HSBC’s Cherie Wachter on Saturday said Hunter weighs about 23 to 24 pounds and still has some growing to do, likely reaching around 40 to 45 pounds.

She says his short legs suggest he may have some basset hound in him, meaning he’ll get a bit bigger — but not much taller.

Wachter describes Hunter as a sweet, energetic pup who loves toys and attention, but says he is still learning. Like many puppies, he will need training and appropriate chew toys. He also appears to be a bit nervous on walks when loud vehicles pass by, but builds confidence in quieter settings.

She adds that Hunter may do well in a home with another playful dog, though he could be unsure around cats.

Also available for adoption is a 7-month-old rabbit named Cinnamon, who is already neutered and ready for a home. Staff say rabbits require daily exercise, Timothy hay for digestion, and fresh greens. Some rabbits can even be litter trained.

Those interested in adopting a pet can fill out a pre-adoption application at humanebroward.com. Adoption kennels open at 11 a.m.

La ceremonia designará oficialmente la Northwest 206th Terrace, entre la 45th Avenue y la 47th Avenue, como Frederica S. Wilson Boulevard. La vía se encuentra junto a la escuela primaria Dr. Frederica S. Wilson/Skyway Elementary School, un campus que ya lleva el nombre de la congresista demócrata.

Se espera que Wilson, quien representa al Distrito Congresional 24 de Florida, asista al evento junto al concejal de Miami Gardens Reggie Leon, funcionarios electos locales, educadores, estudiantes y miembros de la comunidad.

Los líderes de la ciudad afirman que el nombramiento de la calle reconoce el compromiso de larga trayectoria de Wilson con el servicio público, la educación y el empoderamiento de los jóvenes en todo el sur de Florida.

El programa incluirá comentarios de funcionarios electos y líderes comunitarios, seguidos por la develación ceremonial del nuevo letrero de la calle.

Estudiantes y educadores de la escuela Dr. Frederica S. Wilson/Skyway Elementary School también participarán en oportunidades fotográficas conmemorativas para celebrar la ocasión.

Wilson ha construido una reputación como defensora de la educación a lo largo de su carrera, desempeñándose como educadora, directora escolar, legisladora estatal y miembro del Congreso. Su labor se ha enfocado en ampliar las oportunidades educativas y apoyar a los niños y familias en todo el condado Miami-Dade.

El evento está programado para comenzar a las 10 a.m. del viernes.

Los registros carcelarios en línea muestran que Basil Billings, de 63 años, enfrenta cargos por delito contra estudiante por figura de autoridad y tocamiento lascivo de ciertos menores.

Billings figura en el sitio web del Distrito Escolar Público del Condado Broward como maestro de lectura en Dillard High School en Fort Lauderdale.

La policía informó que la víctima es un estudiante de 16 o 17 años.

Local 10 News se comunicó con las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Broward para saber si se ha tomado alguna medida contra Billings.

También hemos solicitado su informe de arresto.

Billings compareció ante la corte la mañana de este viernes, donde un juez fijó su fianza en $35,000 USD y ordenó que no tenga contacto con la víctima ni con ningún menor, además de mantenerse alejado de todas las escuelas.

Vea Local 10 News o actualice esta página para obtener información actualizada.

Funcionarios informaron el sábado que el refugio actualmente tiene más perros bajo su cuidado que espacios disponibles en las perreras y están instando al público a ayudar mediante adopciones, hogares temporales o asistencia para reunir mascotas perdidas con sus dueños. Actualmente, las tarifas de adopción han sido eliminadas, aunque las tarifas de registro de mascotas siguen aplicando.

“Code Home sigue activo porque cada perrera y cada acto de apoyo importan”, dijo el director de Animal Care, Doug Brightwell. Señaló que la agencia, como refugio de admisión abierta, continúa brindando servicios críticos mientras maneja la sobrepoblación, incluidas investigaciones por crueldad y negligencia animal, casos de perros peligrosos y respuestas relacionadas con la seguridad pública.

Funcionarios de Animal Care están alentando a los residentes a adoptar mascotas para crear espacio, ofrecer hogares temporales para brindar alivio temporal y verificar si hay mascotas perdidas para ayudar a reunirlas con sus propietarios.

Más información y una lista de animales disponibles pueden encontrarse en Broward.org/Animal.

Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena alrededor de las 11:45 a.m. y observó la aeronave volcada en el campus del South Florida State Hospital, ubicado en 800 E. Cypress Drive.

La policía de Pembroke Pines informó que todos los ocupantes de la avioneta están conscientes y respirando, y que no se han reportado lesiones adicionales. No se espera que el tráfico se vea afectado en el área.

Las autoridades aún no han divulgado detalles adicionales sobre la aeronave ni sobre las circunstancias que rodearon el accidente.

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Health experts recommend exercising regularly, maintaining a skincare routine and prioritizing sleep, but some are asking whether attitude and mindset may play an even bigger role in staying youthful.

Supporters of that idea say a positive outlook, deep breathing and living in the moment can be just as important as traditional self-care habits.

Others agree that rest should not be sacrificed for constant activity.

Local 10 wants to know: Does mindset or lifestyle matter more when it comes to staying young?

Let us know in the comment section below.

Los expertos en salud recomiendan hacer ejercicio regularmente, mantener una rutina de cuidado de la piel y priorizar el sueño, pero algunos se preguntan si la actitud y la mentalidad podrían desempeñar un papel aún más importante para mantenerse joven.

Los defensores de esa idea afirman que una perspectiva positiva, la respiración profunda y vivir el momento pueden ser tan importantes como los hábitos tradicionales de autocuidado.

Otros coinciden en que el descanso no debe sacrificarse por mantenerse constantemente activo.

Local 10 quiere saber: ¿Qué influye más para mantenerse joven, la mentalidad o el estilo de vida?

Déjenos saber su opinión en la sección de comentarios.

Israel’s military issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen villages in southern Lebanon, a day after Lebanese and Israeli military officials held their first direct talks in decades at the Pentagon.

The situation in southern Lebanon was discussed during a meeting Saturday between Lebanon’s president and prime minister who said in a statement later that they will intensify their contacts to make Israel stop demolition and bulldozing of homes and historical sites as well as its evacuation warnings.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling near the Crusader-built Beaufort castle that is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon. The strategic castle was held by Israeli troops for 18 years until they withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000.

Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages close to the castle, including Yohmor and Zawtar al-Sharqieh near the city of Nabatieh after they crossed the strategic Litani River, which the Israeli military has used as a de facto boundary.

Large areas to the south are under Israeli military control, despite an April 17, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Israel and Hezbollah exchange strikes despite ceasefire

NNA reported airstrikes on different parts of southern Lebanon including in the village of Ansar that killed three people. A drone strike on a road linking the village of Ebba with Nabatieh wounded two Lebanese soldiers, the army said in a statement.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said its fighters fired rockets at northern Israel’s largest city, Kiryat Shmona, on the border with Lebanon. The group said its attack was in retaliation for airstrikes that killed civilians in Lebanon. Hezbollah later said it also fired rockets toward the northern city of Safed.

Among those killed in southern Lebanon on Friday were a Syrian family — Qais al-Bakir, his pregnant wife and their six children — who died in an Israeli airstrike on the coastal village of Adloun, north of the city of Tyre.

The family, which belonged to Syria’s minority Alawite sect, had fled to Lebanon from the central province of Hama after the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria in December 2024. Some members of Assad’s Alawite sect have been subjected to revenge attacks by members of Islamist groups who removed the former president from power.

The family had been living in a sheep farm and they received no warning in advance of the strike on the village, said Ali al-Bakir the brother of the man killed. He said the family plans to send the bodies for burial in their hometown in Syria.

“He worked in farming and all he cared about was to feed his children,” his brother said.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war started on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran.

It has left 3,350 people dead in Lebanon and over 1 million people displaced.

Further strikes in Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian nurse was killed in an Israeli strike Saturday, hospital authorities said, the latest death by Israeli fire since a shaky ceasefire halted major fighting in the enclave last year.

The strike late Saturday morning hit a Hamas-manned police point in the central city of Deir al-Balah. At least three other people were wounded, according to the city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, which received the casualties.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The dead nurse was identified as Jamal Abu Aoun, who worked at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. His funeral was held at noon in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital’s courtyard.

He was the latest fatality among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a fragile October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing at least 929 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

_____

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

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According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Cessna 172P crashed around 11:30 a.m. after departing from North Perry Airport.

Authorities said the plane, registered as N96100, was carrying two women who were pulled out and then transported to a nearby hospital as trauma alerts.

Sky 10 flew over the scene around 11:45 a.m. and observed the plane overturned on the grounds of the South Florida State Hospital campus near 800 E. Cypress Drive.

Pembroke Pines police said all occupants were conscious and breathing following the crash, and no additional injuries were reported. Authorities said traffic in the area is not expected to be affected.

“It’s a good thing for that because it was headed right for a building where patients receiving mental health and medical care live,” said Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo.

Castillo said the small plane experienced engine failure before striking a tree and overturning near an empty retention pond on the hospital campus.

Records show the aircraft is registered to Blue Sky Aviation, a South Florida-based flight training company. It is operated by Pembroke Pines Commissioner Jay Schwartz.

“These kind of occurrences are happening over and over and over and I’ve had it,” Castillo added. ”The residents of the city of Pembroke Pines have had it, and so I’m calling on Broward County to do what they have to do.”

Schwartz did not immediately respond to Local 10 News request for comment. A spokesperson for the airport says earlier this month, it passed an annual inspection with zero discrepancies.

The mangled plane was towed from the scene on Saturday morning as authorities continue to investigate.

Local 10 has covered dozens of crashes in recent yers involving planes going to and from North Perry airport, which houses multiple flight schools.

Some have crashed into neighborhoods.

“In the last five years, we’ve had over 35 accidents with aircraft taking off from North Perry Airport,” said attorney Zach Gorwitz. “What could be hte root of the problem with the amount of the crashes that we’re seeing at North Perry is the volume of flights taking off form this airport.”

The airport plans to work with authorities as they conduct the investigation.

“We’re calling on Broward County to do what they have to do to make this place safe,” he said. “If they can’t make it safe then they need to close it the hell down and go put it somewhere else where those planes don’t threaten people.”

A Broward County spokesperson said the county is cooperating with investigators, adding that “while the county will not speculate as to the cause or causes of this accident, we will be cooperating with authorities as they conduct their investigation.”

5 p.m. report

12:30 p.m. report

Noon report

11:45 a.m. breaking news report

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Officials on Saturday said the shelter currently has more dogs in its care than available kennels and is urging the public to help by adopting, fostering, or assisting with reunification of lost pets. Adoption fees are currently being waived, though pet registration fees still apply.

“Code Home remains active because every kennel and every act of support matters,” said Animal Care Director Doug Brightwell. He said the agency, as an open-admission shelter, continues to provide critical services while managing the overflow, including cruelty and neglect investigations, dangerous dog cases, and public safety responses.

Animal Care officials are encouraging residents to adopt pets to create space, foster animals to provide temporary relief, and check for lost pets to help reunite them with their owners.

More information and a list of available animals can be found at Broward.org/Animal.

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Shortly before 6 p.m., Broward County Regional Communications received a report of a man armed with a knife in the 800 block of West Oakland Park Boulevard.

BSO deputies and Oakland Park Fire Rescue responded to the scene. Authorities said the suspect retreated into an apartment and barricaded himself inside.

As a precaution, surrounding apartments were evacuated. BSO’s K-9, SWAT and Violent Crimes units also responded, authorities confirmed.

Deputies said they spent several hours attempting to communicate with the suspect and persuade him to surrender peacefully. At some point during the response, deputies made contact with the individual and a deputy-involved shooting occurred.

They said Oakland Park Fire Rescue personnel transported the suspect to Broward Health Medical Center for treatment. No other injuries were reported.

Deputies later conducted safety sweeps to ensure residents could safely return to their homes.

A neighbor told Local 10 that she noticed that something wasn’t right the night before.

“He was literally unloading his entire apartment into the bulk trash at 12 o’clock, and I was like, ‘That’s kind of weird,’” said Alana Pruitt, who was evacuated from her home. “And this morning, I heard him screaming, which woke me up. I walked outside, and he was emptying his house out. I guess, basically, he threatened my neighbor with a knife, and here we are.”

Nathaniel Peer, another resident who was evacuated, said the situation quickly escalated as information about the suspect spread among neighbors.

“I heard knife ... then he talked about threatening with a gun. Then he said, ‘I had a bomb.’ I don’t know, it was just kind of crazy,” Peer said. “My mom came from work. As soon as she got here, there was an evacuation order, but I just got here as fast as I could.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting. BSO’s Internal Affairs Unit will also conduct an internal investigation.

The investigation remains active and ongoing.

Poco antes de las 6 p.m., el Centro Regional de Comunicaciones del Condado Broward recibió un reporte sobre un hombre armado con un cuchillo en la cuadra 800 de West Oakland Park Boulevard.

Agentes de la BSO y personal de Oakland Park Fire Rescue respondieron al lugar. Las autoridades dijeron que el sospechoso se refugió en un apartamento y se atrincheró en el interior.

Como medida de precaución, los apartamentos cercanos fueron evacuados. Las unidades K-9, SWAT y de Crímenes Violentos de la BSO también respondieron al incidente, confirmaron las autoridades.

Los agentes dijeron que pasaron varias horas intentando comunicarse con el sospechoso y persuadirlo para que se entregara pacíficamente. En algún momento durante la respuesta, los agentes tuvieron contacto con el individuo y ocurrió una balacera con participación de un agente.

Las autoridades informaron que personal de Oakland Park Fire Rescue trasladó al sospechoso al Broward Health Medical Center para recibir tratamiento. No se reportaron otras personas heridas.

Posteriormente, los agentes realizaron inspecciones de seguridad para garantizar que los residentes pudieran regresar de forma segura a sus hogares.

Una vecina dijo a Local 10 que notó que algo no estaba bien la noche anterior.

“Literalmente estaba sacando todo lo que tenía en su apartamento y tirándolo a la basura a las 12 de la noche, y pensé: ‘Eso es bastante extraño’”, dijo Alana Pruitt, quien fue evacuada de su vivienda. “Y esta mañana lo escuché gritar, lo que me despertó. Salí afuera y estaba vaciando su casa. Supongo que, básicamente, amenazó a mi vecino con un cuchillo, y aquí estamos”.

Nathaniel Peer, otro residente que fue evacuado, dijo que la situación escaló rápidamente a medida que la información sobre el sospechoso se difundía entre los vecinos.

“Escuché que había un cuchillo, luego hablaron de amenazas con un arma de fuego. Después dijo: ‘Tengo una bomba’. No sé, todo fue una locura”, dijo Peer. “Mi mamá venía del trabajo. Tan pronto llegó aquí, emitieron la orden de evacuación, pero yo vine lo más rápido que pude”.

El Departamento de Cumplimiento de la Ley de Florida investiga las circunstancias relacionadas con la balacera. La Unidad de Asuntos Internos de la BSO también realizará una investigación interna.

La investigación continúa activa y en curso.

"What’s the word?” Steve McCabe, an 80-year-old retired lawyer, asked Jon Bramnick, a GOP state senator.

Bramnick had no answer for Kean's unexplained medical absence that has stretched over nearly three months. But he told the audience how Kean hated to miss votes when they served together in the Legislature, even if that meant driving through a snowstorm.

“I said, ‘Tom, we should really turn around,’” he recalled.

Now Kean has missed more than 100 votes in Congress, and he has not been spotted in Washington or in his district. It is a political mystery with potentially national consequences: Kean represents a district that is among Democrats' top targets as they try to retake control of Congress.

Kean's office insists he is still running for reelection. He is not facing any challengers in Tuesday's primary while several Democrats are running for their party's nomination.

Harrison Neely, Kean’s campaign consultant, said the congressman was dealing with a medical emergency. He promised that Kean would be transparent about the issue and would return to a full schedule “very soon.”

“This was an emergency, you don’t get to plan these,” Neely said. “There’s no good timing for this.”

To Bramnick, it seems like it must be something serious.

“For him not to be there, that’s a big deal," he said.

‘We're expecting him back here soon’

Kean represents the 7th Congressional District, a mix of suburbs and small towns. It includes President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course.

Despite being redrawn after the most recent census in 2021 to become more favorable to Republicans, the district has seesawed between the parties in each of the last two midterm elections. Republican Leonard Lance lost to Democrat Tom Malinowski in 2018. Malinowski lost to Kean in 2022.

Kean's last vote in the House was March 5. Since then his absence has drawn escalating attention.

“We’re expecting him back here soon," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., recently. “He’s going to be fully transparent."

Kean comes from a storied political family. His father served as governor. An ancestor was New Jersey’s first leader after the United States declared independence.

The New Jersey Globe, a local political website, said it received a call from Kean this month. He did not explain his condition, only that “my doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery.”

McCabe, the voter who asked Bramnick about Kean, said he wanted an update after reading the news about the congressman's absence.

“I hope he’s not sick,” he said.

What if Kean steps down?

Bruce Paterson, a 75-year-old retired engineer from Garwood, described himself as a “regular Democrat, not like the crazy Democrats they have today.” He attended the town hall with Bramnick and plans to support Kean in the general election.

“I hope he comes back,” he said. “I mean, will I vote for him? Probably only because we need a nice balance" in a state otherwise dominated by Democrats.

Another voter asked Bramnick if Kean steps down after Tuesday’s primary whether he would accept the Republican nomination for the 7th District. If that were to happen, party leaders in the district's counties would hold a convention to choose a replacement.

Bramnick repeatedly noted Kean is running for reelection and questioned whether his own candidacy would be a good fit in today's Republican Party. While Bramnick has criticized Trump, including during Bramnick's failed campaign for governor last year, Kean has embraced the president and features his endorsement prominently on social media accounts.

“I’m not considered the biggest fan of Donald Trump,” Bramnick said. “I don’t think that the Republican Party is interested in sending someone to Washington that may vote yes or no depending on how I feel about the issue.”

Democrats are waiting in the wings

Some Democrats running in the primary have criticized Kean over the failure to tell constituents about what is going on.

“Tom Kean disappeared from the job,” said Michael Roth, a former Small Business Administration official.

Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy pilot also in the race, wished Kean a speedy recovery but criticized his record in Congress, including the battle over money for a new railway tunnel connecting New Jersey with New York City.

“He was nowhere to be found when funding got cut for the Gateway Tunnel, which is a critical infrastructure project in our district,” she said.

Candidates Tina Shah, an intensive care unit doctor, and Brian Varela, a marketing agency founder, have also been critical of Kean during debates.

Kean, who has a cash advantage at this point over his potential Democratic opponents, still has time before the November election to connect with voters, said Benjamin Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship.

“The issue is not going to be that he was out for a hundred plus votes in the spring,” he said. “The question is really, how effective is he going to get once he returns?”

Yet even after interviews with some of the highest-ranked officials to ever appear before a congressional investigation, including a former president, lawmakers have little to show in terms of criminal culpability for Epstein’s crimes or a definitive acknowledgment of government failure.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who sponsored legislation to force the release of case files on Epstein, told The Associated Press he is still asking, “Why there has not been a single investigation of people who have allegedly abused or committed financial crimes?”

Lawmakers hoped to get some answers to those questions during a transcribed interview Friday with Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump's former attorney general who oversaw the release of the files.

But the interview left Democrats fuming at Bondi's decision to defend the Trump administration's handling of that material, as well as her refusal to answer questions about the Republican president's involvement. Democratic lawmakers also singled out Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, saying he has allowed administration officials to dodge tough questions from Congress.

For survivors of Epstein's abuse, including several who traveled to Washington to confront Bondi, it was a frustrating development at a time when many are weary of pleading their case before government officials. They say the Department of Justice's chaotic release of the files, which included nude photos and personal information of potential victims, has only added to a wider failure by the criminal justice system to believe or protect them.

“The government’s refusal to acknowledge the failures that were there have led to so much harm,” said Annie Farmer. “And I think whenever you’re thinking about things from a perspective of justice or healing, without acknowledgment, it’s really hard to move forward.”

Push for accountability scrambled political lines

The committee's investigation has been remarkably bipartisan at many moments, with Democrats and Republicans joining to issue subpoenas and force witness testimony. Besides Bondi, lawmakers have interviewed former Democratic President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.

That effort shows lawmakers are willing to cross political lines when there is overwhelming public pressure to act. Dozens of women have accused Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier, of sexual abuse and rape, including in the years after he reached a deal with federal prosecutors in 2008 to dispose of a federal investigation in exchange for pleading guilty to state level sex offense charges in Florida.

Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges, was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

His case has captured the public imagination as an example of how the rich and powerful escape accountability for wrongdoing. Lawmakers took up the cause last year after the administration failed to meet promises to provide transparency on the case.

Different continents, different standards?

Despite the investigation originating in the United States, the reckoning over Epstein has been relatively mild in the country compared with Europe. There, senior figures in governments including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Slovakia have all been forced to step down over their ties to Epstein.

In its investigation, the House committee spoke to some of Epstein’s closest associates, including his former financial client Les Wexner, his lawyer Darren Indyke and his accountant Richard Kahn. The Clintons, Lutnick and others were also called to testify.

All have said more or less the same thing: They knew nothing about Epstein abusing underage girls.

Still, the release of Epstein files has had consequences. At least eight American academic and business figures have been forced from positions of power, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers from teaching at Harvard University and Kathy Ruemmler from her post as the chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs.

Bank of America and Epstein’s estate have reached multimillion-dollar settlements with women who have accused the institutions of facilitating Epstein’s sex-trafficking operations.

Comer, R-Ky., said last week that the names of three people allegedly involved in abuse had come up in an interview with Epstein’s former personal assistant, Sarah Kellen. The congresswoman plans to interview six more people with connections to Epstein in the coming weeks, including billionaire Bill Gates, private equity investor Leon Black, the former CEO of Barclays Bank Jes Staley and Ruemmler.

“The government has failed the survivors. There’s no doubt about that," Comer said, adding, "What we’re trying to do is connect all the dots and see if there is a way to hold people accountable.”

But it has stung lawmakers to see a reckoning over Epstein for figures such as Britain’s former Prince Andrew at time when the administration has tried repeatedly to move past the issue.

“A prince has been taken down and here in the United States, our Department of Justice, which is sitting on millions of files, is refusing to act,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., pointing to unreleased case files that the Justice Department is withholding on the grounds that they are duplicative or illegal to make public.

“That is not a failure, that is a choice,” Stansbury said.

Survivors and Democratic lawmakers have also taken issue with the administration's decision to move Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, to a minimum-security prison camp. She is serving a 20-year sentence for luring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.

Will survivors be heard?

Scattered across the country and busy with lives of their own, survivors of Epstein's abuse have made repeated trips to Washington to push for government action. After years of fighting in court and sharing traumatic stories privately, they have become increasingly outspoken in their quest for accountability.

“It is very taxing to be continually focused on this case,” Farmer said. She added that even if the government's response has not met her hopes, she has seen a wider cultural movement to address sexual predation.

To Marina Lacerda, another survivor, “Accountability is kind of hard right now. But we are looking for saving the next generation."

But they also want the administration to listen to their stories. Pressing for the president's ear, several victims spoke this month at a hearing just miles away from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that was organized by Democrats on the House committee.

For some of the survivors, the return to South Florida was also an opportunity to finally be heard. Jena-Lisa Jones told the panel that she was 14 years old when she was abused by Epstein in Palm Beach.

She implored the lawmakers: “Find a way to bring closure to the story of Jeffrey Epstein to allow survivors and this country to finally begin to move forward so that one day, and I pray soon, Jeffrey Epstein’s name is no longer something we are forced to hear every single day.”

He'll do it for a 10% cut of any award, capped at $5,000 apiece.

“I think the narrative is changing” about how the history of that day is being told, Johnston said in a video he posted to social media. “I think good things are happening for us.”

Hundreds of Trump loyalists pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol, admitting under oath that they broke the law. Now pardoned by Trump, many hope to capitalize on their crimes by tapping into the $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate the Republican president's allies who believe they were politically prosecuted.

A bipartisan backlash to the fund and a legal roadblock have not dimmed the celebratory response from Jan. 6 rioters clamoring for a share of the taxpayer money. Some are staking claims even though the government has not established an application process and a judge has frozen the fund's formation, at least temporarily.

Rioters seek compensation payouts

The fund's critics see it as another vehicle for Trump and his allies to whitewash the events of Jan. 6, retroactively justify the mob's assault on a pillar of American democracy and reward some of Trump's most loyal followers.

Jason Riddle, a military veteran from New Hampshire who was sentenced to 90 days behind bars after pleading guilty to riot charges, publicly rejected a pardon from Trump. Likewise, he said it would be “ridiculous” for him or any other Jan. 6 rioter to get government compensation.

“I'd love money, but I can’t accept that. That would bother me for the rest of my life,” he said. "We weren't innocently persecuted just because of who we are or who we vote for. We were persecuted for committing criminal behavior in the Capitol of the United States."

Plenty of other “J6ers” do not share Riddle's reluctance.

A Florida man who posed for photos with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium argued on social media that he deserves to be compensated for the cost of his infamy. A rioter from New Jersey described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer hailed the fund as “good news not just for J6ers but all victims of weaponization.” A Texas man who received a seven-year prison sentence for storming the Capitol with a metal tomahawk celebrated the fund as “payback” for “victims of Biden’s tyranny,” referring to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Oregon resident Pamela Hemphill, sentenced to 60 days in jail for her conviction, rejected a pardon from Trump but has drafted a written claim for compensation from the fund. Unlike scores of rioters who claim to be victims of a government weaponized by Democrats, Hemphill blames Trump for her legal troubles. Her claims letter says she is seeking $5 million in compensation.

“I wouldn't have been through all of this if Trump hadn't lied about the election being stolen," she said during a telephone interview. "It's a direct result of his lies that I was even there that day.”

Fund faces legal and political challenges

It is an open question whether anyone convicted of a Capitol riot-related crime could be eligible for payments from a fund created to resolve Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not ruled out that possibility. Blanche said there are no limits on who can apply, but he noted that the fund’s five commissioners — all yet to be named — will decide who deserves to be compensated and why, based on factors such as “what the person did, his sentence, how much time he was in jail.”

“That's up to the commissioners,” Blanche told The Associated Press on Thursday when asked about his position on whether violent Jan. 6 defendants should be eligible for payments.

“You have to define something and then stick to it. That’s something I’ve been hesitant to try to do, because it’s very fact-intensive,” Blanche said. ”Me sitting here and talking in hypotheticals is something that I don’t think is fair to the process.”

It is unclear whether Congress would block payments to Jan. 6 defendants. Senate Republicans who are angry about the settlement have said they want to place parameters on the fund as part of a Department of Homeland Security spending bill. They abruptly left town earlier this month after a tense meeting with Blanche and will return on Monday with the situation unresolved.

A federal judge in Virginia has frozen the fund's establishment and temporarily blocked any processing or paying of claims. The judge issued that ruling Friday in one of at least three lawsuits challenging the fund.

Brendan Ballou, a former prosecutor who tried several Jan. 6 cases before leaving the Department of Justice last year, sued on behalf of two police officers who helped defend the Capitol from the mob. Ballou views the fund’s creation as part of a broader Trump campaign to undermine democratic institutions and rewrite the history of Jan. 6.

