The youth movement submitted their election list to the state election authorities after a joyful march through downtown Belgrade, the capital of the Balkan country. A few thousand people joined the noisy gathering, clapping in support.

The Oct. 25 vote is seen as a major test for Vucic, whose Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, party has held a tight grip on power since taking office 14 years ago. The election will be held against the backdrop of heightened political tensions as the governing populists seek to remain in office despite widespread popular discontent.

The protests were triggered by a train station tragedy on Nov. 1, 2024, that killed 16 people in northern Serbia. The students demanded accountability for the concrete canopy collapse in the city of Novi Sad alleging that corruption led to flawed renovation work on the building.

Almost daily demonstrations, sometimes drawing hundreds of thousands of people, shook Vucic more than at any time since his party came to power in 2012. Vucic has been Serbia's prime minister or president since 2014.

Protesting students have demanded an early parliamentary election for more than a year, but Vucic has apparently waited until he felt strong enough to run.

Students believe in victory

Milica Popovic told the crowd on Monday that her fellow students will show that “the law exists in Serbia and that justice is not the privilege of the chosen few.”

“You have told us not to give up and we haven't,” she said. “It is now time for us to take over the institutions of this country.”

Vucic said he would resign the presidency on Sept. 27 so that he can lead his Serbian Progressive Party's campaign, and become the prime minister if they win. He can't run for president again since Serbia's constitution sets a two-term limit. An early presidential election will be held separately.

The student-backed list includes university professors, teachers, experts and other individuals from all walks of life.

The crowd on Monday in Belgrade chanted “Victory,” before heading toward Serbia's national electoral commission headquarters. Participants carried a huge banner reading “Students win,” along with the copy of Belgrade's landmark Victor monument.

Vucic blasts opponents

Vucic on Monday described his chief opponents as a “nameless list, a list without a program, without plans, without anything.” He alleged an elaborate campaign of lies against his government, including reports that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters at a huge gathering last March in Belgrade.

Vucic's SNS party and allied Socialist Party already have submitted their tickets for the election. Several right-wing and centrist opposition parties will also run.

Vucic has pushed back hard against the protesters, sparking international concern over police violence and arbitrary detentions. He has accused the students and their professors of intending to “destroy the state” under unspecified foreign guidance.

Serbia’s bid to join the European Union has stalled under Vucic, who has maintained close ties with both Russia and China. Previous elections in Serbia have been marred by multiple irregularities and violence.

A los problemas que ya había en los centros educativos se sumaron los daños provocados por los sismos de 7,2 y 7,5 de magnitud del 24 de junio que dejaron más de 6.500 muertos y unas 17.900 personas sin vivienda.

Los terremotos fueron los más fuertes registrados en el país sudamericano en más de un siglo y ocurrieron con 39 segundos de diferencia a lo largo de la cordillera de la costa, donde se encuentran los mayores centros poblados del país. Los sismos provocaron severos daños en Caracas y en los estados centro occidentales de La Guaira, Carabobo, Miranda, Aragua y Yaracuy.

La mayoría de las muertes ocurrieron en La Guaira, a unos 20 kilómetros al norte de Caracas, el segundo estado más pequeño de Venezuela. Su población de 440.000 habitantes es mayoritariamente pobre y vive del turismo, el comercio y las actividades en torno a la terminal aérea y el puerto.

Al comenzar un nuevo año escolar la afluencia de estudiantes en localidades como Caraballeda, en La Guaira, fue baja, pero los docentes confían en la incorporación progresiva de niños y jóvenes.

“Hay evidentemente un poco de temor que es comprensible por los eventos que sucedieron, pero poco a poco… vamos a ir aumentando la matrícula, día por día, hasta que todos entiendan que estamos en un sitio seguro”, dijo Marcos Payo, director de la escuela Congreso de Angostura de Caraballeda.

Algunas madres como Darioska Hernández tienen dudas de enviar a sus hijos a sus antiguas escuelas por considerar que fueron reparadas demasiado rápido, algo inusual en el país.

“Tengo mucho, mucho miedo. Nosotros vimos que las columnas (de la escuela) estaban explotadas y la repararon muy rápido y de verdad no me siento segura”, dijo Hernández a The Associated Press mientras preparaba a su pequeño hijo que de momento asiste a clases en una escuela improvisada en una tienda de campaña en La Guaira.

La escuela provisional fue idea de la maestra Yasmil Urimare. “Si anteriormente estaba difícil la educación... imagínate después del terremoto”, dijo la maestra a AP.

Antes de los sismos las condiciones en muchas escuelas públicas no eran las mejores por el deterioro de la infraestructura. La mayoría sufría además escasez de servicios esenciales como el agua, apagones frecuentes y la deserción de maestros ahuyentados por los bajos salarios.

De acuerdo con la Federación Venezolana de Maestros, el 40% de los 370.000 docentes activos han abandonado las escuelas desde 2017. El salario mensual —que obtiene la mayoría de los educadores de primaria y los liceos— es el más bajo de la región y oscila entre 30 centavos y 1,5 dólares mensuales, según la Federación.

Los maestros, como la mayoría de los 3,5 millones de trabajadores del sector público, subsisten con aproximadamente 190 dólares al mes, casi en su totalidad en bonos, que no tienen incidencia en otros beneficios laborales como las vacaciones.

De acuerdo con el Observatorio Venezolano de Finanzas, un organismo independiente, un empleado promedio del sector privado ganaba el año pasado alrededor de 237 dólares mensuales.

Según estadísticas oficiales, en Venezuela hay unos seis millones de estudiantes de primaria y enseñanza secundaria.

___

Rueda reportó desde la ciudad de Caracas.

Already the president of hockey operations, Sakic added the title of GM in June when the Nashville Predators hired away Chris MacFarland to lead their front office. The person spoke of Sakic's dual responsibilities on condition of anonymity because the team hasn't announced the decision.

Sakic was the architect behind building the Avalanche squad that captured the 2022 Stanley Cup title. He turned the responsibilities over to MacFarland soon after the celebratory parade that summer. It's a position MacFarland held until the Predators made him their president of hockey operations/general manager.

As a player, Sakic led the Avalanche to Stanley Cup titles in 1996 — their first season in Denver — and 2001. The Hall of Fame forward is the only one in league history to win a title as a captain and GM with the same franchise.

It's been a busy offseason for Sakic that's included several trades with MacFarland ( Ross Colton was sent to the Predators and later Jack Drury ).

Sakic created quite a bit of buzz around the league in late August by making standout defenseman Cale Makar the highest paid player in NHL history. Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, signed a $163.2 million, eight-year extension that kicks in next season. As a way to free up space to negotiate the extension, Sakic dealt Valeri Nichushkin to the Columbus Blue Jackets for draft picks.

Colorado is coming off a season in which the team won the Presidents' Trophy with the best record in hockey before being swept by Vegas in the Western Conference Final. Among the moves made by Sakic was bringing in forward Jaden Schwartz on a three-year contract. Schwartz had 11 goals and 15 assists over 50 games with the Seattle Kraken last season.

The Avalanche assembled Monday for a charity golf tournament. They start training camp later this week.

“A very talented group,” Schwartz said of the Avalanche before teeing off. “They're a team that's been up there in the standings every year and have a good chance every year. I feel pretty fortunate to be part of it now.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials, a 911 call came in just after 12:30 p.m. reporting a house fire in the 1800 block of Northwest 16th Court.

Firefighters arrived within six minutes and encountered “heavy fire conditions,” FLFR officials said in a news release.

Officials said crews were told someone might be trapped inside the home and immediately entered the house to search for that person.

Firefighters then located a man inside a bathroom and rescued him from the home, officials said.

The man was transported to Broward Health Medical Center with what officials said were “life-threatening injuries.”

FLFR officials confirmed that one firefighter suffered minor burns and is receiving treatment.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Según funcionarios de Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, alrededor de las 11:53 a.m., recibieron reportes de humo y llamas provenientes de una vivienda unifamiliar en la cuadra 600 de Northwest Ninth Court.

Las primeras unidades de bomberos llegaron en tres minutos e inmediatamente comenzaron un “ataque agresivo desde el interior”, dijeron los funcionarios, quienes agregaron que alrededor de 60 bomberos respondieron finalmente a la escena.

Las cuadrillas registraron la vivienda, aseguraron los servicios públicos y controlaron el incendio, dijeron los funcionarios.

La Cruz Roja Americana está ayudando ahora a dos mujeres que viven en la vivienda.

La causa del incendio continúa bajo investigación.

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According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue officials, at about 11:53 a.m., they received reports about smoke and flames coming from a single-family home in the 600 block of Northwest Ninth Court.

The first fire rescue units arrived within three minutes and immediately began an “aggressive interior attack,” officials said, adding that about 60 firefighters ultimately responded to the scene.

Crews searched the home, secured the utilities and brought the fire under control, officials said.

The American Red Cross is now assisting two women who live at the home.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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Bezos attended jury duty at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice building.

Local 10 News cameras captured Bezos as he was leaving the courthouse.

Bezos is a South Florida native who attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School.

He did not respond to questions about last week’s Amazon cargo plane crash as he headed to an awaiting vehicle.

On Sunday evening, Amazon confirmed it has paused operations with cargo carrier 21 Air following the crash that killed five people and injured five others.

Bezos se presentó para servir como jurado en el edificio de justicia Richard E. Gerstein.

Las cámaras de Local 10 News captaron a Bezos mientras salía del tribunal.

Bezos es originario del sur de Florida y asistió a Miami Palmetto Senior High School.

No respondió a preguntas sobre el accidente del avión de carga de Amazon de la semana pasada mientras se dirigía a un vehículo que lo esperaba.

La noche del domingo, Amazon confirmó que suspendió las operaciones con la aerolínea de carga 21 Air tras el accidente que dejó cinco personas muertas y otras cinco heridas.

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The Dolphins had trouble protecting Willis throughout the game, with Raiders EDGE Maxx Crosby repeatedly creating pressure. Miami’s offense also was hurt by penalties and turnovers as the Raiders controlled much of the game physically.

Las Vegas scored on its opening possession after forcing Miami to punt, moving the ball with a combination of Ashton Jeanty’s running game and short passing from quarterback Kirk Cousins. The drive ended when Cousins found Jack Bech for a touchdown, giving the Raiders an early 7-0 lead.

A questionable taunting penalty on cornerback JuJu Brents after a hit by Dolphins safety Zayne Anderson extended another Las Vegas drive. The Raiders took advantage and eventually built a 10-0 lead.

The Dolphins struggled to sustain drives in the first half.

Back-to-back holding penalties on center Aaron Brewer and tackle Patrick Paul pushed Miami back, but Willis responded with a 25-yard completion on second-and-26 to set up a third-and-1. The Raiders stopped running back De’Von Achane on the next play, and Riley Patterson kicked a 35-yard field goal.

Cousins continued to rely on the short passing game, finding Jeanty in the flat for a touchdown that extended the Raiders’ lead.

Willis and Caleb Douglas then provided Miami with a much-needed spark. Willis found Douglas in the slot for a 30-yard gain, setting up Patterson’s second field goal of the game.

Douglas had four catches for 81 yards by halftime as Miami went into the break trailing 13-6.

The Dolphins defense gave the offense another opportunity early in the second half when rookie safety Michael Taaffe intercepted Cousins.

Willis then found rookie wide receiver Chris Bell for his first career catch, a 25-yard reception, before connecting with Douglas for another 13 yards.

Miami eventually reached the end zone when Willis scrambled to the left and rookie tight end Will Kacmarek led the way as Willis scored on a 14-yard run, cutting the Raiders’ lead to 17-13.

However, Las Vegas answered immediately.

Cousins connected with wide receiver Tre Tucker on a deep completion before finding Jeanty for another touchdown. Jeanty finished with 102 yards rushing and 147 all-purpose yards.

Willis later threw a deep pass toward the middle of the field for Douglas, but Raiders safety Treydan Stukes intercepted the pass.

Miami’s special teams nearly provided another opportunity when running back Jaylen Wright broke loose for a 79-yard kickoff return. The Dolphins couldn’t capitalize, however, as Patterson missed wide left on his third field-goal attempt.

The Dolphins defense came up with another turnover when safety Dante Trader Jr. intercepted Cousins after the Raiders quarterback double-clutched and threw his second turnover of the game.

Again, Miami couldn’t turn the takeaway into points.

Crosby got through tackle Austin Jackson on the right side of the Dolphins’ offensive line and recorded his second sack of the game. He later drew a hands-to-the-face penalty.

Crosby added another sack with just under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, bull-rushing through Paul after getting pressure up the middle.

Hafley said throughout training camp that he wanted to give Achane as many touches as possible, but the Pro Bowl running back was held in check for much of the afternoon, finishing with 11 carries for 36 yards and four catches for 30 yards. Miami’s offense struggled to create room against a physical Raiders defense.

Willis showed flashes as both a passer and runner but at times held onto the ball too long, allowing the Raiders’ pass rush to get home as Crosby led the way with two sacks in the game.

Douglas was one of the few consistent bright spots for Miami. The 2026 third-round pick finished his NFL debut with five catches for 94 yards.

Dolphins linebacker Jacob Rodriguez also had a strong showing, recording a game-high 14 tackles, including five solo stops, along with multiple tackles for loss. The Dolphins’ 2026 second-round pick also served as the team’s defensive playcaller.

Cornerback Chris Johnson struggled at nickel and gave up a touchdown reception to Jeanty. Johnson finished with 11 tackles, second on the team, but the high tackle total also reflected how often he was targeted in passing plays.

Miami’s offensive drought ended with another turnover when Malik Washington fumbled after taking a big hit from Raiders defensive back Jeremy Chinn.

Cousins finished with three touchdown passes and two interceptions, but his ability to sustain drives with short throws helped the Raiders control the game.

The Dolphins will need better play from their offensive line and more production from their playmakers beyond Douglas when they return to action next week.

Up next

The Dolphins (0-1) travel to face the San Francisco 49ers (1-0) next Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

The Raiders (1-0) visit the Los Angeles Chargers (0-1) at SoFi Stadium.

