEC representative indicated there were no upcoming changes to the company’s protocol for staging railcars near FLL.

Now, following the deadly MIA runway overrun, BCAD says it intends to reopen that conversation.

FLL does have EMAS

FLL does have an additional runway safety feature that MIA’s recent accident has brought into focus.

The airport has engineered materials arresting systems, or EMAS, at the ends of its runways.

The Federal Aviation Administration describes EMAS as a system installed beyond the end of a runway that is designed to absorb the energy of an aircraft that overruns the runway. The crushable material slows the aircraft and, when properly designed and constructed, can bring the aircraft to a stop in less space than a traditional runway safety area.

FAA documents for FLL specifically identify EMAS at the runway ends.

But EMAS does not eliminate every possible hazard beyond a runway.

As Local 10 reported in 2025, the concern surrounding the FEC railcars involves what could happen if an aircraft were to leave the runway environment and encounter the rail line or the tank cars.

That is a potential scenario — not something that has happened at FLL.

And there is no indication that the FEC railcars have violated federal regulations.

In fact, the Federal Railroad Administration previously told Local 10 that it had no indication FEC was violating rail safety regulations.

The question now is whether, in light of what happened at MIA, the location of those railcars deserves another look.

Broward County says it plans to ask FEC.

Local 10 also reached out to FEC for comment and asked whether the company plans to reconsider its staging practices. FEC has not yet responded.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Musselman kicked Baker-Mazara off the team after the Trojans were eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention to avoid paying the remainder of his NIL contract.

It also alleges Musselman directed racially charged remarks at Baker-Mazara following a Feb. 28 loss to 12th-ranked Nebraska. The Trojans were in the midst of losing eight straight games to end the season.

Baker-Mazara alleges breach of contract, conversion and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage in the lawsuit, which doesn't state a specific dollar amount he is seeking.

“The decision to remove the student-athlete from the men’s basketball roster was based on a number of considerations, none having to do with race,” USC said Tuesday in a statement. “We look forward to defeating this action in court.”

Baker-Mazara claims the Trojans terminated his NIL agreements with the program the day after he was removed from the roster on March 1, stating he had violated a “morals clause.” The lawsuit alleges USC has not paid the remainder of the promised NIL earnings.

“I gave everything I had to USC. I played through injuries, showed up for my teammates every day, and honored my commitments,” Baker-Mazara said Tuesday in a statement from his publicist. “Filing this lawsuit was not an easy decision, but I believe it is important to stand up for what you were promised and what you are owed.”

The lawsuit cites a locker room incident after the Trojans’ loss to Nebraska in which Baker-Mazara claimed Musselman “lost his mind” during a profanity-laced tirade in front of the team.

Baker-Mazara attempted to address his teammates in the locker room, the lawsuit says, when Musselman said, “You shut the (expletive) up! You are one of the worst teammates anyone can ever have!”

Baker-Mazara responded, "Wow Coach, do you need me to leave because I don’t understand this animosity,” according to the lawsuit.

Musselman responded, "Yes, leave! Go back to the (expletive) Dominican Republic! Nobody wants you here!! (Expletive) you!,” the lawsuit states.

Baker-Mazara, a 26-year-old from the Dominican Republic, took the comments to be racist and discriminatory, according to the lawsuit first obtained by The California Post.

The next day, Baker-Mazara was dropped from the team. The lawsuit says USC never gave him a reason for his dismissal.

Baker-Mazara averaged 18.5 points as the team's second-leading scorer while starting 22 of 26 games for the struggling Trojans last season, including a 14-point effort the 82-67 loss to Nebraska a day before being dismissed. At the time, no reason or details were provided in a brief statement from the school.

He wasn't selected in this year's NBA draft.

Baker-Mazara was MVP of the Maui Invitational, won by the Trojans last November.

USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth school. He began his college career at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State for his second season, when he earned Mountain West Conference sixth man of the year honors.

He went from there to Northwest Florida State College for one season and transferred to Auburn for two seasons, where he helped the Tigers reach the Final Four in 2025. He left Auburn to join USC for his final collegiate season.

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Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

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At the team's weekly media availability on Monday, Manning was asked if he'd seen any social media posts about the postgame celebration. He mentioned the fake video clip, called it “hilarious” and laughed about it. Several others in the room laughed with him.

A clip of Manning's remarks posted later on social media quickly drew widespread criticism directed at Manning over joking about violence against women in general and Rowe in particular.

“I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. It's easy to say I didn't mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that,” Manning posted on Instagram.

“I specifically want to apologize to Holly Rowe for what she personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward,” Manning said.

In a statement posted on X and Instagram, Rowe thanked Manning for his apology and said they discussed the matter.

“Thank you, Arch. I appreciate our conversation about this — which will remain private,” Rowe posted. “Apology accepted. We move forward with respect and kindness for one another.”

An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.

Manning’s public misstep and ensuing apology are notable for one of college football’s most prominent players. The nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson of family patriarch Archie Manning has endorsements with major brands such as Red Bull, Vuori athletic wear and Google Gemini artificial intelligence, to name a few.

And they come as issues about depictions of violence toward women have impacted other sports. Last month, Good Good Golf lost its partnership with Callaway and its title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in the fallout over a video for a new driver that showed a man shoving to the ground a woman who was trying to touch the golf club.

The Association For Women in Sports Media offered its support to Rowe and called for more education to fight against depictions of violence against women.

“Holly Rowe exemplifies the professionalism and integrity that AWSM strives to support and celebrate,” the group said. “In the aftermath of Arch Manning's apology, we encourage all teams to remind players and staff that women in sports media deserve respect, and the normalization of violence against women in any capacity is not acceptable.”

The fake Texas video that Manning laughed about stemmed from a real postgame exchange between Sarkisian and Rowe that appeared testy on live TV. Earlier technical difficulties had caused delays for Sarkisian’s halftime interview with reporter Laura Rutledge.

When Rowe tried to interview Sarkisian amid the loud postgame celebrations, the coach repeated “Texas fight!” and said “Hook'em!” before walking away.

A clip of that exchange was altered to show Sarkisian striking Rowe on the right side of her face, knocking her down.

Texas jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 after the victory. The Longhorns play UTSA at home Saturday night.

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