“And if the president is successful in that effort, if he’s able to get people to either forget or condone that day, he knows that he can get people to accept any attack on democracy,” Ballou said.

Rioters emboldened by Trump's Jan. 6 recasting

Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 1,200 were convicted and sentenced before Trump issued mass pardons and ordered the dismissal of all pending Jan. 6 cases. Trump also freed far-right extremist group members who were imprisoned for plotting to attack the Capitol to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden.

The self-described “J6 community” isn’t the only pro-Trump constituency angling for cuts of the money.

Meshawn Maddock, who was charged as being a fake elector for Trump in Michigan before a judge dismissed the case last year, said she and her husband, state Rep. Matt Maddock, “absolutely” plan on making a claim. She believes the fund’s use of taxpayer money is justified because it “paid for the prosecution and investigation of the years that I was being hunted down.”

“I want vengeance and I want retribution,” Maddock said.

Trump's campaign to recast Jan. 6 as a peaceful protest seems to have emboldened many convicted rioters.

Johnston's eagerness to help other Capitol rioters with claims contrasts with his remorse at sentencing in 2022. He apologized for his “terrible lapse in judgment” before a judge sentenced him to three weeks in jail and three months of home detention. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge.

“It was a dumb, dumb thing to do,” Johnston told the judge. “I am 100% responsible for what I did that day.”

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Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Mary Claire Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region said falling drone debris sparked a fire that damaged an oil depot and tanker in the port of Taganrog, while officials in the neighboring Krasnodar region reported a fire breaking out at an oil depot in Armavir for the same reason. “Another facility of Russia’s oil industry has been reached — Armavir,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X Saturday of the attack in the Krasnodar region, noting that Armavir is “500 kilometers from our state border.” “We are rightfully bringing the war back to where it came from,” he wrote.

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically to battle Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

For its part, Russia has used its long-range ballistic missiles to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities. The Ukrainian capital is bracing for further heavy bombardments after what the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week would be upcoming “systemic strikes” on Kyiv. Zelenskyy said Thursday that he’s being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks. The attacks on Russian oil infrastructure came a day after a Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people in the NATO member country. The incursion added to concerns that the war could spread across the alliance’s borders, and drew strong condemnation across Europe.

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

“I felt a disconnect right away,” she recalled.

At home, the Orlando, Florida, mom was exhausted and anxious and cried every day. She was eventually diagnosed with postpartum depression — a potentially dangerous condition that can fill a typically joyous time with deep despair.

The mood disorder has been on the rise. A 2024 study in the journal JAMA Network Open found that U.S. rates more than doubled in just over a decade, climbing from 9.4% in 2010 to 19% in 2021, partly due to improved screening and diagnosis.

It can be hard to differentiate the disorder from the much milder and more common “baby blues” brought on by plummeting hormone levels. But recognizing and treating postpartum depression is crucial, said OB-GYN Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

Moms who go untreated may have problems bonding with and caring for their babies. And they're at increased risk of suicide.

“A healthy you will ultimately be important for a healthy baby,” Moore Simas said.

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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.

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How to tell if postpartum sadness is more than baby blues

Baby blues affects about 8 in 10 new moms, striking shortly after delivery.

“Moms will feel kind of more emotional than normal,” said Dr. Jennifer Payne, an expert in reproductive psychiatry at the University of Virginia.

But the crying jags and feelings of sadness aren’t severe enough to interfere with normal life. Moms should still be able to care for themselves and their babies.

Screening tools can help discern if the problem is more serious. A commonly used 10-item questionnaire, often given at a postpartum checkup, asks how often a mom has experienced feelings such as sadness, panic or worry. A high score points toward the need for further evaluation.

Experts say there's no single cause of postpartum depression. Genetics, physical changes and emotional issues may contribute to it.

“We’re pretty sure that having a case of the baby blues doesn’t increase your risk of postpartum depression,” Payne said. “But it does seem that both conditions can develop in the same person.”

Signs of postpartum depression to watch out for

If sadness lingers for more than two weeks, that’s one sign.

Others include intense feelings of despair, anxiety, loss of interest, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, low energy and decreased concentration and appetite. Moms may worry constantly about their babies, be unable to sleep, or stop showering for days.

They “feel negatively and badly about themselves. They’ll feel that they’re a bad mother. They might not feel attached to the baby very much,” Payne said.

They may even have thoughts of harming themselves.

Carberg, who gave birth to her daughter in 2016, had such thoughts a couple of times — once while driving with her daughter. She went to a psychiatric facility for a few days and did better for a while.

But she later had a severe breakdown. She sent text messages to her husband, Chris, saying she was sorry, then turned her phone off. Chris desperately tried to reach her, worried she'd hurt herself.

“She luckily went to the hospital ER,” he said.

Postpartum depression can be treated effectively

Ultimately, finding the right medication was the key to Jenna Carberg’s recovery.

“I felt like myself again,” she said after taking the stimulant Vyvanse.

Other medications include antidepressants such as Zoloft or Prozac, or Zurzuvae, the first pill approved for postpartum depression. Talk therapy is another common treatment, and experts also stress the importance of getting enough sleep and support from family and friends.

To help others, the Carbergs started an online information resource — postpartumdepression.org — to provide support and connect patients with professional help.

Doctors advise anyone who thinks they or a loved one may have postpartum depression to reach out to their OB-GYN, primary care doctor or mental health provider.

If necessary, be persistent, said Dr. Kerry Hudson, an OB-GYN at Newport Women’s Health Services in Rhode Island. When she suffered postpartum depression two decades ago, she said, her doctor told her she was just an overstressed medical resident. She finally got help after breaking down in front of colleagues during a presentation.

After therapy and medications, Hudson went on to have a second child. So did the Carbergs. All are doing well.

“When we get people help, I think they can have a good future ahead of them,” Hudson said. “You don’t have to suffer in silence.”

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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.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is expected to visit a treatment center and meet local authorities, health workers and affected families in Bunia.

“The best way to address this is to provide all the necessary support to fight the disease at its epicenter and to continue offering every assistance needed,” the WHO's director-general told reporters late Friday.

The health organization said latest official figures showed 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Neighboring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, the Ugandan ministry of health said Friday.

The Bundibugyo virus, the current kind of Ebola, has no approved treatment or vaccine.

“This is a difficult situation, and we recognize that. But the Democratic Republic of Congo has faced the Ebola virus many times before. We are confident that it can once again bring this outbreak under control,” Tedros said after meeting with Congo's Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka on Friday.

Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri, the heart of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, on Thursday. More shipments are expected in the coming days. The U.S. announced $80 million in additional aid on the same day, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.

Response efforts at Bunia's Rwampara and General hospitals appear more organized, with additional staff, protective gear and medical supplies, though patients continue arriving around the clock, a reporter from The Associated Press observed on Friday.

The response has not kept pace with one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks on record, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, warned on Saturday.

“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Dr. Alan Gonzalez, MSF’s deputy director of operations, said in a statement. “Nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak.”

Gonzalez called for an immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.

The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.

Attacks in Ituri by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.

The illness also has been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.

Uganda and Rwanda have closed their borders, while the Trump administration last week banned entry of non-U.S. passport holders who had recently visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan.

Border closures and travel bans are “not effective at all” in preventing the spread of the outbreak, Tedros said on Friday.

“Closing borders, as some countries have done, only discourages transparency. The Democratic Republic of Congo is reporting the situation openly and transparently," he said, urging countries to reconsider these measures.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press reporter Saleh Mwanamilongo in Bonn, Germany, contributed to this report.

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Online jail records show Basil Billings, 63, faces charges of offense against student by authority figure and lewd and lascivious touching of certain minors.

Billings is listed on the Broward County Public School District’s website as a reading teacher at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale.

According to a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Billings was arrested “as result of an investigation into a series of incidents with a student at Dillard High School.”

The spokeswoman said in an email to Local 10 News that Billings “attempted to have an inappropriate relationship with a student, including inappropriate comments, notes, and physical touching.”

She said he was taken into custody Thursday at a Broward County Public Schools Administration office.

Billings’ arrest report states that the female was 16-year-old student when the inappropriate contact began in October 2025.

It states that Billings “squeezed the victim’s body against his body,” then “released the victim from his over aggressive hug” and when he did so, he “used his hand and intentionally grabbed her breast for a few seconds.”

On Jan. 7, Billings passed a note to the victim telling her to stay after class, and after class was over, he “made her take his cellphone number” so that he could save her number but she never did, according to investigators.

Dillard High School student Javious Tafari told Local 10 News that he was shocked to hear about the allegations.

“Just shocked, surprised,“ he said. ”Never really thought he (Billings) would be arrested for that or arrested in general.”

While students expressed shock and disgust over the allegations, records indicate Billings has no prior arrests. The school district’s website identifies him as a reading teacher at Dillard High School, where he has worked since 2004.

Billings appeared in court Friday morning where a judge set his bond at $35,000 and ordered that he not have any contact with the victim or any minors and to stay away from all schools.

“Broward County Public Schools takes all matters involving student safety seriously and is deeply disturbed by the allegations involving this individual,” the school district said in a statement to Local 10 News. “On May 1, 2026, Basil Billings was placed on administrative reassignment away from the school and students, due to the ongoing investigation. The District will take all appropriate future actions, up to and including termination, based on the outcome of the case.

“Broward County Public Schools continues to work closely with law enforcement regarding this matter and defers to Fort Lauderdale Police for any additional information.”

He didn’t have anything to say to Local 10’s Samiar Nefzi after he was released from jail on a $35,000 bond.

A judge ordered Billings to stay away from the victim and any school.

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More cloud cover on Saturday will limit instability and keep rain chances around 40%, as there won’t be as much sunshine to fuel storm development. On Sunday, however, less cloud cover will allow for greater instability, increasing rain chances to 50% or higher during the afternoon and evening hours.

A typical rainy-season pattern remains in place Monday, with mainly afternoon thunderstorms expected. Rain coverage is forecast to increase Tuesday and Wednesday as a disturbance moves south down the Florida Peninsula.

There is some hope for drier weather later next week, but confidence remains low due to continued uncertainty in the forecast.

The bottom line: If you have outdoor plans, the morning and midday hours look favorable, with the best chances for storms arriving later in the day. Be sure to stay hydrated and take breaks in air-conditioned spaces when possible. High temperatures will reach the lower 90s this weekend, with the humidity making it feel even hotter.

Recipe from: simplyrecipes.com/orange-creamsicle-icebox-cake-recipe-11747093

For the cake:

one recipe prepared creamsicle pudding (recipe below)

1 (8-ounce) package of cream cheese, room temperature

½ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1½ cups heavy whipping cream

1 sleeve graham crackers (9 to 10 full crackers)

orange slices for garnish, optional

For the creamsicle pudding:

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoons cornstarch

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten and set aside

¾ cup milk

¼ cup frozen orange juice concentrate

zest from half an orange

1 ½ teaspoons butter

Equipment:

Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in the milk. Cook, constantly stirring over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce the heat and cook for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Temper the hot liquid into the egg yolk by adding a little of the hot milk into the bowl with the egg yolk and stirring constantly so as not to cook the yolk. Pour the yolk and milk mixture back into the pan while whisking and return to medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and add in the butter, orange juice concentrate and orange zest. Cook for 1 additional minute while stirring, then remove from the heat. Transfer to a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap over the pudding touching the service to prevent a skin from forming. Cool completely in the refrigerator before using.

Prepare the pan:

Line the bottom and sides of a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides.

Make the cream cheese layer:

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a medium bowl with an electric hand mixer fitted with beater attachments, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together and mix until well combined. In a separate medium bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Assemble the cake:

Place a layer of graham crackers on the bottom of the prepared pan, breaking them to fit if necessary. Spread 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture over the graham crackers, followed by half of the orange pudding mixture. Repeat with another layer of graham crackers, 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture, and the remaining orange pudding mixture. Finish with a final layer of graham crackers and the remaining cream cheese mixture on top.

Chill the cake:

Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight, to allow the cake to set.

Unmold and serve the cake:

To serve, remove the cake from the freezer and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to thaw slightly. Then carefully remove the plastic wrap and invert the loaf pan onto a serving platter. Remove the pan and garnish the cake with the orange slices, if desired. Slice and serve cold.

Recipe from: olivemagazine.com/recipes/baking-and-desserts/crunchy-nut-and-milk-chocolate-tart/

For the tart base:

75 grams milk chocolate

75 grams dark chocolate

50 grams unsalted butter

150 grams cornflakes cereal, crushed with your hands into smaller pieces

30 grams roasted salted peanuts, finely chopped

For the tart filling:

4 tablespoons dark roast peanut butter

3 tablespoons salted caramel spread or sauce, purchased or homemade

7 tablespoons heavy cream

200 grams of milk chocolate, chopped

Equipment:

9-inch tart pan

To make the base, combine the chocolates and butter in a bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the chocolate. Stir together until smooth. Add the cornflakes and peanuts, and mix well, continuing to crush the cornflakes as you mix them. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch tart pan. Form the bottom of sides of the base, using the back of a spoon or a measuring cup to help form an even layer on the bottom and push the mixture up the sides of the tart pan. Chill for 1 hour or until solid.

Gently warm the peanut butter on the stove or in a microwave safe bowl to help make it spreadable. Spread the peanut butter over the base. Chill for a few minutes to help set the peanut butter. Warm the caramel (you can use the same pan or bowl you used for the peanut butter. Spoon the caramel over the peanut butter layer. Chill again while you make the ganache filling.

Heat the cream in a clean pan until just simmering then pour over the milk chocolate in a bowl and stir until smooth. Leave to cool a little then spoon into the tart case. Chill for 2-3 hours or until solid, then serve in thin slices.

Our Favorite Salty Caramel Sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup water

¾ cup heavy cream

3½ tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sea salt

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. If necessary, use a wet pastry brush to wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.

2 pounds fresh strawberries, washed and patted dry

4 cups heavy cream

2-3 tablespoons strawberry syrup, recipe below

2-3 tablespoons strawberry powder or freeze-dried strawberries, ground into a pound and sifted (OPTIONAL)

2-4 tablespoons powdered sugar, if desired

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Goya Maria cookies or your favorite vanilla cookie

freeze dried berries for garnish, if desired

springform pan

piping bag, if desired

Make and cool the strawberry syrup:

Line the bottom and sides of a springform pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Hull the strawberries and cut them into ¼-inch thick slices.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the cooled strawberry syrup and 2-3 tablespoons strawberry powder, if desired, for more strawberry color and flavor. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until medium-firm peaks form. Taste for sweetness, add powdered sugar to taste if desired. Transfer the strawberry whipped cream to a piping bag, if using.

Spread or pipe a thin layer of whipped cream down into the bottom of the pan. Top the whipped cream with a slight overlapping layer of cookies. Top the cookies with another thin layer of cream then a layer of sliced strawberries. Repeat the layers until you reach the top of the springform pan. Finish with a layer of cream on top. You can place a round of parchment paper over the final layer of cream and use an offset spatula to gently smooth out the cream.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or until the cookies have softened completely. Carefully remove the cake from the springform pan and remove the parchment paper, serve immediately.

For the strawberry syrup:

8 ounces strawberries, stems removed and sliced

¾ cup water

¾ cup granulated sugar

Combine the strawberries, water, and sugar in a saucepan set over medium high heat.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes, until the liquid is deeply red and the strawberries are soft.

Strain the strawberries out from the simple syrup and discard. Chill the strawberry simple syrup in the refrigerator until cold.

Lao and Thai rescue groups posted about the successful operation on social media, along with photos of the men lying on stretchers, wearing oxygen masks and being wrapped in foil blankets.

The villagers had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.

Lao organization Rescue Volunteer for People said on its Facebook page that the water level inside the cave receded low enough for them to leave with divers who had gone in to deliver food and water. They said they will continue their search for the two who remain missing.

A video posted online by a Thai rescuer at the scene, Chakkit Taengtang, showed the men being assisted one by one out of the cave's entrance, bodies covered in mud. After they got out, some collapsed on the ground and were hugged by a group of rescuers who cried in joy.

The first of the trapped group was safely evacuated on Friday. According to rescuers, that operation took about 30 minutes. Videos showed the moment he emerged from the water alongside a diver, catching his breath before struggling to crawl through a narrow, flooded passage and rising unsteadily to his feet.

The villagers had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.

Five of them were found alive Wednesday. They were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing and Laen.

Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand were joined by Japanese and Malaysian colleagues. Indonesian, French and Australian specialists also reportedly arrived at the site in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane.

Several of them had taken part in the complicated 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach.

Rescuers are also preparing to search for the two villagers who remain missing.

Kengkaj Bongkawong, head of the Thai rescue group Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin, said Friday that the team plans to explore an area deeper inside the cave, about 20 to 25 meters (yards) beyond where the survivors were found. However, he cautioned that the section is heavily flooded.

Others occasionally sell in the open, like the women who preside over impossibly large baskets of squirming caterpillars at the market in Kinshasa.

For many in Congo and elsewhere in Central and West Africa wild meat is a craving and a key part of the cultural milieux. Even a disease as punishing as Ebola, currently ravaging a remote part of eastern Congo, has failed to stem demand for wild meat from the Congo Basin, an expansive forested ecosystem sometimes called Earth’s second lung.

The Congo Basin is rich in all kinds of wildlife, from great apes to serpents — both of which are hunted for their meat. One consequence for locals is exposure to zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.

Although Ebola is generally not spread by food, cases in Africa have been associated with hunting, butchering and processing meat from infected animals, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

“Once there is human, animal and environment interface, we have these kinds of outbreaks on a frequent level,” said Dr. Tolbert Geewleh Nyenswah of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “And this is why one health approach in dealing with virus outbreaks is important, because we still interact with the bats, and our hunters are still killing monkeys, and we are close to the environment.”

The link between wild meat and Ebola

The Congolese government has confirmed more than 1,000 suspected cases, with at least 220 deaths, since it declared an outbreak of Ebola on May 15. It appears the virus spread undetected for weeks, and the World Health Organization suspects it is much larger than what has been reported.

Ebola, named for a tributary of the Congo River, was first discovered in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in Congo and present-day South Sudan. Outbreaks are believed to start with the virus spilling over into humans from an infected animal such as a fruit bat. These cross-species infections often happen when people handle and eat wild meat, experts say.

But since Ebola outbreaks happen only sporadically in communities that regularly eat wild meat, some people “don't believe the linkage” and others are “totally ignorant” of the health threat from eating wild meat, said Dr. Misaki Wayengera, a microbiologist who advises Uganda's Ministry of Health on epidemics.

“It is very difficult to change some of these core practices,” he said.

Locals have paid a heavy price for occasional outbreaks of Ebola, whose bloody symptoms can terrorize entire villages and cause many to believe they are under an evil spell.

The Ebola virus is responsible for 17 outbreaks in Congo and many others elsewhere in the region. The deadliest outbreak, in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, infected an estimated 28,000 people and killed more than 11,300.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization — which studied the Ebola risk stemming from the eating and handling of wild meat after West Africa’s epidemic — animal-to-human spillovers of Ebola are rare, but "their consequences are nonetheless disastrous.”

Once Ebola has infected one person, the virus then spreads through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, such as sweat, blood, feces or vomit. Health workers without sufficient protective gear are seen as highly vulnerable.

The current outbreak in eastern Congo is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola that has no approved medicines or vaccines.

The outbreak is occurring in a part of Congo that also faces armed violence by rebel groups and the displacement of large numbers of people fleeing the violence.

A need for education

While Congolese authorities have prohibited hunting endangered wildlife, including great apes sent to the brink of extinction by poachers, there is no blanket ban on the wildlife trade and illegal hunting persists for totemic creatures like the bonobo.

Many in and around the Congo Basin have wild meat as their primary source of animal protein. The yearly extraction rate of wild meat from the Congo Basin is estimated at 4.5 million tons, according to the Center for International Forestry Research.

Viande de brousse, as wild meat is known in French, is a popular food, even served in trendy restaurants. That's intensified pressure on the dwindling resources of the Congo Basin. Despite the ongoing biodiversity losses, the Congo Basin remains the world's largest carbon sink, surpassing the Amazon in its ability to capture and store carbon.

Public health campaigners need to step up education campaigns on how Ebola starts and is spread among communities that face recurring outbreaks, said Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder of the Uganda-based Conservation Through Public Health group.

People need to be told that “eating meat from an unknown source, or a dead animal, is a no-no,” Kalema-Zikusoka said. “It’s a very cultural thing.”

Some fruit bats are believed to be natural hosts of the viruses that cause Ebola, according to the WHO. Yet bats are known to be a delicacy in many parts of Central and West Africa. The soup of a roasted fruit bat is highly sought after, as are the parts of a wide range of monkeys.

In Kinshasa’s Masina Market one recent morning, before the latest Ebola outbreak, traders said they sold antelope, rodent and snake meat sourced from the Congo Basin.

They said they long ago stopped selling the meat of monkeys, possible reservoirs of the Ebola virus.

One vendor, Guyva Mputu, was selling python, whose frozen flesh started to steam in the humid weather.

Another, Charles Ntanga, wielded a flywhisk to swat flies that settled on the rancid carcass of a giant rodent, with a kilogram going for about $17. Ntanga said he gets clients from all walks of life.

“We sell wild meat," he said. “We make our lives through this business.”

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Associated Press writer Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed to this report.

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For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The 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.

Some just haven’t decided which of the two state lawmakers in the race fits the bill.

“I am having a lot of trouble,” said Mike Lazere, a 65-year-old Democrat who always votes on Election Day.

State Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls are seeking the nomination for the seat held by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst in the state where Republicans have an advantage but Democrats think they could have a chance.

It means the primary choice carries high stakes for Iowa's Democratic voters, who haven't had many recent examples of successful statewide candidates to help guide their decision. The last Democrat to win federal office statewide was President Barack Obama in 2012. All six members of the federal delegation are Republicans, and the GOP has had a statehouse trifecta for nearly a decade. The most recent Democratic U.S. senator from Iowa, Tom Harkin, was elected in 2008 and retired from office six years later.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is running for the GOP nomination, and a Republican-aligned political group has already pledged $29 million to defend the seat.

Turek and Wahls say the differences between them are clear, but voters still weighing their options disagree.

“They both have strong legislative records. They both have compelling stories. I think they both share my values,” Lazere said Thursday outside of the Ames public library, where Story County Democrats had just held their monthly meeting.

“Since they’re so close, I just want the candidate who is more likely to have a chance,” he said. “It’s an uphill battle, probably, in Iowa still.”

Turek says he can win independents and GOP voters

At the Des Moines Farmers' Market last weekend, where both candidates waded through the crowds, Sundie Ruppert shouted her support for Turek as he passed by her tent, saying he had her vote.

Ruppert called the race an “embarrassment of riches,” something that’s been rare as of late. She said the two stand for “virtually everything the same,” so for her, it’s a matter of who can win the crossover support to get over the finish line in November.

Turek, a four-time wheelchair basketball Paralympian born with spina bifida, says his story of overcoming adversity and his politics appeal to independent and moderate Republican voters. He represents a state House district that supported President Donald Trump.

Turek said he’s laser-focused on securing a livable wage, health care access and drinkable water, not the culture-war issues that he said Republicans use to distract voters from the core problems they are facing.

“I’m not gonna get dragged down the rabbit hole of worrying about these distraction issues,” Turek said in an interview.

“I think that if we are going to win again in a state like Iowa, it is going be a message of economic populism,” he said. “It is going to be that we as a Democratic Party stand for the workers and for the middle class. That’s the way forward.”

Ruppert said she thinks general election voters are more likely to vote for Turek, even if they “have to hold their nose.”

“We’ve got to get the independents,” she said. “I do believe that Josh in a red district has better pull than Wahls.”

Wahls says he will stand up to leadership in both parties

About 37 miles (60 kilometers) north in Ames on Thursday, Shellie Orngard said she’s heard that logic and doesn’t buy it.

Orngard said both are good people and strong candidates, but Wahls strikes her as “somebody with real character behind his convictions.”

“I think that whether you’re Democrat or Republican or independent, you appreciate authenticity and real values,” Orngard said. “I think Zach Wahls just seems to have the character that I feel he’s the person that I want to put my vote behind.”

Wahls says he's the candidate willing to defy leadership in both parties, and he has criticized Turek for not rejecting Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer as caucus leader.

He says his anti-establishment message is winning back the working-class voters, especially common across eastern Iowa, who supported Obama before they pivoted to Trump.

“We’re not just talking about building a coalition that can win in November, we are already doing it,” he said. “These are voters who are not hardcore MAGA Trump Republicans. A lot of them are just really frustrated with both parties, they don’t trust Washington, they don’t trust the establishment.”

“And what we hear from people all the time is, ‘Even if we don’t agree on every issue, if you are willing to take them on, you’ve got my vote,’” Wahls said.

Iowa will be a tough win for either Democrat

Iowa has shifted considerably since Obama’s win in 2012, voting for Trump in the last three presidential elections. Democrats lag Republicans by roughly 200,000 registered voters statewide.

Rob Sand, state auditor and candidate for governor, was the only Democrat to win statewide in 2022.

Nearly 30,000 Democrats have already cast their ballots as of Friday, according to data from the secretary of state's office. Still, in Ellston on Wednesday, many of the two dozen southwest Iowa Democrats waiting to hear from Turek said they’d rely on a gut feeling.

“As far as I’m concerned, Ashley Hinson has got to be beat,” said Lynne Wallace, a 67-year-old from Mount Ayr. The staunch Democrat said she’d support either candidate in the general election, already eager to make calls and knock on doors, but added that she's got “shaky faith” that either Democrat can pull it off.

Lois Rose, 77, and her 79-year-old husband, John, said at the Des Moines farmers' market that they might not vote in the primary at all since they, so far, hadn't been able to make up their minds on whether one candidate is stronger than the other.

She suggested the pair could also coordinate their votes, each casting a ballot for one of the two. John liked the idea.

“They’re both so qualified,” said Lois Rose of West Des Moines. “They’re both very genuine, hence the difficulty.”

Former U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra has called for “hot competence summer," promoting his decades of public service as evidence he has what it takes to be California's next governor.

Republican Steve Hilton pledged an end to a “bloated, nanny-state bureaucracy” during remarks outside the state Capitol on Wednesday.

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer told reporters this week in Berkeley, California, that he's made it his life's work to advance progressive causes, a mission he'll bring to Sacramento.

They're seeking to stand out in a field of roughly 60 candidates on a single ballot, regardless of party, under California's top-two primary system. The two candidates who receive the most votes will face off in the general election to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who can't seek a third term.

The crowded race includes Democrats Becerra, Steyer, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, and Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose. Hilton, a former Fox News host backed by President Donald Trump, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco are the most prominent Republicans in the race.

As of Friday afternoon, 13% of voters had cast their ballots. That included 13% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans, according to a tracker by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell. The breakdown is unusual because Democrats in recent years have tended to vote early while many Republicans wait until Election Day.

Some Democrats have been waiting to cast their ballots to see if a candidate breaks away from the pack in the final days, or because they're unimpressed with the crowded field.

