As we’ve been discussing in this newsletter since Monday – two days before the area was first included in NHC’s outlook – the development odds are low here, primarily due to the disturbance’s proximity to and interaction with land and modest to strong bouts of wind shear in the vicinity.

The challenging environmental conditions and disorganized starting place of the disturbance don’t support significant organization, but with near-record warm waters for the time of year in the northeastern Gulf and off the southeast coast, a weak but short-lived tropical depression or low-end tropical storm can’t be ruled out. For now, the odds are stacked against it gathering enough organization to clear those hurdles, however.

Locally heavy rain the upshot regardless

Regardless of development, heavy rain from Florida’s Sun Coast – including the Tampa Bay metro – through the state’s Nature Coast and sweeping Big Bend will be the primary hazard into early next week.

Though heavy rains will start in earnest on Saturday, the heaviest threat will extend from Sunday through Tuesday, including across the interior middle tier of the state and northeast Florida.

Overall totals for now seem manageable and could be beneficial to areas of the state that desperately need an extended period of soaking rains to help relieve its ongoing drought.

That said, these types of tropically-juiced setups can produce very high rain rates exceeding 3 inches per hour, so localized flash flooding is certainly possible, especially in urban areas like the Tampa or Jacksonville metros.

No development expected elsewhere across the Atlantic

A robust tropical disturbance in the far eastern Atlantic just west of Africa also included in NHC’s tropical outlook isn’t expected to develop.

Elsewhere things continue to look quiet across the basin into the waning weeks of July.

NOAA restores critical hurricane tracking satellite

An extended outage of the GOES-19 weather satellite that we first reported in yesterday morning’s newsletter was remediated by Wednesday afternoon.

According to my sources at NOAA with knowledge of the situation, the malfunction stemmed from software aboard the satellite platform. The satellite required rebooting to fix the issue which took it offline for approximately 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon. During this time, NOAA engineers placed the satellite in what’s known as “safehold” as an emergency protective action to prevent major damage or risk satellite failure.

Thankfully, the issued was resolved expeditiously with no lasting damage to the satellite. GOES-19 is NOAA’s primary weather monitoring satellite for the U.S. East Coast and tropical Atlantic. This satellite is different from the defense-operated, polar-orbiting constellation of hurricane-monitoring satellites that faced early termination last hurricane season. Those satellites continue to operate without interruption after officials issued a last-minute fix last July to address cybersecurity concerns and keep the satellites online.

It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours, swamps emergency rooms in a day or so with people suffering from heart attacks and other cardiovascular and lung issues, as well as mental health issues, doctors and scientists told The Associated Press.

Smoke also harms pregnant women, increasing the risk of premature births and low-weight babies who could have breathing problems the rest of their lives, doctors and studies say. And then there are long-term risks connecting prolonged smoke and other air pollution exposure to some cancers and dementia.

After huge global fires in 2018 and 2019, the medical and science communities started looking at the health effects from the smoke with “more and more studies coming out finding that there’s all types of impacts that may not have been so obvious before,” said Dr. Mary Johnson, a Harvard School of Public Health environmental health scientist.

Smoke causes inflammation by triggering the body's immune system to go into overtime to fight the irritant. Scientists have found it can harm the brain, the skin and men's sperm, with almost no system of the body spared, Johnson said. People over 60 become more prone to stroke in wildfire smoke, she said.

“Wildfire smoke is the toxic product of combustion of whatever burned,” which could include houses and cars, said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician, chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance and president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

“So really it's a big giant toxic soup of particles and gases.”

Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.

“If I gave you a list, you would recognize some of these as being very bad, oftentimes associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke, things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,” Montrose said. “So just the smoke itself can be bad.”

Rising global temperatures from climate change means more fires

So far this year, more than 5,740 square miles (more than 14,860 square kilometers) of the United States has burned from wildfires, which is 31% more than the average of the previous 10 years on this date, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The amount of U.S. land burned each year in the 2020s — averaged out over a decade — is now more than twice what it was 30 years ago.

Europe saw a record high amount of land burned in 2025, Canada has had several record or near-record fire years in the 2020s and the Arctic recently has had unprecedented levels of burning.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, and when a fire happens, you have smoke,” said Colleen Reid, a University of Colorado geographic health professor.

Most of the biggest particles in wildfire smoke fall close to where a blaze is burning, while the smallest particles — the ones that scientists say do the most damage — travel the farthest. In a typical wildfire, the nasty particles that harm human health are about the size of one micron, Reid said.

Inside the body, particles attack

First those particles have to get by your body's protection, mainly nose hairs and mucus, then they get into your lungs and from there the bloodstream.

Montrose said the particles can be coated in lots of chemicals and have large surface areas. That triggers the body's defense system to “send signals to other cells that say, ‘We have a problem. We need to mount an immune response to this.’ And that’s where you get your acute effect or your effect within minutes, hours or even that day.” It's mostly happening in the hearts and lungs, he said.

And many people die.

On average 24,100 people died each year in the Lower 48 states between 2006 and 2020 due to long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke, according to a study this year in the journal Science Advances. A Stanford study projects that U.S. wildfire smoke deaths will increase with climate change and by midcentury hit an annual cost of $244 billion in terms of the economic value the government puts on each life.

On a global scale, wildfire smoke particles cause 677,745 deaths annually, with almost 39% of them children under age 5, according to a 2021 study that combined observations, studies on how the body responds to the particles and computer models to calculate the toll.

The biggest nonlethal effects have to do with the way people breathe, especially those with asthma.

“We did a study here in 2014 after we had about two-and-a-half months of smoke off and on, because we’re in the subarctic so we’re warming at triple the global rate, so in a way we’re kind of canaries in the coal mine of the health impacts of climate change,” Howard said on a clear day from Yellowknife, Canada. “We found a full doubling of emergency department visits for asthma and about 50% increase in pneumonia.”

“Even in individuals that don’t have asthma, the air can be so irritating that you could have difficulty with your respiratory system regardless,” Johnson said, “whether it’s coughing, whether it's chest tightness, whether it’s sore throat, headache.”

There are ways to minimize the risks

Studies have linked smoke to people having more trouble with decision making and other cognitive issues. People come to the emergency room depressed, Howard said. That's why it's important to find a place with clean air — including designated shelters or libraries — to get a break from the smoke and possibly exercise, she said.

Experts suggest people wear high-quality masks when outdoors, even though they don't provide perfect protection. Inside, check windows and doors for seals, invest in a good ventilation system and check air filters, they say.

“Staying away from the smoke is No. 1 if you can,” Johnson said.

___

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

The preparations come as meteorologists warn that El Nino is already underway and increasingly likely to strengthen through the remainder of the year. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, the climate phenomenon develops gradually over months, which gives governments time to prepare before its most severe impacts arrive.

But experts say authorities across the region have often struggled to turn forecasts into action, raising questions about whether countries will be better prepared than during previous El Nino events that caused widespread economic damage and disrupted water, energy and food systems.

“Now is the time for decisions, for effective preparedness and the political consistency to really be proactive this time,” said Rodney Martinez, the World Meteorological Organization’s representative for North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

“El Nino is confirmed. El Nino is ongoing. It’s not simply a possibility,” he said.

Many countries have stepped up preparations

Previous strong El Nino events have caused billions of dollars in damage across Latin America, contributing to severe drought in some regions while triggering floods and landslides in others. The phenomenon has disrupted agriculture, strained drinking water supplies, fueled wildfires and, in some countries, reduced hydroelectric power generation, leading to energy shortages.

Martinez said countries should use the months before impacts intensify to secure alternative energy sources, protect vulnerable communities and prepare for potential strain on public services.

In hydropower-dependent countries such as Ecuador, that could mean bringing thermal power generation online to offset lower reservoir levels during drier conditions and completing maintenance and procurement work well in advance. He pointed to Ecuador’s energy crisis last year, when drought depleted water levels at hydroelectric facilities and contributed to widespread power outages.

Central America, parts of the Caribbean and northern South America are already experiencing drier-than-normal conditions associated with the phenomenon, according to the WMO. Those conditions are expected to expand into parts of the Amazon basin, raising concerns about water availability, agriculture and wildfire risk.

The threats vary considerably across the region.

In Brazil, Colombia and parts of Central America, authorities are focused on drought, water shortages and wildfire risk. Brazil has hired more than 4,600 federal personnel for wildfire prevention and response, expanded firefighting brigades and deployed aircraft ahead of what officials fear could be a difficult fire season. Colombia has activated water-monitoring systems, strengthened wildfire preparedness and urged local authorities to prepare for potential shortages.

Elsewhere, governments are preparing for flooding. Ecuador, where strong El Nino events have historically brought damaging rains to the Pacific coast, has ordered local governments to develop contingency plans and allocated millions of dollars for flood mitigation, emergency response and agricultural recovery. Local authorities have begun clearing drainage channels, stabilizing hillsides and preparing emergency shelters.

Costa Rica says it has launched more than 200 measures under a national contingency plan, including efforts to protect water supplies, expand renewable energy generation and prepare for a potentially severe wildfire season. In Peru, authorities have strengthened monitoring and early-warning systems while expanding meteorological observation networks.

Panamanian authorities have developed plans to address potential impacts on operations at the Panama Canal, where lower rainfall can affect water availability needed to maintain shipping traffic through one of the world’s most important trade routes.

The WMO official warned that drought and heat could threaten food security across parts of Central America’s Dry Corridor while increasing wildfire risks in several countries. In areas expected to receive excessive rainfall, flooding can damage infrastructure, contaminate water supplies and increase the risk of disease outbreaks.

Advance warning does not always translate into action

Colombia's environment minister, Irene Vélez, told The Associated Press that El Nino is not new, but “what is new is its intensity. And because of that intensity, what is also new is how long it could last and the area it could affect.”

Despite the advance warning, Martinez said preparations remain uneven across the region.

“The reality is that this preparation doesn’t happen until they have the emergency,” he said.

Martinez said some authorities continue to delay decisions despite increasingly strong forecasts, either waiting for additional confirmation or assuming their countries will avoid the worst impacts. He warned that postponing decisions despite increasingly strong scientific evidence could leave governments scrambling to respond once droughts, floods and heat waves intensify.

Recent studies examining previous major El Nino events found their economic impacts can linger for years and ultimately cost the global economy trillions of dollars.

His message to governments still waiting to act was simple.

“Be prepared in advance, in a serious way,” Martinez said. "“The information is there. Now is the time for decisions.”

Vélez said the challenge extends beyond responding to a single climate event and requires governments to adapt to increasingly extreme conditions.

“Climate change is here to stay,” she said.

___

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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Troopers said the tanker truck was traveling south on the Turnpike when the driver lost control.

They said the truck overturned and collided with the center median concrete barrier wall.

Authorities confirmed that the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sky 10 flew over the scene around 10:45 a.m., where a heavily charred tractor-trailer could be seen as firefighters continued spraying water on it. Light smoke could still be seen rising from the vehicle.

The crash shut down Florida’s Turnpike in both directions as authorities investigated the circumstances leading up to the crash. It was not immediately clear what caused the driver to lose control of the truck.

Authorities said all lanes of the Turnpike have since been reopened.

No other details about the truck driver or crash were immediately released.

It's the latest attack on essential infrastructure across the Middle East that have exposed extreme vulnerabilities in one of the world’s driest regions, which relies almost exclusively on technology to produce freshwater that sustains cities, hotels, industry and some agriculture.

Kuwaiti authorities said the strikes damaged a large number of power generation units and sparked a fire. They added that a fire has been contained, and that they activated emergency contingency plans.

In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination, along with roughly 86% in Oman and about 70% in Saudi Arabia. The process removes salt from seawater, most commonly by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis.

Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting systems that supply water to millions within range of Iranian missile or drone strikes. Without them, major cities could not sustain their current populations.

For people living outside the Middle East, the main concern of the Iran war has been the impact on energy prices. Fighting and attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have upended world markets and pushed oil prices to record highs.

But the infrastructure that keeps Gulf cities supplied with drinking water are equally vulnerable.

Throughout the past few months, Iran has struck close to several desalination plants in the Gulf. Kuwait previously reported damage at the Doha West desalination plant early in the war, which resulted from debris from intercepted drones or attacks on the nearby port.

Iran accused the U.S. of striking Iranian desalination plants on Qeshm Island on March 8, cutting off water supplies for 30 villages, though Washington did not acknowledged the strike.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also targeted Saudi desalination facilities amid regional tensions in the past.

Many Gulf desalination plants are physically integrated with power stations as co‑generation facilities, meaning attacks on electrical infrastructure could also hinder water production. Desalination plants have multiple stages — intake systems, treatment facilities, energy supplies — and damage to any part of that chain can interrupt production.

Gulf governments and U.S. officials have long recognized the risks these systems pose for regional stability: if major desalination plants were knocked offline, some cities could lose most of their drinking water within days.

A 2010 CIA analysis warned attacks on desalination facilities could trigger national crises in several Gulf states, and prolonged outages could last months if critical equipment were destroyed.

More than 90% of the Gulf’s desalinated water comes from just 56 plants, the report stated, and “each of these critical plants is extremely vulnerable to sabotage or military action.”

The desalination plants are also vulnerable to climate change, including storm surges and extreme rainfall that can overwhelm infrastructure, as warming oceans increase the likelihood and intensity of cyclones in the Arabian Sea. __

Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.

According to an arrest report from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a cyber tip in May from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children that had been reported by xAI (commonly known as Grok), regarding the “possession and creation of child pornography” by an X user.

xAI is an artificial intelligence chatbot application available to X users.

Detectives said the X account was linked to Ray Lequerique Jr. and he was arrested on July 10.

According to the arrest report, Lequerique had created 29 sexual abuse images of girls who appeared to be between ages 5 and 9, which were viewed by xAI employees and then reported.

Detectives said the photos appear to have been derived from photos of real children that could have been easily obtained anywhere on social media and were also derived from pictures of children who he had close contact with.

According to the report, when questioned by detectives, Lequerique expressed remorse and said he “knew it was wrong.”

He was arrested on five counts of generated child sex abuse material, five counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and one count of compiling child pornography on a computer.

Through DNA testing and old-fashioned sleuthing, the Maryland teenager who died in one of the last big battles of the American Revolution can now take his place in history, just in time for the 250th birthday of the nation he fought to create.

“There was a sense of divine timing, I guess,” said Allison Peacock, founder of FHD Forensics, a company that helped with the search. “I don’t know what else you want to call it.”

Pumphrey died Aug. 16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. It was one of the Continental Army’s most devastating defeats, where British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis routed patriot forces under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates.

Many of the 900 killed were left where they fell, abandoned to the predations of wild animals, South Carolina’s scorching heat and its ruinous humidity.

Bones emerge from a Revolutionary War battlefield

Archaeologists surveying the area in 2020 came across human bones protruding from the ground. Eventually, 14 sets of remains were identified — 12 of them Continental soldiers. The others were determined to be connected to the British side and were reburied at the battlefield.

The Richland County Coroner’s Office had worked with Texas-based FHD Forensics on modern-day cases and asked for their help. Peacock took to calling it the case of “America’s oldest John Doe.”

“What we did is pretty much the same as what we do with any other John Doe case,” she said. “Nobody really knew for sure whether we could get genetic profiles suitable for a genealogy investigation on 240-plus year old remains. But we got lucky.”

Unlike most, Pumphrey and four comrades received a cursory burial beneath a thin layer of dirt. He was dubbed simply “Camden 9B,” because his were the second set of remains retrieved from burial nine. The remains were examined and cataloged.

The 12 Continentals were later reinterred with full military honors. Camden 9B’s headstone read simply: “UNKNOWN. REV WAR. BATTLE OF CAMDEN. AUG 16 1780.”

DNA unlocks a centuries-old mystery

Meanwhile, samples from two of the soldiers were sent to Astrea Forensics in California for DNA extraction and sequencing.

“Typically, in a case like this, we work with teeth, because teeth are in the jaw and are protected, the roots are protected,” said Peacock. “In this case, they were just coming up with nothing on the teeth.”

With remains this old, it's often difficult to separate the human DNA from all the other genetic material in the grave, said Astrea co-founder and scientific adviser Kelly Harkins Kincaid.

“It gets colonized by the microbial environment in the soil and the water in the environment,” she said.

Although she's worked with DNA samples as old as 10,000 years, this was the oldest sample her company has ever used to try to reconstruct a family tree.

From a petrous portion of the temporal bone, a delicate structure behind the ear at the base of the skull, they were able to extract three types of DNA: autosomal, X chromosome and Y chromosome. Peacock’s team uploaded the results to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch.

“We got 20,000 matches to work with,” she said. “So, it was a lot to kind of comb through.”

An orphan soldier's life comes into focus

One of those matches, from the maternal line, was Russ Hudson.

The retired federal agent in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, offered to help do archival research. A profile began to emerge: of a young orphan from Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, dispossessed and looking for his way in life.

“I learned that probably when he was 13, he went to Baltimore and he enlisted in the militia,” said Hudson. “And who knows what his story was? What did he accomplish in order to become a member of the militia at such a young age?”

Because no birth record has been found, it’s unclear how old Pumphrey was when he went to war. He signed his re-enlistment papers with an “X.” But he was young enough that, when he died, the growth plates around his knees had not yet fully closed, Peacock said.

A witness to history

Researchers now know that Pumphrey and his comrades from the 7th Maryland Regiment were with George Washington in the snows at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Peacock said his unit was involved in some of the major contests in the Northern Theater, including the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.

She figures he had marched 1,000 miles before he met his end in the pine lands of South Carolina.

“We don’t really know what John Pumphrey’s cause of death was because they did not find a particular injury on his body,” she said. “It’s possible that he had a soft tissue injury, like a bayonet injury, but it’s a little hard to tell after 246 years.”

An unexpected twist and an emotional reunion

Work continues on the other set of remains, Camden 11A. One thing is certain: Peacock is related to him.

“One of the first things I do when I take on a case is I run my DNA against the remains to see if it’s somebody I’m related to, just on the wild chance that it might be,” she said. “It’s never happened before, but I am related to Camden 11A. So, I’m very motivated to get him identified.”

Last month, Peacock was confident enough in the research to put a name to Camden 9B. Relatives wept during an emotional ceremony at the 19th century Benson-Hammond House in Anne Arundel County.

“The fact that some archaeologists just happened to stumble on bones that were protruding from the earth, and knowing that it would be difficult to identify those people by DNA, I just found it really exciting,” Becky Berman of Daytona Beach, Florida, Pumphrey’s first cousin, 10 times removed, told The Associated Press.

For Hudson, the retired federal agent, the story won’t be over until the U.S. government confirms the research and replaces his fifth great-uncle’s “UNKNOWN” gravestone. He said America owes it to John Pumphrey.

“He sacrificed himself, along with some others,” Hudson said, his eyes tearing up, “for the sake of this new nation.”

His allegations Thursday night of interference and influence didn’t include key context. Nor did he produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Trump also said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections. Thus far, no credible intelligence — including repeated audits and reviews, many runby Republicans — has shown the vote count in 2020 was fraudulent or manipulated by foreign actors. Trump did not question his election wins in 2016 or 2024.

Here's the latest:

Lawmakers demand answers after ‘bombshell’ report of ICE officer shooting in Maine

Democratic members of Congress demanded answers about Homeland Security’s vetting and training of immigration enforcement agents after it was disclosed Thursday that the ICE officer involved in a deadly shooting this week in Maine had a history of mental health issues and violent behavior.

The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who’s struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

The AP reached out to congressional leaders and several key lawmakers of both parties for response.

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

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To air or not to air? Nation’s TV networks struggle to find the right balance for Trump speech

As President Trump threatened sanctions for those who didn’t cover his address live Thursday night, the nation’s broadcast and cable news operations wrestled with the thorniest of questions: To air or not to air?

Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.

In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even while the president was still speaking.

The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live.

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Rubio set for Asia trip

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to the Philippines next week to attend meetings with foreign ministers at a gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

The State Department says Rubio is going to meet with his counterparts and senior officials from governments in the region as he pushes for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Rubio is scheduled to leave for Manila on Sunday and head back to the U.S. on Thursday.

China rejects Trump’s election interference claim as ‘groundless accusations’

China on Friday said it has never interfered in U.S. elections and has no interest in doing so, urging Washington to stop making what it described as “groundless accusations” after President Trump accused Beijing of meddling in the 2020 election.

In an address to the nation Thursday, Trump again raised doubts about the U.S. elections results in 2020 and accused China of interfering in them.

“The relevant allegations by the U.S. are entirely fabricated and aimed at vilifying China,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian. “We have no interest in interfering in US elections and have never done so.”

In a daily briefing in Beijing, Lin called on the U.S. to stop making groundless accusations against China.

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Former intelligence official calls Trump’s address ‘dangerous’

Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term, called the president’s address “a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic.” She said the intelligence community throughout Trump’s first term was alarmed about foreign interference in elections, but Trump scoffed at them, angered at the investigation of his campaign’s relationship with Russia.

“He had an entire term to deal with it and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” wouldn’t warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month and was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech, later told MS NOW “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped — that a foreign power flipped — a vote in 2020, ’22 or ’24.”

But, he added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

Trump doesn’t raise doubts about his election wins

President Donald Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and when his party suffered losses.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Notably, he focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Democrat Joe Biden in the latter campaign.

Trump’s Thursday night address hinged on contradictions

A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.

Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that hasn’t advanced because it lacks enough support from his fellow Republicans.

“America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections,” he said.

But all that frothy foam obscures a cold reality: Beer sales have been struggling globally, and it’s unclear if soccer's world championship tournament can reverse the trend despite having three countries and 16 cities as co-hosts this year.

In the U.S., beer consumption has fallen steadily for a decade, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group for craft brewers. Canada has seen a similar decline, according to the national statistics agency. The Brewers of Europe trade association says the story is the same in the European Union.

Consumers are buying less regular beer and more ‘wellness’ drinks

Many consumers are cutting back on alcohol for health reasons. Last year was the first time in Gallup’s polling that a majority of Americans – 53% -- said drinking “one or two drinks a day” was bad for one’s health.

While sales of non-alcoholic beer have grown, they still make up only around 1% of the U.S. market, according to the Beer Institute, a trade group for brewers.

Economic worries also have taken a toll on sales. U.S. consumption of all types of alcohol – including wine and spirits – fell 5% last year, and affordability concerns were partly to blame, beverage market research company IWSR said.

Craig Purser, the president and CEO of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said he thinks smartphones and Netflix have taken consumers away from socializing with a cold beer in hand.

“If you have this behavior where we’re cocooning and we’re not spending time with other folks, that’s going to affect beer consumption,” Purser said.

World Cup host cities saw a bump in beer sales at stadiums, bars and restaurants

Enter the World Cup and the soccer fans who traveled from around the world to support their national teams and engage in communal celebration or sorrow.

In the first four weeks of the tournament, beer sales in bars, restaurants, stadiums and other venues rose 14% in U.S. host cities compared to the same period last year, according to the Beer Institute. The bump extended beyond host cities; sales were up 4% nationally, the institute said.

Jim Koch, the brewer, founder and CEO of the Boston Beer Co., which makes Samuel Adams and other brands, said the company had to make two emergency deliveries to its Sam Adams Boston Taproom on the first day that Scotland's fans were in town.

“At one point, we were pouring them a Sam Adams Boston Lager every 12 seconds. What a wonderful group of people,” he said.

But that wasn't all that warmed Koch's heart.

“I didn’t see a single soul on their phone," he said, “They had a beer in their hand and they were talking to each other. They were doing what beer is meant to do, which is helping people enjoy each other’s company.”

The plentiful drinking on display in stadiums stood in stark constrast to the World Cup held four years ago in Qatar, where the government banned the sale of alcoholic beer in match venues.

Brewers leaned heavily into this year's tournament. Budweiser and Michelob Ultra maker AB InBev, the World's Cup's official beer sponsor, doled out marketing support to bars and hosted 200,000 watch parties in 40 countries.

Molson Coors said it would spend 60% more than last year on marketing in June and July; it also debuted a limited edition soccer ball that can hold 12 cans of Miller Lite.

A team's loss can make supporters cry, but not in their beer

Maybell Romero, a law professor at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, usually prefers cocktails over beer. But she says she opts for beer during the World Cup since it has lower alcohol content than liquor or wine and watching games can be an all-day affair.

“If I drink cocktail after cocktail, I will not be functional after a few hours,” Romero said.

Romero, who has been watching this year's matches at bars in Mexico City, said she’s enjoyed trying new beers, especially those with novel ingredients like champagne yeast. She might order an occasional beer once the World Cup ends but expects to go back to mostly drinking cocktails.

Beer consumption was expected to fall in some markets even before the World Cup ended. Shares in AB InBev and Constellation Brands — which owns the U.S. rights to Mexican beer brands like Corona and Modelo — tumbled after Mexico and Brazil were eliminated from the tournament.

Romero observed the mood shift in Mexico City after those losses.

“The city is collectively depressed,” she said. "Everything is a lot quieter, and people aren’t going out as much."

Major sporting events on the horizon allow the beer industry to hold out hope

Purser remains hopeful the World Cup will remind people how much they like to gather and cheer on athletes, especially with the Summer Olympics heading to Los Angeles in 2028. Occasions are expanding, he said; college and professional football games are now played on more nights of the week, for example. And beer's consumer base is widening as more brands put out low- and no-alcohol versions, he said.

In May, the NCAA reversed its long-standing ban on alcohol advertising during March Madness, allowing makers of beer, wine, spirits and hard seltzer makers to sponsor the college basketball tournaments for the first time starting next season.

The Boston Beer Co.'s Koch said he's not fretting until then.

“People worry that the beer business has declined for a few years, and I always remind them that beer has been a part of human society, human civilization, for 10,000 years,” he said. “Beer will always be a part enhancing our enjoyment of our lives and the time we spend on this earth.”

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AP Video Journalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed from Boston.

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Joseph is accused of asking a city employee to alter a video recording, a political crime, and then lashing out at him when he refused.

In a report, the ALGO Law Firm outlined details of why they wrote Joseph put the city “in substantial legal, financial and ethical risk” while Joseph called the report “political theater.”

The report, which can be read at the bottom of this story, indicated that the “rumors were substantiated by recorded interviews and testimonies.”

Local 10 News has since obtained those records.

Among them, the city’s well-regarded IT chief Ricardo Castillo, known in the report as “Employee C”.

He described Joseph’s response when he refused the mayor’s request to “disconnect recording equipment and edit recordings” of a city manager candidate interview.

“(He said) ’You’re gonna f--- me over,’ and I said, ‘Well, how would I f--- you over if nothing bad happened in the interviews?’” Castillo said.

That video, which Local 10 has obtained, was an interview with the mayor’s preferred candidate for the position who ultimately was not chosen by the other commissioners.

Castillo acknowledged to the investigators that altering the record is a potential crime.

“He did, at the end, he asked me ‘Have I threatened you? Do you feel threatened?’ and I did say, ‘No,’ but I felt intimidated, because I know I was doing the right thing but he was making me feel bad about it,” he said.

READ THE REPORT BELOW:

The charges against Nadezhdin, 63, were based on a 2023 online interview in which he briefly showed a picture of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who at that time was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny later died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024.

Nadezhdin rejected the case against him as absurd and argued authorities were trying to keep him from campaigning in September's parliamentary vote. The court in Dolgoprudny, a town on Moscow’s northern outskirts where he lives, convicted him and ordered him to pay a fine of 1,000 rubles (about $13).

A week ago, Russia’s Justice Ministry named Nadezhdin as a “foreign agent,” a designation that carries strong pejorative connotations and brings additional government scrutiny. It also bars him from holding public office, but he was still able to wage his symbolic campaign for a parliament seat until Friday’s verdict.

Nadezhdin complained of feeling sick during Friday’s hearing, which was interrupted to let an ambulance team check his condition. Before the hearing, he said he was considering going abroad but was barred from leaving Russia.

In January 2024, Nadezhdin collected thousands of signatures as he openly called for a halt to the fighting in Ukraine. But he was kept off the March 2024 ballot after Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that more than 9,000 signatures submitted by his campaign were invalid — enough to disqualify him. Putin faced only token opposition in the election and easily won a fifth term.

After the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, authorities ramped up their crackdown on dissent and free speech, relentlessly targeting rights organizations, independent media, members of civil society organizations, LGBTQ+ activists and some religious groups. Hundreds of people have been jailed and thousands of others have fled the country.

Another Putin critic is arrested

Also on Friday, Ilya Remeslo, a pro-Kremlin activist and blogger who has become a Putin critic, was arrested in St. Petersburg on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military — an accusation widely used against those who oppose the government's policies.

The state Tass news agency reported that he would be taken to Moscow to face a court hearing.

In March, Remeslo criticized the military action in Ukraine and called for Putin's resignation. Soon after, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic and spent a month there in what he cast as a punishment for his remarks.

“They wasn’t in a gang -- they just like to have fun and because of that, it cost them their life. And they were close. And they were very close,” Jones said.

