The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 18 declined by 22,000 to 187,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s well below the 215,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market.

The four-week moving average of weekly jobless claims, which adjusts for volatility, fell by 7,250 to 207,500.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending July 11 was down by 2,000 to just under 1.8 million, also a historically healthy figure.

Alberto Barbera, the festival's artistic director, unveiled the lineup Thursday for the 83rd edition of the festival, the first of many in a busy fall film season that culminates in the Hollywood awards showdown. Like the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the selection is lighter on Hollywood studio films than in years past.

“Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents in Chile before the 1973 coup, is among the higher-profile titles playing in competition. It will play alongside “Primetime,” in which Pattinson stars as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. The broader slate has anticipated documentaries like Alex Gibney's “Musk,” a sweeping portrait of the billionaire, and Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile,” which follows Russian independent journalists after they leave the country. Similar to the first part, it runs 355 minutes.

The festival's main competition includes a diverse array of international and American films, like Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” in which sisters Rooney and Kate Mara play identical twins.

Also on the program are Florian Zeller’s thriller “Bunker,” with Bardem and Cruz playing a married couple, Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” Stéphane Brizé’s “A Good Little Soldier” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look Back,” a coming of age story about two girls who dream of being manga artists. Casey Affleck will be in competition for the first time with “Company,” starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn. Nanni Moretti also returns for the first time since 1989.

Notable documentary premieres out of competition include “Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger,” Barbara Kopple’s “Union Town,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's “Everest: The Other Side,” Luca Guadagnino’s seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci film “Joie de Vivre,” Wim Wenders' look at architect Peter Zumthor, Russell Crowe’s autobiographical musical concert movie, “What Love Builds,” and Laura Poitras’s short about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, “They're Here.”

Barbera said he expects Noel and Liam Gallagher to attend on behalf of the film, which was directed by Steven Knight and will be in theaters soon after, on Sept. 11.

The festival is set to open on Sept. 2 with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” an adaptation of James Graham’s stage play which dramatizes the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. “Ink” is also playing in the main competition and in the running for awards such as the Golden Lion, a prize that is decided upon by a jury led this year by filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal. Other jurors include filmmakers like Kaouther Ben Hania, Johnnie To and Shahrbanoo Sadat and composer Daniel Blumberg.

Gyllenhaal has a film playing as well: A Marilyn Monroe-inspired short, “Flesh Impact,” in which Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn “give body and voice to the myth of Marilyn,” Barbera said. The 93-year-old Burstyn will also get a lifetime achievement award from the festival.

Venice has in the last 15 years proved a desirable launching pad for Oscar hopefuls, even if not everything breaks through. Last year’s edition had plenty of star power in the lineup, with Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Dwayne Johnson movies among the splashy premieres. But the glow of the festival moment was short-lived: The films, “After the Hunt,” “Jay Kelly” and “The Smashing Machine,” were neither triumphant with audiences in theaters (“Jay Kelly” was a Netflix release) nor with awards voters.

Still, there’s usually a best picture nominee in the slate: Last year there were two in “Frankenstein” and “Bugonia.”

This year won’t be bereft of a Clooney moment either: The Venice regular is getting a lifetime achievement award.

The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon in St. Bernard Parish about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of New Orleans. The storm was forecast to reach the upper Texas coast on Thursday before dissipating inland in Texas by Friday.

Early Thursday, the storm was about 110 miles (175 kilometers) southwest of New Orleans and about 120 miles (190 kilometers) southeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, moving west at 12 mph (19 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

The wind and storm surge were the main threats for the Deep South states. Parks and piers were closed up and down the coast, as were some low-lying roads. A tropical storm warning stretched from Alabama to Louisiana, including New Orleans where extreme heat was adding to misery.

Onlookers watched the storm surge at the Lake Pontchartrain estuary, with kids splashing in the floodwaters as Bertha approached the Louisiana Coast. Residents mowed their lawns even as streets filled up with water.

Tropical storm force winds were felt as much as 160 miles (260 kilometers) from the center of the storm, the hurricane center said. A wind gust of 44 mph (71 kph) was recorded at New Orleans Lakefront Airport on Wednesday afternoon. The strong gales knocked over a Waffle House sign onto a car in Panama City Beach, Florida.

But the heaviest rains were staying offshore, reducing the risks of flooding, the center said.

The storm is unlikely to leave behind widespread damage, Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes said, adding that the impact should be manageable for coastal communities.

Gov. Jeff Landry called the forecast “encouraging” but also warned residents to be prepared for some flooding.

Storm surges up to 3 feet (1 meter) were possible in Louisiana and Alabama, forecasters said. Rain totals were forecast between 1 and 4 inches (3 to 10 centimeters), with higher amounts possible in isolated areas.

Elsewhere in the U.S., a line of storms on Tuesday generated reports of tornadoes stretching from Cincinnati to New Jersey. Torrential rains caused flash floods that swamped homes, washed out bridges and led to water rescues in West Virginia, authorities said.

Rare combination of tropical storm and heat warnings

Southern Louisiana was under tropical storm and extreme heat warnings for much of Wednesday — a rare double dose of suffering, the National Weather Service said.

It was the first time in at least two decades that’s happened in the area, the weather service said, citing records that date back to 2005.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic season

Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur in June brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern U.S.

Bertha could dump heavy rain on coastal areas of Mississippi that are still recovering from flooding brought by Arthur that destroyed and damaged homes.

Hurricane Fausto in the Pacific is far from land

In the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned far from land Wednesday. The hurricane was hundreds of miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

It was forecast to gradually strengthen and the hurricane center said that ocean swells generated by Fausto were spreading along the Baja California coast and likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip tides.

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Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, died July 14 after authorities said he darted across a busy road in St. Augustine and into the path of a truck. His death was the third in roughly a week involving encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.

Coronilla Durán traveled from his hometown of San Luis de la Paz, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, to Atlanta to visit family and friends, according to Isaret Jeffers, founder of Colectivo Arbol, a farmworkers advocacy group. He had stayed in Georgia for three weeks before traveling to Florida’s east coast to enjoy the beaches, Jeffers said Tuesday.

U.S. authorities have not publicly identified the man, but a Mexico official confirmed his name. Jeffers said Yezzika Alamilla, the man’s wife, told them he had been visiting the U.S. on a tourist visa.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday about whether Coronilla Durán had a valid visa.

Authorities say he ran from immigration officers

Coronilla Durán was one of four people in a vehicle that stopped in a gas station parking lot before 7 a.m. on the day he died. The four fled on foot during an encounter with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, with one darting across a busy road into the path of the semi, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

It is unclear what prompted the encounter and what happened to the vehicle’s other three occupants.

The Highway Patrol and DHS have not provided additional details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Advocacy group says his wife sought help

Alamilla called Colectivo Arbol, which provides legal advice and assistance to farmworkers in Central Florida, the day after her husband died, Jeffers said. She was seeking help to travel from Mexico and repatriate her husband’s remains. The organization bought her a plane ticket and put her up for three days, until Monday, she said. The Mexican consulate has been helping her since.

“His wife said he was there on a tourist visa. She didn’t understand what was happening,” Jeffers said. “He didn’t come to work; he wasn’t working. He was here as a tourist.”

Alamilla “thinks he was very afraid, and that’s why he ran away,” Jeffers said.

His remains will be repatriated

According to information provided by the widow, Coronilla Durán “had been in the United States for only a very short time (and) had a tourist visa,” said Susana Guerra Vallejo, the undersecretary for assistance to migrants and mobility issues for the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

She said that Alamilla would be able to see the body of her husband at the Florida funeral home.

Coronilla Durán’s body will be transported to Mexico on a commercial flight from Orlando, Guerra Vallejo told The Associated Press. He will be buried in his hometown of San Luis de la Paz, a farming community in Guanajuato that is about 160 miles (260 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City, she said.

Coronilla Durán and Alamilla had two children, a 7-month-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, Jeffers said.

Coronilla Durán’s death was at least the 10th involving encounters with immigration agents since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation campaign last year.

The Mexican government said it had asked state attorneys general in the U.S. to review the deaths of migrants in ICE custody or during raids for possible criminal prosecution.

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Sánchez reported from Mexico City. Associated Press reporter Maria Verza contributed from Mexico City.

The central bank for the 21 countries that use the euro currency left its benchmark rate unchanged at 2.25% following a quarter-point hike at its previous meeting June 11. That increase was aimed at dampening the impact on consumer prices from higher oil prices due to the US-Iran war and subsequent interruption of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Analysts say the bank may simply be taking a pause to gather more information amid swings in oil prices, which fell after announcement of a ceasefire but then rose again when the ceasefire agreement collapsed and fighting resumed. Economists are pointing toward the bank's Sept. 10 meeting as a possibility for another rate increase.

"Uncertainty remains high and the full inflationary impact of the energy shock has yet to play out,” the bank said in a statement. “With today’s decision, the Governing Council remains well positioned to navigate the uncertainty caused by the conflict.”

Bank President Christine Lagarde has said the bank is making decisions meeting by meeting based on incoming data and has not committed to any particular path for rates.

Rate hikes combat inflation by raising the cost of credit for buying things, from new houses to new factories. That cools demand for goods and eases pressure on prices. Inflation in the eurozone ran at an annual 2.8% in June, down from 3.2% in May.

International benchmark Brent crude rose to $98 Thursday following US President Donald Trump’s July 8 declaration that a memorandum of understanding about a ceasefire and future talks was “ over.” Oil had trade around $76 before the ceasefire collapsed, not far from its prewar level of around $73.

Brent rose 4% on Thursday after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, raising doubts about Saudi Arabia’s ability to ship oil through the Red Sea instead of the Strait of Hormuz.

In a post on social media, the Republican president said the deal doesn’t allow for enrichment of uranium. Nonproliferation experts have raised concerns that the deal fails to include guardrails to prevent enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade levels.

Trump's post said the agreement “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” He added that “The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities.”

The Saudis have made clear that normalizing relations with Israel would first require the establishment of a clear path for Palestinian statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the idea of Palestinian statehood.

Trump has sought to build on the 2020 agreements, which expanded the number of Arab states with diplomatic ties with Israel.

The deal is expected to last 30 years and involve U.S. firms in the program’s development. It could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint U.S.-Saudi study, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The agreement is expected to be submitted to Congress for review.

The agreement does not include the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, which would allow for more monitoring, inspections and verification, according to a second person familiar with the decision.

The oil-rich kingdom’s Energy Ministry on Wednesday said the agreement bolsters “efforts to diversify energy sources, advance cutting-edge technologies, and expand opportunities for cooperation and investment in ways that serve the mutual interests of the two friendly countries.”

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled concerns over Iran’s program.

Multiple agencies had made sustained and coordinated rescue efforts in the four days since a gas explosion ripped through the tunnel. Following the recovery of all the missing employees, teams carried out a final inspection of the tunnel, the state government of Sikkim said in a statement.

The blast occurred Monday at the 500-megawatt Teesta Hydroelectric Project about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the state capital Gangtok in the Himalayan state.

A buildup of methane gas triggered the explosion, trapping dozens of workers underground. Rescue efforts were hampered by the toxic gas inside, officials said.

The government said it formed a high-level committee to investigate the disaster and recommend safeguards against to prevent such accidents in the future.

Construction accidents are not uncommon in India, where rapid infrastructure growth often collides with fragile geology, construction lapses, extreme weather and safety standards.

The Teesta River basin, where the hydropower project is being built, lies in a seismically active region marked by young, fragile rock formations riddled with fractures and underground pockets that can trap ancient gases. Seismic activity and unpredictable underground conditions make tunnel projects especially risky in the region, according to experts.

A February explosion in a coal mine in neighboring Meghalaya state killed 18 workers. A tunnel section collapsed in 2023 in northern Uttarakhand state, trapping 41 workers for 17 days before they were rescued.

If you’ve considered bike commuting but assumed you needed expensive gear and to be in excellent physical shape, or worried about arriving at work disheveled or smelly, there are ways to overcome those hurdles. Cycling can be a healthy, enjoyable and affordable way to a job site, especially at a time of elevated gasoline prices.

“It’s such a great, practical invention that I became enamored with as a little kid, and I find it just as valuable as a 72-year-old,” Roper, owner of the Hopleaf Bar and restaurant, said.

Below, experienced cyclists and bike safety advocates share tips on how to get started and arrive safely at your destination while still looking reasonably workplace-presentable.

You don't have to buy fancy equipment to commute by bike

Some cyclists splash out on pricey gear such as foldable bikes, premium padded shorts and waterproof bags. Specialty cycling equipment can be fun, but you can spend less and still have a great ride. If you don't want to purchase a bicycle, consider a bike-sharing program that rents two-wheelers for short rides.

Natalie Frank, 22, didn't have extra cash when she graduated from college and landed a job as a software engineer in the Boston office of technology company Topsort. She asked her friends if anyone had a bicycle they no longer wanted, and a free road bike was hers a few weeks later.

If the tires need air, she fills them using free pumps located in city parks.

“My commute costs zero dollars. That’s crazy,” Frank said.

Wash up and switch outfits to look presentable after a ride

Many cyclists reach their workplaces a few minutes early to freshen up and change into work clothes. Some bike commuters leave a spare set at their desks. Like many others, Frank carries clothing in a backpack along with her laptop.

Ellie Dannenberg, 37, a University of Denver math professor, commutes in gym clothes and carries a work outfit in panniers, which are storage bags and baskets that attach to a bicycle. She stashes a pair of work shoes in her office.

“Investing in pannier bags is a really great thing to do, especially for the commute to work when you probably don’t want to show up super sweaty,” Dannenberg said. “Backpacks are heavy, they’re more uncomfortable, and then you end up with a sweaty back when you get there.”

On Denver's wetter days, Dannenberg wears rain pants and a waterproof jacket that fits over her helmet.

Some office buildings have showers for washing up, but many don't. Keeping body wipes, rinse-free cleanser or deodorant at work can help you feel polished.

Use helmets and positioning to protect yourself on roads

Cyclists and safety advocates strongly recommend wearing a helmet to protect your head in case of a crash. Wearing bright colors or reflective vests and attaching lights and reflectors to the bicycle improves visibility.

Roper wears a yellow-green helmet and has front and rear lights that flash. “You really can't fail to see me,” he said.

To ensure you’re seen when traveling on smaller roads without bike lanes, ride in the middle of the lane, and if you’re at a stop light, go to the front of the traffic, Dannenberg suggested.

Watch out for black ice in the winter. “If you’re running late and there’s ice on the road, it’s worth it to slow down around the corners,” Dannenberg added.

The League of American Bicyclists has videos on its website covering traffic safety and hand signals, which cyclists can use to communicate when they’re turning or stopping.

New riders may want to find a biking companion who can point out safer, less congested routes.

“It’s nice to have a buddy if you know someone who’s commuting by bike in the vicinity that you’re going,” said Alison Dewey, education director at The League of American Bicyclists. “Maybe the most enjoyable route is just going another half-mile in this direction and getting on a trail instead of a more direct way. Someone who’s more experienced might know that.”

Some riders prefer electric bikes with a pedal-assist feature that provides a boost when they want to keep pace with traffic. After stopping at intersections, e-bikes help cyclists get going again, Dewey said.

Watch out for obstacles and swinging car doors to stay safe

When riding next to parked cars, leave space between yourself and those vehicles so you don't get “doored” — a common cycling collision that happens when someone opens a car door in a moving rider's path.

The League of American Bicyclists recommends staying four feet away from parked cars, even if it means positioning yourself outside of a marked bike lane. “It’s more important to be out of the ‘door zone’ than to be in the bike lane,” Dewey said.

Scan parked cars to see if anyone's inside, and if you notice a driver or passenger, move over, because you don't want to be next to that door when it opens, Dewey said.

If you do get into a crash with a car, call the police, gather information to identify the driver and don't hesitate to get medical treatment, advised Daniel Flanzig, a lawyer who is board president of the New York Bicycling Coalition, a nonprofit which advocates for bicycle-friendly policies.

“Be vigilant when you’re riding,” he said. “Things can come at you as a cyclist. Whether it’s a car or a pothole or a road defect, there’s a lot of hazards out there that we have to keep our head on the swivel for.”

Savor the exhilaration of riding outside

Starting the day with outdoor exercise helps many riders show up to work refreshed and energized.

“Biking is genuinely probably one of the best parts of my day. I get to listen to music. I get to be by myself. I get to think,” Frank said. “Biking feels like it’s reclaiming some of the autonomy of my day, like the joy and whimsy of moving around, especially in the city."

Dewey, 52, enjoys views of the Potomac River as she pedals 16 miles to work.

“It brings me a lot of happiness to just ride,” Dewey said. “Being outside is just always good for my emotional health. And honestly, I like being under my own power.”

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

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It happened at approximately 1:53 p.m. Wednesday along the 800 block of Northwest 10th Terrace.

According to police, responding officers arrived to the scene and found one man who had been shot.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue medics rushed the man to Broward Health Medical Center with injuries that were considered to be life-threatening, police said.

Investigators said the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident between two people.

Police said there was nobody in custody, but their investigation remains active and ongoing.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, referred Smith to the Justice Department on allegations he made false statements during closed-door testimony about whether he had obtained records of lawmakers while investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

The referral, sent Wednesday, centers on a December 2025 exchange in which Smith was asked about subpoenas that prosecutors had issued for the toll records of some Republican lawmakers as part of the investigation. Toll records show the time, date, length of call and phone numbers involved but do not reveal the content of the communication.

“Did the toll records that you requested from the Senators, did they include the content of the phone calls?” Smith was asked.

“No,” he said. He again answered no when asked whether the toll records he had requested included the content of text messages.

Jordan, in his referral, says that that answer was misleading in light of newly released records from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa showing that Smith had obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers' text messages in a separate subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration that sought the communications of various Trump advisers and aides.

“The responses provided by Mr. Smith gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of Members’ privileged text messages. We now know this to be false,” Jordan wrote.

In a letter to Jordan and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Smith's lawyers called his answers “unimpeachably truthful” and noted that he was responding explicitly to questions about toll records, which did not include the contents of any text messages.

A criminal referral to the Justice Department from Congress or any other party has no legal authority and does not compel prosecutors to act. But the department under the Trump administration has proved to be eager to investigate and in some cases prosecute foes of the president. Smith is certainly one such adversary, with Trump having called him “deranged” and urging his prosecution.

“During his testimony, Mr. Smith provided truthful, responsive answers and candidly discussed his work as Special Counsel,” wrote Smith's lawyers, Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer. “This referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.”

The Justice Department in a statement Wednesday night confirmed receipt of the referral and said it “will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.”

Smith charged Trump with conspiring to undo the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after his first term in the White House. Smith abandoned both prosecutions after Trump's election win in November 2024, citing longstanding Justice Department opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal indictment.

Smith resigned from the Justice Department in early 2025, 10 days before Trump was inaugurated again.

The incident happened last month in Miami Gardens, and when police responded to the scene, they said they discovered millions of dollars in drugs and cash.

The hearing was for Anthony Gordon and his girlfriend Danette Young, who have been in jail for more than a month after a reported home invasion robbery at their Miami Gardens home.

Gordon and Young claimed to be the victims on that day, but when police arrived, they said they uncovered a record-setting seizure of $1.3 million in cash and illegal drugs with a street value of roughly $5 million.

Attorneys for both argued in court that just because there were drugs present in the home, it did not prove their clients were in possession of the drugs.

The couple is currently being held without bond on a long list of drug-related felonies.

Their attorneys tried to convince the court to set a bond and allow for their release, but in the end, the evidence presented – photos of cash, multiple weapons and drugs – may have been overwhelming.

The judge ultimately ruled the couple would remain behind bars without bond.

It happened on Sunday afternoon along North Miami Avenue, near Fifth Street, in downtown Miami ― and it was all caught on surveillance camera.

Local 10 News spoke to the victim, Aiden Chappell, who said he met a man who claimed that he wanted to buy his $4,000 Sony video camera.

“I was meeting this guy off of Facebook Marketplace. He ended up taking my camera, testing it out and while he was testing it out, he ended up running off with it,” said Chappell.

Seconds later, the man sprinted across the street with the camera in hand without paying a dime.

Instead of jumping into a waiting getaway car with a driver behind the wheel, Chappell said the man got into a driverless Waymo.

It’s a twist Chappell said he never saw coming.

“It surprised me,” he said. “It never would be something that I think, ‘Hey, I got to be aware of a Waymo in the middle of the street here.’”

Now detectives with the Miami Police Department are actively working to identify the man who committed this theft.

“We have a good communication with Waymo, so we are going to contact them and get information on who this offender was,” said Officer Mike Vega, an MPD spokesperson.

As more people buy and sell expensive items online, police say where you meet to conduct transactions can make all the difference.

“Go to your local police station,” said Vega. “We know that the victim lives close to our police station. All he has to do is go there, go to our main lobby, and say, ‘I’m just here to sell something to someone from the internet,’ and we allow them to make their transaction there.”

For Chappell, who is a content creator, the stolen camera wasn’t just an expensive piece of equipment, it’s a tool he depends on to make a living.

“It’s a big part of my livelihood,” he said. “It’s a big loss, which is why I’m trying to do everything I can to figure out the situation and kind of get a handle.”

Chappell has created a GoFundMe page in the wake of the theft.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. extended the deadline for TPS to be revoked for Haitians in the U.S. until Monday, July 27, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The court denied a request from the Trump administration that would have ended TPS on Friday.

It is the second extension in as many weeks.

TPS was initially set to expire for Haitians living in the U.S. on July 10. That day, the Department of Homeland Security released a memo stating TPS would be extended to July 24.

At the time, DHS said the move was the result of active litigation.

The DHS claims Haiti is now safe enough to return to, while the United Nations and the U.S. State Department warn of frequent gang violence and kidnappings there.

Many South Florida Haitians work in hospitality and healthcare, and advocates have said that the loss of TPS will hit those industries hard, as they’re already dealing with staffing shortages.

Thamara Labrousse, with Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in North Miami, told Local 10 that many Haitian TPS holders are facing a difficult choice and it’s even harder for parents with children.

“If you are a TPS holder with an American born child, you may have to consider if you are forced to go back to Haiti, not taking your child with you because it’s not safe and a lot of parents are struggling with that,” she said.

Labrousse said that if Haitians are ultimately forced to return, many won’t have homes or even basic services to return to.

“We don’t believe that there are enough even basic services in place to be able to accommodate that many people,” she said.

Like many other Haitians, one young father told Local 10 that his family home in Haiti has been destroyed and overtaken by gangs.

So he plans to keep working, cleaning restaurants in Miami until he has to go.

He says even if he loses his legal status, he doesn’t plan to return to Haiti.

Thamara Labrousse, with Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in North Miami, says many Haitians are facing a tough choice, one even harder for those with children.

“If you are a TPS holder with an American born child, you may have to consider if you are forced to go back to Haiti, not taking your child with you because it’s not safe and a lot of parents are struggling with that,” Labrousse said.

Labrousse says if Haitians are forced to go back, there may not be a place for them to go to.

“We don’t believe that there are enough even basic services in place to be able to accommodate that many people,” she said.

A young Haitian father living in South Florida told Local 10 News’ Christian De La Rosa that his family home in Haiti was destroyed and overtaken by gangs in his neighborhood.

He said he plans to keep cleaning restaurants for work in Miami until he is let go and stressed he’s not going back to Haiti, even if he loses his legal status.

“He would rather hide instead of going to face what possibly can happen to him in Haiti,” said Labrousse.

Video taken at the scene shows multiple Margate police units lined up along Atlantic Boulevard as detectives investigated what occurred.

A portion of the roadway was shut down for several hours while officers gathered evidence and documented what happened.

Another video shows the medical examiner removing the victim’s body from the scene before the road was reopened.

“My heart goes out to him. But like I said, long story short, it’s a busy highway,” one man who frequents the area said.

No other details about the crash were immediately released by police.

It happened Wednesday night in the area of the Mobile gas station located at 16961 Miramar Pkwy.

“So what we do know is that there was an altercation with two men, and one was stabbed,” Miramar police spokeswoman Janice McIntosh said.

According to police, a man suffered serious injuries and was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Authorities said the subject in the stabbing took off, leading to police establishing a perimeter in the area while they searched for him.

Officers closed off Miramar Parkway in both directions between 164th Avenue and 172nd Avenue while processing the scene.

“The police know who they are looking for, but they are still asking the public, if they see or hear anything suspicious to report it immediately, because he is still at large,“ McIntosh said.

Police have not released the suspect’s identity.

Anyone with further information is asked to call the Miramar Police Department or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

This past Monday, the U.S. Department of State issued a 100-page report entitled “Cuba: The Capital of 21^st Century Communism” that outlined why Cuba is a national security threat not only to the U.S., but to the entire world. The Cuban government reacted at once and not only criticized the report but blamed Secretary of State Marco Rubio with threatening the island nation.

On Wednesday at a press conference in the Philippines, Rubio, when asked by a reporter what the U.S. plan was for Cuba, used a much more diplomatic tone and said the U.S. is still willing to negotiate with Cuba.

Washington continues to send mixed signals as to what will be done with Cuba. What we do know is that the strategy used in Venezuela did not bring about regime change.

July 21 update: First humanitarian aid from US will arrive in Cuba

Today, the first humanitarian aid will arrive in Cuba as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s offer to help the Cuban people as they experience the worst economic situation since the early 1990’s. Today’s cargo includes 700 hygiene kits and 700 food items to be distributed directly to the Cuban people by Catholic Relief Services Caritas Cuba and other faith-based organizations.

Secretary Rubio wants to let the Cuban people clearly know that the U.S. stands behind them and is willing to continue to help them as part of the U.S. commitment of $100 million in humanitarian aid.

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July 20 update: Cuba releases artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara

This past Saturday, Cuba released artist and opposition leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara after serving five years in jail. Otero Alcantara was one of the leaders of the San Isidro movement that led to large protests across the island nation five years ago.

Upon arriving in Miami, Otero Alcantara thanked the Cuban American community for its support and asked Cuba to release all political prisoners in jail.

July 16 update: US Department of Defense pays $3 million to US personnel affected by Havana Syndrome

The U.S. Department of Defense has paid $3 million in compensation to U.S. personnel affected by the mysterious condition known as Havana Syndrome, making the first payment under the 2021 Havana Act.

Havana Syndrome first appeared in 2016 when U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers in Havana, Cuba reported unusual symptoms, including intense head pressure, dizziness, nausea, hearing disturbances and memory problems.

July 14 update: New U.S. sanctions increase pressure on Cuba’s military-run economy

The United States on Monday introduced new sanctions targeting companies controlled by GAESA, Cuba’s military economic conglomerate, as well as some of the military brigades responsible for suppressing protests like the ones we saw the other day.

How much longer can the Cuban government hold on? Information continues to reach U.S. officials indicating that there are sectors within the Cuban government that are increasingly concerned about how much longer they can survive without negotiating with the U.S. government before facing a complete collapse of their system.

July 10 update: Does Raul Castro’s grandson have the full authority to negotiate for the Cuban government?

As I expected, there seems to be a small crack within the inner circle of the Cuban government. Some have criticized Raulito (Raul Castro’s grandson) for offering to negotiate directly with President Trump. The criticism comes as to whether he has the full authority to negotiate for the Cuban government or is he just negotiating for the Castro family?