Two polls conducted in mid-to-late May suggested that Becerra and Hilton each have the support of about 2 in 10 California likely voters. In one poll, Steyer landed closer to Becerra and Hilton, with Bianco and Porter trailing further behind, but similar shares of voters were supporting Steyer, Bianco, and Porter in the other poll. None of the other candidates were in the double digits in either poll.

Candidates make their final pitch

The contenders have been traveling across the state that includes roughly 23 million registered voters as they seek an edge over rivals. Becerra, Hilton, Steyer and Bianco will all be in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. Fresno and Los Angeles have also been popular campaign stops.

Becerra has been highlighting the more than 35 years he's spent in state and federal office.

“This is not a place for on-the-job training,” he said on a podcast hosted by political commentator Ana Navarro. “You better know what you’re doing.”

He’ll hit a text-banking event with Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta in San Francisco and rally with the Service Employees International Union in San Jose.

Hilton has been selling himself as someone who would bring a fresh set of eyes to state government, reduce regulations, and bring down housing and energy costs. He thinks it'll be a unifying message, he told reporters this week in Sacramento.

“It's not ideological," Hilton said. "It's just simple, practical commonsense — $3 gas, cut your electric bills in half.”

Hilton will host a town hall in Silicon Valley on Saturday night. He has been cautious not to emphasize Trump’s endorsement. If he advances to the November election, he’ll need to appeal to voters outside his party to win in the Democrat-dominated state that hasn’t had a Republican governor since 2011.

Steyer, a self-described “billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires," said the race was a contest between three candidates: Himself, Hilton and Becerra.

“There is a hard-right Republican who’s endorsed by Donald Trump,” he told a crowd of supporters at a sports bar in Berkeley.

“The second candidate is Xavier Becerra, who, to my surprise, is a corporate Democrat,” Steyer continued, referencing his acceptance of campaign contributions from Chevron.

“And the third person’s me,” he said. “And I am running because Californians can’t afford to live here anymore.”

Steyer’s headed to a campaign rally Saturday in San Francisco to put a finer point on his message to voters.

Mahan, meanwhile, will mingle with voters in Los Angeles, Porter will give a speech in Orange County, and Bianco will lay out his vision at a church in San Jose.

___

Associated Press journalist Terry Chea in Berkeley, California, contributed to this report.

Now, one of those politicians has pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang's plea, entered in federal court Friday, continues a saga that some residents of the area worry could bring unfair scrutiny on the broader Chinese and Asian American community.

Arcadia has gone under rapid demographic change in the last two decades as immigrants from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong flocked to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. After Wang's case was made public May 11, the news made national headlines and filled the unassuming suburban city with anger, disappointment and murmurs of quiet concern. On social media, fears about spies and Chinese Communist Party influence abounded.

“We cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to paint entire communities with one brush or weaponize ethnicity for political gain,” acting Mayor Paul Cheng said in a statement.

Shock in heavily Chinese community

Wang agreed in April to plead guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favorable of Beijing on a news website she ran, without notifying the U.S. government as required by law.

The 56-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person City Council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. She was born in Chengdu, China, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1995.

The San Gabriel Valley is home to the largest concentration of residents of Chinese and Taiwanese descent in the United States. Beginning in the 1970s, real estate developers marketed the region as “Chinese Beverly Hills” to woo affluent immigrants. As the population grew, it became a haven for newer immigrants who could go about life without needing English, access business opportunities, and avoid putting their children through China’s intensely competitive education system. Arcadia's population of about 53,000 is majority Asian, like many other cities in the region.

Ted Tseng, 52, arrived in Arcadia from Taiwan nearly 40 years ago with his parents, who emigrated because they feared potential conflict between Taiwan and China.

Tseng was concerned Wang's indictment would deepen animosity against Asian Americans and discredit their contributions to the region. Fears of anti-Asian racism, though hate crimes are down since the COVID-19 pandemic, still linger.

“I'm just worried our image has been damaged,” Tseng said.

Feds crack down on Chinese espionage

The U.S. Department of Justice has escalated efforts in recent years to combat Chinese espionage. In April, a man accused of running a secret Chinese spy outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent.

Wang has suggested that she was misled by her former fiance, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who pleaded guilty to the same charge last year and is now serving a four-year prison sentence. Sun was the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election campaign.

A statement shared by Wang's lawyers references her "trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray.”

April Verlato, a former City Council member who served with Wang, said Wang and Sun lived together, and Sun accompanied Wang wherever she went.

Verlato said Wang should have stepped down as soon as she came under investigation.

“She was being selfish, getting sworn in as mayor and not resigning when she knew she was going to be pleading guilty to something,” Verlato said.

Gene Sun, a long-time lawyer in Arcadia, agreed.

“I don't understand how she could have continued being a City Council member,” he said.

Beijing seeks influence overseas

It is not surprising that the Chinese government would attempt to exert political influence in the region, especially given the increased political tension and economic rivalry between China and the U.S. in recent years, said Wei Li, a professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University.

“A lot of countries, if they have the will and if they have the means, will try to influence their diaspora,” Li said.

According to his federal criminal complaint, Sun was in contact with John Chen, who also pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government, regarding local politicians that Beijing could influence. In reports to Chinese officials, Sun and Chen called Wang a “New Political Star” and bragged about her contacts with mainstream U.S. politicians.

They also wrote of combatting “anti-China forces” such as Taiwan independence and the Falun Gong, an exiled anti-communist spiritual movement.

In a January 2023 message from Chen to Wang referenced in Sun’s criminal complaint, Chen said: “You are doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud.”

Some fear political repercussions for Asian Americans

Not only was the news of her guilty plea like a “slap in the face," the reaction from some community members has also been painful, said Cheng, the acting mayor.

Some residents at a May 19 City Council meeting blamed remaining council members for enabling Wang and called for their resignations.

“I’ve been called more names, been told to go back to China although that’s not where I’m from,” said Cheng, who came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age 2.

For many Arcadia residents and workers, life was as usual the day after the news broke. Many smiled apologetically when asked about the issue, saying they don’t pay attention to politics.

Aliza Mo, who emigrated from China six years ago for her children's education, said she first thought the headlines must be exaggerated.

“A lot of people wondered if it was discrimination," she said.

When she learned what Wang pleaded guilty to, she changed her mind.

“I think it would be improper for anyone to be doing something like that,” she said.

Moscow's agents are building fake companies, recruiting middlemen and deploying cyber spies and hackers who are gathering information that could also be used to attack key infrastructure, they said.

Four years of international sanctions have hampered Moscow's ability to procure machinery, technology and research from Europe, while the grinding war in Ukraine has taxed key industries and pushed the country toward a potential financial crisis.

“They really know what they need,” and are putting “serious effort” into acquiring advanced machine tools, factory equipment, research and dual-use technology, said Christoffer Wedelin, deputy head of operations at the Swedish Security Service.

Russia seeks high-end research, defense technology and software

In Sweden, Russia is targeting the defense industry and high-end research on the country's most advanced weaponry, such as the Gripen fighter jet, Wedelin said. It is also trying to procure camera and laser technology developed for civilian purposes that could be integrated into Russian weapons systems, he said.

Moscow is also trying to steal technology to help it keep pace — or give it an edge — against the West in the decades ahead, said Juha Martelius, the director of Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service.

“We're talking about space technology, quantum ... arctic technology, marine technology,” he said, adding that space technology is something Russia needs “right now," without elaborating. Countries use such technology for satellite imaging, communications and navigation.

Russia also needs sanctioned computer technology and software updates for machine tools, Martelius said.

On Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, the director of the U.K’s signals intelligence agency, accused Russia of “relentlessly targeting” the U.K. and its European allies, by stealing technology and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts.

In May, Swedish police arrested two people on suspicion of violating sanctions relating to a company in Turkey that has made dozens of shipments of metalworking and metal-turning machine tools to Russia.

As the schemes to acquire technology grow more complex, companies need to be more aware they could unwittingly become part of Russia's war supply chain, Wedelin said.

“All of the security and intelligence services in Russia are helping out on the state’s efforts to get this," he said.

Intelligence officials say Russia cares less about getting caught

Moscow is also deploying cyberattacks against European firms and critical infrastructure in an attempt to gather information, which it could exploit “when they get the chance and when it serves their purpose,” Wedelin said. He pointed to an attack on a Swedish power plant last year.

Russia-linked actors tried to “destroy” the plant but failed because the system detected the intrusion, Wedelin said. He said the attack was partly aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine.

Before then, Sweden's security services had mostly observed reconnaissance for potential attacks, intelligence gathering or activity linked to cybercriminals. The attack marked a “switch” in Russia's modus operandi, Wedelin said.

“They’re no longer caring as much about potential attribution after their activities, so they are taking greater risks to achieve their goals,” he said.

Problems are mounting for Russia's economy

Russia's increasingly aggressive tactics may reflect mounting internal concerns about its economy, which “is not doing well at all,” said Kaupo Rosin, the head of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

About a third of Russia's gross domestic product currently goes to the war effort, Martelius said. The war and ensuing sanctions have slowed growth and fueled stubborn inflation.

Russian officials planned to have a budget deficit of 3.7 trillion rubles ($52.1 billion) for the whole of 2026 and had already reached about 3.4 trillion rubles ($47.9 billion) by the end of February, Rosin said.

The Iran war that erupted on Feb. 28 has provided a boost by causing oil prices to soar. The U.S. has granted sanctions waivers for the sale of Russian oil and the U.K. watered down its sanctions in an attempt to lower global fuel costs.

Increased revenue since then has likely improved Russia’s budget, but “it doesn’t save them,” Rosin said, adding that if Western pressure persists, Moscow could face a financial crisis toward the end of the year.

Rosin said intelligence seen by his agency shows a gloomier outlook among Russian officials over the past six months, with the narrative of “total victory” in Ukraine having vanished. Keast-Butler, of British intelligence, said almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russia and Ukraine have mostly kept their combat casualty figures under wraps.

Stalled progress on the battlefield and economic woes have many Russian officials privately asking “what is this all for,” Rosin said, citing the intelligence reports.

Martelius, of Finland's intelligence service, said that while some reports on the war in Ukraine may have been “sanitized” before reaching President Vladimir Putin's desk, he believes the Russian leader has a fairly clear picture of the economic challenges.

But that does not mean there will be political change.

It is “very dangerous ... to start analyzing Russia as if it is some country like ours," Martelius said. “It is not.”

Speaking to a group of world leaders, diplomats and top security officials at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore, Hegseth said that the region “has profound implications for U.S. security and prosperity” and that Washington's priority was to “achieve a lasting and favorable balance of power in the Pacific.”

It was his second time addressing the forum, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Last year, he raised the ire of Beijing by warning of rapidly developing threats from China, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. He said China is no longer just building up its military forces to take Taiwan, it’s “actively training for it, every day.”

This year, however, the meeting comes only about two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, following which Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said that they were going to have a “fantastic future together.”

Hegseth says China won't be allowed to dominate the region

Hegseth, who was with Trump in Beijing, said the two leaders had agreed that China and the U.S. should “build a constructive relationship of strategic stability, based on fairness and reciprocity, reaffirming that while our nations will vigorously protect our respective interests, we can secure practical, mutually beneficial agreements where our interests align.”

However, he said it was still an American priority to ensure that China is not allowed to dominate the Indo-Pacific.

“There is rightful alarm regarding China’s historic military buildup and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” he said.

"We share a clear-eyed assessment of that security environment and a mutual understanding that a Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power and undermine the equilibrium we all seek to preserve.”

Later in the day, Chinese Maj. Gen. Meng Xiangqing praised Hegseth's remarks about the meeting between Xi and Trump, saying the consensus the leaders reached “should provide strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations over the next three years and beyond.”

“During his meeting with President Trump, President Xi Jinping made it clear that such constructive strategic stability should be a positive form of stability centered on cooperation, a healthy form of stability in which competition remains within reasonable bounds, a normal state of stability in which differences are managed and kept under control, and a lasting form of stability that offers the prospect of peace,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, part of a congressional delegation to the conference, accused the Trump administration of “cozying up” to China.

“I worry that this administration is being distracted into wars that they’ve started in other parts of the world at the expense of our commitment here in the Indo-Pacific,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters on the sidelines.

“I am concerned that it seems like our president is entering into, you know, policies where he’s doing what Beijing wants him to do,” she added.

After the meetings between Xi and Trump, the American president raised questions about Washington’s willingness to defend Taiwan, calling a new $14 billion arms package that he has yet to greenlight “a very good negotiating chip for us” with China.

China claims the democratic self-governing island as its own, and Xi has not ruled out using force to take it. The U.S. is required by law to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though follows a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily if China were to attack the island.

Hegseth told the forum that there was “no change in our status” toward Taiwan, but would not comment on the arms deal.

“Any decision about future Taiwan arms sales, as the president said, will rest with him,” he said.

US praises countries that spent more on defense

He underscored the Trump administration's insistence that allies increase defense spending, saying “we need partners, not protectorates.”

He lauded several countries in Asia for their efforts, while reiterating criticism of European allies, without naming names, who he suggested got “distracted by empty globalist rhetoric about the rules-based international order.”

“Our partners in Asia have long understood that the bedrock of a durable partnership is not based on idealistic values but on the concrete alignment of national interests,” he said.

“When our interests diverge, we adjust pragmatically, without the drama or the moralizing,” he added. “I think Western Europe might take note — this is a mindset we fully embrace.”

Hegseth did not mention either the war in Ukraine or Iran war in his speech. When asked about Iran, he only said that Trump had assured him that when negotiations with Tehran had concluded, “any deal will be a good deal.”

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, whose country was among those Hegseth praised for increased military spending, said that while the international rules-based order is not perfect, the “task before us, all of us, including the great powers, is the renovation of that order, not its dismemberment.”

“When the rules apply, smaller states have agency,” Marles said in a speech that followed Hegseth's. “When the rules yield to power, sovereignty becomes, as others have put it, the purview of the powerful, and no state in this room today, whatever its size, is well served by that outcome.”

UK, US and Australia announce new undersea drone initiative

At an event held outside the conference, Hegseth, Marles and British Defense Secretary John Healey announced a new initiative in their AUKUS partnership, whose primary focus has been the development and construction of nuclear-powered submarines.

Under the so-called second pillar of AUKUS, the three said they would together invest in the development of improved capabilities for underwater drones.

“Together we produce a range of cutting-edge sensors or weapons systems for undersea drones,” Healey said, adding it will help detect threats including to underwater cables and pipelines.

A report from Dr. Sean Barbabella, released late Friday, says Trump underwent a CT scan and other heart imaging, along with cancer screenings and other preventative assessments carried out by 22 specialists.

Trump, 79, said after the three-hour visit Tuesday that everything checked out “PERFECTLY.”

The president weighed in at 238 pounds (108 kilograms), up 14 pounds (6 kg) from a medical exam in April 2025. His doctors gave him guidance on his diet, physical activity and weight loss, but concluded his “cognitive and physical performance are excellent.”

With his 6-foot, 3-inch (1.9-meter) frame, Trump has a body mass index of 29.7. An index of 30 is considered by doctors to be obese.

The report also documented bruising on Trump’s hands, explained as “minor soft tissue irritation related to frequent handshaking,” and said it was “a common and benign effect of aspirin therapy." Among the recommendations was a switch to low-dose aspirin.

Last year the White House said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a fairly common condition for older adults that causes blood to pool in the president's legs. The report from his latest exam noted “slight lower leg swelling” but said there was “improvement from last year."

His doctor reported nothing abnormal, saying Trump demonstrated strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall health.

“His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being,” Barbabella wrote.

Trump was again given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is used to screen for dementia and cognitive impairment. Trump’s doctors reported he scored 30 out of 30, the same that was reported last year and in 2018.

His cholesterol levels have improved significantly with the help of medication. Trump's total cholesterol came in at 143, down from 223 in 2018. It had been down to 140 last April. He takes rosuvastatin to help lower his bad cholesterol, known as LDL, and to raise his good cholesterol, or HDL. He also takes ezetimibe to help lower his LDL.

The exam, which Trump described as a six-month physical, was his fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term. It comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections.

Past administrations have also released selected results from presidential physicals, offering the public a glimpse at the commander in chief’s health.

But there is no law requiring presidents to disclose their full health records, and the degree of transparency has varied by administration. Trump’s past reports have been criticized for offering scant detail and for providing statistics that some medical experts have viewed with skepticism.

Trump, a Republican, turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected U.S. president. His immediate predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.

Trump has tried to fight off public concern over his age and stamina. He often appears with makeup covering bruises on his hands, and photographs have shown the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves.

He has recently talked about how good he feels, even as he jokes about his fondness for fast food and his minimal exercise beyond frequent golf outings. At recent public appearances, Trump has said he feels the same as he did 50 years ago.

Three years later, Tarver’s murder during a shooting on March 19, 2023, in South Beach, resurfaced in a 92-page affidavit about a gang in western Palm Beach County’s Belle Glade, an agricultural town.

On June 29, 2024, Danny Tarver shared “Paint the City Red,” a rap song about grief on YouTube that included a picture of a vigil in honor of Dan’Vonte Tarver, according to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputy’s affidavit.

“The majority of the subjects in the pictures are wearing black and red clothing, along with masks and face coverings,” a PBSO deputy wrote, according to the affidavit. “Several of the subjects are displaying the Nawf Way gang’s hand sign.”

During a news conference on Thursday, PBSO Capt. Michael Ott said the Four Way crew had started in 2020 in the area of Northwest 11th Street, and in a few years, it had grown into the Nawf Way gang.

The PBSO deputies’ affidavit also included the murder of 15-year-old Xavier Hatcher during a shooting on Oct. 21, 2023, near Glade View Elementary School in Belle Glade. The South Beach murder was solved, a felon was arrested, and he was awaiting trial without bond. Xavier’s murder remained unsolved.

The affidavit mentioned the gang’s rivalry in the Belle Glade area included the Skutta Green Team, Only the Zoe’s, Family Over Bulls--t, and the 1700.

“There are other gangs in our western community, but this one was significant,” Ott said about the aim to arrest Nawf Way gang’s members.

During the news conference, Ott stood near a poster that included a picture of Danny Tarver, now 21, whose Instagram post taunting rivals and a “Bad Mood” rap song on YouTube also made it as evidence in the affidavit.

The poster also included 16 other pictures of Black men between the ages of 18 and 26, and listed two boys, ages 16 and 17. Sheriff Rick Bradshaw identified all 19 suspects arrested as “bad guys.”

Ott said deputies also arrested a 20th suspect, but he wasn’t included in the poster, because it was after PBSO staff had printed it for the news conference.

Ott, of the PBSO’s violent crimes division, said the gang was linked to drug trafficking, over 100 firearms, more than 60 shootings, homicides, burglaries, and robberies.

“They think they own the streets, they don’t own the streets,” Bradshaw said. “The community owns the streets.”

Several PBSO units worked with the FBI and the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, as they arrested gang members, also known in local streets as “The Sharks,” according to Ott.

“This has been a one-year enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling this gang’s enterprise,” Ott said about PBSO’s “Operation Shark Bait.”

Ott said law enforcement teams had executed 13 search warrants, including 10 on May 21 in Lake Park, Riviera Beach, and LaBelle.

“We recovered seven additional firearms,” Ott said, and he added, deputies also seized “approximately $10,000 in currency, large amounts of trafficking weight narcotics, to include fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana.”

Ott estimated the Nawf Way gang has about 50 members. Bradshaw said he had a message for the “bad guys” who haven’t been arrested.

“It’s not a matter of if, we’re going to get you! It’s a matter of when because we have a room reserved for you right back here at my hotel,” Bradshaw said.

The poster listed Danny Tarver, also known as “DT,” and 12 other suspects who faced charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

According to inmate records, Tarver was booked on May 21, and he remained at the county’s Main Detention Center on Friday night. His bond was $2 million.

The list of 12 other RICO cases

Donnell Johnson, known as “Doo Doo Bug,” is 18.

Khanye Bullard, known as “K7,″ is 18.

Derrick Salter, known as D3,″ is 18.

Marterrius Jean, known as “Fat,” is 19.

Larryun Johnson, known as “Bay Bay,” is 21.

Devonta Ward, known as “YGD,” is 22.

Tavaris James, also known as “TJ,” is 22.

Trevanta Holton, known as “TJ,” is 23. Corrections booked him on May 21 at the Main Detention Center, and a judge set his bond at $2 million for the RICO charges and $5,000 for a charge of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Eddie Holland, known as “Reyo,” is 24. Corrections booked him on May 22 at the Main Detention Center, and a judge set his bond at $2 million.

Daequan Kennedy, known as “Tony Hawk,” is 24.

Devonte McKay, known as “YG,” is 25.

Anthony Bradley, known as “YB,” is 26.

The list of related cases

An unidentified 16-year-old boy faced a charge of possession of ammunition by a delinquent.

An unidentified 17-year-old boy faced a charge of possession of a firearm by a gang-related delinquent.

Jadarrious Tyler, known as “Baby J,” is 18. He was arrested on May 21 and faced charges of drug trafficking and marijuana possession.

Rashad Miller, known as “Bear,” is 18. He was arrested on May 21 and faced a charge of unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon.

Joehanson Singleton, known as “PJ,” is 18. He faced a charge of possession of a firearm by a gang-related delinquent.

Kenneth Sistrunk, known as “Kenny,” is 24. He was arrested on May 21 and faced a charge of possession of a firearm by a gang-related felon.

PBSO did not release the identity of the 20th suspect arrested after the poster was printed.

Watch the news conference

Related social media post

Now, the London-based singer-songwriter is using artificial intelligence tools to help him continue making Americana music after Parkinson's disease largely took away his ability to play guitar.

Smith, who was diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder in 2020, recently released his second album, “The Art of Letting Go.” For one of the eight tracks, an instrumental piece titled “Horizon,” he relied on platforms that use AI to generate music to create demo arrangements that would convey his vision to the musicians who recorded the song.

The demos he created by humming rough melodies into his phone and uploading the recordings into song generators like Suno and Udio weren't for mixing into the final studio version of “Horizon,” Smith stressed. But tremors, stiffness and fatigue, which are common symptoms of Parkinson’s, caused his guitar skills to deteriorate during the more than a year he worked on the album, he said.

“So then I’m faced with a question,” Smith, 49, said. “‘Don’t play, don’t be creative, or find a way out, find a route.’ And for me, this was the route.”

Generative AI has divided the music industry, whose artists and record labels have complained of their copyrighted work being used to train the models behind AI-powered music tools. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio in June 2024, although Universal later reached a settlement and partnership deal with Udio and Warner did the same with Suno.

Less discussed is what those platforms can do when employed by a serious musician like Smith, whose disease affects the tools central to his songwriting and identity as a guitarist: his hands. He released his debut album, “In the Springtime,” in 2023, saying he wanted to give his two sons a way to remember when he could perform and record music himself.

“I’d always written, I’d also played, I always sung," he said. "And immediately it became clear to me that I was in trouble, that my music was going to be seriously compromised.”

From prompts to convincing demos

AI music generators use systems trained on large datasets of recorded music and audio. The platforms analyze patterns in melody, harmony, and rhythm before generating new audio based on prompts or uploaded recordings. Users don’t need musical talent to end up with a serviceable song, or even a popular one.

Smith said producing convincing demos from the synthetic tracks the apps generated often required “50, 100, 150 attempts” and extensive editing "to get something that sounds close to my music.” After humming a song into his phone and uploading the recording, he gives prompts describing instrumentation, mood and style. .

“AI is not replacing anything for me,” he said. “It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics; AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music; AI does not create my music.”

He added: “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.’”

A bittersweet guitar duet

The album was produced by Grammy-winning pianist and producer Matt Rollings, who assembled a group of established roots and bluegrass musicians for the project. They included dobro player and 16-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas, Grammy-winning banjo player Alison Brown, fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Bryan Sutton, bassist Viktor Krauss and singers Jonatha Brooke and Glen Phillips.

For Smith, the experience of singing in a Nashville studio alongside musicians he had admired for decades was "an extraordinary moment.”

Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage, known for his jazz and acoustic recordings with Blue Note Records, performed on the album’s title track and on “Horizon.” The latter recording became a bittersweet high point in Smith's career; despite the progression of his disease, he managed to play a guitar duet with his friend.

“I hadn’t been able to play for months, but I kept telling myself that if I wrote something to take to the studio, perhaps the clouds would part for a few minutes," Smith said. “That’s what happened. I had a window of about 10 minutes in the studio when my arm freed up. ... So in the end, I was able to capture the last breath of my guitar playing.”

New possibilities and perils

Experts said AI-assisted music tools could benefit other people with disabilities or illnesses.

Ruaidhri Mannion, a composer, music producer and sonic artist who teaches at Brunel University of London, said technology like affordable digital recording software "effectively democratized the making of music” in recent decades. By helping songwriters and musicians communicate ideas and collaborate more easily, AI tools that generate polished-sounding material from voice or text prompts could work in the same way, he said.

“If these tools are able to enable people to be able to participate with other creative groups and encourage more people to feel confident to be able to reach out to an ensemble or an orchestra or something, then I think that is all for the better,” Mannion said.

But an overreliance on technology could intefere with the trial and error, frustration and synergy that are necessary parts of a musician's artistic development, Mannion said.

“What makes a lot of music-making meaningful is the collaborative element,” he said. “There’s a lot of experimentation and development and failure that’s part of musical discovery.”

Udio and Suno have denied copyright infringement allegations and said they wanted to work with the music industry, not in opposition to it. Some musicians are unconvinced. A group of recording artists and activists, including singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, David Lowery of the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, and ECR Music Group President Blake Morgan, published an open letter in February under the heading “So no to Suno.”

“Many in our community are embracing responsible AI as a tool for creation, and as a means for fans to explore and interact with our artistry. That’s wonderful,” the letter read. “But it’s not the same as creating an environment where AI-generated works sourced from our music are mass distributed to dilute our royalties or, worse yet, reward those actively seeking to commit fraud. Artists need to know the difference.”

‘Show us what you can do’

Smith said he thinks his experience demonstrated how AI could benefit society and expand creative access, if it's developed responsibly.

“My message would be that if these companies want to show they’ve got a place, a role in society, then step up,” Smith said. “Engage with health professionals, engage with music therapists, engage with society and show us what you can do.”

On May 21, Smith collaborated with the Berklee Music and Health Institute for an event in New York that brought together music industry leaders, researchers and clinicians to examine how music can support people living with neurological conditions. Smith discussed his experience living with Parkinson's and sang again alongside musicians who played on “The Art of Letting Go.”

Creating music is crucial to the legacy Smith hopes to leave for his children, ages 4 and 17.

“My 4-year-old is probably never going to remember me playing, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “But I’ve been able to pull this into something and refuse to be defined by this disease.”

En un mensaje en la red social X, Noboa apareció conciliador con el candidato Abelardo de la Espriella, con quien expresó “su voluntad de impulsar una lucha real y conjunta contra el narcoterrorismo”, por lo que anunció: “he dispuesto eliminar desde el 1 de junio la tasa de seguridad”.

De la Espriella representa al movimiento político Defensores de la Patria y figura entre los punteros de las encuestas.

El 31 de mayo, los colombianos acudirán a las urnas para elegir al sucesor del presidente de izquierda Gustavo Petro y decidirán entre la continuidad de la tendencia o dan un giro a otra corriente.