Los Dolphins tuvieron problemas para proteger a Willis durante todo el partido, con el EDGE Maxx Crosby de los Raiders generando presión repetidamente. La ofensiva de Miami también se vio afectada por castigos y pérdidas de balón, mientras los Raiders controlaron físicamente gran parte del partido.

Las Vegas anotó en su primera posesión después de obligar a Miami a despejar, avanzando el balón con una combinación del juego terrestre de Ashton Jeanty y pases cortos del mariscal de campo Kirk Cousins. La serie terminó cuando Cousins encontró a Jack Bech para un touchdown, dando a los Raiders una ventaja temprana de 7-0.

Un cuestionable castigo por provocación contra el esquinero JuJu Brents después de un golpe del safety de los Dolphins Zayne Anderson prolongó otra serie de Las Vegas. Los Raiders aprovecharon y finalmente ampliaron su ventaja a 10-0.

Los Dolphins tuvieron dificultades para mantener las series ofensivas en la primera mitad.

Castigos consecutivos por sujetar contra el centro Aaron Brewer y el tackle Patrick Paul hicieron retroceder a Miami, pero Willis respondió con un pase completo de 25 yardas en segunda y 26 para preparar una tercera y una. Los Raiders detuvieron al corredor De’Von Achane en la siguiente jugada y Riley Patterson convirtió un gol de campo de 35 yardas.

Cousins continuó recurriendo al juego de pases cortos, encontrando a Jeanty para un touchdown que amplió la ventaja de los Raiders.

Willis y Caleb Douglas dieron entonces a Miami el impulso que tanto necesitaba. Willis encontró a Douglas en el slot para una ganancia de 30 yardas, preparando el segundo gol de campo de Patterson en el partido.

Douglas tenía cuatro recepciones para 81 yardas al medio tiempo, mientras Miami se fue al descanso perdiendo 13-6.

La defensa de los Dolphins dio otra oportunidad a la ofensiva al comienzo de la segunda mitad cuando el safety novato Michael Taaffe interceptó a Cousins.

Willis encontró entonces al receptor abierto novato Chris Bell para la primera recepción de su carrera, una ganancia de 25 yardas, antes de conectar con Douglas para otras 13 yardas.

Miami finalmente llegó a la zona de anotación cuando Willis corrió hacia la izquierda y el ala cerrada novato Will Kacmarek abrió el camino mientras Willis anotó en una carrera de 14 yardas, reduciendo la ventaja de los Raiders a 17-13.

Sin embargo, Las Vegas respondió de inmediato.

Cousins conectó con el receptor abierto Tre Tucker en un pase profundo antes de encontrar a Jeanty para otro touchdown. Jeanty terminó con 102 yardas terrestres y 147 yardas totales.

Más tarde, Willis lanzó un pase profundo hacia el centro del campo para Douglas, pero el safety de los Raiders Treydan Stukes interceptó el pase.

Los equipos especiales de Miami estuvieron cerca de brindar otra oportunidad cuando el corredor Jaylen Wright se escapó para un regreso de patada inicial de 79 yardas. Sin embargo, los Dolphins no pudieron aprovecharlo, ya que Patterson falló por la izquierda en su tercer intento de gol de campo.

La defensa de los Dolphins consiguió otra pérdida de balón cuando el safety Dante Trader Jr. interceptó a Cousins después de que el mariscal de campo de los Raiders dudara antes de lanzar y cometiera su segunda pérdida de balón del partido.

Nuevamente, Miami no pudo convertir la recuperación en puntos.

Crosby superó al tackle Austin Jackson por el lado derecho de la línea ofensiva de los Dolphins y registró su segunda captura del partido. Más tarde provocó un castigo por manos al rostro.

Crosby sumó otra captura cuando quedaban poco menos de tres minutos en el último cuarto, superando con fuerza a Paul después de generar presión por el centro.

Hafley dijo durante todo el campamento de entrenamiento que quería darle a Achane tantas oportunidades con el balón como fuera posible, pero el corredor del Pro Bowl fue contenido durante gran parte de la tarde y terminó con 11 acarreos para 36 yardas y cuatro recepciones para 30 yardas. La ofensiva de Miami tuvo dificultades para encontrar espacios contra una defensa física de los Raiders.

Willis mostró destellos tanto como pasador como corredor, pero en ocasiones retuvo el balón demasiado tiempo, permitiendo que la presión de los Raiders llegara hasta él, mientras Crosby lideró el camino con dos capturas en el partido.

Douglas fue uno de los pocos puntos positivos constantes para Miami. La selección de tercera ronda de 2026 terminó su debut en la NFL con cinco recepciones para 94 yardas.

El linebacker de los Dolphins Jacob Rodriguez también tuvo una sólida actuación, registrando 14 tacleadas, la mayor cantidad del partido, incluidas cinco en solitario, además de varias tacleadas para pérdida. La selección de segunda ronda de los Dolphins en 2026 también fue el encargado de comunicar las jugadas defensivas del equipo.

El esquinero Chris Johnson tuvo dificultades como nickel y permitió una recepción de touchdown de Jeanty. Johnson terminó con 11 tacleadas, segundo en el equipo, pero la elevada cantidad de tacleadas también reflejó la frecuencia con la que fue atacado en jugadas de pase.

La sequía ofensiva de Miami terminó con otra pérdida de balón cuando Malik Washington soltó el balón después de recibir un fuerte golpe del defensivo de los Raiders Jeremy Chinn.

Cousins terminó con tres pases de touchdown y dos intercepciones, pero su capacidad para mantener las series ofensivas con pases cortos ayudó a los Raiders a controlar el partido.

Los Dolphins necesitarán un mejor desempeño de su línea ofensiva y una mayor producción de sus jugadores clave más allá de Douglas cuando regresen a la acción la próxima semana.

Próximo partido

Los Dolphins (0-1) viajarán para enfrentar a los San Francisco 49ers (1-0) el próximo domingo en el Levi’s Stadium.

Los Raiders (1-0) visitarán a los Los Angeles Chargers (0-1) en el SoFi Stadium.

Garrett did not record a tackle or sack while playing 61.5% of the defensive snaps in the Rams' 27-7 defeat in Melbourne, Australia. Coach Sean McVay said Monday that conversations with Garrett immediately after the game last Thursday made it clear a different approach would be needed, leading to the decision that Garrett needed to be operated on.

“We had been aware of this, thought it was something he would be able to work through,” McVay said. “Obviously, being out there and playing in a real game, you learn like, ‘Hey, maybe that’s not the case. So let's change course with that.'”

McVay did not have an updated timeline for Garrett's recovery beyond the four-game minimum that comes with being placed on injured reserve, pending the results of the procedure.

Garrett missed much of training camp because of what had been described as swelling in his knee, but McVay has not elaborated on the exact nature of the injury. The Rams acquired the reigning AP Defensive Player of the Year from the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster trade for pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks in June knowing that Garrett's workload had been carefully managed in recent seasons. That was acceptable to McVay, who has frequently limited practice time for veteran players to maximize their game-day performance.

“The reality is our job is to put our players and our team in positions to have successful outcomes. Thought we would take an approach where he'd be feeling good enough to go contribute positive change and be the player that he's capable of. That wasn't the case, and so the next right thing for us is to be able to get this thing fixed,” McVay said.

Garrett provided no indication he was physically compromised prior to the game, terming himself as “ready” last Tuesday. “I think I can go out there and do what I know I can do," he said.

During that news conference, Garrett embraced the high expectations that came with him joining the Rams, stating his goals for this season were to win the Super Bowl and repeat as AP Defensive Player of the Year.

It was the addition of Garrett that accelerated the idea of the Rams as a super team, in part because his presence helped lure standout defensive tackle Aaron Donald out of retirement last month.

McVay said Garrett's absence would not have any impact on when Donald will return to the field.

Donald, a three-time AP Defensive Player of the year, did not travel with the team to Australia as he works his way back into playing shape following two seasons out of football. McVay said it was too early to know if Donald would play in the Rams' home opener against the New York Giants next Monday.

“He's going to continue to work his process, and we'll see what that looks like,” McVay said.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The university's “deliberate indifference” led to the doxing of multiple group members and Khalil’s detention by immigration agents, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court in New York City.

The university declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said in an email that “creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe is fundamental to who we are as a University.”

“Columbia is committed to protecting our community from discrimination and harassment, and responding promptly and appropriately when concerns arise,” it said.

Khalil also sued Columbia last year to block the release of student records to a congressional committee.

A former graduate student at Columbia University, Khalil gained prominence as a spokesperson for student activists protesting Israel's actions in Gaza.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him at his campus apartment in March 2025, and he quickly became the face of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Khalil spent 104 days in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child, before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release. His deportation case remains active.

Khalil's lawsuit says Columbia “refused to correct disinformation” about him while he was detained, “allowing a false narrative about his conduct and role to persist and further enabling peer-on-peer harassment of other Palestinian students and students with perceived shared Arab and/or Muslim ancestry.”

Instead of investigating reports of harassment, the university retaliated by characterizing events by a pro-Palestinian campus group as security risks and revising disciplinary policy to target criticism of the Israeli government, according to the lawsuit.

It accuses Columbia of civil rights violations, requests a court order restoring Khalil's access to the campus and ending the Palestinian group's suspension, and seeks damages “to be determined at trial.”

It also names the pro-Palestinian group and its president, Mohammad Zubairi, as plaintiffs.

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Sherman Kemp vanished on Friday after a transfer out of the Federal Correctional Institution Miami’s satellite camp at 15801 SW 137 Ave., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Kemp, who gained notoriety with a “Stop [Expletive] Snitching” video in Baltimore and was convicted in Maryland and Pennsylvania, was supposed to arrive at 9 p.m. on Friday at the FCI Jesup in Georgia, according to the FBOP.

The U.S. Marshals Service asked anyone with information about Kemp’s whereabouts to call 786-988-6594.

This is a developing story.

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Maine lobsterman Frank Thompson filed a federal lawsuit against the head of his state's marine resources department over a requirement that he install a GPS tracker on his boat to keep his fishing license.

In 2023, the state, where lobster fishing is a critical and historic industry, required all federally permitted lobstermen to do so to comply with a new U.S. rule aimed at data collection.

Thompson asserted that the monitoring constituted unreasonable search and seizure, but a federal appeals court denied his claim last year. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which is set to review the claim on Sept. 28.

“The petition asks whether Maine can force lobstermen to carry government GPS trackers on their private boats, even when they are off the job,” said Matt Gilliam, Thompson's lead attorney. "We are hopeful that the court will grant review and address this important Fourth Amendment question.”

Many U.S. commercial fishermen are monitored at sea by human observers and electronic devices to collect data that regulators say is crucial to keeping the industry and fish populations sustainable and healthy. Fishing groups have used the courts over the years to try to curtail monitoring requirements with mixed results. Authorities have said the lobster boat monitoring program is important to improve understanding of the valuable crustacean's population at a time when it appears to be declining in New England.

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Marine Resources declined to comment on Monday. Carl Wilson, the department's commissioner, said last year that the data from lobster boats is important to “mitigate economic harm to the industry” as well as to inform regulations.

Conservation groups have opposed efforts to scale back monitoring fishing boats at sea, which they see as important to protecting the broader ocean.

“Efforts to overturn a federal appeals court ruling don’t change the fact that New England’s lobster population has declined and fishery managers urgently need reliable and detailed data to respond to the complex issues facing our ocean," said Erica Fuller, senior counsel with Conservation Law Foundation.

The U.S. lobster industry is based mostly in Maine, where fishermen caught more than 78 million pounds (35.4 million kilograms) of the crustaceans last year. That was on par with the industry's typical annual catch in the 2000s but a sharp decline from a decade ago, when catches routinely topped 120 million pounds (54.4 million kilograms) a year.

El choque ocurrió en los carriles expresos en dirección norte de la I-95, cerca de la salida hacia Northwest 25th Street, en North Miami, informaron las autoridades.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, varios vehículos estuvieron involucrados en el accidente.

Dos personas fueron trasladadas de emergencia a centros de trauma cercanos para recibir tratamiento, informaron las autoridades de rescate.

Hasta el momento no se ha informado qué provocó el accidente.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de las Escuelas de Miami-Dade, el caso gira en torno a Cesar Oriol Cardoso, quien trabajaba en Sunset Park Elementary School, ubicada en 10235 SW 84th St., en el área de Kendall.

El informe señala que Cardoso tuvo al menos cinco víctimas. La policía dijo que la investigación sobre el hombre de 53 años, quien vive en el vecindario Flagami de Miami, comenzó a mediados de abril. El informe de M-DSPD no indica qué puesto ocupaba Cardoso en ese momento.

La policía dijo que sacaba a las niñas de educación física, otras clases o del almuerzo para llevarlas de regreso a su salón de clases para “completar el trabajo de clase si estaban atrasadas” y luego les mostraba “imágenes o videos inapropiados”.

Muchas de las imágenes mostraban a mujeres desnudas, según el informe de M-DSPD. Al menos dos estudiantes reportaron que Cardoso les mostró lo que creían que eran fotos de él mismo desnudo, señala el informe. Las autoridades dijeron que una imagen mostraba abuso sexual infantil, en la que aparecía un niño de entre 12 y 14 años con una mujer.

Cardoso también está acusado de tocar o dar palmadas a varias niñas en los glúteos o muslos y hacerles comentarios inapropiados, incluido un incidente en el que tenía la “mano sobre la ropa en la entrepierna” y le preguntó a una niña si quería “apretarlo”.

La policía dijo que también intentó besar o expresó su deseo de besar al menos a dos de ellas.

No se indicaron las edades de las denunciantes; sin embargo, una de las niñas fue identificada como estudiante de tercer grado y dijo que el comportamiento continuó cuando pasó a cuarto grado.

La policía dijo que detectives de M-DSPD entrevistaron a Cardoso en su sede el viernes, donde invocó su derecho a permanecer en silencio.

