Brown is scheduled to appear before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez at 8:45 a.m. at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building.

The plea agreement was offered by prosecutors after more than 10 1/2 months of litigation, according to Brown’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh.

“They made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Eiglarsh said in a statement to Local 10 News.

The specific details of the agreement were not immediately available.

Brown currently faces a charge that carries a potential 30-year prison sentence, including a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, according to his attorney.

The case stems from a May 2025 incident at a boxing event in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.

Brown is accused of grabbing a gun from a staff member and firing two shots at a man, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, who he had been involved in a brawl with. A bullet was said to have grazed the man’s neck.

City of Miami police officers handcuffed and escorted Brown away following the incident, but he was not charged until months later.

After the shooting, Brown took to social media and alleged that the man was trying to steal his jewelry and harm him.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office ultimately charged Brown with attempted second-degree murder with a firearm.

Eiglarsh has previously argued that the case was overcharged and said Brown had a strong self-defense case.

“This case is clearly overcharged as an attempted second-degree murder,” Eiglarsh said in November 2025. “Even the judge said at worst we’re talking about aggravated assault. Secondly, we have a strong self-defense case.”

Brown previously pleaded not guilty after being extradited to the United States from the Middle East.

At the time, his legal team disputed the suggestion that Brown had fled to Dubai.

“He didn’t flee to Dubai, he has ongoing business in Dubai,” his attorney said during a previous bond court appearance.

Earlier this month, Nantambu’s attorney told reporters that his client no longer wished to “participate” in Brown’s prosecution.

According to Eiglarsh, Brown has now decided that resolving the case is in the best interest of himself and his family.

“Antonio is ready to put this behind him, continue to focus on his children, rebuild his professional opportunities, and move forward with his life,” Eiglarsh said. “He has fought this case for more than ten and a half months. Now, he has an opportunity for something that has become increasingly important to him and his family: closure.”

Five years later, there is considerably more canvas, and a bigger audience.

Viktor, now 18, has turned the bold colors, expressive faces and an unmistakable style into a form of expression and a path to independence.

Click here to see more of Viktor’s artwork.

“You can see that his art has evolved a lot. You can see him, verbally and socially, he’s evolved a lot,” said Viktor’s brother, Boris Bevanda.

That evolution was on display during a recent art event at Plunge Beach Resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where Viktor’s work hung alongside pieces from other South Florida artists.

When Local 10 first featured Viktor in 2021, his bright oil-pastel drawings had already built him a sizable following.

Today, his reach is measured well into the millions.

But perhaps the bigger change is in Viktor himself.

“It provided him a way to send a message. To like express himself,” said Boris. “Since like, he doesn’t really use words to express himself, he chooses to let his hands do the work for him.”

Click here to view Viktor’s Instagram page.

Click here for Viktor’s Facebook page.

Viktor’s work has been featured in exhibitions and his story earned him Emmy award recognition.

What began almost accidentally — a child drawing during schoolwork— has developed into a measure of independence his family once could only hope for.

All profits from Viktor’s art go towards his education, therapy, and art supplies, as well as donations to charities that support individuals with autism.

There’s more to the story

When Local 10 arrived to catch up with Viktor, he was taking part in an event with Artists with Autism, an organization that creates opportunities for artists on the spectrum to exhibit their work, interact with guests and take part in the business side of selling their art.

Seeing Viktor alongside those artists opened another chapter of the story.

Next week on “What Connects Us,” Local 10 will introduce you to the group, its mission and some of the other artists using creativity to make themselves heard.

To submit an idea for What Connects Us, email whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

The officials did not say what the response contained, and whether it was a rejection or not.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the U.S. response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.

“We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”

The Cabinet meeting follows Araghchi's return to Iran after travelling to New York for the U.N. General Assembly last week. While there, officials held indirect talks with U.S. officials and also met with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders.

Araghchi briefed the Cabinet on his trip to New York and the meetings he held there, including Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Mohajerani said had been conveyed through mediators.

Araghchi last week said he floated the proposal to reopen the strait in a week if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.

Trump swiftly rejected the proposal, saying Iran wanted to make a deal because it was “losing so badly” but that its offer "would not be acceptable.”

Despite Trump's public rebuffing, mediators continued working with Iran and the United States on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the strait, according to officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration says it is is pushing forward with economic warfare against Tehran as the prospects of the two sides coming to an agreement appears uncertain.

The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled new sanctions on Tuesday targeting people and companies around the globe that it accuses of being financial facilitators or enablers of Iran’s military supply chain.

The latest action by the U.S. administration is part of the administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign, aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

Ten individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan now face sanctions over accusations of procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran’s defense ministry as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

Iran's economy is spiraling further

Iran's economy, which was under heavy strain before the war started, has been in a freefall since the conflict began in late February.

The country's currency fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.

The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.

Trump on Tuesday said that Iran is “failing very badly, very badly” and predicted anew that the war will be “over with very, very soon.”

At the onset of the conflict, he had predicted that the war would last just weeks. More recently, Trump said he expects it won't end until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections in the U.S.

Iran executes 2 men on charges of violence during January protests

Also on Wednesday, two men were executed in Iran over their role in violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Citing the country's judiciary, IRNA said the men took part in unrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four members of the security forces dead earlier this year. Their death sentences were upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court before being carried out Wednesday morning.

The unrest began Dec. 28 amid anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and worsening economy and quickly spread across the country, with demonstrators increasingly calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities responded with a deadly crackdown.

Rights groups say thousands were killed and tens of thousands arrested, while Iranian authorities have reported a substantially lower death toll.

Inda Peñarrieta y Michelle Macías - esposa e hija de Fito- “tendrán que enfrentar a la justicia” en el marco de un proceso judicial pendiente desde marzo de 2026, aseguró el ministro del Interior, John Reimberg, en su cuenta de X. “La cooperación internacional sigue golpeando al crimen organizado y sus economías”, añadió.

La policía ecuatoriana publicó en su cuenta de X videos en el que las autoridades reciben a las detenidas en el aeropuerto de Guayaquil al filo de la medianoche del martes y les leen sus derechos, mientras ambas lucen esposadas, con casco y chalecos antibala.

Ellas eran requeridas por la justicia ecuatoriana para responder en un juicio por lavado de activos en que ya se sentenció a otros familiares del capo criminal a penas de entre siete y 10 años de prisión por el lavado de más de 25 millones de dólares. También se les acusa por presuntos delitos de delincuencia organizada y asociación ilícita.

“Ellas son responsables de manejar el financiamiento de Los Choneros, del lavado de activos”, dijo Reimberg la noche del martes en radio FM Mundo, y precisó que además estaban detrás de la “financiación del narcotráfico, de actividades terroristas y de muchas muertes que han ocurrido en Ecuador”. “Les esperan penas no menores de 15 años de prisión”, añadió.

Captura

Las dos mujeres fueron capturadas el domingo en una población del noreste colombiano, en un operativo conjunto entre fuerzas de seguridad ecuatorianas y colombianas, en cooperación con Estados Unidos.

El apresamiento fue anunciado por los mandatarios de ambos países.

“Se las voy a enviar con gusto a mi buen amigo, el presidente Daniel Noboa”, escribió en X el presidente colombiano, Abelardo de la Espriella. “Colombia no será refugio para las finanzas del crimen transnacional”, acotó, a lo que su par ecuatoriano, Daniel Noboa, respondió: “Así se trabaja, Abelardo: juntos y con resultados”.

Reimberg confirmó que las dos serán recluidas en la cárcel femenina de máxima seguridad La Roca, donde también está presa otra pareja de “Fito”, Verónica Briones.

“Queen Michelle”, hija de Fito en redes sociales

La hija de Macías, que se presentaba en redes sociales como “Queen Michelle”, su nombre artístico, hacía constante ostentación de lujo y con frecuencia mostraba abundantes fajos de dólares.

En 2023 , uno de los videoclips de Michelle, titulado “El corrido del león”, desafió a la autoridad penitenciaria y causó un remezón en el país porque fue grabado en honor de su padre en el interior de la cárcel. El organismo de control negó haber autorizado la grabación.

En enero de 2024, luego de la misteriosa fuga de Fito desde una cárcel de Guayaquil, Peñarrieta y sus tres hijos, incluida Michelle, fueron detenidos en un barrio privado de Córdoba, en Argentina. Tras ser expulsadas de ese país arribaron a Ecuador, donde fueron liberadas por no contar con proceso judiciales pendientes.

Fito, Los Choneros y su influencia en el mundo criminal

Los Choneros, considerada entre las organizaciones criminales más grandes y violentas de Ecuador, surgió en la década de los 90. Las autoridades le atribuyen nexos con el cartel mexicano de Sinaloa, al que ha brindado por décadas seguridad y logística para el trasiego de droga.

Fito se fugó de una cárcel de máxima seguridad a inicios de 2024, en medio de una ola de violencia criminal, pero un año y medio después fue recapturado en su ciudad natal. En julio de 2025 se convirtió en el primer ecuatoriano en ser extraditado hacia Estados Unidos, donde enfrenta cargos por narcotráfico y tráfico de armas.

El mensaje de mano dura contra la delincuencia llega mientras Bolsonaro busca atraer el voto de las mujeres, que representan el 53% del electorado y desempeñaron un papel decisivo para darle al presidente, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, una ajustada victoria en 2022 sobre su padre, el expresidente Jair Bolsonaro.

“Las mujeres están empezando a tener una percepción de su papel en las elecciones”, afirmó Rachel Ripani, cofundadora del movimiento Levante Mulheres Vivas (Levántense Mujeres Vivas). “Están viendo su voto como algo que no quieren que sea manipulado”.

Las encuestas dan una ligera ventaja a Lula sobre el senador para los comicios del 4 de octubre, pero no se espera que ninguno obtenga mayoría absoluta, por lo que es probable que vayan al balotaje. Ambos han estado cortejando a los votantes indecisos, incluidas las mujeres, con propuestas para combatir la violencia de género, un tema central de la campaña a medida que la violencia contra las mujeres alcanza niveles récord, con varios casos de alto perfil bajo los focos.

“Estamos construyendo un Brasil (…) libre de feminicidio, donde ninguna mujer, dentro o fuera del hogar, viva bajo la amenaza de la violencia”, dijo Lula a jefes de Estado en la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas la semana pasada en Nueva York. “Esta es una causa que el mundo entero debe abrazar”.

Más de una de cada tres mujeres en Brasil fue víctima de violencia sexual o de género a lo largo de un año, la cifra más alta desde que se empezaron a recopilar los datos en 2017, según un informe de 2025 del centro de estudios Foro Brasileño de Seguridad Pública. En 2025, 1.571 mujeres fueron víctimas de feminicidio, el peor dato anual desde que Brasil tipificó el delito en 2015, agregó. El feminicidio se define como el asesinato de una mujer en un entorno doméstico o por desprecio hacia las mujeres.

Casos ocurridos durante el último año han suscitado una condena pública generalizada, entre ellos la presunta violación en grupo de una adolescente de 17 años en Copacabana; la muerte de una mujer después de que su exnovio la atropellara, la dejara atrapada debajo de su auto y la arrastrara sobre el concreto durante un kilómetro (milla), y el presunto asesinato de una agente de la policía militar a manos de su esposo, integrante de la misma institución.

Las feministas buscan garantías

Además de la castración química, Bolsonaro propone ampliar los espacios que brindan refugio a las víctimas de la violencia y la creación de un asistente de inteligencia artificial que permitiría a las víctimas presentar denuncias, solicitar órdenes de protección y recibir orientación y apoyo.

Lula, por su parte, se comprometió a ampliar las protecciones introducidas durante su gobierno, en especial a finales del año pasado, luego de que una serie de casos provocase movilizaciones. Esas medidas incluyen el monitoreo en tiempo real de agresores que portan tobilleras electrónicas.

Los dos candidatos han defendido la imposición de castigos más severas para quienes cometen delitos violentos contra las mujeres, unas medidas que requerirían aprobación parlamentaria.

Conscientes del peso electoral de las mujeres, las activistas buscan aprovechar ese poder para exigir garantías de que esas promesas no quedarán en el olvido.

Grupos feministas piden que los candidatos firmen una carta comprometiéndose a abordar la violencia de género como prioridad y a votar a favor de un proyecto de ley que busca tipificar como delito la misoginia; realizar encuestas para definir prioridades, destacar candidaturas femeninas en sitios web y presentar una agenda legislativa compartida.

Carmen Silva, una feminista de 61 años que vive en Recife, una ciudad del noreste del país, señaló que este año su grupo, el Foro de Mujeres de Pernambuco, tiene dos prioridades: defender el limitado derecho al aborto y un compromiso para enfrentar el problema de la violencia de género mediante un enfoque múltiple que incluya la implementación de programas educativos.

“Por supuesto que es más fácil obtener compromisos durante el periodo electoral, pero cuando las candidatas sean elegidas, sacaremos partido de esas demandas”, manifestó. “No se trata solo de garantizar que las mujeres no sean asesinadas, sino de darles posibilidades de vivir una vida digna”.

Expertos afirman que parte del problema radica en la falta de fondos para desplegar medidas de protección y aplicar leyes que ya existen, un argumento planteado por candidatas feministas como Luciana Boiteux, que se postula para la asamblea legislativa del estado de Río.

“Tenemos leyes suficientes. Como legisladoras, velaremos por la aplicación de estas políticas públicas”, dijo Boiteux en un acto de campaña reciente frente a la Universidad Estatal de Río de Janeiro.

Representación desigual

Como ocurre con los esfuerzos para combatir la violencia contra las mujeres, los llamados a aumentar su representación política atraviesan las líneas partidarias.

Pese a su peso electoral, ocupan apenas alrededor del 19% de los escaños parlamentarios y del Senado. Brasil también tiene el nivel más bajo de representación femenina en la política de América Latina, de acuerdo con un estudio del Instituto Esfera.

“Las mujeres tienen una larga historia de movilización social en Brasil, pero últimamente quedó claro para estos movimientos que el Estado importa y que necesitan disputar ese poder”, afirmó Marlise Miriam de Matos Almeida, politóloga de la Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais.

“Los movimientos feministas han entendido que es necesario organizar el voto femenino y movilizar fuerzas para transformar ese poder cuantitativo en algo que permita que más mujeres sean elegidas”, agregó.

El asesinato de la concejala de Río Marielle Franco inspiró a algunas mujeres negras a postularse a cargos públicos, apuntó Matos Almeida, pero la violencia política y la insuficiencia de recursos siguen obstaculizando su participación en política.

El número de candidatas a la cámara baja de Brasil cayó un 24% en 2026 en comparación con 2022, según la Cámara de Diputados.

Ripani dijo que su movimiento está dispuesto a trabajar más allá de las líneas partidistas siempre que los candidatos y los elegidos declaren su apoyo a sus políticas.

“La prioridad para esta elección es votar por más mujeres que luchen por las mujeres”, sostuvo. “Necesitamos votar por personas que entiendan nuestra experiencia”.

___

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

Meanwhile, in Iran, authorities executed two people accused of violence against security forces during the country's January protests.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage is available here.

Israel-bound plane makes emergency landing in Saudi Arabia

A commercial plane traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, briefly raising concerns about a possible hijacking and prompting Israel to scramble warplanes on Wednesday morning.

A regional official briefed on the incident, who spoke anonymously to be able to talk to the media, said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots. It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the fight.

Passengers on the plane told Israel’s Channel 12 by phone that they heard shouts from other travelers in the forward cabin during the altercation, saying the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said the situation was under control.

— By Samy Magy in Cairo

Lebanese army says soldier seriously wounded in Israeli strike

An Israeli strike hit a Lebanese military vehicle in the village of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa Wednesday, seriously wounding a soldier, the Lebanese army said. Three civilians were also wounded in the strike.

It was not clear why the army vehicle was targeted. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Lebanese and Israeli governments in June reached an agreement under which the Israeli military was to withdraw gradually from southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for disarmament of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Implementation of the deal has stalled.

Hezbollah and Israel’s latest war began on March 2, when the group fired missiles across the border two days after Israel and the U.S. launched their war with Iran. Israel responded with bombardment and a ground invasion of Lebanon and is now occupying a large swath of the country’s south.

The Lebanese army is not party to the war.

Iran hangs 2 men on charges of violence during protests

Iran executed two men Wednesday over what it said was their role in violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, state media reported.

IRNA, citing the judiciary, said the men took part in unrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four security officers dead. The judiciary said the men confessed to violence, including setting fires and damaging public property. It also said one had confessed to stabbing a member of Iran's paramilitary force. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences before they were carried out Wednesday morning.

The unrest began Dec. 28 amid anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and worsening economy and quickly spread across the country, with demonstrators increasingly calling for the overthrow of the ruling clerical system. Iranian authorities responded with a deadly crackdown.

Dozens of Iranians have since been executed in connection with the protests, according to state media in Iran.

Executions are not uncommon in Iran and are often reserved for political prisoners. Rights groups say the accused are usually tried in secretive courts based on forced confessions extracted through torture.

Last US troops leave Iraq

The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it had completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.

Baghdad touted the move as a sign of the country’s growing strength and sovereignty. It was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a statement, called it an “orderly departure” and said that the withdrawal “marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”

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

Edmunds has extensively tested them all, and based on its expert ratings, these are the five best midsize two-row SUVs. Each has its own strengths, but fundamentally, they all offer a pleasing mix of space, utility and value. All of the following prices include destination fees

Subaru Outback

Redesigned for the 2026 model year, the latest Outback has a boxier look that enhances the utility for which Subarus are well known. Not only that, but the Outback is the only vehicle on this list with a starting price under $40,000. The standard engine isn’t very powerful, but the available turbocharged engine solves that. While Subaru doesn’t offer a more fuel-efficient hybrid version, your potential savings on the purchase price can pay for a lot of gas. The Outback is plenty capable in moderately challenging off-road situations and offers a roomy, comfortable interior with the latest technology. Safety is impressive, too, with a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

2026 Outback starting price: $36,445

Honda Passport

Honda redesigned the Passport for 2026, giving the SUV a more rugged look and improved technology while retaining the model’s substantial passenger room and cargo space. Based on the three-row Honda Pilot, the Passport is one of the most spacious midsize two-row SUVs on the market today. It comes only with a V6 engine and all-wheel drive as standard, and fuel economy is lackluster as a result. Still, the Passport’s outright utility is undeniably appealing, and with its attractive styling, 5,000-pound standard towing capacity, and an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating, you might find it irresistible.

2026 Passport starting price: $46,445

Mazda CX-70

This is the sporty midsize SUV, engineered more for on-road driving satisfaction than off-road capability. It comes standard with a powerful turbocharged six-cylinder engine and is stable and precise in corners. The CX-70 also looks and feels more like an entry-luxury vehicle than a mainstream model, thanks to its upscale cabin design, and earns a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the IIHS. Mazda even offers an available plug-in hybrid powertrain that can help you save on gas. There are a couple of things to consider, however. The ride and seats are firm, so if you prefer something cushy for your tushy, this might not be the right choice. In-cabin storage space is on the stingy side, too, and using the infotainment system can be cumbersome and distracting.

2026 CX-70 starting price: $44,395; hybrid version: $46,095

Toyota Crown Signia

Shoppers prioritizing fuel economy over everything else should get a Toyota Crown Signia. It comes only with a hybrid powertrain that offers an EPA-estimated 38 mpg in combined city and highway driving. This Toyota also trades the rugged, go-anywhere design aesthetic for a more sophisticated wagon-influenced appearance and upscale interior. The front seats are quite comfortable, and while the back seat isn’t as roomy as what you might find in rivals, it’s still accommodating. What’s the downside? Well, cargo space is stingy, and there’s more road noise and engine noise than there should be. But if you like the Toyota brand and want something classier than a RAV4, the Crown Signia is compelling.

2026 Crown Signia starting price: $46,285

Jeep Grand Cherokee

Jeep recently made several changes to the Grand Cherokee, introducing a powerful new turbocharged four-cylinder engine as standard equipment while dropping the former V6 and plug-in hybrid powertrains. With the new engine, the Grand Cherokee offers up to 6,200 pounds of towing capacity, which is the most in the midsize SUV class. Jeep also offers a range of trims, allowing you to choose from a base model, an off-road-focused one, or a loaded model with up to three dashboard screens and an available hands-free driving assist system. However, the Grand Cherokee isn’t as comfortable as you might expect for the price, and Edmunds has encountered glitchy tech in its testing.

2026 Grand Cherokee starting price: $40,915

Edmunds says

When it comes to midsize two-row SUVs, the best choices in the segment cover all of the bases. Whether you plan to go off-road or stick to the beaten path, prefer a hybrid for improved efficiency or plenty of power and towing capacity, or value safety above all else, one of these top-rated picks delivers.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Christian Wardlaw is a contributor at Edmunds.

About 8 in 10 rural voters — an important voting bloc for Trump and fellow Republicans — said the Trump administration’s policies have had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live. Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.

The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America’s perception of their reach and effectiveness.

Iowa pastor Mike Jager, 58, is a registered Republican and considers himself part of the MAHA movement. The Trump administration’s health policies have had “minimal” impact on the health of his community, Jager said, but he added that Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is moving the needle “in the right direction.”

“It’s a beginning,” Jager said. “It’s a big ship to try and turn around and course-correct.”

Kennedy has used the MAHA label to support various agendas, including abandoning long-standing vaccine guidance, researching ultraprocessed foods and investing in regenerative agriculture.

Jager lives in Sumner, Iowa, “less than a quarter mile from where the corn ends and the city begins.” He’s seen family members and neighbors develop diseases that he believes resulted in part from exposure to agricultural chemicals and consumption of unhealthy, processed foods.

In the June Republican primary for governor, Jager voted for Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer who ran on a MAHA platform and beat out Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra. He plans to vote for him again in November.

Many rural voters are prioritizing health issues

About two-thirds of rural voters who support MAHA said it’s “extremely” or “very” important to them to vote for a candidate who does, too, while only 4 in 10 rural voters overall said the same.

Trump sought to seize on MAHA support during his campaign for another term two years ago. Now, amid tight midterm races, Kennedy has campaigned to galvanize the movement’s support. In May, he attended a MAHA bill signing with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, and in August, he went fishing with Lahn, posting about it on social media.

Yet the survey indicates voters are noticing “this weird split in the Trump administration” between what Kennedy messages and what Trump says and does, said David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

In Iowa, concerns about what’s causing rising cancer rates are “a big deal,” he said. For many people who identify with MAHA, being healthy includes taking on corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies that they think cause cancer, he added.

In the poll, views on healthcare access and costs largely diverged along party lines. Most Democratic and independent voters said the Trump administration’s healthcare policies have had a negative impact on their healthcare costs and the health and well-being of people in their communities. Republicans were likelier to say there hasn’t been an impact.

Talking on the phone from her 200-acre farm in Carroll County, Iowa, 71-year-old Donna Klocke said that her husband had died from cancer and that she has neighbors who also have cancer.

“It’s just very prevalent,” Klocke said. “We’re in a farming community. We use chemicals and pesticides and all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily good for us.”

Klocke, a Democrat, said the MAHA movement is a good idea because she cares about being healthy, but she does not consider herself part of it and will not be voting for a candidate who represents the movement.

Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist before entering politics and has sent mixed messages to Americans about getting the measles vaccine, scares her.

“Measles are coming back and polio,” Klocke said. “It’s the measles that really gets me. It’s like, do you not understand how dangerous it is?”

Survey reflects angst over healthcare

Nearly half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there aren’t enough mental health workers specifically. The share of rural voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington Post survey in 2017.

And as with the general population, healthcare, gas and grocery costs are top pain points. At least 6 in 10 rural voters said they were worried about healthcare costs.

The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried. The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs. Last year, Republicans passed a tax and spending bill that cut over $900 billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated new eligibility requirements.

In the tiny community of Lipan, Texas, west of Dallas, Kim Solis and her husband have a handyman-and-home-remodel business and get their insurance on the marketplace. Since Trump returned to office, their premium payment jumped from zero to $166 a month. Their copays went up, and their deductibles each increased by $2,000.

Solis, 62, said she worries what will happen if they get a big medical bill.

“Certainly, we’d be in a world of hurt trying to take money out of savings or getting it out of our 401(k) just to be able to do something about it,” she said.

Most MAHA voters are also MAGA — but not all

Like the general population, rural voters said they trust their own doctors and healthcare providers for health information over government agencies or officials, according to the poll.

Trust in Kennedy and Trump fell largely along partisan lines. About 10% of rural Democratic voters reported having a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in Kennedy, compared with 74% of rural Republican voters. About 5% of rural Democrats and 69% of rural Republicans said they trust Trump a “great deal” or “fair amount” for reliable health information.

While Make America Great Again and MAHA identities are “linked in a lot of ways,” the rising costs of healthcare and groceries pose a challenge for those committed to the MAHA principles that Kennedy promotes, said Peterson, the Iowa State professor.

Buying healthy food “becomes, ‘I can’t afford to do that because of Trump’s policies,’” he said.

In Stamping Ground, Kentucky, Alma Johnson, 65, works night security at a horse farm.

Johnson voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and said she “pretty much” likes how Trump is running the country. But she said she is not a MAGA devotee, preferring to “think for myself.”

MAHA, however, is an easy sell for Johnson because, she said, she doesn’t think people should be able to buy junk food in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Still, she said she hasn’t seen much impact from the Trump administration’s healthcare policies, including the new food pyramid.

“It takes a long time to change people, their habits, their thoughts or the things they do,” Johnson said.

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The poll of 2,241 U.S. adults registered to vote in rural areas of the country was conducted Aug. 12-24, 2026, using a sample drawn from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In collaboration with AP, KFF researchers worked to design the survey sample and questionnaire, analyze and report findings.

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This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KFF Health News. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

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Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August heaps pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heating and running water.

The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions about whether it heralded the start of Russia's anticipated campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

“There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. “But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted that the uptick in Russian strikes has brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine.”

“Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.

A boy is found dead in the rubble of a Kyiv region home

Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with U.S. efforts to halt the fighting, 4 ½ years after Russia invaded its neighbor. Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, although its demand for Ukraine to surrender land is unacceptable for Kyiv.

A boy was killed and three other people were rescued from the rubble of a private home in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.

Russia has exploited gaps in Ukrainian air defenses by firing ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to stop. Air raid alerts are disrupting daily life, sending people running for shelter and denting economic output.

The attacks also killed three people in the capital and wounded at least four others, according to authorities.

Russia has fired more than 3,000 jet-powered drones at Ukraine this month

The main Russian targets were energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media, describing it as “a difficult attack” as Moscow stretches Ukraine's air defenses.

Zelenskyy thanked foreign countries supporting Ukraine for recent deliveries of air defense help. “And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need," he said. "We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s bet on ballistic missile and drone terror does not pay off.”

Russia fired 2,850 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine in August but by Tuesday it had already launched 3,177 this month, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said.

The attacks come in waves, Ihnat told Ukrainian television late Tuesday, mostly aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine needs more missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to counter ballistic missiles and for other ground-based air defenses, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight attack hit a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant, an electrical substation, an energy storage facility and a data center.