El mandatario ecuatoriano, quien ha mantenido fricciones y una tensa relación con Petro, no aclaró si mantendrá su decisión en caso de que gene las elecciones del domingo el candidato del oficialismo, Iván Cepeda.

Ni Petro ni funcionarios del gobierno colombiano han reaccionado de inmediato al anuncio de Noboa.

La disputa comercial entre Ecuador y Colombia surgió en enero cuando el presidente ecuatoriano impuso una denominada tasa de seguridad a las importaciones colombianas alegando la falta de control de su lado de la frontera y quejándose de una balanza comercial deficitaria en al menos 1.000 millones de dólares.

Dicha tasa comenzó en 30% y fue escalando al 50%, luego al 100%. Hace unos días Noboa había dicho, antes del reciente anuncio, que desde el 1 de junio se reduciría al 75%.

El gobierno de Petro, que ha negado el supuesto descuido de la frontera común, respondió con medidas recíprocas: aplicó tasas de hasta 75% a los productos ecuatorianos y prohibió la venta de energía a Ecuador.

Los permanentes roces derivaron en el llamado a los embajadores de ambos países.

La Comunidad Andina de Naciones dispuso hace poco a las dos naciones miembros eliminar los aranceles impuestos. Actualmente el organismo resuelve las apelaciones a dicha resolución.

Gremios productivos, principalmente de la zona fronteriza, han pedido la eliminación de las tasas que han afectado el fluido intercambio comercial bilateral y han puesto en jaque a transportistas, comerciantes y otros sectores económicos.

U.S. Southern Command announced the latest strike in the monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence.

While the military's social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in color instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it's hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water.

The attack puts the death toll at 202 people from the series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with two other attacks announced Tuesday and Wednesday. The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.

U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America, who on Friday also met with Cuban military leaders near the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.

An executive order from Trump directs federal agencies to align their policies behind the study, which recommended an overhaul long called for by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The study found that the United States recommends more childhood vaccines than many peer nations.

The Trump administration previously moved to narrow the number of recommended childhood vaccines in response to the report, but the move was blocked by a federal judge in Massachusetts. The administration is appealing the decision.

The study recommends vaccinating all children against 11 diseases. Several others would be recommended only for high-risk groups or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.” That includes vaccines for flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

Trump's order adds weight behind the study at a time when the administration had appeared to be trying to shift focus away from Kennedy's more contentious vaccine policies and toward more mainstream topics like healthy eating.

The order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the study and “take any appropriate steps” to update its vaccine recommendations. It says the CDC should “provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors" and directs agencies to make sure all actions, regulations and funding are aligned with the study.

The order adds that any changes should ensure that Americans retain their current access to vaccines.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

Trump directed HHS to carry out the study in December.

Kennedy is a longtime activist against vaccines and has sought ways to inject his skepticism about the shots into national guidance. Last year, he announced the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, a move questions by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.

Last June, he fired a 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee and later installed several of his own replacements, including multiple vaccine skeptics.

The January report found that vaccine recommendations for American children had increased in recent decades. It also highlighted countries where no vaccines are required to attend school.

The headliner is right-handed pitcher Eury Pérez, who was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right gracilis strain.

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said Pérez is expected to miss eight weeks, sidelining him until the final days of July.

Pérez was cruising through four scoreless innings in his May 27 start against the Toronto Blue Jays, striking out a season-high nine batters.

However, after stretching in the dugout to prepare for the fifth inning, he exited the game with the injury and had to be helped down the steps.

Miami also reinstated infielder Leo Jiménez from the seven-day injured list, recalled right-handed reliever Josh Ekness from Triple-A Jacksonville and optioned infielder Graham Pauley to Triple-A Jacksonville.

The Marlins (26-31) won’t return to loanDepot park until the June 5-7 weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The oil industry, meanwhile, said the program will still hinder efforts to bring down energy costs in the notoriously expensive state.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature last year reauthorized the state’s cap-and-trade program through 2045. The program sets a declining limit, or “cap,” on total greenhouse gas emissions in the state from major polluters. Companies must reduce their pollution, buy allowances from the state or other businesses, or fund projects aimed at offsetting their emissions. Similar programs exist across Europe and Asia, and California's system is linked with others in Quebec, Canada and Washington state.

Under the changes approved Friday, the state will now give away up to roughly $3.5 billion worth of allowances to companies — mostly manufacturers and oil refiners — for free if they build projects that help them reduce their emissions. State regulators said it is designed to ensure major businesses don’t leave the state, but environmentalists say it runs counter to the purpose of the program, which is aimed at incentivizing companies to reduce pollution so they can spend less on allowances. They also say it will mean there is less money to put toward programs designed to mitigate or reduce the impact of climate change.

California Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez, formerly Newsom's chief climate adviser, says the changes will allow the state to remain a climate leader.

“Moving forward shows that we can be responsive to affordability concerns, new legislative direction, while also setting a clear signal for Californians, other states and global partners that we remain committed to driving long-term investments in clean energy jobs and reducing pollution in communities,” she said.

Changes to the program

California law requires the state to reduce its planet-warming emissions 40% and 85% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 2045, respectively. Supporters of cap and trade say it will help the state reach those goals.

Newsom signed laws aimed at better aligning the declining cap on emissions with the state’s climate targets; setting aside money generated by the program for various climate, housing and transit initiatives; and potentially boosting carbon-removal projects. The legislation also changed the name to “cap and invest” to emphasize its funding of climate programs.

But how to achieve those goals has been the subject of months of discussion by the air board and intense lobbying campaigns by both environmental groups and the oil industry. An initial proposal largely focused on aligning the program with the laws passed last year, but it was changed to focus more on trying to reduce the program's costs.

California leaders have faced increased pressure to center affordability when shaping climate policies after two oil refineries announced their plans to close in the last couple of years. The Democratic-led state has also grappled with federal challenges to its climate agenda, including a measure Republican President Donald Trump signed last year blocking a first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

The newly approved updates also increase funding from allowance sales by $2 billion from 2027 through 2030 for a program providing utility bill credits to Californians and set aside about $800 million to help businesses participating in cap and trade limit the program’s costs on Californians.

Before the changes, about $4 billion the state received annually from allowance sales helped pay for climate-change mitigation, affordable housing and transportation projects through a pot of money called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Newsom and state lawmakers decide which programs receive money from the fund, and last year they agreed to allocate $1 billion annually for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.

The updates will likely halve annual revenues for the fund, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. That is largely because of the new incentive program for manufacturers and refiners, said Danny Cullenward, a climate economist who is critical of the changes, though board staff disagrees with that.

Intense debate over the updates

This week’s deliberations by air regulators stretched into a second day after hours of public comment in which climate advocates, legal experts and fossil fuel industry leaders debated the rules’ impacts on pollution and people’s pocketbooks, with many urging the board to delay its vote to bring the regulations more in line with state priorities.

Environmentalists, Democratic lawmakers and other critics of the changes say they hinder the state’s efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions. Cullenward said the new incentive program for manufacturers and refiners is untested and lacks sufficient guardrails to ensure it is not abused.

“The state is not on track for its climate goals,” he said at a media briefing Wednesday. “Cutting our climate funding does not help address consumer cost concerns, and it doesn’t accelerate emission reductions.”

The board agreed Friday to hold off on issuing allowances from the new incentive program until the agency’s executive officer takes a closer look at the program and reports back to the board with any proposed amendments.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund cuts will deal a huge blow to wide-ranging programs benefiting communities across the state, said Michelle Pariset, director of legislative affairs for social justice law firm Public Advocates.

“These are investments that determine whether a student can afford to take transit to school, whether a senior can get to a doctor’s appointment, whether a family can live near reliable transportation instead of enduring long commutes and higher costs,” Pariset said at the Wednesday briefing.

Jodie Muller, president and CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association, meanwhile said the updates move the state in the right direction but fail to adequately address energy affordability concerns for the future.

“California refineries need long-term certainty to make the investments that keep energy reliable and affordable for consumers –- and right now, that certainty stops at 2030,” she said in a statement.

The changes will increase California’s reliance on oil imports to meet its energy needs, said Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association.

“That means high GHG emissions, fewer jobs, more expensive gasoline, and lower tax revenue for schools, police, fire, and parks,” Zierman said in a statement, using an acronym for greenhouse gas.

Rivera, un líder del pueblo miskito —que desde hace décadas han estado enfrentados con el gobierno sandinista en el poder—, está encarcelado desde el 29 de septiembre de 2023, parte de una represión de años contra la disidencia. Su familia ha dicho que está preso por motivos políticos y que el gobierno no ha presentado cargos formales.

Al menos un puñado de presos han muerto bajo custodia del gobierno nicaragüense en los últimos años. Las autoridades han encarcelado a cientos de periodistas, activistas y opositores políticos.

El gobierno de Nicaragua indicó en enero que liberaría a algunos presos, luego de la presión que enfrentó a raíz de la operación militar de Estados Unidos para capturar al entonces presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Pero ha habido poca transparencia por parte del gobierno después del anuncio.

“Esta represión, violencia e inhumanidad es aborrecible”, publicó el viernes la Oficina de Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental en la red social X. “Reiteramos nuestro llamado a su liberación incondicional y a la de todos los presos políticos ahora”.

El gobierno de los copresidentes Daniel Ortega y su esposa Rosario Murillo publicó un informe el miércoles sobre la salud de Rivera, en el que indicó que su salud es “delicada”, se encuentra conectado a un respirador mecánico y presenta falla multiorgánica. En las fotos puede verse a Rivera demacrado, conectado a múltiples tubos en una cama de hospital.

Un comunicado del jueves de una coalición de grupos indígenas nicaragüenses criticó al gobierno por encarcelar a Rivera de manera arbitraria, y por “distorsionar la narrativa” al afirmar que ya tenía mala salud cuando fue detenido.

“Sabemos que el responsable de la gravísima situación en la que se encuentra, de las violaciones de sus derechos humanos, es el régimen sandinista Ortega-Murillo”, señalaron en el comunicado enviado a The Associated Press.

Al menos 47 personas están encarceladas actualmente en Nicaragua por motivos políticos, según un grupo que da seguimiento a estos casos, conocido como el Mecanismo para el Reconocimiento de Personas Presas Políticas. Cientas fueron encarceladas tras un levantamiento en 2018, el cual derivó en una sangrienta represión gubernamental que dejó cientos de muertos.

Lo que comenzó como una protesta contra una reforma al sistema de seguridad social se amplió para exigir la renuncia de Ortega, quien ha gobernado el país durante casi dos décadas después de cambiar la Constitución para permitir ser reelegido repetidas veces. La represión se intensificó antes de los comicios presidenciales de 2021, en los que todos los candidatos competitivos fueron encarcelados previamente a que Ortega declarara su victoria. Washington no reconoce su presidencia.

Más de 200 presos políticos fueron liberados y enviados a Estados Unidos en 2023, y describieron haber estado recluidos en aislamiento y sometidos a tortura física y psicológica. Muchos desarrollaron problemas crónicos de salud debido a las condiciones allí, y ahora viven en un precario limbo migratorio bajo el gobierno del presidente Donald Trump. Otros 135 presos políticos fueron liberados y enviados a Guatemala en 2024.

La población miskita ha sido una espina particularmente incómoda para el régimen de Ortega, según Manuel Prado, representante internacional del partido indígena Yatama, al que Rivera representó en el Congreso.

Rivera desempeñó un papel clave en la resistencia al gobierno sandinista de Ortega a finales de las décadas de 1970 y 1980, al participar en el movimiento armado de la Contra respaldado por Estados Unidos y ayudar a establecer el área de la costa norte como una región autónoma.

Rica en recursos, incluidos oro y plata, la región miskita es importante para el objetivo del gobierno Ortega-Murillo de atraer inversión internacional, particularmente de China.

Prado pidió la liberación de Rivera y manifestó su preocupación por su estado físico actual.

“Sí sentimos que Ortega va a dejar que se muera”, expresó.

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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.

Lucas, who was married to “Star Wars” creator George Lucas from 1969 to 1983, died Wednesday from metastatic cancer, attorney Deidre Von Rock said in an email to The Associated Press. She died in Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by loved ones, Von Rock said.

Marcia Lucas was the editor on 1983's “Return of the Jedi” and the pre-“Star Wars” George Lucas-directed films “THX 1138” and “American Graffiti.”

She was also part of the editing team for director Martin Scorsese's 1970s films “Taxi Driver,” “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore” and “New York, New York.”

Editor was a rare senior creative position where a woman could find a foothold in Hollywood. Marcia Lucas became one of several women whose work in the editing chair made sense of the work of the overwhelmingly male directors of the New Hollywood of the late 1960s through the early 1980s, including Dede Allen, editor of “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Dog Day Afternoon”; Verna Fields, editor of “Paper Moon” and “Jaws"; and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of most of Scorsese's films starting with 1980's “Raging Bull.”

Lucas was often called the unsung hero of “Star Wars,” the original film that after sequels, prequels and spinoffs has come to be known by its subtitle, “A New Hope.”

She convinced her then-husband that he should have Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness, die in his lightsaber battle with Darth Vader and become a spirit guide to Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker.

And she had to make sense of raw footage that could have been a mess in the wrong hands, including the climactic rebel attack on the Death Star.

“It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all the fighting as well,” George Lucas told Rolling Stone in an interview a few months after the film came out. “Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that."

Lucas was born Marcia Griffin in Modesto, California shortly after the end of World War II. She moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents divorced when she was a small child.

She began working as a film librarian and moved into working as an editor on commercials, trailers and promotional films. She was an assistant editor on the documentary “Journey to the Pacific” for Fields, who also hired George Lucas, then a film student at the University of Southern California.

The couple became engaged soon after. Their marriage would essentially end in 1982, but they kept their divorce under wraps until after the release of “Return of the Jedi” in 1983. Marcia Lucas was then married to Tom Rodrigues, a production manager at the Skywalker Ranch production center, from 1983 to 1993.

She is survived by her daughters, Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, and grandchildren Felix Hallikainen, Aeliana Hallikainen and Knox Soper.

"Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun, and more full of love,” a family statement said. “Her work was known for its emotional intelligence, rhythm, and humanity — a rare ability to find the truth of a scene and bring heart, momentum, and clarity to the screen.”

Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he was looking to make a “final determination.” A senior administration official later said the roughly two-hour meeting with national security aides had concluded without a decision.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump would only sign a deal that “satisfies his redlines” and curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Trump confirmed the high-level talks the day after The Associated Press and other news outlets reported that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had come to terms on a tentative agreement. The deal would extend the fragile ceasefire by 60 days as new talks are held on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Trump wrote on social media that “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb.” He said the strait must be reopened for international navigation and all sea mines destroyed.

Iran’s main negotiator said Friday that it has “no trust in guarantees or words,” only actions, underscoring lingering distrust after the U.S. and Israel have twice attacked Iran over the past year while it was engaged in nuclear negotiations.

“No step will be taken before the other side acts,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X. “We do not gain concessions through talks, but through missiles.”

Nuclear issues remain unresolved

Later, but before Trump’s meeting concluded, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told a state broadcaster that the agreement “has not been finalized yet.”

On Thursday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance suggested negotiators were trying to strike general terms on Iran’s nuclear program, with the specifics to be hammered out in the ensuing talks.

Baghaei, however, said Friday that Iranian officials were “focused on the end of war and are not discussing the details of the nuclear plan at this point.”

Iran also wants any deal to include a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, where fighting has intensified despite a nominal ceasefire. And the Islamic Republic has been seeking the release of billions of dollars in frozen funds.

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security commission and is close to top leaders, posted on social media Friday that Iran “sets the terms: cash for cash, credit for credit, nothing for nothing.”

The Islamic Republic has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the stockpile. It’s believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last year.

Trump returned Friday to his on-and-off demand for the removal of the cache as part of a deal. The material would be unearthed by the U.S., in coordination with Iran and the IAEA, “and DESTROYED,” he posted.

Deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz

The proposed memorandum makes clear that Iran would not be able to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and that it would have to remove all mines from the vital waterway within 30 days, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. would gradually lift its blockade on Iranian ports and would also agree to relax sanctions, allowing Iran to sell more of its oil.

Baghaei said Iran and Oman, which lie on opposite sides of the strait, would manage it and “adopt mechanisms” for transit through it, “based on their own national interests and the interests of the international community.”

The two nations’ foreign ministers discussed the issue by phone earlier Friday, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who wrote on X that he had expressed solidarity “in the face of any threat.”

On Wednesday, Trump had warned Oman — a U.S. ally — not to enter into any agreement with Iran to share control of the strait or the U.S. will “have to blow them up.”

Iran has effectively closed the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Feb. 28 that killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials. Before then, the waterway was open to international traffic, and around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through it.

The closure of the strait has caused the price of fuel and other goods to soar, with the effects felt far beyond the Middle East.

Iran has said it lets some commercial vessels pass — about two dozen daily in recent days, compared with more than 100 a day before the war. But the Islamic Republic also has charged tolls for at least some ships and established a formal gatekeeper agency earlier this month, spurring a new round of U.S. sanctions this week.

The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, condemned the sanctions Friday but deemed them a a sign of its own “positive performance.”

Since the ceasefire began about seven weeks ago, the U.S. and Iran have traded strikes and accusations of ceasefire violations. But they have not returned to full-scale hostilities and have kept negotiating.

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Farnoush Amiri in New York, and Matthew Lee in Washington, contributed.

Trump has warned that Cuba “is next” after U.S. military forces captured Venezuela's autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a January raid. In the months since, the Trump administration has imposed an oil blockade on Cuba, maintained warships in the Caribbean Sea and indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on federal charges.

Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, met with Lt. Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other Cuban military officials.

Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces said in a statement that both sides viewed "the meeting positively because it addressed security issues along the perimeter separating the military enclave, and they agreed to maintain communication between the two military commands.”

Top Trump aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA chief John Ratcliffe, also have met with Cuban officials to explore possible improvements in relations. But the U.S. side has come away unimpressed from those talks, leading to even more sanctions imposed on the Cuban government.

Besides the meeting, Donovan also assessed the security of the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay and discussed the “safety of service members and their families, and operational readiness with base officials,” U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X.

The U.S. maintains the base despite decades of friction with Cuba's socialist leaders, whom Trump wants removed from power.

The U.S. military has a handful of Navy ships, including at least one amphibious assault ship, in the Caribbean, a much smaller force than was present at the time of the Maduro raid.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that a new unit of 1,300 sailors and Marines would be replacing the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which deployed to the region last summer.

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Associated Press writer Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.

Scattered showers and storms will dampen parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties Friday evening.

Saturday will feature a sun/cloud mix with the potential for spotty showers and storms, especially late-afternoon/early evening.

Sunday also brings the potential for afternoon/early evening storms.

Temperatures are forecast to reach the low 90s both days, with heat indices peaking in the upper 90s to just over 100°F.

In a trio of social media posts, Trump gave his backing to South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra and former Oklahoma state senator Mike Mazzei as primary elections approach.

Iowa’s primary is Tuesday, South Carolina’s is on June 9 and Oklahoma's is on June 16. All three states are having their first competitive Republican gubernatorial primaries in years.

For two terms, Evette has served alongside Gov. Henry McMaster, one of Trump's earliest backers during his first presidential campaign. Earlier this year, the long-serving governor endorsed his No. 2, telegraphing to some that Trump's backing could be next.

On Friday, Trump expressed both appreciation for Evette and the state she represents, noting that she stumped for him in 2024. He also said “A BIG added plus” for her campaign is that Henry McMaster Jr. — the sitting governor's son — may be Evette's running mate.

In the deep red state of South Carolina, the competition for the president’s support has been the most intense part of the primary race.

In a separate post, Trump described Feenstra as "MAGA all the way” and said he would “fight tirelessly” for the state on issues including the economy, border security and support of law enforcement.

Evette and Feenstra have been vocal about wanting Trump's endorsement, in the hopes that it would carry weight in states that helped propel Trump's return to office in 2024. Feenstra said earlier this year that he asked for Trump's support, and much of Evette's campaign media has featured photos of her next to Trump.

Along with Feenstra, four other Republicans — state Rep. Eddie Andrews, businessman and former conservative political director Zach Lahn, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former director of the state Department of Administrative Services Adam Steen — are in the primary to replace outgoing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who opted out of a third bid.

Evette is competing for the South Carolina nomination against Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Mazzei is running to replace Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is finishing his second term. He's competing against state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former state House Speaker Charles McCall and former state public safety secretary Chip Keating.

"Mike Mazzei has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Oklahoma — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" Trump wrote on social media.

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Hannah Fingerhut contributed reporting from Des Moines, Iowa.

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

While analysts say the Cuban military is no match for U.S. forces, they also say Washington may be trying to tread lightly.

“Our military capabilities, as we have seen, even in Iran and other places, are very strong,” Local 10 Cuba Analyst Andy Gomez said.

If the U.S. is weighing military intervention in Cuba, Gomez said the Cuban armed forces are weak.

“They have 30 airplanes, about 3,000 ... you know, tanks, personnel movement, 50,000 regular soldiers. That’s pretty small,” Gomez said.

US would face aging equipment, but possible asymmetric war

Brian Fonseca, the defense and national security research vice provost at Florida International University, said U.S. forces would initially be up against aging Soviet-era equipment.

“If they were to do a smash-and-grab kind of operation, like they did with Nicolas Maduro, they would probably meet very little resistance,” he said.

But Fonseca said if the U.S. tries to have a pronounced presence on the ground, it could be met with guerilla warfare from Castro regime loyalists.

“During the Castro period, Fidel implemented a concept called ‘War of All the People,’ in which there were pockets of militia throughout the country that were there to repel Americans if Americans were to invade Cuba,” he said. “I think that’s the one sort of wildcard scenario the United States has to think about.

“If there is a pronounced US president on the presence on the ground, does the regime have the capability to inflict pain against the United States in a more asymmetric ‘War of All the People’ context, in which you have militia located in smaller localities across the country?”

But if the U.S. tries a Maduro-like operation, Gomez said the country should not expect help from the top.

“Venezuela and Cuba are very different, because there’s no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba (who is) going to hand over Raul Castro,” Gomez said. “The entire inner circle around Raul Castro are Raulistas. Everyone around Raul Castro the top generals are Raulistas. And he made sure once Fidel was dead to have Raulistas ― supporters ― around him. Now below that, that’s another question and we have to wait and see.”

What happens afterward?

Fonseca said there are not a lot of certainties about what a Cuba scenario would look like.

“There’s still unknowns as to how much or whether or not there would be a resistance to the Americans on the ground. I think that’s why the United States is going to tread lightly,” he said. “It’s not to suggest the United States is not going to unlock the military. I think it’s already signaling it’s going to unlock the military, but it has to be careful it doesn’t engage the Cuban people.”

That, Fonseca said, might bring the U.S. “into a more pronounced conflict,” which he said would be a “disaster for domestic policy too, especially as we lead into the November 2026 midterms.”

It comes as high-stakes talks between the U.S. and Cuba appear to stall.

On Thursday, Cuba’s deputy foreign affairs minister, speaking at a legislative hearing in Havana, said a mounting threat of U.S. military aggression is “without justification,” while U.S. leaders continue to make a case against Cuba.

At an event at Miami Dade College on Thursday hosted by the World Affairs Council of Miami, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Florida, said, “The desire for freedom has never disappeared” among the Cuban people.

The council’s president, Aaron Rosen, also weighed in.

“Cuba would not really be able to match up to the United States in a one-to-one conflict,” he said. “However, if the US and Cuba did find itself at war, and the US decimated Cuba’s military it would very soon find that it inherits Cuba’s political future and there are very big open questions about what that might mean and for what comes next.”

Can White House make case to skeptical public?

While recent polls find a majority of Cuban Americans support U.S. military intervention, nationwide surveys find Americans as a whole do not.

“Certainly South Floridians and Cuban Americans want to see the United States take action. They’ve been waiting decades for the U.S. to approach Cuba in a more hawkish manner to displace the regime. In fact, I often argue that many of the Cuban Americans are in it for revenge,” Fonseca said. “They want to see the regime fall, and that’s not something that I think the rest of the nation is really interested in. It’s not personal for the rest of the nation; it’s personal for Cuban Americans.”

That means, Fonseca said, that the White House has to be “somewhat careful” and “build a solid case for why Cuba is an imminent threat before they launch military intervention.”

“I think that’s what’s being laid over the last few weeks and what will likely be laid going forward. You just heard two cases in which the White House has essentially articulated Cuba as an imminent threat,” he said. “One is the 300 drones, the other is the humanitarian crisis and so the White House is now beginning to lay the foundation for unlocking the military’s instrument of national power, not because they need to justify it for the Cuban Americans, but for the rest of the nation.”

What about Russia?

With Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on empire-building and bogged down in his war in Ukraine, the analysts said it is unlikely Russia will provide boots-on-the-ground assistance to Cuba should the U.S. strike.

Instead, Russia could assist the communist country through disinformation efforts or by providing goods and services to the island’s regime.

“While I’m not deeply concerned about Russian or Chinese conventional support to Cuba, I would be concerned about Russians supporting the Cubans’ ability to fight in the trenches in an asymmetric conflict, or the Russians, for example, lighting a match and then walking away,” Fonseca said. “In other words, creating more instability for the United States on the ground.

“They would ultimately commit the Americans more deeply on the ground in Cuba for a more pronounced time, dealing with maybe civil unrest and some other things that I think the Russians could probably unlock, that would be a pain for the United States to deal with.”

Gomez also believes Russia probably will not help Cuba on the ground, but said it is critical to the U.S. that it not give the Cubans the military base at Guantanamo Bay.

“Because I have no doubt that in 30 days you’re going to see Chinese ships and Russian ships at that base,” he said.

“The eyes of the world will be on South Florida,” said Andrew Bailey, FBI co-deputy director. “And the world will see this region at its absolute best.”

The FBI and local law enforcement agencies are warning people not to fly drones over Hard Rock Stadium, also known as ‘Miami Stadium’, or the large fan festival planned at Bayfront Park in Miami.

“We will detect and neutralize all unauthorized drone activity that threatens the matches and fan festival events,” Bailey said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily established no-fly zones for drones on match days. The restrictions ban drones within a 3-mile radius of the stadium and up to 3,000 feet above the ground.

Officials said anyone who violates the restrictions could face serious consequences.

“This includes civil penalties, fines up to $100,000, up to a year in prison and a seizure of your drone,” said Brett Skiles, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

Hard Rock Stadium can host 65,000 people, bringing large crowds to Miami Gardens for every match.

“We will see Florida as the epicenter of these games,” Bailey said.

The security effort comes nearly two years after chaos unfolded before the Copa America final at the stadium, when thousands of fans without tickets flooded through the gates.

Social media videos showed people climbing fences and walls and shoving one another as they tried to get inside.

“You’re in the free state of Florida, but you’re also in a law and order state,” said Mark Glass, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The FBI and local law enforcement agencies said officers will be ready for the World Cup crowds.

“Every event like this carries a certain amount of risk, but the partnerships, the coordination beforehand, the lessons learned, help mitigate against those risks,” Bailey said.

“They have experience hosting Super Bowls, Miami Dolphins games, special events, concerts,” he added.

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The 83-year-old Democratic congresswoman, who represents Florida’s 24th Congressional District, made the announcement Friday morning during the ceremonial naming of a Miami Gardens street in recognition of her decades of service to South Florida, particularly her advocacy for education and youth development.