Yesterday, the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) backed Raulito’s efforts, but the military leadership has remained quiet.

July 8 update: United Nations has no legal right to lift U.S. embargo on Cuba

Every year, Cuba argues in front of the United Nations that the U.S. economic embargo is the cause for their economic problems. Each year, Cuba loses more support for their argument. The United Nations has no legitimate or legal right to lift the embargo. The U.S. Congress can only lift the embargo.

The Cuban government propaganda machine has failed. Most Cubans on the island, including economists on the island, blame the Cuban government for their current poor economic conditions.

July 6 update: Raul Castro’s grandson says Cuba is willing to negotiate with US

Reuters reported earlier this morning that Raul Castro’s grandson Raulito, known as “El Cangrejo,” announced that Cuba is willing to negotiate with the U.S. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether Raulito is negotiating on behalf of the Castro family or the Cuban government?

We know that Cuba has been selling some of their assets, including some belonging to the military economic conglomerate GAESA in the last couple of weeks. Cuba’s attempt to invite foreign investment has not attracted many takers for the fear of losing their money.

July 2 update: Cuba’s culture of fear complicates a Democratic transition

When we talk about Cuba, we usually concentrate on their centralized political and economic system. However, we fail to recognize that individuals that have lived under totalitarian regimes have had to survive under a culture of fear. Such system of government creates a psychological set of attitudes and values that help define the daily behavior in order to align the people’s wants and needs to the restrictions imposed by the government.

To break such behaviors could take years of psychological training and change. Therefore, transitioning a totalitarian state to support a transition to some form of a Democratic government could take time.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez’s June updates can be viewed by clicking here.

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.

The attack announced this week by OpenAI, which blamed rogue AI models, underscored the blistering growth in the technology’s capabilities. For many, it also added urgency to questions about whether and how it can be prevented from causing mayhem on a bigger scale, with more serious consequences.

In what OpenAI called an “unprecedented” episode, the company said its advanced AI models used stolen credentials to break into the servers of an AI startup. It started in what was supposed to be a “highly isolated” testing environment, with reduced guardrails, before the AI agent found its way onto the internet.

But the disclosure brought a told-you-so moment for researchers who have called for a slowdown of AI development and warned for years that the technology could pose existential risks to humanity. In its wake, experts have called for improved testing by the AI companies and more dialogue between the U.S. and China to come up with shared solutions.

“I think we’ve got to take this as a warning shot to not make them smarter, and that probably is going to require global collaboration,” said Nate Soares, co-author of the 2025 book “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.”

The hack could pressure companies to improve containment

If a model can decide to do something unethical, illegal or harmful on its own, what — if anything — can humans do to prevent it from doing so?

OpenAI said it had tasked the AI models involved with pursuing “advanced exploitation using complex attack paths” to test cyber capabilities, but the technology went to unexpected lengths. It apparently decided on its own to target Hugging Face, a well-known AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

Zahra Timsah, the co-founder and CEO of governance platform i-GENTIC AI, said she expects the incident to increase pressure on OpenAI and its competitors to complete rigorous testing and explore containment more thoroughly before AI systems are made accessible to the public.

Monitoring an agent’s behavior after the fact, as OpenAI is now doing with its investigation, is no longer enough, she said. “It’s like having a seat belt, air bags, brakes, everything in the car. It should be there before the car starts driving,” Timsah said.

The disclosure comes amid heightened concerns about the cybersecurity capabilities of powerful models. In June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.

Other experts see the event as a sign of AI's growing pains

Some experts say the hack is part of the trial and error that comes with improving cybersecurity capabilities and is no cause for panic.

“We’ve been dealing with people creating cybersecurity attacks for as long as the internet has existed. And one of the interesting properties of these language models is that the same capabilities that make them able to perform cybersecurity attacks also allow them to do cybersecurity threat analysis and make cybersecurity defenses,” said John Thickstun, an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University who studies methods that control the behavior of AI models.

The disclosure has raised skepticism from those who say it advantages OpenAI to make its technology seem scarier. Given that humans at OpenAI had decided to turn off some safeguards for the test, some have argued the outcome should not have been terribly surprising.

Thickstun noted the disclosure plays into the need of OpenAI, a startup working toward a Wall Street debut, to raise money.

“The story that they’ve been consistently telling over the lifetime of this company is a story about how dangerous their models are, which their investors read as a story of how powerful their language models are,” he said.

The disclosure renews calls for more regulation

The hack renewed calls in some corners for increased regulations and oversight of AI companies.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, wrote on social media: “We need regular mandatory independent safety testing and oversight, mandatory disclosure of security incidents, and international cooperation to keep people safe from absolute disaster.”

Soares, director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, said the U.S. will need to open talks with its biggest AI competitor, China, something he thinks is not as outlandish as it might have seemed even a year ago. China’s leader Xi Jinping warned at a conference just last week of the need to keep AI from evading human control. And after an early aversion to regulating AI, Trump’s administration has grown more restrictive at reining in cybersecurity risks.

“A lot can change when the national security community starts to notice that they have a serious threat,” Soares said. “Will this wake them up? Hopefully. I’m not sure. If this doesn’t, maybe the next incident will.”

AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio said on social media the episode is deeply concerning and should serve as a “wake-up call.”

“Continuing on the current trajectory of AI development will likely lead to an increase in concrete cases of autonomous cyberattacks as well as other high-risk incidents of misaligned and dangerous AI behavior,” said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. “We urgently need to take action to prevent these situations, rather than attempting to clean up the damage after the fact.”

It was the latest major crackdown on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in reining in some of the world’s largest companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing.

It has done so despite the risk of incurring the wrath of President Donald Trump, who has lashed out at the 27-nation bloc’s digital regulations amid a broader campaign against Europe: imposing high tariffs, making threats to seize Greenland from Denmark by force, and rattling trust within the NATO military alliance.

In the past, Trump has threatened retaliation if American tech companies are penalized.

Google had recently lost its appeal of a $4.5 billion antitrust fine imposed by the EU for throttling competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system.

The European Commission, the bloc's executive branch and highest antitrust enforcer, said it was acting in the interest of consumers after an investigation of Google.

“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut,” said Teresa Ribera, the commission's Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.

Google’s President of Global Affairs Kent Walker blasted the fine as “product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants” that will have a negative impact on European businesses and consumers.

He said that the EU’s Digital Markets Act forces Google “to strip away real-time search features Europeans love — like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants — and dismantle safety protections on Google Play.”

The EU describes the world’s seven tech giants — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance — as “gatekeepers” that control access for consumers.

“In the EU, businesses have the right to compete fairly. Gatekeepers have the obligation to ensure a level playing field and consumers the right to choose for cheaper alternative offers,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said. Alphabet reported $403 billion in revenue in 2025.

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Should the trend continue, it would push the annual homicide rate to the lowest levels in over a century once final numbers are released at the end of the year.

The report, released Thursday, tracked 13 crimes and recorded drops in nine of those categories, including carjackings, residential burglary and aggravated assaults. There was a small jump in shoplifting, domestic violence incidents, sexual assaults and drug offenses over the same period between 2025 and 2026, the report showed.

Experts say the broadly positive changes are exceeding expectations, improving on baseline crime rates from before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought historic surges in violence.

Democrats and Republicans across the country have tried to capitalize on the positive developments during a competitive midterm election year. But the trends documented in the report carry through in cities with leadership across the political spectrum.

That suggests the most significant factors contributing to the improvements are taking place nationwide and are not specific to a single local public safety measure, said Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank for criminal justice policy and research.

“Murder and other crime rates are falling across the map in cities with different political leadership, different housing and economic conditions, different policing and prosecution and violence reduction strategies and different levels of federal enforcement activity,” Gelb said.

The council collects data from police departments and other law enforcement sources. Some of the report categories include data from as many as 36 cities, while others include fewer cities in their totals because of tracking gaps or differences in definitions for specific crimes.

Notably, Gelb said that a significant number of violent crimes were less deadly: There was a 23% drop in the lethality of the crimes committed, which is measured by the share of serious violent crime that is fatal.

Many of the non-violent crimes tracked in the report also saw declines, including a 13% drop in residential burglaries year over year and a 50% drop in burglaries compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. At the same time, reported shoplifting bucked the trends of other property crimes, showing a 5% increase. And while there was a small increase in drug offenses, those were still lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Roughly a third of the 30 sampled cities defied average homicide rate declines across the country, recording an increase in deadly violence from the first half of 2025 to the same period in 2026. That includes Norfolk, Virginia, which saw a 64% increase in homicides, and San Francisco, which saw a 55% increase. The number of cities that saw a longer-term increase was far smaller: Only Norfolk, Austin, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis experienced more homicides in 2026 than in the same period in 2019.

There are many factors that could impact why a location sees increases or decreases in certain crimes when another doesn't, according to John Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at the National Opinion Research Center from the University of Chicago.

Roman said that conservative politicians affiliated with President Donald Trump will point to intensified immigration crackdowns and the deployment of the National Guard in cities like Los Angeles and Memphis, whereas liberal politicians might point to former Democratic President Joe Biden's public safety legislation that strengthened background checks on firearm sales.

But ultimately, Roman said, the best explanations transcend specific administrations. That ranges from decreased drug usage and therefore fewer purchases from illegal markets, which are often linked to violence, to an influx of federal funding for localities after the pandemic that was spent on social programming.

Those programs, Roman said, often funded jobs like teachers and social workers who primarily work with “young people who are the highest risk of violence and victimization.”

While both Gelb and Roman concurred that there wasn't a single reason, Gelb said the outcomes should be studied for future insights and celebrated.

“This is one of the most significant public safety developments in decades. It means lives are being saved, families are spared trauma and communities are regaining stability,” Gelb said.

India’s “Cockroach” protests began more than a month ago over alleged leaks in some of the country’s most competitive entrance exams for medical colleges and government jobs. The movement has since expanded beyond exam grievances, drawing professionals and families while channeling broader frustration.

Thursday’s demonstrations at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in New Delhi, followed overnight clashes in which police used tear gas and batons to disperse crowds, the second such confrontation this week.

On Monday, thousands of protesters had defied restrictions and marched toward Parliament before police broke up the demonstration with tear gas and batons.

Protesters regrouped by Thursday morning, returning to the protest site despite roadblocks, while authorities suspended Delhi Metro services at 16 stations across central New Delhi in an effort to limit access to the demonstrations.

Modi tries to contain protest fallout

The issue of exam leaks has become a powerful symbol of frustration for millions of young Indians. Protesters are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, examination system reforms and compensation for families of students who died by suicide after exam paper leaks.

Facing mounting pressure, Modi addressed the issue publicly for the first time Thursday, announcing fast-track courts to handle examination paper leak cases. Fast-track courts are special courts created to speed up cases in India’s notoriously slow justice system.

“Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!,” Modi wrote on X.

The announcement failed to calm protesters, who said Modi was not addressing their demands for accountability and reform.

“Rather than providing solution which is convenient for him, he should work toward a solution which is convenient for the nation and set an example,” law student Daksh Bhargava said.

Cockroach party stays true to satirical origins

Leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party, which launched the protest movement, said they would not end the demonstrations until the education minister resigned. Staying true to the movement’s tongue-in-cheek style, its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, responded by posting a meme of Pradhan captioned, “Hi, my name is Nothing.”

The Cockroach movement began as online satire campaign in May and moved to the streets in June through smaller protests across cities. It gained momentum after prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the demonstration and began a hunger strike that has lasted more than three weeks. Police forcibly transferred Wangchuk to a hospital over the weekend.

Protests reflect rising youth anger

For many young Indians, the protests have become one of the few visible expressions of dissent in a country where demonstrations against Modi’s government have led to a broader crackdown on activists, opposition figures and public protests.

The movement’s rapid growth beyond student groups reflects wider frustration among young Indians and echoes a broader trend across South Asia, where young people have driven anti-government movements in recent years.

The movement also has gained a following among Indians of all ages over concerns about government accountability, unemployment and economic opportunity.

Opposition parties have backed the protests, using the issue to challenge the government in Parliament. Demonstrations and solidarity events have been held in other Indian cities, reflecting how the movement has spread beyond the capital.

India has one of the world’s youngest populations, with millions entering a labor market that has struggled to create enough secure, well-paying jobs. Despite years of rapid economic growth, many young people say their prospects have not improved.

As one of the country’s largest voting blocs, India’s youth could also become an increasingly important political force ahead of future elections.

La tormenta tocó tierra el miércoles por la tarde en el municipio de St. Bernard, a unos 40 millas (65 kilómetros) al este de Nueva Orleans. Se pronosticaba que alcanzaría la costa superior de Texas el jueves antes de disiparse tierra adentro en Texas para el viernes.

El Centro Nacional de Huracanes informó que, a primera hora del jueves, la tormenta estaba a unos 175 kilómetros (110 millas) al suroeste de Nueva Orleans y a unos 190 kilómetros (120 millas) al sureste de Lake Charles, Luisiana. Se desplazaba hacia el oeste a 19 km/h (12 mph) con vientos máximos sostenidos de 75 km/h (45 mph).

El viento y la marejada ciclónica eran las principales amenazas para los estados del sur de Estados Unidos. Se cerraron parques y muelles a lo largo de la costa, al igual que algunas carreteras en zonas bajas. Una advertencia de tormenta tropical se extendía desde Alabama hasta Luisiana, incluida Nueva Orleans, donde el calor extremo aumentaba el malestar.

Los curiosos observaban la marejada en el estuario del lago Pontchartrain, y había niños chapoteando en las aguas crecidas mientras Bertha se acercaba a la costa de Luisiana. Los residentes cortaban el césped incluso mientras las calles se iban llenando de agua.

El centro de huracanes indicó que los vientos con fuerza de tormenta tropical llegaban hasta a 260 kilómetros (160 millas) del centro del sistema. El miércoles por la tarde se registró una ráfaga de 44 mph (71 km/h) en el Aeropuerto Lakefront de Nueva Orleans. Los fuertes vendavales derribaron un letrero de Waffle House sobre un automóvil en Panama City Beach, Florida.

Pero las lluvias más intensas se mantenían mar adentro, lo que reducía los riesgos de inundaciones, señaló el centro.

Es poco probable que la tormenta deje daños generalizados, afirmó el climatólogo estatal de Luisiana Jay Grymes, y añadió que el impacto debería ser manejable para las comunidades costeras.

El gobernador Jeff Landry calificó el pronóstico de “alentador”, pero también advirtió a los residentes que se prepararan para algunas inundaciones.

Los meteorólogos dijeron que eran posibles marejadas de hasta un metro (3 pies) en Luisiana y Alabama. Se pronosticaban acumulaciones de lluvia de entre 3 y 10 centímetros ( de 1 a 4 pulgadas), con cantidades mayores posibles en zonas aisladas.

En otras partes de Estados Unidos, una línea de tormentas generó el martes reportes de tornados desde Cincinnati hasta Nueva Jersey. Las lluvias torrenciales provocaron inundaciones repentinas que anegaron viviendas, destruyeron puentes y llevaron a rescates acuáticos en Virginia Occidental, informaron las autoridades.

Rara combinación de alertas por tormenta tropical y calor

El Servicio Meteorológico Nacional indicó que el sur de Luisiana estuvo bajo alertas por tormenta tropical y por calor extremo durante gran parte del miércoles, una inusual dosis doble de penurias.

El servicio meteorológico señaló que era la primera vez en al menos dos décadas que ocurría en la zona, y citó registros que se remontan a 2005.

Bertha es la segunda tormenta tropical de la temporada del Atlántico

Bertha es la segunda tormenta tropical de la temporada de huracanes del Atlántico. La tormenta tropical Arthur, en junio, llevó fuertes lluvias al sureste de Estados Unidos.

Bertha podría descargar lluvias intensas en zonas costeras de Mississippi que aún no se recuperan de las inundaciones provocadas por Arthur, que destruyó y dañó viviendas.

El huracán Fausto en el Pacífico está lejos de tierra

En el océano Pacífico oriental, el huracán Fausto se desplazaba lejos de tierra. El huracán estaba a cientos de millas al oeste-suroeste del extremo sur de Baja California, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 130 km/h (80 mph).

Se esperaba que ganar fuerza de forma gradual, y el centro de huracanes indicó que el oleaje generado por Fausto se estaba extendiendo a lo largo de la costa de Baja California y probablemente causaría fuerte oleaje y corrientes de resaca potencialmente mortales.

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Los periodistas de The Associated Press Julie Walker en Nueva York, Kim Chandler en Montgomery, Alabama, y Jaimie Ding en Los Ángeles contribuyeron a este despacho.

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

The president said on social media Thursday that “if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves.”

Trump said the Houthis had previously been acting “very responsibly” after facing U.S. strikes last year in response to rebel attacks on commercial vessels. “Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night,” he said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea early Thursday, as the U.S. military conducted a 12th night of strikes against Iran and diplomatic efforts showed dwindling progress.

The Houthi attack threatened to open a new front in a war that has roiled the global economy, sending prices for fuel and other goods surging across the world, with the standoff in the Gulf deepening as the United States and Iran vie for control of vital Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command said its strikes were designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters,” as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the U.S. would destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the strait.

Both sides have increasingly threatened civilian infrastructure. International law generally prohibits such attacks unless the infrastructure is being used for military purposes.

Kuwait’s military says drones attacked its border crossing with Iraq, causing damage but no casualties. It did not say who was behind Thursday’s attack on the Abdali crossing, but Iran has launched repeated attacks on Kuwait since hostilities with the U.S. reignited last month. Iran also supports powerful militias in Iraq.

Diplomatic efforts show no signs of prog

ress

A day after saying the U.S. was still open to diplomacy, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a darker tone Thursday.

“The price will continue to get higher every single night until they come to their senses,” Rubio told reporters while traveling in the Philippines for a regional summit. He insisted Iran is “begging” for a deal but that Trump “doesn’t see a lot of utility in responding to their overtures at this point, because, frankly, Iran is clearly not ready to make a deal, at least not when they’re willing to live by.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has said Tehran would adopt an “eye for an eye” defense doctrine.

“The president’s policy is a head for an eye,” Rubio said. “They will pay a very heavy price for the things they’re doing.”

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni was in Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar urged the U.S and Iran “to exercise restraint, uphold their commitments, and pursue peaceful engagement.” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attacks on the Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, a statement from his office said.

An Arab diplomat said Gulf states are increasingly pessimistic about finding an off-ramp. The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said regional countries, in addition to Pakistan and Turkey, continue to push for de-escalation but that chances of improvement appear bleak.

Iran-backed Houthis say they attacked oil tankers

The Houthis' SABA news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, in the Red Sea, leading to fires on both. That would be their first reported attack on a vessel since they announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this week in retaliation for the kingdom’s blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12% of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there, moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

A senior Houthi official said the blockade on Saudi-linked shipping would remain in effect until a years-old Saudi blockade against the Houthis is lifted. The official gave no details of the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported an attack set the Encelia ablaze overnight in the Red Sea. It said there were no casualties. It did not mention the Layla.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, UKMTO, said it received a report of a tanker being struck by “an unknown projectile” 70 nautical miles (80 miles, 130 kilometers) southwest of Al Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia, in the Red Sea. It said no casualties had been reported.

Asked about the tanker attack, Rubio said he hoped the Houthis would “de-escalate.”

“I think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians. And they were smart to stay out of it, and they should stay out of it and they should stop. We’ll see what happens there. Obviously, it’s not a positive development,” Rubio said.

Both sides dig in over Strait of Hormuz dispute

Iran and the U.S. have dug in on their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy. The closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passed during peacetime, has jolted the world economy with effects far beyond the Middle East.

Iran says it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees in the strait, which was open to all and toll-free before the war. It has attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by U.S. forces and intended to be outside Tehran’s control.

In response to Iran’s attacks, the U.S. re-imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and began the widening campaign of strikes across the country. On Tuesday, Trump signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an under-construction Iranian nuclear site buried deep under a mountain.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led negotiations with the U.S., appeared to brush off Trump’s threats.

“We have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to prewar conditions,” he wrote on social media.

U.S. strikes in Iran overnight

Iranian state media reported that U.S. missiles struck locations overnight near the cities of Ahvaz, Ramshir and Andimeshk in western Iran, and two people were killed in a U.S. missile strike in the town of Shalamcheh on the Iraqi border.

Iran has responded to U.S. attacks by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants providing drinking water in parched neighboring Gulf countries.

Jordanian authorities said the country's military had intercepted three missiles Thursday morning, with a fourth falling in an empty area, while six drones were intercepted Wednesday night. Bahrain's Interior Ministry posted on X that sirens had sounded and urged the public to remain calm and head to a safe area.

Overnight, military officials in Kuwait said on social media that their air defenses were “confronting attacks by hostile drones.”

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Michelle L. Price and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The handover took place late Wednesday during a meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel at Prabowo’s residence in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Patel arrived in Jakarta shortly after talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet concerning joint efforts to combat international online scam operations that cheat victims out of billions of dollars annually.

The exchange underscored growing cooperation between Indonesia and the U.S. in recovering stolen cultural heritage and returning the items to the country of origin, Indonesia Culture Minister Fadli Zon said.

The artifacts from Papua are part of the cultural heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and Lake Sentani communities. They were repatriated through cooperation between Indonesia’s Culture Ministry and the FBI after provenance research established the objects had been smuggled out of Indonesia, Zon said.

“These are very valuable objects because this repatriation process is part of our effort to restore our cultural sovereignty,” Zon said, adding that the artifacts will be displayed at Indonesia’s National Museum.

Images from Indonesia's Presidential Secretariat show several polished stone ax heads and ceremonial objects traditionally associated with Papuan societies.

Traditional Papuan stone axes were more than utilitarian tools. Among highland communities such as the Dani, they historically served as symbols of wealth and status, were exchanged in marriage and ceremonial transactions and were often passed down as treasured ancestral heirlooms, the Culture Ministry said.

The return is the latest in a series of efforts by U.S. authorities to recover and repatriate Southeast Asian cultural property that was trafficked through international antiquities networks, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement.

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced the return of two bronze, Buddhist sculptures depicting Avalokiteshvara from the eighth century, the embassy said.

During a repatriation ceremony at the Indonesian Consulate on July 10, Clayton said U.S. authorities would continue working with Homeland Security Investigations to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property and return stolen artworks to their origin countries.

The sculptures were stolen from Indonesian archaeological sites and sold to an American collector by the late antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford. The sculptures were among 34 Southeast Asian antiquities voluntarily relinquished by the collector in 2021 after investigators determined they had been looted.

The Indonesian sculptures were removed decades ago by organized looters before entering the international art market through Latchford, a Bangkok-based dealer who was indicted by U.S. authorities in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a large-scale trafficking scheme involving antiquities looted from Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. The case was later dismissed following his death, the U.S. embassy said.

The FBI has previously assisted Indonesia in recovering stolen cultural objects, including bronze statues and artifacts from historical and archaeological sites, according to Zon, who expressed hope that the cooperation on cultural repatriation and restitution would continue.

Indonesia has intensified efforts in recent years to track down cultural treasures scattered abroad through colonial-era collecting, theft and illicit trafficking, including from the Netherlands, which colonized Indonesia for centuries.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.6%. Nasdaq futures slid 0.8%.

Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, sank 4% after the European Union hit the company with a fine of 890 million euros ($1 billion). EU regulators said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

News of the fine came a day after Alphabet posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter, a sign that its massive artificial intelligence spending spree may be paying off.

Tesla shares slid 5.6% in off-hours trading after the car company run by Elon Musk said it shoveled more money into research and development, cutting into profits that were lifted by a sharp increase in vehicle sales.

Investors are looking for signs that the deluge of dollars going into processors, computer memory and other building blocks of the AI boom will yield enough profits to make the investments worthwhile. Such worries have kept AI stocks at the center of Wall Street’s swings for weeks, though trading in that sector was muted early Thursday with most companies hovering near Wednesday's closing prices.

Companies in the defense sector got a boost after aerospace giant Lockheed Martin beat sales and profit forecasts, propelling its shares 5.5% in the premarket. RTX, which makes Patriot and Tomahawk cruise missiles, jumped 5.2% after it breezed past Wall Street targets and raised its guidance.

Rising oil prices are weighing on stocks because they make consumers more cautious about spending while raising costs for most businesses and erode their profits.

Airlines and other fuel-dependent companies usually get hit the hardest when energy prices are elevated. American Airlines fell 3.7% in premarket trading, even after beating profit forecasts on record revenue. The company said it expects third-quarter fuel expense to be up $1.7 billion year over year. That helped drag shares of other airlines lower, including Delta and United.

Southwest also posted strong quarterly results on Thursday, but its shares sank more than 4% after it trimmed expectations for the current quarter, also blaming higher fuel expenses.

Early Thursday, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was up 4.9% to $98.64, its highest level since early June.

It had fallen to less than $72 earlier this month, roughly where it was before the war with Iran. But continued fighting is preventing oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Persian Gulf. Normally, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes through the narrow strait.

U.S. benchmark crude gained $3.83 to $90.66 a barrel, also its highest level in six weeks.

Higher oil prices are threatening a reacceleration of inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, slowing economies and undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday Germany's DAX lost 0.9%, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.3% and Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.3% lower.

Asian shares mostly rose, led by South Korea’s Kospi, which gained 4.4% to 7,096.89.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 picked up 0.5% to 66,422.60. Technology companies led gains, with stocks in SoftBank Group climbing 3.8%.

The U.S. dollar was trading at 163.36 yen as the Japanese currency wavered near its lowest level in 40 years. Expectations that the gap between U.S. interest rates and Japanese interest rates will widen due to higher inflation in the U.S. have helped to drive the dollar higher against the yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.3% to 25,210.81. The Shanghai Composite index bounced back from earlier losses to gain 0.3%, closing at 3,876.78.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% to 8,839.00.

Taiwan's Taiex edged 0.1% higher and the Sensex in India fell 0.6%.

About 10 attackers opened fire and threw pipe bombs at soldiers at a security check point near a residential area in Narathiwat province Wednesday evening before fleeing, according to the regional Internal Security Operations Command. It said six civilians were injured during the attack, including a 10-year-old boy who remains hospitalized in stable condition.

Photos released by authorities showed a group identified as the attackers, dressed in black clothing and hats and riding on the back of a black pickup truck. Security officials said the truck was later found abandoned and set on fire about 21 kilometers (13 miles) away from the scene.

They said the attackers had stolen three AK-47 rifles, three bullet proof vests and three mobile phones from the soldiers, who were members of the country's paramilitary Ranger force, which operates as an auxiliary to the regular army and is usually deployed in border regions.

Narathiwat, along with Yala and Pattani, are Thailand’s southernmost provinces and are the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist nation. Since 2004, the provinces have been the site of a Muslim separatist insurgency that killed thousands.

Muslim residents have long complained of being treated like second-class citizens in Thailand, and separatist movements have been periodically active for decades. Heavy-handed crackdowns have fueled the discontent. Fighting continues to this day, but at a lower level.

The Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, which oversees security operations in southern Thailand, vowed in a Facebook post to “expedite the investigation and search for the perpetrators with the best efforts.”

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul condemned the attack, saying it was a “terrorist attack that clearly aimed at killing government officials, and a serious threat to national security,” according to government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek.