Enfrenta cargos por delitos contra estudiantes cometidos por figuras de autoridad, mostrar material obsceno a un menor y conducta lasciva e indecente con un menor de 16 años.

Hasta la mañana del lunes, permanecía detenido sin derecho a fianza en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, según muestran los registros de la cárcel.

El informe de arresto de Cardoso indica que su ocupación es “hospitalidad”, por lo que no quedó claro de inmediato si todavía trabajaba para las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Miami-Dade al momento de su arresto.

Local 10 News se comunicó con M-DCPS para solicitar comentarios sobre el arresto.

La policía de Miami informó que Brickell Bay Drive está actualmente cerrada entre Southeast 12th Street y Southeast 13th Street.

SKY 10 EN VIVO sobre la escena del colapso de la grúa en Miami:

Witnesses told Local 10’s Samiar Nefzi that the crane collapsed onto three vehicles, sparking a fire.

Funcionarios de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmaron que cuatro personas fueron trasladadas al hospital después de una “compleja operación de rescate”.

Se recomienda a los conductores evitar el área, utilizar rutas alternas y anticipar demoras.

Los conductores deben tener precaución y seguir las indicaciones de los agentes en la escena, informó la policía.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

“Esta mañana, una perforadora en 1201 Brickell se volcó y dañó tres automóviles y una caseta de construcción, lo que provocó que cuatro personas necesitaran atención médica. Nosotros y nuestros socios de construcción estamos sumamente agradecidos con los servicios de emergencia de Miami por su rápida respuesta y apoyo.

“Nuestra prioridad número uno es la salud y la seguridad de nuestros trabajadores y de la comunidad. Estamos trabajando en plena cooperación con los departamentos de construcción de la ciudad y el condado para asegurar el lugar y llevar a cabo una investigación completa del incidente de hoy”.

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*Nota del editor: Aunque los socorristas inicialmente se refirieron al incidente como un “colapso de grúa”, posteriormente confirmaron que la maquinaria era en realidad una perforadora de pilotes, utilizada para perforar profundamente en el suelo.

Alex Saab is scheduled to appear before Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami on Tuesday for a change of plea hearing, according to court records. The details of the plea were not immediately made public and Saab’s attorney, Neil Schuster, declined to comment.

Saab was deported in May by Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez in response to pressure from the United States, which has been targeting the Colombian-born businessman for more than a decade. He was charged with a single count of money laundering tied to an alleged conspiracy to create fake companies, falsify shipping records and skim from government contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico.

Saab, 54, was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.

But President Joe Biden pardoned him in 2023 in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon.

U.S. officials have long described Saab as Maduro’s “bag man” and could ask him to serve as a character witness against the former president, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a raid by the U.S. military in January.

The new U.S. prosecution of Saab and Maduro is taking place as the Trump administration overhauls relations with Venezuela, focusing its attention on tapping into Venezuela's vast oil reserves. This month, Trump announced what he called the “BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela, a partnership with Venezuelan oil entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt in which the U.S. government will gain a stake and access to at-cost crude shipments from oil fields with a potential to produce 65 billion barrels.

Saab was little known even in Venezuela until after his first arrest, in 2020, when Maduro's government invested huge resources rallying public support for his release.

Rodríguez, then serving as Maduro's vice president, helped mount an international campaign in which she referred to Saab as an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” by the U.S.

But following Maduro's capture, Rodríguez distanced herself from Saab, firing him from her Cabinet and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela.

Saab amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts but became even more valuable to Maduro as U.S. sanctions forced Venezuela to conduct much of its oil sales and foreign trade outside of Western financial institutions.

The new indictment accuses Saab and others of setting up a web of companies to bribe top Venezuelan officials controlling contracts for the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples — rice, corn flour, cooking oil — to poor Venezuelans at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.

As part of the alleged conspiracy, Saab and others allegedly expanded their corrupt influence deep inside the Maduro government, accessing billions of dollars in oil sales from state-run oil company PDVSA, prosecutors allege.

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Durkin Richer reported from Washington.

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Miami police said Brickell Bay Drive is currently closed between Southeast 12th Street and Southeast 13th Street.

SKY 10 over piling rig collapse scene in Miami:

Witnesses told Local 10’s Samiar Nefzi that the piling rig, which looks similar to a crane, collapsed onto three vehicles, sparking a fire.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials confirmed that four people were transported to local hospitals after a “complex rescue operation.”

According to MDFR Chief Robert Hevia, the victims included three workers -- a 47-year-old man operating the rig and a 27-year-old man and 29-year-old man who became trapped in a container after the rig smashed into it. The fourth victim was a woman who backed up her white BMW just enough as the rig was falling that she wasn’t killed.

“The female driver was driving southbound on Brickell Bay Drive, saw the (rig) collapsing right in front of her, was able to pull her car in reverse just slightly enough to be able to get out of the vehicle while the vehicle also caught on fire when the (rig) landed on the car,” Hevia said.

“The (rig) landed on the hood of her car,” witness Christina Lardon told Local 10 News.

Hevia said all 18 workers at the scene have been accounted for.

“I’ve been on the fire department for 28 years,” he said at a press conference after the collapse. “When you see the scene, it’s really impressive -- when you see that we had four victims and they were all able to be extricated or self-extricate with minor injuries, it’s a remarkable day for them.”

According to first responders, the injured workers were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with minor injuries. The woman was taken to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, also with minor injuries.

“Luckily she escaped, she was not harmed, but mentally she was devastated and the flames were shooting up 30 feet in the air,” Lardon said.

Drivers are being urged to avoid the area, use alternate routes and expect delays.

Drivers should use caution and follow the directions of officers at the scene, police said.

Real estate firm Related Companies released the following statement after the collapse:

“This morning, a drill rig at 1201 Brickell fell over and damaged three cars and a construction shed, resulting in four people requiring medical attention. We and our construction partners are tremendously grateful to Miami emergency services for their quick response and support.

“Our number one priority is the health and safety of our workers and the community. We are working in full cooperation with City and County building departments to secure the site and conduct a full investigation of today’s incident.”

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The cause of the rig collapse remains under investigation.

*Editor’s note: While first responders initially referred to the incident as a “crane collapse,” they later confirmed that the machinery was actually a piling rig, used to drill deep into the ground.

Recipe from: https://food52.com/recipes/282-simple-summer-peach-cake

6 tablespoons softened, unsalted butter, plus more for the pan

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan

3 ripe peaches

¾ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar, divided

1 large egg

½ cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

½ cup almond flour or finely ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 pinch turbinado sugar

Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Cut the peaches into bite-sized pieces. In a medium bowl, toss the peaches with the nutmeg and 2 tablespoons of the granulated sugar.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and remaining ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with a hand mixer. Add the egg, buttermilk, vanilla extract and almond extract and mix to combine.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until smooth (some lumps may remain). Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Press the peaches into the top of the cake. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the top.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325° F and continue to bake for 45 to 55 minutes more, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

The body of Tasia Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree behind an abandoned home in the state's capital city, Jackson, on Aug. 3.

On Friday, police arrested 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, who is also Black, on a murder charge after the state medical examiner deemed her death a homicide.

During Monday's brief hearing in Municipal Court, a judge denied bond for Ratliff, who told the court he's not guilty. Ratliff's attorney at the hearing left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The case has attracted widespread attention because the manner of Fortune's death recalled lynchings in the Southern state, which has a tumultuous civil rights history stained by episodes of racial violence.

Police and prosecutors haven't given a suspected motive or said whether they think race played any role.

Police Chief RaShall Brackney said Friday that Ratliff, 51, had an “association” with Fortune, but she didn't elaborate. She also said additional arrests are expected in the case.

Prosecutors on Monday offered few new details in court, though they said Fortune had been hanged with a “black cable cord” and that Ratliff had tried to hide from officers in a vehicle the day of his arrest.

Brackney and other police officials who attended Ratliff's hearing Monday declined to comment afterward.

A Kentucky native, Fortune had a Black father and a white mother, though she identified as Black, said Christy Spivey, the dead woman's mother. Fortune had been living in Jackson for about 10 years, according to relatives. Fortune had four children, Spivey said, adding she rarely saw two of her grandchildren.

Spivey wasn’t sure where Fortune was living when she died, but she said her daughter had struggled with homelessness in recent years. She said Fortune had talked recently about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

Two other Mississippi hanging deaths over the past year — those of a Black student at Delta State University and a homeless white man in Vicksburg — also drew widespread attention. Both of those deaths were deemed to be suicides.

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This story has been corrected to show that Spivey said she rarely saw two of Fortune's four children, not that Fortune rarely saw two of her own children.

“He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a Fashion and Costume Designer, which is all he ever wanted to do,” read a statement on his social media accounts. “His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world.”

Dubbed the "Designer to the Stars," Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award and was nominated for three Oscars, including one for Barbra Streisand’s “Funny Lady,” in which she wore a sheer batwing gown. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2002.

He designed gowns for Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone, Diana Ross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and concert costumes for Pink. When Marilyn Monroe delivered a breathy, seductive take on “Happy Birthday” at a fundraiser for President John F. Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee, she did it in a sheer, beaded gown that Mackie dreamed up in a sketch.

Bob Mackie’s style influences Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift

His influence can be seen in the styles of Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid. His archival pieces are worn today by the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Miley Cyrus and Zendaya, the latter who wore a Mackie gown to honor Cher at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. When Taylor Swift wanted to look like a showgirl on the cover of her 2025 album “The Life of a Showgirl,” she turned to some Mackie originals.

Sequins and embellishment were natural tools — other nicknames were the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones and the Guru of Glitter — but he had a simple motto: “You don’t try to change anybody, you just try to make them look better than ever,” he told The Associated Press in 2018.

Tributes came from fellow designers and those lucky enough to wear his outfits. Actor Kristin Chenoweth called him a “legend” and designer Isaac Mizrahi wrote, simply, “heartbroken.” Actor Alyssa Milano called him “one of the best that ever was” and model Mikhaila “Coco” Rocha wrote that “his clothes had wit, drama, fantasy and joy.”

On Broadway, Mackie dressed the casts of “On the Town” in 1971 and “Moon Over Buffalo” in 1995. He also created costumes for Burnett in the revue “Putting It Together,” Debbie Reynolds in “Debbie” in 1976, Liza Minnelli in “Minnelli on Minnelli” in 1999 and, most recently, the cast of “The Cher Show,” winning his Tony Award.

Mackie was a Southern California native and embraced the idea of Hollywood movie glamour as a young child, inspired by Technicolor musicals. He would dream elaborate costumes for his mother and sister and sketch them, and he was active in costume and set design of his high school plays. He went to Pasadena City College to study advertising and illustration, and then costume design at LA's Chouinard Art Institute.

He also grew up a fan of all the variety-show and pop stars of the 1950s and ’60s and especially their glitzy wardrobes. He went to work for costume designer Edith Head, then got the gig for “The Carol Burnett Show.”

Bob Mackie’s close relationships with Cher and Carol Burnett

He and Burnett had a close friendship and collaborated on memorable characters such as Nora Desmond, Eunice and her take on Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” — called Starlet O’Hara — wearing her green curtain dress on its rods. “I love doing funny things,” Mackie said in a 1999 interview with the AP. “One week I’d have to make Carol an unattractive postal worker, and who knows what I’d have to do the next.” (Starlet’s dress is now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.)

Mackie’s TV work continued on “The Sonny and Cher Show,” after Cher had guest-starred on Burnett’s show and took a liking to him. He had said that her Laverne character, with her leopard-print jumpsuit and dangling earrings, was one of his favorites.

He and Cher took a much sexier turn when she moved to movies and was invited to the Academy Awards. All those beaded, belly-baring numbers she’d wear on the stuffy red carpets came from Mackie.

Mackie attended the 1974 Met Gala with Cher on his arm dressed in what is perhaps one of the most famous so-called naked dresses of all time: a sheer beaded gown with white feathered sleeves and a white feathered skirt. She and the dress ended up on the cover of Time magazine.

Looks such as the 1986 beaded spiderweb — worn with complementary Mohawk — and the barely-there gown she wore for her best actress win in 1988 turned heads and set tongues wagging at the time.

“The outfits are sometimes mistaken for fashion, but they’re costumes like for a character in a play,” Mackie told the AP in 1999. “I want people to have fun. I want people to say ‘Wasn’t that interesting?’ or ‘Wasn’t that wild?’”

Bob Mackie had mixed feelings on the naked dresses of today

Mackie had some retail success in the 1980s and ’90s, launching a ready-to-wear line in 1982 that would ultimately land on the runway at New York Fashion Week, and he was an early partner of QVC.

Naked dresses only got more popular but Mackie later in life was unimpressed. “You watch awards shows and say, ‘Oh, cover up! Put it away! Honey, I don’t need to see all of that!’ It gets to be so vulgar, you don’t even want to look at it anymore,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “I was so bored watching The Met Ball — everyone exposing everything, the same look-alike dress — I shut it off. If you’ve seen one Kardashian, you’ve seen them all. And we have seen all of them.”

Mackie also created dozens of different Barbie dolls for Mattel, with a wide variety of face sculpts, body types and storylines. He is credited as the first designer to create a complete doll. One was Lady Dracula Cher, with little baby fangs and her box resembling a coffin.

Mackie was married to showgirl Lulu Porter from 1960 until 1963; their son, makeup artist Robert Gordon Mackie Jr., died from AIDS at age 35. Costume designer Ray Aghayan, his longtime partner, died in 2011.

He had said practicality was never a driving force in his design: “It’s all about looking good and living your fantasies.”

In 2017, a 71-year-old Cher once again turned heads, dressed in two Bob Mackie specials at the Billboard Music Awards. It was a blast from a different era, unlike the boring fashion world he saw.

“Nothing is very interesting anymore,” he told Vogue in 2017. “You just keep seeing the same thing over and over again and there are no surprises. Unfortunately, you don’t see much fashion anymore.”