Ukrainian officials didn’t confirm those strikes. Authorities reported hits on civilian areas of at least four Kyiv districts.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

Fue entonces cuando deslaves y fuertes lluvias desplazaron a más de 100.000 personas en todo el país, y el gobierno venezolano se apresuró a aliviar la crisis humanitaria construyendo decenas de apartamentos en la franja de tierra flanqueada por las aguas cristalinas del mar Caribe al norte y montañas frondosas al sur.

Los edificios, levantados rápidamente sobre suelo limoso, no pudieron resistir la fuerza de los terremotos consecutivos del 24 de junio, dijeron expertos a la AP en decenas de entrevistas. Los sismos mataron a más de 6.500 personas y dejaron a más de 17.000 sin hogar.

A continuación, algunas conclusiones de la investigación de la AP:

— En la prisa por construir viviendas, el gobierno desatendió los peligros derivados del historial de deslaves e inundaciones de la zona, lo que podría aumentar los riesgos que plantean los terremotos. Esto se debe a que los edificios se construirían sobre el suelo suelto y pedregoso que había sido depositado allí durante siglos por inundaciones y deslaves. La cercanía del área a la falla de San Sebastián —que corre frente a la costa y pasa justo por debajo del estado La Guaira— también podría agravar los riesgos.

— Como parte del emblemático programa de vivienda del gobierno se levantaron torres de apartamentos en la parroquia Caraballeda del estado. Las personas a quienes se les asignaron esos apartamentos se alegraron cuando por fin recibieron las llaves, pero no sabían que la altura de los edificios los haría propensos al colapso. Esto se debe a que los edificios de entre 10 y 20 pisos podrían terminar oscilando exactamente al mismo ritmo que las ondas sísmicas, en un fenómeno conocido como resonancia. Esa sincronización hace que el edificio se balancee más y durante más tiempo, lo que ejerce presión adicional sobre las columnas y aumenta la probabilidad de daños y derrumbe, señalaron expertos.

— Con magnitudes de 7,2 y 7,5, los terremotos fueron increíblemente potentes por sí solos. Pero además provocaron el tipo de golpe que más temen los ingenieros: un pulso cercano a la falla. El geólogo de la Universidad Central de Venezuela Michael Schmitz explicó que, cuando la falla se desplazó, la energía sísmica se acumuló en el frente de la ruptura a medida que avanzaba hacia el este, asestando “un golpe muy fuerte” a la base de los edificios que los dejó sin soporte de forma abrupta y sin capacidad de disipar energía mediante el balanceo.

— A diferencia de la magnitud de un terremoto, la intensidad de la sacudida varía de una comunidad a otra e incluso de una calle a otra. El gobierno había dejado inactivos los instrumentos sísmicos locales, lo que dejó a los científicos sin datos para determinar la intensidad del movimiento. Fue entonces cuando Eduardo Miranda, profesor de ingeniería civil y ambiental en la Universidad de Stanford, y sus colegas recurrieron al análisis de video captado por dos cámaras de seguridad cerca de una bolera en Caraballeda, la población más afectada de La Guaira. Las imágenes muestran cómo ocho edificios colapsan simultáneamente en menos de un segundo.

— Al seguir cuidadosamente el movimiento escena a escena, el equipo reconstruyó cómo el terremoto produjo el movimiento observado en cámara, según un artículo elaborado por el equipo de Miranda que fue compartido con la AP. Ese análisis reveló uno de los mayores movimientos del suelo jamás documentados en el mundo y ha aportado la única información cuantitativa sobre el movimiento del terreno del sismo cerca de la ruptura. Miranda indicó que habría sido difícil que estructuras que cumplieran normas de seguridad en Japón, que tiene algunos de los códigos de construcción más estrictos, hubieran sobrevivido a lo ocurrido el 24 de junio.

— El artículo, que está bajo revisión por pares para su publicación en The Seismic Record, la revista en línea de la Sociedad Sismológica de Estados Unidos, determinó que los edificios en Caraballeda fueron empujados tan lejos en una dirección durante tanto tiempo que alcanzaron sus puntos de ruptura, dijo Miranda.

— Se desconoce si los contratistas del gobierno siguieron los códigos de construcción de Venezuela. También se desconoce si los funcionarios realizaron estudios de suelo antes de que comenzara la construcción, o si esos estudios fueron ignorados. El gobierno no ha hecho públicos planos, estudios de suelo ni registros de inspección. Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, quien encabezó la oficina responsable del programa de vivienda del entonces presidente Hugo Chávez, no respondió a una solicitud de entrevista de la AP.

— El gobierno de la presidenta interina Delcy Rodríguez no ha proporcionado información sobre análisis forenses en el lugar, que expertos consideran cruciales para determinar las causas y responsabilidades, pero sus labores de limpieza, incluida la voladura con explosivos de edificios dañados, están en marcha, al igual que un esfuerzo de reconstrucción. Expertos dijeron que esperan que el gobierno no repita simplemente los errores de hace 15 años y que, en cambio, adopte un enfoque cuidadoso y reflexivo en sus esfuerzos de reconstrucción. También señalaron que el costo del trabajo adicional de diseño y construcción necesario para levantar edificios altos capaces de resistir terremotos en la región probablemente disuadirá al estado y a algunos inversionistas privados de desarrollar ciertas áreas.

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Burke informó desde San Francisco. Los periodistas de The Associated Press Michael Biesecker en Pittsburgh y Ryan Manzuk y Marshall Ritzel en Nueva York contribuyeron a este despacho.

___

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

Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane’s two pilots, and everyone on board was safe. The plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom.

The FlyDubai plane had transmitted an emergency alert, according to publicly available flight tracking information.

Around two and a half hours after departing from Dubai, it abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet within a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and eventually landing in Tabuk about an hour later, according to FlightRadar24.

A regional official briefed on the incident said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots. It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the fight, the official said.

“The crew have been questioned as part of the investigation,” the regional official added but did not say if anyone had been detained.

An Israeli official said that Israel believes the incident may have been an attempt to attack Israelis, but the investigation is still ongoing.

A third official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.

Netanyahu’s office said the situation was under control and Israel was working to bring the passengers home.

Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare yet not unheard of. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though it did not have to be diverted and landed as planned.

Passengers told Israel’s Ch 12 by phone that they heard shouts from those sitting more forward on the plane who heard the altercation between the pilots, and the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia.

They also said that all the passengers are staying on the plane and that there is a heavy presence of Saudi security forces surrounding them.

FlyDubai later confirmed that flight FZ 1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk on Wednesday.

“Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the carrier said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.”

Flight-tracking data indicated that the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8.

FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. The UAE has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalized ties in 2020.

The low-cost carrier’s fleet relies entirely on variants of the 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft that is widely used by airlines around the world. It has nearly 100 of the planes, including 69 of the Max 8 variant.

Dubai International Airport, where the plane took off from, is by far the Middle East’s busiest airport and the world’s largest in terms of international travel. It handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year.

Israelis were targeted in a string of hijackings and airplane attacks by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s. Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world, including often invasive check-in procedures for Israel-bound flights.

Commercial flights have flown between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the countries normalized ties in 2020.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Las comunidades caribeñas junto al mar en esa zona, cerca de Caracas, estaban cerca de una importante falla y de una cordillera que había desatado repetidos desastres naturales destructivos. El suelo era malo, un tipo de limo que solo amplificaría la sacudida en un terremoto.

Al ignorar el consejo, el gobierno levantó exactamente el tipo de edificios equivocado para ese lugar: altos complejos de apartamentos de concreto.

Todo era una receta para la destrucción, según una investigación de The Associated Press basada en entrevistas con decenas de ingenieros, sismólogos y exfuncionarios del gobierno.

La gente de La Guaira nunca tuvo oportunidad el 24 de junio, cuando potentes sismos consecutivos sacudieron la zona.

Carlos Valdés, jefe del departamento de sismología del Instituto de Geofísica de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, afirmó que estaban “retando a la naturaleza” cuando los funcionarios del gobierno decidieron construir allí.

Los sismos mataron a más de 6.500 personas y dejaron a más de 17.000 sin hogar. El gobierno de la presidenta encargada, Delcy Rodríguez, ha hecho poco para apaciguar la rabia de quienes sobrevivieron a los sismos en los tres meses transcurridos desde aquella noche de junio, y no ha abordado por qué colapsaron tantos edificios y murieron tantas personas.

La respuesta, de hecho, se remonta a 2010 y a decisiones tomadas después de que deslaves y fuertes lluvias desplazaran a más de 100.000 personas en todo el país, dijeron a AP expertos y exfuncionarios del gobierno.

Fue entonces cuando el gobierno venezolano se apresuró a aliviar una crisis humanitaria construyendo decenas de apartamentos en la franja de tierra flanqueada por aguas cristalinas del mar Caribe al norte y montañas frondosas al sur.

El entorno era idílico. La tierra debajo no lo era.

Una zona propensa a desastres naturales y terremotos

Cuando Venezuela fue sacudida por los terremotos de magnitud 7,2 y 7,5, al menos 14 torres de apartamentos en La Guaira se desplomaron casi al mismo tiempo, aplastando un piso sobre otro y atrapando a cientos de personas dentro. Se produjeron incendios cuando explotaron tanques de gas. La gente gritaba pidiendo ayuda. Pocos sobrevivieron. Se recuperaron cuerpos de lo que antes eran dormitorios, escaleras, pasillos y cocinas. Muchos fueron hallados abrazados.

La zona, en el norte de Venezuela, no es ajena a los desastres naturales.

Un terremoto mortal de magnitud 6,6 golpeó el área en 1967, lo que impulsó, entre otras acciones, el diseño de lineamientos de construcción sismorresistente y la creación de la Fundación Venezolana de Investigaciones Sismológicas, equivalente al Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos. Al igual que los terremotos de junio, destruyó edificios en la parroquia Caraballeda de La Guaira y en la capital de Venezuela, Caracas.

Pero ningún desastre había devastado La Guaira como las inundaciones y deslaves que mataron a decenas de miles de personas en 1999. Tras la tragedia, el gobierno del presidente Hugo Chávez eligió al ingeniero y entonces ministro de Ciencia Carlos Genatios para encabezar un plan de reconstrucción.

Su equipo trabajó con expertos locales e internacionales para desarrollar un programa de mitigación de riesgos para el estado, que incluía restricciones de uso del suelo a lo largo de la franja costera principalmente para reducir los peligros asociados a las lluvias y, en menor medida, a los terremotos, contó Genatios a AP en una entrevista.

“Hay zonas, terrenos, que no se debían usar porque posiblemente haya inundaciones ahí a la hora de una crecida muy grande, y entonces allí tú pones estructuras muy livianas o parques, canchas, cosas así que no produzcan un mayor daño y que no haya muertos especialmente”, expresó Genatios.

Genatios indicó que los científicos advirtieron a los funcionarios que el historial de deslaves e inundaciones de la zona incrementaría los riesgos que plantean los terremotos. Eso se debe a que cualquier edificio se construiría sobre el suelo suelto y pedregoso depositado allí durante siglos por inundaciones y deslaves.

La zona también estaba cerca de la importante falla de San Sebastián, que corre frente a la costa y pasa justo por debajo del estado La Guaira.

El gobierno desestimó los peligros. En 2011, por instrucción de Chávez, inició un enorme impulso para ampliar la vivienda pública y ayudar a las personas desplazadas por lluvias torrenciales que provocaron inundaciones y deslaves mortales a finales de 2010. El gobierno había reubicado a los desplazados —muchos de ellos simpatizantes del movimiento socialista, como lo describía Chávez— en escuelas públicas, edificios gubernamentales, instalaciones militares e incluso el palacio presidencial.

Al gobierno le faltaba suficiente tierra para construir sus proyectos, lo que llevó a expropiaciones y a que el propio Chávez alentara a los venezolanos a ayudar al estado a elaborar una lista de terrenos abandonados. A medida que se levantaban edificios, organizaciones gremiales y de vigilancia expresaron inquietudes sobre el cumplimiento de los proyectos con las normas de construcción, incluidos los requisitos de diseño sismorresistente, y sobre la calidad de los materiales utilizados, como el cemento y el acero.

El auge de los complejos de apartamentos

Se construyeron torres de vivienda que recordaban a los rascacielos prefabricados de la era comunista de Alemania Oriental en Caraballeda como parte del programa Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela. Cada torre pasó a conocerse como una “O-P-P”, una versión abreviada de “O-P-P-P-E”, el acrónimo en español de la oficina que Chávez encargó de ejecutar el programa. Todas menos cuatro de las 43 torres levantadas en el estado La Guaira estaban en Caraballeda.

Un boletín estatal publicó una foto de una de las torres con un pie de foto que proclamaba que el OPPPE 30 “alza orgulloso su figura como un símbolo de justicia revolucionaria”.

Las personas a quienes se les asignaron apartamentos en Caraballeda estaban encantadas cuando por fin recibieron las llaves. Muchas habían vivido con familiares o en refugios tras ser desplazadas por las lluvias torrenciales de 2010. Adultos y niños por fin tenían dormitorios propios. Los baños venían con puertas. La playa quedaba a pocos minutos a pie.

Sin embargo, notaron problemas justo después de mudarse: el servicio de agua potable era prácticamente inexistente; los ascensores dejaron de funcionar; y los ductos de basura se convirtieron en criaderos de ratas y cucarachas.

Y desconocían los riesgos durante un terremoto. Los complejos de apartamentos de entre 10 y 20 pisos podían terminar oscilando exactamente al mismo ritmo que las ondas sísmicas, en un fenómeno conocido como resonancia. Esa sincronización hace que el edificio se balancee más y durante más tiempo, lo que ejerce presión adicional sobre las columnas e incrementa la probabilidad de daños y colapso, señalaron expertos.

Se desconoce si los contratistas del gobierno siguieron los códigos de construcción de Venezuela. También se desconoce si los funcionarios realizaron estudios de suelo antes de que comenzara la construcción, o si esos estudios fueron ignorados. El gobierno no ha hecho públicos los planos, los estudios de suelo, los registros de inspección ni la “memoria descriptiva”, un documento que debería incluir especificaciones de ingeniería y arquitectura.

Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, quien encabezó la oficina responsable de la misión de vivienda de Chávez, no respondió a una solicitud de entrevista de AP.

Menos de dos semanas después de los terremotos, le dijo a un influencer vinculado al gobierno que el terreno elegido para los proyectos de vivienda pública fue sometido a estudios de suelo. No mostró pruebas que respaldaran esa afirmación, pero sí rechazó las críticas posteriores al terremoto, al sostener que forman parte de una “campaña insidiosa y maliciosa” contra la misión de vivienda, y aparentemente intentó trasladar la responsabilidad al sector privado.

“Lo que quiero recordar es que la inmensa mayoría de las viviendas hechas por el estado en realidad están hechas también por el sector privado”, dijo Sesto. “El estado es el gran, digamos, el gran como organizador… ¿Quién hace los estudios de suelo? Fundamentalmente, empresas especializadas que son privadas”.

Los ingenieros temían el potente golpe que asestaron los sismos de junio

Los venezolanos quedaron impactados al ver los edificios colapsados junto al mar. Los científicos también quedaron devastados, pero no sorprendidos. Los terremotos no sólo fueron potentes. Asestaron el tipo de golpe que más temen los ingenieros: un pulso cercano a la falla.

“Fue prácticamente instantáneo (...) muy, muy, muy violento, muy rápido”, relató el geólogo Michael Schmitz, de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, quien antes estuvo vinculado al organismo de monitoreo sísmico del país.

Schmitz explicó que, cuando la falla se desplazó, la energía sísmica se acumuló en el frente de la ruptura a medida que avanzaba hacia el este, lo que produjo “un golpe muy fuerte en su base”. Ese pulso, añadió, “le quitó la pata en seco sin que el edificio pudiera diseminar la energía, para lo que está normalmente diseñado”.

En contraste, los edificios del lado opuesto de la cordillera, en Caracas, que también tienen amplificación por sedimentos, resistieron los terremotos porque pudieron oscilar para disipar la energía.

Un estudio reveló que el sismo fue particularmente devastador

Eduardo Miranda, profesor de ingeniería civil y ambiental en la Universidad de Stanford, y un equipo de investigadores visitaron Venezuela días después del sismo para ver si podían determinar por qué los terremotos habían sido tan devastadores.

Sin instrumentos locales ni datos para determinar la intensidad del sacudimiento, Miranda y su equipo de científicos recurrieron al análisis de video captado por dos cámaras de seguridad cerca de una bolera en Caraballeda, la comunidad más afectada de La Guaira. Las imágenes son dramáticas: en menos de un segundo, ocho edificios colapsan simultáneamente.

Al seguir cuidadosamente el movimiento escena a escena, el equipo pudo reconstruir cómo el terremoto produjo el movimiento observado en cámara, según un artículo elaborado por el equipo de Miranda y compartido con AP.

Ese análisis reveló uno de los mayores movimientos del suelo jamás documentados en el mundo y ha aportado la única información cuantitativa sobre el movimiento del suelo del sismo cerca de la ruptura. Miranda dijo que habría sido difícil que estructuras que cumplieran normas de seguridad en Japón, que tiene algunos de los códigos de construcción más estrictos, hubieran sobrevivido a lo ocurrido el 24 de junio.

El artículo, que está en revisión por pares para su publicación en The Seismic Record, la revista en línea de la Sociedad Sismológica de Estados Unidos, determinó que los edificios en Caraballeda fueron empujados tan lejos en una dirección durante tanto tiempo que alcanzaron sus puntos de ruptura, explicó Miranda.

“La razón número uno del gran impacto en La Guaira es definitivamente cuán fuerte fue el movimiento del suelo”, dijo Miranda en una entrevista. “Por lo general, los colapsos son el resultado de varios factores, pero ese es un factor principal abrumador de los problemas que había allí”.

Miranda aún no ha compartido los resultados del estudio con el gobierno venezolano, pero su equipo ha puesto a los funcionarios al tanto del análisis.

“Está claro que necesitan elevar el nivel de diseño”, sostuvo.

Los expertos temen que el gobierno vuelva a cometer los mismos errores

El poliestireno encontrado entre los escombros llevó a muchos residentes a acusar al gobierno de usar materiales de calidad inferior para reducir costos. Sus acusaciones también se basaron en tramas de corrupción bien documentados en los que funcionarios y contratistas colaboraban para sobrefacturar al estado, usar materiales más baratos de los reportados y quedarse con la diferencia.

El gobierno no ha proporcionado información sobre análisis forenses en el sitio que, según expertos, son cruciales para determinar causas y responsabilidades, pero sus labores de limpieza —incluida la demolición con explosivos de edificios dañados— están en marcha, al igual que un esfuerzo de reconstrucción.

El gobierno ha estimado que más de 17.000 personas fueron desplazadas por los terremotos. Miles de ellas han vivido desde entonces en refugios, campamentos o aceras cerca de sus antiguas viviendas. A algunas se les han asignado hogares en edificios de vivienda pública en Caracas. Sin embargo, el gobierno también ha prometido reconstruir La Guaira y anunció semanas después del terremoto que ya había localizado terrenos en ese estado donde la construcción podría comenzar pronto.

Los expertos dijeron que esperan que el gobierno venezolano no repita simplemente los errores de hace 15 años y, en cambio, adopte un enfoque cuidadoso y reflexivo en sus esfuerzos de reconstrucción. También señalaron que el trabajo adicional de diseño y construcción necesario para levantar edificios altos capaces de resistir terremotos en la región probablemente disuadirá al Estado y a algunos inversionistas privados de desarrollar ciertas áreas.

“Aquí la pregunta es ¿a que costo?", planteó Valdés. “Yo lo preguntaría de otra manera: Cuánto cuesta una vida?”.

___

Burke informó desde San Francisco. Michael Biesecker contribuyó desde Pittsburgh, y Ryan Manzuk y Marshall Ritzel desde Nueva York.

___

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

The withdrawal, agreed on two years ago, comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, with Iran-backed militias firing on U.S. troops and the U.S. striking the groups' strongholds.

Baghdad touted the end of the U.S. mission as a sign of the country's increasing strength and sovereignty.

The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region. Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought — with little success so far — to disarm.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” he said. “It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and described the U.S. withdrawal as the beginning of a “new phase, one defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends.”

He said Iraqi security forces will continue the fight against IS and the government will ensure that non-state groups no longer hold weapons.

U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.

With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.

U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias also have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.

The Iraqi government initially linked the Sept. 30 deadline for U.S. withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.

While a handful of less-influential militias have agreed to turn over their weapons, powerful groups close to Iran rejected the prospect or set conditions for disarming that the government would be unlikely to meet.

Al-Zaidi has since walked back the deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.

The effects of the U.S. withdrawal may not be immediately visible, particularly since the U.S. military presence had already been scaled down. But officials in Iraq's Kurdish region have expressed anxiety about the departure and particularly about the removal of U.S. air defense systems.

The Kurdish regional government's Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict.

“The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defense system, is a matter of concern,” the statement said.

Iran-allied groups in Iraq, meanwhile, have celebrated the U.S. withdrawal.

“The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement.

He added a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to carry out American plans, threatening that “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”

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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Istanbul contributed to this report.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, climbed to 50.1 from 49.8 in August, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The index reading, based on an official monthly survey of companies, was in line with what economists had expected.

PMI is measured on a scale of between 0 and 100 and a reading above 50 reflects an expansion.

Several subindexes remained in expansion territory. The subindex on production rose to 51.7 from 50.4 in August. The subindex on new orders was at 50.5, down slightly from 50.6, while new export orders eased to 50.0 from 50.1.

A separate private survey, the RatingDog PMI, also showed China’s manufacturing PMI advanced to 52.1 in September from 51.5 in August, indicating improvements in the manufacturing sector.

Wednesday’s reports came ahead of China’s weeklong October national holiday in which domestic consumption and spending are closely watched by policymakers.

They also followed new key measures announced in China on Tuesday to support its economy, including new subsidies for Chinese homebuyers’ mortgage interest payments.

China’s economy has been under growing pressure of a slowdown as domestic demand and investment remained sluggish, in part hit by weaknesses in the property sector, even as the global artificial intelligence boom has buoyed Chinese exports of high-tech goods.

“Manufacturing has been a relative strength this year, though it has mostly been driven by external demand as domestic consumption and investment lag,” Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank, wrote in a commentary.

Some economists believe China is on track to surpass last year’s record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. Recent improvements in U.S.-China relationships, including a two-month extension of a trade truce between the two superpowers until January, are likely to help improve bilateral trade.

It was then that mudslides and heavy rain displaced more than 100,000 people across the country, and the Venezuelan government raced to ease the humanitarian crisis by constructing scores of apartments on the strip of land flanked by crystalline waters of the Caribbean Sea to the north and lush mountains to the south.

The buildings, quickly erected in silty soil, were no match for the power of the back-to-back earthquakes on June 24, experts told the AP in dozens of interviews. The quakes killed more than 6,500 people and left over 17,000 homeless.

Here are some takeaways from the AP’s investigation.

— In the rush to build homes, the government disregarded dangers posed by the area’s history of mudslides and floods, which could enhance the risks posed by earthquakes. That’s because the buildings would be constructed on the loose, rocky soil that had been deposited there over centuries by floods and mudslides. The area’s proximity to the San Sebastian Fault line — running off the coast and right underneath La Guaira state — could also compound risks.

— Apartment towers went up in the state's parish of Caraballeda as part of the government’s signature housing program. People assigned those apartments were delighted when they finally received the keys, but they did not know that the height of the buildings would make them prone to collapse. That is because buildings that were between 10 and 20 floors could end up swaying at the exact same pace as the seismic waves, in a phenomenon known as resonance. The syncing results in the building swaying farther and longer, putting additional pressure on columns and increasing the likelihood of damage and collapse, experts said.

— With magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, the earthquakes were incredibly powerful by themselves. But they also dealt the very type of blow engineers fear most, a near-fault pulse. Central University of Venezuela geologist Michael Schmitz said that when the fault shifted, seismic energy stacked up at the front of the rupture as it moved eastward, delivering “a very strong blow” to the base of buildings, abruptly knocking their support and leaving them unable to dissipate energy by swaying.

— Unlike the magnitude of an earthquake, the intensity of the shaking varies from community to community and even street to street. The government had let local seismic instruments go dark, leaving scientists without data to determine the intensity of the shaking. That’s when Eduardo Miranda, a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering, and his colleagues turned to analyzing video captured by two security cameras near a bowling alley in Caraballeda, the most affected community in La Guaira. The footage shows eight buildings collapse simultaneously in less than a second.

— By carefully tracking the motion frame by frame, the team reconstructed how the earthquake produced the motion seen on camera, according to a paper produced by Miranda’s team that was shared with the AP. That analysis revealed one of the largest ground motions ever documented in the world and has provided the only quantitative information on the ground-motion of the quake near the rupture. Miranda said it would have been difficult for structures meeting safety standards in Japan, which has among the strictest building codes, to have survived what happened June 24.

— The paper under peer review for publication in The Seismic Record, the online journal of the Seismological Society of America, determined that buildings in Caraballeda were pushed so far in one direction for so long that they hit their breaking points, Miranda said.

— It is not known whether government contractors followed Venezuela’s building codes. It is also not known whether officials conducted soil studies before construction began, or whether those studies were ignored. The government has not made public blueprints, soil studies or inspection records. Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, who headed the office responsible for then-President Hugo Chávez’s housing program, did not respond to an interview request from AP.

— The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez has not provided any information regarding on-site forensic analyses that experts say are crucial to determine the causes and responsibilities, but its cleanup work, including dynamiting damaged buildings, is underway and so is a rebuilding effort. Experts said they hope the government does not simply repeat the mistakes of 15 years ago and instead takes a careful and considered approach to its rebuilding efforts. They also said the cost of additional design and construction work needed to build high-rises capable of resisting earthquakes in the region will likely dissuade the state and some private investors from developing certain areas.

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Burke reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Pittsburgh and Ryan Manzuk and Marshall Ritzel in New York contributed to this report.

With Republicans struggling to overcome President Donald Trump's low standing, Democrats are on the offensive in Republican strongholds like Texas and Florida, and even eyeing contests in deeper-red Kansas and Mississippi. Many Democratic leaders predict that the House majority is all but theirs, and that the Senate majority, almost unthinkable a year ago, is nearly in their grasp as well.

In the midst of such confidence, however, Democrats are ignoring glaring vulnerabilities that threaten to undermine the unstoppable blue wave they say is coming.

Look no further than swing-state New Hampshire, where Democratic leaders are sounding the alarm about political challenges that could jeopardize Rep. Chris Pappas' campaign for an open Senate seat and undermine the party's ability to win races around the country.

Democrats point to Republicans' overwhelming financial advantage that is allowing them to dominate the airwaves in the closing days of the campaign. At the same time, the Democrats' brand remains deeply unpopular, and they have virtually no margin for error in midterm races that are playing out largely in Republican-leaning states.

New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley says that national Democratic leaders “have consistently been overly optimistic” as they look to expand the midterm map. He's particularly worried about his state's Senate contest, where Republicans are investing far more resources than Democrats.