Footage aired by public broadcaster Thai PBS showed homes and properties of residents nearby were also damaged. One home had damage to its roof, windows and doors, while a motorcycle parked outside the house was destroyed. Another home had bullet holes scattered across its metal front gate.

But with barely three months until November's contest, the perceived threat to rural life, ranchland and dwindling water supplies could become a defining issue for her long-shot challenge to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, dividing conservative rural areas that have traditionally served as a counterweight to Democrats' urban strongholds.

The backlash to energy-guzzling server warehouses is also shaping other statewide campaigns from Arizona to Ohio to New York, and even giving Democrats a glimmer of hope in Texas, where Republicans have dominated for three decades.

“There is this little issue that I recently started hearing about that I wanted to tell you about, in case you don’t know,” Hinojosa quipped to a Democratic Party-organized crowd of about 160 seated on fold-out chairs at an Amarillo social club in Texas' panhandle. “It’s this issue of data centers.”

The crowd booed, and she went on: “They are owned by the richest men in the world. We’re all footing the bill. There are no rules. It is the wild west of data centers.”

The fast growth of massive data centers has already upended races for local offices across the country, often uniting conservatives and liberals in revolting against projects in their midst.

People don't like the secrecy surrounding the projects or the prospect of air, noise, water and light pollution. They fear electric bills going up, wells going dry and losing open space, farmland or forest.

Now the ripple effects have spread to top-of-the-ticket races, where incumbents and challengers are trying to show that they hear an angry electorate.

In Ohio, Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown aired a television advertisement attacking Republican U.S. Sen. John Husted as the "face of data centers in Ohio" as people gather signatures for a statewide referendum to outright ban their construction.

In Wisconsin, a Democratic candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, is pledging to “tax the rich, fund our schools and stop AI data centers” as she campaigns for her party's nomination in a crowded primary.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is facing heat from some voters who feel like he's been too welcoming to tech behemoths. Sam Burleigh, a Democrat whose rural community is fighting off data center projects, accused Shapiro of “allowing these data centers to come in and take over acres and acres of prime farmland.”

Texas is fertile ground for data centers

Any political unrest may be felt most acutely in Texas.

The state is poised to overtake northern Virginia as the largest global data center market by 2030, according to a report by commercial real estate giant JLL. It has lots of land, lots of energy and a friendly regulatory environment under Republican leadership.

In rural west Texas and its panhandle, gargantuan data centers are under construction, including one near Amarillo touted as the world's largest. Some come with designs for natural gas-fired turbines to power them.

Rumors are flying about others popping up — Google, which is building four data centers in northwest Texas, sponsored moderated conversations with officials and business elite in Lubbock and Amarillo in recent weeks — and it is sowing an outcry across small cities, tiny towns and sprawling ranches where people vote overwhelmingly Republican.

Google says its investments are advancing American innovation, fortifying cybersecurity and boosting energy capacity, while President Donald Trump has made data centers a top priority to help the U.S. compete against China for AI superiority.

But tech giants and developers can be secretive about their plans, making it impossible to know what will be built or what sort of pollution they'll create, critics say. Some worry that data centers will destroy rural Texas' low cost of living and sully sunsets and sweeping views that stretch toward the horizon.

Others say construction and an influx of workers are already causing havoc for ranchers and towns, driving up rents, snapping up farmland, illuminating the night sky, clogging roads and turning parts of rural Texas into industrial zones.

Opposition crosses a partisan divide

Democrats are prominent among the data center critics, but so are Republicans, including Texas' sitting agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller. They say there are many more Republicans who are quieter because they fear publicly opposing their governor and party.

“They're upset with Greg Abbott,” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, a former Republican activist from Spearman who writes a syndicated column that advocates for rural Texas. “Whether that translates into voting against him, I don't know.”

Abbott has aggressively advocated for big projects in Texas and, in November, he helped make Google's announcement of a $40 billion investment there, saying “Texas is the epicenter of AI development.”

Compounding that, Texas counties don't have zoning authority — precisely the local land planning authority that communities around the country are increasingly using to fight off data centers.

Abbott seems to recognize that data centers are dividing his base. In recent weeks, he ordered regulators to take steps to ensure Texans weren't paying higher electricity bills because of data centers and promised to push a legislative agenda next year to impose regulations on data centers.

At an East Texas campaign stop, Abbott said that includes taking away the state's billion-dollar-plus-per-year tax break and preventing data centers from being built in “rural Texas neighborhoods.”

Hinojosa and others derided Abbott's words about “rural Texas neighborhoods” as meaningless — "doublespeak that makes no sense to anyone," Hinojosa said — and lacking urgency or seriousness.

“Now we have this gold rush of data centers in our communities," Hinojosa said in an interview, adding that “people want a say, and I think that’s fair.”

As governor, she said she'd block a permit for a data center if it wasn't a good deal for Texans or residents hadn't gotten a say in the matter.

Abbott tries to soothe concerns

Abbott's campaign season turnabout on data centers doesn't seem to have soothed many.

Of great concern is the prospect that data centers will consume massive amounts of water and worsen drought conditions for ranchers and farmers in a state where water shortages already crippled the sugar cane industry.

“Oh, I guarantee you, it's on everybody's mind,” said Giles Dalby, a cattle rancher and a Republican county commissioner in west Texas.

Dalby, who raises Angus and Brangus cattle on ranchland that's been in his family for 125 years, pointed to fast-growing cities where water authorities have had to go to greater lengths to procure water, including the “water wars” between San Antonio and ranchers several years ago.

Texas is increasingly steamrolling over landowner rights in the quest for public water, Dalby said, and that could mean that data centers get in line ahead of ranchers when shortages or rationing worsen.

Clayton Tucker, a rancher and the Democratic nominee for state agriculture commissioner, said his campaign events are consumed by talk of data centers. It doesn't matter whether he's meeting with Democrats or Republicans.

“This is the most cross-partisan issue I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tucker said.

Meanwhile, protest groups are springing up, including one in Lubbock that is led by Republicans. The founders, Stephen Sanders and Hallie Bertrand, like some other Republican opponents of data centers, say it's possible or even certain they won't vote for Abbott, although they may not necessarily vote for Hinojosa.

There is still time for Abbott to push through major legislation before the election and “be a hero,” Sanders said.

The big question is whether enough rural voters will turn against Abbott to give Hinojosa a shot. It’s hard to tell, Bertrand said, especially when some know nothing about the issue.

“They'll just hit that button, Republican all the way down,” Bertrand said. "But I think it’s a step towards something that we have not seen in Texas in a long time, with people on the right switching to the left. Or scooting a little closer to the middle, maybe."

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Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter

Vance Boelter, 59, agreed to plead guilty in June, almost a year after the Minneapolis-area attacks when he stalked and killed House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and critically wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

Boelter pleaded guilty to six counts so federal prosecutors would not seek the death penalty; instead, he agreed to serve two consecutive life sentences, plus 40 years. Prosecutors and federal defenders said it was the maximum sentence he could be issued short of the death penalty.

Boelter admitted in court that he spent months identifying and stalking his targets, before driving to their homes in the middle of the night, disguised as a police officer, with the intention of killing them.

The killings sparked the largest police search in state history, causing panic, fear, and increased security and precautions. Elected officials faced escalating threats and political polarization that many worried would lead to more violence and attacks.

A presentencing memorandum submitted to the federal court in late June was sealed as of early Thursday, along with objections to that report.

But prosecutors and Boelter's defense team also submitted letters detailing their positions on the potential sentence.

“Vance Boelter committed an assault on democracy,” prosecutors wrote in their filing. “He shattered the lives of his victims. He terrified Minnesota’s public servants. He threatened police and pointed a gun at an officer. He viciously attacked the organs of Minnesota’s representative government.”

Boelter went to Hortman's home, wearing a tactical uniform and mask, about 3:30 a.m. on June 14, 2025. He rang the doorbell while shouting he was a police officer doing a welfare check, according to court documents.

Mark Hortman answered the door. Boelter gave him a fake name and badge number before requesting he summon Melissa Hortman to the door as well. He shot Mark Hortman multiple times before pushing into the house and shooting the lawmaker as she fled upstairs. Melissa and Mark Hortman were killed.

Boelter had already visited the Hoffmans' home that night, shooting and critically injuring the senator and his wife, according to police and court documents. Court documents said Boelter also went to two other lawmakers' houses that night. In one instance, no one answered the door, and in the other, Boelter was spooked when a police officer approached him in his car believing he was another officer.

Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. The Hortman family’s golden retriever was gravely injured in the shootings and had to be euthanized. Hoffman and his family filed a personal injury lawsuit against Boelter in April.

In his letter on the proposed sentencing, Boelter's attorney requested that he be sent to a federal prison in Florida, that he be allowed to work so he can pay restitution, and that he be allowed to participate in therapy and other in-person programs. The letter said Boelter had spent decades in food service and had experience in a handful of other fields.

“Mr. Boelter understands that his impending sentence means he will spend the rest of his life in prison. But the skill set he maintains from his diverse employment history makes him a strong candidate for programming, employment, and other opportunities at the Bureau of Prisons,” federal defender Manny Atwal wrote.

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Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

The two-day meeting hosted by the Food and Drug Administration has the backing of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has described himself as a “big fan” of peptides and vowed to overturn industry restrictions put in place under President Joe Biden.

Peptide supporters include podcaster Joe Rogan and wellness influencers such as Gary Brecka, a supporter of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda who sells peptide vials online. Social media platforms are brimming with testimonials from people claiming the substances helped them build muscle, recover from injuries or look younger.

Despite such support, the FDA’s two-day meeting is expected to showcase a stark split over the compounds.

FDA’s career scientists have made clear they don’t think there’s enough data to support making peptides more widely available, specifically from compounding pharmacies, which mix customized medicines that aren’t available from traditional drugmakers.

That’s also the stance of many medical and scientific experts who have weighed in ahead of the meeting.

“This is really alarming,” said Rita Jew, a pharmacist and president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. "There aren’t that many other substances people are injecting into themselves where you see that the clinical evidence is so lacking.”

But the panel of outside advisers convened for the meeting includes at least seven doctors or pharmacists with financial ties to the peptide industry. The group includes owners of wellness clinics that sell peptides, pharmacies that produce the formulas and online consulting businesses that promote them. Other expert panels appointed under Kennedy have faced criticism for apparent conflicts of interest.

Earlier this week, the FDA added several additional experts to the 20-member panel, including academics who don't have connections to the industry.

FDA scientists remain unconvinced of peptide safety and health benefits

The experts will take votes on whether the FDA should allow seven popular peptides to be added to a list of substances that are safe for compounding by pharmacies. The votes aren't binding and the FDA has periodically bucked the recommendations of its outside experts.

Peptides are the building blocks of more complex proteins, triggering hormones inside the body needed for growth, metabolism and healing. Drug companies have brought several to market as medications, including mainstay treatments for diabetes and weight loss.

Peptide supporters have asked the FDA to consider the seven peptides under review this week for various medical conditions, including ulcerative colitis, migraines and opioid addiction.

In recent years, the FDA had warned Americans about the risks of injecting peptides like BPC-157 and TB-500, both of which are set for review on Thursday. The chemicals are promoted online as a way to recover from injuries and reduce inflammation. Both are considered doping substances by international sports authorities.

In a scientific review posted ahead of the meeting, FDA scientists reiterated their longstanding concerns. Again and again, regulators said they could find little data on safety or effectiveness and raised concerns about risks of contamination, allergic reactions and quality control. Most of the data they did find came from studies in animals, including rats, and not humans.

For all seven peptides reviewed, the staffers recommended against making them available for compounding.

Peptide supporters will push FDA to ease access

The FDA assessment is only one part of more than 18 hours of discussions and presentations scheduled across two days. The meeting also includes opportunities for members of the public to address the FDA and its experts.

Ahead of the meeting, the FDA received more than 1,900 public comments, including from doctors and patients attesting to the benefits of peptides.

“For many people, this is about a therapy that is helping them, and whether they can get it safely and legally from a regulated pharmacy instead of taking their chances in the gray market,” states the American Academy of Peptide Medicine, a group that includes doctors and wellness clinic operators who promote peptides. The group's website states that it is “an educational academy, not a licensing or accrediting body.”

After the meeting, the FDA will review the votes, discussion and public comments before making a decision on whether to ease access to the peptides.

FDA-watchers say the most likely outcome may be a temporary policy reassuring pharmacies that they won’t be targeted for compounding the peptides under review. Formally placing the substances on FDA's list of drugs that are safe for compounding would require new regulations, which can take months or years to draft.

“We’re still going through this process, but I think it’s more than likely that the process will end up at the result that Secretary Kennedy wants,” said Nathan Beaver, an attorney specializing in FDA issues.

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

The move, which officials say is being driven by increased security threats and harassment concerns, comes amid a host of other restrictions on press access largely driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The restrictions, which include a policy that reporters must be accompanied by an official escort on Pentagon grounds, are themselves playing out against a backdrop of escalating tension between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose content or reporting practices anger him.

All public-facing information ordered removed

Last Thursday, the Navy’s top spokesman, Rear Admiral John Robinson, released a policy that mandated the sea service remove all public-facing information about its commanding officers. Capt. Candice Thresh, a spokeswoman for the Chief of Naval Personnel, said the office had decided to expand the policy to deny access to any sailor’s service information, in the interest of equality.

Thresh told The Associated Press that the Navy would still confirm whether someone is a sailor, but only if it deems the request “of high public interest,” and no other details would be offered until the undefined threat has passed.

Information about sailors' service history, such as units they’ve been assigned and awards they’ve earned — information the Navy says it will now withhold — is critical in providing information and context when service members are involved in major news events. It is also information that a constellation of federal laws and Pentagon policies say should be made available on request.

The Pentagon’s governing document on its privacy program notes that information like a service member’s rank, duty assignments, awards, and service status is categorized as information “that is normally releasable” and “may be disclosed without a clearly unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy.”

However, Thresh, in an emailed statement, said they will now only release these details if the sailor is “a public figure or extenuating circumstances exist.” These are terms that the Navy can define for itself, and early indications suggest the sea service is not inclined to use these exemptions.

First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams noted that the Navy’s new policy could make reporting on wounded or injured sailors much more challenging. “That effort at suppression of speech is flatly inconsistent with the First Amendment,” Abrams said.

He said the policy seemed “an obvious effort to limit information, however newsworthy, that might lead to questions about public policy decisions … there is no reason to think that this is anything less than an effort to prevent ‘bad’ press about the conduct of the administration with respect to our service people.”

New policy cited after incident last week

The Navy cited the new policy last week after the AP requested the biography of a pilot with the Blue Angels, the Navy's demonstration squadron, following a controversial maneuver over a crowded beach. Robinson’s office refused to provide the pilot’s biography despite the fact that his name, photo, and other service details were posted on the official Blue Angels website. Thresh did provide a copy of the biography personally after the AP began inquiring about the policy.

Robinson’s office did not respond to questions about the Chief of Naval Personnel’s broadening of his policy.

The restrictions are just the latest in a series of moves that the military has taken to restrict access to information. Last month, the military asked Congress for the ability to withhold certain types of unclassified records from the public.

The legislative proposal, first reported by CBS, would create a new section of federal law that would allow the defense secretary to exempt certain “controlled unclassified information,” or CUI, from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

Transparency advocates, and even the Pentagon’s own internal watchdog, have described the term CUI as inconsistently applied and overused. Critics have argued that it is arbitrarily used to keep embarrassing information from being made public.

Last year, the Pentagon attempted to impose major restrictions on journalists working inside the Pentagon, which, in turn, led most news outlets to turn in their access badges and walk out rather than agree to the new rules. The policy is now being litigated in federal court.

This summer, the Pentagon went a step further and declared that its press office was now a classified space inaccessible to journalists.

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Noveck reported from New York.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is already sounding the alarm as ocean temperatures once again climb into the danger zone for widespread bleaching.

Ian Enochs leads the coral program at the NOAA lab in Miami.

Cheeca Rocks is an important climate monitoring site, famed for its historic resilience and now on the front lines of climate change.

“These corals can’t move,” said Enochs. “They’re in incredibly warm water and this is all happening right now. It’s an area that we know really well, that we’ve been monitoring really closely. Last week, we started to get some reports that there is some bleaching already happening now, this early on in July.”

This is not the first time this has happened. At the end of July 2023, the hottest July ever recorded on Earth, the worst mass bleaching event in Florida history was triggered.

“We’re seeing 100% bleaching,” said Enochs. “That’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy.”

Now history appears to be repeating itself.

The Midwestern Regional Climate Center says South Florida has already endured 38 straight days of triple-digit heat indices, and ocean temperatures are rising again.

NOAA has already raised its coral bleaching alert for parts of the Florida Reef Tract.

“We start to go into higher levels of alert as the summer progresses, and what’s really concerning right now is we’re already hitting these alert levels this early on in July,” said Enochs.

Local 10 News’ Louis Aguirre got into the water for a close-up look, and the devastation was immediately apparent.

“It’s worse than I expected,” said Enochs. “The tops are turning white, and if they stay like that or get worse, they could die, and that would be really bad for the ecosystem for the persistence of this overall reef.”

These are some of the oldest and most resilient corals on the Florida Reef Tract, which are still recovering from the summer of 2023, and now this is happening again.

The outlook is alarming.

“These reefs have been hammered over and over again,” said Enochs. “This reef is one of the healthiest that we still have, and to see this level of stress, to see these corals responding in this way, is really disconcerting, especially this early on in the year.”

So far, it hasn’t quite spread, yet.

“It seems to be a little bit more localized to this reef,” said NOAA ALML Coral Program research associate Tyler Christian. “We looked at a few other transects last week, and they weren’t as bad. This one was the worst site that we surveyed, and it is worse now.”

The group then moved on to a patch reef just five miles north that was already showing signs of heat stress.

“Not as bad here as Cheeca Rocks, but you saw it as well, there are definitely signs of paling and bleaching here as well,” said Enochs.

Over the last 40 years, Florida’s Reef Tract has lost more than 90% of its healthy coral cover due to disease, pollution and repeated bleaching, driven by climate change.

Enochs fears we could be in for another repeat of 2023, if not worse.

“The amount of stress that the corals are experiencing at Cheeca Rocks is already higher than it was in 2023,” he said.

The hope is that by catching this bleaching early, scientists can identify which reefs are most at risk and, in some cases, step in before that damage becomes irreversible.

Phanor Montoya is the restoration program manager for the Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF), the world’s largest coral restoration organization, growing and outplanting corals to help rebuild Florida’s reefs.

“We don’t know (if it will be similar to 2023), but we are preparing for it,” said Montoya. “We’ve proven that restoration saves species. If it wasn’t because of restoration by CRF and others in Florida, we had already lost the staghorn and the elkhorn corals from Florida. Right now we have more corals in our nursery than we have on the reef.”

When the marine heat wave hit in 2023, CRF launched an emergency rescue, moving thousands of vulnerable corals from offshore nurseries into land-based facilities until conditions improved. But in some cases, it was too late; many of the already stressed-out corals would not survive.

“We started the summer with about 45,000 corals across all our nurseries,” said Montoya. “By October, we had lost 52% of our stock. Fifty-two percent was gone due to the summer. We ended up with 17,000 corals, 17,000 survivors across all our nurseries.”

Montoya doesn’t know what the rest of the summer will bring, but improvements have been made to infrastructure and response protocol should another marine heat wave hit.

Right now, none of CRF’s nurseries are showing any signs of bleaching, but regulatory permits have been requested to move vulnerable corals should conditions worsen.

“We have already asked permission from the regulators to move about 3,500 corals from our different nurseries to Elbow nurseries, seeking better conditions there,” said Montoya. “That’s happening, we’re just waiting for the green light to do it.”

Meantime, the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School is already mobilizing, launching a coral reconnaissance and recovery mission to collect different colonies of threatened elkhorn coral.

The corals will be brought to land-based facilities, hoping to preserve their genetic diversity should the bleaching event intensify.

Charlotte MacInnes alleged Wilson defamed her or breached her confidence in four social media posts from September 2024 to July 2025 by falsely suggesting she had withdrawn a sexual harassment complaint against one of the film’s producers to advance her career.

MacInnes denied ever making such a complaint but Justice Elizabeth Raper of the Federal Court of Australia ruled Wednesday that none of Wilson’s posts were defamatory.

The dispute stemmed from an incident in September 2023 when MacInnes and the producer went swimming at Sydney’s Bondi Beach before later sharing a bath at the apartment where they were staying. Wilson later said on Instagram that MacInnes told her the next day that the producer had asked her to bathe and shower with her, making her feel uncomfortable, but that MacInnes later retracted the complaint.

Raper ruled that MacInnes failed to prove Wilson’s posts caused serious harm to her reputation or that Wilson breached her confidence. She dismissed the case and ordered MacInnes to pay costs, according to a written judgement provided by the court.

Wilson, who starred in the “Pitch Perfect” films and “Bridesmaids,” thanked the judge and Australia’s legal system in an Instagram post, calling the ruling a “substantial win” and saying she looked forward to moving on.

MacInnes’ legal representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The Deb,” a musical comedy about two teenage girls preparing for a debutante ball in a small rural town, is reportedly set for a U.S. digital release on Aug. 25.

It was Boston’s first loss since a 10-2 setback to Washington at Fenway Park on July 1.

The Red Sox won the opener 6-3 to match the club's 80-year-old record. Boston's 1946 team that won 15 straight was led by Ted Williams and won the American League pennant.

This year's Red Sox streak was the longest in the majors since St. Louis also won 15 straight in September of 2021.

Dylan Beavers had a two-run single in a four-run first inning for Baltimore, which avoided a three-game sweep and won for the 11th time in 16 games.

Masataka Yoshida had an RBI single for Boston.

The Orioles had a season-high seven-game winning streak halted in the series opener on Monday before a rainout Tuesday.

Making his first start after agreeing to a $90 million, five-year contract for 2027-31 on Saturday, the 29-year-old Bradish (7-9) gave up four hits with four strikeouts and a walk.

Three Orioles relievers combined to allow one hit.

After the Red Sox took a 4-0 lead in the day game, Baltimore knocked out Eduardo Rivera (0-1), who retired only two batters, with its four runs.

The first run came in on Rivera's wild pitch. After Beavers made it 3-0 with his single, he scored on Johnathan Rodriguez’s double off the Green Monster.

Up next

Orioles: Haven’t named a starter for their series opener at home on Friday against Atlanta.

Red Sox: Host last-place Toronto for a three-game series starting Friday.

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

Shah, an emergency physician, will face Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker who was endorsed by President Donald Trump in his primary, in the fall. Before becoming political opponents, Feely and Shah were part of the same team — the New York Jets. Shah was a doctor on the sidelines, while Feely was the kicker.

The DCCC backed Marlene Galán-Woods, a former Republican who switched parties at the beginning of Trump’s first term.

The competition for the 1st Congressional District, an affluent area that includes northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley, is expected to help determine control of the U.S. House. Although Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, the district has shifted toward the center over the last decade.

The seat is open because Republican Rep. David Schweikert ran for governor, losing to Rep. Andy Biggs in the GOP primary on Tuesday.

The DCCC's decision to endorse Galán-Woods, a former television journalist in Phoenix, puzzled local Democrats because there was little ideological difference between her and Shah. Both are moderates, and the race was not a proxy fight in the party's deepening feud between progressives and centrists.

“Our victory in this primary was a grassroots victory where Arizona voters made their voices heard,” Shah said Wednesday night in a statement that did not address the DCCC snub. “Now, it’s my job to earn the support of every voter in this district.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, the DCCC Chair, issued a statement calling Feely an “extremist” and saying Shah “will always put his community first,” but did not address the controversy surrounding the support for Galán-Woods.

The National Republican Congressional Committee quickly released a digital ad Wednesday attacking Shah, labeling him a socialist and tying him to progressives in Congress.

“I’m a political outsider committed to delivering results,” Feely said in a statement.

The race was in some ways a replay of 2024, when Shah narrowly won in a crowded primary field that included Galán-Woods and lost in the general election. The DCCC did not endorse in the primary that year but backed Shah in the general.

The DCCC announced its support for Galán-Woods in May, when it added her to a list of candidates it was supporting in Republican-controlled districts. At the time, DelBene talked up Galán-Woods' experience in broadcast journalism but said nothing about Shah.

“I wasn’t exactly my party’s pick,” Shah told supporters Tuesday night. “And I was willing to stand up to that establishment. And that’s what the voters of this district want.”

Still, he has said he would work with the DCCC if nominated. He will need support from the party and its donors to win what's likely to be a tough race in a district Trump carried narrowly in 2024. Former Democratic President Joe Biden won the district in 2020 even as Schweikert was reelected.

Antiestablishment fervor has spooked congressional leaders, who fear that swing voters will see some insurgent candidates as too extreme and squander Democrats’ opportunity to take advantage of Trump’s unpopularity.

Last month progressive Randy Villegas beat a DCCC-backed candidate for a top battleground district in California's Central Valley. And similarly in Maine, Matt Dunlap defeated a more moderate rival backed by the party.

DCCC support generally brings an influx of money and staffing, both from the party itself and from the donors and interest groups that take its cues. But establishment support has been a turnoff for some voters.

“The Democratic Party needs to grow up and wake up,” said Maria Liong, a 24-year-old medical student who volunteered for Shah’s campaign. “They need to realize that they want candidates who listen to their people.”

In the GOP primary, Feely defeated Joseph Chaplik, a former state lawmaker popular with grassroots activists, for the party's nomination. He was in the NFL with seven teams over 14 seasons, including with the Arizona Cardinals from 2010 to 2013. He became an NFL broadcaster after retiring in 2014.

Feely and Shah overlapped on the Jets during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, when Shah worked home games as an airway management physician, according to his campaign. Every NFL game has an airway management doctor on the sideline to intubate and resuscitate a catastrophically injured player.

“It’s an old relationship,” Feely said of Shah on Tuesday night, before it was clear which Democrat he would face in November. “But whoever it is, I want to do this the right way. I want to run this the right way.”

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rep. Suzan DelBene’s last name on first reference, from DeBene.

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Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud and Wufei Yu contributed.

Miami was without superstars Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul, as both were given time off to rest after Argentina reached the FIFA World Cup final against Spain.

The match started with constant pressure from Chicago, led by Polish star forward Robert Lewandowski, who made his Major League Soccer debut Wednesday.

Chicago recorded the first shot on goal of the match, but Miami goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo made an easy save. He got the start over former MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Dayne St. Clair.

After 15 minutes, Chicago caught Miami on the counterattack and appeared to score, but the goal was waved off for offside.

After sustaining the pressure, Chicago broke through in unusual fashion. Miami left back Ian Fray passed the ball to Ríos Novo, but the Argentine goalkeeper mishit his clearance, and the ball rolled into the net. The play was ruled an own goal.

After conceding, Miami began to attack more aggressively, led by temporary captain Luis Suárez. The pressure resulted in a penalty kick after David Ruiz was brought down in the box by Chicago defender Jack Elliott.

Suárez calmly stepped up to take the penalty, sending his shot to the left. It struck the post and bounced into the net, tying the match at 1-1 before halftime.

The match slowed after the penalty, thanks in part to the hydration break. Both teams looked to control possession for the remainder of the half.

Miami came closest to taking the lead, but Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady made several impressive saves in the 40th minute.

The first half ended in a 1-1 draw.