Marchers chanted, “Justice for Bri, justice for AJ,” calling for justice for popular TikTok influencer Brianna Johnson, better known as “Dream Doll Bri,” and her cousin, Arthur Johnson, also known as AJ.

“She was more than just Dream Doll to me. She was Brianna. That was my child. That was my everything. We grew up together. I had her when I was 20 years old,” Jones said.

It has been a few weeks since the pair were shot and killed in Miramar. The crime was caught on camera, but there are still no answers about who pulled the trigger.

“Contact the detectives. Contact whoever you need to contact. Contact us. Speak up because if the shoe was on the other foot, I’m pretty sure they would want someone to do the same thing for them,” Jones said.

Pompano Beach Commissioner Beverly Perkins helped lead the family’s effort to hold the march for healing.

“So this is about the young people, not the adults,” Perkins said.

Adults at the march said they are making a genuine effort to connect with young people who have been impacted by gun violence.

“It’s really for the youth to find out what’s on their mind. What do they need to feel safe? What can we give them? How can we help them in any way we can when it comes to gun violence?” Perkins said.

The family’s plans do not stop with the march. AJ’s father said he wants to turn the tragedy into something meaningful.

“I promised my son before he left here that out of this tragedy I will turn it into triumph for his name and for Brianna’s namesake. So thank you all,” he said.

Perkins said the plan is to have members of the Circle of Brotherhood reconnect with the young people who attended the march in 30 days.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Thursday confirmed the source and warned consumers not to eat shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

A Food and Drug Administration investigation identified a single supplier of the lettuce. The federal warnings to consumers did not identify the company.

“FDA is working with the supplier of iceberg lettuce to determine if potentially contaminated shredded iceberg lettuce remains on the market,” including in other states, the CDC said. “Taco Bell has committed to stop using any lettuce from the supplier identified by FDA’s traceback investigation.”

CDC, FDA and public health officials in several states have been investigating a multistate outbreak of cyclospora infections.

More than 30 states have reported infections this year, and current data from them shows the number of infections surpassing the record U.S. mark of about 4,700 set in 2019. The illness is not usually life threatening and is typically treated with antibiotics.

On Tuesday, ahead of the federal government's confirmation, Taco Bell issued a statement saying it had “voluntarily and temporarily removed limited ingredients at select restaurants as a precautionary measure. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and follow the guidance of public health authorities.”

Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.

The heat-loving parasite infects the bowels and spreads through feces. In the past, people have been infected by consuming fruits or vegetables that were exposed to feces-contaminated irrigation water.

The illness, called cyclosporiasis, is less common than foodborne illnesses caused by other germs, including salmonella and E. coli. Many cases are never linked to a specific food or other source and, for years, few U.S. cyclospora outbreaks were reported. But the number started rising about a decade ago, with a particularly notable spike in 2018 and 2019.

Experts say it’s likely that cyclospora cases historically were underreported, in part because some common tests used to check for food poisoning have not been geared to detect cyclospora. They attribute the increasing trend in cases to climate change and better detection.

Now those images of the longhaired Messi, his hands covered in soap suds as if anointing Yamal as soccer’s Next Big Thing, have become the most talked about — and gawked about — in the runup to Sunday’s World Cup final, when Messi’s Argentina will play Yamal’s Spain for the biggest trophy in the sport.

“I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explanations,” Monfort told The Associated Press from his home in Barcelona on Friday.

Monfort, who works as a freelance photojournalist for the AP, took the photos in 2007 as part of a charity calendar produced by local newspaper Sport and UNICEF.

Luck dictated that Yamal’s mother, who appears in the calendar photo, won a raffle of families in the city of Mataró, near Barcelona, who wanted to participate. Soccer destiny then deemed that her baby boy, who would become a star for Barcelona some 15 years later, was paired up with the Argentine who would become the greatest of all time.

A tearful Messi left Barcelona in 2021 when the club was in financial trouble. Yamal erupted at the club two years later. The journey is now complete, from bathtub to World Cup final, when the 19-year-old Yamal will face a Messi who is 20 years his senior.

The famous photo was forgotten until Yamal’s breakout with Spain

Monfort had no recollection of the photos until Yamal’s father posted one on social media during the 2024 European Championship, when a teenage Yamal was enjoying his international breakout and led Spain to the title.

The photo went viral then. But now, with the World Cup final looming, Monfort said, interest in his photos has skyrocketed.

“This has exploded all over the world, and the fact that the final is in the U.S. has given it the extra push,” Monfort said. “And now this has culminated with the final between Messi and Yamal. It is better than any film script.”

Monfort said that he has been bombarded by queries for the photos by professional media outlets, while also seeing his images reproduced countless times on social media and the internet without any credit or compensation.

Barcelona fans are torn by love of both Messi and Yamal

Like many Barcelona fans, Monfort’s loyalty is split. It is common to see children wearing both Yamal’s Barcelona and Spain shirts, as well as any Messi shirt, whether from his Barcelona years or Argentina or his current club, Inter Miami, on the city’s streets.

Monfort, 58, is considering traveling to see the final in New Jersey, but whether he watches it in person or at home, he said he will have trouble cheering for one team or the other.

“My heart is split. I don’t know if I want Messi or Yamal to win,” said Monfort, a lifelong Barcelona supporter.

“I have an everlasting love for the best player of all time (Messi),” he said, but “Yamal has broken the mold here” and represents a new, diverse Spain, thanks to his parents from Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. “Maybe they can both win. I wouldn’t rule it out after everything we have seen.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

“We were looking at different flights home (to Florida),” Cole said.

No need to change the reservation. All the bounces that went against the 38-year-old American were in his favor Friday as he ran off three straight birdies on the front nine, four in a row on the back nine and improved 12 shots from the previous day with a 6-under 64 to get back to even par for the championship.

He was not yet in position to contend. But he was not quite ready to leave.

“I was just trying to have a good day and relax and enjoy The Open Championship,” Cole said. “Hit some good shots and didn't get any weird bounces.”

Cole was the first example that Royal Birkdale was more vulnerable in the second round, with lighter wind and accessible pins. Lucas Herbert of Australia tied a British Open record with a 28 on the front nine.

Most peculiar about the 12-shot improvement was that Cole didn't feel as though he played all that much differently than his opening 76 that included three double bogeys.

The shocker was on No. 11 when his right foot slipped on his tee shot, he barely made contact and the ball tumbled about 25 yards away into thick, high grass.

“We never found the ball,” he said. “It just rolled into the gunch. So I had to re-tee. That was another double bogey.”

Then on the par-5 17th, his club caught a clump of grass and turned over, leading to a shank into the trees that forced him into taking a penalty shot and replaying the shot. Another double bogey.

“Tee to green yesterday, I felt like I played great. I know that’s weird to say, but I really did feel like I was hitting the ball where I was aiming and the swing felt good,” he said. “I’m just chalking it up to random outlier.”

This is Cole's second Open but he knew what to expect. His father is South African player Bobby Cole, who finished one shot out of the 1975 playoff at Carnoustie that Tom Watson won and twice has played at Royal Birkdale.

Eric Cole created some memories of his own over two days, good and bad. Friday was so good that Cole briefly thought about a record score when he was 6 under for the day with two par 5s ahead of him. Instead, he finished with five straight pars that figured to give him two more days at Birkdale.

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

The immersive show has become the theater’s biggest production to date, according to Brian Forti, Faena Theater’s executive producer and director of creative entertainment.

“(It’s) our biggest show, which I think is doing great, and it’s probably one of the best shows we’ve ever produced in the 11 years we’ve been doing shows here, is ‘Obsession,’” he said.

Inside the intimate theater, 155 guests surround the stage, placing audience members just feet away from singers, dancers and aerialists. Rather than staying on stage, performers move throughout the room, interacting directly with guests.

“We have some of the best performers. We brought in Sophia Bollman from Las Vegas. We actually brought her in from the Bellagio Hotel, and she’s probably one of the best things we’ve ever had. It’s a sexy show,” Forti said.

Unlike a traditional theater experience, the production is designed to eliminate the separation between performers and the audience.

“It’s really intimate, immersive, and as you can see in a theater like this, it’s not like you’re in a Broadway theater or in a big arena. No, you’re right there, and the dancers and the singers and the performers are right there, all around you,” Forti added.

The show also features aerialists performing overhead and a live violinist weaving through the audience.

“When the performers are coming out, they’re immersing with everybody in the audience, whether you’re popping balloons in that performance, or Sophia’s talking to you, which she loves to do with everybody in the audience,” Forti said.

He said the immersive concept was intentional from the beginning.

“That was the whole point. Alan Faena, when he designed the theater, he worked closely with Baz Luhrmann, the director of ‘Moulin Rouge.’ They realized a theater like this does not exist anywhere,” he added.

Guests are encouraged to embrace the interactive experience.

Those hoping to see Obsession this summer should plan ahead. Faena Theater will close for its seasonal break from Sunday through Aug. 4 before performances resume on Aug. 6.

When the show returns, tickets will be available at a discount through Miami Spice, making it easier for visitors to pair dinner with a show.

Click here for more information on how to purchase tickets.

The fire, which erupted Thursday night, is burning near Mile Marker 40.

It has burned 3,600 acres so far and is 0% contained.

According to Local 10 meteorologist John Gerard, southerly winds should keep most of the smoke away from the western suburbs Friday, but a wind shift to the southwest could allow the smoke to spread more into the western suburbs on Saturday.

No other details were immediately available.

Watch Local 10 News or refresh this page for updates.

What struck Le then, and amazes him still, is Pannakara’s iron-clad determination.

“When he decides to do something, he goes all the way,” said Le, secretary of the temple — the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth. “He’s never been afraid of obstacles. He always finds a way through them.”

That indomitable will was in full display during the meditative Walk for Peace that Pannakara led earlier this year with an international group of monks and his rescue dog, Aloka, who has become a mascot for the movement. The 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) journey started in Fort Worth on Oct. 26 and ended in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14.

An ascetic walks into the spotlight

Pannakara’s discourses on mindfulness and kindness in churchyards, town squares and in front of the Lincoln Memorial drew large, diverse crowds. Millions worldwide followed along online.

Within weeks, the Walk for Peace had propelled this obscure monk into the spotlight as a leading voice for inner peace and unity in an increasingly divided nation. His popularity continues to soar, with some drawing comparisons with the Dalai Lama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Thich Nhat Hanh, a revered Zen master and peace activist who shared Pannakara’s Vietnamese roots.

Pannakara, who traveled to Southern California last weekend with Aloka for several speaking engagements, said he doesn’t care for all the attention.

“There is no fame for monks,” he said. “I made a vow to walk to raise awareness of peace, loving kindness and compassion. That’s what it’s about.”

As part of his Theravada Buddhist practice, he follows “Vinaya” — a strict code of monastic rules. That means no social media accounts, personal possessions or handling money, and the practice of celibacy and modesty.

He doesn't eat after noon and, according to Le, sleeps sitting up, which is not mandatory for Theravada monks, but adopted by some as an ascetic practice to deepen mindfulness.

The pivot from engineer to monk

Pannakara was born in Dak Lak, Vietnam, in 1981, the youngest of 10 children. He says his family was Buddhist in “name only.” He immigrated to the U.S. in 1997 and graduated with a degree in information technology from the University of Texas at Arlington. He said his first exposure to Buddhism was in the U.S. through temple summer camps and youth leadership.

Pannakara stepped away from his engineering career to become a novice monk and became fully ordained in 2010 by his teacher, the Venerable Ratanaguna, who he has often cited as his source of inspiration. There was not one life-changing event that prompted his decision, he said, but the cumulative effect of seeing his loved ones suffer and people trying to step on each other to move up.

“To me everything just seemed fake,” he said.

Le recalls that Pannakara’s parents were inconsolable.

“Even on the day he was ordained, his mother came, and she cried a lot,” he said, adding that they eventually accepted it.

Le said Pannakara was a quick learner, completing several projects on their campus including landscaping, a new kitchen, homes for the monastics and a memorial hall for deceased members.

At his teacher’s direction, Pannakara traveled to Myanmar between 2018 and 2020 to study and practice Vipassana meditation, an ancient technique taught by the Buddha himself as core for attaining enlightenment. When COVID hit, he returned to Fort Worth and organized food drives, said Amanda Phan, a temple member.

“(Pannakara) is a rare human being,” she said. “He is an embodiment of kindness, compassion, wisdom — a bodhisattva — a being whose purpose is to relieve others from their suffering.”

Transformative journey tracing the Buddha's steps

In late 2022, Pannakara joined about 100 monks in a 2,100-mile (3,380-kilometer), 112-day pilgrimage tracing the footsteps of the Buddha — from his birthplace in Lumbini, Nepal, to Bodh Gaya where he attained enlightenment; Sarnath, the site of the first sermon; and Kushinagar, where he died. The monks emulated Buddha's journey — walking barefoot, eating one meal a day, and sleeping under the stars.

“I had learned the Buddha’s teachings from the Tipitaka (Buddhist canon),” Pannakara said. “But with this walk, I experienced it.”

He also learned about himself — about his strength to bear adversity and pain.

“I learned that we can do much more than we think we’re capable of,” he said.

That journey also brought Aloka into his life. Aloka means light in Pali.

“Even when he faced challenges and almost died he walked with us,” Pannakara said of his dog.

It was on a previous trip to Bodh Gaya — under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment — that Pannakara said he had a vision to build stone stupas to preserve the sacred teachings for generations to come. Seven years later, he told Ratanaguna about his desire. With his teacher’s blessing, the plan for the $200-million Dhammacetiya project was born — 840 stupas bearing Buddha’s teachings in 10 languages, built to last 4,000 years.

Pannakara knelt before an assembly of monastics and visitors during the temple’s 2022 International Vesak Ceremony and vowed that if he is unable to complete the project in this lifetime, he would “be reborn to continue this project until its completion.” This project and the peace walks — which he plans to do more of — together uphold his vow to promote peace and preserve the Buddha’s teachings, he said.

Ajahn Nisabho, a Seattle-based Theravada Buddhist monk, said he was moved by Pannakara's authenticity and commitment.

“The story of his quilted robe that he stitched it together from pieces of cloth he picked up during the walk in India — he was honoring that past and that ethos,” Nisabho said. “As a fellow monk, it was inspiring for me to see floods of people walking behind him during the peace walk.”

A conscious decision to steer clear of politics

Bhikkhu Bodhi, a senior Theravada monk who spoke at the conclusion of the Walk for Peace in Washington, said Pannakara was wise to remain silent on politics during his walk. But Bodhi, 81, hopes he does speak up on critical social issues like poverty, hunger, housing and the climate.

“I just hope that as (Pannakara) becomes more established and gets accustomed to publicity, he’ll consider taking a stand on these issues that have deep moral and spiritual significance,” he said.

Nisabho believes Pannakara made the right decision to steer clear of politics and activism. He said there are not many spaces today that are able to welcome the kind of diversity the peace walk attracted — with the exception of Dolly Parton “who brings truckers and drag queens together.”

“The vision of a monastic is the one chance someone has, to be inspired toward awakening and find an escape from suffering,” Nisabho said. “If you bring politics into that, you cause damage by alienating half the country.”

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

FIFA announced the pick late Thursday. It's the second straight World Cup final where Argentina, now the defending champion, will have a European referee to face a European opponent.

FIFA has faced criticism during the current World Cup for Argentina seeming to get the benefit of some refereeing decisions — including when soccer great Lionel Messi escaped a red card for a rough challenge on an Algeria opponent — with the coaches of Egypt and South Africa claiming inconsistencies.

After Egypt formally alleged bias in decisions during its 3-2 loss to Argentina, FIFA director of referees Pierluigi Collina said: “Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials.”

In his three games so far at the 2026 World Cup, Vinčić has shown seven yellow cards and one red card, and awarded no penalty kicks.

In the most recent of his games, in the round of 32 more than two weeks ago, Vinčić sent off Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie after a video review for covering his mouth in a confrontation with a Mexico opponent.

Vinčić also worked two group-stage games, when Brazil and Morocco drew 1-1 and Algeria beat Jordan 2-1.

Bayern-Madrid epic

In the last European club season, Vinčić’s biggest match was Bayern Munich’s 4-3 win over Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Vinčić showed yellow cards to five Madrid players, and second yellows to Eduardo Camavinga for timewasting and Arda Guler for dissent to send them off late in the game.

Those were among just three red cards that Vinčić showed in nine Champions League games and he awarded just two penalties.

The 46-year-old Slovenian refereed Madrid’s 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the 2024 Champions League final.

The Slovenia link

FIFA’s pick of Vinčić surprised some observers given ongoing tensions between its president Gianni Infantino and UEFA, led by Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Ceferin, who should attend the final at East Rutherford, New Jersey.

UEFA claimed FIFA “crossed a red line” in suspending a mandatory one-game ban for United States forward Folarin Balogun to let him face Belgium in the round of 16, and called the decision “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.”

On day four of the World Cup, some soccer federations published a letter during a FIFA-hosted conference in Miami criticizing Ceferin personally for a reported comment made days before the tournament in Slovenia about the expanded 48-team competition format.

Vinčić follows Szymon Marciniak of Poland in being chosen to officiate the biggest match in world soccer. Marciniak awarded a penalty to each team in the thrilling 3-3 draw in the World Cup final between Argentina and France in Qatar in December 2022. Argentina then won the penalty shootout in which Marciniak showed a yellow card to goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez for unsporting conduct in trying to distract French players.

The pick of Vinčić continues a pattern for 10 straight World Cups since 1990: European referees are chosen for finals played outside Europe, and referees from other continents are picked for finals played in Europe. Those include Italian Collina, the premier referee of his generation, who worked Brazil's 2-0 win over Germany in the 2002 final in Japan.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

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Las mediciones de lo que los investigadores llaman “exceso de mortalidad” —la diferencia entre el número de decesos que se esperarían normalmente y la cifra real— se dispararon a finales de junio, cuando parte de Europa registró temperaturas récord. Los expertos advierten que se necesita tiempo para obtener una visión completa de la situación, y que muchas muertes relacionadas con el calor nunca se registrarán formalmente como tal. Por ejemplo, un ataque cardíaco, que puede estar causado por la exposición al calor extremo, especialmente en personas mayores o con problemas de salud subyacentes, puede figurar en un certificado de defunción simplemente como un ataque cardíaco.

Es un comienzo de verano alarmante. Varias olas de calor han matado a miles de personas en los últimos años en Europa. Aun así, 2003 sigue siendo el año más letal en el continente por el calor, con unos 70.000 fallecidos. La frecuencia e intensidad de las olas de calor se ven potenciadas por el cambio climático, causado por la quema de combustibles fósiles como el carbón, el petróleo y el gas.

Semana excepcionalmente mortífera a comienzos del verano

El centro de monitoreo de mortalidad EuroMOMO, que recibe datos de dos docenas de países, dio una estimación de exceso de mortalidad de 14.260 personas por todas las causas en la semana que terminó el 28 de junio, con más de 12.000 de esas muertes entre personas de 65 años o más. Esa cifra se sitúa dentro de un total de 84.583 decesos en esa semana. Los datos de la semana anterior y posterior fueron mucho más bajos.

Lasse Vestergaard, del Statens Serum Institut de Dinamarca, que coordina EuroMOMO, señaló que “atribuimos esto a la ola de calor que afecta a bastantes países de Europa, y lo hacemos porque no hay otra explicación evidente que pueda justificar un exceso de moralidad tan elevado en este momento".

Un exceso tan elevado en una sola semana es “sumamente inusual”, añadió. EuroMOMO no ofrece cifras absolutas por países, pero encontró los peores datos en Francia, Bélgica y Alemania.

Los países que sufrieron la peor parte de la ola de calor han publicado sus propias estimaciones, pero no siempre siguen la misma metodología o plazos.

A continuación, un resumen de las muertes relacionadas con el calor reportadas por varias naciones.

Alemania

El centro de control de enfermedades de Alemania, el Instituto Robert Koch, atribuyó directamente al calor 6.830 muertes en lo que va de año hasta comienzos de julio, 6.470 de ellas entre personas de 65 años o más. A finales del mes pasado, las temperaturas en el país alcanzaron sus niveles más altos desde que se tienen registros, con un pico de 41,7º Celsius (107,06º Fahrenheit) el 28 de junio, de acuerdo con el Servicio Meteorológico Alemán.

Reino Unido

La Met Office británica, la agencia meteorológica nacional, indicó que se cree que 2.700 personas perdieron la vida por causas relacionadas con las temperaturas durante las olas de calor en Inglaterra y Gales en mayo y junio. De esas muertes, unas 550 ocurrieron a finales de mayo y alrededor de 2.200 a finales de junio, agregó. Este año se registraron récords nacionales de calor para mayo —con 35,1º C (95,18º F)— y junio, con más de 37ºC (98,6º F).

Francia

La autoridad de salud pública de Francia informó que se contabilizaron al menos 2.000 muertes más en la semana del 22 al 28 de junio que en la anterior, cuando las temperaturas ya estaban subiendo. Francia registró sus días más calurosos de la historia el 24 y 25 de junio, cuando el servicio meteorológico Meteo France dijo que el indicador térmico nacional —un promedio de temperaturas diarias medidas en 30 estaciones meteorológicas— alcanzó los 30º C (86º Fº). Más del 40% de Francia registró temperaturas máximas por encima de 40º C (104º F).

España

Las autoridades atribuyeron al exceso de calor unas 937 muertes estimadas en junio, de acuerdo con el Instituto de Salud Carlos III, un organismo oficial de monitoreo. El mes pasado fue el segundo junio más caluroso registrado nunca en el país, con temperaturas 3,2º C (5,8º F) por encima del promedio mensual normal, explicó la agencia meteorológica AEMET. Una ola de calor de cinco días hizo que las temperaturas superaran con regularidad los 40º C (104º F), indicó la AEMET.

Bélgica

Hubo 1.747 muertes por encima de lo que normalmente se esperaría durante la ola de calor que se extendió del 18 de junio al 1 de julio, según Sciensano, el instituto de salud pública de Bélgica. Señaló que “se espera cierta mortalidad excesiva durante las olas de calor, al igual que durante las olas de frío y las epidemias de gripe. No obstante, la ola de calor de junio de 2026 se distingue por su excepcional amplitud”.

En el punto máximo del episodio, se registró una medición de 35,5º C (95,9º F) el 26 de junio, informó el instituto meteorológico IRM.

Países Bajos

Una estimación inicial de las cifras de exceso de defunciones por la ola de calor de junio determinó que en Países Bajos hubo 480 muertes más de las esperadas, según el servicio de salud pública. El aumento de la mortalidad fue particularmente notable en las zonas del este y del sur, donde los termómetros marcaron valores más altos.

El país registró su temperatura más alta de la historia para junio, con el servicio meteorológico neerlandés anotando 36,8º C (98,24º F). Eso es más de un grado Celsius (1,8º F) por encima del récord anterior, establecido en 1947.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Consulte las normas de AP para trabajar con filantropías, una lista de patrocinadores y las áreas de cobertura financiadas en AP.org.

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

Zelenskyy’s major reshuffle of his government on Thursday, which included the appointment of a new prime minister, unsettled the country’s military leadership and trigged a public outcry. It was an unwelcome difficulty after Ukraine has gained traction in its fight against Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion.

The surprise departure from the defense ministry of Mykhailo Fedorov, a youthful and popular member of the government, saw thousands of people demonstrate against his dismissal in cities across Ukraine on Thursday. Further street protests were expected on Friday.

Fedorov, 35, who was in the post for just six months, is widely seen as the driving force behind Ukraine’s swift and successful technological innovation and other measures, such as fighting military corruption, that have brought fresh hope in the war for Ukrainians.

Relations between Fedorov and Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces who started his military career in the former Soviet Union, had broken down, according to Zelenskyy, and made Fedorov’s position untenable.

Zelenskyy said he had asked Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara, acting head of the state’s security service and a highly regarded special operations expert, to take over the defense minister’s duties.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday he would ask Parliament to formally approve Khmara’s appointment as defense minister, as required by law. That step could be held up by bureaucratic hurdles, however. Ukrainian law requires the defense minister to be a civilian, so a serving soldier or security service officer must leave active service before being formally appointed. Also, lawmakers will be on summer recess through mid-August.

Khmara has been in charge of the SBU security service since January. He had previously led the SBU’s elite Alpha special forces unit and is known for being an architect of Operation Spiderweb, one of Ukraine’s most spectacular attacks when it struck Russian air bases last year. He joined the Alpha unit in 2011 and became its commander in 2023 before being promoted to major general the following year.

Moscow’s response to its battlefield difficulties and Ukraine’s targeting of Russian oil facilities, which has caused severe fuel shortages, has focused in part on relentless strategic bombing of civilian areas of Ukraine.

Two people were killed and 10 others injured, including children, in an overnight Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said. One of those killed was a woman who had been walking in a park with her children, who survived, he said.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed and five more were injured in a strike, according to Zelenskyy. He said three people were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Officials said more people were injured in Russian strikes on five other regions of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 243 Ukrainian drones overnight into Friday.

Three civilians were killed and seven others injured in Ukrainian drone attacks over the previous 24 hours, according to Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed head of the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region.

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Lucas Herbert of Australia got off to a stunning start in only a mild breeze with a 28 on the front nine that tied the British Open record by Denis Durnian in 1983 at Royal Birkdale.

Herbert was 8 under for the round through 14 holes and had another par 5 still to play, putting him in position to break the major championship record of 62 set by Branden Grace of South Africa at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

And it was still early in the second round.

Patrick Reed, the American who leads the Race to Dubai on the European tour, was 6 under through 14 holes and also challenging records. Reed shot a 59 when he won the Hong Kong Open in 2024.

Rory McIlroy was 2 under for the day — back to level for the championship — but not getting as much out of his round as so many others.

Surprise leader

Suber was a surprise leader because he had never played links golf until a practice round Monday at Royal Birkdale — he had never even been to Europe — and he has yet to win as a professional. He opened with a 65 for a one-shot lead.

Playing early on Friday, he birdied the second until it started to fall apart on him. Suber had consecutive three-putt bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes. He ran into trouble in the rough and made a third straight bogey on the eighth.

But he settled himself with a birdie on the 10th and 11th holes, and picked up one more birdie on the par-5 17th when he reached the front of the green in two shots.

Keeping up with Herbert

At that point, it was all he could do to keep up with Herbert.

The Australian opened with three straight birdies, and he drove to the edge of the 321-yard fifth hole for an easy birdie. His one long putt came from 35 feet for birdie on the par-3 seventh, and he holed from 25 feet off the green at the ninth.

Scores have been coming down in golf as a natural evolution of the game. Grace was the first to reach 62 in a major in the third round at Birkdale in 2017. Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler each shot 62 at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. Schauffele and Shane Lowry each shot 62 at the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

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Kimi Antonelli heads into the Belgian Grand Prix with a piece of advice he picked up recently from Roger Federer.

After a run of car problems cut into the Italian's Formula 1 standings lead, Antonelli's chat with the tennis great in the Royal Box at Wimbledon offered a fresh perspective on how to stop these blips turning into a slump.

“About pressure, he just told me to really focus one race at a time, just focus on what you can control, and also to control the emotions, especially the ones that can make you do mistakes,” Antonelli said Thursday.

“Those were the main pieces of advice. Other than that, it was an incredible experience to witness.”

So far, Antonelli seems to be staying focused, even as Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton threaten Mercedes' supremacy. Antonelli doesn't seem to have lost any of his race-winning pace, unlike last year, when his confidence hit rock-bottom after errors on the European tracks he was meant to know best.

“I just need to maximize every opportunity I get, what I have in control, and then we’ll see what the rest will be,” Antonelli said. “It's part of the sport and the team are doing a tremendous job to make sure that all these issues are not happening again.”

Mercedes off the practice pace

Antonelli was only sixth and teammate George Russell eighth in first practice Friday, a rare session this year where Mercedes failed to make much impression.

Instead, it was Belgian-born Max Verstappen who led the way by 0.145 of a second from Hamilton, with Leclerc third, .208 off the pace, as Ferrari showed signs of building on Leclerc's surprise win at the British Grand Prix.

The session ended with McLaren's Oscar Piastri limping back to the pits with a technical problem.

Russell's struggles

While not everything is going Antonelli's way, at least he knows why. His more experienced Mercedes teammate Russell is finding his problems harder to fix.

A second-place finish for Russell at the British Grand Prix was more about luck than speed, as he benefited from Antonelli's car trouble, a crash for Max Verstappen and a strategy blunder for Hamilton.

Russell cut Antonelli's lead to 25 points but said he felt “less satisfied” with that home podium finish than he had breaking down from the lead in Canada.

The fast, sweeping Belgian circuit has key similarities to Silverstone. That could pose a challenge to Russell and offer an opportunity to Ferrari.

Leclerc and Ferrari were surprised he had the pace to win in Britain and they've been working since then to understand what worked so well to deliver that pace this weekend, too.

Mercedes remains the team to beat and “should be a lot further ahead" in the standings by now, Hamilton told Sky Sports.