“There is reason for concern,” Buckley said. “We don’t want to let this one slip away because they were sending resources to some other unicorns — some other state that’s just not possible.”

Despite such warnings, there is little sign of concern among senior Democratic officials, who point to Trump's poor standing with voters who are frustrated by the war with Iran and surging costs with Republicans in control of Washington.

“It’s nothing we’re doing. We’re winning because they’re losing," said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. “And they’re losing dramatically with every action the president has taken.”

There is almost no state where Democrats cannot compete in November, he said: “America is the battleground state.”

Democrats are short on cash and goodwill

For all the Democrats' confidence, the party's brand remains deeply unpopular and fundraising is lagging.

More than half of voters, 55%, have a “strongly” or “somewhat” unfavorable view of the Democrats, according to a Fox News poll from September. A similar share, 58%, say the same about the Republican Party, while about 6 in 10 voters have a negative view of Trump (62%).

At the same time, about half of registered voters say the Democratic Party is “too far to the left,” according to a recent New York Times/Siena poll.

As the election approaches, few Democratic leaders acknowledge there is a problem.

In an interview, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., pointed the finger at Republicans when asked about issues with the Democratic brand.

“We’ve made a much better case than them, and that’s why it looks like we’re going to win a bunch of House seats and probably win back the Senate,” Kelly said. “Right now, I think the Republican brand is the one that’s damaged.”

And yet Democrats are struggling to keep up with Republican fundraising.

Flush with campaign cash, Republicans are dominating the airwaves over the final weeks of the campaign. There isn’t a single state that features a top-tier Senate contest in which Democrats are spending more than Republicans.

Nationwide, Republicans are spending $1.63 billion on campaign advertising between Sept. 1 and Election Day compared to $1.19 billion for Democrats, according to data compiled by AdImpact as of Monday. The Republican advantage, nearly 40% nationwide, is actually larger in some key states.

In Texas, for example, which features competitive races for the Senate, House and governor, Republicans are spending $262.4 million statewide between Sept. 1 and Election Day compared to $76.9 million for Democrats, AdImpact found. In Ohio, which also hosts pivotal elections for Senate and governor, Republicans are outspending Democrats $258.8 million to $160.4 million. And in Florida, which features competitive races for governor and the House, Republicans are spending $99.3 million against the Democrats’ $47.9 million.

The Republican advantage isn’t as egregious in New Hampshire as some other states, but it is significant. AdImpact finds that Republicans are outspending Democrats in New Hampshire $41.2 million to $35.4 million statewide.

Pappas, the Democrat in the New Hampshire Senate race, acknowledged the Republican spending advantage and warned that his state must remain a priority for his national party.

“The majority won’t be flipped if we don’t hold this seat in New Hampshire, so it’s really critical to the overall map,” he said during a campaign stop.

Democrats

face ‘an identity crisis’

Pappas met on Tuesday with small business owners, including Amber Morgan, who owns Fortin Gage Flowers in Nashua. She said the uncertainty created by the Trump administration’s tariffs have been hard for her business.

But Morgan, a Democrat, is not surprised that New Hampshire's Senate race is close, given that Republicans are running the well-known former Sen. John E. Sununu. She said the Democratic Party has its faults as well.

“I think that the message for so long has just been, ‘We’re not Trump,’ and we’ve had a bit of an identity crisis in terms of what we actually stand for," Morgan said.

She is not alone.

Nationwide, the NYT/Siena poll found that about 6 in 10 registered voters who identify as Democrats say their party is divided, while only about 4 in 10 Republicans (37%) say the same about the GOP. Roughly 6 in 10 Republicans (61%) describe their party as united, compared to about 4 in 10 Democrats (40%).

But money remains the Democrats' dominant concern as the Republican spending advantage grows.

Steve Marchand, a Democratic consultant and former New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate, said Sununu has benefited from national money that got redirected from other states that are no longer seen as top targets, while Democrats were slower to invest.

“Democrats, including Pappas, became increasingly frustrated that national Democrats treated it like a fait accompli, like ‘you guys have it up there, we’re going to other states,'" Marchand said. "And a lot of us Democrats were saying, ’Hey, Sununu is going to be formidable, and New Hampshire is not a right-down-the-ticket kind of state.'”

Fred Osterholtz, a sales engineer at one of the businesses Pappas visited, said he’s worried about the huge amounts of money being poured into the race on Sununu’s behalf as well. But he was impressed with Pappas' focus.

“I think he’s starting to find some of the messages that will resonate," Osterholtz said. "I didn’t feel that way six months ago, but with the world stage the way it is — the costs, the inflation — they’re latching onto the right things I think.”

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Peoples reported from New York and Sloan reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed.

Now he's one of several candidates locked in a tougher race than originally envisioned as Republican-run states heeded Trump's call to begin an unusual round of redistricting to help retain control of the U.S. House.

Republicans hoped to pick up as many as nine seats between Texas and Florida. However, even though the districts were redrawn to make them easier to win, the party remains weighed down by dissatisfaction with Trump, the economy, the war with Iran and the president's deportation agenda.

The political landscape remains competitive enough that Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Texas on Wednesday, where he'll appear with Flores, and then visit Florida on Thursday.

House Democrats' national campaign chair, Rep. Suzan DelBene, recently circulated through Florida districts that Republicans were hoping to claim for themselves.

“Republicans arrogantly thought they were going to redistrict seats to pick up more,” DelBene said in an interview during her trip. “Instead, what they have is people across the state souring on the Republican agenda.”

Mike Marinella, House Republicans’ campaign spokesman, said the party can still capitalize this year “with a more favorable map, historic fundraising and spending advantages, stronger candidates and a common-sense agenda.”

House seats are up for grabs in Texas

Republicans won 25 of Texas’ 38 seats in the U.S. House as Trump returned to power two years ago. Partially using that election as a baseline, the redrawn map was intended to help Republicans win up to 30 seats.

Key to this plan was the Rio Grande Valley, a heavily Latino region on the southern tip of Texas, which had shifted toward Trump.

Texas’ 34th Congressional District, where Flores is running, includes some of the valley, and it opted for Trump by 10 points over Democrat Kamala Harris. But Flores said he expected his race to be close, which he credits to his opponent's five terms in office.

Flores received Trump's endorsement, still pinned to his X account, and spoke at his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. But he also removed from his website a promise to “SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S AGENDA" as he looked toward general election voters and widening his base of support.

“If I tell them the red meat issues or I tell them, you know, oh, Republican, Democrat, or anything like that, you lose them,” he told The Associated Press. “I just sell them myself, sell them what I stand for.”

Republicans in Washington acknowledge that inflation, Trump's tariffs and the war in Iran have made their path harder. Latino voters’ discontent with Trump’s immigration agenda further scrambles their efforts.

Republicans are also facing the potential loss of an incumbent who represents a redrawn district. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who is running for a third term, faces a strong challenge from musician Bobby Pulido. A Latin Grammy winner whose top song on Spotify has 619 million streams, Pulido doesn’t face the usual first-time candidates’ challenge of establishing name ID.

“I want a picture!” Eloise Ibarra, 42, exclaimed as Pulido walked through the crowd at a high school football game. Ibarra later said she'd “probably” vote for Pulido after sitting out the last presidential race.

“I don’t really like his policies,” she said about Trump. “It’s very expensive, I go to the grocery store and buy $50 worth of stuff and it’s like five items.”

Democrats argue that Republicans miscalculated this year.

“I think Republicans counted on Hispanics, and they counted on rural Texas, to deliver votes for them, and these are the two places that are hurting the most,” said Terri Burke of the Texas Democratic Party. Speaking of redistricting, she said, "this is really no longer such a slam dunk for the Republicans anywhere.”

Democrats see opportunity in Florida

Republicans already had 20 out of 28 seats in Florida, and they wanted to boost that to 24 with their new congressional map. But much like in Texas, their plan was based on 2024 results, when voters, including many Latinos, were dissatisfied with Democratic President Joe Biden on the economy and immigration.

Republicans targeted Rep. Kathy Castor in metro Tampa and Rep. Darren Soto in the Orlando area, while putting south Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz into the same district.

Moskowitz shifted to a nearby Republican-leaning district, and Wasserman Schultz ran for another term in a separate, heavily Democratic district. Castor and Soto face longer odds in their redrawn districts, though DelBene believes they have a shot in the current environment.

The new map didn’t stop Pia Dandiya, an Ivy League-educated school principal whose parents immigrated from India, from mounting her first House campaign for Congress.

She’s running in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, where Trump won by double digits in 2024 and where Republicans had hoped to pit Moskowitz against Wasserman Schultz.

But Dandiya notes that Biden outpaced Trump in the same collection of precincts in 2020, and she calls herself “a happy road warrior” as she travels 150-plus miles between campaign stops.

“The way this district has been drawn just shows yet again that we are living in a world where elected officials are choosing voters instead of voters choosing elected officials, and it should never be that way,” she said. DelBene and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tapped her as one of their “Red to Blue” priority candidates.

Dandiya said voters' current circumstances matter more than how they voted two years ago.

“Cost of living is not an issue that is exclusively impacting Democrats. It is an issue that is ubiquitous,” she said, adding that she hears the same concerns even in her district's more conservative communities.

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Barrow reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Atlanta.

Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh has said Brown will plead no contest to aggravated assault and be sentenced to probation. He also said adjudication will be withheld, meaning Brown will not be considered a convicted felon.

Brown could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the original charge. Eiglarsh has said the agreement with prosecutors was too good to turn down. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said previously that details would be clarified at the hearing.

Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.

Brown has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and others were trying to steal jewelry from him.

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.

Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, has called the plea deal a fair one. He has said Nantambu forgives Brown and would not cooperate with law enforcement.

Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay, including winning a Super Bowl with quarterback Tom Brady.

Over the course of his career, much of it spent with Pittsburgh, he had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, including punt returns and one pass.

During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his career.

Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously was accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.

Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June of the same year.

Pike, now 50, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday morning by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.

The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer's body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.

Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences vacated.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Pike's attorneys to halt the execution. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Monday denied Pike clemency.

“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition. “Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.”

Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.

“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez said in a telephone interview.

Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution.

The 1995 killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.

Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.

It's a rarity across the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.

Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.

The recipients of the international award are a Pakistani lawyer, an Ethiopian-born AI researcher, a Georgian legal rights group and a network of women farmers across Southern Africa.

The annual prize was created in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, who wanted to honor work that contributes to a more just and peaceful world. It is traditionally announced shortly before the Nobel Prizes, which will be announced starting next Monday.

Right Livelihood said this year's recipients were being awarded for their “resistance to systems that push people to the margins, and a shared insistence on putting people back at the center.” They were chosen from 200 nominations from 72 countries.

“A system built to serve the few was never going to hold. This year, we honor women who refused to wait for permission,” Ole von Uexkull, the nephew of the prize founder and the organization’s executive director, said. “They are rewriting the rules that autocrats, patriarchs and Silicon Valley’s most powerful men assumed were theirs to write alone.”

“With the 2026 laureates we honor four shining examples of building power on cooperation, not on violence, so that everyone’s rights are respected and every voice is heard,” von Uexkull said as he presented the awards to the recipients. “We believe that this kind of collective power is the key to averting global crises, that a few ultra rich people profit from, while everybody else stands to lose.”

Here is a look at the recipients:

A Pakistani lawyer who works to protect vulnerable communities

Jalila Haider, a human rights lawyer who defends some of Pakistan’s most vulnerable communities from state repression, discrimination against women and ethnic violence, was awarded the prize “for breaking barriers, as the first female lawyer from her Hazara community, to challenge ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution, guided by the conviction that no human being is illegal.”

By combining legal work with efforts to help communities advocate for themselves, “Haider has secured justice for thousands targeted or ignored by those in power, specifically ethnic, gender and religious minorities, as well as refugees,” the organization said. Haider's law firm has also helped more than 600 political activists and human rights defenders regain the right to travel freely.

A Southern African women farmers’ group defending land rights

Also awarded was the Rural Women’s Assembly “for organizing rural women across Southern Africa into a united force defending land, seed and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal dispossession.”

The Rural Women’s Assembly is a self-organized, movement of more than 178,000 small-scale farmers across 11 Southern African nations. It has established 24 sites where farmers reproduce and preserve seeds for future planting and documented hundreds of local seed varieties, helping protect the practice of saving and exchanging traditional seeds, the Swedish foundation said.

A Georgian human rights group working to safeguard democracy

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association won the prize “for building and safeguarding Georgian democracy and sustaining civic power in the face of an autocratic crackdown.”

The group was founded in 1994 by volunteer lawyers who helped draft the country’s first postindependence constitution.

According to Right Livelihood, it has secured major legal victories that reshaped national policy, including protections for people with disabilities, free education for all children and compensation for victims of Soviet-era repression.

A researcher who exposes harms that AI is already causing

Right Livelihood also honored AI researcher Timnit Gebru “for challenging concentrated power in artificial intelligence and pioneering digital technology rooted in justice, lived experience and human agency.”

Gebru, who was born in Ethiopia to a family of Eritrean origin, is the founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute.

Right Livelihood said her work challenges the control that a small number of powerful companies exercise over AI and exposes harms that AI systems are already causing, particularly to communities facing discrimination and exclusion.

With the Red Sox trailing after losing the opener of the best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Yankees 9-0, Gray will face a fan base on Wednesday night that gave him the Bronx brush-off in 2017 and 2018.

“There’s a lot of people and a lot of players that can have one bump in the road and not get back on the tracks,” he said Tuesday. “And for me, there’s been bumps along the way and that may have been a little bit of a bigger bump than others.”

Approaching his 37th birthday, Gray tied for the major league lead with 18 wins this year along with a 2.72 ERA, his best in a full season. He took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning against the Yankees at Fenway Park in June as the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep that sparked their turnaround from a 32-46 start to an 87-75 record and a playoff berth.

Gray has pitched at Yankee Stadium twice since leaving the team and done well both times. Most recently, he pitched three-run ball over 6 1/3 innings in Boston’s 5-3 win in the Bronx on June 5.

“He’s had a great career, and someone who I was never super comfortable facing,” Red Sox teammate Trevor Story said. “He’s a pitcher to its finest degree.”

Gray reached a nadir in New York before rebounding. He's been an All-Star twice since and has 143 wins over 14 seasons.

“Anytime he’s out there, we feel good about it," Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said. “But having him out there tomorrow, obviously the season’s on the line for us, and he can handle that.”

He was 15-16 with a 4.52 ERA for the Yankees, who acquired him from Oakland in July 2017. He notoriously was dropped from the rotation in August 2018 after he smirked when fans booed as he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound in the third inning of a 7-5 loss to Baltimore.

Gray had a 6.98 ERA at Yankee Stadium in 2018 and a 3.17 ERA on the road.

“It’s kind of like one of those things that you have a snowball or whatever, right?” Gray said. “There’s a snowball that kind of starts rolling down a hill. If you don’t ever stop it, then the snowball just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it picks up traction and it just gets more snow. And it just continues to go down this thing. And then the bigger the snowball gets, the harder it is to stop it or take a step back.

"And for me, it just took me to get away and get myself into a different environment and then reflect on those things.”

Pitching for Cincinnati (2019-21), Minnesota (2022-23) and St. Louis (2024-25) revived his career. Then he was traded to the Red Sox last November, putting him in position to pitch for the Yankees' biggest rival.

"New York was, it just wasn’t a good situation for me, wasn’t a great setup for me and my family,” he said during a December Zoom news conference. “I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

Now he'll be back, trying to outpitch the Yankees' Max Fried and extend the first-round series to a decisive third game.

“I do know that playing here made me a stronger person, made me a better man, a better husband," he said. “Ultimately, it made me a better pitcher, a better baseball player.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Cam Schlittler pitched another playoff gem against the Red Sox, and Ben Rice also burned their hometown team with a late grand slam and six RBIs as the New York Yankees opened this Wild Card Series rematch by romping to a 9-0 victory Tuesday night.

With the Yankees minus star slugger Aaron Judge because of a calf injury, Rice homered twice, doubled and had four hits to power the offense. Schlittler, a clear frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award, struck out 10 in a dominant performance reminiscent of the one that ended Boston's season last year.

Rice and Schlittler were both raised among Red Sox fans in Massachusetts and went to college in New England before getting plucked by the Yankees out of Boston's backyard in baseball's amateur draft.

“Pretty remarkable,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously that’s been a storyline for a couple of years now. For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly, but I’m certainly glad we have those two.”

Rice was actually a Yankees fan while growing up outside Boston.

“Wearing the Yankees jersey to the first-grade picture day probably got some weird looks,” he said.

“Definitely adds, like, a cool little layer to it, and for Cam, too. It’s always fun playing against them. And having a solid game against them is pretty cool.”

No. 9 batter Austin Wells drove in two runs and 21-year-old rookie George Lombard Jr. had three hits for New York in his postseason debut.

Schlittler, who led the American League with a 1.95 ERA, allowed only two singles and one walk in 6 1/3 innings without letting a runner reach second base. He threw 117 pitches — 10 more than his previous career high and most by a Yankees postseason starter since Hall of Fame lefty CC Sabathia threw 121 in the 2012 AL Division Series against Baltimore.

“I got a little greedy,” Boone said.

The major league high this season was 120 by Dylan Cease for Toronto at Boston in July.

The 25-year-old Schlittler retired 13 straight batters before a two-out walk in the fifth, bringing several chants of “MVP! MVP!” from the sellout crowd of 48,437 in the Bronx. He walked off the mound to a standing ovation after yielding a one-out single in the seventh, and Paul Blackburn promptly got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground into an inning-ending double play that preserved a 2-0 lead.

New York outhit Boston 12-3 in the fifth postseason shutout since 2002 for the Yankees, who led the majors in ERA this year for the first time since 1957.

Game 2 in the best-of-three series at Yankee Stadium is Wednesday night, when a victory would send New York into a best-of-five Division Series against AL East champion Tampa Bay.

Going into this postseason, Game 1 winners had advanced 15 times in the 16 best-of-three Wild Card Series since the format was implemented in 2022. The only exception was the Red Sox last year.

Boston and New York have split six previous postseason matchups. The Yankees took last year’s Wild Card Series between the longtime rivals on the strength of Schlittler’s dominant performance in Game 3, when the rookie struck out 12 over eight innings in a 4-0 win.

Schlittler has said he received on-line abuse before some of his outings against Boston. He’s used it as motivation.

The right-hander is 4-1 with a 0.47 ERA and 49 strikeouts in six career starts against the Red Sox — including the playoffs.

“It's very well known that if you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal, you’ve got to do it in the postseason,” Schlittler said.

Rice gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead with a 423-foot solo homer into Monument Park in straightaway center field on the third pitch from left-handed reliever Erik Miller, who replaced Payton Tolle with two outs in the fifth after the rookie starter threw 83 pitches.

The 27-year-old Rice added a run-scoring single with the bases loaded in the seventh and a grand slam to right-center that capped a five-run eighth.

The 16th slam in Yankees postseason history gave Rice six RBIs, matching the franchise record for a postseason game accomplished by four other players.

Rice also homered in Game 2 of last year's Wild Card Series. He led New York with 41 homers, 97 RBIs and an .897 OPS this year in his third major league season.

“I’ll remember getting a W versus the Red Sox. There’s nothing better than that,” Rice said. “I’ll remember Cam going out there and just being lights out, like he always is. I’ll remember the atmosphere. It was just an awesome night. Great way to kick off the series.”

Up next

Red Sox RHP Sonny Gray (18-5, 2.72 ERA) faces one of his former teams Wednesday night when he makes his seventh postseason start and first since 2023 with Minnesota.

LHP Max Fried (5-5, 2.80 ERA) pitches for New York. The three-time All-Star was limited to 20 starts this season because of two stints on the injured list with a bruised left elbow. He threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings in the Wild Card Series opener last year.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The gunfire erupted at approximately 9:53 p.m. Tuesday in the area of the 600 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue.

According to the Miami Police Department, officers responded to the scene in reference to a Shot Spotter alert.

Upon arrival, police said they found two men who had been shot.

Miami Fire Rescue said the men’s ages ranged between 20 and 30 and listed both in serious and critical condition.

Both men were rushed by MFR crews to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Local 10 News cameras captured police appearing to focus part of their investigation on a white Mercedes sedan that appeared to have a bullet hole in the windshield.

Investigators said they are working to determine the circumstances that led up to the shooting.

Police did not say whether they were seeking any suspects or persons of interest.

France's CAC 40 gained 0.3% in early trading to 8,056.35, while the German DAX edged up 0.7% to 25,569.01. Britain's FTSE 100 rose nearly 0.7% to 10,706.17.

U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures rising 0.5% to 51,940.00. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% to 7,755.25.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to finish at 66,753.72. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9% to 8,789.30. South Korea's Kospi reversed earlier gains and fell 0.5% at 6,838.04. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 24,613.10, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,842.19.

SoftBank Group Corp., which invests in OpenAI, surged more than 6% in Tokyo trading. Also gaining were Japanese chip-related stocks like Renesas Electronics and Rohm Co.

Oil prices are swinging sharply as the U.S. war with Iran drags on, helping to push Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years.

Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.3% to $89.11 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 0.3% to $102.29 a barrel. Brent is well above the roughly $72 it cost before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mediators continued to work with the United States and Iran on reaching a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump over the weekend rejected an offer from Tehran to reopen the key waterway.

Wall Street will see several big economic updates this week that could help investors and the Federal Reserve get a better sense of where inflation is headed.

U.S. inflation rates have remained stubbornly above 3% most of the year, well above the Fed's target rate of 2%. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate again at its next meeting in October.

“While it is easy to focus on the macroeconomic headwinds of bond yields and oil, the underlying U.S. economy remains remarkably resilient,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at Moomoo, a global financial technology and online brokerage company.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 156.93 Japanese yen from 157.27 yen. The euro cost $1.1352, up from $1.1347.

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The two-way superstar played in the final five games of the regular season after coming off a two-week stint on the injured list with nagging right biceps and left knee issues.

With five days off leading up to Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Ohtani has time to rest and refine his hitting stroke.

He went 5 for 21 with an extra-base hit, eight strikeouts and a walk over the final five games.

“Everything is feeling great physically,” general manager Brandon Gomes said Tuesday. "The swings, once he came back, overall were in a good place, and using these five days to continue to get reps and feeling good into this series is really important. But feels like he’s in a great spot.”

Ohtani hit .275 with an .889 OPS and a team-high 30 home runs in the regular season despite injuries that curtailed his pitching and a slump at the plate that knocked him out of contention for a fifth MVP award.

During his offensive skid, Ohtani batted .198 with 34 strikeouts in 24 games before going on the IL.

"I feel confident that you’re going to see the best version of Shohei of the last two months,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I know that’s sort of a low bar given his injury, but I do think that he’s as healthy as he’s been in quite some time. Every day from the training staff, it keeps getting better. So yeah, number one, he’ll be a threat being in the lineup, but I do think that the performance piece will be what we’re hoping for.”

Roberts wants to see Ohtani take a handful of live at-bats and hit off the Trajekt machine this week.

“He did everything he could to manage it, all the while being somewhat compromised,” the manager said. "I think that he’s going to be as healthy and feel as good as he’s felt.”

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Jonquel Jones had 21 points and 13 rebounds and the No. 8 seed Liberty beat the top-seeded Lynx 87-71 in Game 2 of their WNBA playoff series Tuesday night. New York became the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.

The WNBA has undergone a number of different playoff formats. And in many of the formats, it wasn’t possible for those seeds to match up. However, in 2022 the league changed to the current format in which the top eight teams play in the quarterfinals.

“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said. “We're not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things. We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward. It feels good to make history. It had to be done for us to advance. It’s nice to say it’s been accomplished, but we have a lot of work to do."

Breanna Stewart added 21 points and Sabrina Ionescu had 18 for the Liberty, who await the winner of the Atlanta-Washington series. The Dream are up 1-0 and play at Washington on Wednesday night. The semifinals begin Sunday.

A year after losing in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series, New York was determined not to have that happen again.

The Liberty were up five points after one quarter and led 40-35 with 2:39 left in the half. New York scored nine of the final 11 points in the second quarter to go up 49-37 at the break.

New York was up 52-39 with 6:26 left in the third when Stewart drove to the basket and was hit in the face by Olivia Miles as she tried to block the shot. Stewart was down for a minute as the officials reviewed the play and upgraded the play to a Flagrant-1 foul.

As Stewart walked off the court, she raised her hands to the sellout crowd of 17,593, who serenaded her with M-V-P! chants. Stewart hit both free throws.

Minnesota couldn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“New York is a great basketball team,” said Courtney Williams, who led Minnesota with 18 points. “You dig a hole for yourself and try to get out of it. We wanted to go on a run, but they had answers for everything.”

The Lynx's season ended in disappointment again. The Lynx had the best regular-season record, but just couldn't put it together against New York. On Monday, Cheryl Reeve won the league's Coach of the Year and Miles was a unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year.

Miles struggled in both games against New York. She had five points, missing seven of her eight shots in 17 minutes, on Tuesday night. The Liberty's size and ability to protect the rim bothered the stellar first-year player.

Reeve said she offered encouragement to her star rookie after the game.

“As I told her. When was the last time a rookie led the first place team? Never happened before,” Reeve said. “That's what we shared with her. This hurts for her.”

Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride each added 14 to for the Lynx.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Typically, goods and items seized by the government are destroyed or sold at auction. In this case, CBP officers had a different idea: donation.

Local 10 was given rare access to see the shipment as well as one of the undisclosed warehouses in South Florida where confiscated items are stored.

“What the public rarely sees is what happens after we make a seizure,” said Miami Director of Field Operations Daniel Alonso.

According to CBP, it’s believed the importers used fake labels to conceal where the shipment was from, and what it contained, to try to evade duties placed on Chinese goods.

“When items like this are mislabeled, they’re trying to get them into the country at a lower rate, which causes a substantial loss of revenue to the United States,” Port Director Robert Del Toro said. “So you do that - items do get seized.”

Del Toro said the pre-constructed cabinets underwent a thorough inspection for safety before CBP collaborated with non-profit World Vision.

Palates of cabinets, still in boxes, will be distributed to communities in need in Central America and Africa. Because the boxes were initially mislabeled, some legal restrictions prevent them from staying in the U.S.

“What we see is cabinets,” said Jack Laverty, Corporate Engagement Director at World Vision. “What they see is hope.”

Palates were moved out of the government warehouse last week.

“It’s adding cabinets either to their home, to schools, to clinics - to facilities that are serving vulnerable populations,” Laverty said.

The investigation into the importer of the cabinets, and whether they may face penalties, continues.

La iniciativa, impulsada por el presidente Nayib Bukele, fue aprobada con el voto de 57 de los 60 diputados del Congreso unicameral, controlado por el partido Nuevas Ideas del mandatario y sus aliados. Los tres diputados de oposición no votaron.

La nueva ley especial transitoria autoriza al presidente Bukele a realizar los “arreglos que sean necesarios” para que el personal salvadoreño “no sea entregado o transferido a ningún tribunal internacional, entidad o Estado para ser juzgado sin perjuicio del cumplimiento de los tratados internacionales ratificados por el país”.