Miami made no substitutions to start the second half, as its bench was limited because of injuries. Key players Tadeo Allende, Gonzalo Luján and Maximiliano Falcón were all sidelined.

The Herons took the lead six minutes into the second half on a brilliant goal by Suárez, giving the Uruguayan striker a brace. The goal was set up by Germán Berterame, who delivered a clever backheel pass that Suárez finished into the back of the net.

Miami stayed on the attack, refusing to settle for a 2-1 lead.

The pressure resulted in a barrage of shots and several corner kicks as the Herons searched for a commanding third goal.

In the 62nd minute, Chicago made a triple substitution that included Lewandowski, ending his MLS debut.

Miami tried to control the match but conceded the equalizer when Lewandowski’s replacement, 21-year-old Puso Dithejane, found the back of the net.

Just three minutes later, Chicago nearly took the lead, but its shot drifted just wide.

As both teams searched for the winning goal, the referee called for the second-half hydration break with 15 minutes remaining.

After sustained pressure, Inter Miami found the game-winning goal through academy product Preston Plambeck. The second-half substitute scored his first MLS goal for the Herons.

Eight minutes of stoppage time were added.

Late in stoppage time, Chicago earned a free kick in a dangerous area as it looked to equalize.

However, the attempt sailed over the crossbar.

Miami held on for a 3-2 victory, spoiling Lewandowski’s highly anticipated MLS debut.

Thursday will bring a sun/cloud mix with east-northeast winds, sustained 5 to 10 mph. Showers and storms could dampen the area from time to time. Temperatures are forecast to reach the low 90s with heat indices peaking at 100°+F.

It’s a question that has plagued the girl’s family and Fort Lauderdale police for nine years, since she disappeared when she was 15 years old.

Now, detectives have turned to a psychic for help.

They pay her $1,500 dollars for a 90-day consultancy period and they may use her for other cases.

Many might call it hocus pocus and unconventional, but the family says they are desperate.

“Of course it’s unusual, but you know we are open to anything,” said Kristen Milhorn, Reeder’s aunt.

Milhorn believes someone in Fort Lauderdale knows what happened to the teen.

In the early morning hours of May 20, 2017, Reeder went for a walk and was never seen again.

Police found surveillance video of her walking down Davie Boulevard, and the next morning members family found clues in her bedroom indicating she had plans to come home, including $300 in cash and a candle burning.

“She was not a runaway,” said Milhorn.

Local 10 News spoke to Reeder’s parents one week after her disappearance. They had concerns she may have been trafficked.

Detectives discovered the last ping on her phone was at an apartment complex off Southwest 11th Court in Fort Lauderdale.

“Whatever happened there, we don’t know, that was the last ping on her phone,” said Milhorn.

Some of her last communications were to a man named Leonard Jennings, a convicted felon who lived in the complex.

Local 10 News’ Bridgette Matter followed up with Fort Lauderdale police regarding Jennings, and a spokesperson said, “We do consider Leonard Jennings a person of interest and question his involvement in Sophie’s disappearance.”

Jennings was interviewed after Reeder vanished, but he has never been arrested.

“He denied, of course, ever knowing her, but reality is they were texting each other, so he knew her,” said Milhorn.

Reeder’s family is still holding onto hope there will be a break in the case.

Authorities are offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to Reeder.

FLPD says they are very much working the case and the investigation is active.

Rubio, who held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, said Moscow and Kyiv should have the incentive to end a “very bloody war” that has devastated both sides.

Rubio alluded to how U.S.-mediated talks have stalled, calling them “unsuccessful or at least unfruitful” in the past but insisted that President Donald Trump was committed to the work “if conditions and factors have changed to make that possible.”

“That’s been the challenge — an end that both sides can accept. And we’ve tried and we’ll continue to try to see if we can, you know, find a middle ground that brings this about. And we’re prepared to play that role if the opportunity presents itself,” Rubio told reporters.

Rubio met Lavrov and several other leaders, including China's foreign minister, on the sidelines of an annual gathering by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.

America's top diplomat said the U.S. is focused on Asia even as it steps up fighting with Iran, seeks a pathway to end Russia's war in Ukraine and pressures the Cuban government to make changes.

ASEAN talks focused on international conflicts

Three days of closed-door talks that started Tuesday have centered on the escalating war in the Middle East and tensions in the South China Sea, where a new clash flared Thursday.

“There’s always going to be a concern that America is so focused on one place that it can’t focus on another,” Rubio told reporters. But he said the U.S. remains “engaged in Asia every single day,” citing strong partnerships and economic ties across the region.

After meeting with Rubio, Lavrov largely ignored questions from reporters. The Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow said he emphasized to Rubio “the unacceptability of further arming” Ukraine and accused European countries of pursuing Russia’s “strategic defeat.”

Lavrov reiterated Russia’s readiness for “a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict” and commitment to agreements reached at a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump in Alaska last year, the Russian ministry said.

But Rubio said “we’ll have to find new suggestions and new ideas” that are acceptable to both sides for a peace deal. There has been no change to Washington’s military support for Ukraine, with weapons being purchased by NATO allies and transferred to the war-ravaged country, he said.

U.S. efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war have been overshadowed by the outbreak of the Iran war earlier this year. Renewed strikes by Washington and Tehran have been intensifying after an interim ceasefire deal collapsed.

“The price will continue to get higher every single night until they come to their senses,” Rubio said. He insisted Tehran is “begging” for talks but Trump does not see the use in responding because “Iran is clearly not ready to make a deal, at least not one they’re willing to live by.”

Trump has warned Iran that the U.S. will destroy one Iranian bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded by saying the country’s defense doctrine was an “eye for an eye.”

“The president’s policy is a head for an eye,” Rubio said. “They will pay a very heavy price for the things they’re doing.”

China defends maritime military actions

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong renewed her country's alarm over the Chinese navy’s recent test-launch of a missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in the region, saying the lack of notification to the Philippines and Pacific nations where the missile flew over and landed was destabilizing.

“It comes in the context of a rapid military build-up of China’s nuclear arsenal without the transparency or reassurance the region expects,” Wong told a university forum in Manila on Thursday. “This is why Australia has described the test as provocative and destabilizing.”

China has defended its actions, saying the launch was part of annual exercises and that it gave countries in the area appropriate notice in advance.

Rubio had a long meeting Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Rubio told reporters that he and Wang discussed a new altercation this week between Chinese and Filipino forces in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. Rubio called the incident “escalatory.”

“Those need to be managed very carefully, because obviously, a conflict — be it economic or otherwise — between the U.S. and China would have a dramatic global impact,” Rubio said.

He also said they talked a lot about Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s planned trip in September, noting he believes Xi will have a “very positive visit when he comes to Washington.”

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard said it took necessary measures, including monitoring and blocking, to drive away two Philippine ships that disregarded repeated warnings from the Chinese side in a fresh confrontation Thursday. China said its operations were professional and lawful and urged the Philippines to stop its provocative actions infringing on Chinese territory.

The Philippine coast guard, however, said the two fishing vessels were harassed while bringing fuel aid to Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough shoal. It said a Chinese coast guard ship tried to spray one vessel with a powerful water cannon but missed, calling these “illegal, coercive and aggressive actions.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea to the disadvantage of smaller claimant countries like the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia. Taiwan and ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also been involved in the often-tense territorial standoffs.

ASEAN aims to conclude yearslong negotiations with China on a proposed non-aggression pact by this year, according to a draft of a joint communiqué seen by The Associated Press. The so-called code of conduct aims to prevent a major conflict in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, that could draw in the United States.

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Associated Press journalists Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Haruka Nuga in Bangkok and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.

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Fabian Izaguirre Cepero, 26, is accused of lingering outside of the bedroom of a 12-year-old girl and touching himself outside of a home in Cutler Bay overnight on Monday. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies took him into custody on Tuesday.

Deputies said it all started at around 3 a.m., when the girl ran to her father after hearing a knock on the window.

The girl’s father then saw Izaguirre Cepero exposing himself and masturbating outside of the girl’s window, an arrest report states. Detectives said he “returned to the victim’s residence on five separate occasions.”

In February 2025, Miami Beach police accused him of going into the Target at 1045 Fifth St. on South Beach and placing a phone on the floor of a dressing room to watch a woman try on bathing suits.

At the time of his latest arrest, deputies noted that he was out on bond for 17 charges related to the possession of child sexual abuse material.

According to a report from the Miami Beach Police Department, investigators reviewing his phone for evidence related to the Target case stumbled upon more than a dozen images and videos of girls as young as “2 to 4 years old” being sexually abused.

As for his latest case, Izaguirre Cepero was set to face a judge Wednesday morning on charges of voyeurism and indecent exposure; the hearing was later scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Según la Constitución colombiana, la toma de posesión presidencial debe realizarse en una sesión en la sede de la legislatura ubicada en Bogotá, la capital del país. Para que ocurra un traslado deben convenir el Senado y la Cámara de Representantes. Esta última sesionaría la próxima semana.

De la Espriella afirmó semanas atrás que su asunción al poder será en una guarnición militar en el sur del país y que su objetivo es rendir “un homenaje a los héroes de la patria y a los uniformados que protegen la democracia”.

La aprobación de la propuesta en una de las dos instancias legislativas, con 55 votos a favor de un total de 103 senadores, se da tras el revés sufrido por De la Espriella en la elección de las autoridades del Congreso. El conservador asumirá el poder sin contar con una bancada propia.

En esta ocasión, su propuesta consiguió el apoyo de los partidos y movimientos conservadores Centro Democrático, Cambio Radical, Salvación Nacional y otros liberales.

Enrique Gómez, senador por Salvación Nacional, defendió que el Congreso debe salir de su recinto “en respaldo a una de las comunidades más afectadas por la violencia (en referencia al Cauca)” y que, afirmó, ha “sufrido el escarnio, infamia y persecución de grupos criminales y guerrilleros”.

Desde el lado opositor, el senador Xavier Flórez, del oficialista Pacto Histórico, afirmó que la pretensión es “un símbolo peligroso que en América Latina tiene historia” y aseveró que “quienes se han posesionado delante de fusiles y no del pueblo han terminado frecuentemente convertidos en dictadores y tiranos”.

Tras el anuncio del mandatario electo, el actual presidente Gustavo Petro ordenó días atrás que ningún recinto militar sea utilizado para la posesión presidencial. “Los cuarteles y policiales están bajo mis órdenes hasta el momento que el nuevo presidente jure”, señaló en su red social X.

Petro tampoco asistirá a la ceremonia de investidura señalando un supuesto “fraude” en las elecciones, sin presentar pruebas, pese a que el organismo electoral declaró ganador a De la Espriella sobre el progresista Iván Cepeda.

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Although the crash scene has been cleared, damage remained on Wednesday where investigators said the car struck the bus bench before hitting several vehicles and coming to a stop.

Investigators also confirmed that the driver had rear-ended another vehicle moments before the deadly crash.

Authorities released 911 calls made moments after the collision.

“I’m on federal just north of McNab (Road) and there was a really bad car accident,” one caller stated.

Another caller described the aftermath of the crash.

“Just saw a really bad accident happen. A car flipped over. It is now the right side up, but it flipped over,” another caller stated.

According to investigators, the white BMW crashed into two concrete light poles, a tree, several unoccupied vehicles and ripped a covered bus bench from its foundation.

One 911 caller expressed uncertainty about the victims.

“I don’t know if the guy is still in the car or he was ejected or someone he hit at the (expletive) bus stop,” the caller stated.

Deputies with the Broward Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday identified the driver as 47-year-old Jo Ann Llera. They said she was behind the wheel at the time of the crash and is expected to survive.

Neighbors said they were shocked to learn Llera was involved in the deadly wreck.

Investigators said the crash sequence began just before 1 p.m. in the 500 block of South Federal Highway, where Llera allegedly rear-ended a Honda Accord. Authorities said she then drove around the vehicle and continued for about four blocks before crashing.

Witnesses described the sound of the impact as resembling an explosion.

“It was like dynamite going off we knew something was wrong right away,” one witness said. “It’s horrific I never seen so much damage in one car you feel for the family.”

As Llera recovers from her injuries in the hospital, witnesses are left wondering what caused the chain of crashes that ended with the death of a man who was waiting at the bus stop.

The victim’s identity has not been released by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities have not announced whether Llera will face any charges.

• 911 calls released following crash that left man dead, woman injured at Pompano Beach bus stop
• Man on bond for voyeurism, child sex abuse videos exposes self to girl, 12, outside home: MDSO
• Cousin of woman killed after jumping on SUV hood: ‘I’m just thinking it’s all a bad dream’

You can watch a live feed of our news broadcast at Local10.com/Live.

Las autoridades informaron que 76 de los 179 pasajeros que se cree iban a bordo del ferry sobrevivieron al peor desastre marítimo registrado en la nación sudamericana. Hasta el miércoles, se habían recuperado 65 cuerpos, mientras los buzos buscaban a casi 40 más con ayuda de recursos navales de Brasil y Trinidad y Tobago.

Decenas de guyaneses seguían reuniéndose en la localidad norteña de Charity, con la esperanza de que se encontraran los cuerpos de sus seres queridos desaparecidos.

“Sé que mi bebé está en ese barco”, afirmó Samantha Ramin, quien perdió a dos de sus tres hijos.

Los equipos recuperaron el cuerpo de su hija pequeña, pero su bebé varón sigue desaparecido.

“Sé que está ahí abajo. Sé que está ahí abajo”, señaló. “Quiero ver que encuentren a mi bebé”.

El MV Barima, un ferry de 87 años, zarpó el sábado desde Georgetown, la capital, hacia Port Kaituma cuando empezó a hacer agua y volcó en aguas del Atlántico frente a la costa de Essequibo. Aunque el manifiesto del barco registraba 116 pasajeros y 17 tripulantes, las autoridades creen que a bordo iban hasta 179 personas.

Cada vez más guyaneses se preguntan por qué se tardó tanto en rescatar a la gente, y algunos sobrevivientes dijeron a The Associated Press que pasaron horas en el agua.

Mientras continúa la búsqueda, los sobrevivientes también se han quejado de que la embarcación iba sobrecargada de personas y carga, incluidos motores de gran potencia, algunos vehículos, grandes contenedores de combustible, vehículos todoterreno y carga comercial.

Un sobreviviente identificado como Leon Murray dijo a reporteros que sintió que el ferry iba sobrecargado en comparación con las decenas de veces que había viajado en él.

“La gente carga, carga, carga el vapor”, señaló. “Estaba lleno, lleno, lleno allá abajo”.

Murray y otros sobrevivientes han dicho a reporteros que el ferry tuvo problemas de motor pocas horas después de su salida, pero que la tripulación lo reparó sobre la marcha en lugar de regresar. También acusó a miembros de la tripulación de ignorar las advertencias de que el ferry estaba haciendo agua: “Nos dijeron que es normal”.

Funcionarios del gobierno han dicho que el ferry estaba por debajo de su capacidad en pasajeros y carga, pero subrayaron que hay demasiadas versiones distintas sobre lo ocurrido como para llegar a una conclusión definitiva.

El director de la Agencia Marítima, Stephen Thomas, dijo a la AP que las autoridades esperan una investigación exhaustiva que determine detalles, incluida la carga de la embarcación y el papel del personal de supervisión, antes de sacar conclusiones.

“No tenemos nada que ocultar”, declaró el primer ministro Mark Phillips a reporteros a última hora del martes. “Se hará responsables a las personas en función del desenlace, los resultados y las recomendaciones de esa comisión”.

“Cuando se establezca que hubo negligencia, mala conducta o delito penal, los responsables enfrentarán todo el peso de la ley”, agregó. “No habrá excepciones ni tolerancia para acciones que pongan en riesgo la vida de inocentes”.

La policía ya ha detenido al capitán rescatado y al menos a otro miembro de la tripulación, de quien dicen que dio positivo en marihuana.

Ante la pregunta de por qué un ferry de 87 años seguía en servicio, el gobierno respondió que esperaba la finalización de un muelle especial en Port Kaituma para recibir una nueva embarcación de 12,7 millones de dólares, adquirida de India en los últimos meses para reemplazar al MV Barima. Los trabajos están en una etapa avanzada.

El MV Barima entró por última vez a dique seco en 2024 para reparaciones mayores y tenía programados trabajos adicionales en octubre.

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Drake informó desde Charity, Guyana.

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

The surveillance footage from the U.S. Attorney's Office offered the most complete look yet at the bizarre episode Monday morning outside 26 Federal Plaza, which didn’t seriously injure anyone but led to arson charges against Andrew Arrabaca, a former U.S. Army soldier.

Prosecutors say Arrabaca, 43, confessed to carrying out the attack and has been jailed without bail.

The video shows Arrabaca, who arrived at the building with a little wagon filled with supplies, setting up a large fireworks dispenser, capable of rapidly firing off dozens of rockets.

He ignites it, and rockets start shooting out into the air — then everywhere as the tube shooting off the projectiles topples over.

One hits his wagon and explodes. Others shoot down the sidewalk and into the street as cars drive past.

New Yorkers are famed for their ability to coolly ignore outlandish things happening in front of them, but the reaction of some passersby showed an Olympic level of minding your business.

One pair calmly walks past Arrabaca and the spewing fireworks as if nothing is happening, even as a rocket narrowly misses them and explodes right next to them in a shower of red sparks and smoke. But they dash for cover when Arrabaca pulls out a weapon that looks like a rifle — authorities said it was a pellet gun — and points it toward them.

Finally, Arrabaca dumps out a bucket full of what appears to be bottles, lighting up a large blaze on the sidewalk that engulfs the steps leading to the building's entrance. At one point during the commotion, a person rides by on a bicycle.

The building houses offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other federal agencies and has been a hub of protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Officials said Arrabaca was toting an anti-ICE sign and made “anti-government and anti-American statements” as he was being arrested. He also had with him two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer and a machete.

Three people sustained minor injuries, including a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building. According to federal prosecutors, Arrabaca plotted the attack for months and considered striking other New York City targets.

He went to upstate New York to buy weapons and Pennsylvania to buy fireworks, prosecutors said. Outside the Manhattan building, he was tackled by a security officer after authorities say he dumped gasoline outside an employee entrance and set the sidewalk on fire.

At Arrabaca's hearing Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky said he was “quite clearly ill."

Arrabaca was living in his car and slept in a park the night before the attack, prosecutors said. In 2020, he was prescribed medication for a mental health condition, but he stopped taking it about a year later.

His defense attorney suggested that he be sent to a locked ward at a Veterans Health Administration facility for a mental health evaluation, but he was ordered jailed then evaluated there.

Arrabaca repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2004. He also served a year in the New York Army National Guard. He had no deployments and left the Army as a specialist, an Army spokesperson said.

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Associated Press reporter Safiyah Riddle contributed.

During an event in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of a stinking, scorched food warehouse he described as a symbol of the state's political incompetence, Hilton rolled out a list of campaign promises clearly aimed at residents buckling under California's notoriously high cost of living. He vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation's highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings.

He blamed the state's problems — from homelessness to low student test scores — squarely on Democrats, who hold every statewide office and supermajorities in the Legislature. He called Democrats a “rotten regime that has abandoned the working class.”

In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the state, Hilton addressed his relationship with Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“This is not about who you hate in Washington. It’s about what we love about California and what we can do to make California once again the best place anywhere in the country to start and raise a family, to start and run a business,” he said before a small group of supporters. “That’s what this election is about.”

Hilton’s maneuver is meant to create a sliver of distance from Trump without breaking from him. It's a tacit nod to the political math in California, one of the nation’s most solidly Democratic states. Registered Republicans are outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by Democratic voters, and a GOP candidate hasn’t won a statewide election since 2006.

Trump is widely unpopular in California outside his loyal conservative base. In 2016, Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 30 points; in 2020, he lost to Joe Biden by 29 points; and in 2024, he lost to Kamala Harris by 20 points.

California is regarded as the home of the so-called Trump resistance, where Democrats have effectively used Trump as a foil in campaigns to motivate voters. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom essentially nationalized the state's fight over Proposition 50, which recast U.S. House districts to favor Democrats, by framing it as a confrontation with Trump. The measure notched a 29-point win.

The campaign of Hilton's Democratic opponent, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, scoffed at the notion of Hilton being a change agent.

“Californians already know who Steve Hilton is: Trump’s puppet in California. His campaign is a promise to run our state the way Trump runs the country and we’re not buying it," campaign spokesman Jonathan Underland said in a statement.

As for Hilton's pitch that voters who dislike Trump should feel free to consider him in November, Underland said, “Steve Hilton cheers on a president whose illegal war has sent gas prices soaring and illegal tariffs have cost California families more than $2,500 this year alone. You can’t fix the affordability crisis while carrying water for the man causing it.”

In a heavily Democratic state, Hilton's campaign is hoping his appeal to Democrats and independents will “give voters a permission slip” to look past the letter next to a candidate’s name, even in a nation deeply divided by partisanship.

“You do have a choice if you think that this state is going in the wrong direction,” he told supporters at a kickoff event in Boyle Heights, a Los Angeles neighborhood where residents have been complaining about the stench of rotting food, flies and rodents that followed a fire last month at a cold storage warehouse.

He was accompanied by Gloria Romero, a former Democratic state lawmaker who switched parties in 2024 and is this year's Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. She delivered her own address in both English and Spanish, with supporters holding “Hilton-Romero” signs in the background.

Becerra, a former state lawmaker, congressman and state attorney general, is heavily favored to win the seat now held by Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who is barred by law from seeking a third term. Hilton and Becerra emerged from a chaotic primary election in June that had more than 50 candidates on the ballot.

The race is unfolding at a time when California is facing multiple crises. Despite billions in spending, homelessness remains widespread, especially in larger cities. Multibillion-dollar budget gaps are projected into the future. Home prices remain out of reach for many residents. The home insurance market is in disarray, businesses and residents have been fleeing the state, and residents contend with some of the nation’s highest gas prices, taxes and utility bills.

Making good on his campaign promises won't be an easy task for Hilton, a former adviser to ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron who has never held elective office. The governor doesn't control the oil or utility markets, but Hilton says he will get rid of mandates, taxes and fees that drive those prices higher. He also would likely need the consent of a Legislature controlled by Democrats to change the state's income tax structure.

Hilton crowned his campaign kickoff with a 30-second TV ad underscoring the financial challenges for many families.

“Life here has become impossible for anyone who isn't already rich,” he says. “Let's fix California.”

The new tariffs, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, are scheduled to come into effect Aug. 19. They cover a wide range of goods, including honey, liquor, cement, dairy products, some wood products, hockey sticks, essential oils, perfumes, candles, dog leashes and wigs.

They exclude energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals, but would include goods previously protected from import taxes by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. That 2020 trade pact was not renewed by the U.S., triggering a new set of negotiations that could run until 2036.

Prince Edward Island Premier Rob Lantz said the tariffs create uncertainty.

“We’re living in a time when uncertainty is the new norm,” Lantz said Wednesday following a meeting of the country’s premiers and territorial leaders in the province's capital, Charlottetown.

Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist with Desjardins, one of Canada’s largest financial institutions, said the tariffs will impact about $28 billion Canadian ($19.8 billion) worth of annual Canadian exports to the United States. That’s about 5% of what the U.S. imports from Canada each year.

They have the potential to shave two to three tenths of a percent off growth in 2026 and 2027 in Canada, Bartlett said, although he said he didn't expect a recession.

"We’re expecting it to keep more investment on the sidelines (and) probably suppress hiring. That weighs on consumer activity and residential investment as well,” Bartlett said.

Fen Osler Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the products hit by the tariffs are items U.S. consumers can decide not to purchase if prices rise.

Losing U.S. customers could lead to layoffs for companies that employ 10 to 200 workers that are the “backbone of the Canadian economy."

“That does have ripple effects in an economy because if people are out of a job, they’re not going to be spending," said Hampson, who is co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations.

Dennis Barby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said the tariffs would inflict serious damage on manufacturers, workers and consumers on both sides of the border.

“These tariffs will raise costs, disrupt production, and make North America less competitive at a time when we should be strengthening our shared industrial base,” Barby said in a release.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said it’s frustrating the U.S. is proposing tariffs on some Canadian goods while also looking to invest in Canadian mines to secure metals and minerals.

“You can’t have a country on one hand attacking one group of families and workers while hoping to have access to the resources in Canada that the rest of the world wants,” said Eby, who added that Canada should limit access to the resources the U.S. wants if its stance remains.

Experts Bartlett and Hampson said the tariffs could be a negotiation tactic, and may not come into effect. Still, Canadian trade negotiators should be cautious moving forward, they said.

Hampson warned against retaliatory tariffs or reducing oil or electricity shipment to the U.S.

“You don’t want to poke the bear,” he said. “You get into that kind of war, we’re going to lose. We’re the smaller economy. They can absorb a hit much more than we can.”

Hampson said the tariffs could reflect the tense relationship between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, which has soured since Carney criticized his counterpart at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

On Tuesday, Carney said he and Trump have agreed to intensify trade talks.

The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer had fired in self-defense.

But two men who were riding with Salgado Araujo wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement were to the sides of their van, never in front or behind it; one of them described the government’s account as “a lie.”

Homebuilder died in front of his construction crew

Salgado Araujo, who was living without legal status in the U.S. for 35 years and running a homebuilding business, died that morning in front of his construction crew, including his own brother. His family said he had no criminal record.

His killing, one of at least 10 during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an i ndependent and transparent investigation. The officers were not wearing body cameras, and no photos and videos of the shooting have surfaced.

The three men who were with him that morning were arrested, and are now in immigration detention facilities. They have each filed habeas corpus petitions, alleging their confinement is unconstitutional and asking the court to order their release.

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego and Daniel Tirado Pantoja attached their accounts of the shooting to their petitions, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune. They both wrote that they have been in the U.S. for decades and have no criminal history. Victor Salgado, the brother of the man killed, has also asked a judge to order him released. But his attorney asked the court that his petition be sealed to protect his privacy, so his account of the killing is not yet public.

Rojas Pliego wrote in Spanish that Salgado Araujo picked him up at 6:30 that morning, which was their daily routine. They then picked up the other two men.

Passengers said they were ‘startled’ by vehicle following them

Tirado Pantoja said a vehicle soon began following them, “almost crashing” into their van. He wrote that they were “startled” and ran over a curb attempted to turn around.

The ICE vehicle chased them, Rojas Pliego wrote, and Salgado Araujo eventually thought they lost the tail. Then suddenly, the agents had them cornered.

Tirado Pantoja wrote that the ICE vehicle hit them from behind, then again on the driver’s side.

DHS, which oversees ICE, has said it was the other way around: they allege Salgado Araujo rammed the ICE vehicles with his van. A federal prosecutor in Texas has said that ICE officers were targeting two Guatemalan men who were potentially subject to deportation and driving a van similar to Salgado Araujo’s. DHS said he ignored commands and attempted to run over the officer with his vehicle, and the officer fired in self-defense.

Rojas Pliego wrote that’s “a lie” and “impossible:” “there wasn’t a single officer behind or in front of us, they were only on the sides.”

Tirado Pantoja, too, wrote that the agents were never in front of the vehicle, adding that Salgado Araujo had “put vehicle in park as the agents were shooting.”