The ceremony officially designated Northwest 206th Terrace between 45th Avenue and 47th Avenue as Frederica S. Wilson Boulevard. The roadway is adjacent to Dr. Frederica S. Wilson/Skyway Elementary School, a campus that already bears the Democratic congresswoman’s name.

Wilson attended the event alongside local elected officials, educators, students, and community members.

City leaders say the street naming recognizes Wilson’s longstanding commitment to public service, education, and empowering young people throughout South Florida.

Wilson has built a reputation as a champion for education throughout her career, serving as an educator, school principal, state legislator, and member of Congress. Her advocacy has focused on expanding educational opportunities and supporting children and families across Miami-Dade County.

Wilson said she is “not going to retire” from public life.

“I’m going to travel the country expanding the 5,000 Role Models of Excellence project,” she said. “The people who call our office everyday asking, ‘How do we get a program in our school district?’ That is what I’m going to do.”

Colleagues on the other side of the aisle also took time to honor Wilson’s legacy.

Fellow Miami-Dade U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican, said “Throughout her career, she has been a tireless advocate for the people of South Florida and a powerful voice on issues important to our community.”

Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones (SD-34) and State Rep. Ashley Gantt (D-District 109) both released statements after Wilson’s announcement, with Gantt confirming that she would seek Jones’ seat in the Florida Senate as he seeks the seat vacated by Wilson.

“Before she was my Congresswoman, she was my principal.

”Like so many people across South Florida, I have known Congresswoman Frederica Wilson not only as an elected official, but as a mentor, an advocate, and a relentless champion for young people. I was proud to be part of the inaugural 500 Role Models program, which has since grown into the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, impacting the lives of thousands of young Black boys across our community.

“Whether in the classroom, the community, or the halls of Congress, she dedicated her life to helping young people see possibilities for themselves that they may not have otherwise imagined.

“From the School Board, to the Florida Senate, to the United States Congress, she has spent decades opening doors, creating opportunities, and fighting for the people she serves. She has worn many hats throughout her remarkable career, literally and figuratively, but the hat she wore best was that of a public servant.

“As she begins this next chapter, we thank her for a lifetime of service, leadership, and love for the community she has faithfully served. Her impact will be felt for generations to come.

“She will forever be our principal, our Congresswoman, and one of South Florida’s greatest public servants.”

Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones

“Today, I want to first take a moment to honor a true South Florida icon whose supreme service and selfless service is an example to us all. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has spent her life fighting for our community, as a teacher, a state legislator, and for 16 years as a fearless voice for us in Congress. Her signature hats are as legendary as her heart. We owe her a debt that cannot be repaid, and I am grateful for every door she opened and every barrier she broke.

“As Congresswoman Wilson passes the torch and Senator Shevrin Jones announces his campaign for Congressional District 24, this moment also creates an opening, and I believe I am ready to fill it. I am announcing today that I am running for Florida Senate District 34.

“Our community deserves a bold, pragmatic voice in the Florida Senate — someone who will continue to stand up against attacks on our rights, our schools, and our democracy without flinching. That is the standard Congresswoman Wilson set. That is the standard I intend to meet and follow.

“Four years ago, our community entrusted me with the greatest honor; to be their voice in Tallahassee and fight for stronger neighborhoods, better schools and a brighter future. I am ready to do it as their state senator.”

State Rep. Ashley Gantt

Lao and Thai rescue workers posted the news on social media, along with a video showing the first rescued villager with a lamp strapped to his forehead. The villager, who was not immediately identified, was walking unsteadily with the assistance of two men. They handed him over to other team members amid a waiting crowd for a medical check.

The five had been found by divers on Wednesday, but that left rescue workers with two serious tasks: extricating the five and finding two more who are still missing.

Evacuations of the other four were suspended until tomorrow because they were not ready, said Chakkit Taengtang of Sai Than Association, one of the Thai rescue organization at the scene.

Rescue teams had pumped water out of the flooded cave’s passages on Friday, but a morning rainstorm complicated their work. The trapped men have already been supplied with water, soft food, and foil blankets to keep them warm.

The villagers had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.

A video shot inside the cave on Thursday vividly illustrated the desperation the trapped men were feeling.

Thai rescue diver Norrased Palasing spoke with a trapped villager named Khamla, who urged the divers to let the group attempt to swim out immediately

“I can’t go on. I don’t have any strength,” he said.

Norrased sought to reassure him, telling him that the water was being drained, and handing over blankets and food. He cautioned Khamla to eat slowly to avoid digestive problems.

Divers from several nations joined the rescue effort

Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand were joined by Japanese and Malaysian colleagues. Indonesian and French specialists also had been reported to be coming to the site in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane.

Working in the dark in unfamiliar surroundings, divers had to make their way through twisting, narrow, flooded passages with jagged walls.

A good rescue plan depends on “the length of the dives involved, the restrictions and the sheer size of the passages that they are in, and the support that’s available,” said Gary Mitchell, press officer for the South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team, which is associated with the British Cave Rescue Council.

Other necessities normally include the space and equipment to recharge air or oxygen cylinders, and a medical team.

Rescuers must weigh risks of waiting for flooding to recede

At the same time, rescuers must weigh the high risks of guiding survivors without diving skills through zero-visibility water against the strategy of waiting for water levels to recede, said Mitchell, who took part in the complicated 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach. Several of the divers at the Lao site had also taken part in the Thai rescue.

“You can’t leave people underground too long without medical support, without proper food, sustenance, clean water ... before their condition is going to deteriorate,” Mitchell warned Thursday from Wales in a video interview.

The five found Wednesday were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing, and Laen. They were reportedly in good health but exhausted from dehydration and lack of food.

A video filmed by Norrased showed the emotional moment he and Finnish diving instructor Mikko Paasi emerged from the water and discovered the trapped men sitting on a rock surrounded by floodwater.

Mued delivered a message to his family on camera, saying, “Don’t worry mom, dad. I’m still strong, I’m still healthy. Tomorrow I will be home. I love you, mom and dad.”

Lao officials say the villagers normally forage in the mountainous surroundings for a living.

The villagers are believed to have been searching for gold

The villagers had been reported to have entered the cave to look for gold deposits. Bounphong Khammanyvong, a local official in Longcheng, the district where the cave is located, said they had noticed rocks or sand with unusual colors in the cave, so they entered it in the hope of digging them out to see if they were valuable.

Bounphong, in an interview on Thursday with local media outlet Xaisomboun Province Television, said the villagers entered the cave on May 20, contradicting rescuers who put the date at May 19.

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Associated Press journalists Danica Kirka in London and Haruka Nuga in Bangkok contributed to this report.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed the visa had been revoked. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter involves visa privacy. A State Department official confirmed there was a plan to revoke the visa.

The tit-for-tat move by the Trump administration has followed the expulsion by Beijing of Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times, apparently over the appearance of the Taiwanese leader in a DealBook event in which Wang had no role. It was a rare occasion of the U.S. government directly retaliating against Beijing's expulsion of American journalists.

The Times, which first reported the reciprocal move by the Trump administration, said the newspaper does not ask governments to revoke media credentials or otherwise interfere with the work of any journalist. On Friday, the paper issued a statement calling for Wang to be reinstated as a credentialed journalist in China and urging both governments to “reverse this deterioration in journalist access."

“The Chinese government’s decision to expel Vivian Wang is wrong,” Joseph Kahn, the paper's executive editor, said in a statement published on the Times' corporate website. “Her expulsion will make it even harder for our global audience to get accurate, independent and in-depth reporting about the world’s second largest economy at a critical time.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US media presence in China already dwindled

Wang is leaving China when the presence of U.S. media is already thin after previous rounds of disputes over journalistic credentials, leaving several U.S. news organizations with skeleton staffing in their China bureaus.

“The number of correspondents from American media outlets allowed to work in China has now fallen to an alarmingly low level, at a time when the need for people everywhere to understand China is greater than ever,” Kahn wrote.

Beijing moved to expel Wang, a China correspondent for the newspaper since 2020, after the media group's DealBook Summit 2025 featured Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in a recorded interview with host Andrew Ross Sorkin. Sorkin called Taiwan a country, and Lai warned of Beijing's aggressive behavior in the Taiwan Strait and vowed that “Taiwan will do everything necessary to protect itself.”

The Chinese government claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 after Mao Zedong's communists won a civil war. In the latest summit with President Donald Trump in Beijing, in mid-May, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that China and the U.S. could “collide or even clash” over Taiwan if the issue is not handled properly.

Other Western media watching closely

The decision against The New York Times also has created unease among other Western media that might interview Lai, giving the self-governed island a voice, at the risk of losing their abilities to report within China.

All foreign journalists must be accredited by China's foreign ministry to report in China, and Beijing has used the accreditation and visa policy to expel or keep out foreign journalists whose work has upset the Chinese leadership or to show displeasure with what Beijing views as unfavorable or malicious coverage of China.

In 2020, for example, the Chinese government expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents after the financial newspaper ran an opinion piece titled “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia” following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As U.S.-China relations soured, the U.S. State Department in 2020 designated some major Chinese news groups as “foreign missions". Xinhua, for example, is tasked by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to serve as the mouthpiece of the party and the government, which includes distributing their official news.

Beijing in turn drastically limited visas for journalists working for U.S. media.

In total, at least 18 foreign journalists working for The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were expelled in the first half of 2020, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China. Many others were given short visas ranging from one month to three months, according to the group's annual survey.

The two governments later reached a one-time agreement that allowed U.S. media to send in a small number of correspondents to mainland China. Wang was one of them.

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An earlier headline on this story said the expulsions happened days after Trump visited Beijing. The New York Times says its reporter was expelled from China in February.

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Attorney Judd Rosen, who represents Dydzuhn, said she had just walked out of the MarinaBlue, a 60-story skyscraper at 888 Biscayne Boulevard.

Raydean Johnson, a homeless man armed with a shank made out of a tire pressure gauge and a nail, attacked her from behind, according to police.

“I started to see fists flying at me from, you know, my peripheral vision, like hooks,” Dydzuhn, 36, said, adding, “I realized, ‘Oh my God! This is a person attacking me!’”

Johnson, 49, punched her, slammed her head on the ground, and stabbed her, according to police. Rosen said Dydzuhn was “seconds away” from being killed.

“In the moments where I was fighting for my life, it was like that was all I was focused on, was fighting for my life, trying to defend, you know, however I could, to try to block a death blow,” Dydzuhn said.

MarinaBlue security did not stop the attack, Rosen said. Dydzuhn said she was on the ground when she “made peace” with dying.

“That’s one of the worst feelings,” Dydzuhn said.

A good Samaritan intervened, and police officers responded. Dydzuhn said she has been visually impaired after surviving the horrific attack on May 19.

“I had to call my parents, and you know, break the news to them,” Dydzuhn said through tears.

Police officers arrested Johnson after a standoff that shut down Biscayne Boulevard for about two hours. A witness recorded a video showing police officers deploying Tasers and Johnson collapsing.

Dydzuhn had to undergo emergency surgery. On Friday, with bruises on her face and eyes injured, she said she struggles with both pain and terrors.

Miami-Dade corrections held Johnson without bond on Friday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral.

Johnson faced a new case on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery with great bodily harm, criminal mischief while armed, resisting arrest with violence, and resisting arrest without violence.

Johnson also had five warrant cases on a probation violation, six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief, and aggravated battery on a police officer.

El abogado Judd Rosen, quien representa a Dydzuhn, dijo que ella acababa de salir del MarinaBlue, un rascacielos de 60 pisos ubicado en el 888 de Biscayne Boulevard.

Raydean Johnson, un hombre sin hogar armado con un arma hechiza hecha con un medidor de presión de neumáticos y un clavo, la atacó por la espalda, según la Policía.

“Empecé a ver puños volando hacia mí desde mi visión periférica, como ganchos”, dijo Dydzuhn, de 36 años, y agregó: “Me di cuenta: ‘¡Dios mío! ¡Esta persona me está atacando!’”

Según la Policía, Johnson, de 49 años, la golpeó, le estrelló la cabeza contra el suelo y la apuñaló. Rosen dijo que Dydzuhn estuvo “a segundos” de ser asesinada.

“En los momentos en que estaba luchando por mi vida, era como si eso fuera lo único en lo que estaba enfocada: luchar por mi vida, tratando de defenderme de cualquier manera posible para intentar bloquear un golpe mortal”, dijo Dydzuhn.

El personal de seguridad de MarinaBlue no intervino. Dydzuhn dijo que estaba en el suelo cuando “aceptó” que su atacante iba a matarla.

“Esa es una de las peores sensaciones”, dijo Dydzuhn.

Un buen samaritano intervino y agentes de Policía respondieron al incidente. Dydzuhn dijo que ha quedado con discapacidad visual tras sobrevivir al horrible ataque del 19 de mayo.

“Tuve que llamar a mis padres y, ya sabes, darles la noticia”, dijo Dydzuhn entre lágrimas.

Los agentes arrestaron a Johnson después de un enfrentamiento que obligó al cierre de Biscayne Boulevard durante unas dos horas. Dydzuhn tuvo que someterse a una cirugía de emergencia.

El viernes, Dydzuhn dijo que lucha tanto con el dolor como con el terror que le dejó el ataque.

El sistema correccional de Miami-Dade mantenía a Johnson sin derecho a fianza el viernes en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Johnson enfrentaba un nuevo caso con cargos de intento de asesinato, agresión agravada con grandes lesiones corporales, daños criminales mientras estaba armado, resistencia al arresto con violencia y resistencia al arresto sin violencia.

Johnson también tenía cinco casos por órdenes de arresto relacionadas con violación de libertad condicional, seis cargos de agresión agravada con arma mortal, daños criminales y agresión agravada contra un agente de Policía.

The climate-disclosure rule has been on hold since last year, after the Republican-led commission said it was pausing its legal defense after legal challenges by business groups and Republican state attorneys general.

The SEC said in a statement that it is now moving to rescind the disclosure rules “in their entirety because they exceed the scope of the agency’s statutory authority." The rules, finalized in 2024, “impose substantial costs on public companies and their shareholders that are not justified by the informational benefits they may provide to some investors,” the commission said.

Eliminating the rule will “avoid the practical effect of dictating corporate behavior” and ensure that agency rules will "be imposed only when the expected benefits justify the likely costs and burdens,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement.

Environmental groups said the action would leave investors without data they need to accurately assess financial risks and other hazards related to climate change.

“The SEC’s mission is to protect investors and the public by ensuring they have access to material information,” said Kathy Fallon, director of land systems at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. “While imperfect, the rule was an important step toward giving investors consistent information about financially material climate risks, including the use of carbon offsets.”

She urged the commission to retain the rule and enforce disclosure requirements "that give both investors and the public the transparency they need.”

Repeal of the climate-disclosure rule is among dozens of environmental rollbacks imposed in President Donald Trump's second term. The Environmental Protection Agency has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted deregulatory efforts that Trump calls the largest such move in American history and canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has focused on weakening or eliminating regulations perceived as climate-friendly, including revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

Zeldin has said his actions will put a “dagger through the heart of climate change religion.”

The SEC, an independent agency whose members are appointed by the president, approved the climate rule in March 2024 on a party-line vote. Three Democratic commissioners supported it and two Republicans opposed.

The commission currently has three Republican members, including Atkins, and no Democrats.

The 2024 rule was one of the most anticipated in recent years from the nation’s top financial regulator, drawing more than 24,000 comments from companies, auditors, legislators and trade groups over two years. The vote brought the U.S. closer to the European Union and states like California, which have imposed similar corporate disclosure rules.

Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who long pushed for the disclosure rule, said the SEC announcement “is the result of years of work by corporate polluters to delay, defang and decimate rules meant to protect people’s investments from risky and reckless business models.”

Americans’ retirement security, union pensions and savings should be protected by the SEC, “not put in harm’s way by companies that are exposed to climate risks or that depend on an unfettered ability to pollute in order to make money,” Markey said in an email to The Associated Press.

Tom Zimpleman, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the SEC is shirking its responsibility to protect investors. “Climate risk is financial risk,” he said.

A public comment period will remain open for 60 days following publication of the proposal in the Federal Register, expected in the next few days.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it’s long been considered the leading cause of preventable death.

The preliminary findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were based on survey responses from more than 24,200 adults. In the survey, CDC officials defined current cigarette smoking as smoking at least 100 cigarettes in a lifetime and now smoking every day or some days.

In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans, public education campaigns and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

In 2024, the percentage of current adult smokers fell below 10% for the first time. Last year, it was 9%, according to the new survey.

The use of electronic cigarettes has been inching up among adults, but has held about steady in 2025, at about 7%.

“The continued decline in smoking is a monumental public health achievement that has saved millions of lives and billions in healthcare costs,” said Yolonda Richardson, president and chief executive of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and research organization.

Richardson said current smoking-prevention efforts have been set back by cuts President Donald Trump's administration made that eliminated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health and its “Tips from Former Smokers” advertising campaign.

She cited estimates that the “Tips” campaign alone helped more than 1 million Americans quit smoking and saved over $7.3 billion in healthcare costs.

“This critical work must be restored and sustained to continue reducing smoking-related disease, death and healthcare costs nationwide,” Richardson said.

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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.

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Henry Quintero, 44, entered the plea in court, acknowledging the charge as part of a deal with prosecutors. When asked by the judge if he wished to plead guilty, Quintero responded that it was in his “best interest.”

The crash happened in September around 3:30 p.m. along U.S. 1 and East Palm Drive.

Investigators said officers arrived to find multiple vehicles damaged, including one that had rolled over. Authorities said no serious injuries were reported.

Police said Quintero, then 43, showed signs of impairment at the scene, including slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol. He refused field sobriety tests, according to investigators.

His arrest was caught on bodycam video that was released by investigators.

Following Friday’s plea, Mark Lefcourt, Quintero’s attorney, described the incident as an isolated lapse.

“He’s been 20 years as a decorated police officer,” Lefcourt said. “What happened here is one bad day and I’m fortunate to be here with him today and to rectify the felony charge and to otherwise make sure that one bad day does not affect him for the rest of his life.”

As part of the sentence, Quintero will be required to pay $15,000 in restitution and complete 10 hours of community service each month during his probation.

Homestead police previously relieved Quintero of his duties without pay pending the outcome of the case. Officials have not said whether he will be reinstated.

He is scheduled to serve his probation under the terms of the agreement.

Homestead police released a statement to Local 10 News on Friday on the ongoing investigation involving one of their one.

“Once all relevant information has been received and reviewed, the department will make decisions based on the facts, the findings of the investigation, and the standards expected of our personnel,” the statement read in part. “Because this remains an active administrative matter, no further comment will be provided at this time.”

The case was seen as the first major legal test of an election reform that has been pushed nationally by President Donald Trump and has gained favor among many Republicans, though U.S. District Court Judge Samantha Elliot said she was not deciding whether requiring proof of citizenship itself is constitutional. Her ruling late Thursday night on a narrower question of New Hampshire law was significant, however, because it underscored the potential perils of implementing strict requirements for voters to document their U.S. citizenship so they can cast a ballot.

Elliot found that changes in 2024 to the state voter registration law unconstitutionally removed one method of proof -- namely, a voter’s sworn affidavit attesting to citizenship.

“The evidence shows that this is the only method of proof available to a significant number of New Hampshire voters,” she wrote.

The changes took effect last year, after former Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed the bill two years ago. The attorney general’s office said it plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, calling the citizenship requirements a “common-sense approach to voter registration and election administration designed to protect the integrity of our elections.”

The ruling was a win for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and other plaintiffs who argued that the changes that took effect last year were burdensome and unnecessary.

“New Hampshire’s elections have always been safe, secure, and accurate — and this law could have unconstitutionally and needlessly prevented thousands of eligible voters from casting a ballot,” said Henry Klementowicz, deputy legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.

In her ruling, Elliott said eliminating the affidavit option created a significant burden for voters and did little, if anything, to further the state's interests. She noted that an expert on voter fraud found only 47 instances of wrongful voting out of roughly 8.3 million votes between 1998 and 2024. During that time, only eight noncitizens may have cast ballots, she said.

“If wrongful voting is rare in New Hampshire, wrongful voting by noncitizens is essentially non-existent,” she wrote.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Coalition for Open Democracy, the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire, the Forward Foundation and five voters, called the state’s voter registration law one of the most restrictive in the nation. During town elections last fall, some voters had trouble gathering passports, birth certificates or other proof of citizenship.

New Hampshire is not the only state with a proof-of-citizenship law for voters. Arizona, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming have similar laws already in effect, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Florida passed a law this year requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote, but it won’t take effect until next year.

A similar law in Kansas, which required proof of citizenship for state and federal elections, was found in 2018 to violate both the U.S. Constitution and the National Voter Registration Act after it prevented more than 31,000 citizens from registering to vote.

Arizona established a two-tiered system after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the state could not require citizenship documentation for federal elections. In August 2024, the court allowed some parts of the state’s proof-of-citizenship law to be enforced as the legal fight continued in lower courts.

The ruling comes as Trump is trying to push a proof-of-citizenship bill, the SAVE America Act, through Congress. Voting rights advocates say such a federal requirement could disenfranchise millions of people. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimated that 21.3 million Americans who are eligible to vote do not have or have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans and 14% of people unaffiliated with either major party.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said he will reimplement the use of voter affidavits for registrants to prove citizenship, but noted the ruling doesn't affect other 2024 changes to the law, including a requirement that those registering to vote provide documentary proof of identity, age and address. Voters also will continue to be required to show proof of identity on Election Day.

___

Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

The U.S. Coast Guard had stopped a 46-foot Seahorse fishing vessel arriving from the Bahamas on Sunday off Government Cut in Miami-Dade County, records show.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agents in Miami were investigating the case.

The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Pedro Llanes, Lazaro Rodriguez, and Antonio Cruz shortly before 9:20 p.m. on Sunday, records show.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate records, Llanes, 61, and Rodriguez, 62, were at FDC Miami on Friday afternoon.

Llanes, Rodriguez, and Cruz, 48, each face a charge of conspiracy to import more than five kilos of cocaine into the United States.

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“Se logró la recuperación y gestión digna de los cuerpos de 48 personas, al parecer combatientes, en el área donde se registraron los enfrentamientos”, indicó la estatal Defensoría en un comunicado.

Los enfrentamientos se registraron el martes en zona rural del departamento del Guaviare entre las facciones al mando de Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias “Calarcá”, y Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias “Iván Mordisco”, quienes no se acogieron al histórico acuerdo de paz entre el Estado y las FARC firmado hace una década.

Las fuerzas militares coordinaron acciones la víspera para el ingreso de la misión humanitaria en la que también participaron el Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja y las misiones de las Naciones Unidas y la Organización de los Estados Americanos en el país.

El CICR especificó en la red social X que participó en la misión facilitando el diálogo con las distintas partes en conflicto y apoyando la entrega de insumos de bioseguridad para recuperar los cuerpos.

Entre los cuerpos que aún restan por identificar en el instituto forense, habría menores de edad “presuntamente combatientes”, víctimas de reclutamiento forzado, dijo a la prensa la defensora del Pueblo, Iris Marín Ortiz.

Según el ejército, se enfrentaron entre sí por el control de economías ilegales como el narcotráfico y la extorsión en Guaviare, ubicado en la región de la Amazonía colombiana, de difícil acceso por su geografía y seguridad.

Marín explicó que los enfrentamientos se enmarcan en una situación que ha evolucionado de forma violenta desde 2024, cuando se produjo una ruptura al interior de la disidencia Estado Mayor Central, dando como resultado las dos facciones que ahora son enemigas.

Las fuerzas militares reforzaron la seguridad en la zona tras los combates en busca de brindar seguridad para las elecciones presidenciales del domingo, en las que se elegirá a quien sucederá en el poder al presidente Gustavo Petro.

La facción de alias “Iván Mordisco” sostuvo negociaciones de paz con el gobierno de Petro hasta 2024 como parte de su política de “paz total”, sin embargo, se retiraron de la mesa y arreciaron los ataques contra la fuerza pública y la población civil.

Con alias “Calarcá”, Petro dejó en vilo las negociaciones desde abril tras cuestionar su voluntad de paz luego de ataques contra la fuerza pública.

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Investigators identified the suspect as Jean Richard Adoux.

The incident occurred near the 4100 block of West Hillsborough Boulevard, in front of La Brasa Grill, according to an arrest report.

Coconut Creek police said Adoux was acting as a caregiver for the child “with the mother and father’s knowledge” at the time of the incident.

According to police, a witness parked next to a Kia where the girl was sitting alone. Officers said the witness told them that after ordering food and returning about 20 minutes later, she saw the girl crying and banging on the window and immediately called 911.

“The person that was arrested came out. Opened the car door and took the child out. Fire rescue noticed that. Once the child is out fire and rescue leaves but still we have to come in and investigate,“ said Scotty Leamon, spokesman for Coconut Creek police.

Police said officers reviewed surveillance video from inside the restaurant that showed Adoux speaking with the manager for about 15 minutes before sitting at a table with the manager for another 35 minutes.

Investigators said the temperature outside at the time was 85 degrees.

An officer wrote in the report that “the vehicle being off with the windows all rolled up could have resulted in severe injury or death of the child.”

Police said the girl, who is related to the suspect, did not appear to have any obvious injuries at the scene.

According to jail records, Adoux is facing one count each of child neglect without great bodily harm and leaving a child unattended in a vehicle for more than 15 minutes.

As of Thursday evening, he was being held on a $10,000 bond at the Broward Main Jail.

Los investigadores identificaron al sospechoso como Jean Richard Adoux.

El incidente ocurrió cerca de la cuadra 4100 de West Hillsborough Boulevard, frente a La Brasa Grill, según un informe de arresto.

La policía de Coconut Creek dijo que Adoux estaba actuando como cuidador de la menor “con el conocimiento de la madre y el padre” al momento del incidente.

Según la policía, una testigo estacionó su vehículo junto a un Kia donde la niña estaba sentada sola. Los agentes dijeron que la testigo les informó que, después de ordenar comida y regresar unos 20 minutos más tarde, vio a la niña llorando y golpeando la ventana, por lo que llamó de inmediato al 911.

“La persona que fue arrestada salió, abrió la puerta del vehículo y sacó a la niña. Los rescatistas de bomberos notaron eso. Una vez que la menor salió, bomberos y rescate se retiraron, pero nosotros aún teníamos que llegar e investigar”, dijo Scotty Leamon, portavoz de la policía de Coconut Creek.

La policía indicó que los agentes revisaron videos de vigilancia del interior del restaurante, los cuales mostraban a Adoux hablando con el gerente durante unos 15 minutos antes de sentarse con él en una mesa por otros 35 minutos.

Los investigadores dijeron que la temperatura exterior en ese momento era de 85 grados.

Un agente escribió en el informe que “el hecho de que el vehículo estuviera apagado y con todas las ventanas cerradas podría haber provocado lesiones graves o la muerte de la menor”.

La policía dijo que la niña, quien es familiar del sospechoso, no parecía presentar lesiones evidentes en la escena.