En octubre de 2024, El Salvador aprobó enviar un contingente militar a Haití para participar en operaciones de evacuaciones médicas como parte de la Misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad, liderada por Kenia.

La Fuerza de Supresión de Pandillas (GSF, por sus siglas en inglés) fue aprobada el 30 de septiembre de 2025 por el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU con el objetivo de realizar operaciones para desmantelar bandas armadas y sustituir la misión de apoyo a la seguridad liderada por Kenia, autorizada en octubre de 2023 y limitada de recursos.

La ley de participación en la GSF explica que informó al gobierno de Estados Unidos que la Fuerza Armada de “El Salvador está en condiciones de apoyar la referida misión con ayuda militar y equipamiento de defensa".

Fifty years after Stallone pulled off one of Hollywood’s all-time long shots with “Rocky,” the Oscar-nominated star still identifies with the character who for many embodies the outsider proving all the naysayers wrong.

Now, turning 80, the Hollywood icon is stripping away the action-hero armor to tell the raw, unfiltered story of how he survived the ultimate underdog fight; his own life.

Local 10’s Jason Carter has the full story, and it can be seen at the top of this page.

They are automated license plate readers that snap pictures of passing cars and keep a database that police officers can search through.

Advocates say the cameras can help solve crimes, find stolen cars and track missing persons, but there are those who feel there are privacy concerns.

Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all flock cameras and other license plate readers to be removed from state highways.

Just the next day, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz not only did that, but went further and suspended its entire program.

The day after, so did Pembroke Pines.

Right as you enter the city of Hollywood, just as you pass the Welcome to Hollywood sign, you’re greeted by a flock camera.

It’s right near the intersection of Pembroke Road and South Park Road.

Several South Florida mayors, including Miami Beach, Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura, asked the governor to reconsider his order, signing a letter and noting the cameras have solved crimes while worrying that no transition plan could put public safety at risk.

Miramar has dozens of cameras, including one near the intersection of Miramar Parkway and Southwest 64th Avenue.

So does Fort Lauderdale, where last month police said someone damaged two cameras.

The city of Miami’s newly passed budget gives police nearly $150,000 in what’s being called “investigative tech” upgrades.

Watchdogs fear that’s going toward flock cameras.

DeFlock, an open-source project tracking cameras around the country, lists thousands in South Florida, most of them flock cameras.

Federal lawmakers are looking into concerns they can make mistakes.

Lindsey Isaacs was wrongfully arrested and jailed for 13 days in Central Florida after a camera mistakenly identified her as a driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run.

She testified during a U.S. Senate hearing last week.

“I was placed in solitary confinement for approximately three and a half days,” she said.

She was her godmother, and they talked about everything.

“I spoke to my aunt almost every day,” said Gonzalez.

But those phone calls stopped On June 19, when Liontos and her husband Roger Gonzalez were murdered at their home in southwest Miami-Dade County.

Both were found shot on their property.

Ashley Gonzalez and her family could not wrap their minds around who would hurt the couple.

Last week, U.S. Marshals arrested 73-year-old Andres Gonzalez in Puerto Rico, someone the family knew.

“He was their neighbor for a long time,” said Ashley Gonzalez. “So when they said his name, my heart dropped because I was so shocked.”

According to an arrest warrant, the suspect purchased a one-way flight the day before the murders and boarded a flight on June 19.

The arrest of the longtime family friend now accused two murders stunned loved ones.

“I can’t get why, what went through his mind?” said Ashley Gonzalez. “What why did he go there and just do that to them?”

A motive has not been officially released by investigators, but the arrest warrant points to money, saying he, “Sold equipment and plants to the victims for $14,000 dollars” and “still owed $2,000 and they stopped making payments.”

“Yeah, not getting the two grand back, yeah, now he’s gonna go to jail for the rest of his life,” said Ashley Gonzalez.

The suspect is being held without bond on two first degree murder charges.

For Ashley Gonzalez, she wants people to know how much her aunt and uncle were loved and will always be missed. She says the only thing she wants is her aunt’s phones and fanny pack; those were the only things that went missing from the home.

Their mother, Nathalie Belizaire, had left aboard the Carnival Conquest on a 3-day voyage from Miami to the Bahamas on Friday, according to police.

North Miami Beach Chief Juan Pinillos said the children were alone for at least 48 hours.

“Anyone who has children knows a two-month-old needs tons of attention,” Pinillos said.

Police officers reported forcing their way into the apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street and finding the four kids “hiding” in the bathroom.

“We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids,” Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer said in court on Tuesday morning.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies, and North Miami Beach police officers were waiting when Belizaire, 29, returned on Monday to PortMiami.

“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship,” Glazer said.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Belizaire at 1:25 p.m. on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

“Be responsible, leaving a baby alone, unattended, unsupervised is a serious crime,” Pinillos said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a felony case against Belizaire. She faced four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set her bond at $10,000.

While leaving jail Tuesday evening, Belizaire denied the charges and claimed the children were supposed to be under the supervision of their father.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the case.

Related stories

• Mother accused of leaving 4 young children, including infant, home alone to go on Carnival cruise
• Judge on North Miami Beach mother’s alleged crimes: ‘You cannot make this up’

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Firefighters responded to the area of Northwest Ninth Street and 10th Avenue just after 2 a.m., where they encountered massive flames.

The fire has since been extinguished, but an ATV, three other vehicles and a portion of the home were damaged.

Firefighters said the blaze started with the ATV, though it remains unclear what caused it to catch fire.

Police officers later confirmed to Local 10 News that an arson investigation was underway.

Security footage shows one of the vehicles bursting into flames.

“I thought it was going to explode because there was, like, at least three cars over there that caught on fire at the same time, so we were just, you know, worried that it might be a bigger thing,” neighbor Hilda Palma said. “But I was also worried because since the house was already on fire as well, I didn’t know if there were people in there, because the front of the door was getting on fire.”

No injuries were reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials took canisters of evidence from the vehicles to see if this could have been a case of arson.

The official cause of the fire, however, remains under investigation.

Ream had previously told head coach Mauricio Pochettino that he would not retire from national team play, but says now that the evolution of the team and the game has changed things.

“The kids are getting younger and younger, and I don’t mean my own kids,” Ream said Tuesday before the Americans faced Chile in a friendly in his hometown. “It is retirement. We’ve used the word recognition. We weren’t really sure how we wanted to label it, but, yeah, that’s it for me. I’m proud of being a part of something for 16 years, but it is time to step away and stay away from play with the national team.”

The 38-year-old Ream has 86 caps since making his national team debut on Nov. 17, 2010, in a friendly against South Africa. Only DaMarcus Beasley has more caps than Ream’s 60 after turning 30 years old.

Ream has worn the captain’s armband for 26 matches, including four at the World Cup earlier this year.

“It’s an honor, there’s not really any other way to put it,” Ream said. “The biggest thing that I wanted to do as I started to get the captain’s armband more and more is, ’How can I help these guys become the next captain? How can I help this group continue to develop and be more special than they are.”

Ream says the future for the U.S. team is looking bright with a group of young talent, including 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan, that reminds him of when the current core of Gio Reyna, Tyler Adams and Weston McKinnie was emerging.

“The thing that stands out to me with them is the same thing that stood out when the Westons, the Tylers, the Gios, these guys stepped in to the national team,” Ream said. “They have a ridiculous amount of confidence, and it’s refreshing. It borderlines being cocky, but I think you have to have that little bit of swagger. You have to have that that belief in yourself. They’re still learning.”

Ream said he will continue to play for MLS’ Charlotte FC and has not made a decision on his future in the MLS.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

On a night when the defenses and goaltenders had the edge, it was a blue-liner who provided the winning play to end a matchup of the last two teams to win the Cup.

The Panthers had their final chance with the game seemingly headed to a shootout as Carter Verhaeghe brought the puck into the zone with under 10 seconds left. But Verhaeghe sent the puck back toward Forsling, who fired a one-timer from near the blue line that zipped past Bussi’s glove side to end it.

That spoiled the end of a three-month celebration for the Hurricanes since beating Vegas in June to cap a 16-3 march to the franchise’s second Cup. The final piece was the players gathering at the blue line and tapping their sticks as a championship banner rose to the rafters.

That moment came against the Panthers, who reached the Stanley Cup Final for three straight years and won it all in 2024 and 2025. They had twice eliminated the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final in their run, though injuries derailed last year.

Getting captain Aleksander Barkov back from that lengthy injury list was one of several reasons to expect the Panthers to jump right back into contention, along with Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk welcoming brother Brady as an offseason addition. There was also the change by bringing in Jacob Markstrom to take over the crease anchored by Sergei Bobrovsky during those title runs.

And for much of this one, it was up to Markstrom and Bussi to hold up in net, including against multiple one-on-one quality chances and a combined 13 power plays in regulation.

Markstrom finished with 15 saves while Bussi — who posted a shutout in Carolina’s Cup-clinching win against Vegas — made 19 saves before giving up the last blast.

Up next

Panthers: Florida heads west to face the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

Hurricanes: Carolina hosts the Washington Capitals on Friday night.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

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“I'm particularly grateful to the men and women of the Oakland Police Department ... for achieving substantial compliance,” San Francisco judge William Orrick said. “May it ever be thus.”

The police department made national news in 2000 after a rookie officer came forward to report abuse of power by a group of officers known as the Oakland “Riders.” The four officers were charged with making false arrests, planting evidence, using excessive force, falsifying police reports and assaulting people in west Oakland, a predominantly Black area. Three of the officers were acquitted after two separate juries deadlocked on most of the charges. The fourth officer is a fugitive and is believed to have fled the country.

The case resulted in the department coming under federal oversight in 2003 and being required to enact dozens of reform measures and report its progress to an outside monitor and a federal judge. That same year, the city of about 400,000 people settled a class-action police abuse lawsuit involving 119 people for $11 million.

The Oakland Police Department has had constant leadership turnover over the years. In 2023, police chief LeRonne Armstrong was fired after a probe found that he covered up officer misconduct. The current chief, James Beere, took office in July, making him the 16th head of the department over two decades of federal oversight.

The department’s federal monitor in May issued a report saying that the Oakland Police Department had complied with all 51 court-mandated reforms stemming from the 2000 police brutality and corruption case.

“This is the first time in 23 years that OPD has achieved each of the 51 tasks in the (settlement agreement.) No one can say, ‘mission accomplished.’ But I do congratulate the city and OPD for getting this far,” Orrick said during a hearing in May.

Some civil rights organizations had asked Orrick to delay releasing the department from federal oversight for at least a year after court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw said in a progress report this month that he had found that the Oakland Police Department had again fallen below the threshold for timely investigations into severe misconduct violations.

But Orrick noted Tuesday it was important for the court to “get out of the way.”

While plaintiff attorneys at the hearing noted the department fell short of completing 85% of its serious misconduct investigations within 180 days, they did not oppose the ending of federal oversight.

Oakland Police Chief Beere acknowledged those cases to the judge, explaining that many were complex officer-involved shootings.

“We did slip a little bit,” said Beere, KTVU reported. “But we own our mistakes.”

The Oakland police union said the decision was an “important new beginning” for the department and reflects years of hard work by officers.

“The next chapter for the City and OPD must be about recruiting officers, rebuilding staffing levels and giving the men and women of OPD the resources they need to keep Oakland safe,” said Cesar Leyva, interim president of the Oakland Police Officers Association.

Civil rights attorney John Burris reflected at the hearing on the progress made over the past two decades and the importance of continuing that progress under the leadership of the city of Oakland.

“For me, it’s not today that’s important, it’s tomorrow … whether or not what’s been put in place here stands the test of time,” Burris said.

Some local groups urged the importance of strengthening civilian oversight of the police department through the Oakland Police Commission, established by voters in 2016.

“We need more independent oversight, more transparency, and more accountability, not less,” said Cat Brooks, executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project.

The White Sox, in the postseason for the first time since 2021, made a remarkable turnaround this year to become the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth. They had lost 100 games three straight seasons, including 121 defeats in 2024, setting the record for most losses since 1899.

“We came here to win the series and the first part of that is getting this first win, which is great,” manager Will Venable said.

He added that he was impressed with the poise his young team showed.

“A bunch of young guys that haven’t been in this situation before, they didn’t back down at all,” he said. “So really good stuff to come out and have an early win.”

The White Sox got a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native, prior to the game and got to work immediately to show off for the pontiff.

They led 3-0 after two innings and held on for their first playoff win since Oct. 10, 2021 in the ALDS against Houston.

The AL West-winning Astros eked out a playoff spot with an 81-81 record to become the first team to reach the postseason without a winning record. Houston lost its eighth straight home playoff game in its ninth trip to the postseason in the last 10 years.

Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Wednesday in Houston.

Manager Joe Espada is confident his team will respond Wednesday to force a Game 3.

“Our backs have been against the corner before and I think that’s when we are our best, when we fight back,” he said. “We know it’s a do or die and we’ve been here before, so I really admire how they bounce back and they react to challenges. I expect them to go out there and bounce back and our offense to get going.”

MVP-favorite Yordan Alvarez said they're ready for the challenge.

“Tomorrow we have to come out here and win or there’s no tomorrow after that,” he said in Spanish through a translator.

Houston had runners on first and third with two outs in the eighth after singles by Jeremy Peña and Alvarez when Jose Altuve reached and Peña scored on an error by third baseman Miguel Vargas to cut the lead to 6-3.

The Astros' tough day came in front of a surprisingly thin crowd. The announced attendance was 34,011 in a park with a capacity of 40,963. The home fans peppered the team with some boos when it fell behind early.

Both teams went with a bullpen game and combined to use 13 pitchers. Chicago opened with rookie left-hander Hagen Smith, and he allowed two hits in three scoreless innings.

“It was cool just to get the opportunity to go out there and do that,” he said. “And, yeah, just try to go out there and compete the best I can for the team and give us the best chance to win.”

Houston’s rookie opener AJ Blubaugh gave up two walks, and an error by Christian Walker left runners on first and third with one out in the first. The White Sox took an early lead on a sacrifice fly by Murakami.

Bryan King plunked Montgomery to load the bases with no outs in the second before Antonacci’s single pushed the lead to 3-0.

Espada said having to use two pitchers so early made piecing together the game difficult.

“It puts you in a tough spot for sure,” he said.

Montgomery, who Venable dropped to ninth in the order Tuesday, opened the fourth with a 432-foot homer to straightaway center field to make it 4-0. He hit 31 home runs in the regular season but also set the single-season record with 227 strikeouts.

Chicago made it 5-0 on a bases-loaded RBI single by Chase Meidroth with one out in the fifth.

Pinch-hitter Nelson Velázquez hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 5-2 with two outs in the fifth.

The White Sox tacked on another run on a wild pitch by Bennett Sousa in the seventh.

Up next

Ace Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.19 ERA) will start Game 2 as the Astros try to avoid elimination against RHP Sean Burke (11-7, 3.34 ERA).

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Justin Michael Wolfe ’s release on Monday marks the end of a complex legal saga that at one point had him just days away from an execution date for the 2001 murder of Daniel Petrole in Bristow, Virginia. Judge Carl Weimer vacated the conviction after the only witness tying Wolfe to the shooting recanted his testimony, and Wolfe agreed to a plea deal on marijuana and robbery charges for a sentence of time served.

Wolfe, 45, spent his first few hours of freedom in a whirlwind of normalcy: Eating pizza, running errands with his mom, planning a family dinner.

“The thing I relish most is getting to know my nieces and nephews,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I did 25 years for a marijuana case, something that you can go buy at the store now. I feel like I handled it as well as I could.”

Wolfe was 19 when the case began

Wolfe's case drew widespread attention when it began in the early 2000s, exposing a then-shocking drug ring involving Wolfe and several other teens in northern Virginia. At the time, authorities said they estimated Wolfe and the others may have sold as much as $10 million worth of marijuana and the synthetic drug ecstasy before they were caught, using the money on high-dollar vacations to Hawaii and Atlantic City while maintaining a veneer of everyday suburban life.

Prosecutors said Wolfe hired another young marijuana dealer, Owen Barber, to shoot and kill Daniel Petrole on March 15, 2001. Petrole was Wolfe’s friend from high school as well as his drug supplier, and prosecutors said Wolfe owed Petrole more than $60,000.

After the shooting, Barber told a friend what he had done and the friend notified police, according to court records. Barber eventually pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to 60 years for the murder.

Advocacy groups took up Wolfe's case

Meanwhile, a grand jury indicted Wolfe on charges including capital murder. Wolfe testified in his own defense and denied any involvement in Petrole’s death, but he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death.

The only person tying Wolfe to the murder-for-hire scheme was Barber. And Barber later recanted his trial testimony, saying Wolfe wasn’t involved in the murder and that law enforcement officers had repeatedly threatened him with the death penalty unless he cooperated with Wolfe’s prosecution.

Legal advocacy groups, including the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law and others took up Wolfe's cause. But legal wins in the case were at times incremental, and each step took years.

Wolfe's death sentence was overturned, but he still faced decades in prison

After Wolfe appealed, a federal judge determined that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct and vacated his death sentence, ordering a new trial. But Barber refused to testify on Wolfe's behalf because he feared it would violate the plea deal he had reached in his own case, potentially subjecting Barber to a new death penalty trial.

More legal wrangling ensued, and in 2016 Wolfe was resentenced to up to 41 years in prison as part of a plea deal to avoid another death sentence. The deal also required him to apologize to Petrole's family.

“I understand all the pain and suffering I caused,” Wolfe said at his 2016 sentencing, looking directly at Petrole’s family. “I know an apology is not enough, but I’m sorry.”

Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021. Barber, who was no longer at risk of facing capital punishment, signed a new sworn statement in 2023 vowing that Wolfe had nothing to do with Petrole's death. Two other people also provided sworn statements that Barber had told each of them that Wolfe wasn’t involved in Petrole’s death.

An appeals court criticized an overzealous prosecution

Last year, a panel of federal appellate judges agreed that Wolfe had been the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.

“Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that appellant was a guilty man,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. "From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure Appellant dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and Appellant’s own repeated and consistent assertions of actual innocence.”

Wolfe's release this week came as part of a new plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to selling marijuana and entered a modified guilty plea known as an Alford plea to solicitation of robbery. An Alford plea essentially allows a defendant to plead guilty despite maintaining their innocence.

“The system is broken," his mom, Steinberg, said. “What they did to him was cruel and unusual punishment, and what they did to the Petroles was just prolong their pain.”

New prosecutors say the resolution is an ‘appropriate outcome’

In a statement released Monday, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth called the resolution a “just and appropriate outcome” to a case that was mishandled by a previous administration.

“We recognize that people will have strong and differing views about this resolution,” with some believing it establishes Wolfe's guilt and others his innocence, Ashworth said.

Petrole's family says they will always love and miss him

Petrole's family also issued a statement, included in the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney's office release.

They asked for privacy and said they hope that now they “can finally begin to close this chapter and remember Danny for life rather than for the circumstances of his death.”

Wolfe is looking toward the future

Steinberg said she's looking forward to healing, as a family.

Wolfe is facing an adjustment period. Simple things like being able to choose when to sleep, and showering without a correctional officer escort are novel changes after a quarter-century behind bars. But he hopes to eventually become an advocate for criminal justice reform.

“We just went to Costco, and that was sensory overload,” Wolfe said with a chuckle. “I’m going to get the hang of it. I’ll be alright.”

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

The incident could further inflame tensions between the Koreas, which have no working military hotlines or other emergency communications channels as North Korea hardens its stance toward Seoul while expanding its military nuclear program.

Three South Korean soldiers were injured in two explosions on Sept. 21 near the military demarcation line in the western section of the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified border buffer zone between the Koreas that's commonly known as the DMZ.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong came after South Korea’s military on Monday announced a preliminary assessment that the blasts were caused by North Korean mines following a joint inspection of the site with the U.S.-led United Nations Command.

UN Command says North Korea violated armistice agreement

The South Korean joint chiefs said South Korean and U.N. investigators discovered another North Korean mine Tuesday during a follow-up inspection. The U.N. Command said Wednesday that North Korea had violated the armistice agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The agreement prohibits both sides from committing any hostile act “within, from, or against” the DMZ and bans military or civilian personnel from crossing the military demarcation line without authorization from the armistice commission.

The U.N. Command said it was addressing the violation through established mechanisms but didn’t elaborate.

Kang Hyunwoo, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff’s director of operations, said the military “strongly urges” North Korea to apologize for the blasts and take “responsible measures” to prevent a recurrence. South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said the South would consider unspecified “corresponding measures” if a complete investigation confirms the North was responsible.

Kim calls Seoul's claims a ‘farce’

Kim Yo Jong, who is considered possibly the second most powerful figure in Pyongyang, called the South Korean assessment a “conspiratorial farce,” accusing Seoul of making groundless claims to create a pretext for provocation against the North.

North Korea in recent years has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front-line fortifications, raising concerns in the South about the growing presence of North Korean soldiers near the border. Kim criticized the South for broadcasting warnings and firing warning shots at North Korean troops conducting front-line fortification work, insisting “our soldiers have never crossed the border.”

“If the (South Korean) military gangsters fire at our soldiers carrying on the permanent project for the southern border, not warning shots, our border units will take immediate and merciless retaliatory action,” she said.

The recent explosions, which took place about 10 meters (yards) south of the military demarcation line, came during an operation to establish a patrol route through a densely vegetated area. The route was intended to allow future inspections with the U.N. Command after South Korea since last year detected “terrain changes” that may have resulted from North Korean minelaying.

The DMZ is a 248-kilometer (155-mile) strip and one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders, with an estimated 2 million land mines, barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.

In August 2015, another spate of land mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers and sharply raised tensions between the Koreas.

The Koreas then traded threats, staged weapons demonstrations and resumed border propaganda broadcasts before days of marathon talks eventually pulled them back from the brink. North Korea issued a vague expression of regret over the soldiers’ injuries at the time but has never clearly accepted responsibility.

Martine Moise salió de la corte federal tras una jornada de testimonios en la que se mostraron fotografías explícitas del ataque del 7 de julio de 2021 en la residencia presidencial de Puerto Príncipe, la capital de Haití.

Según la Fiscalía, Sanon fue uno de los cabecillas de un complot orquestado y financiado en gran parte desde el sur de Florida para derrocar y matar a Jovenel Moise.

Hombres armados, en su mayoría exmilitares colombianos, irrumpieron en la casa de los Moise en la madrugada. Desde el estrado, Martine Moise recordó haber escuchado a los atacantes gritar en español.

Al jurado se le mostraron fotografías de la habitación de la pareja en completo desorden, con sangre esparcida por el piso. En una de las imágenes, tomada a distancia, se veía el cuerpo del presidente en el suelo junto a su cama.

Según los investigadores, Jovenel Moise recibió múltiples disparos y murió. Martine Moise recibió un disparo en el brazo. Los dos hijos de la pareja lograron esconderse durante el ataque y resultaron ilesos.

Entre lágrimas, Martine Moise recordó el momento en que vio a sus hijos después del ataque.

“Pensé que todo había terminado, que lo había perdido todo. Cuando vi a mis hijos, recuperé las fuerzas”, dijo.

También relató cómo fue trasladada en avión al Jackson Memorial Hospital, en Miami, y habló de las secuelas que le dejaron sus heridas.

Quebrándose en el estrado, dijo: “Hay muchas cosas que yo hacía y que nunca más podré volver a hacer”.

Durante el contrainterrogatorio, Moise describió a su esposo como un hombre dedicado a combatir a los oligarcas y decidido a llevar comida y electricidad al pueblo haitiano. Dijo que esos esfuerzos le crearon enemigos.

Sin embargo, también buscó desvincularse de los asuntos políticos de la presidencia y dijo al jurado que su esposo, por lo general, mantenía la política fuera de la casa.

“Jovenel evitaba a toda costa hablar de política en la casa”, dijo.

Según la policía, su madre, Nathalie Belizaire, había zarpado el viernes a bordo del Carnival Conquest en un viaje de tres días de Miami a las Bahamas.

El jefe de la policía de North Miami Beach, Juan Pinillos, dijo que los niños estuvieron solos durante al menos 48 horas.

“Cualquiera que tenga hijos sabe que una bebé de dos meses necesita muchísima atención”, dijo Pinillos.

Los agentes informaron que tuvieron que entrar a la fuerza al apartamento, en la zona del Northeast 15th Avenue y la 170th Street, donde encontraron a los cuatro niños “escondidos” en el baño.

“Solo agradecemos que no les haya pasado nada peor a esos niños”, dijo el martes por la mañana en la corte la jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Mindy Glazer.

Agentes de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de EE.UU., de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade y de la policía de North Miami Beach esperaban a Belizaire, de 29 años, cuando regresó el lunes a PortMiami.

“La arrestaron cuando bajaba del crucero”, dijo Glazer.

Según los registros de reclusos, Belizaire fue procesada a la 1:25 p.m. del lunes en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

“Sean responsables. Dejar a un bebé solo, desatendido y sin supervisión es un delito grave”, advirtió Pinillos.

El martes, la Fiscalía presentó un caso por delito grave contra Belizaire, quien enfrenta cuatro cargos de negligencia infantil sin daño corporal grave. Glazer emitió cuatro órdenes de alejamiento y le fijó una fianza de $10,000.

La jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Marisa Tinkler Mendez presidirá el caso.

Sierra, de 42 años, se declaró culpable en agosto de tres cargos de asesinato y tres de secuestro por la muerte, en 2012, de Gladys Machado y sus hijas, Julia Padrino, de 6 años, y Daniella Padrino, de 3.

La primera jornada de la fase de sentencia comenzó con los fiscales detallando los asesinatos y argumentando que los crímenes merecen la pena de muerte.

“Este es el instrumento de muerte que usó: una bolsa de Sedano’s igualita a esta”, dijo a los miembros del jurado la fiscal principal, Abbe Rifkin, mientras mostraba una bolsa plástica de supermercado.

Rifkin describió cómo Sierra, que entonces tenía 28 años, atacó a Machado y a sus hijas, y dijo al jurado que torturó y humilló a Machado antes de matarla.

Los fiscales también describieron la muerte de las dos niñas.

Según Rifkin, Julia presenció la muerte de su madre antes de que Sierra la asfixiara con una bolsa plástica.

Daniella, a quien le faltaban pocos días para cumplir 4 años, estaba dormida cuando Sierra la atacó, según la Fiscalía. Rifkin dijo al jurado que Sierra estranguló a la niña con el mismo tipo de bolsa plástica.

“La despertó con violencia al asfixiarla hasta matarla”, dijo Rifkin.

La Fiscalía presentó además acusaciones de que Machado y Julia fueron agredidas sexualmente después de muertas. Rifkin calificó los crímenes de “especialmente abominables, atroces y crueles”.

Sierra permaneció en silencio durante la exposición inicial, con la mirada a menudo fija en la mesa de la defensa.

Se espera que la defensa argumente que el jurado debe tomar en cuenta circunstancias atenuantes antes de decidir la sentencia.