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

all-purpose flour, for dredging

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

1-2 tablespoons of capers

1 cup cherries, pitted and cut in half

2 tablespoons chopped dill

1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon leaves

1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley leaves

Cut the chicken breasts on a slight bias width-wise about half way through. Gently pound out a little until the chicken breasts are about ½ inch thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Dredge the chicken breasts in the all-purpose flour, coating evenly. Shake off any excess flour and set aside.

Heat the butter and the olive oil in a sauté pan until the butter is foaming. Cook the chicken breast until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes on each side.

Remove the chicken cutlets and set aside. In the same pan, add the chicken broth, lemon juice, capers and cherries. Shake until the sauce comes together, add the herbs and add the chicken back into the pan, nestling it into the sauce before serving. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, sliced thin into strips or rings

4 ripe plums (not too soft)

4 cups arugula

2-3 ounces Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

3 tablespoons good quality aged balsamic

juice of 1 lemon

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

aged balsamic to taste

Heat the olive oil in a small sauté pan. Add the shallots and cook over medium-low heat until soft but not browned. Remove from heat.

Cut the plums into wedges.

Mix the arugula with the oil/shallot mixture; add the lemon juice and place on a plate with the plums. Top with a little good balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese and taste for seasoning.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, the case revolves around Cesar Oriol Cardoso, who worked at Sunset Park Elementary School, located at 10235 SW 84th St. in the Kendall area.

The report states that Cardoso had at least five victims. Police said the investigation into the 53-year-old, who lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, began in mid-April. The M-DSPD report does not list what Cardoso’s position was at the time.

Police said he would pull girls from physical education, other classes, or lunch to come back to his classroom to “complete classwork if they were behind” and then show them “inappropriate images or videos.”

Many of the images showed naked women, according to the M-DSPD report. At least two students reported Cardoso showing them what they believed to be nude photos of himself, it states. Authorities said one image depicted child sexual abuse, showing a boy between 12 and 14 with a woman.

Cardoso is also accused of touching or slapping multiple girls on the buttocks or thighs and making inappropriate comments towards them, including one instance where he had his “hand over his clothing on his crotch” and asked a girl if she wanted to “squish it.”

Police said he also tried or expressed a desire to kiss at least two of them.

The girls’ ages weren’t listed; one of them, however, was identified as being in the third grade and said the behavior continued as she went into the fourth grade.

Police said that M-DSPD detectives interviewed Cardoso at their headquarters on Friday, where he invoked his right to remain silent.

He faces charges of offenses against students by authority figures, showing obscene material to a minor and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16.

As of Monday morning, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.

Cardoso’s arrest report lists his occupation as “hospitality,” so it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was still employed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools at the time of his arrest.

Local 10 News has contacted M-DCPS seeking comment on the arrest.

It's the latest development in the case revolving around adding the president's name to the exterior of the cultural and arts facility that sits along the Potomac River in Washington and reflects the Trump-aligned board's efforts to honor the president.

The new information came out of a court filing made by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the board. Beatty, who has led an effort to block Trump from putting his name on the building, said in a filing she was alerting the court to the proposal because it could implicate a pending decision before the court.

Both the court and the Kennedy Center board are expected to hold meetings Tuesday.

Beatty's filing includes two exhibits. One is a draft vote to shut the center down, asserting the building is unsafe for occupancy. That assertion incorrectly cites a consulting group’s finding, “which expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion," according to Beatty.

The other document asserts the center faces dire financial straits. It specifically calls for Trump’s name to be placed in marble beneath the name of the center on the building’s exterior. It offers 10 options for a possible inscription, including “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Another proposes: “With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” the board wrote in the proposed resolution.

Trump has spent much of his second term reshaping Washington, demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom and planning a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery as well as a renovated golf course along the Potomac River.

The Kennedy Center has been a stumbling block in that effort after a judge ruled in May that Trump’s name was added to the building illegally, ordering it to be removed.

Trump and his allies, however, have continued to fight the ruling.

The board voted last month to inscribe his name on the venue’s facade to read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”

If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

Americans looking to try to save some money by purchasing motor oil to do their own oil changes may consider this yet another blow to their wallets, as they are already contending with high grocery prices and inflation worries.

Costco's Kirkland Signature full-synthetic motor oil 5-quart two pack now costs around $58, well above the approximately $30 it had been selling for just last year. Costco is also only allowing customers to purchase two boxes a week.

The wholesale club operator is also limiting purchases of Mobil 1's full-synthetic motor oil 1-quart six pack, which sells for about $44, to five per membership.

Costco did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Today's synthetic motor oil is heavily dependent on Group III base oils, which are mostly made from refining crude oil. It's estimated that the United States imports more than 40% of these oils from the Middle East, which has been dealing with disruptions to oil supplies since the start of the Iran war earlier this year.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude went above $109 on Monday morning as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil.

An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.

Brent has jumped from less than $72 in early July as doubts rise that the United States and Iran can come to an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf through the strait again.

The rise in oil prices has helped send the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Meanwhile, diesel prices in the U.S. hit yet another record on Friday, soaring past $6 a gallon on average. On Monday, prices were still climbing, with diesel at $6.23 a gallon on average, according to AAA. A week ago, the average was $5.90 a gallon.

Prices at the pump for diesel and regular gasoline closely follow that of crude oil.

With oil prices continuing to rise due to ongoing tension in the Middle East, oil companies stand to profit more from turning refining crude oil into diesel or gasoline than motor oil. There's considerably more demand for diesel and gasoline worldwide than there is for motor oil, and the daily volume is high. So oil companies are likely to put more of their effort into diesel and gasoline and make less motor oil.

It remains to be seen if other motor oil retailers like Walmart, Amazon and AutoZone will boost their prices or set purchase limits. Walmart, Amazon and AutoZone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Here's what he had to say about this extraordinary photo:

Why this photo

I enjoy shooting events outside the mainstream hard-news agenda. They often offer a more intimate perspective on human nature, and photography is one of the greatest vehicles for exploring it. Photography and other forms of visual journalism are a universal language, accessible to all humans regardless of the things that mislead us into thinking we are different: race, gender, social status, access to education, sexual orientation, or religion. Speak it well and you have a good shot at breaking down the cultural barriers that separate us. This has always been an important mission, and in times of growing division, it is more important than ever.

How I made this photo

I am not a fan of technicalities. The way we “see” our individuality is what makes the photograph. However, the tools we choose help us better convey the ‘soul’ of a fleeting moment. In this case, a wide-aperture lens and its shallow depth of field helped make the subject stand out. I was also very lucky — one must always acknowledge that.

Why it works

It is a simple image, and this is the main reason it is eye-catching. The little girl, wearing an angel costume, is backlit and surrounded by almost dark areas. This contrast, together with capturing her in midair — a posture we’d expect from a little angel — makes the photograph work. She is tiny and beaming with childhood energy as she jumps among adults who seem unaware of her presence.

I choose to see her as hope in a not very happy environment. After all, this is the role of angels.

More about the photographer

Since joining AP in December 1989, Vadim Ghirda's assignments have included the upheaval following communism in Eastern Europe, the Balkan wars, the Middle East, Crimea, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. His work has received recognition, including a World Press Photo award, Prix Bayeux-Calvados and a 2023 Pulitzer Prize as part of AP’s Breaking News Photography team covering Ukraine.

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For more extraordinary AP photography, click here.

Las autoridades informaron el domingo que Gael, un labrador beige de 2 años, está de regreso con su manejador de la Policía de Miami Gardens (MGPD).

La buena noticia llega varios días después de que el departamento hiciera un llamado urgente al público para ayudar a encontrarlo.

Todo comenzó el lunes alrededor de las 9:30 p.m., cuando los agentes dijeron que Gael saltó de una patrulla y cruzó corriendo la calle en Northwest Second Avenue.

Local 10 News obtuvo un video de vigilancia que muestra a Gael corriendo por la calle y pasando a toda velocidad frente a varios negocios.

La búsqueda durante toda la semana fue exhaustiva. SKY 10 captó los vehículos del centro de comando móvil del departamento en el lugar, mientras los agentes recorrían la zona puerta por puerta en busca de su compañero de cuatro patas.

“Todos nuestros perros son muy especiales para nuestro departamento”, dijo en ese momento Diana Delgado, portavoz de la Policía de Miami Gardens. “Todos están entrenados al máximo de sus capacidades y por los mejores entrenadores”.

La Policía de Miami Gardens publicó un mensaje de agradecimiento a todas las personas que llamaron para proporcionar información y ayudaron a localizar a Gael.

Aún no se han dado a conocer los detalles sobre cómo ni dónde fue encontrado Gael.

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But authorities said that appears to be the tip of the iceberg.

Broward Sheriff’s Office jail records show Seminole tribal police took Lynda Mae Crouse, 32, of northeast Miami-Dade, into custody on Friday in connection with the case.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether she was taken into custody at one of the tribe’s casino properties. The tribe does not own Gulfstream Park.

Crouse’s arrest stems from an investigation that began in the spring by the Hallandale Beach Police Department.

Investigators said the victim met Crouse at around midnight on April 12 at the Carousel Club event venue located within Gulfstream Park at 901 S. Federal Highway.

Crouse and the victim exchanged Instagram accounts and parted ways, police said, but he later ordered her a rideshare at around 1:20 a.m. and brought her back to his home.

According to an HBPD report, as the morning went on, the two had a few drinks, but the victim began to feel “funny” and heard a “clapping sound” coming from the living room as he changed clothes. Police said Crouse, who appeared to be “acting different,” told the man she was leaving and going home.

“The victim was becoming increasingly more tired and confused and fell asleep within minutes of (Crouse) leaving his residence,” HBPD Detective Kevin Hebert wrote.

Police said he woke up still feeling “funny,” but “remembered the clapping sound he had heard prior to (Crouse) leaving the home and he rushed directly to his Rolex box” to find that his gold 40 mm Presidential watch, “with baguette diamond hour markers, and round diamonds covering the entire bezel,” was gone.

The watch retails at $74,350 and the victim had a signed appraisal for $98,400, Hebert wrote.

The victim, police said, “now believed the clapping sound he heard was the lid on the Rolex box being closed” and believed that Crouse took his watch “and when the lid closed loudly, it caused the sudden change in (her) demeanor,” leading her to suddenly leave.

According to police, the victim was still feeling effects from being drugged at the time of the report, which was authored on April 20.

Hebert wrote that a search for Crouse revealed four active cases with a similar modus operandi out of Miami-Dade County, “where she appears to intentionally drug her victims with a sedative substance in order to incapacitate them and steal their property,” targeting men at nightclubs who wear expensive watches.

Those cases stem from investigations by Miami, Miami Beach and Aventura police, authorities said.

Miami-Dade court records do not list any active charges and Crouse, who lives in that county’s unincorporated Ives Estates area, did not appear in its jail records as of Monday morning.

Following her Broward arrest, the Pennsylvania-born Crouse was booked into jail, but she no longer appeared in BSO’s active inmate roster as of Monday morning.

Pero las autoridades dijeron que eso parece ser solo la punta del iceberg.

Los registros de la cárcel de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward muestran que la policía tribal Seminole puso bajo custodia el viernes a Lynda Mae Crouse, de 32 años y residente del noreste de Miami-Dade, en relación con el caso.

No quedó claro de inmediato si fue puesta bajo custodia en una de las propiedades de casinos de la tribu. La tribu no es propietaria de Gulfstream Park.

El arresto de Crouse se deriva de una investigación que comenzó en la primavera por parte del Departamento de Policía de Hallandale Beach.

Los investigadores dijeron que la víctima conoció a Crouse alrededor de la medianoche del 12 de abril en el lugar de eventos Carousel Club, ubicado dentro de Gulfstream Park en 901 S. Federal Highway.

Crouse y la víctima intercambiaron cuentas de Instagram y se separaron, dijo la policía, pero más tarde él le pidió un servicio de transporte alrededor de la 1:20 a.m. y la llevó de regreso a su casa.

Según un informe de HBPD, a medida que avanzaba la mañana, ambos tomaron algunas bebidas, pero la víctima comenzó a sentirse “extraña” y escuchó un “sonido de golpe” proveniente de la sala mientras se cambiaba de ropa. La policía dijo que Crouse, quien parecía estar “actuando diferente”, le dijo al hombre que se iba y regresaría a su casa.

“La víctima se sentía cada vez más cansada y confundida y se quedó dormida pocos minutos después de que Crouse saliera de su residencia”, escribió el detective de HBPD Kevin Hebert.

La policía dijo que despertó todavía sintiéndose “extraño”, pero “recordó el sonido de golpe que había escuchado antes de que Crouse saliera de la casa y corrió directamente hacia su caja de Rolex” para descubrir que su reloj Presidential de oro de 40 mm, “con marcadores de hora de diamantes baguette y diamantes redondos cubriendo todo el bisel”, había desaparecido.

El reloj tiene un precio de venta de $74,350 USD y la víctima tenía una tasación firmada por $98,400 USD, escribió Hebert.

La víctima, dijo la policía, “ahora creía que el sonido de golpe que escuchó era la tapa de la caja del Rolex al cerrarse” y creía que Crouse tomó su reloj “y cuando la tapa se cerró fuertemente, provocó el repentino cambio en el comportamiento de ella”, lo que hizo que se marchara repentinamente.

Según la policía, la víctima todavía sentía los efectos de haber sido drogada al momento del informe, que fue redactado el 20 de abril.

Hebert escribió que una búsqueda sobre Crouse reveló cuatro casos activos con un modus operandi similar en el condado Miami-Dade, “donde parece drogar intencionalmente a sus víctimas con una sustancia sedante para incapacitarlas y robar sus pertenencias”, enfocándose en hombres que usan relojes costosos en clubes nocturnos.

Esos casos se derivan de investigaciones de las policías de Miami, Miami Beach y Aventura, dijeron las autoridades.

Los registros judiciales de Miami-Dade no muestran cargos activos y Crouse, quien vive en el área no incorporada de Ives Estates del condado, no aparecía en los registros de la cárcel hasta la mañana del lunes.