Norris hits another setback

One driver who almost certainly won't be in contention for the win is Lando Norris. The defending champion comes into this week's race with a 10-place grid penalty after McLaren switched out a troublesome electrical part on his car.

His teammate Piastri spent Thursday stressing he trusts McLaren's assurances he'll stay with the team next year despite reported interest in signing Verstappen.

Four-time champion Verstappen left his future open Thursday but had warm words for Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies, who started his tenure a year ago with a stunning win for Verstappen in a sprint in Belgium.

After Verstappen fumed at Red Bull's “dangerous” car after back-to-back crashes caused by rear wing failures, the team is going back to an older design this week, potentially affecting Verstappen's pace.

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The former mayor of Greater Manchester was the only contender in the center-left party's leadership contest to replace departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was forced out by a Labour rebellion. Friday's announcement was a forgone conclusion after Burnham secured nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons.

“We’re going to give them hope back,” Burnham told an audience of lawmakers, party activists and trade union leaders in his first speech as leader. “This is a proud moment you have given me and my family today, and an emotional one, but it is one for which I am ready.”

“I have a plan,” he added, in a bit to reassure a party that has seen its popularity nosedive since winning a landslide election victory two years ago.

Burnham has been prime minister-in-waiting for weeks, since winning a special election for a seat in Parliament a month ago, but he has revealed little detail about his policy priorities. He will arrive in Number 10 Downing Street largely unknown to voters outside Manchester.

He sketched out some priorities in Friday's speech, promising to deliver “hope in every heart” and “good growth in every post code,” in part by transferring power from central government in London to local leaders in cities and regions.

“We will take power back from Westminster and Whitehall and give it to the place you live,” he told the audience. “More power over life’s essentials so you can make them work better.”

Starmer announced last month that he would resign after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Labour regularly trails behind anti-immigration party Reform UK in opinion polls, and the governing party had catastrophic results in local elections in May, triggering pressure on Starmer to step down that he couldn’t resist.

Burnham brings a more relaxed style of leadership than the rather stern Starmer, and is regarded as one of the Labour Party’s best communicators. But he faces many of the same problems as his predecessor, including a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and overstretched public services.

And his promises of a new, less divisive politics are not too different to what Starmer pledged when he took office in 2024.

“I will work to build a new politics. The country is crying out for it,” Burnham said. “How can politicians point fingers when living standards are falling and politics as a whole isn’t working for them? It infuriates them and makes them switch off.”

He said he would have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected,” such as tackling the patchy access to social care for those who need it because of age, illness or disability. It’s a pressing issue in a country with an aging population, and one that has foxed previous Labour and Conservative governments.

He highlighted plans to focus on economic renewal, more public control of key sectors and creating new modern industrial jobs, arguing that Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralized and economic power privatized.”

That’s the decade when Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher oversaw policies of privatization, deindustrialization and political centralization that transformed the U.K. economy.

“Slowly, at times imperceptibly, over four decades, political and economic power drained away out of our communities in every region and nation of the U.K.,” Burnham said, calling Britain's change of prime ministers — for the sixth time in a decade — “the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years.”

Starmer will remain prime minister until Monday, when he formally tenders his resignation to King Charles III. The king will then ask Burnham to form a government.

Britain’s parliamentary democracy allows governing parties to change leaders, and thus prime ministers, without the need for a general election. The next national election doesn’t have to be held until 2029.

New prime ministers have come with increasing frequency in recent years. Burnham will be the U.K.'s seventh leader since 2016.

The bus crashed Thursday night in the Kapchorwa District in eastern Uganda while returning from a visit to the region’s Sipi Falls, the Uganda Police Force said in a statement posted on X.

Survivors, including three adults and several children, were taken to several hospitals, according to police.

At least nine children were hospitalized in critical condition, while the adult who died appeared to be the founder and head of the school, Ugandan Minister of Local Government Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi said on X. He said at least 19 other children were injured.

Local residents arriving at the scene found injured children lying near the bus wreckage, according to video from the Uganda Red Cross. Residents acted as first responders and helped transport injured children to hospitals, Barugahara said.

Video from the Uganda Red Cross showed bodies of victims in and around the wreckage as people arrived to help following the nighttime crash. Some of the survivors were transported to a hospital in a pick-up truck, according to the video provided to The Associated Press.

The bus belonged to the King David Junior School, an elementary school situated in the capital, Kampala, police said. The village where police said the crash occurred is near the Uganda-Kenya border, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Kampala.

The driver reportedly lost control of the bus, which veered off the road, struck a rock and overturned, according to the police statement, which added that the information was preliminary and the cause of the crash was under investigation.

A police photo showed the bus lying on its side with the entire roof ripped off and the seats exposed, including some that were mangled. Luggage and clothing lay strewn on the road.

Road accidents are common in the East African nation and often are blamed on poorly maintained vehicles, speeding and poor road conditions, which are problems across Africa. At least 14 people died when a bus collided with a truck in a remote area of northern Uganda earlier this month.

Africa has the worst road safety record in the world, with more than 300,000 annual road deaths and around 26 deaths per 100,000 people. In Europe, which has far more road traffic, there are around 20,000 deaths yearly and nine deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and the United Nations.

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The Knesset, which was scheduled to break for its summer recess on Friday, will not reconvene before the elections scheduled on Oct. 27.

The expected dissolution comes as Netanyahu is struggling to hold onto power ahead of the next elections as Israel grinds toward the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked nearly three years of war. Israeli polls are showing a groundswell of support for opposition parties, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a popular centrist former military chief.

Over the past week, the Knesset passed several controversial laws in marathon sessions as Netanyahu attempted to ram through several of his pet projects.

Earlier this week, the Knesset passed two bills that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the military in an attempt to ensure ultra-Orthodox parties join Netanyahu’s coalition in the next government.

The Knesset also recently passed several bills connected with Netanyahu’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary, including increasing government control over broadcast media and weakening the role of the attorney general. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has opposed the overhaul, and been a frequent target of Netanyahu and the Israeli right.

“We are completing a four-year term, we passed nine budgets and hundreds of bills, I thank you for the trust you placed in me, through which together we succeeded in maintaining a four-year term,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said as he announced the dissolution.

Completing a full, four-year term is a rare occurrence throughout Israeli history.

The last time Israel’s government fulfilled a full term without breaking for early elections was in 1988. Israel has no term limits, and Netanyahu has served more terms than any other prime minister in Israel’s history, but it is rare even for him to finish a full, four-year term.

Between 2019 and 2022, Israelis went to the polls five times. Israel holds elections on average every 2.4 years, making it second-lowest ranked country in the OECD for periods between elections, a marker of political instability, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.

Speaking at a conference in Shanghai, Xi said AI should not be dominated by any single nation. American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world's most advanced technologies, spurring China's efforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies.

“The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country but rather a symphony of global cooperation,” Xi said at the opening of China's annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Others attending included the leaders of Kazakhstan, Cambodia and Thailand and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

Xi opposes the ‘overstretching’ of national security in AI

“We should together oppose the practice of overstretching the concept of national security in the field of artificial intelligence, and of placing one’s own security above that of other countries,” he said, repeating a longstanding Chinese complaint.

China will expand AI cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS countries, Xi said. He promised to provide access for 30 countries to a Chinese-developed AI meteorological tool that provides early warning systems.

Over the next five years, Xi said China will provide 5,000 AI training opportunities to developing countries.

Closer partnerships can help prevent “historical injustice in AI,” he said.

China’s new AI cooperation body seen as response to the U.S.

Ahead of the conference, 29 countries including Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement with China to establish a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. State media described it as an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Shanghai promoting global AI governance.

The new AI cooperation organization can be viewed as China’s answer to the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, said George Chen, partner and chair of digital practice at Washington-headquartered consultancy The Asia Group.

The Pax Silica framework, launched late last year, focuses on strengthening collaboration with U.S. allies and partners on AI-related supply chains. Signatories include Japan, the U.K., Australia, the Philippines, Israel and India.

Following a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s to Beijing to meet with Xi in mid-May, China and the United States also agreed to conduct a dialogue on AI development and governance.

Chen, who was at the conference in Shanghai, also said Xi’s speech can be seen as a signal that China can be a reliable partner to the developing world, or “Global South” countries. “China will not let America be the monopoly of AI technology.”

China's advanced tech showcased as it steps up self-reliance

More than 1,100 companies and 1,400 guests are participating in the annual AI conference this year, Chinese state media said.

During the conference that runs until Monday, tech giant Huawei is showcasing its powerful AI computing system, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD.

Some technology analysts now believe China has become an innovator in AI and is no longer just catching up with the U.S. China’s five-year plan until 2030 has prioritized progress in frontiers of science and technology including AI.

China’s open-source AI models, like DeepSeek, are seen, especially across the developing world, as appealing and often more affordable than U.S. AI models, which are largely closed-source.

Coinciding with the conference, the Chinese AI startup Moonshot released its latest AI model, Kimi K3. It said Kimi K3's 2.8 trillion parameters — one of the measurements of an AI model's capability — will make it the world's largest open-source model. DeepSeek's V4 Pro version has 1.6 trillion parameters.

Last month, another Chinese AI company Zhipu, or Z.ai, rolled out its new flagship GLM-5.2 open-source model in a challenge to U.S. rivals including Anthropic’s models.

But U.S. politicians and several major U.S. AI companies including Anthropic have accused Chinese AI models of illicit “distillation” of their models to extract their technologies, a claim that Beijing says is “groundless.” U.S. policymakers have also raised concerns over Chinese AI posing an economic threat to the United States.

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Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu contributed from Beijing.

State broadcaster CCTV said at least 10 people were rescued from the debris and that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

CCTV said the landslide occurred at around 9:08 a.m. in Chongqing’s Pengshui County. Massive amounts of rocks and soil washed downslope, burying more than 10 residential buildings.

Images by CCTV showed part of a mountainside collapsing onto a residential area. Several buildings were located next to the collapse site, while rescue crews combed through the debris. Rescue efforts were hindered by the unstable terrain and the risk of another landslide, according to the broadcaster.

Images shared on social media showed orange-clad rescuers using excavators to dig through the rubble. A team of rescuers pulled a victim out of the debris.

Large slabs of rock had slid beside buildings into a waterway below. Two buildings that looked about five and 15 stories high were damaged but still standing.

The rain-triggered landslide occurred near a section of the Wujiang River, which cuts through karst mountains peppered with small towns and terraces.

Authorities said they sent more than 8,000 disaster relief items to Chongqing, including tents, folding beds and family emergency kits.

Several power poles were buried, disrupting electricity. Authorities said water, electricity and gas supplies were suspended within a 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) radius of the landslide to prevent further disruptions.

Pengshui County is located in the southeast part of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Hubei and Guizhou.

That was May 24, 2000, the day Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

By then, many Israelis had grown to view the invasion — initially aimed at ousting Palestinian militants — as a strategic failure, akin to the U.S. military quagmire in Vietnam.

Now, 26 years later, Israel is again occupying much of southern Lebanon, and while polling shows that a majority of Israelis currently support an extended military presence in Lebanon, some, including Barak, who remember the pitfalls of the last occupation, are afraid that Israel is falling into the same trap.

“Our very presence will become the only goal,” Barak said in a recent interview, recounting what he said he thought of the occupation in 1985, when he was a general in the Israeli military, and Israel was shifting from active fighting to long-term deployment in Lebanon.

“We will protect our fortresses, we will protect our convoys of supply, the logistics, the patrols, everything," he said he warned. “But we were not serving Israeli security, we were not serving the state. There was no logic to this in 1985, and there was no logic in 2000, when we pulled out.”

An open-ended occupation

Israel again invaded Lebanon in March and now controls more than 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of territory. It began the operation after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, launched a wave of drone and missile attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Last month, Israel signed a framework agreement with the Lebanese government to use at least two areas in southern Lebanon as “pilot zones” for removing Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure and handing over security to Lebanon’s army. Israel would then redeploy or withdraw its forces from those areas. Hezbollah was not part of the agreement and has vowed to oppose it.

In the meantime, Israeli officials have vowed to keep troops inside a broader “security zone” in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah retains its weapons. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has maintained smaller “security zones” in Gaza and Syria, which it says are needed to prevent future attacks by militants.

“We didn’t ask anyone’s permission to enter Lebanon, and we don’t need anyone’s permission to stay in Lebanon,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said recently, calling it Israel's “right and our duty” to protect residents in northern border towns.

A former prime minister warns of similar pitfalls

Barak, who served as Israel’s military chief before coming prime minister, still considers the pullout one of his proudest achievements.

As a general, he recalls visiting soldiers stationed in Lebanon in the early 1980s. He said they told him, “We are fighting to remove the threat from Hezbollah so that our children will be safe and won’t have to serve here.”

But when Barak ordered the withdrawal nearly two decades later, he said some of the children of those same soldiers were serving in Lebanon.

Israel’s self-declared security zone inside Lebanon did not deliver for Israelis during the previous occupation, and it is unlikely the new zone will either, Barak said. Even in the 1990s, rudimentary Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah could easily bypass it and hit northern Israel.

“In order to destroy, totally destroy Hezbollah, you’d have to conquer the whole of Lebanon,” Barak said, something most Israelis consider to be impractical.

But even Israel's presence in the south, and the widespread destruction of villages there, runs the risk of rallying Lebanese support for Hezbollah, he said. Israel says the group embeds fighters and weapons in these border towns, but Israeli operations since March had displaced around 1 million Lebanese.

About 40% of them have since returned home, according to the Lebanese government. More than 4,300 people have been killed since hostilities began on March 2. Nearly 40 Israeli soldiers have also died, as well as a defense contractor and two civilians in northern Israel.

Same place, different war

Hezbollah was founded in 1982, as a response to the Israeli occupation, and fought a deadly guerrilla war that included high-profile suicide bombings and assassinations, roadside bombs and ambushes.

Israel carried out bombing campaigns and airstrikes against the militant groups. It also helped establish a local proxy force, a mostly-Christian militia known as the South Lebanon Army that carried out patrols and provided a buffer between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. Thousands of SLA fighters and their families fled to Israel following the withdrawal.

But the type of warfare between the two sides has also changed.

Israel is now operating without a local proxy, instead relying on monitoring and strikes either by air or from vantage points on ridges and hilltops. And Hezbollah, which once relied on insurgent tactics, now uses high-precision missiles and drones, including fiber-optic drones that are hard to defend against and have caused Israeli casualties.

Unique diplomatic opportunity could shift balance

One key difference from 2000 is the possibility of a diplomatic solution with Lebanon, said Orna Mizrahi, former deputy director of Israel’s National Security Council.

Israel has an opportunity in Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Mizrahi said. Since he was elected last year, he has publicly condemned Hezbollah and expressed readiness to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Israel.

“The military operation needs to complement a diplomatic process,” said Mizrahi, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.

Although Hezbollah is unlikely to agree to disarm, it has been severely weakened by wars with Israel, she said, adding that its main sponsor, Iran, is also busy weathering U.S. strikes and battling for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Mizrahi said this has created an opportunity for a new balance of power inside Lebanon, by strengthening the Lebanese government and military. Israel will never destroy Hezbollah completely, she said. But while the group is scrambling to reorganize, Israel can work with international powers to empower Lebanon to confront it, she added.

4 mothers against the war

By the time Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the occupation had become deeply unpopular, in large part because of the more than 1,200 Israeli soldiers killed in operations.

In 1997, four mothers of soldiers serving in Lebanon founded a grassroots movement advocating for withdrawal.

Brurya Sharon, now 84, one of the founding members, recalls sending both of her sons off to fight in Lebanon. At the time, she said she felt like Israel’s government and military were maintaining the occupation out of inertia, without stopping to consider if it was effective.

The “Four Mothers” movement has been widely cited as a major factor in Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. They tried to steer clear of politics, instead focusing on the soldiers’ lives, a bipartisan issue, Sharon said.

But now, the country is so divided, especially after the Oct. 7 attack, that Sharon says she sees no option for a broad-based public movement to pressure Israel to withdraw.

Israelis, still traumatized from the Hamas attack, are also concerned about leaving the country's borders vulnerable. Currently, more than seven in 10 Israelis support a permanent security presence in southern Lebanon, according to a recent poll by the think tank Israel Democracy Institute.

“I don’t see a sunbeam of hope, I don’t even see a speck of light,” Sharon said.

Aktar's work is demanding, with each worker expected to produce thousands of garments a day. Precision is essential, and even small mistakes can slow production or result in rejected items. Aktar said her new glasses have helped her thread needles faster — and they've also relieved her headaches and eye strain.

“Before I got the glasses, it took me a long time to thread the needle. Now I can thread it in just a short time. I make far fewer alterations than before,” she said.

In Bangladesh, home to the world’s second-largest garment industry after China, some factory owners are working on supplying more glasses to workers to boost productivity. The country's garment sector contributes about 11% of gross domestic product and employs around 4 million workers.

VisionSpring, a global nonprofit social enterprise supplying affordable glasses to people in poorer countries, estimates that roughly one in three Bangladeshi garment workers need glasses but do not have them.

The group has supplied glasses that cost less than ten dollars per pair to some workers through a partnership with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which represents factory owners.

Ella Gudwin, chief executive of VisionSpring, said the benefits were immediate, as workers were better able to meet quality and production targets. Better vision also reduces mistakes such as skipped stitches, uneven hems and misplaced buttons, cutting the need for rework, she said.

Fahima Akhter, a director of Bangladeshi garment company Masco Group, said managers initially did not realize how many workers had vision problems because they rarely complained. She said Masco Group has screened about 5,000 workers, with around 30% receiving glasses.

Akhter said her company plans to extend the program to its remaining workforce of more than 20,000 employees.

“We don’t consider it a cost. It is an investment. If the workers are working with better vision, their productivity and workplace safety will improve, and eventually this will translate into better productivity and profit for the company," she said.

A randomized controlled research trial in India that was co-authored by Gudwin suggested that sewing machine operators who received reading glasses increased productivity by 6% while making fewer errors. The study, published in April in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, found that every $1 spent on vision screening and glasses generated $3.37 in productivity gains over 12 weeks.

It estimated that expanding similar programs across the global textile and garment industry could generate the equivalent of $27 billion in additional annual output.

Gudwin said vision correction has long been overlooked because eyeglasses were often seen as a luxury rather than an essential workplace tool. She said many factory workers develop age-related short-sightedness in their late 30s and early 40s, but delay treatment because they assume glasses are expensive.

Gudwin said bringing eye screenings directly into factories removes those barriers.

Masco Group’s Akhter said Bangladesh’s garment sector should make vision screening a standard workplace benefit.

“Having a clear vision is not a luxury, it is a necessity now,” she said.

The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

The AP reached out to congressional leaders and several key lawmakers of both parties for response.

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to the AP.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who led a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democrats tried to impose restraints on immigration enforcement operations, said the consequences of failing to put guardrails on ICE are now being measured in lives.

“The Trump administration rushed 12,000 agents onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun — and Republicans gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability,” Schumer said in a statement. “They empowered ICE. Now they must work with us to prevent more killings.”

The report on Brouillette’s troubling past comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been on a hiring spree, fueled by vast sums from Republicans in Congress to help carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It raises fresh questions about the department's efforts to quickly hire, vet, train and dispatch recruits who are being sent to patrol communities across America.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, referred back to her prior statement that “an impartial investigation into the shooting in Biddeford needs to proceed, as the details surrounding this tragedy are important.”

Collins had said earlier that it is “extremely unfortunate” that the agent did not have a body-worn camera.

The senator ensured $20 million for expanded use of body-worn cameras and $2 million for deescalation training as part of the Homeland Security funding bill that Republicans approved to end the department shutdown.

“The Democratic government shutdown delayed enactment and implementation of these important safety measures,” she said.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

“This bombshell is absolutely appalling — exactly the intolerable danger that we feared as a result of arrest quotas and inadequate training,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a statement to the AP.

“This agent clearly should never have had a gun — let alone one provided to him by the United States government. And now a man is dead. I’m going to continue demanding answers and accountability,” he said.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said Trump and his administration “have encouraged ICE and CBP to enter and terrorize our communities, even if those agents are untrained, improperly vetted, or lack experience,” referring to Customs and Border Protection.

“The killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was horrifying,” he said in a statement to the AP, “and there must be a credible, independent, and transparent investigation so that those responsible are held accountable.”

Futures for the S&P 500 declined 0.8% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.5%. Nasdaq futures tumbled 1.6%.

Most computer chipmakers — including Micron, Nvidia, Broadcom and Qualcomm — were down between 2% and 3% in premarket trading. Intel slid 3.4%.

Stocks related to artificial intelligence have been under pressure for weeks because of worries that their prices have shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may not be sustainable if AI ends up not producing as much profit and productivity as promised.

“Now investors are taking profits from the first-half winners and moving toward areas that were left behind,” Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary.

The announcement of a new Chinese open-sourced AI model by startup Moonshot, Kimi K3, further shook up markets. Similar to when China’s DeepSeek announced its AI model in early 2025, another low-cost rival to big Western AI models like ChatGPT and OpenAI could potentially hurt demand for computer chips and other components that have greatly benefited from rapid adoption of AI.

SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company which also owns xAI, was down 4.5% after it aborted the launch of its mega Starship rocket. Starship came within a second or so from blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to ignite, triggering a launch abort amid billowing clouds of smoke and vapor.

Netflix slumped more than 11% overnight after the video streaming company’s forecast for the current quarter fell below Wall Street’s expectations. The California company on Thursday reported better second-quarter profit than expected, but revenue fell short of analyst targets.

In Asia, South Korean markets were closed, but shares in Taiwan fell 6.5% a day after its TSMC, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of computer chips, announced it plans to spend an extra $100 billion on building fabrication plants in the U.S.

TSMC dropped 7.3% on Friday.

Tokyo's Nikkei lost 4% to 64,141.12, at times trading near its lowest level in over a month, as shares in memory maker Kioxia slumped 16.1%.

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron sank 8.2%. Chip testing equipment maker Advantest tumbled 7.2%.

SoftBank Group, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in AI-related businesses, shed 9%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up 2% to 24,505.38, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 3.1% to 3,764.15, dipping to its lowest level in nearly 11 months.

Hong Kong-trade shares in Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co., Ltd., branded internationally as Z.ai and previously known as ZhipuAI, tanked 28.5%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.5% to 8,796.70.

At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.5%, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.7% and Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged.

The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices are near their highest level in a month because of worries that the war with Iran will keep oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and block shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, $1.72, or 2%, to $85.95 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 2.3%, or $1.93, to $80.88 per barrel.

Iran launched new missile attacks against U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war. It also damaged a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait — something crucial in the small, desert nation.

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted the war was going well.

“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” Trump said.

Bridges and 'electrical infrastructure' hit in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

While other routes still are open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people.

Iran also acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrike campaign for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces.

It said those areas “are currently experiencing extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure.” The ministry did not elaborate on whether it was power plants, transmission lines or other equipment that had been attacked.

Such strikes on power infrastructure had been suspected for days. Tehran city councilman Mehdi Chamran told journalists asking about electrical problems on Tuesday, “Just look at how many power facilities they hit … and you wouldn’t be asking that question.”

Tower at key port collapses in US strike

The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

The strikes also collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.

Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.

As of 6 a.m. Friday, the U.S. strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. About 90% of drinking water comes from desalination — and any disruption can threaten life.

Kuwait said it extinguished the blaze and was working to assess the damage and get the station working again.

Jordan's military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Iran did not immediately claim the attack but has targeted Komala in the past.

Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said.

The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran has been attacking tankers traveling on the route near Oman but did not immediately acknowledge any attack.

Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in violence.

Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said Thursday. A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

___

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

A decade ago, Burnham abandoned a 20-year climb up the Labour Party ladder in London to head north and run for mayor of Greater Manchester. A month ago, he returned to Parliament by winning a risky special election. On Monday, he will become Britain’s 59th prime minister.

The sudden downfall of Prime Minister Keir Starmer after just two years in office has swept the 56-year-old Burnham into office — unelected and largely untested. He will enter No. 10 Downing St. carrying the heavy weight of expectation, and big questions about how he will shoulder it.

“A whole range of people across the Labour movement and in the country have projected onto Andy Burnham their hopes and their fantasies about how the country should be run and what Labour should stand for and what Andy Burnham stands for,” said Joshi Herrmann, founder of Manchester news site The Mill, who has covered Burnham for years.

“He has got lots of people’s hopes up.”

He was born in Liverpool and attended Cambridge

Burnham has made his name in Manchester, but he was born in Liverpool, and grew up in a commuter village between the rival northwest English cities.

His father worked as a British Telecom engineer and his mother as a receptionist, and he was raised in a close-knit Catholic family. Burnham has said he’s “not particularly religious,” but Catholic teaching, along with the center-left Labour Party, helped forge his values and sense of social justice.

Burnham and his brothers were the first generation of their family to go to university. And not just any university — Burnham attended Cambridge, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious institutions.

“He needed a lot of persuading to apply because he felt that as a working-class boy, going off to Cambridge wasn’t for him,” Stephen Harrington, Burnham’s former English teacher at St. Aelred’s Catholic High School, told the BBC. “He didn’t believe in himself. But he did it, and the rest is history.”

Burnham has said he felt out of place at Cambridge, where many of his classmates had gone to posh private schools in the more affluent south of England. But he got a degree in English and met his future wife, Dutch fellow student Marie-France Van Heel, now a marketing executive. The couple married in 2000 and have a son and two daughters.

After graduating, Burnham worked as a journalist at trade magazines before becoming a researcher and adviser to Labour politicians.

Elected to Parliament for the Manchester-area district of Leigh in 2001, he rose through the government ranks under Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He served in Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010 as chief secretary to the Treasury, culture secretary and health secretary.

A formative experience came in 2009, when he was heckled at a commemoration of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were crushed to death. Bereaved families had fought for years to overturn a false narrative offered by police that unruly fans had been to blame.

Burnham became a champion for the families and helped push for a new inquest, an apology and a law that imposes a duty of candor on public officials to tell the truth about tragedies whatever the impact on their reputation.

As mayor, he became known as King of the North

After Labour lost power in 2010, Burnham ran for leadership of the party that year and in 2015, losing both times. He quit Parliament in 2017, a low ebb for Labour nationally, to run for mayor of Greater Manchester.

Being mayor played to his strengths: an ability to bring people together, a sharp eye for opportunities and a wide streak of pragmatism. His approach became known as “Manchesterism,” a brand of business-friendly socialism that aims to harness private and public money to invest in areas like transport, housing and infrastructure.

Manchester was a former manufacturing powerhouse — known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution — that had been hollowed out as British industry crumbled. During his tenure the city boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Burnham won praise for taking a piecemeal public transport system under public control and improving it.

He shed suit and tie for jeans and dark T-shirts, spoke about his love for Oasis, The Smiths and New Order and spent spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis that was punishing northern cities. That’s when he gained the nickname King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his political ambition.

He has said he saw his work in central government as “unfinished business,” and got his chance when Starmer was pushed to resign by Labour colleagues alarmed at the party’s unpopularity.

But Burnham still needed a seat in Parliament. A Labour lawmaker agreed to resign, triggering a special election for the Manchester-area district of Makerfield. Burnham trounced the candidate from anti-immigration party Reform UK, cementing his credentials as a winner.

In the subsequent contest to replace Starmer as Labour leader, he was the only candidate.

He’s promising to restore hope

Now he says he will deliver “a new politics based on unity and hope” and “an economy that works for everybody,” no matter where they live. A key plank is giving regional leaders more powers, and he plans to move part of the prime minister’s office to a “No. 10 North” in Manchester.

Herrmann said Burnham has clear strengths, especially an ability to tell a persuasive story and a sense of empathy that many politicians lack.

He added that the incoming prime minister has “a set of principles about trying to make the country fairer, trying to bring people out of poverty, that he really does believe in.”

Critics claim Burnham’s politics are vague on key points, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. He will face many of the same political and economic challenges that stymied Starmer, including a sluggish economy, overstretched public services and a cost-of-living squeeze. He has little experience of foreign policy issues, from the Ukraine war to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

And running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a region of 3 million.

But Sacha Lord, a Manchester music entrepreneur who served as Burnham’s nighttime economy adviser, said the politician has a steely side that will help him rise to the occasion.

“He’s not scared of locking horns with people,” Lord said. “Everybody thinks Andy’s this nice, cheeky-chappy guy. But trust me, when he wants something ... he tends to get it.”

Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.

In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even while the president was still speaking.

The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live, saying that “NBC and ABC fake news” avoided it because they “don't like the topic.” He also threatened them with consequences, using the presidential pulpit to suggest they should be sanctioned for their editorial decisions.

"They and others in the media are part of a plot," Trump said, offering no evidence for his assertion. There is also no evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections.

“They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going," he said. "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multibillion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”

The tension between Trump and the news media during his second term has taken many forms, from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits.

There were a variety of approaches to coverage

The media outlets' decision-making — seemingly last-minute, for many, with networks divulging their plans minutes beforehand — produced a variety of coverage scenarios for the 24 minutes of Trump’s address.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins anchored her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s “well-documented history” of falsehoods. Panelists were on hand for analysis and fact-checking. “Sadly, we have no choice to be skeptical when this president talks elections,” said the network’s veteran correspondent John King.