Los abogados defensores dijeron al jurado que varios expertos declararán sobre el historial de Sierra, incluida una supuesta lesión cerebral traumática que sufrió en un accidente automovilístico cuando era niño y que, según ellos, afectó de forma permanente su personalidad y sus capacidades cognitivas.

Según la ley de Florida, durante la fase de sentencia el jurado sopesa las circunstancias agravantes y atenuantes antes de recomendar si el acusado debe recibir cadena perpetua o la pena de muerte.

Se espera que el jurado escuche más testimonios y pruebas en los próximos días antes de emitir su recomendación.

La iniciativa se produce cuatro días después que concluyó el segundo ciclo de conversaciones formales entre delegados del Legislativo unicameral —de abrumadora mayoría oficialista— y exdiputados de la oposición (2015-2020), en las que se acordó ampliar el desbloqueo de sitios web y revisar leyes que regulan férreamente los contenidos en los medios radioeléctricos y digitales.

Activistas por los derechos humanos sostienen que esas leyes forman parte de un andamiaje legal con el que se pretende restringir la libertad de expresión e información en el país sudamericano.

Las partes se reunieron en Caracas con el propósito de diseñar una agenda conjunta para fortalecer la democracia y restituir derechos fundamentales tras casi tres décadas de gobiernos socialistas.

La presidenta en funciones indicó que la llamada “Ley contra el Odio, por la convivencia Pacífica y la Tolerancia”, promulgada en 2017 en medio de masivas protestas callejeras en contra del ahora depuesto presidente Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026), fue “lamentablemente mal aplicada”.

Durante un acto de gobierno televisado en el estado agrícola de Portuguesa, ubicado en el centro del país, Rodríguez dijo que se hizo “uso abusivo de esa ley.... pero yo creo en los principios de esa ley, el principio de la tolerancia, el principio del amor en relacionamiento, que no se imponga el odio”.

La ley fue aprobada por la Asamblea Constituyente, integrada en su totalidad por aliados de Maduro, quien entonces la impulsó argumentando que era necesario poner fin a los supuestos mensajes de odio, guerra, intolerancia y racismo que presuntamente esgrimían los adversarios del gobierno.

Maduro sostenía que ese tipo de mensajes desencadenaron las protestas antigubernamentales que entre abril y julio dejaron más de 120 muertos. Partidos opositores y activistas de derechos humanos alertaron que la ley buscaba criminalizar la protesta pacífica.

Rodríguez era entonces la presidenta de la Constituyente y resaltaba que ese instrumento legal buscaba un castigo severo para desestimular cualquier práctica de intolerancia y garantizar la convivencia pacífica entre los venezolanos.

En una carta dirigida al Legislativo y publicada en su canal de Telegram, Rodríguez señaló previamente que la reforma busca “avanzar en la despenalización de los tipos penales previsto en esta norma” y que forma parte de acciones para “transformar el sistema de justicia penal” y favorecer el “reencuentro” y la “convivencia democrática" en Venezuela.

Schmitt accused Smith of perjuring himself during a Senate hearing after repeatedly prodding him about whether he'd attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024. The hometown Hawks were playing the Golden State Warriors.

Schmitt appeared to be trying to set Smith in Atlanta at the time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she hired for the county's election-interference case against Trump.

“So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Is that correct?” Schmitt asks sharply. “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on Feb. 2, 2024?”

Smith said he didn't think he had visited Atlanta as special prosecutor, and was even more certain he hadn't attended an Atlanta Hawks game.

He did, however, recall attending a University of Iowa women's game at the University of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024, recalling the game as one where then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark was playing.

“Could it then be that the University of Iowa was the Hawkeyes?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota interjected. “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”

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Local 10 News recently spoke with the children’s mother, who asked to be identified only as Shaniqua, and pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“Stop trying to hide it. You hit somebody. You hit my kids. You didn’t stop,” Shaniqua said.

Now, deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office say they have arrested the man responsible.

Arick Metayer, 33, is accused of hitting Peyton Williams and her 15-year-old brother, Brent, as the siblings rode an electric bicycle near Northwest 117th Street and Seventh Avenue on Sept. 9, according to deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said Peyton later died and Brent was critically injured.

According to an arrest report, Metayer drove away from the scene before he allegedly took steps to hide evidence of the crash.

Surveillance video captured Metayer stopping nearby, getting out of his Nissan Versa and looking at damage to the passenger side of the vehicle, investigators said.

They said he then drove away.

Investigators said Metayer then went to a U-Pull-It in Davie a day later, where surveillance video showed him buying two passenger-side doors and a mirror to replace the damaged parts.

The replacement parts were a different color, the report states.

Investigators also confirmed that cellphone records placed Metayer at the auto parts yard and later showed him taking a Brightline train from Miami to Orlando.

His arrest report also details a conversation with a witness who told investigators he helped Metayer transport the replacement doors.

The witness said he later called Metayer and told him the little girl he had hit had died, according to deputies.

According to the report, Metayer then told the witness, “I know. I’m going to hire an attorney.”

Weeks earlier, Peyton’s mother, Shaniqua, had publicly pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“You left them in the streets like they were animals. They didn’t deserve that,” Shaniqua said. “Just imagine her life — being here that short period of time, (having) touched so many people.”

Authorities said Metayer surrendered to deputies on Monday and was taken into custody.

In a social media post Tuesday, Shaniqua ripped into the suspect, saying in part, “How dare you …. The nerve of u, I pray they make u suffer … u took my soul, u took my heart, my insides are on fire, den u went to try and fix the car, u tried to hide and cover this up!!”

She also blasted someone who filmed her children on the ground after the crash, saying they were “just as guilty as the driver.”

“I hate this happened, I hate life right now, I’m so weak and broken, I just can’t understand this, (how) a person (can) be so cruel,” Shaniqua wrote. “They tryna protect you, when you ain’t protect my kids, that video of u hitting them was so heartbreaking, u ain’t stop, break nor turn around u hit them and left them in the street like animals!!!”

“This won’t be swept under the rug, I’m on yo a**, every court date, every hearing, u will hate this ever happened!! I promise u, Peyton, mommy will get justice for u baby girl!! They gone forever remember you,” she added.

Jail records show Metayer is facing felony charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving a death, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence.

As of Tuesday morning, Metayer was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

Martine Moise left the federal courthouse after a day of testimony that included graphic photographs from the July 7, 2021, attack at the presidential residence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Prosecutors say Sanon was among the ringleaders of a plot largely orchestrated and financed from South Florida to overthrow and kill Jovenel Moise.

Armed men, most of them former Colombian soldiers, stormed the Moises’ home in the early morning hours. On the witness stand, Martine Moise recalled hearing the attackers shouting in Spanish.

Jurors were shown photographs of the couple’s bedroom in disarray, with blood smeared across the floor. One photograph showed the president’s body, at a distance, on the floor beside his bed.

Investigators say Jovenel Moise was shot multiple times and died. Martine Moise was shot in the arm. The couple’s two children were able to hide during the attack and were not injured.

Through tears, Martine Moise recalled seeing her children after the attack.

“I thought everything was over. That I lost everyone. When I saw my children, I regained strength,” she said.

She also described being airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and the lasting effects of her injuries.

Breaking down on the stand, she said: “There are many things I used to do, and I will never be able to do them ever again.”

During cross-examination, Moise described her husband as dedicated to fighting oligarchs and determined to bring food and electricity to the people of Haiti. She said those efforts created enemies.

But she also sought to distance herself from the political affairs of the presidency, telling jurors that her husband generally kept politics out of their home.

“(Jovenel) avoided at all costs discussing politics inside the home,” she said.

Wednesday will feature mostly cloudy skies with the possibility for scattered showers and storms-- morning and afternoon. Also, moderate or minor saltwater flooding will be possible at the time of high tide (just after the noon hour Wednesday). Temperatures are expected to peak in the mid-80s.

Paul Rolli says his background in finance makes him a perfect person for the job.

He’s currently a city commissioner in his second term.

Possible property tax cuts on the horizon are on everyone’s mind, and if the referendum gets the green light, Rolli says it will mean some hard decisions on dollars.

“Before we cut anything, we’d look at the efficiency of each operation because some would be more efficient,” he said.

Rolli added that bringing in new development is key for the city, but in the same breath he said it must be the right kind to protect the character of the city.

“I think we need more development but we need responsible development,” he said, adding that he means not big building development.

Rolli is facing Julie Carson and Jerry Fisichelli in the election.

Fisichelli declined to be interviewed for this story.

Carson has served as city commissioner and says she has deep roots in Wilton Manors.

“Leadership without any sense of hostility, and I think that is really important in a mayor,” she said.

If they city loses much needed revenue with property taxes being slashed, Carson said there are tough choices to make, and some possible unpopular moves.

“Increasing parking meter fees in the city or having limited hours for certain parks or having service fees for certain parks,” she said.

Rolli said with people working more from home, new vibrant areas for people to meet makes sense in Wilton Manors.

“Areas for socialization that are outside, bars and restaurants, like out in the open like plazas, covered plazas because of the heat,” he said.

While Carson said she would like to improve how code enforcement gets handled.

“I think residents need a little ushering throughout the system so they can reach compliance which, is always the goal,” she said.

The Sept. 9 letter was addressed to White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and the team said it arrived at Chicago's Rate Field on Tuesday ahead of Game 1 of its AL Wild Card Series against the Astros.

The White Sox won Game 1 of the best-of-three series 6-3.

Leo is a White Sox fan dating to his days growing up in Chicago. He was known as Robert Prevost or Father Bob when he went to the World Series opener 21 years ago, a 5-3 White Sox victory over the Astros.

“The Pope having our back and supporting us means a lot," White Sox manager Will Venable said.

The pontiff began his note by thanking Reinsdorf for the letter he sent after the team paid tribute to Leo during an Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati.

“It is my hope that the White Sox will continue to foster bonds of friendship and solidarity among people, and thus bear hopeful witness to the possibility of living and working together in peace,” Leo wrote.

“With these sentiments, I willingly invoke the Almighty's abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones.”

The White Sox earned an AL wild card this year by finishing with an 84-78 record. They lost at least 101 games in each of the previous three seasons.

Asked recently if he had a hand in the team's surprising turnaround, the smiling pontiff responded “No comment.”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Sierra, 42, pleaded guilty in August to three counts of murder and three counts of kidnapping in the 2012 killings of Gladys Machado and her daughters, 6-year-old Julia Padrino and 3-year-old Daniella Padrino.

The first day of the penalty phase began with prosecutors detailing the killings and arguing that the crimes warrant the death penalty.

“This is the instrument of death that he used — a Sedano’s bag just like this one,” lead prosecutor Abbe Rifkin told jurors, displaying a plastic grocery bag.

Rifkin described how Sierra, then 28, attacked Machado and his stepdaughters, telling jurors that he tortured and humiliated Machado before killing her.

Prosecutors also described the deaths of the two girls.

Rifkin said Julia witnessed her mother’s death before Sierra suffocated her with a plastic bag.

Daniella, who was days away from her fourth birthday, was asleep when Sierra attacked her, prosecutors said. Rifkin told jurors that Sierra strangled the child with the same type of plastic bag.

“He violently awakened her by smothering her to death,” Rifkin said.

Prosecutors also presented allegations that Machado and Julia were sexually assaulted after their deaths. Rifkin described the crimes as “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel.”

Sierra sat quietly during the opening statement, often looking down toward the defense table.

The defense did not shy away from the disturbing nature of the case, warning jurors they would be exposed to horrific photographs and evidence.

“The evidence is disturbing,” defense attorney Joyce Brenner told jurors.

But Brenner also asked jurors to consider Sierra’s background and character as they weigh whether he should spend the rest of his life in prison or be sentenced to death.

A central part of the defense case is expected to be a traumatic childhood car accident that attorneys say changed Sierra’s personality and cognitive functioning.

Brenner told jurors that the force of the crash broke Sierra’s skull and that he is missing a portion of his frontal lobe.

The defense also described Sierra’s mother, an immigrant from Cuba, and the struggles she allegedly faced as she dealt with what attorneys say were changes in her son’s personality and cognitive abilities after the accident.

“With his broken brain, he would fall further and further behind,” Brenner said.

The defense is expected to present evidence intended to persuade jurors to recommend a life sentence rather than the death penalty.

“Each person will make an individual moral decision,” Brenner said in her closing argument.

Under Florida law, jurors weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase before making a recommendation on whether a defendant should receive life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The state, which is seeking the death penalty, then presented its first witness in its case-in-chief: a neighbor who made the gruesome discovery of the three bodies, which had been decomposing in a master bedroom closet.

The jury is expected to hear additional testimony and evidence in the coming days before reaching its recommendation.

Under state law, rape charges generally need to involve force or a clear refusal of sex, unless the victim is physically helpless due to being unconscious, or mentally incapacitated due to being drugged without their consent.

Those limitations have led to something nicknamed the “voluntary intoxication loophole.” Prosecutors can't easily bring charges against someone who engaged in sex with someone who voluntarily became intoxicated to the point where their ability to say “yes” or “no” to sex was compromised.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten cited that law as he defended his office's initial decision not to file criminal charges against any of the men sued by a woman who says she was the victim of a gang rape at Cornell in 2024.

Van Houten said that in her sworn statement to campus police in 2024, the woman didn't allege that she became intoxicated against her will, or was physically forced into sex or was unconscious when it happened.

“That’s victim blaming, straight up,” in state law, said Stefan Turkheimer, vice president of public policy for RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the U.S. “It prevents a lot of cases from coming forward, where prosecutors are reluctant to try to push forward on a case where the person is incapacitated due to voluntary intoxication.”

New York lawmakers renew push to change the law

New York state lawmakers have considered bills to change the law over the years, though the proposals have stalled, despite support from prominent district attorneys and advocates.

Jeffrey Dinowitz, a state Assembly member who has sponsored such measures starting back in 2019, said the Cornell case is “exactly the type of situation this legislation would address” and hoped that there would be additional urgency in the coming legislative session to change the law.

“It’s just outrageous and it makes me angry that we haven’t passed this yet,” he said, adding that “it would at least ensure that the survivor would get justice.”

The woman, identified only by a pseudonym in the civil lawsuit, filed the complaint Sept. 16, saying she was sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house on the Ivy League campus in October 2024 after being pressured into snorting ketamine, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. She became completely incapacitated while frat members were sexually assaulting her, the lawsuit alleges.

Van Houten has since reopened the investigation, saying he would consider presenting the case to a grand jury for their consideration. But in a written statement issued Monday, he said his initial decision not to charge relied heavily on a statement the woman gave to police that was given to his office, in which he said she had described some of the male students exhibiting incapacitation but not herself.

Police have not released that document, and the prosecutor's statement only included sparse redacted pieces of that document in his explanation.

Other states with intoxication laws are moving to change them

New York is one of 19 states with rape or sexual assault laws that consider intoxicated victims to be mentally incapacitated only if they became drunk or were drugged without their knowledge or consent, according to research by The Associated Press and a report published in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Many of those laws have been in place for a long time. But states have been gradually moving to change them.

After the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a sexual misconduct conviction in 2021 because the incapacitated victim had voluntarily become intoxicated, the state legislature revised its laws later that year to allow charges to be brought no matter whether an incapacitated victim had voluntarily or involuntarily become intoxicated. Michigan made a similar revision to its sexual assault laws in 2023, and Texas followed in 2025.

“That business of whether the victim was voluntarily intoxicated or involuntarily intoxicated should really not matter in the vast majority of cases, if not all of them,” said Chinmoy Gulrajani, a psychiatry professor at the University of Minnesota who has researched state sexual assault laws. That’s because “the assailant should have known that this is not a person who is in their right state of mind.”

Turkheimer said these laws can have a disproportionate effect on campuses, where people may be experiencing alcohol or drugs in social settings for the first time. He said mental incapacitation laws aren’t about someone having just a few drinks, but about situations in which a person has lost the capacity to consent.

“The movement is, to look at a person who is incapacitated, regardless of how they got there, and actually give that person protection," he said. “This is a situation where a person has reached a state where they lack the capacity to consent. And in that situation, the law should be protecting those people because they simply can’t protect themselves.”

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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.

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After all, it was this week in 2024 when Hurricane Helene wrecked the Tampa Bay area and Florida’s Big Bend with record-setting storm surge before turning its sights inland and tearing through the southern Appalachians – including areas of western North Carolina – with biblical rains that turned it into the deadliest U.S. mainland hurricane since Katrina almost 20 years earlier.

It was on September 28, 2022, that Category 4 Hurricane Ian steamrolled southwest Florida, lifting a catastrophic 15-foot storm surge clear across Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, becoming the third costliest hurricane on record and the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida in almost a century.

It was also this week in 2015 – during one of the strongest El Niños on record not unlike this one – that Hurricane Joaquin rapidly intensified into a borderline Category 5 hurricane over the southwestern Atlantic, devastating parts of the Bahamas, sinking the American cargo ship El Faro and its 33 crewmembers, and indirectly contributing to a deadly and historic, multi-billion-dollar flash flood event across the Carolinas.

That’s only over the past decade. I could go on.

As bearish as the seasonal hurricane forecasts were this year, not a single one of the two dozen or so forecast groups that issue seasonal hurricane predictions envisaged a season without a hurricane. On the whole, the forecast groups predicted around 5 hurricanes this year, below the 30-year average of 7 Atlantic hurricanes.

Even Colorado State University, the pioneers and gold standard of seasonal hurricane forecasting weren’t willing to go below 4 hurricanes in 2026.

Of course, the season isn’t over and we can’t rule out an October hurricane (or two) to break the record drought, but no one – even and especially yours truly – could’ve confidently predicted a hurricane-less season through September. It’s an unprecedented record, and with each passing week beyond the previous September 11^th record (the modern, reliable record for the latest first hurricane), the clamor of a quiet season grows even louder.

Hanna and Fay hobble along over the open Atlantic

Tropical Storm Hanna formed over the wide open north-central Atlantic late Monday morning from the disturbance designated Invest 91L. It’s been sprayed with westerly wind shear which is shunting most of its storminess well east of its occasionally exposed center.

Hanna isn’t expected to do very much or last very long and should shed its tropical organization before the workweek is out.

Amazingly stubborn Fay, about 700 miles due south of Hanna, continues to hang on as a borderline tropical storm over the open Atlantic. Fay doesn’t have much gas left in the tank and like Hanna will have a short shelf life this week.

Watching the southern Gulf in about a week

Long-range models are starting to home in on the southern Gulf in about a week for the possibility of development along the tail of a stalled front with perhaps a boost from spin and moisture out of the eastern Pacific.

This is still 7 to 10 days out, and for now, models like Google’s 1,000-member DeepMind ensemble system put the starting odds low (at around 20%).

We’ll of course follow the trends in the days ahead.

More than 1.7 million people in South Florida, including 500,000 children and seniors, don’t know where their next meal will come from.

Cameron Gwynn allowed spoke with Local 10 News as he shopped for groceries at the food pantry at the Feeding South Florida Pembroke Park warehouse.

“The prices are just creeping up so high that it feels like it’s almost impossible to catch up,” he said. “So having this safety net is really important.”

Feeding South Florida CEO Paco Velez addressed the rising cost of food and its impact on the community.

“One of the biggest challenges really across the entire country is the cost of diesel,” he said. “And the cost of diesel impacts everything that we do in this country.”

Velez gave a whole presentation Tuesday about how fuel costs impact every step of food supply, from farmers planting seeds to processing and distribution.

“We’re also seeing SNAP benefits from not only the feds, but from the state, where some of those are going to start dropping because the amount of SNAP benefits going to our seniors is lower,” he said.

Velez says one factor that drove about 158,000 South Floridians to turn to Feeding South Florida for the first time was the loss of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.

Without TPS, they can’t legally work, and without a job, they don’t qualify for some food assistance programs, leaving them without an income and with no food on the table.

“The families who are coming to our pantry and going to the pantries for 300 different organizations, they’re all desperate,” said Velez.

According to Pentagon officials, Hegseth will direct all the military services to double the 10% reduction that he ordered last spring to the roughly 800 flag and general officer positions, making it a 20% total decrease to be completed by Jan. 1, 2027.

President Donald Trump or Hegseth already have fired or pushed to retire more than two dozen military leaders since taking office, including the Army's top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, in April. They also have fired the only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other senior female officers.

Hegseth plans to make the announcement in a speech to troops at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, the second year in a row he will deliver what the Pentagon is calling his “State of the Force” address. Fox News earlier reported the new reductions, which could include any one-star general or above or officer of equivalent Navy rank.

As part of last year's cuts, Hegseth also ordered the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers — the highest-level leader — and the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions, but it is unclear if all those cuts have been made.

Hegseth gathered all the military's generals and admirals at the same time last year for an address in which he declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

However, that speech was overshadowed by the attendance of President Donald Trump, who proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the “invasion from within.”

When Hegseth first announced the effort to trim the highest levels of the military ranks, he argued it was intended to remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.” In a memo released in May 2025, he said the aim was to free the military from “unnecessary bureaucratic layers.”

The number of general officer positions in the military is set by law, but it is possible to let positions remain unfilled by not submitting replacements to Congress.

Hegseth's relationship with Congress is already strained, and he faces articles of impeachment from a Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, over his leadership of the Pentagon and management of the Iran war.

Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said eliminating senior leadership positions must be done in consultation with Congress and warned that the planned cuts “should alarm every American.”

“Congress has been clear with the Secretary that he must consult this body and explain his reasoning for senior officer removals and promotion holds. To date, we have not received satisfactory answers," Reed said in a statement.

“Our military is conducting major operations around the world, and the force is already under strain," he added. "Eliminating senior positions and leaders now will add to that strain and disrupt command when continuity matters most."

Large swaths of seats, especially in the upper deck, sat empty while right-hander AJ Blumbaugh delivered the game’s first pitch at 4:10 p.m. The bottom two levels were much fuller than the upper deck, but many seats in the lower two decks were also empty.

The announced attendance was 34,011, in a park with a capacity of 40,963.

All those empty seats are a rare sight in a stadium that is normally packed for the postseason. And some of the fans that did show up weren’t too happy with the performance of the home team with boos raining down on the Astros in the first and second innings as they fell behind 3-0.

“It’s extremely frustrating as a home player,” first baseman Christian Walker told The Athletic. “We’re here, playing at home; we need cheers. We need energy. We don’t need boos. What purpose does that serve in that moment? Whatever fans are feeling, we’re feeling it tenfold. We’re the ones out there. We’re the ones in the fight. We worked our butts off this whole season to put ourselves in this spot, and for guys to get booed, it’s frustrating.”

Reliever Bennett Sousa was subjected to some boos after spiking two breaking pitches in the seventh inning.

“This team has laid a lot on the line to be in this position to give the fans a playoff game — a playoff series," Sousa told The Athletic. “We want their support.”

Major League Baseball has previously had trouble filling stadiums for some afternoon games in the wild-card round. When Cleveland hosted Detroit last year, the series opener started at 1:08 p.m. with 26,186 in attendance. All three games in that series were played in front of fewer than 30,000 fans. The Tampa Bay Rays drew just 19,704 for an ALWCS opener against Texas in 2023 that started at 3:08 p.m., the lowest attendance for a non-COVID MLB postseason game since the 1919 World Series.

Houston returned to the playoffs after missing out last year despite finishing 81-81. It's the first time a team made the postseason without a winning record in a non-shortened season.

The Astros averaged 30,519 fans per game during the regular season, which ranked 14th in the majors.

Houston fought through an injury-plagued season to reach the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years. The Astros reached the American League Championship Series seven straight times from 2017-23 and advanced to the World Series four times, winning championships in 2017 and 2022.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, deputies were investigating a fatal crash at Northeast 166th Street and Northeast Sixth Avenue when witnesses approached them around 11:42 p.m. with the shooting victim.

The Sheriff’s Office said the man had been shot at a laundromat located at 14701 NE Sixth Ave.

Local 10 News cameras captured first responders working to help the shooting victim at the scene.

Deputies said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue transported the victim to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition.

According to MDSO, its Intracoastal District General Investigations Unit has taken over the shooting investigation. No information about a possible subject was immediately available.

Fatal crash also under investigation

Deputies said the shooting victim had been brought to an area where deputies were already investigating a fatal crash.

Local 10 News cameras arrived at the crash scene shortly after it unfolded near a bus stop and a CVS.

Within the marked-off scene, a walker appeared to have been smashed. A short distance away, a minibus could be seen as MDSO investigators appeared to examine its front end, however authorities later confirmed that the bus was not involved in the crash.

Initial information from MDSO indicated the call for service involved a person who had been hit and transported to a nearby hospital as a trauma alert.

The Sheriff’s Office later confirmed the victim succumbed to his injuries.

The driver, meanwhile, remained at the scene, authorities said.

No additional information about the person killed or the circumstances surrounding the crash was immediately available.

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The bailout occurred at the intersection of Northwest 17th Street and 127th Avenue.

Sky 10 flew over the scene just after 2 p.m., where two people were detained near a fence outside a home in the area.

North Miami police said officers responded to the area to assist the Florida Highway Patrol with securing a perimeter in the area.

A police helicopter was also seen over the area as officers searched the neighborhood, which includes homes and businesses.

Authorities had not released additional information about the individuals who were placed in custody.

Asking the site — which says it’s sourced via artificial intelligence from “official government sources” — questions about who won the 2020 election or about the name of the federal department that operates out of the Pentagon yields answers contrary to those Trump himself frequently proclaims.

As Trump was still speaking at Tuesday’s launch event, however, the site began modifying its answers. Asked again about the 2020 election, it replied that it couldn’t answer “political questions,” a response it also gave to inquiries about whether Trump had been impeached or convicted of felony charges.

The Associated Press asked about:

The 2020 presidential election

“Official federal sources do not show that widespread fraud changed the 2020 presidential election outcome. Isolated election crimes did occur and have been prosecuted.”

Since Trump, a Republican, lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, he has repeatedly falsely claimed that victory was “stolen” from him and asserted that widespread fraud occurred. Repeated audits and recounts found no significant fraud in the presidential election, and Trump’s own administration said the election was clean.

Trump running for president in 2028

“The 22nd Amendment says that no person shall be elected President more than twice. Donald J. Trump has already been elected twice (2016 and 2024). I am not giving legal advice.”

Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it. He had only been back in the White House for a couple of months when he told NBC News, “There are methods which you could” use to seek a third term.

The Pentagon

“The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense.”

Last year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, complaining that the Department of Defense’s name was “woke.”

Human action as cause of climate change

“Federal climate-science pages say recent warming is largely from human greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly burning fossil fuels. Earth’s climate has also changed for natural reasons over long periods.”

Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” previously issued an executive order that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Presidential salaries

The chatbot said that “some presidents have declined to keep that pay,” mentioning Trump but listing George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump.

During his remarks Tuesday, Trump, a real estate mogul who took in about $1.2 billion from various crypto holdings last year, said he was the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, something that he has said before.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.

Yamal scored twice and set up another goal as Spain beat Croatia 4-1 at home to reach 40 matches unbeaten. It was Spain's first home game since it won its second world title in July.

Before the match, captain Rodri lifted the World Cup trophy in front of a raucous home crowd at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville.