Tras su arresto en Broward, Crouse, nacida en Pensilvania, fue ingresada en la cárcel, pero ya no aparecía en la lista de reclusos activos de BSO hasta la mañana del lunes.

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Cody Gray, 34, of Maitland, was taken into custody after the ship ― which authorities did not identify in an arrest report ― returned to PortMiami on Saturday.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Gray met the victim early Saturday morning at sea after she had had a drink at the club.

The report states that Gray gave the woman “three additional drinks” as they “socialized.”

Deputies said the victim told Gray that she did not want to have sex with him, but, while drunk, the two went back to Gray’s cabin, where authorities said he raped her.

“The victim was unconscious after the intercourse, when her parents were located and directed to (Gray’s) cabin,” the report states. “The victim advised the ship staff and her parents that she did not recall the details of what occurred inside (the) cabin but reiterated that she never consented to have any sexual activity with (Gray).”

Gray, appearing in bond court on Sunday, was ordered held without bond pending an additional hearing. In addition to the sexual battery charge, he also faces a charge of giving alcohol to a minor.

As of Monday, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Cody Gray, de 34 años y residente de Maitland, fue puesto bajo custodia después de que el barco, que las autoridades no identificaron en un informe de arresto, regresara a PortMiami el sábado.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, Gray conoció a la víctima la madrugada del sábado en alta mar después de que ella había tomado una bebida en el club.

El informe señala que Gray le dio a la joven “tres bebidas adicionales” mientras “socializaban”.

Los agentes dijeron que la víctima le dijo a Gray que no quería tener relaciones sexuales con él, pero, mientras estaba ebria, ambos regresaron al camarote de Gray, donde las autoridades dijeron que él la violó.

“La víctima estaba inconsciente después de la relación sexual, cuando sus padres fueron localizados y dirigidos al camarote de Gray”, señala el informe. “La víctima informó al personal del barco y a sus padres que no recordaba los detalles de lo ocurrido dentro del camarote, pero reiteró que nunca dio su consentimiento para tener ningún tipo de actividad sexual con Gray”.

Gray, quien compareció ante un tribunal de fianzas el domingo, recibió la orden de permanecer detenido sin derecho a fianza a la espera de una audiencia adicional. Además del cargo de agresión sexual, también enfrenta un cargo por proporcionar alcohol a una menor.

Hasta el lunes, permanecía detenido en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

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Brandon Vickers, 40, of Homestead, was identified by two witnesses as one of the shooters in the Oct. 21, 2024 incident, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

Investigators said the shootout between neighbors and several people in a passing vehicle happened at approximately 7:45 p.m. in front of 20151 SW 89th Ave., near Franjo Park.

According to the arrest report, Vickers and several other people arrived in two stolen vehicles with unassigned license plates and began firing multiple times toward the victims.

One victim was struck in the right thigh and another was shot in the right ankle, authorities said. Both were transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to Jackson South Medical Center.

Investigators said two witnesses identified Vickers as a shooter. The witnesses also recorded video of the vehicle Vickers was allegedly in as it fled the area.

The arrest report also states that Vickers had previously been involved in gang-related shootings connected to people with whom the victims were associated.

At the time of the shooting, residents told Local 10 News that a group of people had been having dinner outside shortly before 8 p.m. when the shooting occurred.

A children’s baseball game was also underway at nearby Franjo Park when gunfire erupted, sending families rushing to take cover.

Mickey Lopez, the head coach of one of the teams on the field, described the scene as “total chaos.”

“I don’t know how we ended up behind home plate, but that’s where we hunkered down with the kids — we threw our bodies over them,” Lopez said.

Authorities later found the two shooting victims at a nearby gas station, but said they refused to cooperate with the investigation.

A vehicle belonging to resident Jose Madrid was also struck by more than a dozen bullets.

“I could have lost my life there because look — 18 shots hit that car,” Madrid said.

According to the arrest report, investigators determined that Vickers had previous felony convictions dating to May 2017 for dealing in stolen property, providing false information to a pawn broker and possession of a controlled substance.

He now faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

As of Monday morning, Vickers was being held at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center.

The search continues for others involved in the shooting.

Anyone with information about their identities or whereabouts is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Brandon Vickers, de 40 años y residente de Homestead, fue identificado por dos testigos como uno de los tiradores en el incidente del 21 de octubre de 2024, según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade.

Los investigadores dijeron que el intercambio de disparos entre vecinos y varias personas que iban en un vehículo ocurrió aproximadamente a las 7:45 p.m. frente a 20151 SW 89th Ave., cerca de Franjo Park.

Según el informe de arresto, Vickers y varias otras personas llegaron en dos vehículos robados con placas no asignadas y comenzaron a disparar varias veces hacia las víctimas.

Una víctima recibió un disparo en el muslo derecho y otra recibió un disparo en el tobillo derecho, dijeron las autoridades. Ambas fueron trasladadas por Miami-Dade Fire Rescue a Jackson South Medical Center.

Los investigadores dijeron que dos testigos identificaron a Vickers como uno de los tiradores. Los testigos también grabaron un video del vehículo en el que presuntamente se encontraba Vickers mientras huía del área.

El informe de arresto también señala que Vickers había estado involucrado anteriormente en balaceras relacionadas con pandillas vinculadas a personas con las que las víctimas estaban asociadas.

Al momento de la balacera, residentes dijeron a Local 10 News que un grupo de personas había estado cenando afuera poco antes de las 8 p.m. cuando ocurrió la balacera.

También se disputaba un partido de béisbol infantil en el cercano Franjo Park cuando comenzaron los disparos, lo que hizo que las familias corrieran a buscar refugio.

Mickey Lopez, entrenador principal de uno de los equipos que se encontraba en el campo, describió la escena como un “caos total”.

“No sé cómo terminamos detrás del plato, pero fue allí donde nos refugiamos con los niños, pusimos nuestros cuerpos sobre ellos”, dijo Lopez.

Las autoridades encontraron posteriormente a las dos víctimas de la balacera en una gasolinera cercana, pero dijeron que se negaron a cooperar con la investigación.

Un vehículo perteneciente al residente Jose Madrid también recibió más de una docena de impactos de bala.

“Podría haber perdido la vida allí porque mire, 18 disparos impactaron ese automóvil”, dijo Madrid.

Según el informe de arresto, los investigadores determinaron que Vickers tenía condenas previas por delitos graves que se remontan a mayo de 2017 por tráfico de propiedad robada, proporcionar información falsa a un prestamista prendario y posesión de una sustancia controlada.

Ahora enfrenta cargos de intento de asesinato en segundo grado y posesión de un arma de fuego por parte de un delincuente convicto.

Hasta la mañana del lunes, Vickers permanecía detenido en el Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center.

Continúa la búsqueda de otras personas involucradas en la balacera.

Se solicita a cualquier persona que tenga información sobre sus identidades o paradero que llame a Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

The collapse occurred shortly after 8 a.m. in the city’s Brickell neighborhood. Miami Fire Chief Robert Hevia said at a news conference Monday that he was thankful no one was killed in the crane collapse and car fire.

“I’ve been on the fire department for 28 years, when you see the scene, it’s impressive," Hevia said. “The fact that we had four victims, and they were all able to be extricated or self-extricate themselves with minor injuries is a remarkable day for them.”

A woman driving on a street next to the construction site saw the crane begin to fall over, Hevia said.

“To be able to see the crane falling, pull the car in reverse and pop out of the back while the car’s on fire, really incredible,” he said, adding that the crane also crushed two unoccupied parked cars but fell on a storage container with two construction workers inside.

The two workers who had been trapped, along with the crane operator who managed to jump out as the crane was tipping over, were all transported to a nearby trauma center with minor injuries, Hevia said. The woman driving the car also had minor injuries and was taken to a different hospital. Officials haven’t identified the injured.

“It was a very complex scene with a fire that was occurring; our crews were putting out the fire and our technical rescue team working simultaneously to cut through the conex box, the construction box, and they were able to successfully extricate the two victims,” Hevia said, confirming that all other workers at the construction site were accounted for.

Officials have not said what caused the crane, specifically a piling rig, to topple, and Hevia said the collapse is under investigation. A piling rig usually shares the same base as a traditional crane, but its upper part is designed to drive columns deep into the ground to support large structures.

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According to police, the plaza is located at 2209 N. University Drive.

“At this time there are no active safety concerns for the surrounding area, but a portion of the plaza parking lot will be temporarily closed down while we investigate,” the police department posted on social media.

Police said foul play is not suspected at this time.

No other details were immediately released.

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Officials said the crash happened in the northbound express lanes of I-95 near the exit for Northwest 125th Street.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a driver made an improper lane change, which caused a chain-reaction crash involving a total of four vehicles.

Two people were rushed to nearby trauma facilities for treatment, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said.

Troopers later confirmed that a passenger in one of the vehicles, who had been transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, died from their injuries.

It’s unclear whether the driver who caused the crash will be cited or charged.

The identities of those involved in the collision have not been released.

The lawsuit, filed by Conserve Big Bend and six landowners and with the support of dozens more people along the border, comes as the administration is ramping up a $46 billion effort to line the roughly 2,000-mile southern border with a collection of 30-foot (9-meter) steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers, and technology intended to keep out smugglers and migrants.

In Texas, the effort has run up against numerous lawsuits and bipartisan opposition from sheriffs, elected officials, tour guides, environmental groups and landowners.

Officials backing the wall “were woefully unprepared for the hornet’s nest they stirred up because they had no idea how much we love this place,” said David Keller, an archaeologist and historian who specializes in the Big Bend and lives in the region.

“For us, the Big Bend is not an empty place on the map,” he said at a press conference announcing the suit. “It is our home.”

As part of its wall-building efforts, the administration has waived numerous regulations and statutes designed to protect the environment, archaeology or wildlife, on the basis that there's an urgent need to protect the border in what Homeland Security has called areas of “high illegal entry.”

But in the lawsuit announced Monday, the plaintiffs argue that when it comes to the Big Bend region, that's not an accurate description. They've cited historical statistics issued by Customs and Border Protection showing how few people cross the border in Big Bend compared with other areas along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Big Bend has about 500 miles of border __ roughly one quarter of the total length of the border with Mexico from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. But the region only accounted for about 1% of arrests, according to the lawsuit’s stats.

Laura Allen, whose family's ranch would have border wall cut right through it under the plans, noted that illegal border arrests have plunged even further since Trump returned to office.

“Thank you, President Trump. You’ve secured the border,” Allen, a two-time Trump voter and former county judge, said at the press conference. "But now let it go. It’s time.”

The plaintiffs are arguing that the Department of Homeland Security is misusing powers from Congress that allow the secretary broad authority to waive regulations in order to build border walls or other infrastructure in areas where there are large numbers of people trying to cross into the country illegally.

“That determination is legally and factually unsound and unsupported,” the plaintiffs wrote.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the latest in efforts to slow or stop the administration's plans in Texas and elsewhere.

The biggest outcry has come over Customs and Border Protection's plans for the Big Bend National Park, which sits in a far southwestern corner of Texas where the Rio Grande separates the U.S. from Mexico.

The park's remote and rugged location, its steep limestone canyon walls and crystal clear starry night views attract visitors from around the world. The government has said in court hearings that no final plans have been decided for what will be built in the park but plans made public so far have included building a new road, installing detection technology and barriers to stop vehicles from crossing the border.

When bulldozers were spotted clearing land in the park in August, people across the state were outraged. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott temporarily paused construction-related activity in the park but many activists and local residents would like to see even more changes to the administration's plans in the broader Big Bend region.

Native American groups have argued that the construction could inhibit their ability to practice their faith and is damaging important religious sites while environmentalists worry the wall will cause flooding or keep animals from migrating.

Landowners who've lived and worked along the Rio Grande for years have questioned how they'll feed livestock or water their crops if they can't access the river.

___

AP reporter Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this story.

Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.

He said he was told that the subpoena relates to a “far-reaching” criminal probe examining a loosely defined theory that the government officials who have investigated Trump over the last decade, including over Russia election interference in 2016 and his more recent retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights. The subpoena to Brennan is among a flurry that have been issued in recent weeks.

Wainstein said he was informed by a prosecutor that Brennan remains a target in a Washington-based investigation into whether he lied to Congress in 2023, a claim the former CIA director and his attorneys have consistently denied. Subpoenas demanding testimony before a grand jury in that false statements probe were issued in spring, then abruptly withdrawn in favor of voluntary interviews.

The subpoena was delivered on the same day that Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who had been leading what is casually known as the “grand conspiracy” investigation, abruptly resigned amid what a person familiar with the matter has described as displeasure from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe.

The Justice Department has not publicly announced a replacement for diGenova. The member of the investigative team with whom Wainstein spoke was Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed the Justice Department in 2020 to back the Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

The subpoena was disclosed hours ahead of a court hearing in Washington in a lawsuit brought by Brennan. The former CIA director is seeking a court order that would require the preservation of all records from the investigations targeting him, saying such documents would be essential for him to challenge any potential indictment on vindictive prosecution grounds.

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Officials said Sunday that the 2-year-old beige Labrador named Gael is back with his MGPD handler.

According to police, someone called the department Sunday to report that he believed he spotted Gael in front of his home near North Miami Avenue and Northwest 191st Street.

Police said officers immediately responded to the area and confirmed the dog was Gael.

The K-9 was transported to VCA Animal Hospital “for treatment and evaluation and remained overnight for further observation,” the police department said in a press release. “Fortunately, Gael appears to be in good health and is continuing to be evaluated as a precaution.”

The positive update comes several days after the department issued a desperate plea to the public.

It started last Monday, Sept. 7, around 9:30 p.m. when officers said Gael jumped out of a police cruiser and ran across the street on Northwest Second Avenue.

Local 10 News obtained surveillance video showing Gael running down the street, sprinting past businesses.

The search throughout the week would be extensive, as Sky 10 captured the department’s mobile command trucks at the scene while officers went door to door, searching for their four-legged colleague.

“All of our canines are very special to our department,” Miami Gardens Police Spokeswoman Diana Delgado said at the time. “They’re all trained to the best of their capacity, and with the best trainers.”