After being shot, Salgado Araujo was handcuffed and thrown to the ground

Rojas Pliego wrote that the officers pulled Salgado Araujo wounded out of the car, handcuffed him and “threw him to the ground.”

Tirado Pantoja wrote that Salgado Araujo at some point said “Ya me mataron” – “they’ve already killed me.”

Rojas Pliego wrote that the same officer who fired the shot then “dragged us out violently, throwing us to the ground while we were handcuffed and chained from head to toe.”

Aaron Reitz, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, issued a statement last week promising a full investigation by his office, the FBI, DHS and state and local law enforcement.

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” he wrote.

DHS said in a statement Wednesday that its Office of Inspector General is also investigating. It said the FBI's Houston office “is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

A judge on Monday barred the government from deporting Rojas Pliego or removing him from the district without the court’s approval. A different judge, overseeing Tirado Pantoja’s case, on Wednesday ordered the federal government to notify the court with at least five days notice if they plan to transfer him outside of the district or deport him.

Raed Gonzalez Olivieri, a lawyer representing both men, wrote in their petitions that the circumstances of their detentions “are exceptional: those who now administer his custody shot at him at close range.” The petition says that puts them at increased risk of emotional and physical pain while incarcerated.

Both men applied for visas designed to protect immigrants who are victims of crimes and assist law enforcement. Gonzalez Olivieri wrote in their petitions that they survived “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon” and are material witnesses to the killing.

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Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this report.

The candidates running to succeed U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who has represented the 24th Congressional District for about 13 years, include two Haitian Americans and a member of a local political dynasty.

As of Wednesday, campaign finance records showed retired U.S. Air Force Col. Dr. Rudolph “Rudy” Moise, who was born in Port-au-Prince, leads the crowded field with over $631,000 in total receipts.

The physician, who has a practice in North Miami and also earned a juris doctor and a master of business administration from the University of Miami, said he wants to change the Medicare eligibility age to 55.

“The difficulty that they are experiencing right now, rising, also, costs, groceries, gasoline, medicine, health care,” said Moise, 71, a Haitian American.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver G. Gilbert II, a former Miami Gardens mayor, followed with over $524,000 in receipts, according to campaign finance records. Wilson formally endorsed him on June 22.

“Whether you are in District 24 in Florida or District 24 in Texas, you need healthcare, you need food security, you need affordable housing, you need to be able to go to the store if your check didn’t get bigger, but prices got bigger. That’s a problem for real Americans, and I want to help with that,” said Gilbert, 53, who also earned a J.D. from UM.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava also endorsed Gilbert. A St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics showed Gilbert had the support of 27% of Democrats.

At 29 years old, Kendrick Meek Jr., who also earned a J.D. from UM, follows Gilbert with more than $486,500, according to campaign finance records.

“I’m the only candidate in this race that has experience working on Capitol Hill and at the White House. I’m very proud of that,” Meek said about his internships at the House Administration Committee in 2015 and the House Judiciary Committee in 2021, and his work as an aide on healthcare policy initiatives under the Biden administration.

Meek said he wants to follow in the footsteps of his father, former U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, who served Florida’s 17th Congressional District from 2003 to 2011, and his grandmother, the late former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, who served Florida’s 17th Congressional District from 1993 to 2003.

“I know that I’m going to be able to bring resources... on behalf of this community from day one,” Meek said.

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson endorsed Meek. A St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics showed Meek had the support of 10% of Democrats.

Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones, who was born in Miami Gardens, follows Meek with over $148,000 in total receipts, according to campaign finance records.

On Wednesday, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida endorsed Jones, 42, who earned a doctorate in education from Florida Atlantic University.

“You look at the cost of healthcare and people having to choose to pay their rent or even getting their prescription drugs. That is a broken system. That is a government that is working against the people and not for the people,” Jones said.

Broward County Commissioner Alexandra Davis, and former Miami-Dade Commissioners Betty Ferguson and Barbara Jordan endorsed Jones.

A St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics showed Jones had the support of 24% of Democrats.

Jean Monestime, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner, follows with more than $57,000 in receipts, according to campaign finance records.

“We can do a lot building people up, instead of pushing people down, and we do so by providing them with an opportunity. I’m a candidate for Congress because these are the opportunities this community gave to me a little over 45 years ago when I arrived here,” said Monestime, 63, a Haitian-American businessman and former real estate broker.

Roderick D. Vereen, a criminal defense attorney who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1990, had $15,000 in receipts, according to campaign finance records.

“When I look at the other candidates, I think I’m the most qualified. Congress is the lawmaking body of the government, and I’m a lawyer, so I think I have a better grasp of the law,” Vereen, 64, said. “I think I can be a better voice of the people in Washington D.C. This is the right time for me to take that opportunity.”

Marshal L. Davis, Sr., the director of the Marshal L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami’s Liberty City since 1963, had more than $13,000 in receipts, according to campaign finance records.

“We’ve got to look at what we consider to be the problem because with any problem, there is a solution,” Davis, 76, said. “We have to look at our potential and be expansive, and we’ve got to govern ourselves by principles.”

The mail-in ballot request deadline is Aug. 6, the Democratic primary is Aug. 18, and the general election is Nov. 3.

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• VOTER GUIDE: Here is how to prepare for Florida’s Aug. 18 primary election
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The call Tuesday night came at the union's request.

Players have been sharing threats and harassment they’ve received on social media over the last few weeks. Chelsea Gray of the Las Vegas Aces posted a message from a man that included a racial slur. The man was tracked down and fired from his job at Hilton Grand Vacations.

“The conversation underscored the importance of addressing issues early through proactive communication and strengthening the league-union relationship,” the league and union said in a joint statement Wednesday. “The league committed to continuing to enhance security resources and will work with the players’ union to explore collaborations with organizations that share the values of our league and advance our shared priorities.”

Dealing with abuse toward players has been a priority of the league the last few years, including the “No Space for Hate” platform that was introduced last season. Part of that program included the use of AI technology that players can use to filter out hateful comments.

When harassment escalates, the league's security office launches an investigation.

Additional steps that were discussed in the meeting included pursuing accountability from tech companies and having more streamlined conversations between the WNBA and law enforcement.

“The biggest thing was communication,” WNBPA secretary Elizabeth Williams told reporters at shootaround Wednesday before her Chicago team played New York. “Communication from Cathy and the league side being a little more consistent, so we feel more comfortable.”

Alyssa Thomas received death threats and social media vitriol after she hit Caitlin Clark in the throat a few weeks ago. No foul was called on the play, but the league upgraded it to a Flagrant-2 foul and suspended her for a game. Thomas said at the time she hadn't heard from the league about the threats she had received.

Natasha Cloud, who previously said Engelbert hasn't done enough to help the players, backed off a bit on Tuesday.

“There’s only so much that the league can do because people are going to be miserable and they’re going to be continue to be hateful human beings,” the Sky guard said Tuesday after practice. “We can find these IP addresses. We can make sure that bans are banned for life from certain arenas, certain teams, certain leagues.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the service members’ remains were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. It was the third that Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.

Speaking at an event in Georgia hours later, Trump described the ritual as “the toughest thing I do.”

“I’ve been there many times before,” he said of Dover. “This was, in particular, something very sad.”

Earlier in the day, Trump said his message to families was simple: “We love you. We love your child,” Trump told reporters.

Trump was accompanied at the dignified transfer by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

Fallen troops came from Hawaii, Texas, New York and North Carolina

Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan were returned during the dignified transfer. The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks were also returned, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.

The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, the Defense Department said.

The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, North Carolina.

Trump said Feehan’s family accepted an invitation to join him on Air Force One on Wednesday as he traveled to an event in Georgia, where the family lives. Speaking at the event in Marietta, Trump described Feehan as a “flawless” person who was “going all the way — he was going to be a general.”

“We will carry Tyler’s memory in our hearts forever, and I just want to thank you,” he told Feehan’s parents during his remarks. “It’s an honor to have you here today.”

Trump previously said the soldiers died while protecting America and other nations from Iran.

“We feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran “in honor” of the fallen troops.

Trump vows to retaliate for each US death

The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, “they will pay for that killing many times over!”

Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.

Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.

“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he said. “If we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.” He added that “we let other people do the job — and sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.”

Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.

Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March.

Soldier had planned to marry fiance and attend law school

Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

Feehan’s family said in a statement that their hearts were shattered by his loss. They remembered Feehan, who went by “Tivo,” as someone who “packed in more living” in his 25 years than most do in a lifetime.

“He chased adventure relentlessly,” the statement said. “He believed deeply in the power of military service, especially what it builds in a person: discipline, leadership, character.”

He planned to marry his fiance and attend law school after his deployment. The family said they’re starting a scholarship in his name.

Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.

Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday’s attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.

In a brief statement, Rampersad’s family called her a “gentle giant” who “stood up for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.”

“She loved her family fiercely and will live on in the hearts of everyone she touched,” the statement said.

Deonne Jinkins, 22, a friend, said Rampersad “loved deeply, cared genuinely, and always made people feel seen and important.”

Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

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Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Cellphone video of the shooting, where three gunshots could be heard, circulated on social media.

Madison Police Chief John Patterson stressed at a news conference that the footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened.

“I want to take a moment to honestly and sincerely offer my heartfelt sympathies to his family for this loss," Patterson said. The man killed was in his 30s, Patterson said, but police did not release his name.

The shooting happened on a city street in a popular neighborhood lined with restaurants, bars, shops and residential homes less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the state Capitol. Footage shows numerous cars stopped in the intersection with people watching as it unfolded.

A white police officer shot and killed Tony Robinson, who was biracial, on the same street in 2015, a shooting that spurred large protests. The district attorney did not file charges against police in that case, determining the officer was justified.

The race of the officer who fired his gun on Wednesday and that of the man killed were not released by police.

But Black advocacy groups in Madison quickly spoke out against the crime and said they believed the man was Black.

“Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name,” said Brandi Grayson, the head of the Madison-based Black community advocacy group Urban Triage. “That is the cruelty of state violence.”

A crowd formed near where the shooting occurred on Wednesday with people chanting, “Arrest the cops!”

They placed flowers and candles where the man was shot and held a vigil, the crowd continuing to grow as the sun set.

Protesters also marched to the Wisconsin State Capitol and took the stage at a summer concert series, demanding the name of the officer and that he be held accountable. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra announced on social media the show was canceled.

Police were responding to calls that someone was attempting to enter parked vehicles in the neighborhood, Patterson said. The suspect fled on a bike through nearby backyards in an attempt to get away before officers contacted him in the street, Patterson said.

The suspect either fell off of his bike or was taken off of his bike by officers and during the struggle pulled out a knife and injured an officer, Patterson said. Police posted a picture of the knife in a news release.

An officer deployed a taser but it was unsuccessful, the chief said. The same officer who was injured by the knife fired his weapon and the man who was shot died later at the hospital, the chief said. He described the officer who fired his weapon as a veteran officer, but did not reveal any other details.

Another officer was injured, but it is not clear how, Patterson said. The other two officers were uninjured.

The Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation will investigate the shooting because it involves police officers. The four responding officers will be placed on administrative leave, per the police department's policy.

Weary of Caballero's routine of waiting to acknowledge the pitcher just before the pitch clock reaches eight seconds, MLB told umpires Wednesday his regimen amounted to deception.

Plate umpire Quinn Wolcott charged Caballero with a pitch-clock violation in the sixth inning that led to a strikeout and the ejection of hitting coach James Rowson as New York lost a doubleheader opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 in 10 innings.

“I’ve seen other guys do some other things and they don’t call anything on them,” Caballero said. “They’re just picking on me.”

Caballero was acquired from Tampa Bay last July 31 and Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged his thoughts on the utilityman spun 180 degrees with the swap.

“He’s one of those guys I would yell at from the dugout,” Boone said Wednesday morning. “He was a pest and I didn’t like it. Now I like him because he's a good player and he's on our side. But, yeah, we've had a laugh about that.”

During a June 14 game at Toronto, Caballero twice was deliberate in raising his head until eight seconds remained on the pitch clock, leading to a warning by plate umpire Steven Jaschinsk. That prompted a delay of more than two minutes while Caballero, Jaschinski, Boone and crew chief John Tumpane discussed the situation.

Benches and bullpens cleared at the end of the eighth inning during Monday night's series opener when Pirates reliever Dennis Santana yelled at Caballero for taking too long to get ready in the batter’s box. Then on Wednesday, Wolcott charged Caballero with a violation in the sixth inning while the batter faced Carmen Mlodzinski with the Yankees trailing 2-0. After a delay of 2 1/2 minutes, Cabellero took a called third strike that stranded a runner.

“He’s not allowed to do an inordinate amount of time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to cause a violation,” Wolcott told a pool reporter. “There’s no other hitter that gets in the box, takes the amount of the time that Caballero does while looking down, not making eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously it’s caused a lot of problems in the past. It’s not going to be allowed anymore.”

MLB adopted the pitch clock for the 2023 season in an effort to cut game times. It has been 15 seconds with no runners and 18 seconds with runners since 2024.

In cracking down on Caballero, MLB cited a provision in its Pace of Game Procedures that states: “Conduct by batters designed to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position in violation of these regulations shall be considered circumvention."

Crew chief Adrian Johnson said the series opener skirmish caused MLB to take action.

“It’s not allowed anymore. It was the cause of a bench-clearing situation on Monday night. Major League Baseball stepped in, and they wanted enforced,” crew chief Adrian Johnson said. “We were instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him.”

Boone said MLB didn't inform the Yankees before the game of the change in stance.

“It's embarrassing,” he said.

Based on previous conversations with MLB, Boone instructed Caballero to “make sure you’re looking up at nine so that you are alert by eight.”

“He actually said that they were making new rules today and it’s on me because I was deceiving or something like that to the pitcher, which doesn’t make sense,” Caballero said. “I don’t know, maybe my English is so bad that I don’t understand, but deceiving kind of means that you’re trying to trick someone and I’m not trying to trick someone because I do the same thing over and over. You can check my last 50 at-bats and see if I do it the same or not, or check maybe 100 at-bats or 150.”

MLB issued a memo in 2023 warning batters not to keep a foot out of the batter's box, which Willson Contreras called “the Willson rule.”

Caballero claims he is being singled out.

“For everyone, it is eight seconds. For me was nine," he said. "But now they just don’t want me to do my routine so it’s kind of like tricky for me because it’s the way that I get settled, the way that I try to approach my at-bats.”

Caballero is concerned about giving pitchers control of the timing of pitches.

“If I get in the box and they have 16, 17 seconds left, they can hold the ball on me all that time and I’d be tied up," he said.

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

The closed-door briefing for committee members comes in the wake of two shootings in which ICE officers shot and killed two immigrants that they were trying to arrest, raising concerns over the agency's tactics at a time that it is ratcheting up its arrests.

The shootings in Maine and Houston over the span of a week have led to fierce criticism that there's not enough oversight of the agency key to President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, and in the Maine shooting, family members of the ICE officer who opened fire say he had a history of violent behavior and never should have been given a badge and gun.

Rep. Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said they were told during the briefing that there have been 56 complaints of excessive force against ICE officers; 32 were cleared, and one was referred for disciplinary action. Magaziner said they were told no discipline had yet been handed out. The rest of the incidents are still under investigation, he said.

“It just defies belief that an agency of 20,000-plus officers with all of the chaos that we’ve seen over the last year and a half through the surges and civilians being injured and killed, that no one would be found to have violated use of force with the exception of possibly one person,” Magaziner said.

Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday that ICE officers who violate the agency's policies are held accountable, their officers are trained in de-escalation tactics and take an annual refresher course on use of force policies. The agency also defended its officers, saying they are operating in an environment where they are constantly being attacked.

“When faced with dangerous circumstances, DHS law enforcement professionals have used their training to protect themselves, their fellow officers, and the public,” the agency said.

The use-of -force numbers mark an increase since February, when then-acting director Todd Lyons said during Senate testimony that ICE had opened 37 investigations for excessive force; 18 of those were closed, 19 were still pending, and one was referred for “further action,” Lyons said.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said the ICE officials could not discuss the shootings in Maine or Houston, as those are both open investigations. Thompson, who said he came away with more questions than answers from the briefing, said he wanted to know who investigates use of force incidents: “Sometimes they said the FBI, sometimes they said HSI. Sometimes they said another entity.”

The officials said they were going to retrain officers who had gone through a shorter curriculum that was in place last fall, Thompson said. In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency would be increasing the amount of training for new officers starting this month.

Thompson said he pressed for answers about how many officers had been brought back for retraining and how they're being retrained but couldn't get any clarity.

Thompson said he and the committee chair, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., will follow up with ICE with a list of questions.

Garbarino said he appreciated ICE briefing the members.

“Today was an important opportunity for Members to receive timely answers on the status of body camera deployment for law enforcement in the field, training and vetting standards and requirements, and current guidance on the use of vehicle stops as part of immigration enforcement,” Garbarino said in a statement.

When it comes to vehicle stops, Magaziner said they were told that current guidance to ICE officers is to only do them when there’s no other alternative, and they’re supposed to use lights and sirens. But, Magaziner said, that guidance has only been passed along verbally to the staff as opposed to a written directive.

Both the shootings in Maine and Houston involved shootings of immigrants who were in moving vehicles, raising questions about ICE’s training and policies surrounding how it tries to apprehend people when they’re driving.

After the Maine killing, Trump administration officials told ICE officers to suspend most vehicle stops. But the next day, Trump announced on social media that he wanted ICE to keep doing them.

On Wednesday, the Red Sox matched that streak from 80 years ago, beating the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 in the opener of a doubleheader.

The streak ended hours later when they dropped the nightcap 5-1.

“That was a great ride, a 15-game winning streak,” first baseman Willson Contreras in a quiet clubhouse. “There’s nothing to be sad about. We have to be happy. We should be proud of what we did and from now keep playing the way we’ve been playing.”

After the loss, interim manager Chad Tracy was ready to speak to the team but saw Contreras and pitcher Sonny Gray talking, so he let those veterans handle it.

“We just won 15 games in a row and I think all of us knew it was going to end at some point,” Tracy said.

After the earlier win, Tracy said he understood the historical significance.

“I’ve read some stuff. I know Ted Williams was around back then, so I’m aware of the year and how long it’s been,” he said. “It’s cool that they’ve accomplished something great.”

When the afternoon game ended, the Red Sox took a little more time than usual on the field to soak it in as The Standells’ song “Dirty Water” played in the background like it does after each victory in Fenway Park.

They also enjoyed the moment in the clubhouse.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely between the staff. We were realizing the guys were going crazy in the locker room — they always do — but even more emphasis right now with what we’re going through,” Tracy said. “Everybody enjoys it for sure.”

Boston fired manager Alex Cora after a 10-17 start and seemed to be in for a long season under Tracy. The Red Sox were 37-48 and last in the AL East on July 1 following a 10-2 loss to Washington.

Three weeks went by — a stretch including the All-Star break — before Boston (52-49) lost again.

Tracy is the first manager since the 19th century to lead a team to a win streak of 15 games or more who didn’t start the season in the job, according to MLB.

With a 6-3 lead after six innings, Caleb Durbin, who hit a tiebreaking homer in Monday’s win over Baltimore, started thinking about how many outs were left.

“I think in the seventh inning I’m counting them down a little bit,” he said, smiling.

After the final out, left fielder Jarren Duran said he was able to appreciate the cheering crowd when he met with center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela and right fielder Wilyer Abreu.

“When I get to go see (them), I take a look around and I get to enjoy that moment, that’s always fun,” he said.

With the organization in its 126th season, the streak has more meaning for some.

“You look back at it and think about where you’re doing it and how long this franchise has existed. It’s been incredible,” Durbin said.

Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, who grew up watching the Red Sox about 45 miles away in Fall River, Massachusetts, showed his respect.

“I mean, a 15-game heater is really impressive,” he said. “You know, its tough to win one game in the big leagues and them going 15 straight, it’s really impressive.”

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

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington raised the question Wednesday in an ongoing lawsuit against President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops. Reyes noted that Trump's ban says “the Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards ... without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”

Reyes ordered both parties in the lawsuit to address “the similarities and differences in administering TRT, both medically and logistically, for trans men compared to other service members, including cis individuals.” She was using the acronym for testosterone replacement therapy.

The judge also requested information on the Pentagon's “basis for treating trans men and other service members differently between this new policy and the Military Ban.”

Reyes' order comes a week after Hegseth announced that he is rolling out a new screening program for “testosterone deficiency” among troops, calling it necessary to allow them to operate at their “absolute best.”

The screenings will be conducted annually as part of service members’ required medical screenings for those 30 and older, he said. Troops under 30 can volunteer to be tested. In a video on social media, Hegseth said receiving testosterone replacement therapy would be voluntary.

Other Trump administration officials have begun to advocate for men to have easier access to testosterone replacement therapies, but the messaging from Hegseth and others blends known science on the hormone with broader, and less substantiated, claims.

Testosterone levels in men decline naturally with age and have long been linked to issues like erectile dysfunction, low libido, mood changes and weight gain. But experts have debated for years how to diagnose those problems and whether they should be treated by replacing the hormone.

Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is overseeing one of the lawsuits against Trump's ban on transgender troops. Transgender active duty service members and former service members seeking to reenlist sued in late January 2025, shortly after the president returned for his second term in office.

Reyes ruled last year against Trump's executive order to exclude transgender troops. A divided panel of federal appeals court judges sent the case back to Reyes after partially upholding her order, finding that the ban was unlawful and service members who sued could not be kicked out.

Reyes has since given the case class-action status, which means the outcome could expand to all service members.

Trump's transgender military ban remains in effect, however. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Pentagon to enforce it as litigation plays out.

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Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

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In a rare public briefing on its protective operations, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the agency is confronting an unprecedented volume of threats against the president.

“We are at a heightened level of a threat environment right now,” Curran said, adding that the scope of threats is unlike anything he has seen in his 24-year career.

The agency’s comments come after multiple security incidents involving Trump over the past two years, including the attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, where a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s right ear and one rally attendee was killed.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn acknowledged the agency has since reevaluated how it protects former presidents seeking office.

“At that time, a former president wasn’t getting the resources that they potentially should have been getting,” Quinn said.

The Secret Service also pointed to an April incident in which an armed man carrying guns and knives breached a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner before being stopped by law enforcement.

The agency also highlighted the rapidly evolving threat posed by drones, which officials said have become inexpensive, sophisticated weapons seen on modern battlefields and present new security challenges for major public events and protected sites.

The comments came weeks after federal prosecutors charged eight men with terrorism-related offenses for allegedly plotting to attack a UFC event on the White House South Lawn using explosive drones.

Quinn said the Secret Service has deployed new counter-drone technology to protect the president and other dignitaries.

“The threat continues to get tougher and tougher. You’re talking fiberoptic-controlled drones now, dark drones, so it’s a constant challenge to keep up with it, but we’re doing a tremendous job to stay ahead of the threat,” he said.

Beyond physical security, officials said the Secret Service has expanded efforts to identify potential threats earlier by investigating threatening online posts and analyzing behavioral patterns among individuals who make threats against the president.

The agency said it is already implementing security plans for Friday’s rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, with advance teams on site days before the event. Officials said every presidential appearance is planned using the highest level of protective security.

Fabian Izaguirre Cepero, de 26 años, está acusado de merodear fuera de la habitación de una niña de 12 años y de masturbarse frente a una casa en Cutler Bay la noche del lunes. Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade lo detuvieron el martes.

Según los agentes, todo comenzó alrededor de las 3 de la madrugada, cuando la niña corrió hacia su padre tras oír que llamaban a la ventana.

El padre de la niña vio entonces a Izaguirre Cepero exhibiéndose y masturbándose fuera de la ventana de la menor, según consta en el informe policial. Los detectives indicaron que Cepero “regresó a la residencia de la víctima en cinco ocasiones distintas”.

En febrero de 2025, la policía de Miami Beach lo acusó de entrar en la tienda Target ubicada en el número 1045 de la Quinta Calle en South Beach y colocar un teléfono en el suelo de un probador para observar a una mujer mientras se probaba trajes de baño.

En el momento de su última detención, los agentes señalaron que se encontraba en libertad bajo fianza por 17 cargos relacionados con la posesión de material de abuso sexual infantil.

Según un informe del Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach, los investigadores que revisaban su teléfono en busca de pruebas relacionadas con el caso de Target se toparon con más de una docena de imágenes y vídeos de niñas de tan solo “2 a 4 años” que estaban siendo abusadas sexualmente.

En cuanto a su último caso, Izaguirre Cepero debía comparecer ante un juez el miércoles por la mañana acusado de voyeurismo y exhibicionismo; la audiencia se programó posteriormente para la tarde del miércoles.

Los expedientes fueron recopilados durante unos diez años por el Programa Nacional de Resarcimiento (PNR), que nació en 2003 tras la firma de los Acuerdos de Paz en 1996 que pusieron fin a la guerra con el fin de resarcir con proyectos y económicamente a las víctimas. Durante los últimos ocho años —en los gobiernos del expresidente Jimmy Morales 2016-2020 y de Alejandro Giammattei 2020-2024, el programa se inmovilizó, abandonó y se ordenó liquidar, sin resguardar los testimonios allí plasmados.

“Cajas húmedas, amontonadas, expedientes incompletos, rotos” son parte de lo que trabajadores que intentan actualmente salvar el archivo encontraron, aseguró Erick Briones, auxiliar del archivo. Ellos son parte de un proyecto financiado por UNESCO que busca recuperar el archivo del PNR y en un futuro nombrarlo patrimonio documental del mundo para que sea resguardado y accesible a todas las personas que quieran conocer la historia vivida en el país centroamericano en esa época.

Allí están archivos como el de Manuel Botom Uz, uno de los más de 100 expedientes de niñez desaparecida. Sus familiares narraron que en 1982 él tenía 4 años y fue desaparecido. El testimonio dice que el niño junto a sus cuatro hermanos, todos menores de edad, fueron atacados en sus comunidades en Quiché por miembros del ejército y patrulleros de autodefensa civil que ejercían tareas de control y vigilancia para el ejército en sus comunidades.

El expediente de Botom Uz dice que sus hermanos fueron entregados a familiares, pero él desapareció. Veinte años después su cuerpo fue localizado e identificado en una fosa clandestina. Después de exhumarlo fue enterrado por su familia.

“Hubo una intención de los gobiernos de Morales y Giammattei de borrar la memoria colectiva, destruir un patrimonio construido por muchos años con base en los testimonios de las víctimas, por eso es importante recuperar esa memoria y los testimonios de víctimas, resguardarlos y que pasen a ser parte (de) la memoria viva de este país”, explicó Elvin Díaz, comisionado presidencial de Derechos Humanos que ahora mantiene el resguardo de los archivos.

Díaz explicó que el fin del PNR era la ayuda humanitaria y el resarcimiento, sin embargo, aquí “hay información relevante para una investigación penal”.

En cajas de plástico azules, clasificadas por departamento, miles de testimonios cuentan ejecuciones extrajudiciales, asesinatos, abusos sexuales, desapariciones forzadas, reclutamiento forzoso de hombres, mujeres y niños en Guatemala durante la guerra entre el ejército y grupos guerrilleros, que según informes de la memoria dan cuenta que se saldó con 200.000 muertos y unos 45.000 desaparecidos.

En el futuro el proyecto planea digitalizar el archivo para su acceso universal.