Según los registros de la cárcel, Adoux enfrenta un cargo de negligencia infantil sin causar grandes lesiones corporales y otro cargo por dejar a un menor sin supervisión dentro de un vehículo por más de 15 minutos.

Hasta la noche del jueves, permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal de Broward con una fianza de $10,000 USD.

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The purchases at a City Furniture store in Hollywood were delivered to a townhouse at the InTown Apartments in Little Havana, according to deputies.

Ashley Almeida had also used someone else’s identity to lease the townhouse at 1900 SW 8th St., according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s arrest report.

Detectives started investigating fraud in April after Synchrony Bank reported stolen identities were behind several City Furniture credit card accounts.

Kevin Kattoura, a City Furniture employee in Oakland Park, had “submitted” 10 of the applications, and “received commission payments for the fraudulent sales,” a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy wrote, according to an arrest report.

Broward deputies arrested Kattoura, 44, on Tuesday and corrections booked him at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.

Miami-Dade deputies arrested Almeida, 47, shortly after 6:10 p.m. on Thursday after she arrived at the townhouse with the furniture, according to deputies.

Corrections booked Almeida shortly after 11:05 p.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She appeared in bond court on Friday.

Kattoura faced charges of second-degree grand theft, computer crime to defraud, obtain property by fraud, and creating, possessing, or using a fictitious identity. His bond was $20,000.

Broward County Circuit Judge Francis Viamontes was set to preside over Kattoura‘s case.

Almeida faced charges of fraudulent use of identification, third-degree grand theft, and organized fraud. Her bond was $5,001.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda was set to preside over Almeida’s case.

De acuerdo con los agentes, las compras realizadas en una tienda City Furniture en Hollywood fueron entregadas a una casa adosada en los apartamentos InTown Apartments en Little Havana.

Según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, Ashley Almeida también utilizó la identidad de otra persona para alquilar la vivienda ubicada en 1900 SW 8th St.

Los detectives comenzaron a investigar el fraude en abril después de que Synchrony Bank reportara que identidades robadas habían sido utilizadas para abrir varias cuentas de tarjetas de crédito de City Furniture.

Kevin Kattoura, empleado de City Furniture en Oakland Park, había “presentado” 10 de las solicitudes y “recibido pagos de comisiones por las ventas fraudulentas”, escribió un agente de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward en un informe de arresto.

Los agentes de Broward arrestaron a Kattoura, de 44 años, el martes y fue ingresado en la cárcel principal del condado Broward en Fort Lauderdale.

Los agentes de Miami-Dade arrestaron a Almeida, de 47 años, poco después de las 6:10 p.m. del jueves, cuando llegó a la vivienda con los muebles, según las autoridades.

Almeida fue ingresada poco después de las 11:05 p.m. del jueves en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight. Compareció ante el tribunal de fianzas el viernes.

Kattoura enfrenta cargos de hurto mayor en segundo grado, delito informático para defraudar, obtención de bienes mediante fraude y creación, posesión o uso de una identidad ficticia. Su fianza fue fijada en $20,000 USD.

El juez del circuito del condado Broward, Francis Viamontes, tenía previsto presidir el caso de Kattoura.

Almeida enfrenta cargos de uso fraudulento de identificación, hurto mayor en tercer grado y fraude organizado. Su fianza fue fijada en $5,001 USD.

La jueza del circuito del condado Miami-Dade, Cristina Miranda, tenía previsto presidir el caso de Almeida.

Trump said in response that he’s backing away from his proposed renovation and returning control of the arts institution to Congress.

“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Kennedy Center board’s March 16 vote to close the facility was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years, but Cooper's ruling halts those plans for now.

“The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one,” he wrote.

Cooper also concluded that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by unilaterally adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said.

The judge, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, ordered the defendants to remove Trump's name from the institution's façade and any “official materials,” such as digital or physical signs, within two weeks.

"May the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no. Nor can any other individual be memorialized on the front portico of the building," Cooper wrote.

Trump said the judge “should be ashamed of himself” in a social media post hours after the decision was issued.

The Republican president said he instructed his administration to “make all necessary arrangements” to have the center transferred to Congress.

Trump determined to leave his mark on DC

Trump has made it a priority of his second term to leave his personal stamp on some of the most historic spots in Washington. He demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom. His name or image has been added to government buildings, including the U.S. Institute of Peace and Justice Department headquarters. He is pushing for a triumphal arch overlooking the Potomac River.

Opponents have challenged other Trump construction projects in court — and won favorable rulings. But the district court judges likely won't have the final say as the administration pursues appeals.

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said Friday the institution is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.” She said the decision would be reviewed “carefully.”

“Though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”

Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the project. One was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation organizations. The other was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected the other challenge.

Beatty called the decision a win for the Kennedy Center and the performing arts. “Now hopefully people can come back to work, we can continue to be the Kennedy Center that we were intended to be,” she told The Associated Press.

Justice Department attorneys said renovation plans for the building are limited in scope and well within the board’s authority to make without needing outside approvals.

How much of an overhaul is needed?

The plaintiffs worry the president and his board allies will flout preservation rules designed to maintain the building’s historic fabric. In earlier statements in court hearings, attorneys for Beatty and the preservation groups raised doubts about the limited scope of the project, pointing to Trump’s statements that he would “fully expose” the building’s steel skeleton.

Beatty has said she was “very fearful that we’ll see what happened with the East Wing and what happened with the Rose Garden” if the center is closed and the renovations allowed unsupervised, referring to major changes the president has made at the White House.

Mike Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, spent several weeks during the spring walking a bipartisan group of lawmakers and their staffs, along with journalists and Washington city officials, through the expansive building that sprawls across 1.5 million square feet.

The tours were intended to show that the Kennedy Center, which began construction in 1965, was in genuine need of an overhaul. The walkthroughs showed severe water damage, apparent in some places through discoloration and pooling. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and in need of replacement.

Floca told reporters in April that he considered doing the repairs individually but insisted it was his recommendation to Trump to close the building and move forward with the renovation all at once.

Trump has taken a keen interest in the Kennedy Center’s operations since he returned to the White House last year. He installed a handpicked board that named him chairman. His name was added to the façade of a building that is considered a living monument to Kennedy.

The Kennedy Center has kept up performances ahead of the closure, though at a much slower pace than in previous years. Trump attended the premiere of the musical “Chicago” in March and other shows, including “Moulin Rouge,” are slated for June.

Bill Maher, the comedian who has had an up and down relationship with Trump, is expected to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28, an event that was anticipated to be one of the final big moments at the Kennedy Center before the closure.

___

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Collin Binkley and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Angelique Hernandez, de Ocala, reclamó un premio de $1 millón USD del juego raspadito Gold Rush Legacy en la sede de la Lotería de Florida en Tallahassee el 5 de febrero, según informó la Lotería de Florida.

Los funcionarios dijeron que Hernandez eligió recibir sus ganancias en un único pago global de $640,000 USD.

Indicaron que Hernandez convirtió $20 USD en $1 millón USD cuando compró el boleto ganador en un Publix ubicado en 10301 SE U.S. Highway 441, en Belleview.

“El juego raspadito Gold Rush Legacy de $20 USD fue lanzado en abril de 2024 y ofrece cuatro premios mayores de $10 millones USD y 20 premios de $1 millón USD”, indicó la lotería en un comunicado. “Este juego también ofrece más de $894 millones USD en premios en efectivo. Las probabilidades generales de ganar son de una entre 2.97”.

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Angelique Hernandez, of Ocala, claimed a $1 million prize from the Gold Rush Legacy Scratch-Off game at Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee on Feb. 5, according to the Florida Lottery.

Officials said Hernandez chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $640,000.00.

They said Hernandez turned $20 into $1 million when she purchased her winning ticket from Publix, located at 10301 SE U.S. Highway 441., in Belleview.

“The $20 Scratch-Off game, Gold Rush Legacy, launched in April 2024 and features four top prizes of $10 million and 20 prizes of $1 million!” the lottery said in a news release. “This game also features more than $894 million in total cash prizes. The game’s overall odds of winning are 1-in-2.97.”

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Patrick Conor Russell, 37, taught at Saint Andrew’s School, a private Episcopal boarding school at 3900 Jog Road in Boca Raton. He has since been fired, school representatives say.

According to court documents, the investigation into Russell began after FBI agents in the Cincinnati area executed a search warrant on another person, identified as “Subject 1,” as part of an investigation into child sexual abuse material.

Agents said as they searched a device belonging to “Subject 1,” they found thousands of files of child sexual abuse material and reviewed chats on messaging app Zangi. They said they identified chats with a user going by the handle of “Jack C,” later revealed to be Russell.

Authorities said the two exchanged links involving “sexually explicit content involving minors” and Russell made remarks expressing an interest in “teen boys and girls.”

According to the complaint, Russell discussed a sexual roleplay scenario in which “Subject 1″ was “a student in my high school English class” and expressed sexual desires for his students.

Authorities said Russell further “discussed being a teacher and a coach” and sent “Subject 1″ apparent photos of boys who attended his school and “made sexually explicit comments about these apparent students,” whom they said he described as “two cuties I know.”

Russell, agents said, “also discussed wanting to find someone who can ‘bait’ the students at his school into sending nude pictures” and described seeing his students naked in locker rooms as a coach.

“Haha it’s both the best and the worst,” agents said Russell told the other person. “Get to see them so much. But too risky to try much more. Which is why I’m always in search of someone who can bait to try and get nudes of them!! Lol.”

Agents said he added, “Although….when I’m helping them stretch I get to touch them. Thighs. Waist. Arms. Chest. Even touched some bulges before. Hehe.”

Authorities said the two were also in a group chat dedicated to sharing child sexual abuse content.

According to the complaint, agents took Russell into custody as he left his Deerfield Beach home and searched his home and devices. The complaint states that he told agents “he has been ‘battling’ this for a while.”

“While (Russell) says he has never touched a minor inappropriately, he admitted to engaging in inappropriate conversations about minors, some of which were sexual in nature,” FBI Special Agent Kristin Chandler wrote in the complaint.

Authorities said a search of Russell’s phone indicated he remained in and interacted with group chats dedicated to sharing child sexual abuse videos.

Records show Russell had been scheduled to appear in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Friday morning on two federal charges related to the possession and receipt of child sexual abuse material. As of Friday afternoon, he was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

A representative from St. Andrew’s School shared a message that Head of School Ethan Shapiro sent to parents following Russell’s arrest, reading, in part:

“We have terminated Mr. Russell’s employment, and he is not permitted to return to campus, access any school equipment or property, attend any school events, or interact with any students or employees.

“We will, of course, continue to cooperate with law enforcement throughout their investigation. As of right now, we are sharing with you what we know. If and when we receive additional information that we are able to share with the community, we will certainly do so.

“Meanwhile, if you have any questions or concerns, please be in touch with Saint Andrew’s School Chief Safety Officer Rob Adams or me.

“Our greatest responsibility is and always will be the safety, security, and well-being of all of our students, particularly those who rely on us to teach, nurture, and inspire their educational pursuits. Anything that compromises our ability to deliver on these aims will not be tolerated, and we will always act quickly and in the best interests of our community.”

Ethan Shapiro, Head of School

Patrick Conor Russell, de 37 años, impartía clases en la Escuela Saint Andrew’s, un internado episcopal privado ubicado en 3900 Jog Road, Boca Raton. Desde entonces, ha sido despedido, según informaron representantes de la escuela.

De acuerdo con documentos judiciales, la investigación contra Russell comenzó después de que agentes del FBI en el área de Cincinnati ejecutaran una orden de registro en la vivienda de otra persona, identificada como “Sujeto 1”, como parte de una investigación sobre material de abuso sexual infantil.

Los agentes declararon que, al registrar un dispositivo perteneciente al “Sujeto 1”, encontraron miles de archivos de material de abuso sexual infantil y revisaron conversaciones en la aplicación de mensajería Zangi. Identificaron conversaciones con un usuario conocido como “Jack C”, quien posteriormente se reveló que era Russell.

Las autoridades indicaron que ambos intercambiaron enlaces con contenido sexualmente explícito que involucraba a menores, y que Russell hizo comentarios expresando interés en adolescentes.

Según la denuncia, Russell describió un escenario de juego de rol sexual en el que la “Persona 1” era un estudiante de su clase de inglés de la escuela secundaria, y expresó deseos sexuales hacia sus alumnos.

Las autoridades añadieron que Russell también habló de ser profesor y entrenador, y envió a la “Persona 1” fotos de supuestos chicos que asistían a su escuela, haciendo comentarios sexualmente explícitos sobre estos supuestos estudiantes, a quienes describió como “dos chicos guapos que conozco”.

Los agentes afirmaron que Russell también habló de buscar a alguien que pudiera “provocar” a los estudiantes de su escuela para que le enviaran fotos desnudos, y describió haber visto a sus alumnos desnudos en los vestuarios como entrenador.

“Jaja, es lo mejor y lo peor a la vez”, le dijo Russell a la otra persona, según los agentes. “Las veo mucho. Pero es demasiado arriesgado intentar algo más. Por eso siempre ando buscando a alguien que pueda provocarme para intentar sacarles fotos desnuda. ¡Jajaja!”

Los agentes dijeron que añadió: “Aunque… cuando las ayudo a estirar, puedo tocarlas. Muslos. Cintura. Brazos. Pecho. Incluso he tocado algunos bultos. Jeje.”

Las autoridades dijeron que ambos también estaban en un chat grupal dedicado a compartir contenido de abuso sexual infantil.

Según la denuncia, los agentes detuvieron a Russell cuando salía de su casa en Deerfield Beach y registraron su domicilio y sus dispositivos. La denuncia afirma que les dijo a los agentes que “llevaba tiempo luchando contra esto”.

“Si bien (Russell) dice que nunca ha tocado a un menor de forma inapropiada, admitió haber participado en conversaciones inapropiadas sobre menores, algunas de las cuales eran de naturaleza sexual”, escribió la agente especial del FBI Kristin Chandler en la denuncia.

Las autoridades indicaron que una revisión del teléfono de Russell reveló que permanecía en chats grupales dedicados a compartir videos de abuso sexual infantil e interactuaba con ellos.

Los registros muestran que Russell tenía programada una comparecencia ante el tribunal federal de Fort Lauderdale el viernes por la mañana por dos cargos federales relacionados con la posesión y recepción de material de abuso sexual infantil. Hasta el viernes por la tarde, permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward, bajo custodia del Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos.

Un representante de la Escuela St. Andrew’s compartió un mensaje que el director, Ethan Shapiro, envió a los padres tras el arresto de Russell, que decía, en parte:

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Hammer traveled to an apartment in San Antonio de los Baños to meet with the mother of a political prisoner and political dissidents.

“President Trump and Secretary Rubio are insisting that all of the political prisoners be free,” Hammer said during the recorded meeting, according to the video.

The meeting included Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez, a leader of the Partido Unión por Cuba Libre, or PUNCLI, an opposition party.

The meeting also included María Angélica Ramírez, the mother of Denis Hernández Ramírez, who remained behind bars in Artemisa.

“He is fine, health-wise; he is just very tense,” Ramírez told Hammer about her 33-year-old son, according to the video.

Both Pupo Rodríguez and Hernández Ramírez were arrested in 2021 over protests during a shortage of food and medicine. Their charges were contempt and public disorder.

Catholic church leaders intervened, and although both were released last year, Hernández Ramírez was rearrested in March.

Hammer, who grew up in Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, served as the U.S. ambassador to Chile from 2014 to 2016.

The U.S. State Department’s video

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Hammer viajó a un apartamento en San Antonio de los Baños para reunirse con la madre de un preso político y con disidentes políticos.

“El presidente Trump y el secretario Rubio están insistiendo en que todos los presos políticos sean liberados”, dijo Hammer durante la reunión grabada, según el video.

En la reunión participó Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez, líder del Partido Unión por Cuba Libre (PUNCLI), una organización opositora.

También participó María Angélica Ramírez, madre de Denis Hernández Ramírez, quien permanecía encarcelado en Artemisa.

“Está bien de salud; simplemente está muy tenso”, le dijo Ramírez a Hammer sobre su hijo de 33 años, según el video.

Tanto Pupo Rodríguez como Hernández Ramírez fueron arrestados en 2021 por las protestas ocurridas durante una escasez de alimentos y medicamentos. Los cargos en su contra fueron desacato y alteración del orden público.

Líderes de la Iglesia católica intervinieron y, aunque ambos fueron liberados el año pasado, Hernández Ramírez fue arrestado nuevamente en marzo.

Hammer, quien creció en Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil, se desempeñó como embajador de Estados Unidos en Chile entre 2014 y 2016.

El video del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos.

Historias relacionadas

• El gobierno cubano publica 2.010 nombres de presos indultados en abril.
• La escasez de agua se agrava en toda Cuba a medida que disminuyen las reservas de petróleo.
• Análisis: A medida que la guerra con Irán posiblemente se acerca a su fin, ¿será Cuba la siguiente?

The decision, announced Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security, marked a rare reprieve for people protected by temporary measures which have been harshly criticized by Republicans. The extension comes amid ongoing fighting in southern Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.

The decision was automatic, meaning that the administration missed the deadline by which they were supposed to decide on whether to extend the measure called Temporary Protected Status for Lebanese people living in the U.S. who are covered by the program. By statute, the status automatically extends for six months if the department misses the deadline.

It was an unusual outcome for an administration that has cancelled the protections that had covered people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Syria from deportation.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to work in increments of up to 18 months. More than 1 million immigrants from 17 countries were protected by TPS at the beginning of the Trump administration, after the Biden administration greatly expanded its use.

The program has been at the center of a controversy.

Republicans and critics of TPS argue that the program and its protections deviate from their original temporary intent, taking on a quasi-permanent character when extended. Its defenders assert that it is a fundamental humanitarian program that prevents vulnerable individuals from being forced to return to dangerous conditions.

The DHS notice said that former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and current Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has led the department for the past two months, “were unable to make an informed determination on Lebanon’s TPS designation.”

The extension allows existing beneficiaries to keep their protections through Nov. 27, 2026, “if they still meet the eligibility requirements for TPS,” according to the notice. The work permits that were already issued for Lebanese TPS holders will be valid until the same day.

This is the second time the Trump administration has automatically extended a TPS designation. The first happened nearly a year ago with South Sudan, but the protections were terminated in November 2025, after the six-month extension period.

There are dozens of lawsuits challenging the termination of TPS at federal courts in different states. The Supreme Court is set to make a decision on TPS that protected Haitians and Syrians during the summer, and the result is expected to have an impact on all the other cases.

Advocates welcomed the extension.

“Extending Temporary Protected Status means Lebanese nationals in the United States will not be forced back into dangerous conditions but allowed to stay and continue supporting their families and contributing to their local communities,” said Kelly Razzouk, vice president of policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee.

José Palma, national coordinator of the National TPS Alliance—an advocacy group that has fought in federal courts against the cancellation of TPS for several countries—welcomed the extension of protections for the Lebanese.

“But we need to find a permanent solution for all TPS beneficiaries,” he warned.

___

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

In what would be the most sweeping change to the federal grantmaking process in years, the proposed regulations would require senior appointees to review funding to see if it complies with the law and the president's priorities.

The rules would also give administration officials more freedom to terminate grants that have already been awarded, a process that could jeopardize millions of dollars in ongoing research.

The Office of Management and Budget, which issued the more than 400-page proposal, said President Joe Biden's administration allowed a lack of transparency, accountability and oversight in the federal grant process that led to “woke” programs receiving federal funding.

“Collectively, these policies wasted a great amount of taxpayer resources and caused great harm to public trust in government,” the document reads. “The proposed reforms are necessary to ensure greater accountability for use of public funds.”

After a public comment period, OMB and federal agencies will decide whether to revise the proposal before finalizing it as soon as this summer.

Scientists have said the move will cripple the scientific engine that has made America the world's leader in research and development by giving control over federal research funds to people who are influenced by politics. They've raised concerns the changes will delay grant review and approval, slowing scientific progress and medical breakthroughs.

Friday’s proposal fulfills an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last summer. Throughout the president's second term, his administration has been terminating research grants on topics that the president deems inappropriate for study, including transgender health and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign slammed the Trump administration’s draft regulations, saying they would strip money from any program that acknowledges diversity, abortion or the existence of transgender and nonbinary people.

“Withholding public grants from programs that depend on them because you refuse to acknowledge the humanity of certain communities is not good government - it’s fascism,” said spokesperson Laurel Powell. “We will fight back.”

Debido al recrudecimiento de la crisis económica, el cuidado personal se ha convertido en un problema para muchos, sobre todo entre los sectores más vulnerables. Pero estos barberos encontraron una manera de prestar un servicio mientras ofrecen capacitación para jóvenes que quieren adquirir experiencia en el oficio.

“Lo principal es el impacto humanitario”, dijo el jueves a The Associated Press Andrés Talavera Calvo, de 41 años y quien enseña a unos siete jóvenes aprendices los secretos de cortes, afeitadas y otros arreglos.

El grupo se instala todos los jueves en la Plaza San Juan de Dios y los martes en La Maestranza para prestar servicios de belleza a quienes se acerquen.

La mayoría de los usuarios son personas mayores, sobre todo hombres que además de cortarse el pelo reciben una afeitada o un arreglo de cejas. Pero si alguna mujer desea un corte sencillo nadie se lo niega.

“En muchas barberías el servicio se ha vuelto inaccesible”, comentó Talavera mientras corregía un tijeretazo o un movimiento de cuchilla de un aprendiz a la sombra de los aireados árboles del parque.

Este grupo de acción comunitaria depende del proyecto Arte Corte —un salón de belleza de larga data en la isla y asociado a un proyecto vecinal en La Habana Vieja desde finales de los años 90— y atiende no menos de 30 personas por jornada.

A comienzos de la década, cuando se desató la crisis en la isla, un corte sencillo para varón podía costar unos 200 pesos cubanos, lo que equivale ahora a poco menos de 0,50 centavos de dólar. Con la inflación, un estilista cobra actualmente entre 1.000 y 3.000 pesos cubanos, lo que supone entre dos y cinco dólares.

El problema es que los salarios y las pensiones se quedaron atrás y un jubilado recibe por mes unos 2.000 pesos.

La crisis de un lustro se agravó dramáticamente desde enero pasado con un cerco petrolero impuesto por Estados Unidos y que tiene a Cuba semiparalizada.

En un contexto de migración y dificultades, algunos jóvenes apuestan por aprender un oficio.

“Estamos buscando poder ayudar a la comunidad y hacemos estos cortes que nos preparan (también) para lo que nosotros queremos, que es ser artistas dentro del gremio”, comentó Miguel Alexis Pedroso, de 28 años, y uno de los aprendices del proyecto.

———-

La corresponsal Andrea Rodríguez contribuyó con este reporte

So where's the reality?

The graphic shared by President Donald Trump may be correct about the specific items he listed. It's hard to know because he used data that isn't publicly available and he didn't specify what time frame he used.

But specific grocery items go up and down all the time, and his post ignores the broader reality consumers are facing at the supermarket: Overall, food prices have risen since his inauguration, and at a faster pace than they typically did before the pandemic. Most economists expect them to continue to do so in the coming months as a spike in diesel fuel prices lifts the cost of shipping groceries to stores around the country.

The April gain in grocery prices was the largest in 2 1/2 years. The 2.9% increase is only modestly above the 20-year average of 2.6%, though in the decade before the pandemic, grocery prices rose an average of just 1.1% a year.

And the increase comes after much larger, painful spikes that took place in 2021-22 under former President Joe Biden. Grocery costs soared nearly 28% from just before the pandemic in February 2020 until Trump took office in January 2025.

In his social media post, Trump focused on nine specific items without looking at overall grocery costs. He said that avocado prices have fallen 19%, cheese has dropped 5.6%, fresh berries and butter have dropped 13%, olive oil prices are down 16%, while chicken breasts are down 2.4% and eggs 90%.

Trump's post cited data from Circana, a private company, as published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Neither Circana nor USDA responded by press time to requests from The Associated Press. The White House also did not respond to an email seeking comment on the post.

Still, many of Trump's figures are in the ballpark of those in the government's consumer price index, compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest-profile gauge of inflation. That data shows cheese prices falling 3.1% in April compared with a year ago. Egg prices have dropped 39% from a year earlier and 60% from the peak in March 2025, short of Trump's 90% claim.

Many of the items Trump cited have gotten cheaper for reasons that have little to do with broader economic trends. Egg prices have fallen because chicken flocks have recovered after being devastated by the avian flu, and in part because the Trump administration allowed nearly 1 billion eggs to be imported last year.

The price of olive oil has declined recently because its production has recovered after a two-year drought.

Chicken breasts, according to the consumer price index, averaged $4.17 a pound in April, up from $3.97 when Trump was inaugurated. Still, chicken breast prices are down 0.3% from a year earlier. Butter has fallen 5.8% in price in the past year, according to the BLS.

Yet the president left out all the items that have jumped in price and kept grocery costs elevated. Many factors are pushing up food costs, including Trump's own policies: His tariffs have made many imported items more expensive, while droughts are also pushing up prices. A jump in oil prices from the Iran war has made fertilizer more expensive, but the impact of that will take months to show up on grocery store shelves. Pricier diesel fuel is pushing up shipping costs, which effects nearly everything on store shelves.

Consumers paid 6.5% more for fresh fruit and vegetables last month than they did in April 2025, and 8.8% more for meat, according to the Labor Department.

Tomato prices have shot up 40% in the past year after the Trump administration imposed a 17% duty on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico in July 2025.

And dry weather in the Western U.S. has pushed up beef prices, which in April were 15% higher year-over-year. Coffee prices were up 18.5%, partly due to drought and other weather conditions that have hurt global coffee production.

In consumer confidence surveys, Americans still cite high prices as a top concern. Those surveys have found that consumers generally have a dim outlook on the economy, even as the unemployment rate stays low and the economy continues to grow at a modest pace.

Polls also find that most Americans have soured on Trump's economic policies, and Democrats have benefited in recent elections by raising “affordability” concerns, an issue that is also likely to play a role in this year's midterm elections.

Henry Quintero, de 44 años, presentó la declaración de culpabilidad ante el tribunal, reconociendo el cargo como parte de un acuerdo con los fiscales. Cuando el juez le preguntó si deseaba declararse culpable, Quintero respondió que era lo que más le convenía.

El accidente ocurrió en septiembre alrededor de las 3:30 p.m. en U.S. 1 y East Palm Drive.

Los investigadores dijeron que los agentes llegaron al lugar y encontraron varios vehículos dañados, incluido uno que había volcado. Las autoridades indicaron que no se reportaron lesiones graves.

La policía dijo que Quintero, que entonces tenía 43 años, mostraba señales de estar bajo los efectos del alcohol en la escena, incluyendo dificultad para hablar, ojos enrojecidos y olor a alcohol. Según los investigadores, se negó a realizar pruebas de sobriedad en el lugar.

Su arresto fue captado por una cámara corporal cuyas imágenes fueron divulgadas por los investigadores.

Tras la declaración de culpabilidad del viernes, Mark Lefcourt, abogado de Quintero, describió el incidente como un error aislado.

“Ha sido un agente de policía condecorado durante 20 años”, dijo Lefcourt. “Lo que ocurrió aquí fue un mal día y me siento afortunado de estar aquí con él hoy para resolver el cargo grave y asegurar que ese mal día no lo afecte por el resto de su vida”.