Miami Gardens PD posted a thank you message to all the members of the public who called in tips and helped to locate Gael.

“The Miami Gardens Police Department is grateful for K-9 Gael’s safe recovery and extends its sincere appreciation to the concerned citizen whose attentiveness led to Gael being located,” MGPD said in a statement. “We also thank our law enforcement partners, community members, and everyone who assisted in the search, shared information, and remained vigilant throughout the past several days.

“We are pleased to welcome K-9 Gael home and are thankful for the outpouring of support from our community.”

“Vamos a presentar un decreto ante la Asamblea Legislativa para ampliar el estado de excepción. Una comisión legislativa también ha presentado la misma solicitud”, anticipó el fin de semana el ministro de Gobierno, Marco Antonio Oviedo.

El presidente centroderechista Rodrigo Paz dictó la medida hace tres meses para frenar las duras protestas con cortes de rutas que por 53 días paralizaron gran parte del país entre junio y julio y que reclamaban su renuncia.

La Constitución establece que una vez finalizado el estado de excepción no puede declararse otro en un año, a menos que sea aprobado por La Asamblea.

La semana pasada una comisión de diputados oficialistas aprobó una resolución para ampliar la medida por 90 días ante anuncios de movilización de varios sectores y sindicatos por la escasez de combustible y dólares que están elevando los precios.

“No estamos de acuerdo en ampliar el estado de excepción. De nada sirve, el gobierno no soluciona los problemas de la gente”, dijo la diputada Elena Pachucute del bloque mayoritario de oposición.

“La gente necesita seguridad en las calles y seguridad jurídica para seguir trabajando. La ampliación es necesaria”, sostuvo la oficialista Claudia Bilbao.

Los gremios empresariales están demandando la prorroga de la medida y han planteado una ley contra el corte de rutas. Sólo la Asamblea Legislativa regional de Santa Cruz aprobó una norma contra los bloqueos para su jurisdicción. Transportistas, vendedores informales, maestros y cocaleros, entre otros, anticiparon movilizaciones.

Adiós al subsidio a los combustibles

De ampliarse la medida tendrá vigencia hasta fin de año, cuando el gobierno anunció que quitará totalmente el subsidio a los carburantes que tiene un alto costo fiscal y es una de las condiciones del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) para desembolsar un crédito de 1.900 millones de dólares. Hace nueve meses se levantó parcialmente el subsidio.

Paz heredó problemas acumulados de gobiernos anteriores como la caída en la producción de hidrocarburos, dificultades para importar combustibles y otros productos, escasez de divisas, inflación y un creciente malestar.

En casi un año de gobierno Paz no ha logrado resolver los problemas heredados y se ha visto salpicado por escándalos que mermaron más su credibilidad, según analistas.

“El gobierno usó el estado de excepción para desmovilizar a los sindicatos, pero no para resolver los problemas y ahora está en mayor fragilidad política”, opinó la analista Jimena Costa a radio Panamericana.

“It said, ‘She’s a really talented actress,’” Eleazar says. “You suddenly feel this extra meta pressure: ‘Right, so I have to do the job. I also have to make sure I’m talented.’”

The good news: Eleazar is, and anyone who sees “Misty Green” will be immediately convinced of that fact. The 38-year-old British actor has been a standout on “Slow Horses” and on London stages. But in “Misty Green,” Eleazar’s first lead role in a film, she’s poised for a much bigger breakthrough.

In the film, which A24 will release Oct. 9, she plays the titular Misty, a well-known actor whose once meteoric rise in Hollywood is now in the distant past. Told to leave the apartment where she’s been crashing, a countdown runs through the film of Misty’s days to find somewhere to live. At the same time, she’s trying to land a part despite directors (Rock plays one) and agents (Topher Grace) who have mostly tired of the turmoil she brings with her. Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya and Anna Kendrick also co-star.

The result is plainly one of the best performances of the year, a scintillatingly complex portrait of Hollywood struggle, overflowing with rage and, yes, talent. When Misty, or Eleazar, auditions, we can see how good she is. After the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Eleazar was immediately hailed as a sure-fire best actress Oscar contender.

“Like in the movie, you never know,” she said in an interview the morning after the premiere. “Things just aren’t linear. I obviously hope people respond to it.”

‘Misty Green’ and ‘Slow Horses’ land simultaneously

Eleazar was also in Toronto with “Slow Horses,” in which she plays Slough House agent Louisa Guy, to debut its sixth season. On Monday, she was flying to Los Angeles for the Emmys, where the Apple TV series is nominated for nine awards.

“It’s been a mad four days,” she said, smiling.

Eleazar’s performance as Misty is impressive partly because she’s unlike her in so many ways. The London-born actor, whose mother is British and whose father is Ghanian, is bright, self-effacing and quick to laugh. To adopt Misty’s confident stride, she worked with a movement coach.

“I like to think I navigate life a little differently than her,” she says, laughing. “But I do empathize with how so many things are out of our control as an actor. You’re constantly on an emotional roller coaster. You think, ‘Am I going to get it?’ ‘No, down to the last two.’ It’s oscillating all the time between these extreme feelings.”

“It can be relentless to somehow find a way to keep yourself open and soft, because you’re an actor,” Eleazar adds. “But Misty has multiple layers of armor on her because she’s been burned. I get that.”

A ‘meta’ audition

Landing the role was, itself, the kind of audition process Misty might have gone through. Eleazar first did a Zoom audition and then got a callback. For the next Zoom audition, she went all out. She got her hair and makeup done and rented a studio. But 10 minutes before starting, live music started blaring from the studio next door. Five minutes beforehand, trains started going past. When she began, the Wi-Fi was glitchy.

“It was so meta,” Eleazar says, shaking her head. “I was so angry with how the whole thing was going, that was probably way better. Chris said it was better because I let it rip.”

After those technical troubles, Eleazar resolved to meet Rock in person. She flew herself to Los Angeles.

“I knew I was going to do whatever I could to get it,” she says. “Whatever was in my control.”

A quick but not overnight ascent

Eleazar’s first movie role was in Armando Iannucci’s 1999 film “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” Much of her rise has come on stage, including in Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Starry Messenger” and in “Uncle Vanya” at the National Theatre. Earlier this year, she breathed remarkable depth into a small role in Mark Jenkin’s “Rose of Nevada,” a bewildering time-travel drama shot on 16mm.

“When I was young, I was very shy,” Eleazar says. “I was always, like, in a corner and watching people. And I found people really fascinating. I experienced many different cultures growing up, and it was fascinating how different cultures communicated. I think I could have been very happy pursuing a career as a psychologist. In some ways for me, acting is that. I’m studying the human mind in 3D form. It’s a full-body experience.”

“I let go maybe more in acting than I do in my private life,” she adds. “Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to volatility.”

“Misty Green” was Eleazar’s first time atop the call sheet of a movie. At the movie’s TIFF premiere, where Eleazar’s mother joined her, she almost looked like Misty Green walking the red carpet. But not quite. She was more composed, humble and evidently happy.

“What drew me to her is that I find people who are seemingly unlovable fascinating,” says Eleazar. “I read this quote — it’s a bit cheesy — whilst I was in prep: ‘The children that need the most love in the world ask for it in the most unloving ways.’ That, to me, sums Misty up.”

Eleazar pauses and smiles. “Even now, I still think about her.”

Biólogos de la Comisión de Conservación de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de Florida (FWC) captaron a la familia de panteras con cámaras de rastreo en Babcock Ranch Preserve en marzo.

La pantera hembra y uno de sus cachorros fueron vistos nuevamente en julio.

Según la FWC, los avistamientos muestran que las panteras de Florida son capaces de ampliar su área de reproducción al norte del río Caloosahatchee.

Los funcionarios dijeron que esa expansión natural podría ser un paso importante para ayudar a recuperar la población de panteras de Florida.

El desarrollo excesivo y los atropellos de vehículos han mantenido a la especie al borde de la extinción durante décadas.

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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists captured the panther family on trail cameras at Babcock Ranch Preserve in March.

The female panther and one of her kittens were spotted again in July.

According to the FWC, the sightings show that Florida panthers are capable of expanding their breeding range north of the Caloosahatchee River.

Officials said that natural expansion could be an important step toward helping the Florida panther population recover.

Overdevelopment and vehicle strikes have kept the species close to extinction for decades.

Según la policía, la plaza está ubicada en 2209 N. University Drive.

“En este momento no hay preocupaciones activas de seguridad para el área circundante, pero una parte del estacionamiento de la plaza permanecerá cerrada temporalmente mientras investigamos”, publicó el departamento de policía en redes sociales.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Former youth counselor Jeffrey Buskey, 60, of Litchfield, faces allegations involving four boys held at the Youth Development Center in Manchester in the late 1990s. In the first of his cases to go to trial, he is charged with 21 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault involving David Meehan, who was 14 when he arrived at the facility now called the Sununu Youth Services Center in 1995.

Meehan filed the first of more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse spanning six decades. His allegations led to the arrest of Buskey and another former worker in 2019, an unprecedented criminal investigation, nine additional arrests, and the establishment of a settlement fund to compensate victims.

During his civil trial, Meehan described Buskey's transformation from trusted father figure to horrific abuser, testifying that he gave him soda and snacks and let him play basketball with a local high school team before subjecting him to near daily rapes.

“It went from being somebody I trusted, that I thought was not just there to help me, but somebody I thought cared for me, to hurt,” he said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify those who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly, as Meehan has done. A jury awarded him $38 million in May of 2024, though that verdict remains in dispute as the state seeks to reduce the amount to $475,000.

In a police interview transcript recently filed in court, Buskey couldn’t remember his home address from the 1990s and struggled to spell his then-fiancée’s last name, but brought up Meehan’s name unprompted. He denied abusing him, saying they had a “great relationship.”

“I was always nice to the kid, I was always trying to help him," he said.

The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu. Lawmakers have approved closing the facility, which now only houses those accused or convicted of the most serious violent crimes, and replacing it with a much smaller building in a new location.

In the other criminal cases, three men have been convicted: Bradley Asbury, Stanley Watson and James Woodlock. Jurors acquitted Jonathan Brand and deadlocked in the case of Victor Malavet, leading to a mistrial. Charges were dropped against Trevor Middleton; Frank Davis was declared incompetent to stand trial, and Gordon Searles died while awaiting trial. Stephen Murphy, who has pending charges, had one trial end in mistrial and another end with an acquittal on three charges and a hung jury on five others. Lucien Poulette is awaiting trial.

The broad area of low pressure – situated smack dab over the open subtropical Atlantic, an area of the basin we’ve featured in newsletters this season due to its advantageous positioning away from El Niño’s suppressing influence – was accompanied by disorganized storminess early Monday.

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NHC indicated low odds of development later this week as it moves toward an area of lighter and more conducive upper-level winds.

AI models versus legacy physics-based models

The newer machine learning-based AI camp of models have been gradually dialing up development odds for this area since late last week but their legacy physics-based counterparts – like the Euro and American GFS – have stayed notably silent.

As of early Monday the conventional Euro ensemble system showed only a handful of development outcomes of the 50 or so scenarios run, taking the under on NHC’s 30%.

In stark contrast, however, Google’s DeepMind machine learning-based ensemble system was taking a very aggressive stance toward development later this week, with odds above 70% for the week, most of which suggest the system could peak as a strong hurricane into early next week.

Though not as bullish on strengthening as DeepMind – perhaps due to a known systematic low-intensity bias that we detailed in our post last Thursday – the Euro AI ensembles are similarly aggressive on overall development odds this week.

The answer is probably somewhere in between but given the thunderstorm activity already building around the broad low-pressure area and the general setup ahead with some alley-oops from a series of jet-stream dips, I’d favor development in this instance.

It’s noteworthy that even in the few physics-based Euro scenarios that show development, the forecast intensities are strong which is likely indicative of an environment supportive of strengthening if a storm gets going.

Nevertheless, this will be an interesting case to see which of our modeling camps – the newer AI models or the conventional physics-based models – handle the potential development (or lack thereof) better.

Interests in Bermuda will want to monitor the progress of the system but otherwise it isn’t expected to pose a threat to land areas in the week ahead.

La amplia zona de baja presión, situada justo sobre el Atlántico subtropical abierto, una zona de la cuenca que hemos destacado en nuestros boletines informativos esta temporada debido a su ventajosa ubicación lejos de la influencia supresora de El Niño, estuvo acompañada de tormentas desorganizadas a primera hora del lunes.

El NHC indicó que hay pocas probabilidades de que se produzca un desarrollo a finales de esta semana, a medida que se desplaza hacia una zona de vientos en altura más suaves y favorables.

Modelos de IA frente a modelos tradicionales basados ​​en la física.

Los modelos de IA más recientes, basados ​​en el aprendizaje automático, han ido aumentando gradualmente las probabilidades de desarrollo en este ámbito desde finales de la semana pasada, pero sus homólogos tradicionales basados ​​en la física, como el GFS europeo y el estadounidense, se han mantenido notablemente en silencio.

A primera hora del lunes, el sistema de predicción convencional europeo mostraba solo un puñado de resultados de desarrollo de los aproximadamente 50 escenarios analizados, quedando por debajo del 30% previsto por el NHC.

En marcado contraste, sin embargo, el sistema de aprendizaje automático DeepMind de Google adoptó una postura muy agresiva respecto al desarrollo a finales de esta semana, con probabilidades superiores al 70% para la semana, la mayoría de las cuales sugieren que el sistema podría alcanzar su punto máximo como un fuerte huracán a principios de la próxima semana.

Aunque no son tan optimistas respecto al fortalecimiento como DeepMind —quizás debido a un conocido sesgo sistemático de baja intensidad que detallamos en nuestra publicación del jueves pasado—, los conjuntos de IA europeos se muestran igualmente agresivos en cuanto a las probabilidades de desarrollo general esta semana.