England needed second-half goals by Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane to defeat the Czechs 2-0, with the hosts playing a man down from the 23rd minute after Pavel Sulc was shown a red card.

Spain wins again behind red-hot Yamal

Spain got past Croatia in its second game since beating Argentina in the World Cup final, with Yamal scoring two minutes into the match and again in the 63rd.

Marc Pubill also scored, finding the net in the 31st for his first goal with Spain, two minutes after Dion Drena Beljo had equalized for the visitors, also with his first international goal. Substitute Nico Williams sealed the Spain victory in the 89th.

Yamal, who also found the net against England, gave the assist for Pubill's goal. He has scored 11 goals in his last eight matches for country and club Barcelona.

“He is a very generous footballer who puts all that talent at the service of the team," Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said. "We are fortunate to have him with us. He is someone who is truly loved within the squad. We are very happy with him.”

La Roja had extended its unbeaten streak to 39 games by rallying to a 3-2 win over England at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Spain has lost only one of its last 16 Nations League group matches, winning seven straight.

“We know Spain are the best. There is no debate about that," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic said. "We knew that before kickoff. They have been the best side for several years. Against England, we did not see them play quite like this, but tonight there was simply too much space.”

Spain leads Group A3 with six points, three more than both England and Croatia.

Croatia won 2-1 at Czechia, formerly known as the Czech Republic, on Saturday, with veteran midfielder Luka Modric scoring his nation’s opening goal. Modric started on the bench against Spain on Tuesday, entering the match in the 81st.

Spain will still host Czechia on Saturday and visit Croatia next Tuesday.

England back to winning

England played with an extra man for most of the match and needed goals by Gordon in the 47th and Kane in the 69th to win its first match in the Nations League this season.

Sulc was sent off for a foul in the first half, with video review changing a yellow card into a red.

“We played very professionally in the second half," England coach Thomas Tuchel said. “We stepped up, we needed to be a bit more dynamic and bring a bit more urgency into our play, which we did, but we kept the intensity going, and the effort was still there. We deserved victory. We got an important win, and that’s what counts.”

In the lower-tiered League B, Switzerland won 3-0 at Scotland, which played a man down from about the 10th minute after a red card to Jack Hendry. It was Sebastien Pocognoli's first home game as Scotland's coach.

Slovenia beat visiting North Macedonia 2-0.

In League C, host Moldova and Faroe Islands drew 1-1, while Finland and Belarus played to a scoreless draw in Helsinki.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Residents of The Islands at Doral, near Northwest 107th Avenue and 78th Street, say sightings that once occurred about once a month are now happening every few days.

“It was before once every month you would hear of a sighting of one, and now it’s every few days,” resident Brent McNab said.

A coyote was recently spotted inside the community shortly before 1 p.m., according to residents. Carlos Leon said he believes the animals are becoming more common in the area.

“There is one coyote that is going around more and more,” Leon said.

Residents say their concern is not simply the number of sightings, but how close the animals are getting to homes and areas where children and pets are present.

“There is a kids park 100 meters from here,” McNab said.

Signs have since been placed throughout the community warning residents about coyotes and urging them to be aware of their surroundings.

Residents say many of the sightings have occurred overnight. Leon said he recorded video of a coyote around 3 a.m. while he was with friends.

“It was around 3 a.m. and I was with a couple of friends, and I saw the coyote walking all this way,” he said.

But residents say the coyotes are now also being seen during the day, including inside the residential community.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said its law enforcement division was contacted and provided educational materials, along with contact information for nuisance wildlife trappers in the area.

However, FWC officials say its Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Program has no records from the past year of calls about coyotes from this community.

The agency said coyotes can be found throughout Florida and have been documented in all 67 counties. They also said the animals have expanded their natural range and can adapt to urban and suburban environments.

Because coyotes are widespread in Florida, FWC officials say it does not ask the public to report routine sightings. The agency does encourage people to contact wildlife officials if they are experiencing conflicts with coyotes or observe aggressive wildlife behavior.

FWC biologists are also available to work with communities experiencing conflicts with coyotes and provide guidance on ways to reduce those conflicts.

The agency said residents can contact their nearest regional FWC office or submit a Wildlife Interactions Report online. FWC also offers monthly virtual presentations about coyotes, including ways to prevent conflicts.

The next presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 7 to 8 p.m.

Duran (0-1), who allowed just two homers in 61 regular-season games, gave up a single to Michael Harris II before hitting Ozzie Albies with a pitch. Riley drove the go-ahead blast over the wall in right-center field. Harris had three hits.

The Braves can clinch the series on Wednesday and end the Phillies’ history of postseason success in the NL East rivalry. Philadelphia beat Atlanta in the 1993 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023 NLDS.

Riley's go-ahead homer was especially satisfying after he hit only .219 with 19 homers in a frustrating regular season.

“Especially knowing how my season was not the way I wanted it, that's why the postseason is a clean slate,” Riley said, adding he was “trying to do something good” for his teammates.

Braves ace Chris Sale said Riley never let his struggles affect his approach to the game during the regular season.

“You couldn't tell if he was the leading MVP candidate or if he was struggling,” Sale said. "I really mean that. He's the same guy. He kept doing the work and had a great moment."

Sale dueled early against Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo, who was sharp after missing time down the stretch with left shoulder inflammation. Luzardo was expected to make an abbreviated start, but he pitched one-run ball over five innings with 77 pitches.

“In my mind if we got 75 pitches from him today we would be in a pretty good spot,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said of Luzardo. “... He kind of gave us more than we thought honestly.”

Atlanta pounced when Philadelphia went to the bullpen — a common theme for the Phillies as they slumped into the postseason. Their relievers had a 5.79 ERA in September, worst in the majors.

Albies hit a tiebreaking triple off Alex McFarlane in the sixth for a 2-1 lead. Center fielder Derek Hill had an opportunity to make a leaping catch of Albies’ drive at the wall, but he appeared to jump too high. The ball hit Hill’s wrist below his glove.

J.T. Realmuto put Philadelphia ahead 3-2 with a two-run triple in the seventh inning — right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. bobbled the ball near the wall, but he wasn't charged with an error.

Mattingly handed the ball over to Duran in the seventh, perhaps hoping the 28-year-old had three innings in him to close things out. Duran made just one multi-inning appearance this season.

Sale gave up three runs as he faded in the seventh in his effort to deliver as the ace of Atlanta’s depleted rotation.

Sale hit Bryan De La Cruz with a pitch with one out in the seventh before giving up a single to Bryson Stott. Right-hander Didier Fuentes then gave up Realmuto’s two-run triple to the right-field corner.

Alec Bohm hit a high fastball from Sale for a run-scoring double over Harris in center in the first inning. Sale didn’t give up another hit until Edmundo Sosa doubled with two outs in the fifth.

Luzardo gave up three hits with six strikeouts. He pitched longer than many expected after throwing a scoreless eighth inning in Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays that clinched the wild-card berth.

Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth for the save after Dylan Lee (1-0) threw a scoreless eighth.

100 at 37

The 37-year-old Sale threw a 100 mph fastball to Bryce Harper in the first inning. He joined Aroldis Chapman for Boston last season as the only pitchers 37 or older to throw a 100 mph pitch in the postseason since tracking began in 2008.

No sellout

The 2:15 p.m. first pitch, with potential fans in school and at work, hurt the attendance. The announced attendance was 30,127 with gaps of empty seats throughout Truist Park, especially in left field.

The Braves ranked 10th in the major leagues in attendance with a total of 2,800,446 and an average of 34,573 with 25 sellouts.

Up next

Braves RHP Tyler Mahle (7-10, 3.99 ERA) is expected to face Phillies LHP Cristopher Sánchez (18-7, 2.91) in Wednesday’s second game of the series. Mahle was 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA in nine games with Atlanta.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The memo describes the decision to stop granting tenure to civilian faculty as part of an effort to refocus the military academies on warfighting.

“To ensure our educational institutions remain firmly focused on this warfighting mission, we must address the structural mechanisms that have allowed civilian academic norms to dilute our focus on lethality,” the memo said.

The tenure designation generally comes with a career-long academic appointment at a college. Advocates say the job security is a crucial component of academic freedom. Hegseth's directive apparently would not remove the designation from faculty members who are currently tenured.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy all did not immediately respond to questions, and officials at the Pentagon did not offer further details on the plan when reached for comment.

The percentage of faculty who are civilians varies by military academy. It is highest at the United States Naval Academy, where roughly half of the 600 faculty members are civilians. The academies hire civilian faculty to offer expertise in topics and disciplines that military officers don't study as part of their careers, such as English and the humanities.

Hegseth’s decision follows broader conservative attacks on tenured faculty appointments in higher education. Those efforts to rein in tenure are often presented as bids to rein in academics with liberal views.

Civilian faculty members often have more teaching experience and credentials than their military counterparts at the service academies, said Eric Merriam, a legal studies and political science professor at the University of Central Florida and a former professor at the Air Force Academy.

The academies have long served a dual role — training the next generation of officers, while providing a traditional, prestigious, four-year college experience, Merriam said. The schools offer a broad, liberal arts education, in recognition that senior leadership must be critical thinkers who can understand different points of view.

Hegseth's actions signal a shift toward a narrower focus, Merriam said.

“It does seem to me as though it’s a retrenchment,” he said. “It's a retreat from what I think was positive progress in ensuring that these elite educational academies actually have elite education as part of the program.”

In Hegseth's memo Tuesday, tenure was described as a factor that contributed to “academic stagnation, faculty complacency, and institutional inability to adapt to emerging needs. Additionally, it contributes to curriculum that drifts from the mission of educating our warfighters to the research priorities of the tenured academics.”

Traditionally, tenured professors can be terminated only under extreme circumstances, such as professional misconduct or a financial emergency. Advocates say it's especially important to maintain tenure as controversy grows over scholarly discussions about history, race, gender and sexuality.

The decision Tuesday is part of a broader push from Hegseth to remake the military's education apparatus. Earlier this year, the Pentagon severed longstanding ties with prestigious universities that had been a pipeline for military leadership, forging new relationships with Christian schools and public universities.

The Pentagon has also attempted to reorient the K-12 schools it operates for military families. It introduced a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity, part of an effort to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning.

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

John and Christina Mayich, parents of 21-year-old Matthew Mayich, released a statement through the family attorney on Tuesday, concurring with a letter sent by seven Arizona State hockey players to university president Michael Crow on Monday. The players asked the university to place the coaches involved in the Aug. 20 workout to be placed on administrative leave until an investigation by an outside agency is completed.

The letter was sent anonymously through an attorney because the players feared retribution from the coaching staff.

“We’ve heard some things about what our family wants that aren’t right, so we want to be clear: we want this team to have a great season and we’ll be cheering for you,” the Mayichs said through attorney Rob Carey. “But the coaches who ran that workout on August 20 need to be removed while an independent investigation gets to the truth. The players shouldn’t have to worry about retaliation from the people they report to every day."

Mayich, a 21-year-old defenseman who was drafted by the St. Louis Blues, collapsed during an outdoor workout on the first day the NCAA allows official activities. He suffered from external heat stroke that reduced flow of oxygen to his brain and is unlikely to recover, Carey said.

The letter sent by the players called out discrepancies from an initial probe by Arizona State and asked for an interim coaching staff be put in place if the coaches involved are placed on leave.

“Nobody should keep quiet about what they think should happen because they believe that’s what we want. It isn’t,” the Mayichs said. "If anyone wants to know what we want, ask us. We want the truth, and we want it done in a way that lets the boys focus on hockey instead of wondering whether their coaches think they talked. Mostly, we want accountability for what happened to our son, and we want his teammates to be safe.”

The Arizona State police department is investigating the incident and a report will be sent to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for independent review when completed.

Arizona’s House and Senate education committee chairs called for an independent investigation of Arizona State’s hockey workout after reading the letter from the players.

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LeBron James ' helicopter.

James indeed used the rotorcraft for the rich to take him after practice from New Jersey to presumably close to wherever he decided to live in New York. The helicopter noises are usually reserved for when billionaire team owner Josh Harris lands at the complex for the NBA draft or a major news conference.

Not anymore.

The Sixers were quickly caught in the whirlwind of the first days of the LeBron Effect, even as a pair of players and coach Nick Nurse professed all was good on the court.

Off the court, make room.

Sixers staff moved the news conference backdrop from a corner where a few dozen reporters are usually stuffed to shout questions at Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxey to a spot closer toward midcourt for a roomier feel for the more than 50 credentialed reporters, bloggers, TV camera operators and more that came to get an early report card on James' official first day as a Sixer.

James was gone Tuesday by the time media was allowed on the court to watch practice. Embiid, Maxey, former Boston star Jaylen Brown, they were all absent, too, a day after holding court on media day.

Nurse is starting his fourth season as coach of the Sixers. He's used to handling the demands that come with working in a major market and dealing with star players in Philly such as with Embiid and his daily injury report or the high drama that surrounded former Sixer James Harden.

Nurse did say he had conversations with the team about looking out for each other and staying connected while navigating a spotlight season — especially early — that already has a postseason-type of aura around the franchise before the Sixers even played a game.

“It is going to be different,” Nurse said. “More people, more eyes, more stories, more national TV. All that kind of stuff. It's the same, just a little more. I'm just trying to get to the practice floor and to the game floor. If we can do those two things, all that other stuff, we'll just kind of handle it as smoothly as we can.”

Nurse called the sight of so much talent “impressive” once the Sixers hit the floor for practice. James is a future Hall of Famer. Embiid has certainly built a strong case. Brown was an NBA Finals MVP and champion with the Celtics. Maxey earned his first All-Star start last season and has blossomed into an elite talent.

The fifth starter is more than just, oh, that other guy.

VJ Edgecombe was third in rookie of the year voting last season and his buoyant personality and defensive playmaking made him an instant fan favorite and immediate force in helping the Sixers return last season to the playoffs. Edgecombe worked out with James over the summer and volunteered that he orchestrated the starting five group text thread — well, once he asked Maxey for James' number.

That was all cool. Yet the magnitude of the moment truly hit him ahead of practice when James put on his No. 23 jersey in the same locker room as Edgecombe.

The 21-year-old Edgecombe tried not to get starstruck. He called James a teammate, a brother, a Sixer who will fight on the court side by side with them to chase the franchise's first championship since 1983.

Maybe. But he's still LeBron James.

“It's like, damn, that's still Bron,” Edgecombe said with a laugh. “He was in the locker room and I'm like, oh, that's Bron over there. His locker was open. He was in there before everybody as usual. He dapped me up, he's like, ‘what up? what up?’ We know each other for a minute.”

Edgecombe smiled as he tried to convince himself he's expunged the fan boy from his system.

“I ain't gonna be like that no more,” Edgecombe said to laughter.

True to his word, Edgecombe said he had to get loud during practice and give James some defensive instruction on when to switch off.

“We forgot. We messed up a switch,” Edgecombe said. “But that's what happens. We're getting to know each other. It's a new system for him. Everything is on the fly right now.”

It was soon time for James to fly home — all while the Sixers basked in the successful first day of what could be the NBA ride of a lifetime.

___

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The Council of Europe said Tuesday that the U.S. formally notified it a day earlier that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, or GRECO. Only two other countries have left GRECO before — Russia and Belarus.

The State Department confirmed the move, saying that U.S. participation, which requires an annual monetary contribution, “does not provide tangible benefits to U.S. national security.”

“The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,” it said. “The department is instead prioritizing higher-impact tools to combat corruption, such as visa restrictions, sanctions, and targeted foreign assistance to strengthen foreign criminal investigations into corruption directly threatening U.S. security and prosperity.”

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said the U.S. had been “a valuable contributor” to GRECO "and to the exchange of experience and good practice in preventing and combating corruption.”

“GRECO remains open to resuming cooperation with the United States in the future in support of shared efforts to prevent corruption, strengthen integrity and uphold the rule of law,” it said in a statement.

The decision was announced a week after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the U.S. had declined to invite its members to observe November’s congressional midterm elections, a sharp break from past practice.

The U.S. has already withdrawn from a number of European-based U.N. and multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organization and the U.N. Human Rights Council, and is weighing further such steps.

The U.S. withdrew in January from another Council of Europe panel — the Venice Commission, which is an advisory body on constitutional law.

GRECO was created in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor compliance with the organization’s anti-corruption standards. Membership is not limited to European Union members, and the United States joined a year after its founding.

And there the longtime Pittsburgh Penguins captain is on a random early fall Tuesday, doing what he has always done: grinding through an hour-long practice with an intensity that shows no signs of waning as the player who arrived in the NHL as a teenage prodigy closes in on his 40th birthday.

Watch Crosby stand in front of the net and deftly deflect a point shot past rookie goaltender Sergei Murashov, who was still in diapers in his native Russia when Crosby made his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 2005. Watch Crosby fail to connect the dots on a pass on one end of the ice, then backcheck furiously before slapping his stick into the end boards in frustration.

Watch the NHL's seventh all-time leading scorer (soon to be in the top five) glide from the half wall to the front of the net and back again during a power play drill, the instincts that have carried him from franchise savior to Olympic gold medalist to three-time Stanley Cup champion taking over as he searches for an opportunity.

Practice breaks up. Some of Crosby's younger teammates head to the dressing room. Crosby does not. He remains on the ice for another 20-plus minutes with longtime teammates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, chasing the finer points of a sport that has long doubled as an obsession.

Crosby's approach to his job is uncommon

Penguins coach Dan Muse heard about the trio's relentless drive when he took over in the summer of 2025. He wasn't skeptical, exactly, but seeing it up close gave him a different perspective.

“Sometimes I (was) surprised last year,” Muse said. “Now I guess I’m not as surprised at how long they’re out there for. ... I think for everybody who’s seeing it too, like I said, it’s not necessarily the normal.”

No, it's not.

And while Malkin and Letang have carved out their own unique places in NHL history during the trio's two decades together, it is Crosby who has always shouldered the load of outsized expectations that have followed him from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia to Pittsburgh to, one day, the Hall of Fame.

It can be a lot. It already has been a lot. Yet Crosby has rarely let the burden show. Maybe because he's used to it. Or maybe because he doesn't really view it as a burden at all. Ask Crosby why he is still pushing himself at this pace, and he shrugs.

“I just love the game,” Crosby said.

And not just when the lights come on and thousands of fans — many of them usually wearing some iteration of Crosby's jersey — come out to watch him do Sidney Crosby things. He is only player in NHL history to average a point a game for 21 straight seasons.

“I think, you know, there’s the journey or the preparation that goes into it,” he said.

It's why Crosby arrived at the team's practice facility weeks ahead of training camp. It's why he still seeks opportunities to compete internationally. Sure, he could have taken the summer off after Pittsburgh's surprising season ended with a loss to Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.

That's just not the way Crosby is wired. A few weeks after the postseason exit, he served as an alternate captain to 19-year-old San Jose Sharks sensation Macklin Celebrini for Team Canada at the 2026 World Championships. This after his hope for a second Olympic gold ended with an injury at the 2026 Cortina Winter Games.

It's a lot of hockey for anyone. Let alone someone who has been on “go” practically from the first time he pulled on skates.

Crosby wants to keep playing, but for how long he's not sure

And yet Crosby remains as passionate about all that goes into it now as he did when he was flinging pucks into an empty dryer in the basement of his childhood home.

“Ultimately, you just, every night you step on the ice, you’re trying to win a hockey game,” he said. “That’s something that’s still there. I think it provides a lot of fire to everything for me.”

The flames show no signs of subsiding even while some of his contemporaries — Malkin and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals chief among them — seem to have the number of games ahead of them dwindling to a precious few.

The mix of nerves and excitement that accompanies every season opener is still there. Until they're not, expect Crosby to keep right on going.

While Crosby has stressed repeatedly that he wants to keep playing indefinitely, when the puck drops in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, it will mark the first time in his career that he will start a season in the final year of his contract. Crosby is in no hurry to sign anything; he learned a long time ago that he needs to listen to his body above all else.

“I don’t think you ever know until you get to that point,” Crosby told reporters when delivering season tickets to select fans earlier this month. “But I’m guessing it’s your level, it’s how your body feels, it’s a combination of all those things. Overall, I feel pretty good.”

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas and Crosby's agent Pat Brisson have been in talks, but Dubas stressed on Monday that there isn't any “real pressure to have it done by a certain date or anything.”

Stats are nice, but winning is all that matters

Crosby, who begins the year with 1,761 career points, 38 shy of passing Ron Francis for fifth on the all-time list, has no plans to coast to whatever the finish line looks like in hopes of piling up stats and paychecks.

When it’s mentioned that 2,000 points — a plateau only Wayne Gretzky has reached — looks doable if he plays another handful of years, Crosby shakes his head. That’s never been what this is about.

“I didn’t even know how close I was until you just gave me that stat,” he said. “So no, when you talk about motivating factors to play, I wouldn’t say that’s one of them.”

The pathologically competitive Crosby remains intent on trying to help guide the Penguins back to the giddy heights of 2016 and 2017, when they became the first club in nearly 20 years to win back-to-back championships.

The going has grown increasingly tougher over the years. Pittsburgh hasn't advanced past the first round since 2018, though their promising run to second place in the Metropolitan Division last spring provided some tangible momentum. While Dubas plainly stated the goal this time around is to make inroads on division rival and reigning Cup champion Carolina, Crosby has no plans on looking that far ahead.

There is only the familiar rhythm of the season, with its practices and morning skates and overnight plane rides and team meals and — 84 times over the next six months, then hopefully a bit more after that — the chance to hop over the boards and lean into the fire once more.

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Los bomberos acudieron al área de la calle 9 y la avenida 10 del noroeste poco después de las 2:00 a.m., donde se encontraron con llamas gigantescas.

El incendio ya fue extinguido, pero un ATV (cuadraciclo), otros tres vehículos y una porción de la residencia sufrieron daños.

Según los bomberos, el fuego comenzó en el cuadraciclo, aunque aún no está claro qué provocó que se encendiera.

Un video de cámaras de seguridad muestra el momento en que uno de los vehículos se envuelve repentinamente en llamas.

“Pensé que iba a explotar porque había al menos tres autos allá afuera quemándose al mismo tiempo, así que estábamos preocupados de que fuera algo más grave”, contó la vecina Hilda Palma. “También me preocupaba porque, como la casa ya se estaba quemando, no sabía si había gente adentro, ya que el fuego estaba alcanzando la entrada principal”.

No se reportaron personas heridas.

Investigadores de Bomberos de Miami-Dade recolectaron recipientes con evidencia de los vehículos para determinar si se trató de un incendio provocado.

La causa oficial del siniestro continúa bajo investigación.

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Instead, the namesake son of Miami-Dade school board member Steve Gallon accepted a plea deal Tuesday and was sentenced to five years in prison with credit for time served.

“How do you want to plead, guilty or not guilty?” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian asked Gallon.

“Guilty,” Gallon replied.

Investigators said the incident happened on March 8, 2023.

The state says a group of officers was surveilling Atiba Moore as the subject of a drug investigation when Moore became aware of an undercover officer pursuing him in an unmarked car.

The state accused Gallon, now 36, of shooting the officer from behind but admitted in court Tuesday that prosecutors would have trouble proving certain factors of the crime at trial. The officer could not identify who shot him, and a weapon was never recovered.

Roderick Vereen, Gallon’s attorney, said the defense maintained from the beginning that Gallon did not know the person he shot was a police officer.

“This has been 3 1/2 years that this family has been going through this ordeal, and I think that the judge’s words as well as the state’s words today established what I had been saying from day one, which is even though this incident happened, there was no evidence that he knew that Sgt. (Darrian) Washington was a police officer,” Vereen said.

A state prosecutor said he believed that shrapnel from the gun fired by Gallon struck the victim in the back of the head.

The state also acknowledged there was no forensic analysis establishing that the shrapnel came from a specific bullet.

Ultimately, the state agreed to drop sentencing enhancements for shooting a law enforcement officer and committing the crime with a firearm.

Prosecutors said the victim wanted to see Gallon sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the defense wanted only credit for time served.

In the end, Milian sentenced Gallon to five years in prison.

“I sentence you to 60 months in a Florida state prison with all credit for time served,” Milian said.

Another condition of the plea deal was that Gallon would not appeal the sentence.

There are also co-defendants in the case. Prosecutors said there are agreements and conversations taking place regarding those cases, which could be resolved in the coming weeks.

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Police officers reported finding Jennifer Wright bleeding from her nose and with a “red bump on her face” on Saturday at the lobby of the Extended Stay America, at 101 Fairway Drive, records show.

Wright, the hotel’s registered guest, reported her attacker was in her room, where officers reported finding drugs, Alain Perez, who had an arrest warrant, and her alleged attacker, Juan Garrandes.

“I observed an open silver metal suitcase positioned on top of a dresser ... inside the suitcase I observed a clear plastic bag containing a white crystalline substance ... a separate clear plastic bag containing dried mushroom-like material,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest report.

Police officers reported finding 18.7 grams of methamphetamine, 23.2 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, and a digital scale. Perez “corroborated” Garrandes had attacked Wright, but Garrandes denied it, according to police.

Police officers arrested Wright and Perez shortly before 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, and corrections booked them at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, records show.

Wright faced charges of trafficking in amphetamines and possession of a controlled substance. A judge set her bond at $17,500. Perez faced a charge of failure to appear, a third-degree felony. His bond was $500.

Police officers arrested Garrandes, who was born in New York and lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Corrections booked him at TGKCC. He faced a first-degree misdemeanor battery charge. His bond was $1,000.

Garrandes’s convictions go back to 1991 in Miami-Dade County, and include armed robberies, carjacking, burglary, drug possession, and grand theft.

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La niña y Battle no se conocían, según el informe.

La policía indicó que el incidente se reportó después de que un gerente de Dollar Tree revisara las imágenes de vigilancia y se comunicara con las autoridades.

Agentes del Equipo de Resolución de Problemas de La Pequeña Habana, del Departamento de Policía de Miami, acudieron a la tienda, ubicada en el 1043 W. Flagler St., y detuvieron a Battle, según el informe.

De acuerdo con el informe, el video muestra a Battle caminando por un pasillo con un carrito de compras cuando la niña entra sola a ese mismo pasillo.

“El agresor se voltea hacia ella y acorta la distancia entre ambos. Mira brevemente a su alrededor y duda antes de colocar su cara cerca de los glúteos de la víctima. Luego levanta la parte superior del cuerpo (inhalando) y se aparta de la víctima”, indica el informe.

El informe también señala que la niña tomó un cartel y empezó a alejarse. Según la policía, Battle volvió a acercarse e inclinó la pelvis hacia ella, pero aparentemente no logró tocarla porque la niña se alejó rápidamente.

La niña contó luego a los investigadores que su madre la había llevado al Dollar Tree para comprar materiales para un proyecto escolar, y que le había pedido que buscara cartulina en otro pasillo, según el informe.

La niña le dijo a la policía que solo vio a una persona en el pasillo, según el informe. Recordó que, cuando se iba, Battle le tocó el brazo y luego le dio un leve empujón a la altura del hombro, indicó la policía.

Según los agentes, la niña también contó que sintió que Battle la estaba oliendo, y lo describió como “aire en la parte baja de la espalda”. Dijo que supo que la había olido y corrió hacia su madre para ponerse a salvo, según el informe.