En su informe sobre observaciones preliminares del Grupo de Trabajo de las Naciones Unidas sobre Desapariciones Forzadas o Involuntarias, que visitó Guatemala el mes pasado, indicó que “principalmente (en los gobiernos de Morales y Giammattei) operó una política sistemática de desmantelamiento de las instituciones para la paz y la justicia”.

Los expedientes pasarán a formar parte del Plan de Reparación y dignificación de las víctimas del conflicto armado anunciado el mes pasado por el presidente Arévalo, que busca integrar y centralizar la información dispersa en instituciones públicas y en manos de organizaciones de sociedad civil para continuar con el resarcimiento de la víctimas, además en los casos donde sigue la desaparición de una víctima se incluirán en el Mecanismo de Búsqueda Humanitaria de personas desaparecidas durante el conflicto armado interno en Guatemala.

En una inusual conferencia pública sobre sus operaciones de protección, el director del Servicio Secreto, Sean Curran, dijo que la agencia enfrenta un volumen sin precedentes de amenazas contra el presidente.

“En este momento estamos en un nivel elevado de amenazas”, dijo Curran, y añadió que el alcance de las amenazas es distinto a cualquier cosa que haya visto en sus 24 años de carrera.

Los comentarios de la agencia se producen después de múltiples incidentes de seguridad relacionados con Trump durante los últimos dos años, incluido el intento de asesinato durante un mitin de campaña en Butler, Pensilvania, en 2024, donde una bala disparada por un atacante rozó la oreja derecha de Trump y una persona que asistía al evento murió.

El subdirector del Servicio Secreto, Matthew Quinn, reconoció que desde entonces la agencia ha reevaluado la forma en que protege a los ex presidentes que buscan un cargo público.

“En ese momento, un ex presidente no estaba recibiendo los recursos que posiblemente debía estar recibiendo”, dijo Quinn.

El Servicio Secreto también señaló un incidente ocurrido en abril, cuando un hombre armado que portaba armas de fuego y cuchillos atravesó un punto de control de seguridad durante la Cena de la Asociación de Corresponsales de la Casa Blanca antes de ser detenido por las autoridades.

La agencia también destacó la amenaza, que evoluciona rápidamente, que representan los drones, los cuales, según los funcionarios, se han convertido en armas sofisticadas y de bajo costo utilizadas en los campos de batalla modernos y representan nuevos desafíos de seguridad para grandes eventos públicos y lugares protegidos.

Los comentarios se producen semanas después de que fiscales federales presentaran cargos relacionados con terrorismo contra ocho hombres acusados de planear un ataque con drones explosivos durante un evento de la UFC en el Jardín Sur de la Casa Blanca.

Quinn dijo que el Servicio Secreto ha desplegado nueva tecnología antidrones para proteger al presidente y a otros dignatarios.

“La amenaza sigue siendo cada vez más difícil. Ahora estamos hablando de drones controlados por fibra óptica, drones oscuros, así que es un desafío constante mantenerse al día, pero estamos haciendo un trabajo extraordinario para adelantarnos a la amenaza”, dijo Quinn.

Más allá de la seguridad física, los funcionarios dijeron que el Servicio Secreto ha ampliado sus esfuerzos para identificar posibles amenazas con mayor anticipación mediante la investigación de publicaciones amenazantes en internet y el análisis de patrones de comportamiento entre las personas que amenazan al presidente.

La agencia informó que ya está implementando los planes de seguridad para la Cena de la Asociación de Corresponsales de la Casa Blanca, reprogramada para el viernes en Washington, con equipos desplegados en el lugar varios días antes del evento. Los funcionarios dijeron que cada aparición presidencial se planifica con el más alto nivel de seguridad.

Seattle will be represented by Lauren Jackson and Flau’jae Johnson. Washington will have Elena Delle Donne partnered with Shakira Austin. Dallas, which started out as a franchise in Detroit, will pair Jessica Shepard with Deanna Nolan. Minnesota will have Rebekkah Brunson playing with Courtney Williams.

Each team will also include a standout high school player from Nike EYBL, bringing together three generations of women’s basketball in one competition.

The Nike EYBL participants are Jezelle “GG” Banks, Ryan Carter, Tatianna Griffin and Morghan Reckley. Honorary general managers for the WNBA All-Star Game, Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon, will serve as designated passers, with Cooper distributing the ball to two teams and Weatherspoon passing it to the other two teams.

The format is a two-round, timed shooting competition in which teams have 70 seconds to score as many points as possible from seven shooting locations around the court. The competition features shots ranging from a layup to a 3-pointer, with the two teams posting the highest scores in the opening round advancing to the championship round.

The shooting stars winners will get $15,000. Each competitor will receive $7,500.

Last year the winners of the skills contest each received $2,575 from the WNBA.

The league announced the participants of the 3-point contest on Tuesday.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

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The incident occurred around 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of Southeast 32nd Street.

Landers and the driver, with whom she had a prior argument, were acquainted.

According to police, the man attempted to leave the hotel in his vehicle, but Landers jumped on the hood of the SUV and fell off as the vehicle was in motion.

“I can’t even say, but I know she didn’t know that was going to happen to her,” Landers’ cousin, Letizia Robbins, said. “She wasn’t thinking that.”

Police said she was critically injured and the man stopped his car and called 911.

Landers was then transported by Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue medics to Broward Health Medical Center, where she died, authorities said.

“I am going to be her voice because she confided in me with a lot of things,” Robbins said. “She wasn’t just my little cousin; she was like my little sister.”

Robbins said she believes, after watching video of the incident, that the man “deliberately ran her over.”

“So he has to pay. He has to go to jail,” she said. “It shows it clear as day. He ran her over. It wasn’t an accident that we thought it was.”

She added, “I don’t know him personally, so I can’t say (who he was). But it was somebody she was dealing with.”

Robbins said the man was a romantic partner.

No charges have been filed in the case, but Landers’ family is now left with questions and pain and feeling they are living a nightmare.

“I’m just thinking it’s all a bad dream,” Robbins said. “It’s not real.”

Fort Lauderdale police said their investigating into the matter is ongoing.

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 2:00 a.m. del martes en la cuadra 400 de Southeast 32nd Street.

Landers y el conductor, con quien había tenido una discusión previa, se conocían.

Según la Policía, el hombre intentó salir del hotel en su vehículo, pero Landers se subió al capó de la SUV y cayó mientras el vehículo estaba en movimiento.

“No puedo ni decirlo, pero sé que ella no sabía que eso le iba a pasar”, dijo Letizia Robbins, prima de Landers. “Ella no estaba pensando que eso ocurriría.”

La Policía informó que Landers sufrió heridas de gravedad y que el hombre detuvo el vehículo y llamó al 911.

Las autoridades indicaron que Landers fue trasladada por paramédicos de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue al Broward Health Medical Center, donde murió.

“Voy a ser su voz porque ella me confiaba muchas cosas”, dijo Robbins. “No era solo mi prima menor, era como mi hermana menor.”

Robbins dijo que, tras ver el video del incidente, cree que el hombre “deliberadamente la atropelló”.

“Así que tiene que pagar. Tiene que ir a la cárcel”, dijo. “Se ve claramente. La atropelló. No fue un accidente como pensábamos.”

Además, dijo: “No lo conozco personalmente, así que no puedo decir quién era. Pero era alguien con quien ella tenía una relación.”

Robbins dijo que el hombre era la pareja sentimental de Landers.

No se han presentado cargos en el caso, pero la familia de Landers ahora enfrenta muchas preguntas, dolor y la sensación de estar viviendo una pesadilla.

“Solo pienso que todo es una pesadilla”, dijo Robbins. “No es real.”

La Policía de Fort Lauderdale informó que la investigación continúa en curso.

El incidente ocurrió aproximadamente a la 1:53 p.m. del miércoles en la cuadra 800 de Northwest 10th Terrace.

Según la Policía, los agentes que respondieron al llamado llegaron al lugar y encontraron a un hombre que había recibido un disparo.

Equipos de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue trasladaron al hombre al Broward Health Medical Center con heridas consideradas de riesgo para su vida, informó la Policía.

Con respecto a la balacera, los investigadores indicaron que aparentemente se trató de un incidente aislado entre dos personas.

La Policía informó que no hay nadie bajo custodia, pero la investigación continúa activa.

Cualquier persona con información sobre la balacera debe llamar a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

Aunque la escena del choque ya fue despejada, el miércoles aún eran visibles los daños en el lugar donde, según los investigadores, el vehículo impactó la banca de la parada de autobús antes de chocar contra varios vehículos y detenerse.

Los investigadores también confirmaron que la conductora había chocado por alcance contra otro vehículo momentos antes del choque mortal.

Las autoridades divulgaron las llamadas al 911 realizadas minutos después de la colisión.

“Estoy en Federal, justo al norte de McNab Road, y hubo un accidente de tránsito realmente grave”, dijo una persona que llamó.

Otra persona describió lo ocurrido tras el choque.

“Acabo de ver un accidente realmente grave. Un carro se volcó. Ahora está sobre sus ruedas, pero se volcó”, dijo otra persona.

Según los investigadores, el BMW blanco chocó contra dos postes de concreto para alumbrado, un árbol, varios vehículos desocupados y arrancó de su base una banca de parada de autobús con techo.

Una persona que llamó al 911 expresó incertidumbre sobre las víctimas.

“No sé si el hombre sigue dentro del carro, si salió expulsado o si era alguien a quien atropelló en la maldita parada de autobús”, dijo.

Los agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward identificaron el miércoles a la conductora como Jo Ann Llera, de 47 años. Indicaron que ella iba al volante al momento del choque y que se espera que sobreviva.

Vecinos dijeron estar conmocionados al enterarse de que Llera estuvo involucrada en el choque mortal.

Los investigadores dijeron que la secuencia del choque comenzó poco antes de la 1:00 p.m. en la cuadra 500 de South Federal Highway, donde presuntamente Llera chocó por alcance a un Honda Accord. Las autoridades dijeron que luego rodeó ese vehículo y continuó aproximadamente cuatro cuadras antes de chocar.

Testigos describieron el sonido del impacto como una explosión.

“Fue como si explotara dinamita. Supimos de inmediato que algo andaba mal”, dijo un testigo. “Es horrible. Nunca había visto tantos daños en un solo carro. Uno siente mucho por la familia.”

Mientras Llera se recupera de sus heridas en el hospital, los testigos siguen preguntándose qué provocó la cadena de choques que terminó con la muerte de un hombre que esperaba en la parada de autobús.

La Oficina del Sheriff de Broward no ha divulgado la identidad de la víctima.

Las autoridades no han anunciado si Llera enfrentará cargos.

The potential political peril has only grown in recent days, particularly for Republicans facing reelection in November. But while some GOP lawmakers say they want more information from President Donald Trump’s administration on the endgame and the escalating cost, they continue to defend the president’s decision to engage and have voted repeatedly to cede congressional powers to the White House.

“Is anyone out there in the real world happy with gas prices? No,” said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican who grilled military leaders for more detail at a contentious hearing Tuesday. “But I think they understand why gas prices are as high as they are.”

It’s still unclear, though, if more Republicans — many of whom have been privately questioning the conflict — will speak out publicly as the midterm elections approach. GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate are expected to face the next test of their loyalty this week as Democrats force new votes on whether Trump should seek congressional approval for military action against Iran.

As Congress considers whether to weigh in, the U.S. has carried out waves of airstrikes in recent days as the two countries clash over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices have spiked again and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators at the hearing Tuesday that the U.S. had spent $37.5 billion on the war so far. On Wednesday, Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base for the arrival and dignified transfer of the remains of four U.S. service members.

“I do think the combination of the hearings, plus the fact that we are in this new escalatory phase where Americans have been killed, and Americans are experiencing the rising costs — I think it’s important that people be held accountable,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who is expected to lead the next war powers vote as soon as Thursday. “And this is a very unpopular war.”

Polls find Americans disapprove of the war

Most Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the situation with Iran, according to recent polling. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in July found that few Americans think the war in Iran has been worth fighting, and most aren’t confident that the U.S. military action in Iran and negotiations to end the war will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Only about two-thirds of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran, according to the Washington Post/Ipsos poll. Most Republicans, about 6 in 10, think the war has been worth fighting and are confident that the military action and ensuing negotiations will prevent Iran from development nuclear weapons, but a sizable share — about one-third — are not convinced.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who is up for reelection this year, said that he tries to explain to voters that he has seen the intelligence and believes the war was necessary to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But we need to “finish the job,” Rounds said.

“It’s challenging” to explain it to people back home, Rounds said. “It’s complicated, and a lot of the stuff we know, we can’t talk about, because it’s classified.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican up for reelection, questioned military leaders at Tuesday’s hearing on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“It seems to me that there’s been a different plan almost daily with dealing with this problem,” she told Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

War powers votes have shifted as conflict has dragged on

Opposing the war can have a political cost, as well. Collins was one of four Republicans to side with Democrats when the Senate passed a war powers resolution on Iran for the first time in June. The vote greatly angered Trump, who attended a GOP Senate luncheon the next day and called the four Republicans “losers.”

One of the other Republicans to vote for the war powers resolution was Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican who lost his Senate seat in a primary after Trump endorsed one of his opponents.

In the closed-door luncheon, Cassidy told Trump directly that he needed to give more details to the public about the conflict. “This was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months,” he said. “Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

Trump argued back, Cassidy later told reporters, and he told the president that he wouldn’t change his vote until he got a briefing. The White House later relented, giving Cassidy a one-on-one meeting, and the Louisiana Republican changed his vote in a late night do-over vote before the Senate left for a two-week recess.

Cassidy wouldn’t say Wednesday whether recent developments would change his vote when the Senate takes up the next resolution to halt the war.

“I’m not commenting on that,” he said.

House to consider war powers resolution

The House is expected to consider a war powers resolution Thursday after also approving a similar measure in June. It is unclear whether enough Republicans could again vote with Democrats to pass the resolution, led by Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has aggressively lobbied his members against the war powers measures. Echoing Trump, Johnson said this week that the U.S. has ensured that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon that “would be a disaster for everybody.”

Still, he said, there is a global understanding that “now we got to wrap it up.”

Asked about the war on Wednesday before his Dover trip, Trump voiced continued confidence in his approach.

“Americans don’t want high gasoline prices but they aren’t against the war,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

Some Democrats sided with the Republican majority in the 232-198 vote that came as lawmakers prepared to return home and campaign ahead of the midterm elections, with Republicans working to show action on an issue that has become a symbol of voter distrust.

But the breakthrough was tempered by Republican provisions in the bill that would exempt the president from the trading ban and from the inclusion of an unrelated voter identification requirement, drawing opposition from many Democrats. The bill's passage in the Senate remains uncertain.

“This bill, quite simply, is a sham,” Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, said on the House floor ahead of the vote. He called the voter identification provision a “poison pill” designed to sink the legislation.

Supporters nevertheless hailed the bill, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act, as the most significant congressional action yet to restrict stock trades by members of Congress.

“I had legislation that would have required divestiture. I preferred that approach,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said. “But you got to build a coalition in a body. And I think this is a giant step forward.”

Rep. Bryan Steil, the Wisconsin Republican who sponsored the legislation, called it “transformational.”

Critics argued the legislation falls well short of a true stock trading ban because it would let lawmakers keep stocks they already own and continue selling them.

Bipartisan support eroded further after Republicans added a requirement that voters present photo identification at the polls, a key element of the SAVE Act, an election measure backed by President Donald Trump that has repeatedly stalled in the Senate.

What is in the Stop Insider Trading Act?

The legislation would prohibit lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children from buying individual stocks while in office. It would let them keep stocks they already own but require public notice at least seven days before selling them. Some investments would be exempt, including interest in a widely held investment fund and certain investments held in a trust.

The bill does not extend to the president or vice president. President Donald Trump disclosed in May that in the first quarter of this year he had made more than 3,600 buy and sell orders, many of them involving companies whose profits have been directly impacted by his decisions as head of the government.

Outside ethics groups said the bill leaves intact the very conflicts it is meant to address by allowing lawmakers to keep existing stock holdings.

The Campaign Legal Center urged Congress to reject the measure, saying it “fails to address the two inherent problems with congressional stock ownership: the appearance of insider trading and members’ ability to profit from their official position.”

Not all Republicans were on board for the stock ban. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who was defeated in a primary earlier this year by a Trump-backed candidate, derided Republicans for inserting the voter identification requirement.

“Republicans added voter-ID in the legislation. Not to get Dems to vote for voter-ID,” Massie wrote in a social media post. “but to get them to vote against the stock trading ban, so they can use it in the Nov. election.”

Stock trading has become a potent campaign issue

Congressional stock trading has become a potent campaign issue as candidates from both parties call for banning the practice. The issue has been a fixture of campaign ads for several years as candidates seek to tap into voters’ distrust of Washington.

Ahead of Wednesday's vote, many Republicans facing tough reelection races lined up to speak in favor of it.

“Banning congressional stock trading is a simple proposition: If you serve the public, you serve only the public,” said New York Rep. Mike Lawler. “You don't get to benefit from the power the people have loaned you. This reform is about fairness.”

Lawmakers have faced ethics scrutiny and, in some cases, criminal investigations over stock trades that critics say benefited from nonpublic information obtained through lawmakers' official duties. Although no broad ban has become law, similar proposals have been introduced for years.

Momentum accelerated last year when Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., launched a discharge petition to force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban that bypassed House Republican leaders.

Casemiro joins the club as a free agent and is under contract through the 2027 MLS Sprint Season, with an option to extend the deal through June 2029. The club stated that the move is pending approval of his P-1 Visa.

Midfield, reinforced. Bem-vindo, @Casemiro! 🇧🇷https://t.co/1GW3A40qvD pic.twitter.com/ZmM0IXUXux

— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) July 22, 2026

The 34-year-old midfielder arrives in Miami after a decorated career that includes five UEFA Champions League titles, three LaLiga championships, and multiple international trophies with Real Madrid.

He also spent the past three seasons playing for Manchester United in the English Premier League.

“I’m motivated by winning and continuing to grow,” Casemiro said in the team’s news release on Wednesday. “I can’t wait to get started and give everything I have to repay the trust the club has shown me.”

Inter Miami owners praised the signing, calling Casemiro a player who brings leadership and a winning mentality to the team.

Co-owner David Beckham said he was excited to welcome the midfielder after watching his successful career with Real Madrid and Manchester United.

“I’m very proud to welcome Casemiro and his family to Inter Miami,” he said in part. “He is a person and a player that I have admired for a long time.”

Casemiro is considered one of the top defensive midfielders of his generation and joins Inter Miami as the club continues to build a stronger roster for the present and future.

According to MLS insider Tom Bogert, the league has opened an investigation into possible tampering violations during Casemiro’s signing process.

Bogert said the Los Angeles Galaxy reportedly held Casemiro’s discovery rights, and MLS is reviewing whether any league rules were broken.

His dream is on the cusp of becoming reality.

A little more than a month after the Indianapolis-based team owner died at 65, his oldest son, Derek, announced Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had purchased one of the series' 25 charters from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The transaction paves the way for DRR to run one full-time car next season for the first time since 2012.

Series officials must still approve the move, though that appears to be little more than a formality.

“There are a lot of emotions today,” Derek Reinbold said Wednesday on a conference call. “Let me just start with my dad because he spent years working towards this moment. He believed this team belonged in the IndyCar Series full-time, and he never stopped building toward that goal. He and I were talking through this charter purchase right up until he went into the hospital. Today is bittersweet. I wish he were on this call with us. But I know exactly how he’d feel today because this was his vision, and we’re really proud to finish what he started.”

The late Reinbold became a regular in Gasoline Alley after co-founding the team in 2000, fielding cars, often multiple cars, in each of the past 27 Indianapolis 500s. During that time, DRR employed nearly three dozen drivers though it reached victory lane only one time — when Robbie Buhl won at Walt Disney World Speedway in January 2000.

The team's top finish at Indianapolis came in 2012 when Oriol Servia was fourth. But following that season, DRR came up short on funding and began cutting back its schedule. From 2013-19, DRR's drivers were limited to one race — Indianapolis.

It appeared there may be an opening for DRR when Sage Karam competed in all four events held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the COVID-19 season in 2020. But the team returned to just one-race seasons from 2021 through Reinbodld's death following a battle with cancer last month.

Now, all indications are that DRR will return to full-time action next year.

“The first transfer of an IndyCar charter is an important milestone for the IndyCar charter system and demonstrates that the system is working as intended," said Mark Miles, the president and CEO of IndyCar's parent company Penske Entertainment. “The charter system provides teams with a valuable asset encouraging their continued investment in the long-term growth of the sport while also providing new ownership groups with a clear pathway into the series. It’s another step in strengthening the long-term foundation of IndyCar.”

Bobby Rahal's team received three of the 25 charters when they were first introduced in 2024, but when it decided to scale back from three full-time cars to two next season, the idea of helping Reinbold's team get back in the mix just seemed like the right thing to do.

“I have always had tremendous respect for Dennis Reinbold, both as a fellow team owner and as a fellow automobile dealer," the 1986 Indy winner said in a statement. “His dedication to IndyCar and the legacy he built over many years earned the respect of everyone in the paddock. Dennis had expressed interest in acquiring a charter from the time the charter program was established, and we had several discussions with him before his passing. We’re pleased we were able to complete this transaction, and we can’t think of a more deserving organization to receive the charter.”

Rahal also said in the statement that he believes a two-car team will better position RLL to “maximize” its competition level and focus on the introduction of a new race car in 2028.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

The first dinner was cut short in April when a gunman, who prosecutors say was trying to assassinate Trump, opened fire at the Washington Hilton. The much smaller rescheduled dinner will take place Friday, with enhanced security precautions, at the capital’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, formerly the Trump International Hotel.

The letter expands on a similar one issued in April, before the first dinner. It notes that since then, “the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious.”

The letter, organized by former ABC News correspondent Lisa Stark and producer Ian Cameron, cites in particular the recent subpoenas by the Justice Department to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns over the president’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. Additional subpoenas of the journalists’ phone records have included even the mother of one reporter, and two spouses.

They want the association to stand up ‘forcefully’

The letter also cites threats by Trump to revoke licenses of broadcasters “who refuse to acquiesce to his demands.”

“Our message to the White House Correspondents’ Association is now more urgent: forcefully stand up for freedom of the press in front of the President, publicly defend the journalists he attacks, and vow to resist his administration’s concerted effort to undermine the First Amendment,” the letter says.

It notes that the association’s president, Weijia Jiang, has defined the dinner’s purpose as being “to celebrate the First Amendment and the hard daily work of the journalists who defend it.”

“We believe it is hypocritical to celebrate the First Amendment in front of the man who relentlessly attacks it,” the letter says. ”We urge the WHCA to condemn the administration’s actions from the podium and pledge to fight all attempts by his administration to undermine this core pillar of a functioning democracy.”

There are multiple signatories

The groups signing on to the letter are the Society of Professional Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Press Photographers Association, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Coalition for Women in Journalism, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Media and Democracy Project.

There are also about 520 individual signatories, mainly retired journalists. Almost all of them signed the April letter as well.

Trump has said he would be attending Friday’s rescheduled dinner, calling the plan to go ahead with the event “a sign of Strength and Fortitude.”

“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He added that he hadn’t decided whether to give his originally intended speech, in which he was widely expected to attack the press. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out,” he wrote. “In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!”

Elkhorn coral populations were decimated by a 2023 heat wave and a less severe one in 2024 that left them functionally extinct — meaning remaining colonies are too small and far apart to reproduce in the wild — from Broward County to the Florida Keys, said Diego Lirman, associate professor of marine biology at the University of Miami. Heat causes coral to bleach, which can be fatal if it lasts long enough.

Researchers have been propagating them at coastal nurseries, but decided to bring some ashore now because of indications that 2026 will be “a really bad year” for bleaching — perhaps even worse than 2023, Lirman said. Coral has been showing indications of heat stress as water temperatures rise.

Coral populations are living creatures that form reefs, globally important for seafood production, protecting coastlines from storm surges and tourism. But scientists fear they could be lost because of climate change: Florida coral has experienced four mass bleaching events in the past decade.

“They seem to be blending into each other and corals are not getting time to recover,” Lirman said.

Divers focused Wednesday on collecting genetically diverse coral pieces, wrapping each in wet bubble wrap and placing them in coolers before sanitizing them and putting them in tanks at the hatchery.

The university exchanges coral with other researchers and facilities to preserve as much original genetic diversity as possible in nurseries and in hatcheries, “so if one goes down you don’t lose the last remaining genetic information,” Lirman said.

“You never know: You may have some that are resistant to disease, some that are resistant to temperature, some that are resistant to acidification,” he said. “Once we lose them, then that information is lost.”

___

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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According to Margate police, the crash occurred in the 5400 block of West Atlantic Boulevard.

Police said the suspect crashed his vehicle and then fled the scene.

According to authorities, the suspect was captured a short time later and it was discovered that he had active arrest warrants for narcotics-related charges.

The suspect’s identity was not immediately released and it’s unclear whether the crash only involved the suspect’s vehicle.

The car -- a silver sedan -- has since been towed from the scene.

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Jail records show Leonardo Daniel Rivas, 42, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm.

Deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the boy was attending his daily occupational therapy session at Florida Kids Therapy Medley at 13335 SW 124th St. on Thursday when Rivas, who was serving as his occupational therapist, “squeezed the victim’s cheeks together” and repeatedly forced a speech therapy device known as a Whisper Phone into the victim’s mouth, “covering his mouth several times.”

An arrest report states that the boy became upset, after which Rivas “began holding the victim down forcefully to the chair” and “firmly pushed the victim’s legs down.”

Investigators said the boy suffered “numerous abrasions” to both shoulder blades and his chest. According to the report, he was treated for his injuries at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

Authorities later arrested Rivas, who told investigators he did not want to speak with them without an attorney present, the report states.

As of Wednesday morning, Rivas was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was set at $2,500. A judge ordered him to have no contact with the alleged victim but allowed him to continue practicing while the case is pending.

Florida licensing authorities will determine whether any disciplinary action, including the possible suspension or revocation of his license, is warranted.

The clinic released a statement to Local 10 News following Rivas’ arrest, which you can read here:

"We are deeply saddened by the incident involving one of our contracted therapists and a minor receiving services at our center. The safety, dignity, and well-being of every child in our care are, and always will be, our highest priority.

The conduct observed in this incident is completely contrary to our values, our standards of care, and the way therapy is provided at Florida Kids Therapy Medley. We do not tolerate any form of physical aggression, mistreatment, or abuse toward the children we serve," the statement read.

"As soon as the incident was brought to our attention, we immediately reviewed the available information, removed the therapist from all patient care responsibilities, preserved the relevant evidence, and notified the appropriate authorities. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement and all regulatory agencies as the investigation continues.

Out of respect for the minor and because the investigation remains ongoing, we cannot comment further on the specific details of the case at this time.

Our commitment remains to provide a safe, compassionate, and professional environment for every child and family we serve, to cooperate fully with the authorities, and to continue strengthening all necessary measures to ensure the protection and well-being of the children in our care."

“I have no ill will toward Coach Kiffin,” Golding said Wednesday at SEC Media Days.

Golding was the up-and-coming defensive coordinator who was asked to pick up the pieces when his old boss, Lane Kiffin, abruptly left for LSU for a seven-year, $91 million deal just as the Rebels were about to embark on their first trip to the College Football Playoff last season.