Como parte de la sentencia, Quintero deberá pagar $15,000 USD en restitución y completar 10 horas de servicio comunitario cada mes durante su período de libertad condicional.

Anteriormente, el Departamento de Policía de Homestead relevó a Quintero de sus funciones sin salario mientras se resolvía el caso. Las autoridades no han informado si será reincorporado.

Está programado para cumplir su libertad condicional bajo los términos del acuerdo.

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Referring to it as the Everglades Detention Center, DeSantis said he has no plans for the state to close the migrant detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

He did say, however, that the idea is not for it to be open forever, but to temporarily handle issues he blames on the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

He pushed his “Save Our Homes” property tax plan ahead of a special session.

“We have the property tax in front of the Florida Legislature. We’ve had a lot of legislators who have been really productive on this,” DeSantis said. “I know they’ve been talking to their constituents for many, many weeks and months. We’ve been talking about this for pretty much after the last legislative session in 2025. We were looking forward to this November election to have something on the ballot.”

Lawmakers are expected to gavel in starting Monday.

Al referirse al lugar como el Centro de Detención Everglades, DeSantis dijo que no tiene planes de que el estado cierre el centro de detención de migrantes conocido como “Alligator Alcatraz”.

Sin embargo, afirmó que la idea no es que permanezca abierto para siempre, sino que funcione de manera temporal para atender problemas que atribuye a las políticas migratorias de la administración Biden.

También promovió su plan de impuestos a la propiedad “Save Our Homes” antes de una sesión especial.

“Tenemos el tema de los impuestos a la propiedad ante la Legislatura de Florida. Hemos tenido muchos legisladores que han sido realmente productivos en esto”, dijo DeSantis. “Sé que han estado hablando con sus constituyentes durante muchas, muchas semanas y meses. Hemos estado hablando de esto prácticamente desde después de la última sesión legislativa de 2025. Esperamos que en las elecciones de noviembre haya algo en la boleta”.

Se espera que los legisladores inicien la sesión a partir del lunes.

“Lo despreciaba. Ahora nos gusta el arroz con huevo, me está salvando, lo mezclo con salchicha", dijo el viernes a The Associated Press Adela Gutiérrez, una ama de casa de clase media y madre de una niña.

Gutiérrez explicó que su familia consumía un pollo a la semana pero ahora come medio. Para sacarle más provecho, desmenuza la carne y la mezcla por ejemplo con arroz.

La jubilada María Helena Rodríguez dijo por su lado que desde hace una semana se alimenta día por medio de arroz con huevo ya que “el poco pollo que llega” debe racionarlo. "Tengo cinco perros y ellos también están a dieta”.

Apenas seis meses después de asumir el mando, el presidente de signo conservador enfrenta una escalada de protestas sindicales que se ha extendido a todo el país para pedir su renuncia ante la falta de respuestas a la peor crisis económica en 40 años.

Siguen los bloqueos; los precios se disparan

La carne aviar es la más consumida en Bolivia por su precio accesible, pero su costo se ha duplicado a causa de los bloqueos que cercan La Paz. También los huevos se venden al doble de precio, y la carne de vacuno, frutas y verduras están por las nubes.

Los usuarios de las redes sociales comparten recetas de carne de soya, seitán — un alimento de origen vegetal hecho a base de gluten de trigo— y apanados de lentejas.

El epicentro de las protestas es La Paz, una ciudad entre montañas andinas con cuatro rutas que la conectan con el resto del país y los puertos en el Pacífico. Sólo una está abierta parcialmente, las otras tres están tomadas por manifestantes.

El Ejecutivo ha tenido que organizar puentes aéreos con ayuda internacional para llevar productos básicos a la ciudad que es la sede gubernamental.

Dos “corredores humanitarios” en carreteras que las autoridades intentaron implementar con apoyo de policías y soldados para permitir el paso de suministros básicos a La Paz no han prosperado. Los bloqueadores han vuelto a cerrar las rutas.

La víspera se frustró el diálogo entre el Ejecutivo y la Central Obrera Boliviana — el mayor sindicato campesino y principal líder de las protestas. La COB no acudió a una instancia de negociación porque exige que la justicia derogue las órdenes de detención en contra de sus dirigentes por las violentas protestas en La Paz.

En Santa Cruz, el motor agroindustrial en el oriente, el pollo se remata a mitad del precio porque no puede llegar los mercados. En Cochabamba, centro del país, el avicultor Wilson Mazala ha denunciado en medios de prensa la muerte de más de 100.000 pollos en granjas por falta de alimento. “La escasez se sentirá los siguientes meses porque no hay repoblamiento”, dijo.

La escasez de combustible ha causado además que los hospitales racionen el oxígeno y la alimentación de los pacientes. Más de 500 cisternas están varadas en las rutas con combustible, según las autoridades.

Comedores populares sienten el efecto

Ancianos en situación de extrema pobreza ahora solo almuerzan un solo plato. La sopa y la fruta fueron sacados del menú del comedor popular San Calixto, donde el almuerzo es gratuito.

“Así podemos estirar un poquito”, dijo María Condori, la encargada.

El plato del viernes es un guiso de trigo, con arroz, que los abuelos deboraron y se marcharon.

“Debo caminar horas por mi plato de comida”, dijo Juan Espriella, de 83 años, que debe pasar los bloqueos de la vecina ciudad de El Alto para recibir su almuerzo.

En tanto, en el comedor popular del mercado Yungas tuvieron que incrementar el precio del almuerzo un 5%. Muchas familias con mayores ingresos acudieron.

“Primera vez que vengo. No estamos cocinando porque no podemos conseguir y gracias a Dios podemos pagar”, contó Roger Tapia, de 48 años.

Malestar de empresarios

Empresarios y organizaciones civiles de Santa Cruz presionan para que el gobierno declare el estado de excepción.

El mandatario dice que recibió un país quebrado tras dos décadas de gobiernos socialistas y pide tiempo.

Paz ha denunciado una conspiración, pero afirmó que atenderá las demandas reivindicativas.“Todo lo que sea de utilidad para el pueblo tiene que generar a través del diálogo y eso estamos haciendo. Los bloqueos solo castigan a las familias”, dijo hace dos días.

Su gobierno ha rechazado el uso de las fuerzas del orden para despejar las rutas ante el temor de posibles bajas que agraven el conflicto.

Blue Origin said its New Glenn rocket exploded during an engine-firing test being conducted ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week. No one was hurt, according to officials at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Bezos said via X. ”Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

The massive New Glenn was grounded in April after it left a satellite in the wrong orbit because of engine failure. It was only the third flight of the rocket that Blue Origin intends to use to launch landers to the moon for NASA, including the landers that will take astronauts to the lunar surface.

The company had been on track to launch a prototype lunar lander to the moon on a flight test this fall. Earlier this week, the space agency awarded Blue Origin a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to launch a pair of moon buggies in the next few years as part of the Artemis program.

“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said via X. He promised to provide information on any impacts to the Artemis program, including the moon base that he recently outlined.

Homes shook in nearby Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach around 9 p.m., with residents turning to social media to wonder what happened. Launch Complex 36 is visible from the beach, and the internet quickly filled with photos of an orange fireball.

The rocket was supposed to blast off next week with internet satellites that are part of the Amazon Leo constellation in orbit.

Emergency crews remained more than an hour after the explosion. Officials stressed there was no threat due to fumes or other potential hazards.

Space Force officials said the explosion would not affect upcoming launches by other companies from other pads. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is due to blast off Friday night with a batch of Amazon Leo satellites, the same kind that this rocket was supposed to take up.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk, who’s had his own share of rocket explosions, offered his condolences. “Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,” he told Blue Origin via X.

Towering at 321 feet (98 meters), New Glenn made its debut in 2025. It is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, and is much bigger and more powerful than the New Shepard rockets that have carried tourists to the fringes of space from Texas.

___

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.

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What began as a simple act of compassion in response to a heartbreaking tragedy has grown into Firewall Centers, a nonprofit organization serving thousands of Broward County students every day through free after-school education, mentoring and life-changing support.

For Andy Fernandez, the journey started in 2001 after watching a news report about 13-year-old Sherry Maresco, a South Florida girl who died from a drug overdose while left unsupervised. The story deeply affected him.

“All of a sudden, that happened on the news and he said, ‘Janeth, we should go to that trailer park and see if there are other kids that we can talk to,’” Janeth, who is a former educator, said.

The couple followed through on that impulse. Alongside another couple from their church, they began hosting weekly gatherings for children at the Davie mobile home park where Sherry had lived.

At first, the focus was on building relationships, character and faith. But it quickly became clear that the children needed more than encouragement.

“It’s great to build their character, to talk about faith,” Andy said. “But it’s also necessary to provide them an education.”

The realization led to a life-changing decision.

In 2003, Andy and Janeth, who owned a successful manufacturing business, decided to devote themselves fully to serving underserved youth. A year later, Andy sold his warehouse and equipment to pursue the mission full-time.

“The next year in 2004, that’s when I sold off my little warehouse, my equipment and said this is what we are going to do for a while and see where it goes,” he said.

That leap of faith became Firewall Centers.

The nonprofit provides free, high-quality after-school programming designed to help students succeed academically and personally. The organization’s name comes from the biblical passage Zechariah 2:5, reflecting its goal of creating protective barriers around young people and helping them navigate life’s challenges.

“For us, we’re setting up firewalls in the lives of students,” Andy explained.

The organization’s mission is rooted in what the founders describe as the greatest commandment: to love others.

“Everything revolves around living love every day,” Andy said.

For many students, that love has translated into opportunity.

Abner Molina was one of them.

As a young boy, he first visited Firewall Centers for a simple reason.

“They invited me in for a sandwich and I was like, ‘Oh, free food,’” Molina recalled.

What he found was much more than a meal. Through the mentorship of Andy Fernandez and the support of the organization, Molina developed skills, confidence and ambition.

“And that’s how I met Pastor Andy, and he’s been a solid rock for me in terms of mentorship,” he said.

Today, Molina, 31, is the CEO of his own technology company.

“It took me 10 to 12 years to get to the position that I am right now, and it’s just the start to everything I’ve dreamed of,” he said.

His story is one of many success stories that have emerged from Firewall Centers over the past two decades.

What started in a modest modular unit inside a mobile home park has expanded into an organization operating at 14 Broward County schools. The nonprofit now serves approximately 2,000 students each day, providing educational support and mentorship to children who might otherwise fall through the cracks.

Yet despite the growth, the mission remains tied to the memory of the young girl whose story inspired it all.

Sherry Maresco never had the chance to realize her dreams. But her legacy lives on through the thousands of children whose lives have been touched by Firewall Centers.

“I think that she would definitely say that she made a difference,” Andy said.

At this point, he noted, the organization has impacted tens of thousands of young people—and will continue to reach many more in the years ahead.

The future of Firewall Centers includes expansion into Miami-Dade County schools and, eventually, other states. But for the Fernandez family, the goal remains the same as it was when they first walked into a mobile home park more than two decades ago: helping children build brighter futures.

From one child’s tragedy emerged a movement of hope—proof that a single act of compassion can change countless lives.

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Lo que comenzó como un simple acto de compasión en respuesta a una tragedia desgarradora se ha convertido en Firewall Centers, una organización sin fines de lucro que atiende a miles de estudiantes del condado Broward todos los días mediante educación gratuita después de clases, mentoría y apoyo que cambia vidas.

Para Andy Fernandez, el camino comenzó en 2001 después de ver un reportaje sobre Sherry Maresco, una niña de 13 años del sur de Florida que murió por una sobredosis de drogas mientras se encontraba sin supervisión. La historia lo afectó profundamente.

“De repente, eso apareció en las noticias y él dijo: ‘Janeth, deberíamos ir a ese parque de casas móviles y ver si hay otros niños con los que podamos hablar’”, dijo Janeth, ex educadora.

La pareja siguió ese impulso. Junto con otra pareja de su iglesia, comenzaron a organizar reuniones semanales para niños en el parque de casas móviles de Davie donde había vivido Sherry.

Al principio, el enfoque estaba en construir relaciones, carácter y fe. Pero rápidamente quedó claro que los niños necesitaban más que palabras de aliento.

“Es excelente fortalecer su carácter y hablar sobre la fe”, dijo Andy. “Pero también es necesario brindarles educación”.

Esa comprensión llevó a una decisión que cambiaría sus vidas.

En 2003, Andy y Janeth, propietarios de una exitosa empresa manufacturera, decidieron dedicarse por completo a servir a jóvenes desfavorecidos. Un año después, Andy vendió su almacén y su equipo para dedicarse a tiempo completo a esa misión.

“Al año siguiente, en 2004, fue cuando vendí mi pequeño almacén, mi equipo y dije: esto es lo que vamos a hacer por un tiempo y veremos hacia dónde nos lleva”, dijo.

Ese salto de fe se convirtió en Firewall Centers.

La organización sin fines de lucro ofrece programas gratuitos de alta calidad después de clases diseñados para ayudar a los estudiantes a tener éxito académica y personalmente. El nombre de la organización proviene del pasaje bíblico Zacarías 2:5 y refleja su objetivo de crear barreras protectoras alrededor de los jóvenes y ayudarlos a enfrentar los desafíos de la vida.

“Para nosotros, estamos estableciendo cortafuegos en las vidas de los estudiantes”, explicó Andy.

La misión de la organización está basada en lo que sus fundadores describen como el mayor mandamiento: amar a los demás.

“Todo gira en torno a vivir el amor todos los días”, dijo Andy.

Para muchos estudiantes, ese amor se ha traducido en oportunidades.

Abner Molina fue uno de ellos.

Cuando era niño, visitó Firewall Centers por una razón sencilla.

“Me invitaron a entrar para comer un sándwich y pensé: ‘Oh, comida gratis’”, recordó Molina.

Lo que encontró fue mucho más que una comida. A través de la mentoría de Andy Fernandez y el apoyo de la organización, Molina desarrolló habilidades, confianza y ambición.

“Así fue como conocí al pastor Andy, y ha sido una roca sólida para mí en términos de mentoría”, dijo.

Hoy, Molina, de 31 años, es director ejecutivo de su propia empresa tecnológica.

“Me tomó entre 10 y 12 años llegar a la posición en la que estoy ahora, y esto apenas es el comienzo de todo lo que he soñado”, dijo.

Su historia es una de muchas historias de éxito que han surgido de Firewall Centers durante las últimas dos décadas.

Lo que comenzó en una modesta unidad modular dentro de un parque de casas móviles se ha expandido hasta convertirse en una organización que opera en 14 escuelas del condado Broward. Actualmente, la organización atiende a aproximadamente 2,000 estudiantes cada día, brindando apoyo educativo y mentoría a niños que de otro modo podrían quedarse rezagados.

Sin embargo, a pesar del crecimiento, la misión sigue ligada al recuerdo de la joven cuya historia inspiró todo.

Sherry Maresco nunca tuvo la oportunidad de cumplir sus sueños. Pero su legado vive a través de los miles de niños cuyas vidas han sido impactadas por Firewall Centers.

“Creo que ella definitivamente diría que marcó una diferencia”, dijo Andy.

A estas alturas, señaló, la organización ha impactado a decenas de miles de jóvenes y continuará llegando a muchos más en los próximos años.

El futuro de Firewall Centers incluye expandirse a escuelas del condado Miami-Dade y, eventualmente, a otros estados. Pero para la familia Fernandez, el objetivo sigue siendo el mismo que tenían cuando entraron por primera vez a un parque de casas móviles hace más de dos décadas: ayudar a los niños a construir futuros más prometedores.

De la tragedia de un niño surgió un movimiento de esperanza, una prueba de que un solo acto de compasión puede cambiar incontables vidas.

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Good News South Florida se transmite los viernes en el noticiero matutino de Local 10 a las 10 a.m. También se retransmite los viernes a las 3:30 p.m. y los domingos por la mañana a partir de las 6 a.m.

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Miami police identified the suspects as 25-year-old Earl Gerry Baldwin and 21-year-old Zakis Kawone James, both of Miami-Dade.

According to arrest reports, officers responded to the home on April 4 after the victim reported that two masked men had entered the residence and robbed him at gunpoint.

The report states that he victim told investigators he was in the kitchen when two men wearing ski masks entered through an unlocked front door.

Police said shortly after, one of the intruders allegedly pointed a handgun at the victim and demanded cash, repeatedly asking, “Where’s the money?” as the two men searched the home.

Investigators said the gunman took the victim’s iPhone 16 Pro Max while both suspects searched bedrooms for money. The victim told police the suspects also asked about his younger brother before continuing their search.

According to the reports, the gunman kept the victim at gunpoint while the other suspect ransacked rooms throughout the home. After failing to find any money, the men left the victim inside his mother’s bedroom, closed the door and fled, investigators said.

Authorities said the victim then ran to a neighbor’s home and called police.

Detectives said surveillance footage obtained from nearby locations showed a silver Chevrolet Trailblazer parked near the home before the robbery.

According to the reports, video showed two suspects exiting the SUV and walking toward the residence before entering the home. Minutes later, the pair were seen running from the property and getting back into the vehicle, which drove away.

Investigators said license plate reader data identified the SUV and showed it traveling through Miami shortly after the robbery. Historical reader data and GPS records linked the vehicle to a residence in the 700 block of Northwest 65th Street, according to the reports.

Detectives said additional surveillance footage later captured Baldwin inside the SUV while wearing clothing matching what was seen during the robbery.

Investigators said they also identified him during a separate contact on May 15 and later obtained cellphone records and location data that allegedly placed his phone in the area of the robbery and traveling with the SUV before and after the crime.

According to James’ arrest report, detectives identified him through surveillance footage, a resident database search and facial recognition software.

Investigators also obtained surveillance footage showing James making a purchase at a Walmart in Miami Gardens after the robbery using a debit card in his name, the report states.

Police said cellphone data associated with James’ phone also placed him at the robbery scene and traveling with the SUV throughout the day.

On Thursday, detectives executed a search warrant at the Northwest 65th Street residence and took both men into custody, according to the reports.

Baldwin was transported to the Miami Police Department’s robbery office, where he was advised of his Miranda rights and invoked them, according to his arrest report.

James waived his Miranda rights and provided a statement to detectives, according to his arrest report. Details of the statement were redacted from the publicly released report.

Jail records show both men are each facing one count of armed robbery with home invasion.

As of Friday, both were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where their bonds were listed as “to be set.”

La policía de Miami identificó a los sospechosos como Earl Gerry Baldwin, de 25 años, y Zakis Kawone James, de 21 años, ambos residentes de Miami-Dade.

Según los informes de arresto, los agentes respondieron a la vivienda el 4 de abril después de que la víctima reportara que dos hombres enmascarados habían ingresado a la residencia y lo habían robado a punta de pistola.

El informe indica que la víctima les dijo a los investigadores que estaba en la cocina cuando dos hombres con pasamontañas entraron por una puerta principal que estaba sin seguro.

La policía dijo que poco después, uno de los intrusos presuntamente apuntó una pistola a la víctima y exigió dinero en efectivo, preguntando repetidamente: “¿Dónde está el dinero?”, mientras ambos hombres registraban la vivienda.

Los investigadores dijeron que el hombre armado tomó el iPhone 16 Pro Max de la víctima mientras ambos sospechosos revisaban las habitaciones en busca de dinero. La víctima les dijo a los agentes que los sospechosos también preguntaron por su hermano menor antes de continuar la búsqueda.

Según los informes, el hombre armado mantuvo a la víctima encañonada mientras el otro sospechoso revolvía habitaciones en toda la casa. Tras no encontrar dinero, los hombres dejaron a la víctima dentro de la habitación de su madre, cerraron la puerta y huyeron, según los investigadores.

Las autoridades dijeron que la víctima corrió entonces a la casa de un vecino y llamó a la policía.

Los detectives dijeron que videos de vigilancia obtenidos de lugares cercanos mostraban una Chevrolet Trailblazer plateada estacionada cerca de la vivienda antes del robo.

Según los informes, las imágenes muestran a dos sospechosos bajándose del SUV y caminando hacia la residencia antes de ingresar. Minutos después, fueron vistos corriendo fuera de la propiedad y regresando al vehículo, que luego se alejó.

Los investigadores dijeron que datos de lectores de matrículas identificaron el SUV y mostraron que circulaba por Miami poco después del robo. Datos históricos de esos lectores y registros de GPS vincularon el vehículo con una residencia ubicada en la cuadra 700 de Northwest 65th Street, según los informes.

Los detectives dijeron que imágenes de vigilancia adicionales captaron posteriormente a Baldwin dentro del SUV usando ropa que coincidía con la observada durante el robo.

Los investigadores también dijeron que lo identificaron durante otro contacto el 15 de mayo y posteriormente obtuvieron registros telefónicos y datos de ubicación que presuntamente ubicaban su teléfono en el área del robo y viajando con el SUV antes y después del delito.

Según el informe de arresto de James, los detectives lo identificaron mediante imágenes de vigilancia, una búsqueda en una base de datos de residentes y software de reconocimiento facial.

Los investigadores también obtuvieron videos de vigilancia que muestran a James realizando una compra en un Walmart de Miami Gardens después del robo utilizando una tarjeta de débito a su nombre, indica el informe.

La policía dijo que los datos del teléfono celular asociados al dispositivo de James también lo ubicaban en la escena del robo y viajando con el SUV durante todo el día.

El jueves, los detectives ejecutaron una orden de registro en la residencia de Northwest 65th Street y detuvieron a ambos hombres, según los informes.

Baldwin fue trasladado a la oficina de robos del Departamento de Policía de Miami, donde fue informado de sus derechos Miranda e invocó esos derechos, según su informe de arresto.

James renunció a sus derechos Miranda y proporcionó una declaración a los detectives, según su informe de arresto. Los detalles de esa declaración fueron censurados en el informe divulgado públicamente.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que ambos hombres enfrentan un cargo de robo a mano armada durante invasión de vivienda.

Hasta el viernes, ambos permanecían detenidos en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde sus fianzas figuraban como “pendientes de fijación”.

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In this case, investigators said Carlos Alberto Jean, 37, of northwest Miami-Dade, was not a stranger to the victim.

Authorities said the girl, now 14 and living outside of Atlanta, told investigators that Jean, a friend of her father’s, molested her in a vehicle in April 2023, when she was 10.

Hialeah police said the crime happened while her father was in a store at a shopping plaza at the corner of East Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street.

According to an arrest report, the girl told a forensic interviewer in Georgia that Jean had “asked her for permission to touch her private part” as she held her baby brother on her lap.

She told him no, but he “moved the child” and did it anyway, the report states. According to police, Jean stopped molesting the girl when her father returned to the car.

A Hialeah Police Department detective, who observed the forensic interview remotely, said the girl told her stepmother what happened when she returned home, who later told the girl’s father.

The report doesn’t state why there was a three-year delay in reporting the crime.

Police said they went to Jean’s home in the 200 block of Northwest 150th Street on Thursday to arrest him on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 and misdemeanor battery. He declined to speak with investigators.

As of Friday, records show he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, pending a pre-trial detention hearing.

En este caso, los investigadores dijeron que Carlos Alberto Jean, de 37 años y residente del noroeste de Miami-Dade, no era un desconocido para la víctima.

Las autoridades indicaron que la niña, que ahora tiene 14 años y vive en las afueras de Atlanta, declaró a los investigadores que Jean, un amigo de su padre, abusó de ella en un vehículo en abril de 2023, cuando tenía 10 años.

La policía de Hialeah informó que el crimen ocurrió mientras su padre se encontraba en una tienda en un centro comercial ubicado en la esquina de la Octava Avenida Este y la Novena Calle.

Según el informe de detención, la niña declaró a un entrevistador forense en Georgia que Jean le había “pedido permiso para tocarle sus partes íntimas” mientras sostenía a su hermanito en el regazo.

Ella le dijo que no, pero él “trasladó a la niña” y lo hizo de todos modos, según el informe. De acuerdo con la policía, Jean dejó de abusar de la niña cuando su padre regresó al auto.

Un detective del Departamento de Policía de Hialeah, que observó la entrevista forense de forma remota, dijo que la niña le contó a su madrastra lo que sucedió cuando regresó a casa, quien posteriormente se lo contó al padre de la niña.

El informe no explica por qué hubo un retraso de tres años en la denuncia del delito.

La policía informó que el jueves acudió al domicilio de Jean, ubicado en la cuadra 200 de la calle Northwest 150, para arrestarlo bajo cargos de abuso sexual lascivo de un menor de 12 años y agresión menor. Jean se negó a hablar con los investigadores.

Según los registros del viernes, permanecía detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, a la espera de una audiencia de detención preventiva.

Esto ha provocado un trayecto muy complicado hacia el trabajo y la escuela, y se han emitido varias alertas de inundación para Upper Keys y cerca del centro de Miami.

Esta primera ronda de fuertes lluvias saldrá del área antes de las 11 a.m. y las alertas de inundación serán canceladas, sin embargo, hay mucha humedad en la atmósfera y es probable otro período de lluvias intensas y tormentas más tarde el jueves, principalmente después de las 2 p.m.

Esas tormentas de la tarde y noche podrían causar más inundaciones en algunas zonas, por lo que se recomienda prepararse para un difícil regreso a casa más tarde en el día.

Este patrón tormentoso comenzará a desplazarse principalmente hacia horas de la tarde desde el viernes y durante el fin de semana. Será durante esos períodos secos en la mañana cuando el sol calentará el ambiente y creará una atmósfera muy inestable que provocará fuertes tormentas vespertinas.

Podríamos acumular más de 6 pulgadas de lluvia en algunas áreas durante los próximos 5 a 7 días, reduciendo significativamente la sequía que hemos estado experimentando.

El sargento Kelvin Cox, de la MDSO, mató a tiros a Kristofer Laboy, de 24 años, afuera de un edificio dentro del complejo Sunset Palm Villas Association, ubicado justo fuera de los límites de la ciudad de Miami en Northwest 85th Street Road y Fourth Court, el 17 de junio de 2025.

Agentes de la Unidad de Intervención contra Robos de la MDSO intentaron detener a Laboy, quien conducía un Chevrolet Corvette amarillo con vidrios polarizados oscuros.

Según un memorando de la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade, “Laboy había llevado a los agentes del orden en una persecución prolongada y a alta velocidad que puso en peligro la vida de muchas personas (y) casi provocó varios choques al conducir a altas velocidades entre el tráfico y por el lado equivocado de las vías”.

La evidencia en video y el testimonio de otro agente, concluyeron los fiscales, mostraron que después de que la persecución terminó en el complejo, Laboy salió del vehículo deportivo con un arma y “corrió directamente hacia” Cox.

Los fiscales concluyeron que una “persona razonable” en la posición de Cox “habría creído que el uso de fuerza letal era necesario para prevenir una muerte inminente o un gran daño corporal” para sí mismo u otras personas, lo que los llevó a concluir que Cox “estaba legalmente justificado en usar fuerza letal” y no debía enfrentar cargos.

Cox ha servido en la MDSO y su predecesora, el Departamento de Policía de Miami-Dade, durante más de dos décadas.

Los detectives de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade acusaron a Nathan Cooper de dispararle a Shawn Webster, empleado del Departamento de Agua y Alcantarillado del condado Miami-Dade.