Fox News and Fox Broadcasting aired the president’s speech live. But ABC and NBC did not, sticking with regular programming — “Press Your Luck,” in ABC's case, and an animal show featuring alligators in NBC's. But they were ready to cut in as they deemed newsworthy, as well as offering special reports afterwards.

Both ABC and NBC, however, provided live coverage on their streaming channels — NBC News NOW and ABC News Live — as well as ABC News Radio. In the still-young era of streaming, that is increasingly a decision that allows network news to play it both ways.

As for CBS, the network did preempt regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — to air a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil. The report joined the live speech a few minutes in, at 9:06, and left it before the end, at 9:23.

MS NOW started airing the speech, then cut away for analysis and commentary after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show. Psaki used the split screen for a bit, with her speaking on the right and a muted Trump appearing on the left.

By the end, of the top networks, the speech was continuing live only on Fox News.

Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, said coverage of the 24- minute address made for “a weird evening, where the reporters quote and describe the speech but show little of what they’re quoting." Thompson said full coverage was the way to go even — and perhaps especially — if the speech was believed to contain falsehoods.

“When the president of the United States makes an announcement that there is going to be a major speech with major information, however cynical we are … I think that is, by definition, important civic news significant to the citizenry,” he said. “It’s the president making the speech, and if the president does what everybody’s worried about him doing, that is a real reason to be covering it, to bear witness on exactly what gets said."

Networks had been urged beforehand to carry it live

Earlier Thursday, at the White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt had urged TV networks to carry the speech live. And Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said on his show that major networks not going live was “pretty unheard of for a primetime address for a president.”

Broadcast networks, though, have previously declined primetime coverage to President Barack Obama for a 2014 speech on immigration, and President Joe Biden for his speech on democracy, “Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” in 2022.

The backdrop of Thursday’s speech was an ever-increasing tension between the media and the administration. Broadcast networks have been under close scrutiny by the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who has launched early reviews of licenses of some ABC-owned stations and threatened to revoke the long-held exemption from equal time rules for the popular talk show “The View.”

Trump’s animosity toward news outlets whose agenda runs counter to his own isn’t new. But in his second presidential term, he has launched an escalation, often harnessing the levers of the federal government or attempting to do so. The efforts have taken place both in actual courtrooms and in the court of public opinion.

In fact, one of the strongest security features of U.S. elections is the fact that they aren’t conducted at the federal level. America votes in more than 10,000 different election jurisdictions, each with different rules set by state and sometimes local governments.

That structure makes the nation's elections extraordinarily complicated — and also safe from widespread fraud. And when misconduct does happen — rarely — security protocols frequently catch it.

Decentralized elections date back to the nation's founding

America's highly decentralized system of voting exists because the nation’s Founding Fathers gave authority over elections to the states, rather than the federal government. While Congress has the power to regulate elections — and has used that authority to pass such laws as the Voting Rights Act — the Constitution makes clear that states have primary authority to set the “times, places and manner” for elections.

There also is no national election agency that administers the presidential contest, something that's different from many other countries. And when it comes to doing the day-to-day work of running an election, the responsibility falls to officials at the local level — usually a clerk or election supervisor — with help from staff and volunteers.

While differences in election laws can get confusing, election security experts say this structure is a strength. That's because to pull off stealing a presidential election — as Trump falsely claims was done to him in 2020 — it would require large numbers of election workers in the most competitive counties across the country who are willing to risk prosecution, prison time and fines while working with officials from both parties willing to look the other way. And everyone somehow would have to keep quiet — a highly unlikely scenario.

There are also shared practices and security measures in place across the country that together work to ensure that only eligible voters can cast a ballot and only one ballot is counted for each.

Voter fraud can happen, but it's rare and there are safeguards to catch it

Most Americans by now have probably heard stories about someone casting multiple ballots, or voting in the name of dead relatives, or stealing mail ballots from mailboxes.

When these incidents happen, they are often caught and prosecuted.

Voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence to vote somewhere else or casting someone else’s ballot are crimes that can be punished with hefty fines and prison time. Non-U.S. citizens who break election laws can be deported.

For anyone still motivated to cheat, election systems in the United States are designed with multiple layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way.

For example, for in-person voting, most states either require or request voters provide some sort of identification at the polls. Others require voters to verify who they are in another way, such as stating their name and address, signing a poll book or signing an affidavit.

For absentee voting, all states require a voter's signature, and many states have further precautions, such as having bipartisan teams compare the signature with other signatures on file, requiring the signature to be notarized or requiring a witness to sign.

That means even if a ballot is erroneously sent to someone’s past address and the current resident mails it in, there are checks to alert election workers to the foul play.

AP review found there was too little voter fraud to tip the 2020 election

Trump has spent six years insisting he won the 2020 election, a campaign he lost to former President Joe Biden.

An Associated Press review in 2021 dug into every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states that Trump disputed. It found fewer than 475 cases — a number that would have made no difference in that race.

Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department. In 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, told the AP that no proof of widespread voter fraud had been uncovered. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said at the time.

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It happened just after 2 a.m. along Northeast 22nd Street, west of Second Avenue, in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.

According to the Miami Police Department, the victim was in a vehicle being driven by the suspect, identified as Orlando Jose Olivares, when they got into an argument after Olivares allegedly almost caused a collision.

The argument continued until they reached their home, when police said the victim told officers he saw Olivares walking toward him with what was described as a steel fence post.

According to an arrest form, “the victim told him to put the metal post down and fight like men” but instead, police said Olivares struck the victim in the elbow and head with the pole, causing the victim to fall to the ground, after which Olivares then “got on top of the victim in a full mount position” and continued to punch him “and at one point choking him from behind.”

Investigators said the victim’s wife recorded a portion of the altercation on her cell phone.

Olivares is facing a felony charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and as of Thursday afternoon was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set.”

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The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office identified the suspects as Karel Clavel-Beltran, 46, of Hialeah; Alexis Franc Fernandez, 63, of Tampa; and Miguel Nunez-Garcia, 47, of Miami.

According to an MDSO press release, “Clavel-Beltran used strategically placed cameras and earpieces to help Mr. Miguel Nunez-Garcia and Mr. Alexis Fernandez cheat on the computer-based driver license examination.”

Nunez-Garcia’s arrest report states that he had failed the exam multiple times before passing Wednesday. The report notes that Nunez-Garcia does not understand English and the test is solely administered in English following a law that took effect on Feb. 6.

According to the report, Nunez-Garcia admitted that he was wearing a purple Polo shirt equipped with a “button camera” and an earpiece as Clavel-Beltran provided him the answers to the exam while he took it at the Midway Crossings Tax Collector Office at 7795 W. Flagler St.

He said he paid Clavel-Beltran $600 for his assistance, authorities said.

According to a separate arrest report, Fernandez also took the exam Wednesday at the Midway Crossings location and was spotted by a Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles compliance officer entering a white truck in a gray T-shirt and then exiting the truck wearing a Polo shirt.

Deputies said it is common practice for people to wear a Polo shirt to hide recording devices during exams and then change their attire once the exam is completed.

According to the report, Fernandez was detained after the exam and he too could not understand English, despite taking the exam in English.

Deputies said Fernandez admitted that Clavel-Beltran provided him the earpiece and Polo shirt with the button camera to help him pass the exam, but he still failed because he was unable to hear Clavel-Beltran through the earpiece.

According to the report, Fernandez said he brought a “large amount of cash” with him to pay Clavel-Beltran for his services, but he was detained by an investigator before he could pay him.

Fernandez and Nunez-Garcia were arrested on charges of cheating and unlawful use of a communications device.

Clavel-Beltran, meanwhile, was arrested on charges of organized scheme to defraud, cheating, unlawful use of a communications device and providing a false name/ID after arrest.

“Obtaining a driver license is a privilege that comes with the responsibility of safely operating a vehicle on our roadways,” MDSO said in a statement. “When someone attempts to cheat the testing process, they undermine the integrity of the system and put the safety of our community at risk.

“MDSO remains committed to protecting the integrity of the licensing process and ensuring that only qualified drivers earn the privilege to get behind the wheel. Attempts to obtain a driver license through fraud or deception will not be tolerated, and those who try to circumvent the law will be investigated and held accountable.”

All three suspects appeared in bond court Thursday. Fernandez was granted a $5,000 bond. Clavel-Beltran and Nunez-Garcia, both of Cuba, will remain jailed on immigration holds for the time being.

Records show Clavel-Beltran also has an open warrant on a 2008 case in which he was charged with trafficking cannabis and grand theft.

Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said more arrests could be coming as this investigation continues.

“When individuals attempt to cheat the testing process, they undermine the integrity of the system and put public safety at risk,” he said. “Fraud has no place in our offices or around our facilities, and anyone who attempts to obtain a government-issued credential through deception should expect to be held accountable.”

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Portis was introduced first at Kaseya Center before Antetokounmpo addressed reporters later in the afternoon.

Heat president Pat Riley called the day the culmination of years of admiring Portis’ game and the pursuit of one of the NBA’s biggest stars.

Riley laughed when explaining why Portis will wear No. 95 with the Heat.

“It was great the other day to see how he came to that number because he drove all the way from Milwaukee on 95 down to Miami,” Riley said. “And I like that number because it reminds me of a double-double somewhere along the way.”

He also praised Portis’ versatility and toughness.

“I always loved his game, right out of Arkansas to Chicago to Washington, New York, Dallas and finally Milwaukee,” Riley said. “Prototype power forward, very versatile ... a hell of a player and we’re very fortunate to have him part of our organization.”

Portis, 31, enters his 12th NBA season after spending the past seven years with the Bucks. Last season, he averaged 13.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists while shooting 48.8% from the field and 45.6% from 3-point range on 4.4 attempts per game.

The Heat is the fifth team of Portis’ NBA career. He previously played for the Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, New York Knicks and Bucks.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Portis brings the physical style and versatility Miami targeted this offseason.

“We feel like we bring a physicality and an edge to our front court, and that’s something that we’ve always wanted,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody’s talking about you need to have some size in the front court and positional size. We think we’ve checked those boxes.”

Spoelstra called Portis “one of the best shooting bigs in the league” while also praising his rebounding, post play and defensive versatility.

Portis said joining the Heat fulfills a longtime dream.

“First and foremost, I just want to give a big shout out to the Heat organization for allowing me to be a part of this trade, allowing me to grace the culture,” Portis said. “I was born to be a Heat player, so it fits right in with me. My favorite team growing up, I just want to put that out there.”

He added that he prides himself on improving every offseason.

“Over time, as you grow in your career, you want to evolve your game each and every year,” Portis said.

Hours later, the spotlight shifted to Antetokounmpo, whose arrival represents one of the biggest acquisitions in franchise history.

Riley said adding another superstar continues the organization’s pursuit of championships.

“We got Giannis,” he said. “This is just part of who the Heat are in the pursuit of excellence, but you don’t win championships unless you have greatness on the court and on the bench.”

Spoelstra said he didn’t hesitate when Riley approached him about the possibility of coaching Antetokounmpo.

“A little while ago Pat called me into his office and he looked at me and he said, ‘Do you want to coach Giannis?’” he said. “Yes. I didn’t ask why he asked the question. I didn’t ask how it could work. I just walked out of the office and let him and Andy (Elisburg) get to work.”

Spoelstra said Antetokounmpo’s competitiveness is what makes him special.

“He is a force of will, a force of nature, has an absolute will to win,” Spoelstra said. “On any given day or year, he can be the best on the planet.”

Antetokounmpo, 31, said he has long admired the Heat organization from afar.

“I’ve always had huge respect for the Miami Heat organization,” he said. “Around the league as players we speak, we talk, and you always hear about the Miami Heat culture — that guys work hard, guys are very disciplined, guys are very driven and guys are very selfless.”

The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he wanted a new challenge after spending 13 seasons in Milwaukee.

“I think I thrive under pressure,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think I need pressure at this time in my career. I think in order for me to go to the next level, I’ve got to get out of my comfort zone, and I feel like Miami was the place for me to be.”

He added that winning another championship remains his primary motivation.

“I’ve accomplished a lot of things in my career, but one of my goals is to win another championship,” he said. “I feel like this is the best route for me to do that.”

The seven-time All-NBA First Team selection, two-time MVP, 2021 NBA champion and Finals MVP, nine-time All-Star and 2020 Defensive Player of the Year said he is eager to team with center Bam Adebayo after years of battling him.

“With Bam I got 12 hours of sleep,” Antetokounmpo joked. “I had to be extra ready because I know he’ll play very, very hard.”

He said he believes the pair can anchor one of the league’s top defenses.

“It starts from me and Bam,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m excited to compete with him. I’m excited to be on the same side with him.”

Antetokounmpo also explained why he changed his jersey number from No. 34, which he wore throughout his 13 seasons in Milwaukee, to No. 7 with the Heat.

Giannis asked about changing his number from 34 to 7.

He says if you add 3+4 it equals 7. His mom was born on the 7th. But he says the real reason he changed it was for the love and respect he has for Milwaukee.

“It was kind of like having closure mentally and emotionally.”

— Will Manso (@WillManso) July 16, 2026

He said the number carries personal significance because adding 3 and 4 equals 7 and his mother was born on the seventh day of the month. But he said the primary reason for the change was to honor his time with the Bucks.

“It was kind of like having closure mentally and emotionally,” Antetokounmpo said. “Out of love and respect for the previously organization that I spent 13 years with, I didn’t want to wear No. 34 anymore.”

Riley also acknowledged the difficulty of parting with several young players and draft assets to acquire Antetokounmpo but said the opportunity was too significant to pass up.

“We’re about now, and Giannis is about now too,” Riley said. “It’s not easy when you develop a lot of time and effort into development, but once you make it, you go full forward with it. We’re going for it all.”

With Antetokounmpo, Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr. joining a roster led by Adebayo, the Heat enter the 2026-27 season with renewed championship expectations.

You can watch the Local 10 Special report on the Miami Heat’s white hot welcome to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr. right here or by clicking this link.

LeBron returning to Miami?

Riley also teased that the Heat may not be done making moves, and that the team could be looking to reunite with four-time NBA champion LeBron James, who is currently a free agent after choosing not to re-sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Pat Riley on Giannis “we landed the plane.”

“Now there’s another one we have to land.” 😳🤔

— Clay Ferraro (@ClayWPLG) July 16, 2026

“The first thing to do is we landed a 747,” Riley said, referring to Antetokounmpo. “You want to characterize the other guy, you can go ahead and characterize it.”

Miami will hold its annual media day Sept. 28 at Kaseya Center before opening training camp on Sept. 29.

And don’t forget, you can watch Miami Heat games on Local 10 next season as WPLG Local 10 and the Heat announced a newly expanded media rights agreement, making Local 10 the home of HEAT basketball across South Florida! CLICK HERE for more information on how to watch!

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

One video posted on social media showed a man yelling and crying on the ground in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport on Monday when a man and a masked woman, both in plainclothes, tried to control, handcuff and detain him. When the pair realized they were being filmed, they walked away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no outstanding warrants for the man, removed his handcuffs and notified ICE.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ICE officers on Monday did not proceed with the arrest at the Las Vegas airport of Phu Nguyen, a 57-year-old citizen of Australia who overstayed his visa. ICE arrested him at his flight departing the Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said.

“ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” Democratic U.S. Senator for Nevada Jacky Rosen said in a statement. “Enough is enough. ICE must follow the same commonsense guardrails as other law enforcement agencies."

The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus and the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Caucus are calling for a full investigation into the aborted arrest by ICE at Harry Reid International Airport, urging Gov. Joe Lombardo to explain the transparency and accountability for federal law enforcement agencies operating in Nevada.

Las organizadoras pertenecen al movimiento “Warmis (mujeres en aymara) Sobre Ruedas”, cuyas integrantes se caracterizan por practicar este deporte urbano luciendo sus prendas de vestir típicas.

En la competencia de talentos se evalúa la técnica, la creatividad y la vestimenta de la mujer aymara, explicó a The Associated Press Ana Lucía Calvep, miembro del movimiento. Los premios son patinetas e implementos para practicar esta disciplina extrema.

La pista de skate se encuentra en medio de árboles en un barrio alejado del centro de La Paz, a unos 3.600 metros sobre el nivel del mar. La competencia inició con los ejercicios básicos para las principiantes quienes realizaban los llamados “cangrejitos” que consistía en simular caminar sobre la patineta con los pies en cada extremo sin caerse. Todas lo lograron.

Sin embargo, al aumentar el nivel de dificultad, muchas se fueron cayendo. Participaron niñas desde los ocho años hasta jóvenes de 18.

“Yo siento que vuelo”, expresó Calvep, de 18 años. “La pollera es más pesada, pero es un honor vestirla porque representa a mi abuela”, destacó.

La chola es un personaje importante en la identidad de la ciudad de La Paz.

En este concurso no todas las participantes usan pollera. Sin embargo, existe una categoría especial que premia a quien la vista y demuestre los trucos; gana una tabla.

El skate en Bolivia se va abriendo camino a nivel profesional, por lo que las jóvenes también aspiran a mejorar para participar en competencias internacionales.

“Me siento muy feliz de que mi hija de 10 años use la pollera que mi mamá viste, con gusto la traigo", dijo Victoria Mamani, madre de Arely Ramos, quien participó en la categoría de principiantes. “Mi mamá incluso se emociona”.

“Este deporte no es fácil, cada caída me duele como madre. Pero he visto que a mi hija la ha hecho más fuerte”, agregó.

The supersizing of ICE -- fueled by an infusion of billions of dollars granted by Congress — has raised concerns about the agency's hiring practices and whether officers being brought on are receiving proper vetting. Those concerns have been rejected by the Department of Homeland Security.

Relatives of the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets.

The precise circumstances surrounding the officer's hiring were not immediately clear. But the revelations about the man, David Brouillette, shine a new spotlight on ICE's hiring spree and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Here is a look at the agency's hiring and training practices:

A surge in new hires at ICE

In January, Homeland Security said it had hired 12,000 new officers and agents since the hiring surge began and said thousands of those new officers were already out on the streets assisting with investigations. The number includes both deportation officers and agents for Homeland Security Investigations, a separate agency that falls under ICE.

ICE has said the majority of new hires are police and military veterans. But evidence has been mounting that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before they were brought on or were hired in spite of their past, an investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year found.

At the time, Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, would not answer questions about specific hiring decisions. It did say some applicants received “tentative selection letters” and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they had been subjected to full background checks.

It defended its hiring practices, saying it does rigorous vetting.

ICE’s former acting director, Todd Lyons, said during a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign, which drew more than 220,000 applications.

“This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda,” he said.

The vetting process includes reviewing applicants' criminal histories and credit scores and conducting background investigations that include interviewing prior employers and other associates, which can take weeks. ICE also promised signing bonuses of up to $50,000, advertised that college degrees were not required and lowered the age of new recruits to 18.

An internal memo, first reported by Reuters in February, told ICE supervisors that if they receive “derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct” they should refer the allegations to an internal affairs unit for investigation. Such information could include the employees’ termination or forced resignations, the memo said.

The DHS inspector general last August announced plans to audit ICE’s hiring and training processes, but no findings have been released.

Applicants have to get a security clearance

Recent job advertisements for deportation officers spell out the current qualifications, including that the person must be a U.S. citizen to apply and will have to pass a background investigation and a drug test.

New deportation officers also have to take a physical fitness test and be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance. Once hired, new deportation officers may have to serve a one-year probationary period.

According to the job advertisement, deportation officers are required to carry a firearm, which means anyone convicted of domestic violence is ruled out.

Applicants undergo a medical exam and should be prepared to possibly be polygraphed. The application cautions that any false statements on the application can translate into the job offer being pulled or, if the person has already started work, they can lose their job or go to prison.

The background investigation can include a credit check, reviews of any financial problems like failure to pay child support or taxes and a look at the person’s criminal and drug history.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official under the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations, said hiring a new deportation officer is similar to any other federal hiring.

Generally, applications are reviewed by a hiring manager who decides which candidates to advance. Once someone gets a tentative offer, the agency conducts a background check.

When people are applying for jobs that involve getting a security clearance, Trickler-McNulty said, they have to disclose on their application any drug use, interactions with police, groups they’re affiliated with, mental health concerns, prior addresses and job history.

Depending on the clearance level, they’ll also ask for references that a background investigator will contact. If there’s red flag such as a DUI or a history of debt, that can trigger a deeper investigation.

“You want to make sure the person is appropriate for a public trust position,” she said.

Concerns over changes to ICE training schedule

Generally, new candidates for deportation officer positions have to go through a 50-day immigration law enforcement training program, according to the job advertisement.

Ryan Schwank, a former lawyer at ICE who was responsible for training new deportation officers, told The Associated Press that the agency reduced the overall amount of training new recruits received and reduced the testing needed to pass before graduating. Homeland Security has denied that it has removed any training requirements or lessened requirements for officers.

Trickler-McNulty said she has concerns over reports the agency shortened training as it was aiming to hire thousands of new officers. ICE officials revamped the training as part of efforts to swiftly hire and train an additional 10,000 deportation officers with an infusion of billions of dollars last summer from Congress.

At the time, the agency had about 6,500 deportation officers. That led to allegations that the department was cutting corners in an effort to get more officers in the field, which Homeland Security and ICE repeatedly denied.

In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency would be increasing the amount of training for new officers starting this month. In a statement Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said all new academy training classes beginning July 1 will last for 71 days and officers who graduated under the previous curriculum would get more training under a separate field officer program.

The department also said it was adding new training in crowd control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.

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Associated Press reporter Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report from Phoenix.

The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners.

Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only males can be emperor.

Emperor Naruhito ’s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan’s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor's younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito. Next in line after him is the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

In an imperial family that places a premium on male royal babies, Hisahito is the first such boy to be born in four decades. Only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family — there are no children — are men.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives insist the male bloodline is “the only source of the emperor’s authority and legitimacy,” which is the basis for the upcoming measures.

“I'm deeply moved,” Takaichi told reporters after the enactment.

While an emperor's mother can be a commoner, as is the case with the current one, only boys born to men with royal blood can be heirs to the throne, according to the Imperial House Law.

The revision to the antiquated law is meant to solidify the principle of that crucial bloodline by allowing the adoption of distant royal male relatives to father future heirs, pushing the Emperor's daughter to the side. It will also allow princesses to keep their royal status and serve duties if they marry a commoner.

“It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male lineage at all costs,” said Hideya Kawanishi, an expert on monarchy at Nagoya University. “They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.”

Imperial Household Agency chief Buichiro Kuroda said in a statement that his agency “will do everything it can appropriately to support smooth activity for the Imperial Family members in line with (the revisions), while fully taking into consideration their feelings.”

Takaichi supports male-only succession

There have been eight female monarchs. The last was Empress Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.

The paternal-line male succession was stipulated for the first time in the 1890 Imperial House Law, when Japan promoted patriarchal systems. That law was largely carried over to the current 1947 version.

Friday’s revisions have led to protests from Japanese who see the government efforts as meant to eliminate Princess Aiko from ruling and to justify discrimination against women and a patriarchal system.

“It’s very ironic that the first female prime minister herself is the leading proponent of the obsession with male succession,” Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote recently referring to Takaichi.

Ueno said the new measures “treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring.”

After Aiko’s birth, her mother Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat and a commoner, developed a stress-induced mental condition, apparently over criticism for not producing a male heir.

Imperial family is shrinking

Because of the male-only succession rules and the dismissal of princesses who marry commoners, the monarchy after Hisahito is “extremely unstable,” former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa told Kyodo News recently.

Historians say the current system is unworkable, as Japan more broadly faces a fast-aging, dwindling population. It only worked in the past because concubines produced half the emperors until about 100 years ago, when the practice ended under Naruhito’s great-grandfather, Emperor Taisho.

A government proposal in 2005 to allow female monarchs was scrapped following Hisahito’s birth.

Naruhito's two male heirs are his brother, Crown Prince Akishino, 60, who is only six years younger than the emperor and has reportedly said he would be too old to serve, and Hisahito, Akishino’s 19-year-old son. Third in line is Naruhito's uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.

Distant relatives

The more controversial of the two measures allows unmarried male descendants, aged 15 or older, of distant imperial relatives — but only of paternal lineage — to be adopted into the royal family.

Fifty-one members from 11 branch families renounced their royal status in 1947, mainly to ease the postwar financial burden on the monarchy, Imperial Household Agency official Yoshimi Ogata told a recent parliamentary session.

Those people are at least 36 generations removed from Naruhito because they split from a common male-line ancestor 600 years ago, Ogata said.

There is criticism of what some see as the government's extraordinary efforts to make sure that male royals are producing male emperors.

“Who wants the son of an adoptee who nobody knows to be emperor instead of Aiko?” asked Yoshinori Kobayashi, a cartoonist campaigning for Aiko’s succession.

It may also be unrealistic to ask former royals to reenter a very strict family known as “an enclave without human rights.” Royals cannot choose their jobs or homes, and must follow other serious constraints.

“I wonder if anyone would raise a hand,” 81-year-old Asahiro Kuni, whose family renounced its royal status when he was 3, told TBS television. “I imagine many people, by age 15, have some idea about their future. It’s cruel to tell them … to change the course of their life.”

Kuni, who worked as an engineer at a major Japanese company, said he would tell his family to decline if asked by the palace. “You are asked to sacrifice your life for the happiness of the people. I can’t tell my family to choose such a difficult life.”

He expressed support for female monarchs in interviews with other Japanese media.

Princesses who marry commoners can keep royal status

Aiko, known for her engaging smile, enthusiasm and witty conversation, is a public favorite.

Five single princesses, including Aiko and her popular cousin Kako, 31, may be affected by the other main revision to the Imperial House Law, which would allow them to keep their royal status and continue serving official duties if they marry commoners, although their spouse and children wouldn't be accepted as royals.

Aiko’s elder cousin Mako renounced her royal status and moved to New York after marrying her college boyfriend, a commoner who now is a lawyer. The move was largely seen as her attempt to flee from the restrained imperial life.

Ueno calls the system inhumane and urges the princesses to follow Mako's example and leave when they can.

Hisahito, possible adoptees and their future wives will face enormous pressure to produce male offspring, Kawanishi said.

Many Japanese want Aiko to be emperor

“The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role,” said 78-year-old Junichiro Tsujimaru, a sushi chain founder.

Yoshio Iwase, 78, said Aiko, as the daughter of the emperor, is the legitimate successor. “I think it’s fine because there used to be female emperors in the past.”

There is worry that the government's push will upset former Emperor Akihito's legacy, which included making amends for the victims of World War II, fought in his father’s name.

Akihito, who abdicated in 2019, also tried to bring what was seen as an aloof monarchy closer to the people, an example followed by his son, Naruhito, and his family.

Akihito reportedly supports Aiko's succession. He avoided directly answering a question about the 2005 government proposal but said female royals served a major role in the monarchy and that its role was to work for the happiness of the people — a remark interpreted as his support for female monarchs.

Naruhito also said in June that he hoped discussions about the measures would reach a conclusion that “will gain understanding of the people,” a comment palace watchers said was his nuanced displeasure.

Japan on Friday also enacted a controversial new law prohibiting desecration of its national flag, a key right-wing agenda pushed by Takaichi. Opponents see it as an attempt to intimidate the public and silence criticism against her government.

Perez, a Cuban-American Republican from Miami-Dade County, faced Democrats’ pushback during his confirmation hearing, after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva refuted Trump’s accusations of unfair trade practices.

“As Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, I learned that clarity, integrity, and follow-through are the foundations of effective governance. I will bring those same principles to the Embassy in Brasília,” Perez said after Sen. Rick Scott’s introduction.

Related document: Perez’s statement before the committee (.PDF)

When Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, raised the issue of tariffs, Perez said he was unfamiliar with the decision that was made without him. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, focused on ethanol.

“It’s not just in ethanol. I think there’s a gap across energy, across infrastructure, when it comes to the Brazilian-United States relationship. Part of that, in my opinion, has to do with exposure,” Perez said.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed, as the Trump administration was set to impose a new 25% tariff on July 22, with exceptions that include coffee, beef, oranges, and aircraft components.

Related report: Brazil calls Trump’s 25% tariff unjustifiable, vows to impose reciprocal tariffs

“Brazil holds vast reserves of critical minerals essential to American economic strength and national security. It sits at the center of hemispheric trade, energy, and infrastructure, and it faces real security challenges,” Perez said.

Trump has referred to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction for attempting a coup as a “witch hunt,” and met with Bolsonaro’s son Flávio Bolsonaro, a conservative Brazilian senator, in May, as he aimed to run against Lula on Oct. 6.

Perez mentioned the upcoming presidential election and his plans if he gets to serve in Brazil.

“My highest priorities, if confirmed, will be the protection of American citizens in Brazil, the advancement of our national interests in trade and investment, the disruption of narcotics trafficking and transnational crime, and the building of resilient partnerships,” Perez said.