La respuesta probablemente se encuentre en algún punto intermedio, pero dada la actividad de tormentas eléctricas que ya se está gestando alrededor de la amplia zona de baja presión y la configuración general que se avecina, con algunos desvíos inesperados debido a una serie de descensos de la corriente en chorro, me inclinaría por el desarrollo en este caso.

Cabe destacar que, incluso en los pocos escenarios europeos basados ​​en la física que muestran desarrollo, las intensidades pronosticadas son elevadas, lo que probablemente indica un entorno propicio para el fortalecimiento de la tormenta si esta se desarrolla.

Sin embargo, será interesante observar cuál de nuestros enfoques de modelado —los modelos de IA más recientes o los modelos convencionales basados ​​en la física— maneja mejor el desarrollo potencial (o la falta del mismo).

Los interesados ​​en Bermudas querrán seguir de cerca el progreso del sistema, pero, por lo demás, no se espera que suponga una amenaza para las zonas terrestres durante la próxima semana.

Trump was pushing back against calls by tech leaders such as Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk to have greater government oversight of AI. Their goal is to ensure the technology is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability, feed economic growth, advance science and preserve national security.

The president maintained that his presence in the Oval Office should assuage any fears about AI, which has become a source of controversy after a series of hacks in recent months that showed AI agents could be working to deceive humans.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump specifically said that the administration has already stopped the AI company Anthropic “from doing bad, or potentially bad” things. Anthropic has endured an uncomfortable relationship with the Trump administration, with the Pentagon trying to label the company's models a security risk and a temporary ban of one of its more advanced models.

The president went even further in a Monday afternoon post that asked “when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?”

The president then added that the potential threat that AI could pose to humanity was a hoax, despite clear warnings by many of the experts closest to the most advanced models.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” posted Trump.

Trump's refusal to regulate comes as AI execs warn of threats

Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, published a 3,800-word essay on Saturday that called for slower development of AI. Microsoft on Monday published its own code of conduct to ensure that humans control AI. The actions come after a series of warnings by AI experts about the technologies' capabilities and the July 2026 cyberattack by OpenAI models on the AI company Hugging Face.

Amodei cited “AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI” and the cyberattack by the swarm of OpenAI agents as reasons to slow the pace of development.

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet,” Amodei wrote, adding that the damages could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more “without the necessary guardrails.”

Altman of OpenAI seconded that perspective in a weekend post on social media.

“Pacing will be well worth this cost; no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring,” Altman said. “Where we will need the help of our government is for international coordination.”

Trump sees AI regulation as helping China

The president has opposed such efforts to constrain AI and claims that doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.

The president has long resisted efforts for greater government oversight of AI, embracing his philosophy going back to 2016 of “I alone can fix it.” He returned to the White House last year by revoking a Biden administration executive order on AI oversight and only providing a fuller order of his own more than 16 months later this past June.

The prospect of slower AI buildout led stocks to slip in Monday morning trading, as demand for advanced computer chips and construction materials for data centers could fall. But Trump's frustration comes as AI has also emerged as a political liability ahead of November's midterm elections, with many voters opposing the construction of additional data centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the education of children.

Trump's handling of AI is a midterms issue

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff, said on Saturday that the Anthropic CEO's essay was “an admission that we’re driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where’s President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again. It’s time to turn the lights on, put both hands on the wheel, and regain control before it’s too late.”

But the administration has repeatedly sought to minimize the risks being highlighted by AI companies.

Trump in a separate Monday social media post said that the concerns about AI are only because “the United States is leading, by a lot, every other country. Don’t kill the Golden Goose!” The AI buildout has accounted for a large share of the economic growth during Trump's second term and the administration has bet that the technology will fuel additional productivity gains in the future.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Monday morning about AI, “I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything.”

Vance, speaking as he prepared to fly to Kansas for a midterm election campaign event, said that the Trump administration is concerned about AI but wants to make sure it is regulating the technology smartly, warning that the U.S. is in an AI arms race against China.

“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So, I think we just have to be careful about this.”

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Associated Press reporter Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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He never expected to be taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Pourrain, 34, an Argentine center midfielder for Miami United FC, a professional club in the United Premier Soccer League, is now back in South Florida, reliving what he calls some of the worst weeks of his life.

“It’s really a horrible situation, horrible situation,” Pourrain said.

He spent more than three weeks in ICE custody across three different facilities, including one in Miramar that he described as having inhumane conditions.

“Miramar was the worst thing that happened to me in my life,” he said.

Pourrain has lived in South Florida since 2019. He said he has had a work permit for years and renewed his Florida driver’s license in July.

“It hurts because I love this country and I’ve lived here seven years,” he said. “I don’t deserve any of this. I never got any criminal records. I never had any kind of problem.”

On Aug. 6, Pourrain was flying out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for a semifinal match in Los Angeles. After passing through security, he said ICE took him into custody.

At a detention facility in Miramar, Pourrain said he was shackled to a chair for the first 24 hours.

“Handcuffs on the hands and the feet. A chain all over my body here,” he said.

He said he was then moved into a small room that was overcrowded with inmates.

Pourrain said the food was moldy, so he did not eat for days.

“It was a little room. It was 68 of us inside there -- I couldn’t even move. I was just like this, trying to put my head on the wall, tried to sleep a little bit. There was no bed,” he said.

Eventually, Pourrain was moved to another facility in Florida and then to Texas.

He was released on a $20,000 bond on Aug. 28, more than three weeks after he was taken into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security told Local 10 that Pourrain only had permission to stay in the U.S. for six months and overstayed his welcome.

DHS also denied his claims of inhumane treatment.

“Claims that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the agency said in a statement.

For Pourrain, he said he knows what he saw and worries about those still inside.

“It’s inhumane what happens inside. They don’t deserve it either,” he said.

While his court proceedings continue, Pourrain is back training with his team and teaching kids soccer.

But the memories have not gone away.

“I think I’ll never forget about this. Because it was tough on me, it was tough on my wife,” he said.

Nunca esperó ser puesto bajo custodia del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE).

Pourrain, de 34 años, mediocampista central argentino del Miami United FC, un club profesional de la United Premier Soccer League, está ahora de regreso en el sur de Florida, reviviendo lo que describe como algunas de las peores semanas de su vida.

“Es realmente una situación horrible, una situación horrible”, dijo Pourrain.

Pasó más de tres semanas bajo custodia de ICE en tres instalaciones diferentes, incluida una en Miramar que describió como un lugar con condiciones inhumanas.

“Miramar fue lo peor que me ha pasado en la vida”, dijo.

Pourrain vive en el sur de Florida desde 2019. Dijo que ha tenido un permiso de trabajo durante años y renovó su licencia de conducir de Florida en julio.

“Duele porque amo este país y he vivido aquí siete años”, dijo. “No merezco nada de esto. Nunca he tenido antecedentes penales. Nunca tuve ningún tipo de problema”.

El 6 de agosto, Pourrain viajaba desde el Aeropuerto Internacional de Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood para disputar un partido de semifinal en Los Ángeles. Después de pasar por seguridad, dijo que ICE lo puso bajo custodia.

En un centro de detención en Miramar, Pourrain dijo que estuvo encadenado a una silla durante las primeras 24 horas.

“Esposas en las manos y en los pies. Una cadena alrededor de todo mi cuerpo aquí”, dijo.

Dijo que luego fue trasladado a una pequeña habitación que estaba abarrotada de detenidos.

Pourrain dijo que la comida tenía moho, por lo que no comió durante días.

“Era una habitación pequeña. Éramos 68 allí adentro, ni siquiera podía moverme. Estaba así, tratando de apoyar la cabeza contra la pared, intentando dormir un poco. No había cama”, dijo.

Finalmente, Pourrain fue trasladado a otra instalación en Florida y luego a Texas.

Fue liberado tras pagar una fianza de $20,000 USD el 28 de agosto, más de tres semanas después de haber sido puesto bajo custodia.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) dijo a Local 10 que Pourrain solo tenía permiso para permanecer en Estados Unidos durante seis meses y permaneció en el país más tiempo del autorizado.

El DHS también negó sus afirmaciones de trato inhumano.

“Las afirmaciones de que existen condiciones deficientes en los centros de detención de ICE son FALSAS. ICE tiene estándares de detención más altos que la mayoría de las prisiones de Estados Unidos que albergan a ciudadanos estadounidenses. A todos los detenidos se les proporcionan tres comidas al día, agua potable, ropa, ropa de cama, duchas, jabón y artículos de aseo”, dijo la agencia en un comunicado.

Pourrain dijo que sabe lo que vio y que está preocupado por quienes todavía están adentro.

“Es inhumano lo que sucede adentro. Ellos tampoco lo merecen”, dijo.

Mientras continúan sus procedimientos judiciales, Pourrain volvió a entrenar con su equipo y a enseñar fútbol a niños.

Pero los recuerdos no han desaparecido.

“Creo que nunca olvidaré esto. Porque fue duro para mí, fue duro para mi esposa”, dijo.

After a timely win in NASCAR’s Chase, Larson is only nine points behind postseason leader Denny Hamlin and within striking distance of a second straight Cup Series title.

Larson vaulted from seventh in the Chase standings to second with his win Sunday in the Enjoy Illinois 300 outside St. Louis, snapping a string of 51 consecutive races without a victory. It was the longest such stretch for Larson since he joined the powerful Hendrick garage in 2021.

“I can see how on paper or in media’s eyes, or maybe even some competitors’ eyes, that you could doubt us, and I think that’d be reasonable,” said Larson, shrugging off the notion that he could be seen as an underdog during his season of struggles. "You know, we hadn’t won in 51 races, and yeah, we were kind of just mid throughout the season, and not starting as high as we want to be in the Chase.

“So I could see that, but I don’t really view myself as that, and I don’t really feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve got ... I’m going to prove them wrong’ either.”

Larson was encouraged by a competitive showing in the playoff-opening Southern 500, leading a race-high 99 laps before settling for fifth place. He and crew chief Cliff Daniels thought Joey Logano had a better car Sunday at Gateway, but Larson was able to pull off the win by passing Logano on a late restart in regulation and holding him off in overtime.

Despite it being just his first win of the season, compared to four for Hamlin, Larson is in great position heading into the Saturday night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has been particularly strong.

Larson led 284 laps in this year's spring race before finishing third, and even that was a step back from his recent Bristol dominance. He led 462 of 500 in a triumphant 2024 night race and followed that up by leading 411 in his 2025 spring victory.

“We’re just trying to do the best job we can and try to score as many points as we can,” Larson said. “And, I mean, I would love to be nine points ahead (rather) than nine points behind right now. But you know, it’s been a good start to our Chase.”

And a complete 180 from how the season started. Daniels confessed that the Hendrick teams underestimated their gap to the Toyotas, which won five of the first six races, then flailed by trying to do too much in their setups at early races, including Darlington and Phoenix.

“We have learned through those mistakes that we can’t just go overreach on everything every week,” Daniels said. “Like, everything can’t be in question every week. There’s some things that have to be your solid foundation point.”

Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup Series champion and the current Hendrick vice chairman, credited Larson and his team for continuing to work hard without getting deterred by mistakes or strategic decisions that didn't pan out.

“The thing that gets you down the most, especially when you’ve had success, is not having fast race cars, not having cars capable of of running up front,” Gordon said, relating to his own career. "And I think if anything has probably challenged those guys the most, it’s that.”

Larson, a superstar who dabbled with running in the Indianapolis 500 in past years, said his confidence never wavered despite failing to win a race since May 2025 at Kansas. Plus, despite not winning a race in last year's playoffs, Larson still was consistently strong enough to win the 2025 title.

“I’ve had more fun this year than a lot of years, and we hadn’t won till this point, so I don’t mind the struggle," Larson said, noting the winless stretch never felt that long to him. "I’m not scared of it.”

Now that the results are starting to come, Larson was asked if he's “back.” He quickly dismissed any comparisons to 2021, when he won the championship, or 2023, when he won four times and finished second in the playoffs.

“But we’ve been definitely building to get back to Victory Lane," Larson said. "I don’t know if we’re quite yet where we can go dominate like we have in the past, but you know, a day like (Sunday) definitely gives you confidence leading into a track where we know we can go dominate.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Sherman Kemp desapareció el viernes después de un traslado desde el campamento satélite de la Institución Correccional Federal de Miami, ubicada en 15801 SW 137 Ave., según la Oficina Federal de Prisiones.

Kemp, quien ganó notoriedad con un video de “Stop [Expletive] Snitching” en Baltimore y fue condenado en Maryland y Pensilvania, debía llegar a las 9 p.m. del viernes a la FCI Jesup en Georgia, según la FBOP.

El Servicio de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos pidió a cualquier persona con información sobre el paradero de Kemp llamar al 786-433-6340.

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo.

El incidente ocurrió alrededor de las 11 a.m. en el área de No Name Harbor, dentro del Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, en Key Biscayne.

Según las autoridades, un hombre estaba practicando esnórquel antes de ser encontrado inconsciente en el agua.

Equipos de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue trasladaron a la víctima en helicóptero al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde permanece en estado crítico.

Las autoridades investigan las circunstancias que provocaron el incidente de casi ahogamiento.

Poco antes de las 9:30 p.m., Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue recibió múltiples llamadas al 911 reportando un incendio en una vivienda.

Las cuadrillas llegaron unos tres minutos después y encontraron una gran cantidad de humo y llamas saliendo de un lado de la vivienda unifamiliar cerca de la cuadra 1100 de Northwest 15th Street.

Las personas que estaban en el interior pudieron salir de manera segura por sus propios medios, según las autoridades.

Unos 20 minutos después de llegar, las cuadrillas habían controlado la mayor parte del incendio y trabajaban para ingresar al ático a través del techo, según los bomberos.

Un total de ocho residentes serán desplazados debido al incendio.

Un investigador de incendios determinará la causa del incendio.

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Just before 9:30 p.m., Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue received multiple 911 calls reporting a house fire.

Crews arrived about three minutes later and found heavy smoke and flames coming from one side of the single-family home near the 1100 block of Northwest 15th Street.

The people inside were able to get out safely on their own, according to authorities.