La policía indicó que la descripción que dio la niña coincidía con el hombre que aparece en el video de vigilancia.

Según el informe, los investigadores interrogaron a Battle después de leerle sus derechos Miranda. Battle dijo que había llevado su bicicleta a un taller en Hialeah antes de pasar por el Dollar Tree.

Battle, residente de la zona de Gladeview, reconoció haber visto a la niña caminar hacia el pasillo donde él estaba comprando y dio a los investigadores una descripción que coincidía con su apariencia, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que, al preguntarle por su comportamiento, Battle respondió que “no tenía intención de hacerle daño”. Según ellos, Battle aseguró que acercó su cara a los glúteos de la niña porque estaba bajo los efectos de la marihuana y su cerebro “le dijo que lo hiciera”.

Según los registros de la cárcel, Battle enfrenta un cargo de conducta lasciva contra una menor de 16 años.

Battle compareció el martes ante el tribunal de fianzas de Miami-Dade, donde la jueza Mindy Glazer le fijó una fianza de $2,500. Además, le ordenó mantenerse alejado de la víctima y del Dollar Tree, lo puso bajo arresto domiciliario y le impuso un toque de queda de 11 p.m. a 6 a.m.

The president announced his intention on Friday night to impound more than $800 million from 11 appropriations accounts, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.

But the GAO said federal law provides that funds proposed for rescission must be made available at a certain point unless Congress completes action on a bill that goes along with the president's request.

“Any withholding of appropriated funds beyond their date of expiration, regardless of size, subverts both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress's constitutional power of the purse,” wrote the GAO's general counsel.

Under the Impoundment Control Act, the administration can withhold funds for 45 days as Congress considers the issue. Lawmakers can pass a bill that includes all or part of the president's request, but if Congress has not acted on the request within that 45 day-window, the president must release the funds.

But Trump made congressional action all but impossible by announcing the cuts with just five days left in the federal fiscal year and with the House out of session through the November election. The GAO, an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress, says the maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” is illegal.

Trump's first rescissions targeted foreign aid

A year ago, Trump issued a pocket rescission for the first time in nearly 50 years by blocking $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block those rescissions, saying that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision. This year, Trump is targeting domestic spending.

The use of a “pocket rescission” fits into a broader pattern by the Trump administration to exert greater control over the U.S. government, eroding Congress’s power.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he again expects the courts to have the final word on the issue. Some of the proposed cuts are things that “many of us agree with, but the process by which they did it is going to be, I assume, subject to a lot of discussion and probably some litigation," he said.

Democrats have been highly critical of the president's effort and are working to tighten language in the next set of appropriations bills to prevent similar efforts in the future. Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Budget Committee, sponsored legislation that would require the White House Office of Management and Budget to release funds at least 90 days before they expire.

“GAO’s decision is clear: President Trump’s pocket rescission is illegal and subverts Congress’s constitutional power of the purse," Boyle said. “No president has the authority to ignore Congress and unilaterally cancel funding that was signed into law.”

New cuts target several federal programs

Most of the cuts sought by Trump are focused on Health and Human Services programs that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration says the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.

Also targeted for cuts were a Department of Education program for migrant students, a Department of Justice office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs and housing counseling services from the Housing and Urban Development Department.

Según los registros, los agentes encontraron el sábado a Jennifer Wright sangrando por la nariz y con un “chichón rojo en la cara” en el lobby del Extended Stay America, ubicado en el 101 Fairway Drive.

Wright, la huésped registrada, dijo que su agresor estaba en su habitación. Allí los agentes encontraron drogas; a Alain Perez, quien tenía una orden de arresto pendiente; y al presunto agresor, Juan Garrandes.

“Observé una maleta plateada de metal abierta encima de una cómoda... dentro de la maleta vi una bolsa plástica transparente con una sustancia cristalina blanca... y otra bolsa plástica transparente con un material seco parecido a hongos”, escribió un agente, según el informe de arresto.

Los agentes reportaron haber encontrado 18.7 gramos de metanfetamina, 23.2 gramos de hongos con psilocibina y una báscula digital. Según la policía, Perez confirmó que Garrandes había agredido a Wright, pero Garrandes lo negó.

Los agentes arrestaron a Wright y a Perez poco antes de la 1:40 p.m. del sábado, y ambos fueron procesados en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según los registros.

Wright enfrenta cargos de tráfico de anfetaminas y posesión de una sustancia controlada. Un juez le fijó una fianza de $17,500. Perez enfrenta un cargo por no comparecer ante la corte, un delito grave de tercer grado. Su fianza fue de $500.

Garrandes, nacido en Nueva York y residente del vecindario Flagami de Miami, fue arrestado poco después de la 1:30 p.m. del sábado y procesado en el mismo centro correccional. Enfrenta un cargo de agresión, un delito menor de primer grado. Su fianza fue de $1,000.

Las condenas de Garrandes en el condado Miami-Dade se remontan a 1991 e incluyen robos a mano armada, robo de autos con violencia, robo en propiedad ajena, posesión de drogas y hurto mayor.

David Rudolph Jenrath, 24, turned himself in to authorities Monday and was charged with two felonies: theft of trade secrets and computer tampering. He is being held on $15,000 bond at the Lee County Jail, according to police.

A news release issued Tuesday by the Auburn Police Department said a “business reported that sensitive information was stolen from the business and distributed to their competitors. The business reported that one of their competitors received the information and turned it over to them.”

It's unclear which schools received the stolen information. A complaint alleges that the incident occurred on July 19 at the Auburn Athletics Complex.

Jenrath’s profile on LinkedIn, which has now been removed, said he worked for the Auburn football program as a player personnel scouting assistant from January through June. His focus was on running backs and special teams.

His profile said his duties included evaluating high school and transfer-portal prospects, preparing scouting reports and recruiting summaries, assisting with opponent scouting and maintaining recruiting databases. His profile also said he was an applied artificial intelligence/sports analytics student at the University of Tennessee.

Auburn plays at Tennessee on Saturday.

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Judges from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard three hours of arguments in the latest chapter of a case that has been a recurring flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s escalating conflict with the federal courts.

Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate argued District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg has no basis or authority to continue with his inquiry because a prosecutor — not a judge — is responsible for investigating crimes.

“What's gone off the rails in this case is that the district court has purported to investigate,” Shumate said.

In April, a divided panel of three D.C. Circuit judges ruled that Boasberg must end his “intrusive” contempt investigation of the Trump administration. But the questions posed at Tuesday's hearing suggest that the full court of 11 judges could give Boasberg a green light to proceed with his inquiry. The judges didn't indicate how soon they would rule.

Judge Patricia Millett questioned why Boasberg shouldn't be allowed to continue with his inquiry so he can determine if other government officials merit additional scrutiny for possible criminal contempt.

“Are district courts allowed to decide if people have engaged in contempt in front of them?” asked Millett, who was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama.

“The district court loses the authority to investigate,” Shumate said.

“That's not my question,” Millet interjected, raising her voice. “This is all about wordplay here on what you mean by the word ‘investigate.’”

On March 15, 2025, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from transferring groups of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century law. After the order was entered, two planeloads of migrants protected by the order departed from the U.S. on their way to El Salvador, where they were locked up in one of the world’s most violent prisons.

Boasberg gave a verbal order for the aircraft to turn around. The administration denied violating it or a subsequent written order, but Boasberg has said the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country.

The administration has said then- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was responsible for the transfer decision. On Tuesday, however, D.C. Circuit judges suggested that Boasberg should be able to identify other possible targets for a contempt investigation before referring the matter to a prosecutor.

The case represents a major front in an escalating conflict between Trump and the federal judiciary, which has often blocked some of the president's most ambitious and legally dubious initiatives. In case after case, the administration has demonstrated an unprecedented willingness to skirt or even defy court orders.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, also an Obama nominee, said it undermines courts’ authority if the executive branch treats judicial orders as “optional” and is allowed to ignore them “with impunity.”

“The separation of powers respects the separate and co-equal authority of the different branches,” she said. “Really, at bottom what this case is about is whether (federal) courts are at the mercy of the executive.”

Pillard asked Shumate if he could help her “feel more comfortable” about the administration's perspective on that issue. Shumate said the department is “always advising our clients to comply with court orders.”

“It's also the right thing to do," he said. “We have to respect court orders, and the government in this case did comply with the order. I know there may be disagreement on that.”

The Justice Department says it didn't violate Boasberg's order “as it was best construed” and accuses the Obama-nominated judge of pursuing the contempt inquiry “with myopic and single-minded determination.”

American Civil Liberties Union attorneys say the government's decision to ignore Boasberg's order had “devastating consequences” for the migrants who were flown to El Salvador and held for months in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

“Plaintiffs’ four months at CECOT were nothing short of barbaric,” ACLU attorneys wrote. “They were subjected to horrific physical and psychological abuse, and deprived of food, water, and medical care. They were regularly severely beaten by guards and subjected to other physical abuse, including being shot at close range with rubber bullets.”

Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump nominee who wrote the panel's majority opinion in April, said she couldn't find a case in which a criminal contempt ruling was upheld under comparable circumstances.

“I don't think that should be a point in the government's favor,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt responded. “The reason is because no prior (Justice Department) or administration has ever taken these kind of egregious actions."

Trump has called for impeaching Boasberg, and the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration. In a rare rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts publicly rejected calls for Boasberg’s impeachment.

The girl and Battle did not know each other, the report states.

Police said the incident was reported after a Dollar Tree manager reviewed surveillance footage and contacted authorities.

Officers with the Miami Police Department’s Little Havana Problem Solving Team responded to the store, located at 1043 W. Flagler St., and detained Battle, the report states.

According to the report, surveillance video showed Battle walking through an aisle with a shopping cart as the girl entered the same aisle alone.

“The offender turns toward her and closes the distance between them. He (Battle) briefly scans the surrounding area and hesitates before positioning his face near the victim’s buttocks. His upper body then rises (inhaling), after which he turns away from the victim,” the report states.

The report also states that the girl then grabbed a poster and began walking away. Police said Battle again moved closer and leaned his pelvic area toward her but appeared unable to make contact as she quickly walked away.

The girl later told investigators that her mother had brought her to the Dollar Tree to buy materials for a school project. Her mother instructed her to get cardboard from another aisle, according to the report.

The girl told police she saw only one person in the aisle, the report states. As she was leaving, she recalled Battle touching her arm and then “nudging her shoulder area,” police said.

They said she also told investigators that she felt Battle smelling her, describing the sensation as “air on her lower back.” She said she knew he had smelled her and ran to her mother for safety, according to the report.

Police said the girl’s description of Battle matched the man seen in the surveillance video.

Investigators later interviewed Battle after reading him his Miranda rights, according to the report. Battle told police he had taken his bicycle to a repair shop in Hialeah before stopping at the Dollar Tree, the report states.

Battle, who lives in the county’s Gladeview area, said he acknowledged seeing the girl walk toward the aisle where he was shopping and gave investigators a description of her that was consistent with her appearance, according to the report.

Investigators said when Battle was asked about his behavior, he told them he “did not intend to cause any harm.” They said Battle claimed that he placed his face toward the girl’s buttocks because he was under the influence of marijuana and his brain “told him to do it.”

Jail records show Battle is facing one count of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child younger than 16.

Battle appeared in Miami-Dade bond court Tuesday, where Judge Mindy Glazer set his bond at $2,500, ordered him to stay away from the victim and the Dollar Tree, placed him on house arrest, and imposed an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

En cambio, el hijo de Steve Gallon III, exmiembro de la Junta Escolar de Miami-Dade y comisionado electo del condado, aceptó este martes un acuerdo con la Fiscalía. Fue condenado a cinco años de prisión, con abono del tiempo que ya ha pasado detenido.

“¿Cómo se declara, culpable o no culpable?”, le preguntó a Gallon el juez de circuito de Miami-Dade Alberto Milian.

“Culpable”, respondió Gallon.

Según los investigadores, los hechos ocurrieron el 8 de marzo de 2023.

La Fiscalía sostiene que un grupo de agentes vigilaba a Atiba Moore como parte de una investigación por drogas cuando Moore se dio cuenta de que un policía encubierto lo seguía en un auto sin identificación.

La Fiscalía acusó a Gallon, hoy de 36 años, de dispararle al agente por la espalda. Sin embargo, admitió este martes en la corte que le resultaría difícil probar ciertos elementos del delito en un juicio. El agente no pudo identificar a quien le disparó y el arma nunca fue recuperada.

Roderick Vereen, abogado de Gallon, dijo que la defensa sostuvo desde el principio que Gallon no sabía que la persona a la que le disparó era un policía.

“Esta familia lleva tres años y medio pasando por este calvario. Creo que lo que dijeron hoy el juez y la Fiscalía confirmó lo que yo venía diciendo desde el primer día: aunque este incidente ocurrió, no había ninguna prueba de que él supiera que el sargento Darrian Washington era un policía”, dijo Vereen.

Un fiscal dijo creer que fragmentos del arma que disparó Gallon alcanzaron a la víctima en la parte posterior de la cabeza.

La Fiscalía también reconoció que ningún análisis forense estableció que esos fragmentos provinieran de una bala en particular.

Finalmente, la Fiscalía aceptó retirar los agravantes por dispararle a un agente del orden y por cometer el delito con un arma de fuego.

Según los fiscales, la víctima quería que Gallon fuera condenado a 10 años de prisión. La defensa, por su parte, pedía que la condena se limitara al tiempo que ya había cumplido.

Al final, Milian condenó a Gallon a cinco años de prisión.

“Lo condeno a 60 meses en una prisión estatal de Florida, con abono de todo el tiempo ya cumplido”, dijo Milian.

Otra condición del acuerdo fue que Gallon no apelará la condena.

En el caso también hay otros coacusados. Según los fiscales, hay acuerdos y conversaciones en curso sobre esos casos, que podrían resolverse en las próximas semanas.

La huida tras abandonar el auto ocurrió en la intersección de la calle 17 y la avenida 127 del noroeste.

El helicóptero Sky 10 sobrevoló la escena poco después de las 2:00 p.m., donde se observó a dos personas siendo puestas bajo custodia cerca de la cerca de una vivienda en la zona.

La policía de North Miami lideraba el operativo, de acuerdo con múltiples reportes, mientras otras agencias brindaban apoyo en el lugar.

Un helicóptero policial fue visto sobrevolando el área mientras los agentes registraban el vecindario, el cual alberga residencias y negocios.

Las autoridades no han revelado información adicional sobre los detenidos.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

The apparent 6-3 order temporarily lifts lower court requirements for migrants to get a chance to object before being sent to countries to which they have no ties.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept the lower court order in place.

The Trump administration said last week the lower court order forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries.

The conservative majority has sided with the administration before on the core Trump administration policy, allowing deportation flights to temporarily continue last year.

The court said it will consider several questions: whether the policy is lawful, whether lower courts had the authority to consider the case and issue a sweeping block, as well as other questions the government deems appropriate.

The order “has now allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they may face persecution, torture, imprisonment, or other grave danger,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and one of the lawyers representing immigrants in the case.

“But today’s order does not decide that the government’s policy is lawful,” she said in a statement. “The Court will hear that question on an expedited schedule.”

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported some 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries, from Liberia to Guyana. The vast majority have been sent to Mexico.

Trump’s Republican administration has said that it sends people with final deportation orders to third countries when they can't be returned to their homelands or their native countries won’t accept them, including those who have criminal convictions. Those governments provide assurances that people won’t be persecuted or tortured, federal attorneys said.

Attorney General Todd Blanche called the policy “an entirely lawful and critical tool for immigration enforcement" in a social media post.

Some migrants, though, have found themselves imprisoned in countries they’d never heard of before their arrivals. Others also face serious safety risks and are left with little choice except to return to the home countries they were fleeing. Many have no criminal convictions and have been found to be at risk of torture or persecution, attorneys for the immigrants said.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.

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AP correspondent Tim Sullivan contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The president has traditionally invited the reigning champions, but that has not been the case under Trump. No team went during his first term or after he was elected again in 2024.

But Trump and Knicks owner James Dolan are close. They sat together when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, and Dolan indicated after the Knicks won the championship that an offer would be accepted.

The Knicks held their first practice of the new season Tuesday and Brown was asked if there was a determination about a White House visit.

“No, it’s still something that our guys, or the organization, is internally discussing and, you know, whatever we decide to do, we’ll all do together,” Brown said.

The Boston Celtics made the first trip by a champion in 1963, and President Barack Obama, who is a basketball fan, hosted the winner every year he was in office.

But Trump has feuded with some NBA players, saying during the 2018 NBA Finals that he wouldn’t invite whichever team won, after Golden State’s Stephen Curry and LeBron James, then with the Cleveland Cavaliers, said their teams had no interest in a visit.

The 2025 champion Oklahoma City Thunder didn't visit the White House last season, saying the timing did not work out.

Teams often try to arrange their visit when they are in Washington to play the Wizards. The Knicks are scheduled for those games on Dec. 18 and March 16.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

The administration extended for nine months the life of Camp As Sayliyah, which had been due to close on Wednesday at the end of the U.S. budget year, a U.S. official said. It was not immediately clear whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed off on a diplomatic note to Qatar outlining the decision or if he had delegated it to a subordinate.

Nonetheless, the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the nine-month extension had been agreed on.

The decision comes months after Rubio told Congress that the U.S. was still in discussions with several third-party countries to take the 1,039 Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other roles helping the American war effort as well as relatives of U.S. service members who have been stranded in Qatar for more than a year.

Rubio's testimony in June came after the AP and other outlets reported that war-torn Congo was among the countries where the Trump administration was considering resettlement.

The State Department would not immediately comment on the extension for the camp but said it “continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people.”

The department also repeated its position that the camp is a legacy of an attempt by President Joe Biden's administration “to move as many Afghans to America as possible without properly vetting them” — an assertion that has been denied by former officials and refugee advocates.

The group of Afghans in Camp As Sayliyah includes those who fought or worked alongside the U.S. military between 2001 and 2021, with more than 70% of the camp's residents being women and children, according to statistics from #AfghanEvac. The group has spent the last five years advocating for Washington to make good on its promise to resettle those whose service has put them at risk since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's reassertion of control.

“This is a victory for those people, and they’re going to have some semblance of knowing that they’re safe there because they’ve been worried that at any moment somebody’s going to come and rip them out of there,” Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads #AfghanEvac, told the AP.

But he added that there needs to be a permanent solution to this yearslong crisis.

Despite the camp's reprieve, which prevents those housed there from possible forcible removal to Afghanistan, residents have little hope of being allowed to enter the United States.

Upon entering his second term, Trump, a Republican, paused his Democratic predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, including dramatically altering refugee admissions to focus on white South Africans. Only five Afghans have been admitted to the U.S. since October 2025, #AfghanEvac says.

The refugee changes left thousands of people who fled war and persecution — and had gone through a sometimes yearslong vetting process to start new lives in America — stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.

Advocates have warned that if there is no alternative, the only other option for the group of residents would be to go back to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal from the Taliban.

In the coming nine months, the State Department said it would “continue to work to identify options for voluntary resettlement of all Camp As-Sayliyah residents.” It gave no additional details.

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Amiri reported from New York.

At the company’s annual developer conference, Altman made a slew of product announcements and updates, including OpenAI's new agents, called Dots. The agents, designed to complete ongoing tasks proactively on behalf of users, are a competitor of Meta's personal agent Muse, which exploded in popularity after Meta's own conference last week.

Dot agents will be “like an AI helper that always has your back, inspired by the cool versions of what we all watched in movies growing up," Altman said.

On Monday, OpenAI said it was holding off on releasing the other model because of concerns raised by its researchers. That followed broader calls within the industry to decelerate the pace of the technology’s advance to let safety measures catch up.

Altman avoided making references to concerns around the shelved model during his keynote address, but said during a question-and-answer session that the company was investing more in safety, security and monitoring of AI agents.

The AI boom should be considered more like a period of renaissance than an industrial revolution, he said.

“The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, ever whirring faster and faster. There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate,” Altman said. “AI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.”

The company also announced the release of GPT-6.1 Sol, an upgraded version of its model GPT-6 Sol, and a premium speed tier called “Ultrafast," among other launches and updates.

Open AI's announcements came just before leaders from six of the leading AI companies, including OpenAI, signed a voluntary accord with President Donald Trump Tuesday to “self-police” development. The accord said the companies would implement “robust internal controls,” partner with an “independent external auditor” to assess whether the controls were working, and set up a committee among each company’s board of directors to evaluate reports from internal and external auditors.

While many in Silicon Valley have called for the government to help establish guardrails for the technology, Trump has pushed back against the idea of greater government oversight of AI.

While Altman didn't attend, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman was at the White House, along with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Altman discussed security concerns during a question-and-answer session.

Nancy Ninette Mutoni said Burundi would accept only people who were not facing prosecution and had no links to terrorism. She spoke during an event attended by government officials in Ngozi.

Mutoni did not say when the deportees would arrive or how many people Burundi had agreed to receive. She said preparations were underway to provide accommodations and help the deportees live in local communities.

“Receiving them requires serious planning — where they will stay, what they will eat and how they will live alongside the local population,” Mutoni said.

The Trump administration has expanded third-country deportations as part of its immigration crackdown, sending people to countries where they are not citizens and may never have lived. The United States has sent deportees to several African countries, including Eswatini and South Sudan.

A U.S. appeals court ruling last week threw the program into question. Lawyers for immigrants said a flight carrying about 70 people had been scheduled to travel from Louisiana to Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic but was canceled.

The ruling did not prohibit third-country deportations but required that people facing removal have a meaningful opportunity to raise concerns about possible persecution or torture. The Trump administration has defended the policy as necessary when deportees’ home countries refuse to accept them.

In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump's so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” and was supposed to go for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars," wrote Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that handles Homeland Security funding.

The senators demanded answers within the next 48 hours about “how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself.”

They asked the secretary if the department plans to use additional federal funds to air these ads or create new ones, and if so to share contracting information with Congress. They also asked Mullin if he had spoken to Trump about using the taxpayer funds for the ads.

The political uproar over Trump's hagiographic ads, which started running last week during popular TV shows, including college and National Football League programming, has not abated as critics on the left and right raise alarms about the use of taxpayer funds, particularly so close to the midterm elections.

The White House has defended the advertisements, which disclose that they are funded by the U.S. government, as public service announcements.

Asked for a request for comment Tuesday on the senators' letter, Homeland Security referred to the earlier White House response.

Ad spend is up to $2.5m as criticism and legal scrutiny grow

The unusual commercials, which echo the GOP's midterm election slogans, against imagery of Trump's tenure in office — one with a “Love me, Love me” song refrain in the background — appear to violate a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for propaganda.

Experts also have said the ads, which are airing on network and cable TV and streaming, differ from other administrations’ PSAs because they aren’t designed to help Americans access any specific program.

Over the weekend, a new ad promoting the president resembles a black-and-white video from his own 2024 campaign that shows Trump walking down a hallway as his voice can be heard warning of a “final battle” against “globalists” and “warmongers.” It ends with Trump staring straight into the camera lens with the “Paid for by the U.S. Government” message printed.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, has compared Trump's ads to those used by authoritarian former leader Viktor Orban of Hungary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said it “shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”

Data from the outside firm AdImpact shows more than $2.5 million was spent on the three ads over the past seven days. The actual amount spent could be significantly more, depending on whether networks classified the ads as political.

The senators said in their letter that DHS has committed $20 million to the campaign.

A person who was not authorized to discuss the situation and who was granted anonymity confirmed the findings, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump's ads use taxpayer dollars, likely skirting the law

The unusual ad campaign comes as Republicans face an increasingly volatile midterm election season with their control of the House and Senate — and Trump's future agenda — all at risk.

Voters say they are struggling with high prices of gas and groceries, and are concerned about the lengthy U.S. war against Iran, now in its seventh month. Democrats are gearing up for vast oversight of Trump and his administration if they seize power, and impeachment is not off the table.

House Democrats said Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, moved $20 million from Homeland Security resources to the ad campaign on Sept. 19.

The next day, a $20 million contract for a “National Media Campaign” was awarded to the Maryland-based LMD Agency, Inc., according to federal data. LMD Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Homeland Security funds are part of a whopping $175 billion Congress gave the department in the “Big, Beautiful, Bill” as part of Trump's immigration enforcement and deportation agenda. Democrats voted against that package, which Trump signed into law last summer, in part because of its steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee, said that after gutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and social services and “more than quadrupling funding for mass deportations, it turns out the Trump administration used Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill to pay for President Trump’s political ads.”

They said if the Democrats regain control, they "will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable.”

What's also striking about the administration's use of taxpayer dollars for the ads is that Trump's own political campaign committee, MAGA Inc., is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that could be used during the midterm season. Groups aligned with MAGA Inc. have started shelling out funds for the House and Senate races.

The administration has defended the use of taxpayer dollars for the ads and shown no signs of changing course.

The contradiction isn’t lost on UN Women, the agency facing an uphill struggle pressing for the rights of women and girls — and for women to be at the top in international organizations, governments, business, technology and the escalating debate over artificial intelligence.

According to the U.N. agency’s recent “gender snapshot,” at the current rate of progress it will take 171 years to achieve gender equality, a U.N. goal initially set for 2015 and then moved to 2030. Other findings are also grim: Nearly one in three women globally have experienced sexual violence. Nearly one in five girls is married before age 18. And at the pace of the last five years, gender parity in parliament won’t be reached until 2089.

After years of upward movement, women’s political leadership is also losing momentum, with six in seven countries still led by men.

Sarah Hendriks, a high-ranking official in UN Women, said the just-ended annual gathering of world leaders in the U.N. General Assembly hall “very much reflected a male-dominated world, both in terms of representation as well as content.”

She welcomed the “disproportionate reinforcement” of the potential for a woman to be the next U.N. chief, which she said cut across regions of the world and political divides, and was “energizing.”

“This is not just a question simply of symbolism,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s a question of whether the U.N. actually reflects the equality it asks the world to uphold.”

“We can’t ask governments to dismantle barriers to women’s leadership while accepting those barriers in its own institutions,” she said. “We can’t tell companies to break glass ceilings while the U.N. leaves our own ceilings intact.”

Lots of talk about women and opportunity, but what is the reality?

During the weeklong high-level meeting that ended Monday, Hendriks said leaders said women “must have an equal opportunity to hold the most powerful positions in the world including this one – and, in fact, especially this one.”

Among those speaking out was East Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. He said that after more than 80 years, “we ought to have enough wisdom and elect a woman with unquestionable integrity." And Botswana's president, Duma Boko, lamented “an unfinished chapter in the history of this organization” — that after eight decades “the United Nations has yet to be led by a woman as secretary-general.”

There are currently seven candidates to replace Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31. The slate consists of four women and three men; former Chilean president Michele Bachelet dropped out.

Two women – U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Guyana’s U.N. ambassador, Caroline Rodrigues Birkett, topped the latest straw poll in the 15-member Security Council, on Tuesday with U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi a close third. Grynspan had 10 “encourage” votes and three “discourage” votes, while Rodrigues-Birkett had six “discourage” votes and Grossi had seven, according to two diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity because the poll was private. Some diplomats said the results could encourage new candidates.