Watch Scott’s introduction

Perez answers Sen. Pete Ricketts’s question

Related social media

Thank you, Senator Scott, for your leadership and friendship, and thank you to the Committee on Foreign Relations for time and thoughtful consideration. I appreciate the opportunity and, if confirmed, look forward to serving our country as the United States Ambassador to Brazil. https://t.co/b1JDROIbrf

— Daniel Perez (@Daniel_PerezFL) July 16, 2026

The National Transportation Safety Board said that after taking a closer look at the plane's flight path, investigators determined the incident occurred in Greek airspace, and not over the Republic of North Macedonia as they initially believed.

International aviation rules allow Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand the investigation over to the NTSB. The U.S. federal agency said it accepted and is now leading the probe, with Greece participating.

The incident happened on July 10 on a morning flight from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen, near Munich. The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget carrier.

The 61-year-old passenger, who was not identified by name, suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official. It was not immediately clear Thursday if the injured passenger remained hospitalized.

The NTSB previously said it was notified that the flight turned back because of “a right engine issue and cabin decompression.”

Ryanair has not publicly addressed the engine issue disclosed by the NTSB. In response to an emailed request for comment about the engine issue on July 10, the airline reiterated its previous statement about the flight returning to Thessaloniki after a window became dislodged.

Passengers told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, oxygen masks dropped and the plane began to lose altitude.

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

Shye Gilad, a former airline captain who teaches at Georgetown University’s business school in the U.S., said the window blowing out would have caused rapid decompression — a sudden loss of cabin pressure that can create a brief but powerful suction effect near the opening before the pressure stabilizes.

“The seat belt can help in those first few seconds. It’s a difference maker and people should keep their seat belts fastened at all times,” Gilad said, adding that events such as this one are “very rare” because “it takes a lot to breach a cabin.”

Flight records show the aircraft — a Boeing 737-800 delivered new to Ryanair in 2008 — had been climbing past 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) about six minutes after departure before immediately descending to about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters). Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said the aircraft remained at the lower altitude for roughly 30 minutes to burn fuel before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff.

Ryanair said in its statement that one passenger requested and received medical care after landing, and that a replacement aircraft later flew passengers to Germany.

Corrine, who asked not to be identified by last name, said she was 9 years old when she moved to Miami from Haiti, just 12 days after the earthquake in 2010.

“I’ve been here for 16 years, I’ve obtained an education, I work, I volunteer at my church with children,” Corrine, 26, said. “I’m angry; I’m scared. I don’t know what to think; I don’t know what to do.”

Conditions in the Caribbean nation are so bad that the U.S. State Department has the highest level warning for U.S. citizens traveling to Haiti.

In late June, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS for Haitians on July 10, but active litigation forced an extension on July 24.

“There’s nothing in Haiti for us. Haiti is not a safe place anymore. What would we go back to? We would have to worry about being murdered, raped,” Corrine said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s end of TPS for Haiti will impact some 350,000 people nationwide.

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Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

SpaceX's launch webcast showed the start of engine ignition three seconds before the planned liftoff, viewed from a drone high above the pad. Although the company did not elaborate, onscreen data showed four engines not firing, with the remaining 29 engines immediately shutting down and keeping the rocket anchored to the pad. It was the first time a full-scale Starship experienced a last-second abort like this.

The launch team immediately began draining the fuel from the rocket.

"Most probable launch timing is early next week," Musk said via X.

Everything was going SpaceX's way, even the weather, until the partial engine ignition. In the end, the rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have doomed the launch. Some earlier Starship flights ended in explosive fireballs.

Elon Musk's company had newest, most advanced Starlinks aboard

Twenty of SpaceX's newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight from Starbase, the company's hub near the Texas-Mexico border. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship's heat shield.

Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.

The rocket's automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have resulted in a failed launch. Some earlier Starship flights, for example, ended in explosive fireballs.

World's biggest rocket is key to putting astronauts back on the moon

NASA is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has hired SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to build and fly the lunar landers that will return humanity to the surface of the moon after an absence of more than half a century.

Both companies need to have their landers — Starship and Blue Moon — ready to fly by next year so that the newly named Artemis III crew can practice docking their capsule with them in orbit around Earth. The mission after that — Artemis IV planned for no earlier than 2028 — would use one of those landers to take two astronauts to the moon's south polar region.

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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.

An NBA spokesman said that “the NBA is continuing to look into it.” ESPN first reported that the NBA was investigating the signing for possible circumvention of the salary cap.

Although the Bucks didn’t disclose terms when they announced the signing, ESPN has reported Trent received a four-year, $64 million deal. He’s getting that lucrative deal after a season in which his statistics dipped.

Trent is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he scored 8.1 points per game and played 21.2 minutes per game for Milwaukee. Those represented his lowest averages in both categories since his rookie season of 2018-19.

The 6-foot-4 guard had joined the Bucks in 2024 by signing for the veteran minimum after a season in which he had scored 13.7 points per game and had shot 39.3% from 3-point range for the Toronto Raptors.

He returned to the Bucks last year after scoring 11.1 points per game and shooting 41.6% from 3-point range with Milwaukee in 2024-25. He had capped that 2024-25 season by scoring over 30 points in two of the Bucks' five playoff games during their first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The contract Trent signed last year included a $3.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he declined before agreeing to this new deal.

The concerns over salary cap circumvention involve whether there was a prior agreement that Trent would be rewarded now if he signed below-market deals each of the last two years.

While the situations aren't similar, this probe comes as the NBA also investigates whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented salary cap rules involving a $28 million endorsement contract between seven-time all-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard and the now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. That investigation has put the Clippers' trade of Leonard to the Toronto Raptors on hold.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.

Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

DHS, which hasn't released the name of the officer who killed Durán Guerrero, has said the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”

Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.

When reached for comment about Brouillette's record and his role in Monday's shooting, ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that, “We will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers," and that “The ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.”

The White House referred all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.

A new career in ICE

Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn't believe him. She didn’t realize he’d been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.

Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she spoke to her ex-husband in a Facebook audio call, and he acknowledged that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her Wednesday and said that he shot and killed Durán Guerrero.

David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who got married in 2007. She said she divorced him in 2009 because he had become physically violent with her, which began after she got pregnant with their daughter.

According to Ashley Brouillette, he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child — an incident her mother Avis Collins also recounted.

The abuse continued after she left him, she said.

David Brouillette doesn't appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.

But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.

The ex-wife — whom the AP is not identifying because she fears retaliation — alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.

“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.

In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.

His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, said she also witnessed her dad’s volatility.

“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” she told the AP. She said she came home from school once and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.

“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.

An immediate relative of David Brouillette who spoke on the condition that their name not be used said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis that Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The immediate relative described him as “extremely mentally ill" and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times.

The relative said they've been estranged for years, after they broke off contact because they feared he would harm them. He did not respond to their outreach this week, the relative added.

A military deployment and law enforcement aspirations

Growing up in Gardiner, a city of about 6,000 people roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Biddeford, where Monday's shooting occurred, David Brouillette was enchanted by law enforcement and the military, his relatives said.

High school yearbook photos show he was a member of the school’s Naval Junior ROTC, and he wrote that he planned to go to college and become a police officer.

Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said.

He was eventually able to enlist.

According to U.S. military records, Brouillette enlisted as a chemical equipment repairer in the Maine Army National Guard but then changed jobs to be a medical logistics specialist. He was in the Guard from November 2007 until January 2010, according to records provided by the Pentagon.

A 2009 article in the Kennebec Journal listed Brouillette as a private in the Maine Army National Guard’s 152nd Maintenance Company in Augusta.

In January 2010 he joined the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. Brouillette deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and eventually left the Army as a sergeant in December 2015.

His immediate relative believes Brouillette's time abroad worsened his emotional struggles: “Afghanistan destroyed him -- trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”

Life after the Army

After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter, public records and court documents show.

Brouillette worked for the Maine Correctional Center — a medium-security prison — and for the state’s Health and Human Services Department, spending less than a year at each.

In 2019, court documents show, he was a police officer at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center near the state capital, Augusta. A Veterans Affairs department spokesperson on Thursday referred questions about Brouillette’s employment to DHS.

But by the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings, he was broke, going to school full-time and making money delivering food for DoorDash.

Brouillette was enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College and was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility, according to a lawsuit he filed over his injury.

He sustained a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program, according to the lawsuit, which was settled out of court.

In recent years, court filings show, he was collecting disability pay through the VA. He also drove a truck, but quit in January 2025, citing health issues.

In March 2025, Brouillette passed an exam to become a real estate sales agent. His license was active until December. In a Facebook post, Realty of Maine announced Brouillette would be working in the firm’s Bangor office.

“David lives in Maine after retiring from the United States Army,” said the post, which has since been deleted. Brouillette is no longer listed as an agent on the firm’s website. Messages seeking comment were left for Realty of Maine.

In March, the Maine agency that handles child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show. The filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement.

‘I don’t think he sees himself as a killer’

In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her “bloodline” should die.

“And all of you should have your f——--g throats cut,” the voicemail said. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”

She said she cut off contact with him until Wednesday, when his picture began circulating online.

Ashley Brouillette reached out to his current wife on Facebook and they spoke on the phone for several minutes. Her ex-husband spoke with her, according to cellphone screenshots of the phone exchange she shared with the AP. He acknowledged he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.

“He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now,” she said.

She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody.

“I asked him why he did it,” she said. “He said it was a justified shooting. The guy was trying to run him over with a car.”

His daughter also said he told her it was justified.

“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.

“I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing,” she added. “All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself.”

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This story was updated to correct that that Gardiner is northeast of Biddeford.

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Brook reported from New Orleans, Sisak reported from New York and Galofaro reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press reporter Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

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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.

The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was fatally shot last Tuesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston, comes amid mounting scrutiny of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown. Encounters with ICE have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump's second term last year — two of which happened in the days after a federal agent killed Salgado Araujo.

“My family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the unbelievable and incredible support we have received,” Salgado Araujo's son, Ronaldo Salgado, said in a Facebook post Thursday.

Salgado Araujo, 52, who had no criminal record, had lived in the U.S. for 35 years.

In the fallout of the shooting, three men whom Salgado Araujo was driving when he was killed have adamantly disputed the government's official account.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, and that a federal agent fired a weapon in self-defense. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting.

More than a week after the shooting, new court records show the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, according to a search warrant application signed by a federal judge on Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent David McNeilly stated in an affidavit that he observed four plastic bags of a white substance appearing to be meth inside the van. DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason why ICE officers engaged in the traffic stop. The FBI referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz emphasized in a recorded video statement on Thursday that all information was preliminary and not conclusive.

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” Reitz said. “In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate.”

An attorney for Salgado Araujo's brother, who was in the van when the agent killed Salgado Araujo and who was subsequently detained by ICE, said that the powder is a homemade electrolyte mix that the construction crew used to stay hydrated while working outside in the grueling Texas heat.

Ruby L. Powers, the attorney for Salgado Araujo’s brother, in a statement called for officials to test the substance to establish that it isn't an illicit substance.

“But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,” Powers said. “You cannot shoot first and ask questions later.”

—

Riddle reported from Los Angeles.

A Miami Beach city commissioner is saying the planned bridge, off the MacArthur Causeway, might be a bust.

After work finally started more than a year and a half ago, seven years after the project was proposed, nothing’s happening except rusting rebar.

Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez said there have been a “lot of issues with the underground utilities,” pulling no punches on social media, saying contractors drilling for bridge pilings don’t want to hit underground transmission lines that power South Beach.

The problem, he said, is that Florida Power & Light can’t find them.

“They got it wrong three times,” Suarez said. “In fact, on the second time that they gave the city and the developer a location, when they started to drill it for pilings, they hit the encasement of the FPL feeder line.”

A document shows the area is where the lines are believed to be now, and that might make constructing the bridge too complicated.

“If one of those get punctured, it can black out the entire neighborhood for months,” Suarez said. “There are certain provisions in the contract, unfortunately, that allow the developer to essentially walk away if it becomes too burdensome.”

The proposed pedestrian bridge is part of a commitment developers made to residents in exchange for building this giant condo called Five Park.

In a statement to Local 10 News, an FPL spokesperson said the company has “worked closely” with the city and developer.

“Under Florida law, FPL identifies and locates its underground facilities, while the developer verifies those locations and designs around existing infrastructure,” the statement reads in part. “FPL has met and exceeded its responsibilities by locating its facilities several times using multiple methods.”

The spokesperson went on to say that the company “remains committed” to forging a “feasible path forward” with the city and the developer while “continuing to provide reliable electric service” for residents and businesses.

Local 10 News also contacted developer Terra Group and was awaiting a response.

Suarez said he’s asked the city manager to explore other bridge options here and that the developer is hiring a third party to look into what’s going on.

“If you ask any of my 29 counterparts across the league if they would be interested in having Christian Pulisic on their team, I’m pretty sure you’d get 29 yesses,” NYCFC president Brad Sims said Thursday at a Major League Soccer event to promote the resumption of the league's season.

“Would MLS from a league standpoint love to have Christian Pulisic here? I think the answer to that would be yes," Sims added. "If AC Milan doesn’t want to give him up, then it's dead in the water. And so I think ultimately we’re believers that Christian wants to play in MLS, wants to be back home and at whatever the point in time that is, we would think and hope that New York City FC would be very high on his list of teams that he would want to play for..”

An attacking midfielder from Hershey, Pennsylvania, Pulisic turns 28 in September. He is entering the fourth season of a five-year deal with AC Milan after playing for Borussia Dortmund from 2016-19 and Chelsea from 2019-23.

Pulisic has 33 goals in 90 international appearances but is coming off a disappointing World Cup in which he failed to score and had one assist. Because of injuries, he missed one of the five U.S. games and came out of two others early. Pulisic left last week's round of 16 loss to Belgium after fracturing his right leg.

“I felt really good this summer with the guys and I thought my level was high,” he said after the game. “It’s disappointing I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to and to try to help us to get over this next step of beating a really good team.”

Pulisic scored 10 goals in his first 15 appearances for AC Milan last season, but ended his club season in career-worst scoreless streak, failing to get a goal in 19 games after Dec. 28.

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

“Después de muchos años regreso a palacio de gobierno”, dijo la conservadora Fujimori, de 51 años, tras la cita en una presentación ante la prensa junto a Balcázar en la que no se admitió preguntas. Es la primera vez que Fujimori regresa al edificio neobarroco como presidenta electa tras ganar el balotaje del 7 de junio.

Keiko Fujimori, quien tiene dos hijas de 18 y 17 años, no ha indicado si vivirá en el palacio como ocurrió durante parte de su adolescencia y juventud. Dentro del palacio existe una residencia que ha sido usada por la mayoría de dirigentes del país sudamericano.

Como líder del partido Fuerza Popular, Fujimori ha visitado el palacio otras cinco ocasiones desde 2011.

El ingreso más reciente ocurrió en 2023 cuando se reunió con la entonces presidenta Dina Boluarte — protegida por la bancada legislativa de Fujimori — tras el asesinato de 50 civiles por la fuerza pública durante manifestaciones en los Andes que exigían nuevas elecciones. Boluarte sucedió al expresidente Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) quien fue destituido por el Parlamento en 2022 tras intentar cerrarlo. Castillo está condenado a 11 años de cárcel por conspiración para una rebelión y es investigado por corrupción.

Fujimori comentó que “el poder es pasajero” y volvió a repetir que gobernará cinco años, a diferencia de su padre quien inició su gobierno en 1990 pero buscó permanecer en poder y fue reelegido en 1995 y en 2000.

Keiko Fujimori tenía 25 años cuando abandonó el palacio presidencial el 21 de noviembre de 2000. La salida se produjo un día después de que el Congreso declarara la vacancia del presidente Alberto Fujimori por incapacidad moral permanente, tras la renuncia que este envió desde Japón luego de viajar a ese país en medio de la crisis desatada por la difusión de un video que mostraba a su asesor de inteligencia, Vladimiro Montesinos, entregando dinero a un congresista de oposición para que se pasara al oficialismo.

Siete años después, Alberto Fujimori llegó inesperadamente a Chile procedente de Japón, donde fue detenido. En 2007 fue extraditado al Perú y posteriormente condenado por corrupción y asesinato. Recuperó su libertad en diciembre de 2023, tras la restitución de un indulto humanitario y murió de cáncer en 2024.

Durante la mudanza de Keiko Fujimori el 21 de noviembre de 2000 una televisora local mostró camiones retirando cajas que fueron trasladadas a la casa de su abuela paterna. La actual presidenta electa era primera dama del gobierno de su padre, cargo que ejerció desde los 19 años luego que sus progenitores se divorciaron en 1996.

The dangerous flooding for a second consecutive year set off hundreds of high-water rescues, washed out roads and killed at least two people, authorities said. Relentless downpours served as another frightening reminder of the flood-prone Texas Hill Country, following what experts say was fueled this time by the right mix of air and lots of available moisture.

“Last year, it was one big wave that came through. And it wiped everything out, and then it receded, and then we could deal with the damage. This time, we’re on day three of heavy rain and everything keeps continuing to rise, and it’s expected to rain today and tonight,” said Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind of Kerrville, where some of the worst flooding took place.

Hot weather over the middle of the continental United States ensured storms that formed would move slowly, and rounds of rain over roughly the last three days at times reached several inches an hour. The flooding is “about as bad as it gets” — conditions that are typically rare, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Obviously, something like this doesn’t occur every year, but it has occurred over two years in a row and it has occurred over a region that is prone to flash flooding by its topography,” Oravec said.

Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties in Texas over three days — Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month, according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Flooding over the Fourth of July weekend last year killed more than 100 people, including roughly two dozen children and camp counselors at Camp Mystic, a now-shuttered Christian camp for girls. These storms dumped rain on a wider area, overlapping with some of the places where floodwaters overturned cars, ripped down trees and sent rescuers hustling to save lives last July.

A local official in Travis County, which includes Austin, said people were trapped on barn roofs and in trees. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said drones and helicopters were airborne for rescues.

"We are looking at every square inch of the entire area for anybody who may be stranded anywhere. And there will be help coming very rapidly to whoever may be displaced, wherever they are,” Abbott said.

The flood in Texas Hill Country

The rain hit Texas Hill Country, a part of central and south Texas with steep terrain. Shallow soil covers limestone hills that have been soaked for days. Instead of the land absorbing the water, it shoots into rivers with steep banks.

That causes water to rise fast, a dangerous scenario that catches people by surprise.

When rivers rise so fast “it’s almost like a river tsunami,” said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist with the forecasting company AccuWeather. These conditions are so deadly because water is heavy and moves quickly. Just one cubic foot of water — imagine a box a bit larger than the size of a basketball — weighs about 62 pounds (28 kilograms).

Compared to last year's flood, the rain fell hard, but in some places it wasn't quite as intense and rivers in many places didn't rise quite as quickly, Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said. Plus, the previous days of rain previewed the flood threat.

“This one is producing greater overall precipitation totals, but it is mostly doing it with lower rain rates. They are still fairly high, but they aren't as high as they were last year," he said.

While swollen from rainfall, so far Guadalupe River levels have largely remained below record levels, some of which were reached during last year’s deadly floods. The river did surpass last year's mark at the small community of Comfort, rising to 37 feet (11.3 meters) early Thursday, a mark 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) higher than it reached last year. At its height then, water weighing as much as the Empire State Building flowed downstream roughly every minute.

The river's record at this spot is 42.3 feet (12.9 meters) set in 1869.

Climate change and forecasting

It is difficult, especially as storms are happening, to know whether climate change has made the event more likely or worse.

Oravec said that the conditions that created this storm — hot air that steers and slows storms — have long occurred, but that climate change could make these conditions more common. A warmer atmosphere also has the potential to hold more moisture and heavier rains.

Last year's flooding did raise awareness of the dangers floods create, especially when they occur at night, Oravec said.

“I think overall it has been a good forecast. The effects are catastrophic, but the signal was there for potential heavy rainfall,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.

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

Friday will feature a sun/cloud mix with south-southwest winds, sustained 5 to 10 mph. Temperatures will make a run for the mid 90s. Per usual, humidity will make it feel like the triple digits. Afternoon storms could help knock the edge off the heat!

Local 10 News has learned that investigators are running new DNA tests on evidence in this case that could lead to their suspect.

But, for now, Padilla’s June 8, 2016 murder still remains a mystery. A motive remains unclear.

“There (were) no signs of a struggle,” DPD Detective Eddy Velazquez said. “We believe that whoever shot and killed Daniel, it was specifically targeted for him.”

Velazquez said there were no signs of forced entry into the home off Cumberland Terrace where Padilla, 21, was found shot multiple times inside of his bedroom.

Authorities said Padilla wasn’t robbed.

“It seems like either he knew this person or he was threatened in a manner that he couldn’t do anything at the time,” Velazquez said.

Family friend Paul Acosta said Padilla’s mother, who is in her 70s, “hurts every single day.”

Padilla’s sister was a detective for the Miami Beach Police Department at the time of the murder.

His heartbroken family wants answers.

“They were always there for each other,” Acosta sad. “It has been very difficult. You know, 10 years have passed ― this is the 10th anniversary, but every day, to the family, not a day goes by when they don’t think of Danny."

Detectives said they hope somebody knows something that could lead to a break in the case. They’re offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Anonymous tips can be made by calling Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Conditions at the Pontiac home were so offensive that police evidence specialists wore hazmat suits when the children were discovered in February 2025.

The kids, ages 15, 13 and 12, had lived on their own since 2020 or 2021, with occasional food drops on the porch and amid trash and feces, police said. Sheriff's deputies entered when a landlord said he hadn't been paid in months.

Kelli Bryant, 35, who was living elsewhere in Pontiac, pleaded no contest to abuse and will return to court in September for her sentencing. A message seeking comment from her attorney was not immediately returned.

“This plea will spare the children from testifying at trial and ensures Bryant remains incarcerated until they are all adults,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “I’m hopeful the children she victimized will continue to have the space and resources to heal from this abhorrent trauma.”

The father lost contact with the kids while in prison in an unrelated matter and was barred by their mother from seeing them when he was released, Sheriff Mike Bouchard said when Bryant was arrested.

In the latest maneuver, video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy's demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola on Wednesday that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review." Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.

“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.

The White House tweeted a cartoon showing people on a beach taking photos of a Blue Angels jet, with the words “Freedom” and “It's okay to love America.”

It is at least the third time that Hegseth and others have voiced support for military aviators performing maneuvers that, while often popular with the crowds experiencing them, have drawn public scrutiny and military investigations.

In two prior cases, Hegseth's remarks led to the end of the safety investigations. In the Florida flight, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a Trump administration political appointee, said the Navy had “no problem” with the flight and there would be no reprimands or firings. His social media post was retweeted by Hegseth.

Cao's post said Thursday that the Blue Angels conducted a “flight debrief.” Navy officials would not say if that debrief — typically a routine occurrence after every flight — was the “thorough safety review” the Navy said it would conduct the day prior.

Military leaders are excusing reckless behavior, one safety expert says

Flyovers at low altitudes like these have been linked to a number of past crashes, said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who used to investigate crashes for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s shocking to me as an aviation safety professional that the top leaders of the military would excuse this type of reckless behavior,” he said. “A cavalier attitude like that can only lead to accidents in my view.”

The Florida flyover comes after video emerged in March of two Army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home during a training run while he clapped and saluted. The Army initially said that the helicopter crews were suspended pending a safety investigation.

Days later, Hegseth lifted their suspension and ended the investigation saying, “No punishment. No Investigation. Carry on, patriots.” The singer is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.

Months later, eight South Carolina National Guard helicopter pilots were suspended following a low-flying sweep by Army Apache helicopters over beachgoers as part of a July 4 event honoring service members.

Less than a week after the event, Hegseth again said he was intervening, writing on social media: “We’ll fix this." The next day, Parnell posted that "effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted.” He added to his social media post, “Carry on Patriots.”

When asked if Thursday's posts, which use the same phrasing as the prior two cases, meant that Hegseth's office was halting another safety investigation, Jacob Bliss, a Pentagon spokesman, said he had “nothing further to provide at this time.”

Guzzetti said the military's top leaders are excusing unprofessional and dangerous behavior from military aviators.

“That sends out a powerful signal that this type of deviant behavior is acceptable and, in fact, desired," he said. “And that’s dangerous. That’s the antithesis of a good safety culture.”

Flyovers might not violate rules but that doesn't make them safe

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said these flyovers probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions on flying low over people that the FAA imposes on civilian flights. But that doesn’t mean they are a good idea — particularly the risky maneuvers that Blue Angels pilots perform.

“They are air demonstration teams, and what they do is exceedingly dangerous — amazing and wonderful — but dangerous," said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work in air shows years ago. “And so it is really not something to be performed over people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close it was, until everyone around me was like, ‘That was so cool,’” she said. “It was not normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everybody that I was with.”

A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal planning, said the Blue Angels’ next show on Saturday will go on as scheduled.

The military has been involved in previous deadly aircraft accidents

The Army was sharply criticized by the NTSB during the investigation of last year’s midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington for failing to identify and address the hazards that contributed to the crash that killed 67 people.

The NTSB said it found that “the Army’s aviation safety system failed to consistently detect, interpret, and act on signals of latent hazards, resulting in degraded safety assurance, organizational learning, and safety culture.”

Even basic flyovers, like the kind Hegseth is defending, have been known to turn deadly.

In April 2025, a Japanese woman was killed after the propeller wash from an Air Force HH-60W helicopter knocked her down on a concrete walkway, causing severe head injuries.

A subsequent Air Force investigation noted that key factors leading to the mishap included “allowing deviation from safe spectator distances” as defined by the Air Force and “an operational mindset fostering a false confidence of safety.”

In 2011, Cmdr. Dave Koss, then-head of the Blue Angels, voluntarily stepped down days after a performance at a regional air show where he carried out a low-altitude maneuver that was called “unacceptable” in a Navy statement at the time. The Blue Angels had to cancel several of their air shows that year as a result.

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP writer Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.

Joseph está acusado de pedirle a un empleado municipal que alterara una grabación de video, un posible delito político, y luego arremeter contra él cuando se negó.

En un informe, la firma de abogados Arlo detalló las razones por las que concluyó que Joseph puso a la ciudad “en un riesgo legal, financiero y ético considerable”, mientras que Joseph calificó el informe como “teatro político”.

El informe, que puede leerse al final de esta nota, indicó que “los rumores fueron corroborados por entrevistas y testimonios grabados”.

Desde entonces, Local 10 News obtuvo esos registros.

Entre ellos está el respetado director de tecnología de la ciudad, Ricardo Castillo, identificado en el informe como “Empleado C”.

Castillo describió la reacción de Joseph cuando se negó a la solicitud del alcalde de “desconectar el equipo de grabación y editar las grabaciones” de una entrevista a un candidato para administrador municipal.

“(Él dijo): “Me vas a joder”, y yo le dije: “Bueno, ¿cómo te voy a joder si no pasó nada malo en las entrevistas?””, relató Castillo.

Ese video, obtenido por Local 10, corresponde a una entrevista con el candidato preferido del alcalde para el cargo, quien finalmente no fue elegido por los demás comisionados.

Castillo reconoció ante los investigadores que alterar el registro podría constituir un delito.

“Al final me preguntó: “¿Te he amenazado?, ¿te sientes amenazado?” y yo respondí que no, pero sí me sentí intimidado, porque sabía que estaba haciendo lo correcto, pero él me hacía sentir mal por ello”, dijo.

LEA EL INFORME A CONTINUACIÓN:

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It happened just before 1 p.m. on Thursday at the San Marco complex along Northwest 42nd Court, near Third Avenue.

Radio traffic described first responders finding two burn patients, who were later taken to Broward Health North.

“A Haitian man jumped in the pool; it happened so fast, probably in his 20s,” a witness, who didn’t wish to be identified, said. “You know when your skin burns off ― the white part ― that was showing."

Another witness said, “I’ve never (seen) something like that.”

Authorities have not provided additional details’ about the victims’ conditions as of Thursday evening.

Ocurrió poco antes de la 1:00 p.m. de este jueves en el complejo San Marco, ubicado sobre Northwest 42nd Court, cerca de Third Avenue.

El tráfico de radio describió que los socorristas encontraron a dos pacientes con quemaduras, quienes posteriormente fueron trasladados a Broward Health North.

“Un hombre haitiano saltó a la piscina; ocurrió tan rápido, probablemente tenía unos 20 años”, dijo un testigo que prefirió no ser identificado. “Ya sabe cuando la piel se quema y se desprende, la parte blanca, eso era lo que se veía”.

Otro testigo dijo: “Nunca había visto algo así”.

Hasta la noche del jueves, las autoridades no habían proporcionado detalles adicionales sobre el estado de las víctimas.

The Pentagon confirmed the extension in an email Thursday, saying the mission will continue until Jan. 20, 2029, “or until terminated by the President.” The deployment was set to expire at the end of this year after previously being extended.