Partly thanks to the fact that the coach had two of the game's most explosive players in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, Golding racked up two wins, over Tulane and Georgia, and almost a third.

That made Mississippi's decision to give him a five-year contract right after Kiffin's departure look like a stroke of genius. It also gave Golding a spot at the podium in Tampa, where he opened up and became an early favorite to “win” the 38th version of the SEC's annual preseason football gabfest.

“It’s the ex, right? There’s always going to be the history," said Golding, who is married with three children. "Do you have an ex? Are you married? Well, if you do get married and you have an ex that your wife knows about, like, she doesn’t ever end; she’s never dead. She’s always going to get brought up, and so that’s kind of where it is right now. That’s always going to be there a little bit, which is fun to a certain degree.”

Fun, indeed. And it's no sure thing that Ole Miss is going to take a step back from last year's 13-2 record and its trip to the national semifinals just because its celebrity coach, Kiffin, has moved west. (By the way, Ole Miss hosts LSU on Sept. 19.)

Chambliss is returning off a 3,900-yard, 22-touchdown season and a win in court, where he was granted a sixth year of eligibility. Lacy's 73-yard touchdown run in Mississippi's CFP loss to Miami capped a playoff stretch that identified him as a first-tier threat. The Rebels have launched Heisman Trophy campaigns for both.

“You know they’re really good players,” Golding said. “I’m not going to talk to you about that. Y'all already know that.”

Golding flicks away questions about tampering allegations

Golding was equally colorful about tampering, a topic the Rebels were drawn into this offseason when Clemson's Dabo Sweeney accused Ole Miss of unethically luring linebacker Luke Ferelli, who had barely moved from Cal to Death Valley when he suddenly bailed for Mississippi.

Without getting into details of the Ferelli affair — which served as a rare example of a coach calling out another coach for tampering — Golding pointed to one of the key problems about the transfer portal, saying it's only natural a player would want to know he has a place to go before he leaves his current school. Add agents into the mix, who can easily circumvent rules that prohibit contacting the player, and chaos ensues.

“By design it’s put a lot of people in bad positions,” Golding said. “Let’s not act like recruiting in college football for the last 100 years is the most moral thing.”

Golding is a new homeowner and it's Kiffin's old house

When it comes to ethics and morals, though, the conversation down South seems to funnel back to Ole Miss these days. And Golding and Kiffin.

Kiffin's move, the pundits say, showed college sports' money-grubbing opportunistic side at its worst. The much-debated bill circulating in Congress intended to regulate the industry includes what's known as a “Lane Kiffin Rule" that restricts when coaches can leave for new jobs.

It has made for great headlines. Golding's reaction to it — golden, as well. And in a sign that all may truly be forgiven, ESPN reported that not long after Kiffin bailed for Baton Rouge Golding bought his house in Oxford.

He said he and Kiffin text frequently, and there's a friendship there that goes beyond coaching.

“I can separate the two. Some people can’t,” Golding said. "I probably shouldn’t say this, but I don’t care, all right? Like I told an Ole Miss group the other day, ‘In 2021, if you said you could look in 2025 and you’re about to be 11-1 and go to the playoff, would you take it if your coach was leaving?’ Hell yeah. You would. Everybody won from it. It’s OK.”

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It also would provide for a pay raise next year ranging from 5% to 7% for service members, depending upon their rank.

The National Defense Authorization Act is generally one of the more bipartisan bills that Congress takes up on an annual basis. That's not the case this year. The vote was 216-212.

Democrats took issue with steep spending increases for the Pentagon as Republicans attempted to cut numerous non-defense programs through other bills. They also opposed some of the conservative social policy riders that were included.

For example, the bill includes a prohibition on gender-related medical care under the military health program known as TRICARE. It also eases hurdles for service members to carry a privately owned firearm on base, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's lead on the issue.

Republican leaders' decision to attach Trump's elections overhaul bill to the defense bill upon its passing also amplified the partisan divide. Speaker Mike Johnson is working to accommodate Republican lawmakers who are angry that the Senate won't pass the SAVE America Act and are insisting that it be included in must-pass bills until the Senate relents.

The House bill is testing a normally bipartisan process

Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, emphasized that he knows there were areas of disagreement, but he emphasized that Wednesday's vote was a step in a long process. He promised to work in a bipartisan manner on a final product that can pass both chambers and be signed into law.

Rogers said the United States needs to reverse decades of underinvestment and neglect in the nation's armed forces and defense industrial base.

“This bill will do that and much more,” he said. “It will build the ready, capable and lethal fighting force we need to deter China and other adversaries.”

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the Armed Services Committee, said the defense spending the administration has asked for this year is approaching $1.6 trillion when including separate efforts to pay for the war in Iran and boost weapons stockpiles.

“The American people are struggling to pay their bills and we're going to put $1.6 trillion into the defense budget. It's not a reasonable thing to ask,” Smith said.

Smith also expressed concern about the war with Iran and that in supporting the defense bill, lawmakers are “de facto supporting this war with no end in sight.”

“We are in an incredibly, incredibly dangerous time,” Smith said. “I want to maintain the bipartisan nature of this bill. I do. And I know that the chairman does. But if we're going to do this, we're going to need some Republicans to stand up to the president of the United States and say, ‘No. No, we’re not going to get you $1.6 trillion. No, we're not just going to give you a blank check for a war that is totally out of control."

The White House backs parts of the legislation

The spending increases authorized in the bill would not take effect until Congress follows up with a separate defense appropriations bill. The Senate has not yet approved its version of the defense measure. It's possible a final product won't be ready until after the midterm elections.

The White House applauded the spending levels authorized in the House bill and the Department of War designation that it says recognizes the “willingness to fight and win wars on behalf of our nation.”

The president issued an executive order last year renaming the Defense Department, but it's up to Congress to make the change official. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the renaming could cost taxpayers as much as $125 million.

The White House's statement also said that the administration has a number of concerns with certain provisions in the bill and would work with Congress before a final bill is presented to the president. Among those concerns was a section of the bill it said would limit or undermine the president's ability to name military installations and property.

In 2023, during a national reckoning on issues of race in America, seven Army bases’ names were changed because they honored Confederate leaders. Last year, those bases reverted to their original names, but with different namesakes who share Confederate surnames. The Army found other service members with the same last names to honor.

The Austin, Texas, company reported second-quarter net income of $1.11 billion, or 32 cents per share. Excluding certain items, earnings were 33 cents per share, well short of the 53 cents per share forecast by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 26% to $28.24 billion, beating analysts’ forecast of $26.42 billion.

While the core car business had a solid quarter, Tesla is now focused on building out the infrastructure and AI software that underpins its robotaxis and robotics businesses, which Musk has said are the future of the company. And doing so requires a lot more spending.

Research and development spending surged about 49% from a year earlier to $2.37 billion — higher than its been going back at least four quarters.

“We’re investing a lot in growing the core business and really preparing for the future,” Musk said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts, promising that the spending will yield “incredible returns.”

CFO Vaibhav Taneja told analysts that the company expects capital expenditures will increase further in the second half of this year, driving full-year spending to more than $25 billion.

Taneja also forecast that spending on capital expenditures will continue growing for the next “2 to 3 years,” as the company seeks to expand its fleet of robotaxis, add AI compute infrastructure and build more production capacity for its Optimus humanoid robot, among several other products.

Tesla shares fell 4.1% in after-hours trading shortly. The stock ended the regular trading session 1.3% lower and is down just under 17% this year.

Earlier this month, Tesla reported that it delivered 480,216 cars in the second quarter, a 25% increase from the same period last year and its second straight quarterly gain. The sales also exceeded analysts’ expectations, according to a FactSet survey.

Tesla’s improving sales this year mark a big turnaround from a year ago, when many Europeans refused to buy the company’s cars because of Musk’s embrace of far-right political candidates in elections there.

The vast majority of the company’s vehicle deliveries last quarter were comprised of its Model Y crossover SUV and Model 3 sedan. Tesla rolled out less expensive versions of both models last year in hopes of boosting sales. It also cut the cost of leasing and loans in Europe.

Sales were also helped by a surge of EV buying in general in Europe as gas and diesel prices have risen due to the Iran war.

Just a few months ago, Tesla reported sales had fallen in 2025 for a second year in a row and it had to yield its crown as the world’s largest EV maker to China’s BYD.

Tesla's EV sales accounted for most of the company’s overall revenue, but the company got a boost from its energy generation and battery storage business, which posted revenue of $3.14 billion, a 13% gain compared to the second quarter last year.

The company also benefited from increased subscriptions for its driver assistance feature, available in the U.S., called Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The number of FSD subscribers has now reached nearly 1.5 million globally.

Tesla said it has now rolled out its robotaxi service to seven major metro areas in the U.S., and that it it expects production on its Optimus humanoid robot to begin later this year.

The company has also been investing in building new battery factories and in the infrastructure needed to produce its Tesla Semi and Cybercab.

The company noted that it has begun production of the Cybercab at a factory in Texas, and that the Tesla Semi is on track for production this year at a factory in Nevada.

Tesla executives didn't offer more specifics on how many robotaxis or Cybercabs will be on the road, nor how soon.

Musk noted that the company needs more time to test the Cybercab chassis and doesn't want to rush the expansion of robotaxis, saying he prefers to take a cautious approach.

“We’re working on what we believe is the most ambitious buildout of advanced infrastructure manufacturing capacity ever in history,” he said. “Our goals are very ambitious for robotaxi, but we do need to be cautious about causing any accidents or causing any harm to anyone."

The Mountain View, California-based company said Wednesday it earned $112.11 billion, or $9.11 per share, in the April-June period. That's up from $28.2 billion, or $2.31 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 24% to $119.8 billion from $96.43 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $117.06 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Google did not disclose an adjusted earnings figure that's comparable to analysts' expectations, which was $2.88 per share. Google saw a net gain of $98 billion, mainly as a result of gains on its equity investments — mostly in SpaceX, which went public in June.

“Our AI investments are redefining what’s possible across every part of our business,” said CEO Sundar Pichai in a statement.

Emarketer analyst Nate Elliott called the results “impressive,” especially in regards to AI.

“On the consumer side, Gemini is now within a whisker of becoming Google’s third different 1 billion-user consumer AI product, alongside AI Overviews and AI Mode,” he said. "On the enterprise side, AI demand is driving enormous growth in the cloud business. And continued strong growth in search advertising backs up Google’s claim that AI is additive to search, not a replacement.”

As usual, digital ads fueled by Google’s dominant search engine propelled the quarter's revenue growth, boosted by World Cup advertising, especially on YouTube.

The tech giant also saw strong growth in its cloud business, boosted by its AI portfolio consisting of chips, models, data, security, and agent platforms.

Alphabet's shares climbed $2.71 to $344.62 in after-hours trading.

But the greenlight comes with certain conditions.

The European Commission — which serves as the EU's antitrust enforcer — said that even with a Paramount-Warner combo, enough competitors would exist across markets like film production and streaming in its 27-nation bloc. Still, when it comes to distributing movies to theaters, the Commission warned of high concentration that could lead to “worse rental and distribution terms for cinema operators, ultimately disadvantaging consumers.”

To address this, the Commission said Skydance-owned Paramount agreed to end its European Economic Area stake in United International Pictures — a longstanding venture with another major studio, Universal, that Paramount has used to distribute films in theaters outside North America. The company must end that partnership within 13 months of closing its Warner acquisition, the Commission said, and not enter any new agreements with Universal for the next 10 years.

Among other terms, current distribution of Warner films must be shifted to the same pipeline Paramount is using in these European countries. The European Commission said its approval was conditional on the company's commitments and that it would monitor their implementation, without expanding further on how that would be enforced.

Paramount welcomed the EU's greenlight, which it said represented “a major milestone” toward completing its acquisition. In a Wednesday statement, the company added that such clearances reflect how a Paramount-Warner combo “will enhance consumer choice” and create a business with a scale “capable of competing with the tech companies that have come to dominate the industry.”

Universal did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about Paramount's new film distribution commitments in Europe.

A Paramount-Warner combo would mean putting HBO Max, fan favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN under the same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service. Beyond movies and streaming, both American companies also own a handful of European-based TV assets — including Warner's TVN Group in Poland, as well as localized channels for flagship Paramount brands like MTV and Nickelodeon.

Ongoing challenge from US states

The EU's blessing marks the latest in a chain of regulatory clearances inching the merger closer to becoming a reality, but the deal faces other challenges. In the U.S., a federal judge on Monday ordered the companies to pause their transaction for at least two weeks.

That spans from a lawsuit brought forth by California and 11 other states seeking to block Paramount and Warner's merger altogether — on the grounds such a tie-up would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers in the U.S.

Paramount has called the states’ claims meritless. And the company reiterated that on Wednesday — saying findings from the EU's approval “directly refute key assumptions that underpin the state AGs’ complaint,” particularly when it comes to competition from newer or smaller film studios.

Either way, the deal is set to be halted until at least a preliminary injunction hearing, currently slated for Aug. 3. When granting the temporary restraining order earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said states had made a strong case about a combined Paramount-Warner’s potential to “substantially lessen competition” and that the merger would be “difficult, if not impossible, to unwind” without a pause.

Other regulatory clearances

In contrast to the states' case, the Trump administration's U.S. Justice Department said it wouldn’t block the deal — and instead released a lengthy statement in support, maintaining a Paramount-Warner combo would bring "benefits for American consumers and workers.”

Paramount says it's also received regulatory clearances from countries like Australia, China and Canada. Other reviews remain in progress — including from the U.K., which has separately suggested it may intervene.

The clock is ticking. The company has pledged to start paying Warner shareholders added “ticking fee” compensation amounting to about $7 million per day if the deal isn’t closed by Sept. 30.

Including debt, Paramount’s proposed purchase of Warner is valued at nearly $111 billion based on current outstanding shares.

Beyond central antitrust reviews, regulators in Europe have also effectively approved of the billions of dollars in financial backing Paramount has secured from three Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In regulatory filings, Paramount has maintained that these sovereign funds will not have any voting rights. Still, critics have sounded the alarm about what their money could mean in terms behind the scenes influence.

Ben Rice tied the score with his 30th home run, a three-run drive in the seventh inning off Carmen Mlodzinski.

Triolo and Mangum drove in runs off Cruz (4-4), who allowed two hits and two walks while getting just one out.

Mason Montgomery (3-3) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Gregory Soto got three straight outs for his 13th save in 18 chances.

Cole retired his first 14 batters before allowing Nick Gonzales' single and Jacob Gonzalez's two-run homer. Nick Gonzales added a solo homer in the seventh off Cole, who in his previous start gave up Max Muncy's two-run, eighth-inning homer that lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 win.

Cole struck out 11, his most since Aug. 25, 2023, and extended his Yankees record for double-digit strikeouts games with 29. He allowed three runs and four hits with no walks.

Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller gave up three hits in five scoreless innings.

New York went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

Yankees hitting coach James Rowson was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing after José Caballero was called for a pitch clock violation for not for engaging Mlodzinski with more than eight seconds remaining. Caballero took an inning-ending called strike and Yankees manager Aaron Boone continued arguing with plate umpire Quinn Wolcott during the break.

Brent Headrick struck out the side in the eighth and extended his home scoreless streak to 35 innings, the longest for the Yankees since Allie Reynolds' 36 innings rom Sept 16, 1953, to June 2, 1954, according to STATS.

Up Next

New York LHP Max Fried (4-3) and Pittsburgh RHP Bubba Chandler (3-8, 4.77) were to start the night game.

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Those are the house rules of the 40+ Double Dutch South Florida subclub, where your age is your ticket in.

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The group meets every Thursday in Sunrise — indoors at 7 p.m. at the Village Multipurpose Center, located at 2240 NW 68th Ave., and every Saturday at 9 a.m. at City Park, located at 6600 Sunset Strip.

Growing older gets you access. Growing old is optional. The club is part of an international sisterhood that’s turning a childhood pastime into something much bigger.

“We take care of everyone. We continuously pour out into others,” said South Florida subclub captain Adrienne “Asia” Philpart. “Our kids, our pets, our spouses, our significant others. We need a time and a place where we can get poured back into us.”

“Take that break from adulting and let go of the cares,” she continued.

CLICK HERE to find a subclub near you.

That need is what sparked the global movement in the first place. Women 40 years and older can walk into any group and start jumping right away.

Founder Pamela Robinson launched the 40+ Double Dutch Club in Chicago in 2016 while searching for the woman she was before adulthood took over. She returned to the game she loved as a child — one that reminded her of life before responsibilities consumed it. Nearly a decade later, that personal journey has grown tremendously into an international sisterhood with more than 100 chapters in place.

CLICK HERE to find the 40+ Double Dutch Club on Instagram.

“We have women that are taking care of parents with Alzheimer’s, special needs children,” said Philpart.

Philpart learned of the movement through social media and worked fast to bring that energy to South Florida, launching the subclub in 2019 with a few close friends.

Membership has since grown quickly, jumping rope at community events and getting together twice a week to practice and “play.”

For co-captain Natasha “T Boogie” Hendricks, joining the chapter in 2020 came at exactly the right time.

“There were a lot of times where I just felt I was losing myself,” Hendricks said. “We know exactly who we are when we’re young. When we’re in our 20s. But then we get married and it’s not that we don’t love our families, but we do so much - we’re running here, we’re running there and we never take time out for ourselves.”

While balancing work, family and caring for her nonverbal daughter, Hendricks said the club became an opportunity to make connections while staying sharp and active.

Today, members proudly wear their ages across their backs — the club’s favorite humble brag.

Ages range across all groups from women starting in their 40s and jumping well into their 90s.

Double Dutch may be the draw, but hula hoops, jacks and plenty of laughter are all part of the experience. Philpart said women can simply walk up and join. Before long, they’re part of a sisterhood built on friendship, fitness and fun.

To submit an idea for What Connects Us, email whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

Esas son las reglas del Club de Double Dutch del Sur de Florida para mayores de 40 años, donde tu edad es tu boleto de entrada.

El grupo se reúne todos los jueves en Sunrise, bajo techo a las 7:00 p.m. en el Village Multipurpose Center, ubicado en el 2240 de NW 68th Ave., y todos los sábados a las 9:00 a.m. en City Park, ubicado en el 6600 de Sunset Strip.

Cumplir más años te da acceso. Envejecer es opcional. El club forma parte de una hermandad internacional que está convirtiendo un pasatiempo de la infancia en algo mucho más grande.

“Nos encargamos de todos. Constantemente damos de nosotros a los demás”, dijo la capitana del subclub del Sur de Florida, Adrienne “Asia” Philpart. “Nuestros hijos, nuestras mascotas, nuestros cónyuges, nuestras parejas. Necesitamos un momento y un lugar donde también podamos recibir ese apoyo.”

“Tómate un descanso de las responsabilidades de la vida adulta y deja ir las preocupaciones”, continuó.

HAZ CLIC AQUÍ para encontrar un subclub cerca de ti.

Esa necesidad fue lo que dio origen al movimiento mundial. Mujeres de 40 años o más pueden llegar a cualquier grupo y comenzar a saltar de inmediato.

La fundadora Pamela Robinson creó el Club de Double Dutch para mayores de 40 años en Chicago en 2016 mientras buscaba reencontrarse con la mujer que era antes de que la vida adulta se apoderara de todo. Volvió al juego que amaba de niña, uno que le recordaba la vida antes de que las responsabilidades la consumieran. Casi una década después, ese recorrido personal se ha convertido en una hermandad internacional con más de 100 capítulos.

HAZ CLIC AQUÍ para encontrar al Club de Double Dutch para mayores de 40 años en Instagram.

“Tenemos mujeres que cuidan de padres con Alzheimer, de hijos con necesidades especiales”, dijo Philpart.

Philpart conoció el movimiento a través de las redes sociales y rápidamente trabajó para llevar esa energía al Sur de Florida, donde lanzó el subclub en 2019 junto a unas amigas cercanas.

Desde entonces, la membresía ha crecido rápidamente, participando en eventos comunitarios, saltando la cuerda y reuniéndose dos veces por semana para practicar y “jugar”.

Para la co capitana Natasha “T Boogie” Hendricks, unirse al capítulo en 2020 llegó en el momento indicado.

“Hubo muchas veces en las que sentía que me estaba perdiendo a mí misma”, dijo Hendricks. “Sabemos exactamente quiénes somos cuando somos jóvenes, cuando tenemos 20 años. Pero luego nos casamos y no es que no amemos a nuestras familias, sino que hacemos muchísimo, corremos de un lado a otro y nunca nos damos tiempo para nosotras mismas.”

Mientras equilibraba el trabajo, la familia y el cuidado de su hija no verbal, Hendricks dijo que el club se convirtió en una oportunidad para crear vínculos mientras se mantenía activa y ágil.

Hoy, las integrantes llevan con orgullo su edad en la espalda, el detalle favorito del club para presumir con humildad.

Las edades abarcan desde mujeres de 40 años hasta participantes de más de 90 años.

El Double Dutch puede ser el principal atractivo, pero los aros, el juego de las jacks y muchas risas también forman parte de la experiencia. Philpart dijo que las mujeres pueden simplemente acercarse y unirse. En poco tiempo pasan a formar parte de una hermandad basada en la amistad, el ejercicio y la diversión.

Para enviar una idea para “What Connects Us”, envía un correo electrónico a whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

Luminate, the industry data and analytics company that provides insight into changing behaviors across music listenership, examined streams of each song performed by each musician two days before the final (Friday and Saturday) and compared those figures to the final and the day afterward (Sunday and Monday.)

They found:

1. Global streams of Justin Bieber's “Everything Hallelujah” more than doubled, rising 110% from 592,000 streams to 1.25 million.

2. Global streams of Madonna's “Music” rose 66%, from 193,000 streams to 321,000.

3. BTS' “Dynamite” also grew in terms of global streams, from 2.14 million to 3.05 million for an increase of 43%.

4. And Shakira and Burna Boy's official anthem for the 2026 World Cup, “Dai Dai,” also saw a slight bump for an addition of 3.48 million new global streams. That's a 24% increase, from 14.78 million to 18.27 million. In the U.S. alone, streams of “Dai Dai” rose 52%, from 1.68 million streams to 2.55 million.

Luminate also found that the aforementioned artists only saw considerable jumps in the songs they performed on the field last weekend as opposed to their full catalogs. That phenomenon is more common for Super Bowl halftime performers.

Take Bad Bunny for example: After his record-breaking performance this year, streams of his catalog jumped 175% in the U.S. on the day after the Super Bowl, when compared to the previous Monday.

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A surveillance camera recorded the video of Guillermo Mayorga at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday near Washington Avenue and Eighth Street, according to police.

The video shows Mayorga “forcibly kissed her on the lips” and she “screamed and jumped,” according to the police officer’s report.

Police officers arrested Mayorga at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the parking lot of Duffy’s Sports Grill in North Miami Beach, according to the arrest report.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Mayorga at 3:10 a.m. on Wednesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, inmate records show.

Mayorga, also known as Guillermo Mayorgaprado, faced a charge of lewd or lascivious conduct on a child under 16, a third-degree felony, court records show.

Mayorga appeared in bond court, and a judge ordered him to stay away from the girl. His bond was $7,500. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson was set to preside over the case.

Según la policía, una cámara de vigilancia grabó el vídeo de Guillermo Mayorga a las 20:15 del jueves cerca de la intersección de Washington Avenue y Eighth Street.

Según el informe policial, el vídeo muestra cómo Mayorga la “besó a la fuerza en los labios” y ella “gritó y saltó”.

Según el informe policial, los agentes detuvieron a Mayorga a las 22:30 del martes en el aparcamiento del restaurante Duffy’s Sports Grill en North Miami Beach.

Según los registros penitenciarios del condado de Miami-Dade, Mayorga fue ingresado en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight a las 3:10 de la madrugada del miércoles.

Mayorga, también conocido como Guillermo Mayorgaprado, se enfrentó a un cargo de conducta lasciva o indecente con un menor de 16 años, un delito grave de tercer grado, según consta en los registros judiciales.

Mayorga compareció ante el juez para la fijación de la fianza, quien le ordenó mantenerse alejado de la menor. La fianza se fijó en 7.500 dólares. La jueza del circuito del condado de Miami-Dade, Andrea Ricker Wolfson, presidiría el caso.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Isaac Alexander Jiron, de 23 años, fue detenido por la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade después de presentarse en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Los agentes indicaron que el caso se deriva de una investigación sobre robos a vehículos que comenzó alrededor de las 2:00 a.m. del 14 de julio en la cuadra 7700 de Northwest 200 Lane, en el área de Country Club, en el noroeste de Miami-Dade.

El informe indica que Jiron fue captado por cámaras de vigilancia mientras intentaba robar dos vehículos estacionados en una vivienda unifamiliar ocupada al jalar las manijas de las puertas. Los agentes dijeron que los intentos no tuvieron éxito porque los vehículos estaban cerrados con llave.

Indicaron que Jiron luego fue a una vivienda vecina y robó dos vehículos estacionados en esa propiedad. Uno de los vehículos presuntamente contenía alrededor de $14,000 USD que la víctima había guardado dentro de la consola central, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes dijeron que las víctimas estaban dormidas dentro de su vivienda al momento de los robos.

Los investigadores informaron que detuvieron a Jiron e intentaron entrevistarlo después de leerle sus derechos Miranda. El informe señala que Jiron hizo uso de sus derechos y se negó a hablar con los detectives sin la presencia de un abogado.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta dos cargos por robo a vivienda ocupada, dos cargos por robo a vehículo ocupado, dos cargos por intento de robo a vehículo ocupado y dos cargos por ingresar ilegalmente a una estructura o vehículo desocupado. También enfrenta un cargo por hurto mayor en tercer grado en una vivienda o sus alrededores.

Hasta la tarde del miércoles, Jiron permanecía detenido en TGK, donde su fianza figuraba como “pendiente de establecerse”.

Los registros muestran que fue colocado bajo una orden Nebbia, una disposición judicial que exige al acusado demostrar que el dinero o los bienes utilizados para pagar la fianza provienen de una fuente legítima y legal antes de poder ser liberado.

The 24-year-old Beck looks as if he’ll be part of a three-man quarterback competition when training camp begins on Thursday, facing off against veterans Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew. Kedon Slovis is also on the roster. The Cardinals are led by first-year coach Mike LaFleur.

Beck was drafted in the third round out of Miami after leading the Hurricanes to a runner-up finish in the College Football Playoff last season.

The Cardinals have now signed all of the players in their most recent draft class.

Also on Wednesday, the team announced it signed defensive lineman Coziah Izzard and placed rookie defensive lineman Kaleb Proctor on injured reserve. Proctor injured his knee during offseason workouts.

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

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Jail records show Isaac Alexander Jiron, 23, was taken into custody by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office after he arrived at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Deputies said the case stems from an investigation into vehicle burglaries that began around 2 a.m. on July 14 in the 7700 block of Northwest 200 Lane in the Country Club area of northwest Miami-Dade.

The report states Jiron was captured on surveillance video attempting to burglarize two vehicles parked at an occupied single-family residence by pulling on the door handles. Deputies said the attempts were unsuccessful because the vehicles were locked.