By tradition, the job of secretary-general rotates by region; this is Latin America’s turn, though there are two African contenders. While the General Assembly has the final say, decision-making rests with the five veto-wielding members on the Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. They have been mum about their choices, though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that Grynspan and Rodrigues-Birkett “meet the criteria."

‘When women lead, peace agreements last longer’

Hendriks, UN Women’s director of policy, programs and its intergovernmental division, said the choice, for her, is really about the kind of multilateralism the United Nations wants for the next 80 years.

During the high-level meeting, she said there was a reduction in the focus on gender equality in speeches by the U.N.’s 193 member nations. Leaders spoke extensively about conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere; about peace and security; about U.N. reform; and, in some cases, about climate change, development, finance, and artificial intelligence. “But gender equality was much less prominent as a political priority.”

Hendriks said the gender dimension of the technological transformation taking place today, including the use of AI, received far less attention. She called this a serious concern because “if we build a future of technology without women,” inequality will be embedded. Right now, she said, women hold only 22% of the AI professional positions globally and only 14% of leadership positions, “but nobody was talking about that.”

Still, there were some champions. Liberian President Joseph Boakai told the assembly that “gender equality is essential. When women lead, peace agreements last longer, economies grow faster and government becomes more accountable.”

In his farewell “state of the world” speech opening the meeting, Guterres called gender inequality the most universal form of inequality.

“Everywhere, women and girls continue to face discrimination, violence, exclusion and abuse,” he said. “Around the world, their rights are being rolled back. Their voices silenced. Their bodies turned into battlegrounds. And their freedoms treated as bargaining chips.”

Calling this “a profound waste for humanity,” the U.N. chief said women make peace more durable, economies more dynamic and institutions more effective.

Over his 10 years as secretary-general, Guterres said the United Nations has achieved gender parity for the first time in its history in its senior leadership and all headquarters and professional staff.

“Equality is not a dream. It is a decision,” he said. “If the United Nations can change, so can governments. So can parliaments. So can businesses. So can peace processes. And so can this General Assembly.”

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Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

The Southern California theme park said it is permanently shuttering the ride after nearly 20 years. Six Flags recently settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding the coaster in 2022, and three more lawsuits alleging traumatic brain injuries were filed last week.

“While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do,” park President Brian Oerding said in an online announcement. “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”

The ride has been closed since the evening of July 12, after two women who rode the coaster less than a week apart both needed to be rushed to the hospital after they exited.

One of them, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, collapsed shortly after the ride ended and was found to have massive brain bleeding inside her skull that required emergency brain surgery. She remains in a vegetative state in the hospital, unable to speak or move and dependent on a ventilator. Her family filed a lawsuit against Six Flags on her behalf.

Her attorneys said more than 100 people have claimed they got brain injuries from the roller coaster in the past two years and that the closure of X2 would not keep them from continuing to file lawsuits.

“Closing the ride protects future guests, and we welcome that. But it does nothing for the people who have already been hurt,” attorney Gary Dordick said. “Six Flags must now take responsibility for them.”

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health opened an investigation into the ride after the July incidents and said it remains ongoing.

According to the Six Flags Magic Mountain website, the X2 roller coaster reaches a top speed of 76 mph (122 kph) and has a total length of 3,610 feet (1,100 meters). The seats rotate 360 degrees “so your body will be flipping around the entire time,” and the ride features two “raven turns” — half loops that turn into sheer drops midway.

It debuted at the park in 2002 under the name X as the world’s first “fourth-dimension” roller coaster and reopened in 2008 as X2 with new trains and special effects. The uniqueness of the ride drew thrill-seekers from around the world and garnered a fervent fanbase.

The park settled a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Christopher Hawley, a 22-year-old who died the day after he rode X2. He was taken to the hospital after the ride with severe brain bleeding. The medical examiner’s office said his death was from blunt head trauma. The case was settled at the end of August, a few days before the trial was scheduled to start.

There’s Anne Hathaway’s titular character, a wildly popular novelist who is unable to speak or move after a car accident, but whose secret, and disturbing, autobiography speaks volumes. There’s Dakota Johnson’s struggling author, Lowen, who has been hired to finish Verity’s remaining novels and who finds herself living in Verity’s home and fantasizing about her more successful counterpart’s life, and husband. And then there’s Josh Hartnett, as said husband, who is caring and responsible but perhaps a bit quick to suggest that Lowen borrow one of Verity’s dresses for their night out on the town.

The actors couldn't help get the giggles on set

It is all quite heightened in the way that one might hope for in a sexy, psychological thriller, which opens in theaters Friday. At some point, Lowen even starts to suspect that Verity might be faking her paralysis. And the actors often found themselves doing something that the script did not call for: Giggling.

“There would be some shots where Dakota and I would just have to stare at each other,” Hathaway recently told The Associated Press. “There’s just something about knowing that you’re supposed to be scary that makes you giggle.”

But that is just part of the fun of going big for a pulpy, popcorn thriller, where Johnson gets to blow vape smoke in Hathaway’s face and all get to participate in a fantasy sequence in which Johnson starts out kissing Hartnett’s character and ends with Hathaway on her lips.

“It just seemed really fun to play somebody who’s deeply unwell,” Johnson said.

‘Verity’ is based on a Colleen Hoover psychological thriller

“Verity" is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to make it to the big screen. After “It Ends With Us,” it is one of her more popular bestsellers. That film made over $350 million worldwide in theaters, but also became infamous for its off-screen legal battles.

On “Verity,” however, the drama stayed on the screen. For director Michael Showalter, it offered a chance to dip into a genre that he has been dreaming about since he took an Alfred Hitchcock film class in high school. “Rebecca” was a major touchstone.

Hitchcock, and Brian De Palma, were in his head when casting the movie too. It held extra significance that Johnson’s grandmother, Tippi Hedren, was in “The Birds” and “Marnie,” and her mother, Melanie Griffith, starred in De Palma’s very Hitchcockian “Body Double.”

Johnson deadpanned that she wasn't “really thinking about my mother or grandmother in erotic thrillers at the time of filming."

But after the fact she said she found it “inspiring in a way."

“I guess, because it’s something that has been in my family, it’s like a sense of understanding and bravery,” Johnson said. “I guess I’m inspired by my mother and grandmother that they can do, or did that. And so could I.”

None of the three leads had ever worked together before. Showalter likened them to a “super group.” He learned from Hitchcock that movies like these are as much about the characters as they are about the actors.

“I’ve always been trying to play roles that are very different from each other and from myself,” Hartnett said. “And I think as I’ve gotten older, people have allowed me more leeway to do that.”

‘Verity’ concludes Hathaway’s big year on screen

Hathaway was a producer on “Verity” and came armed with big, cinematic ideas, Showalter said. The two had worked together on the romantic drama “The Idea of You,” and Hathaway was excited to help him make his “Rebecca,” and also to be in a role in which she was sitting and staring off in the distance for much of it. She had just come off several physically demanding productions. Stillness seemed like the right choice.

“Verity's” release ends an exhaustive streak of non-stop work for Hathaway that resulted in five major theatrical releases, and press tours, this year, including “Mother Mary,”“The Devil Wears Prada 2,”“The Odyssey” and “The End of Oak Street.” On top of that, she is soon going to give birth to her third child and then, after a bit of a break, plans to team up with Tom Cruise on a “Days of Thunder” sequel. But she is not patting herself on the back for any of it.

“Please let’s not over praise the pampered actress,” Hathaway said. “There’s a lot of pregnant women out there at home and in the workplace who didn’t get a manicure this morning. I’m very happy to do my job. I have so much support.”

Hathaway went on to speak about the thrill of watching audiences come back to movie theaters this year — something that she said she and her co-stars took for granted at the beginning of their careers. The annual domestic box office is up around 19% from last year; Hathaway's four movies have made just over $2.5 billion worldwide.

“This year in particular felt like the first time for me, post pandemic, post the strikes, where the movies were so exciting and people came out in droves to see them again and again and again,” she said. “It’s just been exciting to have so many offerings in a year that feels so important to the motion picture industry and, not to sound too, you know, grandiose about it, but to American culture.”

Hartnett chimed in: “But I’m with ‘The Onion’ saying that we’re becoming overly reliant on Anne Hathaway in our economy.”

Hathaway told him not to worry.

“I’m going to rest pretty soon,” she said. “This is the last one.”

Circuit court judge George Wright granted the injunction during a Tuesday hearing in Alachua County. Gators coach Todd Golden and several players attended the proceedings.

“We're pleased with today's ruling, and we're especially happy for Denzel,” Golden said in a statement.

Aberdeen’s attorney, Jesse Panuccio, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA earlier this month. His motion noted that more than 30 courts across the country have ruled that the NCAA’s “arbitrary decision” against student-athletes who began college careers during the 2022-23 season and completed four seasons of eligibility is “unlawful.”

“The NCAA’s refusal to honor its current eligibility framework breaches its contract with UF, which is intended to benefit student-athletes like Aberdeen,” the suit said.

The NCAA’s move to a five-year, age-based eligibility model has led to a series of court fights across the country.

Aberdeen played three seasons at Florida before transferring to Kentucky last year. He reenrolled at Florida earlier this year in hopes of finishing his undergraduate degree. He has worked out and practiced with the Gators all summer.

He initially planned to convince the NCAA that his freshman year in Gainesville should be considered a redshirt season. The 6-foot-5 Orlando native played only 12 games in 2022-23, scoring 19 points in 41 total minutes. He had hoped to get a waiver from the NCAA to secure another year of eligibility.

But the NCAA has since adopted the five-year eligibility model, which is scheduled to be fully implemented next fall, that will allow players to have five years of eligibility with the clock starting when athletes turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever is earlier.

That change quickly led to lawsuits from four-year players in the high school class of 2022, like Aberdeen.

Aberdeen is expected to slide into a starting spot to replace Xaivian Lee.

The Gators already are the betting favorite — and likely to be ranked No. 1 in preseason polls — to win it all in 2027. Golden retained most of last year’s roster, most notably big men Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu.

Aberdeen started 35 games for Kentucky last season, averaging 13.5 points, 3.4 assists and 2.5 rebounds. He came off the bench the previous two years at Florida and averaged 7.7 points as a junior in 2024-25.

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The nonprofit running the longstanding contest announced that the bear, known for his pacifist nature, was the winner Tuesday with more than 100,000 votes, giving him a close win over Bear 910 with just over 50% of the poll.

The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.

Last year’s winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — clinched his victory at an estimated 1,200 pounds. He was handily defeated in the first round of competition this year by Bucky, who went on to lose a faceoff against Backpack, known officially as Bear 89.

The event this year featured 16 bears vying for the heavyweight title in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, and the winner was declared Tuesday evening after the final poll closed. The public could watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite.

“Fat bears are successful bears,” the nonprofit says on its website. This group gorges itself on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River starting in late June. It's there that they can stuff themselves to accumulate the fat reserves they will need to survive the winter. To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area around the river.

Backpack is the son of former Fat Bear Week champion Holly, who introduced him to the Brooks River when he was a first-year cub in 2006. His name was inspired by his habit of climbing onto his mother’s back when they swam the river. This year’s fans cheered on Backpack in the contest’s Instagram comments, noting his lineage and reputation as a gentle giant.

“Unlike many large adult male bears, Backpack hasn’t shown much aggression toward his competitors,” his contestant profile reads.

Backpack uses his “quiet strength” rather than brawling and is often seen in wildlife cameras sitting on a rock downstream, appearing to take in the scenery around him.

He defeated Bear 910, who is also the daughter of a former champion: 409 Beadnose.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon, large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller. The bears may each eat as many as 30 fish a day this time of year, working hard to eat a year’s worth of food in about six months.

During winter hibernation, the bears do not eat or drink and can lose one-third of their body weight.

Fat Bear Week's contestants also included five bear families, in recognition of the record high number of families and cubs at the river this summer. A mother must feed and protect her cubs while also eating enough calories to sustain herself through hibernation. Cubs often face the risk of attack by other bears due to territorialism or food scarcity.

Bear 132 and her three spring cubs advanced to the semifinals, but lost out to Bear 910.

Bear 132 has become one of the largest and most experienced mother bears at Brooks River, according to her contestant profile. In mid-July, one of her cubs became separated from the family for several days, wandering the river corridor alone. They were reunited a few days later. ___

Associated Press writer Jamie Stengle contributed from Dallas.

Content used in live performances, including songs and stand-up comedy scripts, must be approved in advance by local authorities, a long-standing requirement that reflects China’s strict censorship of the entertainment industry. Artists who violate the rules can be fined or banned from future performances and even public appearances.

Singer Na Ying’s performance was “a brief, fragmentary performance during an audience interaction segment rather than a full rendition of the song” and therefore did not require additional approval, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism said in a statement.

Na, one of China’s most influential female singers, performed “Curved Moon” at her concert in Chengdu on Saturday in memory of her friend and singer Liu Huan, a household name who died the previous day.

“I want to sing a song he sang before on this stage, to pay tribute to him,” Na, dressed in black, told the audience, according to videos posted on social media. Her voice trembled as she sang.

Some commenters called the performance an “expensive tribute,” expressing admiration for Na while also voicing concerns that she could be fined.

Liu, one of China’s best-known musicians for nearly four decades, died Friday at age 63, according to an obituary published Sunday by the University of International Business and Economics. A professor of music history, Liu taught at the university for more than three decades before retiring.

Liu performed the theme song for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with soprano Sarah Brightman during the opening ceremony.

Brightman called Liu “an amazing talent and a true gentleman” and said he “will be greatly missed” in posts on Facebook and X on Sunday.

The Chengdu decision came weeks after authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan fined one of the country’s best-known comedians for changing the lyrics of a patriotic song during a performance.

The bill, passed by voice vote late Monday, directs the government to not make pennies, giving a legal stamp of approval to the Trump administration’s decision to stop producing the currency last year. The penny, among the first coins to be made after the Mint was established in 1792, has become increasingly expensive to produce and is used by fewer and fewer consumers as digital transactions have become more standard.

Trump is expected to sign the bill. He wrote in a social media post last year that the U.S. has produced the 1-cent coin for “far too long."

Ending the penny will save millions of dollars

The Mint says that production of a penny now costs almost 4 cents and that ceasing to make them would generate immediate savings of $56 million annually.

The bipartisan bill, called The Common Cents Act, was sponsored by Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif.

“When it comes to taking on waste and making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely, it’s common sense that we should stop making a coin that costs nearly four times more than it’s worth to produce,” Garcia said.

Consumers can still use their pennies

Pennies are still in circulation, and the formal end to their production doesn’t mean consumers or stores can’t use them. The Mint said it made 3.2 billion pennies in 2024.

The bill outlines new procedures for stores as pennies are phased out, and it allows them to round transactions up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

Retailers had pushed for the bill to eliminate the threat of lawsuits as penny circulation has dwindled.

“Businesses across the country have faced cascading impacts from the lack of pennies in circulation, operating under constant uncertainty about how to handle cash transactions when exact change is unavailable,” a coalition of retailer groups wrote to House leaders in a letter earlier this year.

The bill would also allow the government to use an inner layer of zinc when producing the nickel, which could increase in circulation as the penny is phased out. The 5-cent coin is currently made from both nickel and copper, which is more expensive than zinc.

Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 36, of Orlando, Florida, has pleaded not guilty to trying to murder Rihanna and to more than a dozen other felony charges stemming from the shooting in March. No one was injured, but bullets tore through an Airstream trailer that the singing superstar and A$AP Rocky were in. Shots also struck the wall of a nursery where their small children were at the time.

“Criminal proceedings are reinstated,” Judge Maria Cavalluzzi said at a very brief hearing in Los Angeles County court after months of psychiatric evaluations.

Ortiz appeared behind glass in a custody area of the courtroom, wearing yellow jail clothes and handcuffs. She didn't speak during the hearing. She could get life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

There was no direct discussion of the mental evaluations in court, and case documents that include such details have been sealed. Ortiz has been returned to the regular criminal court process, which had been suspended shortly after it began. She was ordered to appear at a hearing Wednesday.

Attorneys for both sides declined comment outside court after the hearing.

Police and prosecutors allege that Ortiz drove a Tesla up to the Beverly Hills-area property of Rihanna and her rapper partner on March 8, pointed an AR-15 style rifle out the window and fired at least 20 rounds toward the property and a neighboring house.

Investigators found bullet holes in the trailer and on the exterior wall of the home’s second-floor nursery, where the three kids were with their nanny.

Investigators said that after her arrest later that day, Ortiz said: “I wasn’t attempting murder.”

Ortiz is charged with 10 counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, one for each of the people on the two properties. She’s also charged with three counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle or dwelling.

Ortiz had no prior police record, authorities said. Public records show she had been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.

Authorities have not discussed a motive or described any connection between Ortiz and Rihanna. Her lawyers have not offered comment on her beyond her not guilty plea and procedural issues.

A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has had 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.”

The Giants released Beckham on Tuesday and signed return specialist Braxton Berrios and fellow receiver Charlie Jones to the active roster from the practice squad.

“Wishing him the best,” edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux said. “He’s a legend in the game, and he’s fought so hard to make his way back in this league. And he’s definitely going to be able to make a statement somewhere, so I’m not worried for him.”

Beckham was thrown at just once during his brief cameo back with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2014. Coach John Harbaugh last week hinted at a bigger role for Beckham, saying he “would be all for it Sunday” against Tennessee and calling it “the perfect time.”

Jameis Winston threw one deep pass intended for Beckham during the first quarter. Fans later chanted “OBJ! OBJ!” to no avail, as Beckham was only on the field for six plays of the ugly, 12-7 win and 20 of 191 (10.5%) this season.

Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Thursday said the Giants were trying to find situations to use Beckham. Nagy added that one injury would be enough to have Beckham playing all the time.

In retrospect, it appears one injury — Calvin Austin's torn right ACL during training camp — was enough to get Beckham on the 53-man roster after making strides in practice and impressing in preseason games. Had Austin been healthy, there is a good chance Beckham would not have made the final cuts.

Beckham did, despite most recently playing an NFL game on Dec. 8, 2024, with the Miami Dolphins. He missed all of last season when he served a six-game suspension for failing a performance-enhancing drug test.

Back with New York, Beckham was behind Malik Nabers, Darnell Mooney and rookie Malachi Fields on the depth chart.

“I love playing with ‘O,'” said tight end Isaiah Likely, who was also teammates with Beckham on the Baltimore Ravens in 2023. “Hopefully, wherever he ends up, he does what Odell does.”

Berrios had been promoted from the practice squad the maximum three times, hence the need to clear a roster spot for him. To make room for Jones, linebacker Brian Burns went on injured reserve with a torn ACL in his right knee.

Releasing Beckham is the latest move during a busy stretch, which included acquiring quarterback J.J. McCarthy from Minnesota in a trade Monday for a fifth-round pick. Likely said McCarthy was already at the team facility.

Harbaugh said Winston will start Sunday against Arizona, with either McCarthy or Jake Haener backing up. Haener was released with the intent of bringing him back on the practice squad and cleared waivers Tuesday to make that possible.

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Glazer read a North Miami Beach police officer’s report on the arrest of Nathalie Belizaire, a mother of four, and said, “You cannot make this up!”

While Belizaire was on the Carnival Conquest, a cruise ship voyage from Miami to the Bahamas, her 2-month-old daughter was home with her three minor siblings, according to police.

“The poor kids were home alone,” Glazer said.

Belizaire left on Friday and returned on Monday, according to police. The children’s father called 911 on Saturday, according to the arrest report.

North Miami Beach police officers reported forcing their way into their apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street and finding the four kids, including a two-year-old child, “hiding” in the bathroom.

“We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids,” Glazer said.

On Monday, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies waited for Belizaire to return to PortMiami, according to the arrest report. Belizaire’s public defender told Glazer she denied the allegation.

“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship,” Glazer said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection held Belizaire until NMBPD officers detained her. Police officers questioned her and arrested her, according to the arrest report.

Glazer asked, “Who leaves the kids, four little kids, alone to go on a cruise?”

Miami-Dade corrections booked Belizaire at 1:25 p.m. on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a felony case against Belizaire, according to court records. She faced four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set her bond at $10,000.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the case.

Related story: Mother accused of leaving 4 young children, including infant, home alone to go on Carnival cruise

“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters during an impromptu press conference outside the West Wing.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson met with leading executives from top tech firms that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure, including data centers in communities across the country, which have sparked grassroots, bipartisan opposition.

The accord was signed by Trump, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk, founder of xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.

The accord, which Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, late Tuesday, opened the door to future regulation but focused on four voluntary steps for the companies to take.

The accord said the companies would implement “robust internal controls,” partner with an “independent external auditor” to assess whether the controls were working, and establish a committee within each company's board of directors to evaluate reports from internal and external auditors.

“Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws and regulations,” the accord said.

Trump repeatedly praised the business executives for developing a technology that he said would produce “unbelievable growth." Investment in data centers and the accompanying computer equipment has accelerated the economy and boosted the stock market, which has swelled investment accounts for higher-income Americans and lifted their spending.

Yet there were some notes of caution Tuesday. Amodei, who has been one of the most outspoken voicescalling for a slowdown in AI development, said, “The technology has very real risks.”

"And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion,” Amodei said.

Putting faith in ‘self-policing’ AI

Trump suggested that about 10 people would be named to a committee to “watch over the whole enterprise” and said the accord would be “morally binding.” He also said he would name someone to oversee the agreement in coming days after consulting with industry.

Some of the actions outlined in the accord are measures these companies are already taking in some form or have previously committed to doing.

The intention of the accord balances the latitude needed for innovation with regulation, said Shri Narayanan, a university professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California. That innovation is not just limited to improving the capabilities of these AI models, Narayanan said, but also to efforts to improve model safety and security.

Other experts are skeptical of putting “so much faith in self-policing,” like Robin Jia, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Southern California. Jia said it’s crucial to ensure the leading labs’ intentions are “well-aligned with the broader interest of the American public.” He pointed to the recent disclosures of hacking incidents and said: “As the models get better, the consequences of such things are only going to get greater.”

Some also took issue with the accord’s vague, broad language. Alex Pascal, executive director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, said: “The only way to reduce the risks and harms of AI to Americans is through robust legal liability, regulation and fundamentally changing the race dynamics that are driving unsafe decision-making by frontier AI developers whose costs are borne by the American people.”

Trump unveils chatbot to help Americans navigate government services

Huang sat to Trump’s right during a White House luncheon meeting, according to a seating chart the president posted on Truth Social. Musk sat to Trump’s left.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump promised that the U.S. government wouldn't limit the development of artificial intelligence or support calls for “guardrails” or other restrictions.

“I will never stifle the growth of a technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” Trump said at the unveiling of an AI chatbot, America.gov, intended to help Americans navigate government services. “We can’t stifle it, and we’re leading by a lot.”

The unveiling of the AI government chatbot occurred at a daylong event in Washington during which multiple Trump administration officials celebrated a “Golden Age” fueled by what Trump insists on calling “super intelligence," rather than artificial intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted that the chatbot at America.gov could soon be used to apply for a first-time passport fully online, without the in-person visit to a processing center currently required.

Trump thinks data centers are going to become ‘very popular’

Trump also said the executives had agreed to assuage the bipartisan opposition to data centers cropping up in local communities across the country by providing more financial support to local schools or taking steps to reduce energy costs.

“You’re going to see, data centers are going to be very popular," Trump said. If the opposition continued, Trump suggested, “they’ll be forced to go overseas or other locations.”

Also Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a television interview that the company is increasingly focused on safety. The day before, his company halted the rollout of a new model over safety concerns.

“We are pacing our progress, which includes sometimes not training a model,” he said on CNBC. “We have to do these in a way where we can make very confident safety cases and claims, so that people don’t have a bunch of anxiety.”

For his part, Trump on Tuesday portrayed the race to develop AI as largely a global competition between the United States and China. He said there would be a winner and a loser, with no “second place.”

The two countries agreed last week to establish a channel for handling AI-related incidents during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington. But Trump underscored Tuesday that he didn't want to cooperate too much with China: "I didn’t want to do anything, because we’re leading. Why would I want to do anything?”

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Associated Press journalist Kaitlyn Huamani contributed from Los Angeles.

The latest action by the Treasury Department is part of the administration's Operation Economic Outcast campaign, which is aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Ten individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan were sanctioned for allegedly procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran's defense ministry as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

U.S. officials have said they want to disrupt Iran's defense systems and further degrade the government's ability to reconstitute its weapons program. The aim of the latest sanctions includes increasing the costs for the people and companies that have assisted Iran's military procurement efforts.

In 2024, the Biden administration also targeted entities that supported Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics in their production and proliferation of missiles and drones.

The latest financial penalties come as Iran’s currency fell to a record low Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar. The rial has steadily declined since the war began on Feb. 28, hitting its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2.

While the Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions, this year's U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into unprecedented freefall.

Prosecutors said Caleb Flynn, 40, staged a home invasion in February after shooting his wife, Ashley Flynn, a 37-year-old schoolteacher and volleyball coach.

Flynn, who claimed his wife was killed by a burglar, could get up to life in prison without the chance of parole when he's sentenced on Monday.

Flynn closed his eyes, shook his head to the side and fought to maintain his composure as the judge read the guilty verdicts on charges of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. He began sobbing while the judge dismissed the jury. His attorney called the verdicts “disappointing” and said he expects to file an appeal.

Flynn appeared on “American Idol” in 2013, telling TV viewers about how his wife had encouraged him to chase his dreams on the singing competition. He sang before judges Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj but did not advance to the main competition in Hollywood.

Prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday that Flynn wanted out of his marriage when he shot his wife at their home in Tipp City, a suburb north of Dayton. Flynn and the couple’s two daughters were home when police arrived.

The night before the fatal shooting, he sent a text to his lover saying: “I choose you. I’m free. Actions will come tomorrow," said Matthew Joseph, an assistant Miami County prosecutor.

Flynn didn’t want to lose his daughters, his high-paying job at his wife’s family business or his position in the church, prosecutors said.

“He wanted to keep his mistress and have his daughters all to himself,” Joseph said.

Prosecutors didn’t find the gun used to kill Ashley Flynn, but they said his fingerprints and DNA were all over the scene. They also said his devices showed that he was moving about the house even though he told investigators he was sleeping when his wife was shot.

During the trial, the woman who said she was having an affair with Flynn testified that he said he hated his wife and had thoughts of killing her.

Flynn’s attorney told the jury Tuesday that investigators never found evidence that Flynn fired a gun that day.

“His being unfaithful doesn’t equal murder,” said Patrick Mulligan. “The issue here isn’t, ‘Was he a good husband?’”

Text messages Flynn sent to his lover complaining about his wife were meant to make her feel good, Mulligan said.

Alleigha Botner testified she met Flynn in 2022 while she was a 20-year-old intern at his church and had an affair with him for more than a year. Botner read some of her text messages with Flynn.

About six months before the killing, Flynn wrote: “I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail.”