The deployment in Washington, D.C., has been contentious since Trump issued an executive order in August 2025 to deal with what he called a crime emergency, calling up the Guard and additional federal law enforcement officers. The administration has said crime has rapidly fallen since then, although local officials have argued that crime was already going down before Trump ordered 2,500 troops into the city.

During their deployment, Guard members have responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, helped with snow removal and carried out beautification projects.

“Taxpayers are paying more than a million dollars a day to have them walk around,” Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia Council, said in April, adding that “the presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good look.”

Deployments to other cities have ended or been paused by courts in California and Illinois, while more limited operations are ongoing in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, Guard members still walk city streets and patrol metro stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.

A Guard member was fatally shot and another was wounded in November after authorities said a man drove from Washington state to D.C. and opened fire outside a subway station three blocks from the White House. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who was killed, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were deployed from West Virginia.

Because the city of Washington is a congressionally established federal district, Trump has much greater influence over the police and D.C. National Guard, which he can control directly. This has enabled him to sidestep the legal challenges he has faced in some states.

While the Guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration has argued their support to the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said in April that 12,000 arrests have been made by a joint task force since operations began, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms were seized.

But officials disagree over how much credit the deployment can be given in Washington, a heavily Democratic city. Figures have shown that crime was already on the decline before, although those figures sparked an investigation after claims arose against local police that they may have been manipulated.

The rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. That will be replaced with a fixed period of time, though the visas may be extended.

The agency says it's necessary to better vet the visa holders. But advocates for foreign journalists oppose the change, saying the drastically shorter stay would severely restrict their ability to live and work in the States.

The even shorter visa rule for Chinese journalists, which does not include those from the “special administrative regions” of Hong Kong or Macao, is particularly harsh and could add tensions to the already fraught relations between Washington and Beijing, despite both leaders stating they intend to stabilize ties.

The decision comes at a time when President Donald Trump is targeting news organizations with multiple threats and legal actions at home and his administration is tightening immigration policies, though foreign journalists are not considered immigrants.

Journalism organizations denounce the decision

The rule will take effect 60 days after it’s published in the Federal Register. Congress can reject a rule, but it's extremely rare.

“We are outraged that the Trump administration has cruelly limited the duration of visas for foreign journalists from a period of up to five years to a fixed eight months,” the advocacy group Reporters with Borders said in a statement. “This change destroys international journalists’ ability to report from the U.S. and makes it extremely difficult for international outlets to operate here at all.”

“The relentless cycle of visa renewals restricts press freedom, as journalists will feel compelled to avoid drawing the administration’s ire, lest their applications be rejected,” it said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling the new visa policy “the behavior of a backsliding democracy, not the international vanguard of free speech.”

In proposing the change in August 2025, the federal agency said the rising number of foreign journalists in the U.S. “poses a challenge” to its ability “to monitor and oversee these nonimmigrants while they are in the United States.”

It added that students and foreign visitors also will see their previous rule of “duration of status” replaced with fixed periods by the same decision.

By admitting them into the country for a fixed period, the Department of Homeland Security said it could better vet the visa holders to ensure their activities are permissible. The visas can be extended.

This isn't the first time shortening visas has been proposed

The first Trump administration sought to change the visa rules in 2020, but the proposal was withdrawn in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office.

But the White House then tightened visas for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, in response to the treatment of U.S. journalists in China, including the expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters, as tensions flared up during the COVID-19 pandemic between the two countries. The Biden administration later relaxed the rule, allowing stays to increase to up to a year.

When the Trump administration proposed to revive the 90-day rule last year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it opposed “the U.S.’s discriminatory move targeting a specific country.”

China warns of reciprocal measures

China's Foreign Ministry called the decision “discriminatory” and said it would affect the work of Chinese media in the U.S.

“China urges the U.S. to immediately revoke its discriminatory policies targeting Chinese journalists and effectively safeguard their lawful rights and interests in the U.S.,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a daily briefing in Beijing. He added that “China reserves the right to take reciprocal countermeasures.”

___

AP journalists Fu Ting in Washington and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to the report.

The complaint filed Wednesday with the Tennessee Department of Health by Tonya Hervey says Tony Carruthers suffered excruciating pain during the May 21 attempt to administer a lethal injection and the family believes he now has partial paralysis that they attribute to a stroke.

It does not specifically say how or when they believe the stroke occurred, and Hervey declined an interview request.

During the attempted execution, the IV team established a primary line right away but then worked for more than an hour trying to insert a backup line.

Maria DeLiberato, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Carruthers, witnessed the attempts and said the team tried to insert an IV in Carruthers' arm, hand and foot before Dr. Mark Fowler attempted to insert a central line.

In the end Gov. Bill Lee called off the execution and gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

The complaint accuses Fowler of violating medical ethics by participating in an execution; by injecting Carruthers with the anesthetic lidocaine without first establishing that he was not allergic to it; and by continuing the search for a vein despite his “visible agony and distress.”

The complaint also says he was unqualified to place a central line because he had not done so in over a decade.

Fowler declined to comment on the complaint when reached by telephone.

Dr. Ervin Yen, a retired cardiac anesthesiologist who has witnessed many executions in Oklahoma and was not involved in the Carruthers case, said the fact that Fowler had not placed a central line in years is not necessarily disqualifying. He also said it is very unlikely that the attempts to place an IV could have resulted in a stroke.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment on the allegations. The Health Department said information on all complaints and investigations is confidential until formal charges are filed, including whether an investigation exists.

Carruthers, 58, was found guilty of the 1994 kidnapping and murder of Marcellos Anderson; Anderson's mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker. Authorities said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer and Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal trade in their Memphis neighborhood.

Carruthers has maintained his innocence. He was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.

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Basabe also spoke to the sometimes awkwardly embarrassing attempt at acting as his own lawyer during the civil trial despite never attending law school.

In a statement, Basabe said, in part:

“I chose to defend myself because I am still naïve enough to believe that truth matters, that an ordinary citizen can stand in court, defend himself, and be judged on the facts. Looking back, representing myself was a mistake. I underestimated how different civil litigation is from what most people believe.”

Lucia Baez Geller is a former Miami-Dade School Board member who is now running as a Democrat to unseat Basabe.

“I believe that District 106 deserves better,” said Geller. “Its time that we turn the page and have a real trusted leader like myself, who has results to come in and really deliver for the people.”

Ashley Litwin Diego is a federal criminal defense attorney and breast cancer survivor who is also on the Democratic primary ballot for District 106.

“Integrity, I mean with me, what you see is what you get,” said Diego. “I think a lot of people are frustrated, not only with the local leadership like with someone like Fabian Basabe, seeing what he’s done, but also the national leadership.”

The jury awarded the victims $450,000.

Nicholas Frevola, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, praised the verdict by writing on social media, “I won and beat the political establishment at their own game!”

Basabe también habló sobre el intento, en ocasiones incómodamente vergonzoso, de actuar como su propio abogado durante el juicio civil, a pesar de nunca haber asistido a la facultad de derecho.

En un comunicado, Basabe dijo, en parte:

“Elegí defenderme a mí mismo porque todavía soy lo suficientemente ingenuo como para creer que la verdad importa, que un ciudadano común puede comparecer ante un tribunal, defenderse y ser juzgado con base en los hechos. Mirando hacia atrás, representarme a mí mismo fue un error. Subestimé cuán diferente es el litigio civil de lo que la mayoría de la gente cree”.

Lucia Baez Geller es una ex miembro de la Junta Escolar de Miami-Dade que ahora se postula como demócrata para desbancar a Basabe.

“Creo que el Distrito 106 merece algo mejor”, dijo Geller. “Es hora de pasar la página y tener una líder confiable de verdad como yo, que tiene resultados y puede llegar para realmente cumplirle a la gente”.

Ashley Litwin Diego es una abogada federal de defensa penal y sobreviviente de cáncer de mama que también figura en la boleta de las primarias demócratas para el Distrito 106.

“La integridad, quiero decir, conmigo lo que ves es lo que obtienes”, dijo Diego. “Creo que mucha gente está frustrada, no solo con el liderazgo local, con alguien como Fabian Basabe y lo que ha hecho, sino también con el liderazgo nacional”.

El jurado otorgó a las víctimas $450,000 USD.

Nicholas Frevola, uno de los demandantes en la demanda, elogió el veredicto al escribir en redes sociales: “¡Gané y vencí al establishment político en su propio juego!”.

Portis fue presentado primero en el Centro Kaseya, antes de que Antetokounmpo hablara con los periodistas más tarde esa misma tarde.

El presidente de los Heat, Pat Riley, calificó el día como la culminación de años de admiración por el juego de Portis y de la búsqueda de una de las mayores estrellas de la NBA.

Riley se rió al explicar por qué Portis usará el número 95 con los Heat.

“Fue genial ver el otro día cómo llegó a esa cifra, porque condujo desde Milwaukee por la I-95 hasta Miami”, dijo Riley. “Y me gusta esa cifra porque me recuerda a un doble-doble en algún punto del camino”.

También elogió la versatilidad y la fortaleza de Portis.

“Siempre me encantó su juego, desde Arkansas hasta Chicago, Washington, Nueva York, Dallas y finalmente Milwaukee”, dijo Riley. “Un prototipo de ala-pívot, muy versátil... un jugador excepcional y somos muy afortunados de tenerlo en nuestra organización”.

Portis, de 31 años, inicia su duodécima temporada en la NBA tras pasar los últimos siete años con los Bucks. La temporada pasada, promedió 13,7 puntos, 6,4 rebotes y 1,6 asistencias, con un 48,8% de acierto en tiros de campo y un 45,6% en triples, con 4,4 intentos por partido.

Los Heat son el quinto equipo en la carrera de Portis en la NBA. Anteriormente jugó para los Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, New York Knicks y Bucks.

El entrenador de los Heat, Erik Spoelstra, dijo que Portis aporta el estilo físico y la versatilidad que Miami buscaba esta temporada baja.

“Sentimos que aportamos físico y agresividad a nuestra zona interior, algo que siempre hemos deseado”, dijo Spoelstra. “Todo el mundo habla de la necesidad de tener jugadores altos en la zona interior y con buena estatura para cada posición. Creemos que hemos cumplido con esos requisitos”.

Spoelstra calificó a Portis como “uno de los mejores pívots tiradores de la liga”, al tiempo que elogió su capacidad reboteadora, su juego en el poste y su versatilidad defensiva.

Portis afirmó que unirse a los Heat supone cumplir un sueño de toda la vida.

“Antes que nada, quiero agradecer enormemente a la organización de los Heat por permitirme ser parte de este intercambio y por permitirme formar parte de su cultura”, dijo Portis. “Nací para ser jugador de los Heat, así que me siento como pez en el agua. Es mi equipo favorito desde niño, y quiero dejarlo claro”.

Añadió que se enorgullece de mejorar cada temporada baja.

“Con el tiempo, a medida que avanzas en tu carrera, quieres evolucionar tu juego año tras año”, dijo Portis.

Horas después, la atención se centró en Antetokounmpo, cuya llegada representa una de las mayores adquisiciones en la historia de la franquicia.

Riley afirmó que la incorporación de otra superestrella permite a la organización seguir persiguiendo campeonatos.

“Tenemos a Giannis”, dijo. “Esto es solo una parte de lo que son los Heat en su búsqueda de la excelencia, pero no se ganan campeonatos si no se tiene grandeza en la cancha y en el banquillo”.

Spoelstra dijo que no dudó ni un instante cuando Riley le propuso la posibilidad de entrenar a Antetokounmpo.

“Hace poco, Pat me llamó a su oficina, me miró y me preguntó: ‘¿Quieres entrenar a Giannis?’”, contó. “Sí. No le pregunté por qué me lo preguntó. No le pregunté cómo podría funcionar. Simplemente salí de la oficina y dejé que él y Andy (Elisburg) se pusieran manos a la obra”.

Spoelstra afirmó que lo que hace especial a Antetokounmpo es su espíritu competitivo.

“Es una fuerza de voluntad, una fuerza de la naturaleza, tiene una voluntad absoluta de ganar”, dijo Spoelstra. “En cualquier momento, puede ser el mejor del planeta”.

Antetokounmpo, de 31 años, dijo que siempre ha admirado a la organización de los Heat desde la distancia.

“Siempre he tenido un gran respeto por la organización de los Miami Heat”, dijo. “En toda la liga, como jugadores, hablamos y siempre se oye hablar de la cultura de los Miami Heat: que los chicos trabajan duro, son muy disciplinados, muy ambiciosos y muy altruistas”.

El dos veces Jugador Más Valioso de la NBA dijo que quería un nuevo desafío después de pasar 13 temporadas en Milwaukee.

“Creo que rindo mejor bajo presión”, dijo Antetokounmpo. “Creo que necesito presión en este momento de mi carrera. Para alcanzar el siguiente nivel, tengo que salir de mi zona de confort, y siento que Miami era el lugar indicado”.

Añadió que ganar otro campeonato sigue siendo su principal motivación.

“He logrado muchas cosas en mi carrera, pero una de mis metas es ganar otro campeonato”, dijo. “Siento que este es el mejor camino para conseguirlo”.

El jugador, siete veces seleccionado para el Primer Equipo All-NBA, dos veces MVP, campeón de la NBA en 2021 y MVP de las Finales, nueve veces All-Star y Jugador Defensivo del Año en 2020, dijo estar ansioso por formar equipo con el pívot Bam Adebayo después de años de enfrentarse a él.

“Con Bam dormí 12 horas”, bromeó Antetokounmpo. “Tenía que estar muy preparado porque sé que va a jugar muy, muy duro”.

Dijo que cree que ambos pueden ser la pieza clave de una de las mejores defensas de la liga.

“Todo empieza conmigo y con Bam”, dijo Antetokounmpo. “Estoy emocionado de competir con él. Estoy emocionado de estar en el mismo equipo que él”.

Antetokounmpo también explicó por qué cambió su número de camiseta, pasando del número 34, que usó durante sus 13 temporadas en Milwaukee, al número 7 con los Heat.

Giannis asked about changing his number from 34 to 7.

He says if you add 3+4 it equals 7. His mom was born on the 7th. But he says the real reason he changed it was for the love and respect he has for Milwaukee.

“It was kind of like having closure mentally and emotionally.”

— Will Manso (@WillManso) July 16, 2026

Dijo que el número tiene un significado personal porque la suma de 3 y 4 da 7, y su madre nació el séptimo día del mes. Pero aclaró que la razón principal del cambio fue para honrar su tiempo con los Bucks.

“Fue como cerrar un ciclo a nivel mental y emocional”, dijo Antetokounmpo. “Por amor y respeto a la organización en la que estuve durante 13 años, ya no quería usar el número 34”.

Riley también reconoció la dificultad de desprenderse de varios jugadores jóvenes y selecciones del draft para adquirir a Antetokounmpo, pero afirmó que la oportunidad era demasiado importante como para dejarla pasar.

“Estamos en este punto, y Giannis también”, dijo Riley. “No es fácil cuando se invierte mucho tiempo y esfuerzo en el desarrollo, pero una vez que se logra, se va con todo. Vamos a por todas”.

Con la incorporación de Antetokounmpo, Portis y Tim Hardaway Jr. a una plantilla liderada por Adebayo, los Heat inician la temporada 2026-27 con renovadas expectativas de campeonato.

¿LeBron regresa a Miami?

Riley también insinuó que los Heat podrían no haber terminado de hacer movimientos, y que el equipo podría estar buscando reunirse con el cuatro veces campeón de la NBA, LeBron James, quien actualmente es agente libre después de optar por no renovar con Los Angeles Lakers.

Pat Riley on Giannis “we landed the plane.”

“Now there’s another one we have to land.” 😳🤔

— Clay Ferraro (@ClayWPLG) July 16, 2026

“Lo primero que hay que hacer es decir que hemos conseguido un 747”, dijo Riley, refiriéndose a Antetokounmpo. “Si quieres describir al otro jugador, adelante, hazlo”.

Miami celebrará su jornada anual de atención a los medios el 28 de septiembre en el Kaseya Center, antes de dar comienzo al campamento de entrenamiento el 29 de septiembre.

Local 10 también transmitirá un especial de la temporada baja de los Miami Heat a las 8 pm. Los espectadores pueden sintonizarlo en el video que se encuentra en la parte superior de esta página.

Y no lo olvides, podrás ver los partidos de los Miami Heat en Local 10 la próxima temporada, ya que WPLG Local 10 y los Heat anunciaron un nuevo acuerdo de derechos de transmisión ampliado, ¡convirtiendo a Local 10 en la casa del baloncesto de los HEAT en todo el sur de Florida! ¡HAZ CLIC AQUÍ para obtener más información sobre cómo verlos!

Los aficionados del Heat también pueden llamar al 786-777-4375 para obtener más información sobre cómo comprar entradas para la temporada 2026-2027.

Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies in the U.S. from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The National Weather Service said a lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground.

The Philadelphia region is experiencing smoky and hazy skies. The game's start was moved to 6:10 p.m. EDT from 7:10 p.m. It is the only game on the big league schedule coming out of this week's All-Star break.

“It’s definitely different,” Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said on ESPN during the broadcasting of the game. “Not the greatest idea, I guess, to come out here and play in this type of weather, but we’re doing it.”

After his team’s 4-1 victory, Mets interim manager Andy Green was asked how the conditions affected the game.

“I don’t think they really did,” Green said. “I think it felt like they could have at any moment, especially as visibility got tougher. But, guys managed to see baseballs that I couldn’t when they went up in the air as popups. So, good thing we’ve got good athletes on the field that can see things.”

Phillies manager Don Mattingly said tracking fly balls later in the game seemed to become an issue.

“It didn’t seem to be a huge problem,” Mattingly said. "The vision, later on, was a little bit like foggy conditions more than the air quality. As far as the guys were concerned (visibility) seemed to be the problem.”

This is the second time wildfire smoke has affected a game in Philadelphia. In June 2023, a game between Detroit and Philadelphia was postponed due to poor air quality related to smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Poor air quality due to wildfire smoke also forced the Major League Soccer game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fire at Chicago's Soldier Field, along with a scheduled postgame concert, to be postponed. The game, which was expected to draw 40,000, will be made up on Oct. 6.

Also, the Canadian Premier League postponed Thursday's scheduled game between Forge FC and Pacific FC that was to be played in Hamilton, Ontario, due to “worsening air quality issues.” The league said on its website that conditions “deteriorated in the final hours leading up to kickoff.”

Trinity Rodman, a member of the U.S. women's national team, said the smokey sky was difficult to deal with during Wednesday night's NWSL game between the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC at New York's Citi Field.

Rodman said she wasn't a fan of the hydration breaks every 15 minutes in the game as the temperature reached into the 90s.

“Air quality was rough,” Rodman was quoted as saying by The Athletic. “Not to make excuses at all, but I think on both sides we were all like, ‘another break, another break, another break.’”

A crowd of more than 42,000 attended the rematch of teams in last season's NWSL title game. The crowd was a record for a women’s sporting event in New York City.

“If we have to have a hydration break every 15 minutes, then we shouldn’t be playing the game, and that’s my opinion,” Rodman said. “But at the end of the day, there’s 40,000 people. It’s a whole event, so it’s really tough. It’s just a really hard situation for everyone to work around.”

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

It was not clear how fast-paced a practice Spain held. Media members are only able to observe the first 15 minutes of what was scheduled to be a hourlong session in East Hanover beginning at 11 a.m. EDT.

Argentina remained in the Atlanta area to work out less than 24 hours after rallying to beat England and reach the final for a second consecutive tournament. Marietta, Georgia, is far enough south to avoid the effects of the fire, which are being windblown to the southeast from northern Ontario, triggering warnings from the U.S. Midwest through the Northeast.

Officials urged people to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. Experts expressed concern over holding practice outdoors.

“These are high-level athletes who are moving a lot of air through their lungs during every practice in every game, and really they shouldn’t be practicing outside if the air quality levels are at hazardous sort of ranges for wildfire-related air pollution,” said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician and Global Climate and Health Alliance official. “That’s the time to schedule a practice inside. You could put an N95 mask on them, but trying to make sure that everybody’s mask is well-fitted, I suspect that’s not the best choice. I would go find an air-conditioned indoor facility that’s a clean-air shelter.”

Messages sent to FIFA and the Spanish Football Association asking whether that was considered or possible were not immediately returned. The smoke is expected to clear the area well before the championship game Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m.

The air quality in East Hanover on Thursday started early in the morning as “unhealthy” but got cleaner, so by mid-afternoon it was merely “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Now monitoring system. Particle pollution in New Jersey on Thursday was more than seven times higher than the World Health Organization standard. The forecast calls for an improvement to “moderate” for Sunday.

Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of North America as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show.

It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours. Smoke can trigger inflammation in different parts of the body, often attacking a person’s weakest points, which can then cascade into different effects of an immune system trying to fight a nasty irritant, doctors and scientists said.

“It’s not healthy for anyone to be in the smoke, especially if you’re exercising,” Harvard School of Public Health environmental health research scientist Mary Johnson said. “You're exchanging more air, so you’re being exposed to even more pollutants, and even healthy individuals at some point will have some type of health effect from the exposure to the smoke. So, even though these are healthy, young individuals, it’s not a good idea to be exercising in this type of environment.”

Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.

“If I gave you a list you would recognize some of these as being very bad often times associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,” Montrose said. “Just the smoke itself can be bad.”

___

Climate video producer Teresa de Miguel in Washington and SNTV videographers Lissette Romero in East Hanover, New Jersey, and Max Feliu in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to this report.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Advocates with Comité por la Libertad de los Presos Políticos and Foro Penal reported Sánchez’s release was possible thanks to an amnesty law enacted on Feb. 19 under interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

Sánchez, 66, an oncology patient, suffered from respiratory issues, chronic diarrhea, blood pressure dysregulation, persistent migraines, and weight loss, according to a spokesperson for Clippve.

The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, or SEBIN, had arrested Sánchez in 2024. He had already been in prison from 2007 to 2011 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Related social media posts

#15Jul | El Comité por la Libertad de los Presos Políticos (@clippve) informó sobre la excarcelación de José Alberto Sánchez Montiel, conocido como "Mazuco", de 66 años.

El exdiputado de la Asamblea Nacional se encontraba recluido en el centro penitenciario El Rodeo I, y su… pic.twitter.com/MTS96fs1LF

— El Diario (@eldiario) July 15, 2026

#15Jul | Así recibió el campamento de familiares, frente a El Rodeo I, en Miranda, al preso político José Alberto Sánchez Montiel, conocido como “Mazuco”.

“Mazuco” fue excarcelado este miércoles, tras permanecer privado de libertad en El Rodeo I.

Los familiares de los presos… pic.twitter.com/KF5baB2E1d

— El Diario (@eldiario) July 15, 2026

El estado de salud de José Sánchez “Mazuco” requiere de atención médica inmediata.

Sus familiares fueron informados de que sufrió un infarto en el Rodeo I.

Aún así, lo mantienen aislado e injustamente detenido.

Mazuco y todos los presos políticos deben ser liberados… pic.twitter.com/qQr8H0xttR

— Juan Pablo Guanipa (@JuanPGuanipa) March 16, 2026

Messi, to him, is greatness. And Antetokounmpo wants to follow Messi's path.

Antetokounmpo got his welcome-to-Miami ceremony Thursday at the team's arena, with a few fans chanting his name as he walked along his new home court for the first time after he got a tour of his new city.

“I need pressure at this time of my career," Antetokounmpo said. "I think in order for me to go to the next level, I've got to get out of my comfort zone — and I feel like Miami was the place for me to be.”

Messi came to Inter Miami three years ago, adding to his already copious resume by winning a couple of Major League Soccer MVP awards and another championship. Antetokounmpo has now joined him in Miami, hoping his relocation comes with the same level of success.

“That's the blueprint," Antetokounmpo said. “LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, they set the blueprint and you just got to follow, right? It’s hard. You have to be disciplined. You have to be dedicated to your craft, but it’s there. And if you want to follow, you follow. If you don’t want to follow, then you go home.”

He didn't go home. He's in a new home.

Antetokounmpo got his formal Heat introduction a couple of weeks after Miami swung the trade that landed the two-time MVP along with Bobby Portis Jr. from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis and draft capital.

For the Heat, it's another on a long list of superstar acquisitions made since Pat Riley arrived to take over as team president in 1995.

“I think this is just part of who the Heat are in the pursuit of excellence," Riley said. "But you don’t win championships unless you have greatness on the court and on the bench. ... I'm just so excited for this challenge.”

Antetokounmpo entered the NBA in 2013. His career totals to date: 21,531 points, 8,882 rebounds and 4,484 assists. The point and rebound totals are both fifth best in the NBA over that span, while the assist total is 13th best — and those numbers are just part of the reason why the Heat consider him to still be one of the five best players in the league.

If all that wasn't enough, has simply been a nightmare for defenses. Nobody has drawn more fouls over those 13 seasons than Antetokounmpo, which is absolute music to the ears of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

“A little while ago Pat called me into his office and he looked at me," Spoelstra said. “He said, ‘Do you want to coach Giannis?'”

Spoelstra's no-brainer answer: “Yes.”

And then he walked out, waiting for Riley, Heat general manager Andy Elisburg and the rest of the front office to get a deal done. When Antetokounmpo arrived early Thursday morning for his first workout as a member of the Heat, Spoelstra was waiting for him.

“I just want to be coached hard,” Antetokounmpo said. “I'd rather you tell me the ugly truth than a beautiful lie. ... I'm excited to be coached by him."

Antetokounmpo's run in Milwaukee ended with him having, by far, the most points in franchise history, more than 7,000 ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s total during his tenure with the Bucks. Antetokounmpo is also Milwaukee’s all-time leader in rebounds and assists, plus he ranks second on the team’s career list in steals.

He had a ton of success there. He's looking for more success in Miami, which is one of the reasons why Portis felt like the Heat were the best place for him as well.

“The conversations I have with Giannis have always been about winning. ‘Where can we go to win? How can we impact winning? How can you get another ’chip? That’s always been the talk,'” Portis said during his introductory news conference earlier Thursday. “It hasn’t been about anything else but winning. ... All he cares about is winning.”

By all accounts, the Giannis-in-Miami era is off to the right start.

Antetokounmpo was thrilled by the welcome he and his wife got when their plane landed in Miami after watching Messi and Argentina beat England in Atlanta on Wednesday. He says he already loves the Miami weather ("warmer than Milwaukee," he said) and isn't a fan of iguanas, which are everywhere in South Florida ("those guys, stay away from me," he said).

Riley told him the Heat are looking to win and win big. That was all Antetokounmpo needed to really hear. He has one ring. He wants more.

“You’ve got to work," Antetokounmpo said. "They show you, they show you the way. It’s not hard. Just listen and open your eyes. It's something that I wanted. I was able to accomplish it once in my career. Hopefully, it will happen a second time.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

The Argentina superstar responded to critics who have been bashing the reigning World Cup champions over perceptions of beneficial officiating and favoritism by the soccer establishment. He said the team’s ability to overturn late-game deficits, most recently the semifinal victory over England, is the result of championship pedigree and nothing more.

After trailing 1-0 going into the 85th minute, Argentina rallied for a 2-1 win over England on Wednesday to reach the World Cup final.

The victory led tens of thousands to flood the streets of Buenos Aires in ecstatic celebrations, and marked another remarkable comeback that showed the perseverance of a team that is now one win from a back-to-back titles. Argentina faces Spain in Sunday's final.

Argentina earlier survived by beating Cape Verde and Switzerland in extra time, and rallied for an improbable 3-2 victory over Egypt after coming back from being down 2-0 with 11 minutes of regulation time to play. But both the Swiss and Egyptian coaches criticized the refereeing. Egypt's Hossam Hassan went as far as to say that his team was the victim of a soccer establishment that favored Messi and Argentina.

The comments fueled criticism sparked by fans who argue that the FIFA bracket favored La Albiceleste, and unfounded allegations on social media claiming that the soccer governing body wants Argentina to once again become World Cup champion.

“We’ve been the best over these past four years, either you like it or not, and no matter what anyone says,” Messi said after the win over England.

“Once again, we’ve established ourselves among the top two teams in the world. That proves that everything we’ve done is no fluke and that nothing was handed to us."

The game against Switzerland swung on a call that riled up those who believe Argentina has been favored by World Cup officials.

The Swiss had just tied the game at 1-1 on Dan Ndoye’s goal in the 67th minute when Leandro Paredes was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Breel Embolo. But video showed the Swiss player falling before the Argentina midfielder made contact with him, and since Embolo received a yellow card earlier in the match, he was sent off and Switzerland was left to defend with 10 players.

“We were punished because of a rule that in my opinion is completely unacceptable,” Swiss coach Murat Yakin said after the game. “It’s very painful that we were eliminated that way. I don’t think we deserve that today, and in my opinion, my boys are the real heroes."

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Football Association had said it “cannot remain silent” after what it believed was unfair and biased officiating in Egypt’s loss against Argentina.

Argentina's team had not acknowledged the complaints on officiating and FIFA. In previous press conferences, Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni had even advised journalists asking about the matter “not to consume so much social media.”

But after the victory over England, the reigning champions fought back.