They said Jiron then went to a neighboring residence and burglarized two vehicles parked on that property. One of the vehicles reportedly contained about $14,000 that the victim had secured inside the center console, according to the arrest report.

The victims were inside their home asleep at the time of the burglaries, deputies said.

Investigators said they took Jiron into custody and attempted to interview him after advising him of his Miranda rights. The report states Jiron invoked his rights and declined to speak with detectives without an attorney.

Jail records show he is facing two counts each of burglary of an occupied dwelling, burglary of an occupied conveyance, attempted burglary of an occupied conveyance, and trespassing of an unoccupied structure or conveyance. He is also facing one count of third-degree grand theft of a dwelling or curtilage.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Jiron remained at TGK, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

Records show he was placed on a Nebbia hold, a court order that requires the defendant to prove that the money or assets used to pay the bond come from a legitimate, lawful source before they can be released.

They equaled the 1946 American League champs, who were led by future Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

Jarren Duran had a two-run triple and a sacrifice fly, and Caleb Durbin — who hit a tiebreaking homer when they posted their 14th straight victory on Monday — chipped in with a two-run single.

Ceddanne Rafaela added a solo home run for Boston in a makeup from Tuesday’s rainout.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand had a solo homer for Baltimore, his second in two games.

Red Sox rookie left-hander Jake Bennnett (6-3) worked 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs — one coming on a sun-aided RBI double by Tyler O’Neill — on nine hits.

He took a 102.8 mph liner off the stomach from Taylor Ward in the fifth, but remained in the game after being checked by a trainer, interim manager Chad Tracy and first baseman Willson Contreras, who appeared to make him breath while telling him to lift his arms.

Aroldis Chapman got the final three outs for his 23rd save and 390th of his career, tying Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley for ninth all-time.

The Red Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Dean Kremer (1-3) in the first on Durbin’s line single and Duran’s two-out hit.

Encarnacion-Strand hit his homer into the batter’s eye to make it 5-2 in the fourth but Rafaela hit his over the Green Monster in the bottom half.

Kremer lasted six innings, allowing six runs.

Up next

Orioles: RHP Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61 ERA) is set to start the nightcap.

Red Sox: LHP Eduardo Rivera (0-0, 2.89 ) will start the second game.

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

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned the U.N. Security Council that “critical minerals are increasingly viewed as strategic assets, not just commodities, and a major source of interstate competition.”

Major economies are racing to get supplies of the minerals needed for technology from smartphones to fighter jets to use as leverage, she said. That means a real risk that conflicts will rise and developing economies will find themselves locked into the lowest level of production, while “the highest value jobs, technologies and profits go elsewhere,” she said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said competition for lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths has seen armed groups reap the benefits of illegal mining and mineral smuggling in eastern Congo — “and civilians have paid the price of ongoing conflict.”

In Sudan, he told the council, the bitter fight between government and paramilitary forces for political and territorial dominance has been fueled by the exploitation of natural resources, especially gold and gum arabic used in printing, paints, glues, cosmetics and other industries, "leading to atrocities and displacing millions.”

“The minerals beneath Africa or any developing region’s soil should never help to finance the conflicts above it,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

She said a real opportunity exists to create “a more diversified, inclusive, and win-win global economy” where mineral wealth is not just extracted and shaped abroad but is a catalyst for economic transformation.

She proposed three priorities:

1. Resource-rich developing countries should demand more local processing, refining and “value addition.”

2. The international rule of law should be strengthened.

3. Most important, resource-rich countries should work together and use the leverage they have to reverse the export of raw materials and import of finished goods as well as promote investment.

“The world cannot achieve energy security, the green transition or digital transformation without them," Okonjo-Iweala said. “Africa alone has roughly 30% of the world’s critical minerals, and less than half of its mineral reserves have been explored.”

Congo accounts for over 70% of global cobalt production, South Africa holds the world’s largest reserves of platinum and manganese, and Zambia and Congo are major copper producers, she said. Between 10 and 12 African countries have commercially exploitable reserves of lithium, and 15 to 20 have commercially exploitable deposits of rare earths.

Ramírez was activated from the injury list on Wednesday after the seven-time All-Star third baseman missed five weeks following left hand surgery. Cleveland stayed near the top of the AL Central while he was out, a testament to the young club's depth and resolve.

It wasn't easy.

“The last five weeks could have been a lot different, and it wasn’t,” manager Stephen Vogt said. "We kept our heads above water. You can use all the cliches you want, but we did not let the last five weeks determine the rest of our season.

“We had some low points. We had some high points, some in between. But really proud of what this group did over the last five weeks and we’ve got a lot of work left.”

Ramírez had been sidelined since getting hurt against Detroit on June 13 and having an operation to remove the hamate bone in his left hand.

The Guardians stayed afloat without Ramírez, going 15-15 and keeping pace with the division leaders.

In his first game back, Ramírez went 2 for 5 with an RBI and scored, but the Guardians were beaten 10-6 by the Twins. Not surprisingly, he made an immediate impact.

After receiving a warm ovation from Guardians fans, Ramírez singled in his first at-bat, hustled into second on a flyout and scored Cleveland's first run on a bloop single.

“Shows you what we missed,” Vogt said. “Gets a base hit, tags up right in the left fielder’s face, produces a run. I mean, just his presence. We felt like a lift up for the whole group today. Just so good to have him back.”

Twins manager Derek Shelton was equally impressed.

“He totally changes the dynamic of the lineup,” Shelton said. “You're talking about a guy they're going to build a statue next to (Larry) Doby and (Bob) Feller for. I was hoping it would be at the end of our series. You've got to give him credit. It's five weeks from a hamate with no rehab and he's back in major league games. That shows you what kind of player he is.”

Ramírez did not go on a minor league rehab assignment before being activated. The Guardians trusted him throughout his recovery. He had a similar injury to his right hand in 2019, the only other time he’s been on the injured list.

“Hosey's about winning,” Vogt said. “He’s not going to come back if he doesn’t believe that he can help us win. So it’s full trust in him, full trust in the medical staff. Everybody is on board with him being back in there today.”

Vogt said he would hold Ramírez back a little at the start.

“There’s going to be some limitations for him at first, but we’re going to be thoughtful about how much he plays, when he plays, things of that nature,” Vogt said. “But he’s done a great job of getting his body ready, which is most important and the wrist is feeling good.”

To make room for Ramírez, the Guardians optioned outfielder Kahlil Watson to Triple-A Columbus.

The 33-year-old Ramírez, who has numerous offensive club records, was batting .239 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs in 72 games before getting hurt. The Guardians aren't the same without him in the lineup, and his mere presence should help a team that has struggled to score.

Watson played well in his stint with Guardians, batting .239 with one homer and 11 RBIs in 27 games. On Tuesday night, he made a game-ending leaping catch down the right-field line while crashing into the padded wall.

Vogt said Watson's contributions made his demotion a difficult decision.

“Khalil handled it like a true pro,” Vogt said. "He understood clearly. Not happy. No one wants to leave, but just the messaging was you came here when we needed you and you helped us. We saw an unbelievably talented player with Khalil Watson.

“He’s going to help us win a ton of games for a long time. It’s just not his time right now.”

Along with Ramírez, the Guardians could soon have outfielder Angel Martínez back as well. He's been out since June 13 with a non-displaced fracture when he fouled a pitch off his left foot. Martínez is on a rehab assignment at Double-A Akron and appears on the brink of being activated.

He went 1 for 4 with a walk Wednesday night.

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La medida fue anunciada en un comunicado el martes por la Asamblea Nacional, que está firmemente en manos de Ortega y de su esposa y copresidenta Rosario Murillo. La Asamblea señaló que la más reciente reforma constitucional asegurará "la paz, la seguridad y la estabilidad" del país.

El Legislativo daba seguimiento al anuncio que Ortega hizo el fin de semana de que “aquí no volverá a haber elecciones”, lo que refleja tanto su esfuerzo por prolongar su gobierno de casi 20 años como por eliminar cualquier posibilidad de que la oposición llegue al poder.

Bajo Ortega, el gobierno ha llevado a cabo una amplia represión contra la disidencia tras la violenta sofocación de las protestas de 2018. Las autoridades han encarcelado a políticos opositores, líderes religiosos y otras personas, y también han clausurado miles de organizaciones de la sociedad civil.

La Asamblea Nacional ha modificado repetidamente la Constitución para concentrar el poder en manos de Ortega y eliminar cualquier vestigio de independencia democrática y de disidencia en el país.

Las declaraciones de Ortega el domingo, durante un discurso con motivo del aniversario de la Revolución Sandinista, cancelaron de hecho las próximas elecciones. La votación estaba programada originalmente para noviembre de 2027, después de que la Asamblea Nacional votó en enero de 2025 para ampliar en un año el mandato presidencial de cinco años.

Volker Türk, alto comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los derechos humanos, condenó enérgicamente el miércoles los acontecimientos en Nicaragua y manifestó que “todas las personas, de todas las posturas políticas, deben poder votar y postularse a cargos públicos”.

“Estos últimos acontecimientos profundizan aún más las severas restricciones a las libertades fundamentales, el desmantelamiento del espacio cívico y la erosión constante del Estado de derecho”, expresó Türk en un comunicado.

El gobierno de Nicaragua declinó comentar las críticas y dijo en un comunicado: “Gracias por su interés”.

Marco Rubio, secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, declaró el martes que la medida de Ortega y Murillo “deja al descubierto su verdadera naturaleza autoritaria”.

“Estados Unidos insta a la comunidad internacional a unir fuerzas para demostrarle a la dictadura Murillo-Ortega que no puede mantener relaciones como si nada con otras naciones mientras frustra los principios básicos de nuestro hemisferio democrático”, escribió Rubio en un comunicado.

El gobierno del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump —pese a las duras palabras, las sanciones y las críticas reiteradas— ha tomado pocas medidas importantes contra Managua. En el cercano El Salvador, donde el presidente Nayib Bukele, aliado de Trump, también ha ido debilitando los contrapesos democráticos y ha arremetido contra críticos, Washington en gran medida ha elogiado al mandatario.

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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.

Adams, 25, was charged with possession of a firearm obtained in a crime, possession of a restricted/prohibited firearm, no license while in possession of a loaded firearm and possessing a prohibited device, according to an online release from the Durham Regional Police Service in Ontario.

Adams was one of four people arrested.

“Isaiah is completely innocent in this matter,” Adams’ attorney Adam Weisberg said in a statement. “He had no knowledge of any firearm, and he will be fully exonerated.”

The report says that on Friday, police concluded an investigation into a male believed to be in possession of a firearm and involved in drug trafficking. Two of the other people arrested were charged with possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.

The Cardinals are scheduled to have their first practice of training camp on Thursday. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Adams was expected to be in camp Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting on the details of Adams' situation.

“We are aware of the situation involving Isaiah Adams,” the Cardinals said in a statement. “Out of respect for the process, we will refrain from commenting further at this time.”

Adams — who was born in Ajax, Ontario — is a third-year player for the Cardinals and in the mix for a starting job. He was a third-round pick out of Illinois in 2024.

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Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was one of three passengers in a van driven by Lorenzo Araujo Salgado when Araujo Salgado was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on July 7 while they were driving to work at a construction site.

Araujo Salgado’s killing sparked protests and calls for an independent investigation. Within the next week, a federal immigration officer in Maine fatally shot a Colombian man, and a Mexican man in Florida died after being hit by a truck while fleeing immigration officers.

Rojas Pliego must remain in the Southern District of Texas while his habeas petition is pending, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison wrote in an order on Monday. Rojas Pliego says he is being held unconstitutionally in ICE custody, court records show.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the agency “will comply with the court order.”

Rojas Pliego had entered the U.S. decades ago and had not gained legal status, according to his stepdaughter, Griselda Silva.

Rojas Pliego and the two other passengers, also currently in ICE custody, have disputed DHS’ account of the shooting, according to their attorneys. DHS has said that Araujo Salgado was attempting to run over an ICE officer. A federal prosecutor in Texas has said that ICE officers were targeting two Guatemalan men who were potentially subject to deportation and driving a van similar to Araujo Salgado’s.

Araujo Salgado, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the country for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family, and has no known criminal record.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has said it is helping Araujo Salgado’s three passengers apply for a special visa, known as a U visa, for witnesses who are assisting law enforcement with an investigation. It remains unclear if U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, overseen by DHS, will grant visas for the three men.

One of the other men, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, also filed a habeas petition Monday, according to federal court records.

Araujo Salgado’s brother, Victor Salgado, is scheduled to appear for an immigration hearing later this week, according to his attorney, Ruby Powers. She requested that his habeas petition, which has not yet been filed, remain sealed due to a threat of “retaliation or intimidation” to his family and friends, court records show.

The FBI executed a search warrant to investigate possible illicit substances in Araujo Salgado’s vehicle and alleged that several small bags inside the van were filled with a white substance that appeared to be methamphetamine.

Victor Salgado’s attorney said the white substance was a salt mixture that the men used as electrolytes to stay hydrated while doing manual labor in the grueling Texas heat.

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for Rojas Pliego and Tirado Pantoja, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Brook 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.

Rubio said the leaders of the one-party communist state’s priorities were to hold onto power and not to lose control of the people.

“The biggest problem Cuba has is that the regime is a disaster, their economic model doesn’t work, and the people who run the country don’t know what the hell they’re doing,” Rubio said.

Related report: Trump administration accuses Cuba of promoting left-wing terrorism and ‘subversion’

The Trump administration intends to continue talks with Cuban officials, according to Rubio.

“This is a government that has spent, a regime that has spent, the better part of 30, 40, 50 years destabilizing the region in the movements that they’ve supported,” Rubio said.

Related report: American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora hosts forum on island’s ‘transition to Democracy’

The Trump administration is focused on threats by Cuba’s allies and mass migration, according to Rubio.

“We’re prepared to do what we can do to effectuate a positive change in Cuba because it directly impacts our national security,” Rubio said. “Cuba matters to us because it’s 90 miles from our shores.”

Related reports

• House Republicans push $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities
• Trump: ‘A lot of things are going to happen in Cuba’
• US State Department, Catholic Relief Services send 1st humanitarian flight to Cuba from MIA

Analysis: Andy Gomez’s July 21st update

Felipe, the chairman of the museum, co-hosted a forum that focused on “Rebuilding Cuba’s infrastructure as part of the transition to Democracy.”

The list of experts included Sebastián Arcos, of Florida International University’s Institute for Cuban Studies; Helena Solo-Gabriele, an engineer and University of Miami professor; and Jorge Piñón, of the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.

Felipe is the founder of the Inspire America Foundation, which supports The Initiative for Democratic and Economic Alternatives (IDEAs) for Cuba.

Related reports

• Rubio: ‘We’re prepared to do what we can do to effectuate a positive change in Cuba’
• House Republicans push $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities

“I just remember being taught that area was kind of dangerous, in the sense of there being steep slopes” and a quick drop-off into the river, he told The Associated Press. A few years earlier, Martin had warned a pair of young people playing in the water at that same spot to “be very careful.”

He saw five adults in the water and two children playing on the grassy bank nearby, tracking the description of the group provided by Delaware County authorities after the drownings.

Pastor may have taken ‘the last picture’ of the group

Martin and his family floated away to enjoy a beautiful summer evening. But when they returned past the spot about two hours later and saw the group still wading in the river, Martin thought to snap a photo.

“I don't know what it was. I said, I just need to capture this picture,” he said.

Martin said he knows the area well from 10 years of boating there and considered warning the people of the potential danger. But, unlike when he'd warned the two people earlier, there were two or three boats between him and them and he didn't want to cross between them and cause too many waves in the water.

He's been losing sleep over the decision since news broke of five people drowning that afternoon. It feels “surreal,” he said.

“I believe the picture I took may have been the last picture of them being alive,” he said.

The image didn't catch authorities' initial interest

Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer has said authorities believe one of the adults began struggling to swim and the others successively went to that person's aid. All five were swept under and died. The two women’s bodies were recovered Sunday and the three other bodies a day later.

Neither Balzer's office nor the local EMS agency immediately responded to requests for verification of the photo and those who appear in it.

Martin said he feels certain the group he photographed is of the five people who perished Sunday; it's rare to see people fishing or swimming in that stretch of the river. He said he attempted to share the picture with both law enforcement and a news reporter at the scene the day after the drownings, but no one seemed interested.

Honduran authorities confirmed Tuesday that four of the five adults were Honduran citizens. One was Jose Mario Pineda Dias, 33, another his wife Marina Suyapa Regalado, 28. Pineda was from the department of Lempira and Suyapa from the department of Cortés, according to Flabia Zamora, director of consular affairs at the Honduran Foreign Ministry.

The names of the other couple and the fifth individual would be released once their families could be notified of their deaths, a spokesperson for Balzer said Wednesday.

U.S., Honduras still working to identify victims, help children

A Honduran embassy said the government is in contact with the victims' families and assisting local authorities in verifying their identities. In a statement, it added that Honduras stands ready to repatriate any of the victims should relatives request that — a process that could take six weeks.

An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, children of one of the couples, were orphaned by the tragedy. A boy shouting for his mother was spotted by a passing driver on the day of the accident and reported to 911.

Scott Varner, a spokesman for Franklin County Children Services, said the youngsters have been in the agency's care since Monday and that they are working with relatives and family friends in Columbus who are providing them with a temporary home. The children were provided with therapy dogs as they coped with the trauma, he said.

The Honduran embassy statement said the consulate has checked in with family members about their well-being and stands ready to help once relatives make a decision on next steps for the children.

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Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed to this report.

Una de las situaciones más graves se registra en el norte del país, en especial en las regiones del Atacama y Coquimbo, donde las intensas lluvias, inundaciones y vientos han generado una crisis sanitaria, con cortes del agua potable y de la energía eléctrica que siguen golpeando a los residentes.

De acuerdo con el último balance del Servicio Nacional de Prevención y Respuesta ante Desastres (Senapred), la gran mayoría de las casi 65.000 personas que siguen aisladas a raíz de la emergencia están en estas dos regiones.

Al menos cuatro personas permanecen desaparecidas, otras 3.469 han resultado damnificadas en algún grado por la catástrofe, mientras que 1.552 están refugiadas en albergues debido a las alertas meteorológicas vigentes. Un centenar de viviendas han sido completamente destruidas, al paso que casi 25.000 han sufrido daños de diferentes magnitudes.

Por otro lado, los servicios de búsqueda han localizado y rescatado con vida a tres individuos, dos mujeres y un hombre, que estaban desaparecidos desde el pasado jueves en un rocoso cañón en plena cordillera de los Andes.

Esta semana, el presidente chileno, José Antonio Kast, decretó el estado de excepción en partes del norte del país a fin de acelerar la respuesta a la tragedia. Poco después, el Ministerio de Salud decretó el alerta sanitaria en las mismas áreas para “responder con mayor rapidez a las necesidades de salud de la comunidad afectada”.

Tras registrar lluvias de manera ininterrumpida por casi una semana, las precipitaciones finalmente dieron una tregua el miércoles en las 10 regiones castigadas por los temporales. En el norte, donde los ríos se han desbordado, los cauces empiezan a volver a los niveles de agua habituales.

“Estamos viendo que, gracias a Dios, en el norte ya están bajando un poco los cauces, lo que ha permitido abrir caminos. Esto significa que vamos a poder llegar más prontamente con la ayuda”, afirmó la ministra de Salud, May Chomalí, tras una reunión el miércoles.

La noche del martes, un segundo avión con unas nueve toneladas de ayuda humanitaria aterrizó en la región del Atacama, con lo que ya son más de 150 toneladas de auxilio enviadas al norte chileno desde el inicio de la emergencia climática, precisó por su lado la directora de Senapred, Alicia Cebrián.

El Ministerio de Educación mantuvo las clases suspendidas para la jornada en tres de las 16 regiones del país. Y, mientras que las autoridades apenas comienzan a calcular los estragos, distintos sectores empresariales calculan unas pérdidas por cerca de 400 millones de dólares dejadas por el severo sistema frontal que según pronósticos volverá a golpear con fuerza a partir de mañana y hasta el fin de semana en gran parte de la nación.

On the second day of a preliminary hearing for D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, Los Angeles police criminalists described collecting samples of possible blood and DNA from his garage, where prosecutors allege Burke dismembered her body, and from his Tesla, where the body was found months later.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a body, and his lawyers have said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death.

Techs test and swab Burke's garage and car

On Tuesday, authorities had said they had evidence that Burke had purchased chain saws, an inflatable pool and a shovel that were used to kill and dismember the teen who had known him for several years and even traveled to London with him.

On Wednesday, the testimony focused on the forensic evidence authorities said they found that they say proves he killed her and got rid of the body by hiding it in a Tesla that was registered to him.

Lauren Wallace, a criminalist with the Los Angeles Police Department, testified that she found apparent blood stains on rubber mats on the floor of the garage in Burke’s Hollywood home, as well as slits — most likely from a sharp object — on the mats. Prosecutors said in a filing before the hearing that blood found in the garage matched Rivas Hernandez's DNA.

Wallace testified that she did not find blood evidence on two chain saws in the garage that purchase records showed Burke had ordered soon after the girl's death.

But she said she sprayed the floor mats with a chemical that shows possible blood stains otherwise not visible by the naked eye by making it glow blue. A photo showed the whole area cloaked in bright blue, bringing soft gasps from people in the courtroom.

And she said possible blood evidence was found on garbage bags and cleaning wipes, and a rowing machine in the garage.

Another LAPD criminalist, Chelsea Murillo, found fewer and smaller but similar stains in the Tesla.

The defense pressed the witnesses over every step of the evidence collection process, attempting to show lapses in preserving potential crime scenes. Burke's attorney, Blair Berk, asked who had been wearing gloves — or not — with access to the car, and why Murillo didn't swab for DNA on the outside of the Tesla.

“It didn’t seem necessary,” Murillo said.

Defense attorneys often use preliminary hearings to explore potential weaknesses in the prosecution's case that can be exploited at trial.

Prosecutors say Burke killed to keep his career

Prosecutors are seeking to prove Burke, an indie-pop singer whose music and online presence brought him a huge following, began a sexual relationship with Rivas Hernandez when she was 13 and he was 18.

They said in a court filing that she had grown jealous of his relationships with other women and threatened to expose him and ruin his career the night before she was killed.

The court filing said he sent a car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, and stabbed her when she arrived at his Hollywood home.

Prosecutors say he kept the body for weeks or months in the front trunk of the Tesla, where it was found after the car was towed 4 1/2 months later in September.

Los Angeles police homicide detective Joshua Byers testified earlier that when he was called to the Hollywood tow yard he found a body bag with a head and torso inside, and garbage bags with arms and legs. Byers testified that records showed Burke had bought such a body bag on Amazon, along with the chain saws and other tools prosecutors say were used in the dismemberment.

Wallace testified that a third chain saw that police said Burke had ordered was not found.

Rivas Hernandez's passport found by highway

A California Highway Patrol officer testified that a road worker in January had found Rivas Hernandez’s passport in a brushy dirt area in a rural section of Santa Barbara County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Burke’s Hollywood home.

Prosecutors have said Burke made two trips to the area, once on the night of the killing and again about six weeks later, where data shows he was at the spot where the passport was found.

Rivas Hernandez’s parents, Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez, have been in the audience both days. They are not expected to testify.

The defendant, who has been held without bail since his arrest, appeared in court in his orange jail clothes and glasses.

D4vd made millions between 2023 and 2025

Financial witnesses testified that Burke’s music had earned him at least $10 million between 2023 and 2025.

Under the name D4vd (pronounced “David”), he began writing and recording songs for YouTube videos he created of the video game Fortnite as a teen.

The music was a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop and made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour. Last year, he performed at the Coachella music festival and released a full album that he was on tour promoting when the body was discovered.

House Republicans were divided over the plan, with conservatives wary because there are no offsetting budget cuts. But Speaker Mike Johnson plunged ahead, viewing the go-it-alone process as the best chance to usher President Donald Trump's priorities through the split Congress, despite skepticism in the Senate.

The vote tally was 216-214, with two Republicans and one independent joining Democrats in opposition.

“Just bullets and bombs to finish the job,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chairman of the Budget Committee.

Democrats argued the money should be spent at home, particularly on efforts to lower costs for Americans.

“Republicans plan to spend tens of billions of dollars on Trump’s failed war in Iran,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, this week. “Think about what we could spend with these resources instead.”

Congress is at a standstill over the U.S. war against Iran — unable to stop Trump's military strikes, but not having authorized the use of American military force — and politically torn over having to provide billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for it. Most Americans disapprove of Trump's Iran strategy, according to a recent AP-NORC poll.

The budget battle comes as Trump attended the dignified transfer of four service members killed in the Middle East, bringing the military death toll to 18. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators at a fiery hearing this week that the Pentagon is running short of cash, despite a massive $150 billion one-time allotment in last year's big budget bill.

Even as the House action advanced the resolution, Johnson’s strategy faces uncertainty in the Senate.

The package has $60 billion for the Pentagon and $13 billion for other national security needs, $12 billion for farmers struggling under Trump’s tariffs and $10 billion for voting law changes aligned with the SAVE America Act and proof-of-citizenship requirements that are Trump’s top priority.

A once rare budget tool is now the norm in split Congress

Republicans are relying on the budget reconciliation process, which enables approval on a majority vote in Congress, bypassing the Senate's ability to filibuster the measure t o stall or kill it.

Once rare, the reconciliation process is now Johnson's preferred strategy for pushing proposals through Congress. It's the way Republicans approved Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill last summer and funded Homeland Security this year over Democrats' refusal to fund Trump's mass deportation agenda.

“No matter how you feel about current events, these funds are necessary to ensure our fighting forces remain ready, our troops are paid and our nation is safe," said Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Republicans have literally ripped food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans to sustain the Trump war machine.”

Among those opposed was Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, a former Republican turned independent, who said he felt any war funding bill should be bipartisan. He also wanted to ensure Congress had a “much higher level of involvement” in bringing the war to an end, and he said this proposal did not set that process in motion.

Republicans Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio also voted against.

This is the third time GOP leaders have relied on reconciliation, dubbing this version 3.0, and it's a lengthy process. If the House approves the budget resolution, it next goes to the Senate for a round-the-clock session to consider politically tough amendments — something senators would rather avoid in an election year.

The budget resolution sets out instructions for the various committees to draft legislation, which Johnson hopes could be done this summer, with final voting on the package once lawmakers return after the August recess.

Senators pan House's budget and have their own ideas

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been noncommittal on the House package that also divides his own GOP majority, with some Republican senators preferring more money for the military and others demanding the costs be offset with cuts elsewhere.

“We’ll see,” Thune said this week.

Thune's focus, at the moment, is avoiding another government shutdown. He wants the Senate to approve a stopgap funding measure, called a continuing resolution, to provide routine government funding before lawmakers leave for the summer break.

If senators are unable to reach agreement on government funding, Thune has said he may hold onto the House's budget resolution and use it later in the fall as a way to push the resolution through the Senate over objections. He wants to prevent a federal shutdown when current funds expire, Sept. 30.

“It’s a possibility that, if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government,” Thune said. “I hope that’s not necessary.”

Thune has also clashed with Trump over the president's push for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voting. The measure, while popular among Trump's most ardent supporters, does not have enough support among Senate Republicans for passage.

It's already against the law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and experts warn the proposed new rules could make it more difficult for eligible Americans to cast ballots.