La madre de Webster, Clarice Webster, dijo a Local 10 News que el conflicto entre los dos padres comenzó por sus hijos.

Cooper “llegó a la casa” de Webster “siendo irrespetuoso” y “le disparó a mi hijo a quemarropa frente a sus hijos”, dijo Clarice Webster.

Según los agentes, Cooper estuvo prófugo durante aproximadamente 70 días. Huyó después de la balacera ocurrida el 17 de marzo cerca de Northwest Fifth Avenue y 83rd Street, en el área de West Little River de Miami-Dade.

Personal de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladó a Shawn Webster, de 33 años, al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital para recibir tratamiento por heridas de bala.

Los detectives identificaron a Cooper como un delincuente convicto que se encontraba bajo libertad supervisada federal. Tiene antecedentes de arrestos en Miami-Dade que se remontan a cuando tenía 18 años.

Cooper, también conocido como Christopher Kendrick y Antwan Morris, fue liberado de prisión el 3 de abril de 2024, según el Departamento Correccional de Florida.

Los registros muestran que Cooper fue sentenciado a cinco años de prisión en 2023 después de ser declarado culpable de una agresión agravada ocurrida en 2016 en el condado Miami-Dade.

Se emitió una orden de arresto contra Cooper el 20 de marzo, y miembros de la Fuerza de Tarea Regional Sureste para la Captura de Fugitivos del Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos lo arrestaron el 26 de mayo en Norcross, Georgia, según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

La sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz elogió a los agentes, a los alguaciles federales adjuntos y a los oficiales de la fuerza de tarea por la investigación y el arresto. Cooper enfrenta un cargo de intento de asesinato en primer grado con un arma mortal.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office detectives accused Nathan Cooper of shooting Shawn Webster, a Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer employee.

Webster’s mother, Clarice Webster, told Local 10 News that the conflict between the two fathers started with their children.

Cooper “came to” Webster’s house “being disrespectful” and “shot my son point blank range in front of his children,” Clarice Webster said.

Cooper was on the run for about 70 days, according to deputies.

Cooper fled after the shooting on March 17 near Northwest Fifth Avenue and 83^rd Street in Miami-Dade’s West Little River, according to deputies.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took Shawn Webster, 33, to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center to be treated for gunshot wounds.

Cooper has an arrest record in Miami-Dade going back to when he was 18.

Cooper had been sentenced to five years in prison in 2023, after he was convicted of a 2016 aggravated battery in Miami-Dade County, records show.

Cooper, also known as Christopher Kendrick and Antwan Morris, was released from prison on April 3, 2024, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

After the shooting on March 17, detectives identified Cooper as a convicted felon who was on federal supervised release.

A warrant was issued for Cooper’s arrest on March 20, and members of the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested him on May 26 in Norcross, Ga., according to the M-DSO.

Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz praised deputies, deputy U.S. Marshals, and task force officers for the investigation and arrest.

Cooper faces a charge of first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon.

It’s the first vehicle my dad learned to drive, as a young boy helping with farm chores during the day and adventuring with friends at night. At the time, the 1956 International Harvester S-130 had no sentimental value. Its worth was tied to its usefulness.

Or as my dad explains, “it was just a truck.”

Pickups were made for work. Until the first purpose-built ones rolled off American assembly lines in the early 20th century, people DIY-ed their own. They became icons of a rural ideal, potent enough to inspire and populate many a country song.

Today, they are mainstays on American roadways. While they’re still used to haul things, some are more luxury than workhorse; cool enough to be lifted or lowered and comfortable enough for Sunday drives.

As for the pickup that once powered the now-defunct Meyer family farm, it will soon have just one job: to look pretty.

It’s an unexpected turnabout. If it had been planned, my dad might have picked an easier truck to restore. International’s S series from the 1950s had a blink-and-you-miss-it production life. Practically speaking, that means sourcing replacement parts is a challenge — even for my brother Andy, who is good at finding things that are hard to find.

He’s the one who spotted the truck for sale. And though it was worse for wear, he couldn’t resist hauling it back home. In the years since, he and my dad have embarked on a replacement-parts treasure hunt that's unearthed my dad’s childhood memories along the way. Stories of my dad behind the wheel as a child taking the neighbor boys on late-night hunting trips, the precarious ways he and his siblings accomplished their farm chores and the uncle whose prom date rode shotgun.

Their odyssey through online auctions and Illinois backroads has taken on a life of its own. What started with restoring one 1956 International Harvester has turned into owning five 1956 International Harvesters in various states of repair. Only one is too far gone to fix up.

I asked my dad why he keeps hauling them home. “I’m possessed,” he joked dryly.

But if I’m honest, I already knew the answer. There’s joy in the journey. So why not?

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

The entrance of Israel’s troops into the village of Dibbine, near the town of Marjayoun, came as Israeli airstrikes killed at least six people. Five were killed in an airstrike on the villages of Deir Qanoun al Nahr and Abbasiyeh, while a municipal policeman was killed in the village of Ebba, state media reported.

In Washington, a six-member Lebanese military delegation met Friday with Israeli military officials in the first direct military talks between the two countries in decades.

The Pentagon, in a statement released late Friday, said the talks were “productive” but stopped short of noting any accomplishments or achievements. It said the talks "focused on building practical frameworks for regional security and stability” and the “tangible outcomes” from their discussions will directly inform the negotiations with political leaders being conducted by the State Department next week.

Talks between senior officials from Israel and Lebanon have been going on since last month but are complicated by the fact that Hezbollah, Israel’s target, is not participating in the discussions and has refused to accept their results.

A nominal ceasefire went into effect on April 17. A senior Lebanese military official told The Associated Press earlier on Friday that the Lebanese delegation, led by the army's head of operations Brig. Gen. George Rizkallah, would aim to make it comprehensive.

The official added the Lebanese delegation will request the reactivation of the committee monitoring the enforcement of an earlier U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the war between Israel and Hezbollah in late 2024.

Another Lebanese official, who was briefed throughout the day about the talks at the Pentagon, also said the delegation would seek the comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire and a stop to ongoing hostilities.

He said implementation would be followed by talks at a later date on matters such as deploying the Lebanese army along the border and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks in Washington.

President Joseph Aoun's office said he received a call Friday from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and they discussed the situation in Lebanon and the latest developments in the Middle East. Aoun's office said the president told Rubio that efforts should concentrate on implementing the ceasefire as it is “the essential entry point for transitioning to any other issues.”

In April, Lebanon and Israel held the first direct talks in Washington in more than three decades.

The Israeli military issued several evacuation warnings for southern Lebanon on Friday, forcing hundreds of families to flee to safer areas further north.

Israeli troops fought Hezbollah fighters inside the villages of Yohmor and Zawtar al-Sahrqieh near the city of Nabatieh after they crossed the strategic Litani River, which the Israeli military has used as a de facto boundary. Large areas to the south are under Israeli military control, despite the April ceasefire.

Hezbollah, whose members have been fighting Israeli troops for days in the area, said in statements that its members struck Israeli troops inside Yohmor.

The two villages are close to the Crusader-built Beaufort castle that is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Israeli border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon. It was not clear if Israeli troops are trying to capture the castle, which lies north of the Litani.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern front Friday where he spoke to members of the military. “I must tell you that there are very impressive results here. Our forces have crossed the Litani; they have advanced to controlling positions,” he said.

“We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa, across the entire width of the front, and we are dealing Hezbollah a crushing blow,” Netanyahu said referring to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs where Israel's air force struck on Thursday.

The violence in southern Lebanon came as U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

Iran did not immediately confirm any deal. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday evening confirmed there was a tentative agreement, but said it was unclear if President Donald Trump would approve it.

Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said Friday that any deal between Iran and the U.S. would stop Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. Officials in Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, have said that they insist that a deal with Washington would stop the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that started on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after Israel and Iran attacked in Iran.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war has left 3,200 people dead in Lebanon and over 1 million people displaced.

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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Kareem Chehayeb contributed to this report from Beirut.

Here are some key things to know as Broadway's biggest night approaches, including how to watch, the top nominees, who is poised to make history and what shows secured performance slots.

When are the Tony Awards?

The Tonys will be broadcast to both coasts on June 7 from 8-11 p.m. Eastern/5-8 p.m. Pacific, live from Radio City Music Hall.

How can I watch them?

On CBS and streaming for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers in the U.S.

Who's hosting the Tony Awards?

Pink, a three-time Grammy Award winner, will make her debut as MC.

A pre-show will be broadcast on Pluto TV from 6:35-8 p.m. Eastern/3:45-5 p.m. Pacific. Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess will host that telecast. Viewers can access it on their smart TV, streaming device, mobile app or online by going to Pluto TV and clicking on the “Live Music” channel, found within the Entertainment category on the service.

What performances will there be?

The seven best new musical and best musical revivals — "The Lost Boys," “Schmigadoon!,” “Titanique,” “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “Ragtime” and “The Rocky Horror Show.”

How many awards are there?

A total of 26 competitive categories, from lead and featured actors to scenic, costume and lighting design. Some technical award handouts may be pre-taped and winners won't appear on the live show, only cut down into edited bits sandwiched into the telecast.

What are the top nominees?

There are two top nominees: “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigadoon!” each earned a leading 12 Tony Award nominations. “The Lost Boys” is an adaptation of a 1987 teen movie vampire thriller, and “Schmigadoon!” is an adaptation of an Apple TV series that gently mocks Broadway musicals. They're followed by a revival of “Ragtime,” a big, soaring musical celebrating early 20th-century America, with 11 nominations, and “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller’s masterpiece that looks at the unraveling of the American Dream, starring Nathan Lane, which nabbed nine nods.

Who is vying for best new play and musical?

For new musicals, it's “The Lost Boys," “Schmigadoon!,” “Titaníque” and “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).”

For new plays, it's “The Balusters,” “Giant,” “Liberation” and “Little Bear Ridge Road.”

Can history be made?

History has already been made, in a way. June Squibb became the oldest Tony-nominated actor in history at 96 and could become the oldest Tony winner, surpassing Lois Smith who was 90 when she won in 2021.

Nathan Lane is hoping for his fourth Tony, which would make him tied as the most-awarded male performer in Tony history, alongside Boyd Gaines and Frank Langella. If he does win for best lead actor in a play for the revival of “Death of a Salesman,” he'd have Tonys in three separate acting categories, previously winning featured actor in a play for “Angels in America” and lead actor in a musical twice for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “The Producers.”

And for the first time since 2002, the contenders for best leading actress in a musical are all first-time nominees: Sara Chase ("Schmigadoon!"), Stephanie Hsu ("The Rocky Horror Show"), Caissie Levy ("Ragtime"), Marla Mindelle ("Titanique") and Christiani Pitts ("Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York").

Will there be other performances?

Other performances include the original lead cast members of “The Book of Mormon” — Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James — this year celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Broadway's big season

The 2025-2026 Broadway season set a new box office record for the second year in a row. Over the 52 weeks of the season, Broadway brought in a combined total of $1,910,903,835, a smidge higher than last season’s then-historic total of $1,892,650,959. Last season also had 53 weeks instead of the usual 52, a Broadway accountant trick.

In more gloomy news, attendance was actually down — 14,577,322 versus 14,658,531 from last season. And the average paid admission was $131.09, continuing an ever upward trend.

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For more coverage of the 2026 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the plan hours after it overwhelmingly passed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s current map — with its two majority-Black districts — as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. That decision intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect Republicans’ slim U.S. House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several Southern states now redrawing their maps to help Republicans.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with GOP losses.

The map approved Friday in a 28-10 state Senate vote along party lines reflected Republican arguments that a 5-1 map is safer for the GOP and better protects U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from facing a difficult reelection. Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.

‘Vicious race to the bottom’

Democrats contend that the new map is racially gerrymandered to squeeze more Black voters — who tend to be registered Democrats — into a single district.

Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis pointed out during floor debate Friday that some other Southern states, such as South Carolina, had refused to redraw their maps in the middle of an election year, and said Louisiana is participating in a “vicious, vicious race to the bottom.”

The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jay Morris, repeatedly insisted that party affiliation, not race, drove district boundaries.

“I purposely put more Democrats into District 2 to make the remaining districts better performing for Republicans,” Morris said at one point.

Morris said he told the map demographers to avoid including any data on race or including those statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.

Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris, “I think it’s a racially gerrymandered district that's going to get us into a lot of trouble here."

“Agree to disagree,” Morris told Jenkins.

More litigation expected in Louisiana

Louisiana is currently using a map ordered by a lower court in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population.

That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Landry postponed the state’s closed U.S. House primary slated for May 16. He later signed a law making the U.S. primary open and shifted the date to Nov. 3 to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will be on the ballot for voters in their district.

The new map redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields' district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

More lawsuits were expected over the new map.

Democrats say the map could draw a legal challenge over racial gerrymandering, and the ACLU of Louisiana suggested Friday that it could sue, calling the map a “racial gerrymander hiding behind the thin veneer of partisanship” and warning that "this fight is just beginning.”

Meanwhile, the victorious plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision criticized the Legislature's map earlier this week for leaving a majority-Black district in place.

Nationwide battle over district lines

In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try to redraw their own congressional districts.

So far, Republicans are winning the redistricting contest. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from their redistricting efforts so far, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Meanwhile, a court decision in Wisconsin on Friday could give Democrats a new avenue to pick up seats in 2028.

The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal of a case filed by a bipartisan coalition of business executives that seeks to redraw the state’s Republican-friendly congressional districts. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive.

A three-judge panel dismissed the case in April. Those who filed the lawsuit weren't seeking a ruling in time for the 2026 election. Instead, they are asking the state Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court for a trial on their claims, which would likely not take place until 2027.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that Landry ultimately postponed Louisiana's closed U.S. House primary elections to Nov. 3, not “later this summer” after signing a law making the primary election open.

The company fueled the hulking New Glenn rocket Thursday night, hoping to briefly ignite the engines ahead of a satellite launch next week. But the 321-foot (98-meter), rocket blew up, taking part of the pad with it.

Aerial views on Friday revealed heaps of crumpled structures on the ground, with just one tower and the water tank still standing. Emergency officials warned the public to avoid any wreckage that might wash ashore and to instead call 911. There were no reported deaths or injuries.

It’s a major setback for Blue Origin, coming just one month after the entire New Glenn fleet was grounded because of an upper-stage engine issue that dumped a satellite in the wrong orbit.

Named after John Glenn, the first American in orbit, New Glenn is the rocket that Blue Origin plans to use to launch landers to the moon under NASA's Artemis program that aims to build a sprawling base near the moon's south pole. The goal is to land the first Artemis moonwalkers as early as 2028. Earlier this week, the space agency awarded a new contract to Blue Origin worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

One of the biggest rockets to reach orbit, New Glenn has seven first-stage engines fueled by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas, which is essentially methane. It has flown three times.

None of the assigned 48 Amazon Leo satellites were on board the newest rocket when the blast occurred. Another batch of Amazon Leo satellites — competing with SpaceX's Starlinks to provide internet service to remote locales — lifted off from another pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday night, courtesy of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

It was the second launch of the day. SpaceX launched more Starlinks to orbit Friday morning, within 12 hours of the explosion. CEO Elon Musk has two Florida pads in action, one on the Space Force side where the latest Falcon 9 lifted off and the other at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Blue Origin has just one Florida pad: Launch Complex 36 dating back to the early 1960s. NASA's Mariner and Pioneer interplanetary probes rocketed away from there, as well as the moon-bound Rangers and Surveyors. The Washington state-based Blue Origin spent more than $1 billion rebuilding the launch complex — taking it from double pads to a single — after leasing it from the Air Force in 2015.

The company's smaller New Shepard rockets soar from Texas, skimming space for a few minutes with tourists and science experiments. Those suborbital hops were paused in January so the company could focus on New Glenn and upcoming moonshots. All that is now on hold, pending the investigation into the explosion.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said late Thursday that the space agency will evaluate near-term impacts to the Artemis program, which saw four astronauts fly around the moon in April. That Artemis II mission was hoisted by NASA's Space Launch System rocket.

Before the explosion, Blue Origin was on track to launch a prototype lunar lander to the moon on a New Glenn this fall, with another lander due to rocket into orbit around Earth in 2027 for docking practice by the soon-to-be-announced Artemis III crew.

A touchdown by two astronauts on Artemis IV — using a Blue Moon lander or SpaceX's Starship, whichever is ready first — was targeted as early as 2028.

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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.

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Officer Corey Vanderhoof jumped into the water and rescued a man and his 161-pound Great Dane from the Hurricane Hole lagoon.

The man said he had been struggling to keep himself and his dog afloat for nearly 20 minutes, according to the Key West Police Department.

On Friday, the department shared the report with the public and hailed Vanderhoof as a hero.

El agente Corey Vanderhoof se lanzó al agua y rescató a un hombre y a su gran danés de 161 libras de la laguna Hurricane Hole.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Key West, el hombre dijo que había estado luchando por mantenerse a flote junto con su perro durante casi 20 minutos.

El viernes, el departamento compartió el informe con el público y calificó a Vanderhoof como un héroe.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, cuatro personas requirieron tratamiento por enfermedades relacionadas con el calor.

Sky10 sobrevoló el Aeropuerto Ejecutivo Miami-Opa Locka, donde se observó a personal de MDFR y agentes de la policía de Opa-locka en la escena mientras las víctimas eran trasladadas en camillas.

Los pasajeros se sintieron mal en un avión de GlobalX que tenía como destino Luisiana.

GlobalX es una aerolínea chárter utilizada por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE) para deportaciones, pero no está claro si estaba siendo utilizada con ese propósito en el momento de este incidente.

Según funcionarios del aeropuerto, el sistema de aire acondicionado de la aeronave sufrió una falla y MDFR fue llamado para asistir a los pasajeros afectados por el calor.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo y será actualizada cuando haya nueva información disponible.

“Usted pasó junto a mí sosteniendo un teléfono con su mano derecha, manipulando ese teléfono”, le dice el agente a Kathleen “Katie” Thomas, de 36 años.

“Obviamente no”, responde Thomas mientras se ríe y levanta su brazo derecho, mostrando que le falta la mano derecha.

“Entonces, ¿quiere dar por terminado esto?”, pregunta ella.

“No quiero dar por terminado esto. Usted tenía una mano levantada, manipulando algo”, responde el agente.

“Usted acaba de decir mi mano derecha”, replica Thomas.

“Bueno, pensé que vi su mano derecha”, dice el agente.

“Entonces no la vio”, responde Thomas.

Thomas publicó las imágenes de la cámara corporal en Instagram y TikTok, donde obtuvieron millones de “me gusta”.

En el video, aunque ella le muestra al agente que no tiene mano derecha, el agente insistió en su versión.

“Le estoy preguntando ahora: ¿tenía o no tenía su teléfono en la mano?”, pregunta el agente.

“No lo tenía”, responde Thomas.

“¿No tenía su teléfono en la mano?”, vuelve a preguntar el agente.

“No lo tenía”, responde Thomas.

“¿Jura ante Dios que no tenía un teléfono en la mano?”, pregunta el agente.

“Lo juro ante Dios”, responde Thomas.

Los registros judiciales muestran que Thomas recibió una citación de $116 USD a pesar de la evidencia presentada, pero posteriormente fue desestimada a solicitud del agente involucrado.

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According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a Coast Guard boat crew, working alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations and CBP Office of Field Operations officers, intercepted a suspected drug-smuggling vessel about 1 mile east of Cape Florida on Sunday.

The operation resulted in the seizure of roughly 900 pounds of cocaine. Federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami Division have taken custody of the three suspects and the narcotics as the investigation continues.

“The Coast Guard and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners remain vigilant in our shared efforts to keep our maritime borders safe by preventing illicit narcotics from reaching our communities,” said Lt. Matthew Ross, Coast Guard Station Miami Beach commanding officer. “I couldn’t be more proud of the professionalism of our law enforcement crews and our continued collaboration with our partners to safeguard American lives.”

Officials said the seizure is part of a broader multi-agency effort to combat transnational criminal organizations involved in narcotics trafficking and other illicit activities.

The Coast Guard serves as the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction, while Customs and Border Protection works to secure the nation’s borders through land, air and maritime enforcement operations.

No additional information about the suspects has been released as the investigation remains ongoing.

Según la Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos, una tripulación de una embarcación de la Guardia Costera, trabajando junto con oficiales de Operaciones Aéreas y Marítimas de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP) y de la Oficina de Operaciones de Campo de la CBP, interceptó una embarcación sospechosa de contrabando de drogas aproximadamente a una milla al este de Cape Florida el domingo.

La operación resultó en la incautación de unas 900 libras de cocaína. Agentes federales de la División de Miami de la Administración para el Control de Drogas (DEA) tomaron custodia de los tres sospechosos y de los narcóticos mientras la investigación continúa.

“La Guardia Costera y nuestros socios federales, estatales y locales de las fuerzas del orden permanecen vigilantes en nuestros esfuerzos compartidos para mantener seguras nuestras fronteras marítimas al evitar que narcóticos ilícitos lleguen a nuestras comunidades”, dijo el teniente Matthew Ross, comandante de la Estación Miami Beach de la Guardia Costera. “No podría estar más orgulloso del profesionalismo de nuestras tripulaciones encargadas de hacer cumplir la ley y de nuestra continua colaboración con nuestros socios para proteger las vidas de los estadounidenses”.

Los funcionarios dijeron que la incautación forma parte de un esfuerzo más amplio de múltiples agencias para combatir organizaciones criminales transnacionales involucradas en el tráfico de narcóticos y otras actividades ilícitas.

La Guardia Costera actúa como la principal agencia federal para la interdicción marítima de drogas, mientras que la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza trabaja para asegurar las fronteras del país mediante operaciones de control terrestre, aéreo y marítimo.

No se ha divulgado información adicional sobre los sospechosos mientras la investigación sigue en curso.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff del condado Monroe (MCSO), los agentes acudieron poco antes de las 6 a.m. a la vivienda de Bradly Shawn Shadduck, de 56 años, y su esposa, Lynne Alane Shadduck, de 62 años, ubicada en 136 Maracaibo Lane.

Los agentes dijeron que Bradly Shadduck fue a la casa de su vecino de al lado “con una manta de los Cleveland Browns y sin ropa” y le dijo: “Llama al 911, hermano; toda mi maldita casa está llena de sangre, cubierta de sangre por todas partes, dilo, estarán aquí”.

Según un informe de arresto de la MCSO, los agentes llegaron y encontraron la vivienda “completamente desordenada”, con varios artículos del hogar rotos y “sangre y manchas de sangre por todo el piso, además de un gran charco de sangre ubicado en el centro de la sala”.

Los agentes dijeron que Bradly Shadduck “estaba completamente desnudo y cubierto únicamente con una manta”, mientras que Lynne Shadduck yacía desnuda en el pasillo, ensangrentada, golpeada e inconsciente, pero aún respirando.

El informe indica que cuando los agentes le preguntaron a Bradly Shadduck qué había ocurrido, simplemente respondió: “Esto acaba de pasar”, pero “se negó a proporcionar detalles adicionales sobre el incidente y repetidamente dijo que su esposa necesitaba ayuda”.

Los paramédicos trasladaron a Lynne Shadduck al Lower Keys Medical Center, donde fue declarada muerta más tarde esa misma mañana.

Las autoridades dijeron que Bradly Shadduck les comentó a los detectives que él y su esposa habían consumido “comida y muchas bebidas” en un restaurante de Summerland Key la noche anterior y afirmó que el desorden en la vivienda era resultado de “sexo rudo”.

“Bradly dijo que cuando bebe, se desmaya y no recuerda nada”, escribió el agente de la MCSO Paul McNalley en el informe de arresto. “Bradly no recuerda haber ido a la casa de su vecino a pedir ayuda. Luego pidió un abogado”.

En un video que lo muestra yendo a la casa de su vecino para solicitar la llamada al 911, los agentes dijeron que Bradly Shadduck “parece estar mojado y posiblemente acababa de ducharse”.

Indicaron que otro video lo muestra golpeando las ventanas y la puerta de otro vecino poco menos de dos horas antes.

“En ese momento, Bradly estaba sin camisa y usando un par de pantalones cortos de color claro. Se le escucha respirar con dificultad e intenta abrir la puerta principal ingresando un código de acceso, pero no tuvo éxito”, escribió McNalley. “Se observa a Bradly golpeando las ventanas y puertas durante aproximadamente dos a tres minutos. Luego se le ve agarrando la baranda con ambas manos y sacudiéndola. (El propietario de la vivienda) dio consentimiento para registrar el área y se encontraron dos huellas ensangrentadas en esa baranda”.

Las autoridades dijeron que una orden de registro de la vivienda reveló posteriormente sangre “en toda la residencia”, incluyendo toallas, el baño y el dormitorio principal.

“El pasillo principal tenía una mancha de sangre en el piso como si la víctima hubiera sido arrastrada por el pasillo hasta el baño”, escribió McNalley.

McNalley concluyó que las pruebas mostraban lo que parecía ser “una pelea y lucha significativa por parte de la víctima”, aunque señaló que Bradly Shadduck no presentaba lesiones.

Hasta la mañana de este viernes, Bradly Shadduck permanecía detenido en la cárcel de Key West de la MCSO sin derecho a fianza.

Los registros muestran que tiene programada una audiencia de instrucción de cargos para el próximo viernes.

Los fiscales señalaron el viernes que la decisión del tribunal del estado brasileño de Pará, en el norte del país, marca un hito significativo en la protección del patrimonio.

Fordlandia, hoy un pueblo fantasma y un distrito de la ciudad de Aveiro, fue construida en 1927 en Pará por la empresa Ford Motor Co. como una metrópolis destinada a asegurar un suministro constante de caucho natural para neumáticos.

Diseñada como un idílico suburbio estadounidense, en su momento fue el tercer asentamiento más grande de la región amazónica. Sin embargo, las enfermedades devastaron las plantaciones de árboles de caucho, lo que llevó al abandono de la ciudad. En 1945, el gobierno brasileño adquirió el lugar.

En 2015, la fiscalía federal de Brasil en Pará demandó al organismo de patrimonio arquitectónico Iphan y a la ciudad de Aveiro por no preservar Fordlandia. También exigió que las autoridades otorgaran a la ciudad estatus de protección.

“Fordlandia es un capítulo emblemático en la historia de Brasil y de la industria mundial. El proyecto fue un esfuerzo estadounidense para desafiar el monopolio británico del caucho, llevando infraestructura de vanguardia —incluidos un hospital, agua corriente, electricidad y un cine— al corazón de la Amazonia en la década de 1920”, declaró la fiscalía federal en Pará en un comunicado.

Pese al fin del emprendimiento comercial, las autoridades subrayaron que el distrito sigue siendo una parte importante de la memoria nacional de Brasil y que debe preservarse para las generaciones futuras.

Un juez en Pará ordenó hace dos semanas que tanto las autoridades federales como las locales restauren Fordlandia. La decisión se produjo tras más de una década de procedimientos judiciales.

Aunque el distrito no está reconocido oficialmente como sitio patrimonial, el tribunal determinó que posee importancia histórica, cultural y arquitectónica, que según la Constitución brasileña debe protegerse.

El fallo también exige que el gobierno y el municipio elaboren e implementen un plan de recuperación para el distrito, con posibles sanciones económicas en caso de incumplimiento.

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