“Reaching two consecutive World Cup finals is something very few achieve, and this group did it," Messi said. "If we had lost to England, there would have been people coming out to spout some nonsense, but we didn’t give them the chance.”

Wednesday’s semifinal was the latest chapter in a long-running feud that has transcended the field to encompass British control over the disputed Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas and claims as its sovereign territory.

The British government on Thursday urged FIFA to investigate Argentina’s team after players celebrating their victory over England posed with a banner handed over by fans, reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” — “The Malvinas are Argentine.”

Enzo Fernandez acknowledged that his goal celebration, which leveled the score at 1-1, was aimed at Argentina's critics. The Chelsea midfielder first cupped his hands to his ears, a gesture interpreted in soccer as a challenge to critics. Then, he opened and closed his fingers, as if inviting them to keep talking.

“There was a lot of talk; it was a mix of euphoria and frustration,” Fernandez said.

Scaloni, for his part, stated in the post-semifinal press conference that “this talk of ‘help’ will always exist; it doesn’t bother me.”

“With VAR today, it’s very difficult to get help; it would have to be glaringly obvious. We knew there was no help.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

But the company's shares declined sharply in after-hours trading as the video streaming company's forecast for the current quarter fell below Wall Street's expectations.

Netflix earned $3.4 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the March-June period. That's up 9% from $3.13 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 13% to $12.56 billion from $11.08 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 79 cents per share on revenue of $12.58 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

For the current quarter, Netflix is forecasting revenue growth of about 12%. Analysts are expecting revenue to grow by about 13%, to $13 billion.

The Los Gatos, California-based company said its advertising business remains a top priority and it expects to bring in about $3 billion in ad revenue this year. Netflix added that it's seeing strong interest in its live events offerings, including the Women's World Cup.

Netflix said animated film “Swapped” is on its way to becoming its second-most viewed original animated movie, behind last year's wildly popular “ KPop Demon Hunters. ”

The quarter's most popular streams included Harlan Coben’s "I Will Find You," “Legends” from the U.K., "The Polygamist" from South Africa and the K-drama “Teach You a Lesson."

Netflix said it is using large language models to improve how its subscribers find things to watch and it's adding voice search functionality and artificial-intelligence powered natural language search.

In February, Netflix walked away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business.

Shares of Netflix fell $5.33, or 7.2%, to $69.02 in after-hours trading.

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According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, James Shepard was on his way to a “court-ordered drug class,” but was pulled over for driving on a suspended license, “a violation of the felony probation he was already serving for multiple burglaries and thefts,” and was taken into custody.

Authorities said while he didn’t have a valid driver’s license, Shepard, of Palm Coast, did have something called a “Whizzinator,” described by the sheriff’s office as “a bogus bladder of fake (we hope) urine wired to a heating pad with a faux pizzle to make it convincing.”

Video released by FCSO ― which can be viewed above ― shows Shepard whipping the “Whizzinator” from his pants and chucking in onto the floor of the cruiser and then claiming the item wasn’t his, authorities said.

The deputy was not pleased.

“James, I have you on video pulling out a pee bag and a dildo out of your pants, OK?” the deputy says. “I’m not stupid. I clean this car every day. I’m responsible for what is in this car. I would know if there’s a pee bag and a godd--- dildo in my car.”

In an agency Facebook post, Sheriff Rick Staly said that Shepard, whom he described as a “pee-brain dirtbag,” had already gotten “the deal of a lifetime, walking around on community control when he should have been sitting in a prison cell for almost a decade.”

“Shepard terrorized our home construction businesses and had stolen enough appliances to open an appliance store but was only sentenced to community control when his own sentencing scoresheet had him eligible for a minimum of 9 years in prison,” the sheriff said. “Now he has a stream of new charges after flushing away a second chance to turn his life around. Instead, he tried to trick the system. Now he needs to go to prison!”

That “stream of new charges” includes counts of driving without a valid license, violating his probation, defrauding a drug test and tampering with evidence, according to FCSO.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado Flagler, James Shepard se dirigía a una “clase de drogas ordenada por un tribunal”, pero fue detenido por conducir con la licencia suspendida, “una violación de la libertad condicional por un delito grave que ya cumplía por múltiples robos a viviendas y hurtos”, y fue puesto bajo custodia.

Las autoridades informaron que, aunque no tenía una licencia de conducir válida, Shepard, residente de Palm Coast, sí tenía un dispositivo llamado “Whizzinator”, descrito por la oficina del sheriff como “una vejiga falsa llena de orina falsa (esperamos), conectada a una almohadilla térmica con un pene falso para hacerlo convincente”.

El video divulgado por la FCSO, que puede verse arriba, muestra a Shepard sacando el “Whizzinator” de sus pantalones y lanzándolo al piso de la patrulla, para luego afirmar que el objeto no era suyo, informaron las autoridades.

Al agente no le agradó la situación.

“James, te tengo en video sacando una bolsa de orina y un consolador de tus pantalones, ¿de acuerdo?”, dice el agente. “No soy estúpido. Limpio este vehículo todos los días. Soy responsable de lo que hay dentro de este vehículo. Sabría si hubiera una bolsa de orina y un maldito consolador en mi vehículo”.

En una publicación de la agencia en Facebook, el sheriff Rick Staly dijo que Shepard, a quien describió como un “basura con cerebro de orina”, ya había recibido “el trato de su vida, caminando libre bajo supervisión comunitaria cuando debería haber estado sentado en una celda de prisión durante casi una década”.

“Shepard aterrorizó a nuestras empresas de construcción de viviendas y robó suficientes electrodomésticos como para abrir una tienda de electrodomésticos, pero solo fue sentenciado a supervisión comunitaria cuando su propia hoja de puntuación de sentencia lo hacía elegible para un mínimo de nueve años de prisión”, dijo el sheriff. “Ahora enfrenta una nueva serie de cargos después de desperdiciar una segunda oportunidad para cambiar su vida. En cambio, intentó engañar al sistema. ¡Ahora necesita ir a prisión!”.

Esa “nueva serie de cargos” incluye conducir sin una licencia válida, violar su libertad condicional, defraudar una prueba de drogas y manipular evidencia, según la FCSO.

Diccionario Local10.txt

The puzzled looks, shakes of the head and sagging shoulders said it all.

McIlroy was just 10 holes into his bid to win the British Open for the first time since 2014 and he was veering dangerously close to playing himself out of title contention.

Missing one putt from four feet wasn’t necessarily unusual. But doing it three times? In the space of four holes?

That trio of bewildering close-range mishaps — on Nos. 7, 8 and 10 — came either side of McIlroy driving the green to make birdie on the 415-yard No. 9. Go figure.

And it pretty much summed up the world No. 2’s wild late-afternoon ride in a 2-over 72 that included six bogeys and left him seven shots off the first-round lead, held surprisingly by 115th-ranked Jackson Suber on Thursday.

“Just too many stupid mistakes,” McIlroy said — and he was specifically referring to his putting on greens he described as “very inconsistent”

“I missed a couple early on that looked like they were going to break one way and they actually went another way, and then when you get the next one, you’re over it and it’s just very hard to trust that the ball is going to do what you think it’s going to do. Then you maybe don’t make quite as committed of a stroke.”

McIlroy arrived at the Open after a seventh-place finish at the Scottish Open, where he went viral by shouting “I’m so bad at golf” following a poor approach shot late in his final round.

The sixth player — and only European — to complete the career Grand Slam rarely hides his emotions and he cut a frustrated figure for most of his round Thursday, not least when he chipped through the green and into a bunker at the par-5 No. 17.

McIlroy managed to splash out to 8 feet while having one knee on the ground but a weakly struck par putt led to another dropped shot.

“It’s just hard to judge the speed sometimes,” he said.

Making birdie at the tough last hole after a brilliant approach to 5 feet sparked shouts of “Rory, Rory” from spectators in the grandstands and at least gave him something to cling to.

He barely raised a smile, though, after plucking the ball out of the cup. One stat spoke volumes: he ranked 148th in putting in the 156-man field.

McIlroy is playing a reduced schedule in 2026 and this is just his sixth event since winning the Masters for the second straight year, which moved his total of major titles to six.

A win this week would tie him with Harry Vardon as the European player with most majors in men’s golf.

He already has plenty of work to do, even if he tried to remain positive.

“Hopefully we’ll get the better conditions tomorrow and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning,” McIlroy said. “Go out there and shoot a good one and get myself right back in it for the weekend.”

___

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

Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington framed the proposal as one last push to deliver for voters ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. It advanced on a vote of 20-14.

"We are rallying to finish what we started when the American people sent us here,” said Arrington, R-Texas.

With Iran war funding making up the bulk of the package, some $60 billion, Arrington acknowledged that people can debate “why we're there” in the overseas conflict. But he said the money is needed for basic supplies — "just the bombs, bullets and battlefield readiness for our men and women in uniform to finish the fight successfully and return home safely — that’s it."

The resolution, which sets out instructions for the various congressional committees to draw up proposals, also calls for $13 billion for Intelligence, $12 billion for Agriculture, and $10 billion for Administration, which handles voting and elections.

Speaker Johnson goes it alone, trying to push past Democrats

The proposal is the third budget reconciliation package Republicans in control of Congress have put forward this session to steamroll Trump's priorities past Democratic objections using a legislative procedure that allows for simple majority votes for passage.

It's the same process House Speaker Mike Johnson used to pass Trump's big tax cuts bill last year and to advance Homeland Security money after Democrats refused to fund the department following the deaths of Americans protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions earlier this year.

Johnson is pushing the effort almost single-handedly, without full backing from his slim House Republican majority or the Senate. He held lengthy meetings with Trump this week at the White House and hosted a private session for Republicans at the president's Camp David retreat to hash out details.

But the 47-page package remains a long-shot effort — too meager for some, too costly for others — ahead of voting in the full House expected next week.

Key Republican Rep. Chip Roy, an influential member of the Freedom Caucus who has expressed reservations about the package, did not vote at the Budget Committee session, as his home state of Texas deals with flooding.

Democrats argue Americans are paying for Trump's plans

Democrats are ready to vote against the proposal, as they did Thursday during committee action.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, said the document, some 6,500 words, never once mentions the issue that's top of mind for many Americans: affordability.

“People know this is a failed presidency, and a failed Republican majority,” Boyle said.

Democrats offered more than a dozen amendments to the package during the hourslong Budget Committee session and raised questions about how the new spending will ultimately be paid for — either via budget cuts to other programs or by piling onto the nation's debt.

Boyle offered an amendment to reverse healthcare cuts from the Republicans' big tax breaks bill. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sought to reinstate funding for food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., suggested funding for immigration enforcement at Department of Homeland Security could be used to offset costs elsewhere.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, blamed the high costs of living on the Iran war and said every time Americans open their refrigerators or go to the gas pump they are “paying for a war that should never have been started.”

Senate pans House plan, leaving next steps uncertain

Next steps are highly volatile, as the House holds a rare Saturday pro forma session, which is a largely administrative meeting that will allow the resolution to be filed in time for consideration next week.

Johnson can only lose a few detractors on his side of the aisle as he relies on Republicans only, without Democrats, for passage.

But the resolution would also have to be agreed on by the Senate, and Republican senators have largely panned the House effort, waiting to see if Johnson can heave it to passage.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said senators have “a lot of questions” about it – from defense hawks concerned about the military to deficit hawks who want to offset costs.

“It’s a very uneven path,” he said. “We’ll see what the House can execute on,” he said, but “I can’t make any guarantees over here.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is expected to take over the Senate Budget Committee after the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, has been a leading budget hawk concerned about the nation's rising deficits.

The House plans to have its committees work on bill text over the August recess and bring the whole package back to the floor for a final vote in the fall.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

On Wednesday, immigrants-rights groups protested outside the federal jail protesting on behalf of those detained inside and their families.

Local 10 News first reported on issues at the facility, including an air conditioning outage in the middle of the scorching South Florida summer, a week prior.

A group of wives of detainees were among the protesters. Their husbands are part of a larger population of immigrants who were once held in the now shut-down “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in the Everglades.

“Changing the building did not change the suffering,” activist Arianne Betancourt said.

“They have to drink out of the sink,” another woman said. “There’s cockroaches.”

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Local 10 News the building had an air conditioning problem, but it claims it was fixed.

Annett Uset Dumont said since speaking to us last week, she claims her husband was placed in something called “the hole.”

“This guy you see on my shirt, his name Daikel Dumont Rodriguez and he’s currently in the FDC up in solitary confinement because I decided to talk to the news,” she said. “The hole is in the 12th floor and is in isolation.”

An FBOP spokesperson confirmed “the hole” is slang for disciplinary segregation, but declined to elaborate saying that “for privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not comment on the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual.”

Dumont’s husband never called Local 10 News directly, but others did.

Officials with the FBOP said detainees are allowed to call members of the news media.

They later sent an additional statement to Local 10 News, saying in part:

“While it is general BOP policy not to discuss anecdotal allegations, we want to provide transparency on an incident that we were recently notified of that occurred at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) Miami on Saturday, July 11, 2026, at approximately 11:50 a.m. Numerous inmates confronted multiple staff members in one of the housing units regarding some complaints they had. The inmates were agitated and confrontational. To isolate and contain the situation, the inmates were ordered to return to their cells. The inmates did not initially comply with these orders, which resulted in a couple of the inmates being removed from the area and secured in the Special Housing Unit pending an investigation. To gain compliance from the remaining inmates, staff deployed a spray of Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) into the air. The remaining inmates complied and returned to their cells. Subsequently, the unit returned to normal operations later that day. The matter is currently under investigation.

“Retaliation of any kind is not tolerated in our agency. Allegations of employee misconduct are taken seriously and, consistent with national policy, are referred for investigation if warranted. Incidents of potential criminal activity or misconduct inside BOP facilities are thoroughly investigated for potential administrative discipline or criminal prosecution. The BOP remains committed to ensuring the safety of our employees, inmates, and the public.

“Additionally, news media and members of the community may correspond with inmates in writing as discussed in BOP Program Statement 5265.14 “Correspondence” here https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5265_014.pdf (see pages 17 and 18) and by telephone as explained in Program Statement 5264.08 “Inmate Telephone Regulations” here, ‘Inmates may submit telephone numbers for any person they choose, including numbers for courts, elected officials and members of the news media.’”

FBOP statement

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The addition of the disturbance in the far eastern Atlantic was less a statement about its development potential than a simple nod to a healthy-looking tropical wave.

Models don’t show this one going anywhere in terms of development and by the weekend increasing wind shear and dry air will formally seal its fate.

Meanwhile closer into the U.S., forecast models continue to waffle over the development odds for an elongated area of low pressure that’s expected to form over the northeastern Gulf by late this weekend.

Models have only been mildly interested in this one and turned largely bearish again overnight.

As we’ve detailed in previous newsletters, the environment just isn’t in a configuration to promote much development into the early part of next week. The broad surface low will be accompanied by a mid- to upper-level low above, jet dynamics that aren’t conducive to tropical organization.

Additionally, a series of fast-moving jet stream dips beginning this weekend and persisting into early next week will ensure moderate to at times strong wind shear near the system.

Overall, the mix of wind shear and land interaction will significantly limit development potential and it’s unlikely this one clears the hurdles next week.

Heavy rain threat regardless for parts of west-central Florida

As we mentioned on Wednesday, regardless of development the disorganized low pressure will still bring the threat of heavy rains to parts of west-central Florida to start next week.

Models indicate periods of heavy rain beginning this weekend and ramping up across parts of west-central and northeastern Florida Sunday into Monday. Given the drought conditions in this part of Florida, this type of rain could be largely beneficial if spread out over a few days.

For now, the NWS only indicates a marginal risk of excessive rainfall from Sunday through early Tuesday for the middle tier of Florida. We’ll of course monitor the trends in the event the flood risk increases for next week.

Big outage for NOAA’s big hurricane-tracking satellite

The main operational weather satellite from NOAA that we use to continuously monitor the Atlantic basin during hurricane season – also the primary satellite used by meteorologists to monitor weather systems across the eastern part of the U.S. – encountered a mechanical issue late Wednesday and was turned off to troubleshoot the problem and protect the satellite from a wider system failure.

The last satellite image we received from GOES-19 was from 4:10 p.m. ET on July 15.

According to a satellite alert message issued by NOAA two hours after GOES-19 was placed in a safe hold on Wednesday, engineers are investigating the issue and working to recover the satellite. So far, no recovery timelines have been shared by the agency.

It’s worth noting that while NOAA does have satellite redundancy capabilities and can revert to its legacy (i.e., older) GOES-16 satellite to cover the Atlantic, getting this satellite in place and turned on would presumably take some time.

We rely heavily on GOES-19 for a multitude of critical satellite-derived products to investigate developing storms and to track and estimate the intensity of hurricanes.

The satellite data are also critical input to forecast models, and without GOES-19 data we should expect model forecast skill to temporarily drop.

While we have some overlap in the far western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf, with GOES-19’s western counterpart GOES-18 and in the eastern Atlantic with the European Meteosat-12 satellite, neither satellite is optimized to give a clear picture of the entire Atlantic and the pictures we capture on their edges is of degraded quality.

We’ll keep you posted on the status of GOES-19 and this evolving story in the days ahead.

Update: As of Wednesday afternoon (July 16th), NOAA has resolved the earlier reported issue with GOES-19 and the satellite and all instruments are returning to normal operations. The recovery process is expected to be completed by Wednesday evening and satellite data began retransmitting as of 1:15 PM ET Wednesday, July 16th.

The rule, which goes into effect in September, also puts in place restrictions on when and how students may change their major or academic program.

Current rules give students significantly more flexibility. They are generally admitted to the U.S. for as long as it takes to complete the academic program, many of which are longer than four years by design.

Higher education leaders have opposed the rule, arguing the change creates an administrative burden for schools, universities and the federal government.

“This action is unnecessary and duplicative,” said Zuzana Wootson, deputy director of federal policy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a nonprofit organization. “International students are already among the most closely monitored nonimmigrant populations in the U.S. and are subject to rigorous oversight by DHS and academic institutions.”

In a statement, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin described the rule as cracking down on a loophole that international students were exploiting by extending their studies.

“By implementing clear, finite limits on these visas, the United States is reclaiming its ability to properly screen, vet, and monitor individuals within our borders,” Mullin said. “This final rule ensures that foreign students remain focused on their primary purpose: completing their studies and returning home.”

The rule is the latest in a series of Trump administration crackdowns on international students. Last spring, widespread terminations of students' legal status sent students scrambling to hide or leave the country out of fear they would be detained for being in the U.S. illegally.

The federal government also imposed a requirement for visa applicants to share their social media handles, subjecting them to increased scrutiny. And travel bans affecting more than a dozen countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia further limited international students' ability to obtain a visa and enter the U.S. for school.

The rule comes as international student enrollment is declining. The effects are most acutely felt at schools with small endowments and student bodies that enroll a large percentage of international students, who have been recruited from abroad. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid and, as a result, often pay full-price tuition.

Higher education leaders have warned the growing uncertainty could further drive international students elsewhere, with ripple effects throughout the workforce and the economy.

“At a time when global competition for talent is intensifying, this policy sends exactly the wrong message,” Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association that represents international education, said in a statement. “It tells the world’s brightest students and scholars that the United States is becoming less welcoming, less predictable, and less committed.”

___

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

The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from top Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.

Called Truth PSI, the new service comes amid a flurry of other deals by Trump and his family company that critics say are exploiting the presidency for profit. It follows similar offers of paid access on rival platforms, though with one key difference: The most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself and, as the biggest shareholder of the public traded parent company, would directly benefit.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature is profiting off the presidency. Truth Social's public parent, Trump Media & Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether the president's posts will be excluded from the offering.

A press release states it would allow traders to see “the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts” ahead of others. The president has the most followers — 12.9 million — followed by his oldest son, Don Jr. and, close behind, his son Eric.

The release did not say how much customers would be charged.

In the past few months, Trump has announced major decisions and musings on his platform including posts about the Iran war, tariffs and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in U.S. cities. The Iran posts in particular are impactful because investors are worried that higher oil prices will continue to stoke inflation and possibly force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Stock in Trump Media & Technology has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6 billion in shareholder wealth. Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump's annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1 billion in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.

Conflict of interest laws would bar U.S. government officials from owning a company that profits off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Washington University's Clark. But the president and vice-president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.

Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied — selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power — but Trump has refused.

Trump Media has been trying to lift its stock price recently by branching into various businesses, including crypto, financial services and even nuclear fusion. It recently replaced its longtime CEO, former Congressman Devin Nunes, with a seasoned media executive, Kevin McGurn.

In the release, McGurn described the Truth PSI move as part of a “strategy to monetize proprietary assets." He added that he expected it to become a "meaningful, ongoing source of revenue.”

Trump Media said that it plans to start the service next month and that it has already signed up customers.

The stock rose 0.6% to $9.63 on Thursday. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected suggestions that Islamabad had abandoned efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table after brokering an initial ceasefire agreement last month that has now collapsed.

“Let me dispel the impression that Pakistan has done hands up, and this is not the case,” ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said at a news conference, adding that the parties eventually "will have to come to the negotiating table to settle all outstanding issues.”

Even the top negotiators for Iran and the U.S. signaled they have not walked away from talks. In a podcast interview with Joe Rogan that aired Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration is “not going to bomb and bomb and bomb” and noted that “you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.”

“We’re going try to use our military force as one of the many tools that we have to solve the problem,” Vance said, adding that “diplomacy is another tool.”

Mediators from countries that include Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt have been working to resume talks, according to regional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy. They noted that neither side has notified Pakistan that it was officially withdrawing or terminating the initial ceasefire agreement.

The backchannel efforts have been overshadowed by the escalating attacks, with the U.S. military on Thursday conducting strikes deeper into Iran and firing on a ship that the U.S. accused of trying to break its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran has retaliated by launching missiles and drones at U.S. allies in the region and warned that its attacks could grow to target “all the infrastructure in the region.”

The U.S. and Iran are in a delicate and potentially pivotal moment that “leaves open the possibility of moving up the escalation ladder,” said Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based International Crisis Group.

The push is on for renewing negotiations

Andrabi, the spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, acknowledged that mediation between Iran and the U.S. had become increasingly difficult. But he said peace efforts remained alive.

“It can be put on the backburner, but it stays,” Andrabi said, adding that “whenever the parties exhaust the logic of escalation, the formula for peace is there.”

The regional officials involved in mediation attempts said efforts to salvage the deal to end the war were continuing this week. They acknowledged that the 60-day negotiating process spelled out in the interim deal has halted. But they said mediators have been working to persuade both sides to return to the negotiating table.

Officials say the key point of dispute is management of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial energy shipping route that is Tehran’s greatest source of leverage. The language in the interim deal is vague. Iran claims it has the authority to arrange shipping transit through the strait, while the U.S. says the waterway is meant to be open to free passage and has tried to arrange an alternate shipping route along Oman’s coast.

In his interview with Rogan, Vance acknowledged that diplomacy might ultimately be the only way forward.

“I’m very frustrated by the Americans and frankly by people in other countries who are like, ‘You cannot negotiate with the Iranians,’” the vice president said. “Well, then what is your proposal to get people to stop shooting at ships in the Strait of Hormuz?”

Trump increases the threats and says Iran ‘better behave’

The fighting resumed over Iran’s unwillingness to allow oil tankers and other commercial vessels to navigate freely through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf shipping route through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. Iran effectively choked off the usual stream of commerce by attacking commercial vessels that ignored its rules, disrupting world energy markets and driving up prices that could pose problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

Asked by reporters in recent days if he is still open to negotiations, Trump has repeated his previous threats that Iran returning to the table is the only thing that can avoid U.S. attacks on civilian infrastructure like bridges and power plants. But the Republican president said he would not put a timeline on it.

“I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story,” Trump said in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. “They better behave.”

Moments before, Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator said the country is not declaring last month’s interim deal void. But Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran’s commitment depends on continued implementation by the United States. If Washington fails to honor its obligations, Iran would have no reason to remain bound by it, he argued.

The initial June 17 agreement called for a permanent end to hostilities and a reopening of the strait and started a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program and other issues.

Qalibaf also suggested that Iran is not seeking to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed indefinitely. He said Tehran’s objective is to preserve what he called “Iranian arrangements” governing navigation through the waterway, while allowing the maximum safe passage of commercial shipping under those rules.

US is trying a naval blockade and more strikes to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — again

To stop Iran’s attacks on ships, Trump has stepped up military attacks and reinstituted an earlier Navy blockade of Iranian ports to inflict economic pain.

But it would be unrealistic to expect the U.S. to eliminate Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones into the strait anytime soon, said Bradley Bowman, a former Army helicopter pilot and now a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

“Unfortunately, Iran only needs to hit a ship every now and then to create serious problems and dilemmas for insurers and ship captains and reduce the flow of traffic in the strait,” he said. “That reduced flow exerts significant economic and political pressure on Washington, especially as midterm elections approach. Iran understands the leverage it now has — and so does Trump.”

At the same time, Bowman and other experts are not convinced that more strikes and economic pressure will get Iran to negotiate.

“We’re doing things that have not affected Iranian behavior in the past,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior defense adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So why would it affect Iranian behavior now?”

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Amiri reported from New York, Magdy from Cairo and Ahmed from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

MLB said Thursday its 2027 season will start with a single game to be televised that night by Netflix. The teams have not been chosen.

Opening matchups include Cleveland at the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis at Cincinnati, the Chicago White Sox at Detroit, Texas at Houston, Minnesota at Kansas City, Atlanta at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets at Miami, the Los Angeles Angels at Milwaukee, Toronto at the New York Yankees, the Athletics at Pittsburgh, Arizona at San Diego, Colorado at San Francisco, Boston at Seattle, Baltimore at Tampa Bay and Philadelphia at Washington.

Baseball’s labor contract expires Dec. 1 and a management lockout is expected. In 2022, an agreement wasn’t reached until March 10, causing opening day to be pushed back from March 31 to April 7.

Chicago’s Wrigley Field will host the All-Star Game on July 13 and a rivalry weekend will follow.

The regular season is scheduled to end Sept. 26.

The Athletics are scheduled to play most of their home games in West Sacramento, California, for the third straight season before moving to a new ballpark in Las Vegas. They will have a homestand at the Triple-A ballpark in Las Vegas starting May 31 against San Diego and Cincinnati.

With no labor contract in place for 2027, no international games are scheduled.

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

Kordy Clark, de 31 años y residente de Homestead, fue arrestado casi cinco meses después y enfrenta cargos que incluyen intento de asesinato.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Miami (MPD), la balacera del 23 de febrero ocurrió alrededor de las 7:45 p.m. en el área de Florida Avenue y Douglas Road.

Las autoridades informaron que respondieron a una alerta de ShotSpotter y encontraron casquillos de bala en Florida Avenue, pero no localizaron a la víctima, hasta que un hombre llegó al HCA Florida Mercy Hospital con una herida de bala.

La Policía dijo que, cuando los agentes llegaron a la habitación del hospital, la víctima les dijo: “Detectives, no vi ni escuché nada”, afirmando que no sabía quién le disparó ni por qué, y explicó que inmediatamente saltó un muro después de recibir el disparo.

Un testigo, cuyo vehículo fue alcanzado por una bala, dijo durante una entrevista con la Policía que un hombre, posteriormente identificado como Clark, se le acercó en una bicicleta mientras llevaba un arma, se bajó y preguntó: “¿Dónde está Biz? Lo va a pagar, o cualquiera que esté con él”.

Las autoridades dijeron que el testigo comenzó una discusión con Clark, “la cual fue observada por la víctima antes de salir del vehículo del testigo”.

Según un informe de arresto del MPD, la víctima salió del vehículo, sacó su propia arma y disparó una vez al aire. Las autoridades dijeron que Clark respondió disparando múltiples veces contra la víctima, hiriéndola en los glúteos mientras huía.

El testigo le dijo a la Policía que “después de la balacera, Clark parecía emocional y comenzó a llorar mientras volvía a subirse a su bicicleta, diciendo: “No fue mi intención hacerle eso””, señala el informe.

La Policía dijo que encontró a Clark en su casa y lo trasladó a Miami para interrogarlo el miércoles.

Según el informe, Clark primero afirmó que no conocía a la víctima, pero luego admitió que sí, diciendo “que se conocían desde hacía mucho tiempo y que habían asistido juntos a la escuela”.

El informe señala que Clark les dijo a los detectives que “anteriormente había mantenido relaciones sexuales con la hermana de la víctima y creía que las acusaciones en su contra podrían estar relacionadas con eso”.

“Clark continuó negando haber estado presente en la escena al momento de la balacera y no pudo proporcionar ninguna evidencia o información sobre su paradero o actividades durante el momento en que ocurrió el incidente”, concluyeron los detectives.

Además del cargo de intento de asesinato, la Policía arrestó a Clark por usar un arma de fuego durante la comisión de un delito grave y por disparar ilegalmente un arma de fuego.

Hasta la tarde del jueves, permanecía detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

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Kordy Clark, 31, of Homestead, was taken into custody nearly five months later, facing charges including attempted murder.

According to the Miami Police Department, the Feb. 23 shooting happened at around 7:45 p.m. in the area of Florida Avenue and Douglas Road.

Authorities said they responded to a ShotSpotter alert and found shell casings on Florida Avenue, but no victim ― until a man turned up at HCA Florida Mercy Hospital with a gunshot wound.

Police said when they showed up to his room, the victim said, “Detectives, I did not see or hear anything,” claiming he didn’t know who shot him or why, saying he immediately jumped a wall after being shot.

A witness, who had a bullet enter his car, said during a police interview that a man ― later identified as Clark ― came up to him on a bicycle while toting a gun, dismounted and asked, “Where’s Biz at? He’s going to get it, or anyone who’s with him.”

Authorities said the witness got into an argument, “which was observed by the victim prior to exiting the witness’ vehicle.”

According to an MPD arrest report, the victim got out of the car, took out his own gun and fired a round into the air. Authorities said Clark then fired multiple rounds at the victim, shooting him in the buttocks as he ran away.

The witness told police that “after the shooting, (Clark) appeared emotional and began crying as he got back onto his bicycle, stating, ‘I didn’t mean to do that to him,’” the report states.

Police said they found Clark at his home and took him back to Miami for questioning on Wednesday.

According to the report, Clark first claimed he didn’t know the victim, but then admitted that he did, saying “that they had known each other for a long time and that they had attended school together.”

The report states that Clark told detectives that “he had previously engaged in sexual relations with the victim’s sister and believed the allegations made against him could be related to that.”

“(Clark) continued to deny being present at the scene at the time of the shooting and was unable to provide any evidence or information regarding his whereabouts or activities during the time the incident occurred,” detectives concluded.

In addition to attempted murder, police arrested Clark on charges of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

As of Thursday afternoon, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

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Miami police identified the suspect in an arrest report as Marjorie Normil, of North Miami Beach.

Police said the incident happened around 4 p.m. near Northeast Miami Court and 78th Street.

According to the arrest report, a public service aide was flagged down by a witness who reported a woman had been stabbed.

Police said the victim was found bleeding from her face and neck area and told officers she had been stabbed.

They said Miami Fire Rescue medics then transported the victim to North Shore Medical Center for treatment.

The report states officers later located Normil near Northeast First Court and 78th Street, matching the description provided by witnesses.

Police said a witness told detectives he “overheard a commotion” outside his home and saw the victim and Normil arguing over money the victim was owed. The witness said he separated the two women and went back inside.

When he returned outside, the witness said he saw the victim “bleeding heavily from her face and neck area” and saw Normil flee southbound on Northeast 78th Street, according to the report.

Another witness told detectives he saw the two women talking before hearing an argument. He said the victim looked toward him and stated, “Candy cut me,” the report states.

That witness later identified Normil to police, according to investigators.

Detectives said they also interviewed the victim at the hospital.

According to the report, the victim told investigators she had been arguing with Normil about a stolen vehicle she did not want to be involved with.

The victim told police Normil stabbed her “approximately four to five times in the face and neck area,” The report states. Police said she later identified Normil as the person who stabbed her.

The report states Normil was read her Miranda rights and agreed to speak with detectives. Her statement was redacted from the publicly released report.

Jail records show she is facing one count of attempted second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

As of Thursday afternoon, she was being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Reports from the National Transportation Safety Board were not final and do not identify a definitive cause of the crash. But they describe evidence that supports bird strikes before the helicopter plummeted into the river on April 10, 2025.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said that helicopters are especially vulnerable to bird strikes because they fly at low altitudes. Strikes can turn out to be devastating.

“It seems pretty clear to me that the breakup of that helicopter was precipitated by several bird strikes,” said aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, who read the key findings. “Not just one but several — and birds of a different feather.”

He noted damage to the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer, a key part of the helicopter.

“Without it, the helicopter could become very unstable and difficult to fly,” Guzzetti said.

The victims of last year’s accident included a Siemens business executive from Spain, his family and the pilot, Seankese Johnson, 36, a U.S. Navy veteran who received his commercial license in 2023.

Passengers Agustin Escobar, 49; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39; and their three children, Victor, 4; Mercedes, 8; and Agustin, 10, all died.

The crash renewed safety concerns about the popular sightseeing flights and prompted New Jersey’s governor to ask for additional restrictions on nonessential helicopter flights.

Remains of several geese were found on the helicopter’s rotors and left horizontal stabilizer. One witness told the NTSB that just minutes before the crash a large flock of geese took flight in the area.

“The geese were big and there were many of them. When the helicopter went bang, I immediately thought it was a bird strike,” the witness told NTSB investigators.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab identified remains from different breeds of geese on the wreckage, including a female Canada goose, which can average nearly 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms).

Guzzetti said it's reasonable to conclude “the pilot is not culpable here.”

“Birds are everywhere, and pilots have limitations with their eyesight,” he said.

The report, however, noted that a control panel switch to turn on pulsing lights to help deter birds was missing. The tour company's former chief pilot said the light system was not mandatory during daylight rides, according to investigators.

The NTSB has investigated 24 helicopter bird-strike crashes in the past 25 years, including three fatal ones. Helicopter pilots are encouraged to try to avoid areas where birds are known to be present and fly slower to minimize the potential damage from an impact.

The “ miracle on the Hudson” highlighted the danger of bird strikes when a US Airways jet hit a flock of birds and lost power in both engines shortly after takeoff in 2009. Pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was hailed as a hero after he landed the powerless plane in the Hudson River and all 155 people on board were rescued.

In last year’s crash, the helicopter took off from a downtown heliport that afternoon and flew north along the Manhattan skyline before heading south toward the Statue of Liberty. Less than 18 minutes into the flight, parts of the aircraft were seen tumbling into the water.

Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact and recovered the bodies from the water. Later recovery crews hoisted the mangled Bell 206L-4 helicopter out of the river for investigators to examine.

New York Helicopter Tours shut down after the crash, and the FAA issued an emergency order to ground all the company’s flights after learning it had fired its operations director minutes after he had agreed to suspend flights during the investigation.

The FAA said at the time that it suspected the firing was retaliation for a safety decision.

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

La Policía de Miami identificó a la sospechosa en un informe de arresto como Marjorie Normil, de North Miami Beach.

La Policía informó que el incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 4 p.m. cerca de Northeast Miami Court y 78th Street.

Según el informe de arresto, un asistente de servicio público fue alertado por un testigo que informó que una mujer había sido apuñalada.

La Policía dijo que la víctima fue encontrada sangrando del rostro y el cuello y les dijo a los agentes que había sido apuñalada.

Indicaron que paramédicos de Miami Fire Rescue trasladaron a la víctima al North Shore Medical Center para recibir tratamiento.

El informe señala que posteriormente los agentes localizaron a Normil cerca de Northeast First Court y 78th Street, ya que coincidía con la descripción proporcionada por los testigos.

La Policía dijo que un testigo les dijo a los detectives que “escuchó una conmoción” afuera de su casa y vio a la víctima y a Normil discutiendo por un dinero que le debían a la víctima. El testigo dijo que separó a las dos mujeres y regresó al interior de la vivienda.

Cuando volvió a salir, el testigo dijo que vio a la víctima “sangrando abundantemente del rostro y el cuello” y vio a Normil huir hacia el sur por Northeast 78th Street, según el informe.

Otro testigo les dijo a los detectives que vio a las dos mujeres conversando antes de escuchar una discusión. Dijo que la víctima lo miró y dijo: “Candy me cortó”, señala el informe.

Posteriormente, ese testigo identificó a Normil ante la Policía, según los investigadores.

Los detectives dijeron que también entrevistaron a la víctima en el hospital.

Según el informe, la víctima les dijo a los investigadores que había estado discutiendo con Normil por un vehículo robado con el que no quería verse involucrada.

La víctima le dijo a la Policía que Normil la apuñaló “aproximadamente de cuatro a cinco veces en el rostro y el cuello”, señala el informe. La Policía indicó que posteriormente identificó a Normil como la persona que la apuñaló.

El informe señala que a Normil se le leyeron sus derechos Miranda y aceptó hablar con los detectives. Su declaración fue censurada en la versión del informe divulgada públicamente.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en segundo grado con un arma mortal.

Hasta la tarde del jueves, permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

The firm’s enforcement chief said Kalshi contacted federal regulators about bets allegedly made about what the president would say in public addresses.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is aware of the situation, which she described as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace.”

“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this,” Leavitt told reporters, saying the aide is on unpaid leave.

ABC News reported Thursday that Gabriel Perez, who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, used his inside knowledge to win more than $100,000 betting on what the president would say in big speeches, including the State of the Union address earlier this year.

Robert Denault, Kalshi’s lawyer and head of enforcement, said on X that the “Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades” to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that has regulatory authority over such matters.

His statement did not name Perez.

“We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided all evidence that we collected, as we do with any referral,” Denault added.

ABC based its report on multiple sources who have knowledge of the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details.

The ABC report described suspicious activity on Kalshi's “Mentions” market, in which users can place bets on what phrases and specific words might be used in public speeches. Kalshi recently began requiring users to disclose their place of employment, and the platform's policy prohibits betting based on information that users gain because of their job.

Attention on members of the administration profiting from the presidency has reached all the way to Trump himself.

On Thursday, his media company announced it would charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.

In his most recent financial disclosures, Trump reported making $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses in 2025, raking in profits while his investors suffered losses in marketplaces that Trump has sought to shield from tighter federal regulation.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

The president has also profited from merchandising deals and high-dollar political and official events at his properties, significantly increasing his net worth since returning to power.

Trump's aides have stood by his personal and family business practices.

“The president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president,” Leavitt said earlier this year. It's "absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.”

Miles de personas en la región noreste de la isla enfrentarán periodos de racionamiento de 48 horas a partir del viernes, informó Luis González, presidente ejecutivo de la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de la isla.

El programa de racionamiento afectará a varias comunidades en las ciudades de Canovanas y Rio Grande, al tiempo que las temperaturas siguen aumentando.

“El agua simplemente no nos va a dar”, subrayó González y añadió que es probable que el racionamiento se extienda a otras zonas.

González atribuyó la situación a la falta de lluvia, aunque la escasez severa de agua comenzó a afectar a algunas de las zonas más pobladas de la isla meses antes que iniciara la sequía, y las autoridades aún no han identificado el problema.

Esos cortes llevaron al alcalde de San Juan a demandar a la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de la isla a finales de mayo, y la gobernadora Jenniffer González reconoció que la infraestructura de la agencia ha carecido de inversión y mantenimiento durante décadas.

Casi 40.000 clientes se quedaron sin agua el mes pasado, lo que llevó a González a activar la Guardia Nacional. Ese corte no estuvo relacionado con la sequía actual.

El Monitor de Sequía de Estados Unidos indica que el 14% de Puerto Rico se encuentra actualmente bajo una sequía severa y otro 59% bajo una sequía moderada, frente al 18% a finales de junio. Calcula que alrededor de 2,3 millones de personas, de los 3,2 millones de habitantes de Puerto Rico, viven actualmente en una región afectada por la sequía.

Sequías anteriores han obligado a Puerto Rico a implementar estrictas medidas de racionamiento. En 2016, unos 400.000 clientes del servicio público recibían agua sólo cada tercer día.

Quienes han sido afectados por la escasez de agua han organizado protestas, y un número creciente de legisladores exige respuestas.

“Lo que está ocurriendo con la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados no puede atribuirse únicamente a la sequía", destacó el representante Domingo J. Torres. "Lo que estamos viendo es una gerencia que improvisa, que reacciona cuando la crisis ya está encima y que no ha sido capaz de presentar un plan claro para garantizar el acceso al agua potable”.

Torres presentó una solicitud formal el miércoles para obtener información, entre otras cosas, sobre qué medidas está tomando la autoridad de acueductos y alcantarillados para enfrentar la sequía y garantizar el acceso al agua potable.

Un portavoz de la agencia de acueductos y alcantarillados de Puerto Rico no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios.

Los legisladores también celebraron una audiencia pública esta semana sobre el impacto financiero de la escasez de agua en una isla con una tasa de pobreza de casi el 40%.

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

Keith Sonderling has already been on the job as acting secretary since April, when the White House announced that Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving her post to take a job in the private sector. Her exit followed multiple allegations that she had abused her position's power.

The hearing Thursday lacked much of the vitriol and drama that has been part of some confirmation hearings during Trump's second term. Still, there were considerable policy disputes, including on the administration's efforts to administer various Department of Education grant programs within the Department of Labor.

Sonderling was a senior advisor at the department during Trump's first term and went on to serve as a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also taught about the laws the department enforces as an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He returned to the department in Trump's second term and was confirmed as deputy secretary in March of last year.

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience the department from so many perspectives,” Sonderling told lawmakers.

Sonderling faced Democratic criticism

Sonderling is expected to be confirmed, but Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., made clear she was no fan of his work.

She noted that the department this year rescinded a Biden-era rule that expanded who can get overtime pay, which the department had estimated would provide an additional 4 million lower-paid salary workers with overtime protections. A federal judge had also blocked the rule during the final months of Joe Biden's presidency.

Murray also noted that the department was pursuing a new rule for determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor, which she said would let corporations classify workers as contractors so they can pay lesser wages — depriving workers of billions of dollars annually. She said the Labor Department also fired the vast majority of employees in the office that works to protect workers from discrimination by federal contractors.

“I fear any vote to confirm you is for more of the same: to strip overtime protections for our workers, to undercut our unions and to let giant corporations get away with robbery, literally,” Murray said.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla, said Sonderling was without a doubt qualified to serve as the next Labor secretary. He also said Sonderling has provided stability and steady leadership at the department since Chavez-DeRemer's abrupt departure.

“He is committed to making America the best place to get a job,” Scott said.

Lawmakers raised concerns about grants and the use of AI

One issue that came up repeatedly during the confirmation hearing was Democratic lawmakers' concerns that some Department of Education grant programs are being managed at Labor. That's been happening as Trump works to fulfill his campaign pledge to close the Department of Education entirely.

Sonderling said Department of Education staff have been detailed to his department and that they're making policy decisions. He said the Department of Labor is assisting them on the back end in dispersing funding. For example, he said $1.5 billion came to his department at midnight on July 1 and was disbursed within an hour or two.

"And the states love this,” Sonderling said.

Senators also expressed concern about what impact the growing use of artificial intelligence is having on the American worker.

Sonderling said the department is collecting information from companies and unions about AI usage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will review that data and help the department steer job training money to the states more effectively.

Currently, he said there is a “gloom and doom narrative” about AI's impact on workers that he said is driven by consultants and the tech industry.

“What we believe we're going to see is that AI-impacted jobs can potentially make you more productive. It can make your workplaces safer, but we can't get that information yet," Sonderling said.

Sonderling also touted his work with Vice President JD Vance as part of a task force focused on preventing fraud. He said he's telling states to “verify first and pay later” when it comes to unemployment insurance claims. He said the department is working with the state of Alabama on a centralized verification system.

“They have some of the lowest fraud and improper payment rates in the country because they are verifying,” Sonderling said.

The verdict — believed to be the largest ever against a gun dealer — was awarded by a jury Wednesday following a trial focused on whether the vendor, Husky Armory LLC, skirted federal regulations barring the sale of the gun-assembly kits to those under 21.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.

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In a wrongful-death lawsuit, the family of Henry Willis said he was just 18 when he purchased the Glock G19 pistol “build kit” from Husky Armory's website in 2023. He assembled the handgun in his garage — telling his father it was a transistor radio — and used it to end his life six days later.

Everytown Law, which represented the family, said the $104.2 million payout was the largest ever reached against a gun seller, surpassing the $73 million settlement awarded to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by the rifle maker Remington.

It comes a little over a year after the Supreme Court upheld regulations enacted by the Biden administration that mandated serial numbers on the homemade weapons and required buyers to complete background checks and age verification.

Attorneys for Willis said Husky Armory had flouted each of those requirements.

Its website advertised the product as having “everything you need to build your own Glock style pistol from the comfort of your home,” noting the weapon could be assembled by “nearly anyone with a brain,” according to the lawsuit.

Inquiries to Husky Armory LLC and its owner, Cody Yurk, were not immediately returned. The company, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, was not present for the trial, according to the family and their attorneys.

At a news conference Thursday, Willis’ mother, Laura Herp, described her son as a “kind, gentle child” who had struggled with mental health issues in the months leading up to his death.

“A child in crisis should never be able to access a deadly weapon,” Herp said. “Companies like Husky Armory thrive off selling to folks who shouldn’t have access to firearms, and they didn’t care who Henry was. They didn’t even bother showing up to the trial.”

A state court in Louisville had previously issued a default judgment against the vendor for failing to respond to the lawsuit. Following a two-day trial this week, a jury awarded $4.2 million in economic damages and $100 million in punitive damages to the family.

“This historic verdict sends a powerful message to ghost-gun sellers who set up businesses to profit by circumventing critical safeguards like background checks and age verification,” said Dana Mulhauser, an attorney for Everytown Law. “Henry should be home with his family today, and Laura deserved more time and opportunity to help her son heal.”

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Surveillance video shows Angelica Obando vandalizing the Ford F-150, and she said she used a rock and a napkin that she set on fire, according to a Miami police officer’s arrest report.

“She also stated that she did it out of anger, believing she would not get in trouble because she had previously purchased the vehicle for him. However, the vehicle is not under the defendant’s name nor the ex-boyfriend’s name,” a police officer wrote, according to the report.

Shortly after 12:45 a.m., Miami police officers responded to the Coco Cafe along Northwest Seventh Street, near 17th Court, in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, according to a police report.

“A scene assessment revealed the Ford F-150 with scrapes or scratches all around, broken side mirrors, a broken right taillight, and a broken right rear passenger-side window,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.

Obando said she had been in a relationship with the driver of the Ford F-150 for about seven years, tand he relationship had ended badly, according to the police officer’s report.

“She was upset because her ex had been stalking her by using other people to tell him her whereabouts,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.

Police officers arrested Obando, also known as Angelica Odalys Obando-Mayorga, at 1:10 a.m. on Thursday at 1742 NW 7 St. after she caused more than $3,000 in damage to the Ford, according to the report.

Obando was at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon, according to Miami-Dade inmate records. She faced charges of second-degree felony arson and criminal mischief.

It halted work on major projects, and it's buying back leases, citing national security concerns. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president's hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. National lab estimates show that turbines installed along the U.S. coasts could provide more than enough power to cover the nation's annual electricity consumption.

Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn't a new problem. The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. There are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

Here’s what to know about the national security implications of offshore wind development:

Turbines’ spinning blades can create false targets on radar screens

Burgum says he’s worried about autonomous drones going through a wind tower field undetected because of radar interference. And, he said, the vibration of wind towers could affect undersea sonar.

Radar systems can be adjusted to raise the threshold for what's considered a detection but may miss actual targets consequently, according to the Department of Energy.

Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former commander of the USS Cole, said radar operators are trained to differentiate a live track — anything from a boat or a submarine periscope to an inbound drone or missile — from clutter. If drones aren't detected before they reach a wind farm, “we have bigger national security issues,” he said.

Trump administration says there are new risks

According to the Department of Justice, defense officials gave the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management classified information in November 2025 detailing new national security risks from offshore wind projects.

BOEM halted construction on five big East Coast projects days before Christmas. Burgum said they had to address the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and vulnerabilities created by these projects near East Coast cities. This came after courts blocked Trump's efforts to halt development through executive action.

Like the United States, Sweden is raising security concerns with offshore wind energy. Officials said Thursday they're approving two offshore wind farms while rejecting 11 others.

Green Power Sweden CEO Nils Grunditz said he questions why Sweden is scaling back its offshore wind plans when technological solutions for radar interference are used elsewhere in the region. Denmark has been a pioneer in wind energy since building the first offshore wind farm in 1991.

The UK government said in March it bought new air defense radars to mitigate against anomalies created by offshore wind farms, touting it as new technology that secures coexistence of air defense and offshore wind. The independent climate change think tank E3G said North Sea turbines can be a defense asset, for example by including surveillance and monitoring equipment.

Judges were not convinced by the Trump administration

Developers impacted by the construction freeze and states sued. The DOJ argued national security concerns are paramount and federal courts do not second-guess military officials’ assessment of these risks.

Federal judges reviewed the classified information and allowed all five wind farms to resume construction.

At the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge Royce Lamberth expressed concern that the stated national security reasoning may have been “pretextual,” to mask the true motives for stopping offshore wind.

In putting a major wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut back on track in January, Lamberth said the government did not apply the newly discovered concerns specifically to that project, Revolution Wind, Burgum publicly criticized offshore wind around the time of the stop work order for reasons unrelated to national security, and BOEM waited to act until December on information it received in November.

The Pentagon is also holding up the development of onshore wind farms, and the administration has used emergency orders to keep fossil fuel plants online. On Thursday, attorneys general from 18 states and Washington moved to intervene in a lawsuit to try to advance the onshore wind farms.

Meghan Greenfield, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP in Washington, said the administration is making a national security argument in so many different contexts, “it has caused increased skepticism by the courts.”

A retired Navy officer is suspicious of the administration's motives

In buying back offshore wind leases, the Interior Department cited national security concerns with the projects, including those off California. The Interior Department said Thursday there were serious national security risks that demanded immediate attention, and it won't let “reckless projects create higher utility costs, a weakened energy system and unnecessary harm to the environment.” Several states are suing.

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn knows the waters off California's shore well. He commanded the fleet responsible for naval operations across the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean. He said there's no “showstopping national security issue” that would invalidate years of analysis of the lease areas.

McGinn said he thinks the administration is maximizing the risks and costs of offshore wind while minimizing the benefits to justify pursuing more fossil fuels and “it doesn't pass commonsense tests.” Offshore wind produces electricity cleanly. Oil, coal and natural gas emit carbon pollution when burned.

McGinn, who served as an assistant secretary of the Navy, said that radar interference is a problem recognized early on and adequately addressed and that thousands of turbines are operating across Europe and Asia.

“National security and offshore wind are compatible, if it is done right, in the right locations,” he said.

Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth disagrees. A distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Furchtgott-Roth said the defense issues have been known for decades, the military's views should be taken very seriously, the nation shouldn't be dependent on Chinese-made turbines, and gas, coal and nuclear provide affordable, reliable power. The administration is acting prudently, she said.

Members of Congress were briefed

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said he participated in a classified briefing months ago and didn't find the reasoning compelling. Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is trying to include a measure in the defense bill that sets military policy to force a 180-day deadline for a military office known as the siting clearinghouse to evaluate wind projects and explain its conclusion.

“They have to be able to produce a thoughtful and thorough analysis which justifies their decision,” Reed said Wednesday. "That’s the way to go.”

Even with that step, Reed said, this administration finds many ways to stop things it doesn't like and he expects the campaign against wind energy to continue.

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Un video de vigilancia muestra a Angelica Obando vandalizando la Ford F-150, y ella dijo que usó una piedra y una servilleta a la que le prendió fuego, según el informe de arresto de un agente de la Policía de Miami.

“Ella también declaró que lo hizo por enojo, creyendo que no tendría problemas porque anteriormente había comprado el vehículo para él. Sin embargo, el vehículo no está a nombre de la acusada ni de su ex novio”, escribió un agente de la Policía, según el informe.

Poco después de las 12:45 a.m., agentes de la Policía de Miami respondieron al Coco Cafe, ubicado sobre Northwest Seventh Street, cerca de 17th Court, en el vecindario de La Pequeña Habana, en Miami, según un informe policial.

“Una evaluación de la escena reveló que la Ford F-150 tenía raspaduras o rayones por todas partes, espejos laterales rotos, la luz trasera derecha rota y la ventana trasera derecha del lado del pasajero rota”, escribió un agente de la Policía, según el informe de arresto.

Obando dijo que mantuvo una relación con el conductor de la Ford F-150 durante aproximadamente siete años y que la relación terminó en malos términos, según el informe del agente.

“Ella estaba molesta porque su ex novio la había estado acosando al utilizar a otras personas para informarle dónde se encontraba”, escribió un agente de la Policía, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes arrestaron a Obando, también conocida como Angelica Odalys Obando-Mayorga, a la 1:10 a.m. del jueves en el 1742 de NW 7 St., después de que causó más de $3,000 USD en daños a la Ford, según el informe.

Obando permanecía en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight la tarde del jueves, según los registros de reclusos de Miami-Dade. Enfrenta cargos por incendio provocado en segundo grado y daños criminales a la propiedad.

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Police said Christopher Jacob Smith, 57, opened fire on the victim’s Jeep while the victim’s son was in the vehicle. The victim suffered a minor graze wound on the shoulder and was treated at Broward Health Coral Springs.

Authorities said it happened just before 3:15 p.m. in the 400 block of Northwest 87th Terrace.

According to an arrest report from the Coral Springs Police Department, the victim said he and his son had returned from Miami and went to a woman’s house to check on her “because they were concerned about her well-being.”

Police said Smith was outside waiting with a gun to confront them. The report states that as the victim rolled up, Smith ”stepped into the roadway and yelled that his foot was trapped beneath one of the Jeep’s tires."

According to police, the victim “immediately attempted to place the Jeep into reverse to move the vehicle off” Smith’s foot, but instead of letting him do that, Smith “produced a handgun from his waistband, pointed it toward the occupied Jeep and fired the weapon.”

The victim told investigators that he immediately got out of the Jeep and ”fled southbound on foot in a zig-zag pattern to avoid being struck by additional gunfire."

“As he opened the driver’s door, he heard another gunshot,” the report states. “(The victim) stated that (Smith) continued firing additional rounds directly at him as he fled, causing him to fear for his life and believe (he) was attempting to kill him.”

The victim’s son ran out as well and followed his father, police said. At one point, Smith entered the vehicle, they said.

Investigators interviewed the woman, who said that Smith “had become increasingly jealous of her relationship with (the victim) and demanded that she choose between the two men,” according to the report.

She told police that Smith had wanted her to move to California with him, which she refused. According to police, she said that immediately before the victim pulled up, Smith pulled a gun “from the glove compartment of his pickup truck and exited the vehicle while armed to confront” him. They said surveillance video corroborated the account.

Smith, police said, made a statement “minimizing his actions” that “was not credible,” though it was redacted from the report.

Police arrested him on charges of attempted first-degree murder, shooting at or into an occupied vehicle, armed burglary and child abuse.

As of Thursday afternoon, Smith was being held in the Broward Main Jail with no listed bond.

La Policía informó que Christopher Jacob Smith, de 57 años, abrió fuego contra la Jeep de la víctima mientras el hijo de la víctima se encontraba dentro del vehículo. La víctima sufrió una herida de rozón en un hombro y fue atendida en Broward Health Coral Springs.

Las autoridades informaron que el incidente ocurrió poco antes de las 3:15 p.m. en la cuadra 400 de Northwest 87th Terrace.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Coral Springs, la víctima dijo que él y su hijo habían regresado de Miami y fueron a la casa de una mujer para verificar cómo se encontraba “porque estaban preocupados por su bienestar”.

La Policía informó que Smith estaba afuera esperándolos con un arma para confrontarlos. El informe indica que, cuando la víctima llegó en el vehículo, Smith “entró en la vía y gritó que uno de sus pies había quedado atrapado debajo de una de las llantas de la Jeep”.

Según la Policía, la víctima “intentó de inmediato poner la Jeep en reversa para retirar el vehículo del pie” de Smith, pero en lugar de permitirle hacerlo, Smith “sacó una pistola de la cintura, la apuntó hacia la Jeep ocupada y disparó el arma”.

La víctima dijo a los investigadores que inmediatamente salió de la Jeep y “huyó hacia el sur a pie en un patrón de zigzag para evitar ser alcanzado por más disparos”.

“Cuando abrió la puerta del conductor, escuchó otro disparo”, señala el informe. “(La víctima) indicó que (Smith) continuó disparándole directamente mientras huía, lo que hizo que temiera por su vida y creyera que (Smith) intentaba matarlo”.

La Policía informó que el hijo de la víctima también salió corriendo del vehículo y siguió a su padre. En un momento, Smith entró al vehículo.

Los investigadores entrevistaron a la mujer, quien dijo que Smith “se había vuelto cada vez más celoso de su relación con la víctima y le exigía que eligiera entre los dos hombres”, según el informe.

Ella dijo a la Policía que Smith quería que se mudara con él a California, pero ella se negó. Según la Policía, la mujer dijo que, justo antes de que llegara la víctima, Smith sacó un arma “de la guantera de su camioneta y salió del vehículo armado para confrontarlo”. Las autoridades indicaron que un video de vigilancia corroboró esa versión.

La Policía informó que Smith hizo una declaración “restando importancia a sus acciones”, la cual “no era creíble”, aunque fue censurada en el informe.

La Policía lo arrestó por cargos de intento de asesinato en primer grado, disparar contra un vehículo ocupado, allanamiento con un arma y abuso infantil.

Hasta la tarde del jueves, Smith permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal de Broward sin derecho a fianza.