About 20 minutes after arriving, crews had knocked down most of the fire and were working to get into the attic through the roof, according to fire rescue.

A total of eight residents will be displaced because of the fire.

A fire investigator will determine the cause of the fire.

The rule change, first proposed last year, represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution.

Environmental groups decried the change, saying it would come at a cost to Americans' health and further degrade the environment. EPA officials said the change would allow utilities to make the best decisions for their ratepayers rather than be forced to close aging or inefficient plants.

The rule is expected to face immediate legal challenges. In a related action, the EPA proposed a separate rule, expected to be made final next year, that could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The proposal follows on EPA's action earlier this year revoking a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The February action eliminated all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. The new plan would apply similar logic to a broader undoing of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants.

The announcements came as EPA chief Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright host a G20 ministerial meeting on “energy abundance” in Houston. The announcement of the rule, coming on the same day, is both a nod to the important role oil-rich Texas plays in the energy industry and a potential snub of European and other international allies in attendance who have pursued environmentally friendly policies that the Trump administration has moved to undo.

Republican President Donald Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” at a speech to the United Nations last year, and his administration withdrew the U.S. — for the second time — from the 2015 Paris climate accord that sets voluntary goals to curb planet-warming emissions.

Trump has boasted of U.S. energy abundance even as the Iran war continues to disrupt global fuel markets and gas prices top $4.31 a gallon, up more than a dollar from a year ago.

The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Trump’s repeated pledge to “ unleash American energy ” and make it easier for utilities to supply electricity for homes and businesses.

The power plant rule is among nearly three dozen environmental regulations that Zeldin targeted in early 2025 when he announced what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history.”

Zeldin said in proposing the new rules last year that they were meant to end the Biden and Obama administrations’ “war on so much of our U.S. domestic energy supply.”

Environmental and public health groups called the rollbacks dangerous and vowed to challenge the rules in court.

“Tearing down our national protections against climate pollution from power plants will have enormous costs for the health, safety and well-being of families across the country,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. “Americans everywhere are already suffering from record-breaking heat, more dangerous floods and storms, and skyrocketing insurance costs.”

The EPA has a legal responsibility to protect the public from harmful pollution, Patton said, adding that “clean, affordable and reliable technologies are widely available to power our homes and businesses.”

Coal, gas and oil-fired power plants are responsible for about one-quarter of the nation’s total climate pollution, second only to the transportation sector. Pollution from power plants is one of the largest sources of climate-changing pollution in the world.

The rules targeted by Trump’s EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination last year that included the agency’s own prior assessments and a wide range of other research.

Even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as smog, mercury and lead — and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems, the AP analysis found. It would also mean higher emissions of greenhouse gases, driving Earth’s warming to deadlier levels.

Biden, a Democrat, had made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency. Coal-fired power plants would have been forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a strict EPA rule issued in 2024. Those rules are now being upended.

In its proposal last year, the Trump EPA argued that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change and therefore do not meet a threshold under the Clean Air Act for regulatory action. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired plants “are a small and decreasing part of global emissions,″ the EPA said.

Zeldin, a Republican and former New York congressman, said Biden-era actions were designed to “suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment,” with the intent to regulate the coal industry “out of existence” and make it “disappear.”

The coal industry and groups representing coal-fired power plants have denounced the Biden rule as “overreach” by the EPA and urged its repeal. Lifting the rule will protect grid reliability and shield electricity consumers from higher costs at a time of surging demand from data centers, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, according to America’s Power, a trade organization for the U.S. coal fleet.

El accidente ocurrió en la cuadra 4000 de West Hillsboro Boulevard, en Deerfield Beach.

Según los investigadores de tránsito, un Nissan Sentra 2017 estaba realizando un giro en U en Hillsboro Boulevard cuando fue impactado por una motocicleta Suzuki GSX-R570 2022.

El impacto provocó que el Nissan volcara, informaron las autoridades.

Chuck Trice fue testigo del accidente.

“La motocicleta y él estaban debajo del auto y estaban sacando a los niños pequeños del vehículo”, dijo. “Los helicópteros estaban llegando para llevárselos y fue bastante grave”.

Según las autoridades, el conductor de la motocicleta, Maxwell Patel, murió en el lugar.

Una menor que viajaba en el Nissan fue trasladada de emergencia al Broward Health Medical Center, donde fue declarada muerta.

El conductor del Nissan y un menor fueron trasladados por los equipos de emergencia al Broward Health North. Posteriormente, el menor fue llevado en helicóptero al Broward Health Medical Center para recibir tratamiento adicional, dijeron las autoridades.

Otros tres pasajeros del Nissan, dos adultos y un menor, también fueron trasladados al Broward Health Medical Center, informaron las autoridades.

Los dos menores hospitalizados se encuentran en estado crítico, según las autoridades.

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The announcement comes as the investigation into the Sept. 6 crash continues and crews slowly begin dismantling the aircraft.

Flight 7598, a Boeing 767 operated by 21 Air, careened off the runway at MIA, striking a van with five people inside. Five people were killed and five others were injured.

The aircraft is believed to have been traveling too fast for a safe landing before going off the runway.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company decided to pause its operations with 21 Air after reviewing circumstances surrounding the crash.

“Safety has always been our top priority, whether in our own operations or when we’re working with partners,” the statement read. “After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598. We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”

Amazon has worked with the North Carolina-based company since 2024.

Lawsuits filed following crash

The announcement comes as lawsuits have begun to be filed in connection with the crash.

Local 10 News spoke with an attorney representing a surviving victim who has filed a civil complaint seeking damages for personal injuries.

“Many things have to go wrong to lead to such a terrible tragedy,” the attorney said. “So was there apparent errors on behalf of the pilots? Absolutely. Were there security lapses on behalf of 21? Apparently so.”

The attorney also spoke about what his client, Sebastian Perdomo Torres, experienced during the crash.

“You know, sometimes in these incidents, for better or worse, people lose consciousness. They have head injuries, things of that nature,” the attorney said. “Sebastian, Mr. Perdomo Torres, experienced the whole thing, every second of it.”

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash remains ongoing.

El anuncio se produce mientras continúa la investigación sobre el accidente del 6 de septiembre y las cuadrillas comienzan lentamente a desmantelar la aeronave.

El vuelo 7598, un Boeing 767 operado por 21 Air, se salió de la pista en MIA e impactó una camioneta con cinco personas en su interior. Cinco personas murieron y otras cinco resultaron heridas.

Se cree que la aeronave viajaba demasiado rápido para realizar un aterrizaje seguro antes de salirse de la pista.

En un comunicado, un portavoz de Amazon dijo que la compañía decidió suspender sus operaciones con 21 Air después de revisar las circunstancias en torno al accidente.

“La seguridad siempre ha sido nuestra principal prioridad, ya sea en nuestras propias operaciones o cuando trabajamos con socios”, señala el comunicado. “Después del trágico incidente del fin de semana pasado, hemos dedicado tiempo a apoyar la investigación y revisar algunas de las circunstancias en torno al accidente, y hemos decidido suspender nuestras operaciones con 21 Air, el operador del vuelo 7598. Continuaremos trabajando para apoyar la investigación y a todos los afectados”.

Amazon ha trabajado con la compañía con sede en Carolina del Norte desde 2024.

Demandas presentadas tras el accidente

El anuncio se produce mientras han comenzado a presentarse demandas relacionadas con el accidente.

Local 10 News habló con un abogado que representa a una víctima sobreviviente que presentó una demanda civil en busca de una indemnización por lesiones personales.

“Muchas cosas tienen que salir mal para provocar una tragedia tan terrible”, dijo el abogado. “Entonces, ¿hubo errores aparentes por parte de los pilotos? Absolutamente. ¿Hubo fallas de seguridad por parte de 21? Aparentemente sí”.

El abogado también habló sobre lo que su cliente, Sebastian Perdomo Torres, experimentó durante el accidente.

“Sabe, a veces en estos incidentes, para bien o para mal, las personas pierden el conocimiento. Sufren lesiones en la cabeza, cosas de esa naturaleza”, dijo el abogado. “Sebastian, el señor Perdomo Torres, experimentó todo, cada segundo”.

La investigación de la Junta Nacional de Seguridad en el Transporte sobre el accidente continúa en curso.

Simpson died of cancer Sunday at his home in Rome, his children said Monday.

During a 46-year AP career, Simpson covered many of the defining stories of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the 1967 Newark, New Jersey, race riots and war in the Middle East to the papacy of Pope John Paul II, whom he accompanied on dozens of trips.

A native New Yorker, Simpson joined the AP in Newark in 1967, where he wrote an award-winning series on organized crime. He transferred to the General Desk in 1968, editing top domestic stories, and then to the Foreign Desk in 1970.

He was assigned to Rome as news editor in 1972, where he promptly met his future wife, Daniela Petroff, who became a distinguished AP fashion and Vatican correspondent. She died in February at age 80.

He became Rome bureau chief in 2005. Simpson previously worked for the Hackensack (New Jersey) Record.

“Victor had an extraordinary life and career, and built a lasting legacy at the AP," said AP Executive Editor Julie Pace. "Years after his retirement, he still comes up regularly in stories and conversations in AP bureaus around the world — a testament to the impact he had on generations of AP journalists. I know that legacy will endure for many years to come.”

Simpson loved to regale listeners about his journalistic feats, which included a private dinner conversation on the papal plane with John Paul and an interview with Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. He secured the scoop by showing up at Alliluyeva's door in Princeton, New Jersey, where she lived after defecting from the USSR.

“He put a lasting mark on AP, from his days as a feisty young staffer in our Newark bureau, through years as an energetic mainstay on our central news desk in New York, and then during a storied career in Rome,” said retired AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi, who called him “one of a kind.”

His life was marked by tragedy

Simpson’s life was marked by two devastating personal tragedies: the shooting death of his father during a robbery in 1964, and the killing of his 11-year-old daughter, Natasha, by Palestinian militants who attacked Rome’s airport on Dec. 27, 1985.

Simpson was preparing to fly to the United States with his family when the militants stormed the airport, throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. Natasha was among more than a dozen people killed. Simpson and the couple's 9-year-old son, Michael, were both wounded.

Natasha’s killing “was a tragedy that affected us all deeply,” Boccardi recalled.

Two years later, Simpson and Petroff welcomed another daughter, Debbie. The pope called the family to congratulate them.

In announcing his death, his children, Michael and Debbie, said the pain he carried over Natasha’s killing “has finally evaporated, leaving only love behind.”

When Simpson was 22, his father, Leonard P. Simpson, a well-known New York lawyer, was shot and killed in the elevator of the family's apartment building. He was 63.

“The murder was considered yet more proof of New York’s degradation,” Simpson wrote in his 2024 memoir “Life of a Reporter.”

He described how an “exuberant” Jimmy Breslin interviewed the family for a story about the difficulties of the middle class in the crime-ridden era. The experience taught him an important lesson in journalism about being considerate and sensitive with the victims of tragedy.

Simpson’s optimism and devotion to family and work sustained him through the tragedies.

He was the unofficial dean of the Rome press corps

He was born May 11, 1942, and raised in a Jewish family. He said that while religion wasn’t a centerpiece, “tolerance was considered a precious value.” He graduated from Hobart College in 1963 and briefly served in the U.S. Army.

Simpson kept his extended family close, making overseas trips for weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. “It meant a huge amount to me,” said his niece, Catherine Simpson Bueker.

Simpson was the unofficial dean of the Rome press corps and a first stop for new correspondents. Decades covering the Holy See made him one of the longest-serving Vatican correspondents of his generation, including 92 trips with John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI.

Simpson had a special bond with John Paul II

It was on one of those flights in 1986 that Simpson was invited to dine with John Paul on the final leg following a two-week tour of Asia and the Pacific.

Simpson, in a rumpled safari jacket detested by his fashion-writer wife, apologized to the pontiff for wearing “my working clothes.” The pope put him at ease, gripping his white robes and saying, “These are my working clothes.”

One of his biggest exclusives came on a 1988 flight to Uruguay when he asked John Paul about the Solidarity strikes challenging the communist government in his native Poland. John Paul responded with full papal support for the strikes.

“Here we are touching the heart of the problem,” the pope said. “It is not easy to bring democracy to a system that is by definition dictatorial and totalitarian.”

The remarks made front pages around the world and were later viewed as a landmark in the pope’s role in communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe.

Philip Pullella, longtime Vatican reporter for United Press International and then Reuters, said Simpson’s Jewish background allowed him to cover the Vatican with some distance without falling into “false awe” of the institutional pomp.

“He was the gold standard. I don’t think he was ever intimidated by the Vatican. He saw it as an institution that needed to be covered in an impartial way,” Pullella said.

Simpson’s assignments included the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Israel, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His early Rome years focused heavily on domestic and international violence by militants, famous kidnappings and enduring mysteries like the 1980 Ustica air disaster that killed 81 people.

He loved tennis and reported from the Italian Open for years and once from Wimbledon.

A papal resignation changes his retirement plans

Simpson had planned to retire on Feb. 28, 2013, but Benedict stunned the world by announcing he would become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, effective the same date as Simpson’s departure.

Simpson always wondered if he had given the idea of retirement to the German pope. He had had a brief private conversation with Benedict while returning from Lebanon in September 2012 on what was to be Simpson's last papal flight before retirement.

“When I told him that I had covered the Vatican for more than 30 years, he looked surprised. He sounded wistful as he said my retirement 'is much deserved,'” Simpson recalled in a tribute after Benedict died.

Simpson stayed to cover one final papal transition, the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.

——

AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed.

The second half of the week turns more active as a storm system moves in from the Atlantic. This will not develop into anything tropical, but it will work to enhance our thunderstorm chances after Wednesday. These systems are also known for producing some severe weather, so we will monitor that potential as the week progresses.

It brings to mind visions of cars the size of boats, the glory days before seat-belt laws and pit stops at the world's largest fill-in-the-blank. It has been memorialized in books like Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and satirized in movies like “National Lampoon’s Vacation."

It primarily consists of hours upon hours of driving that should be boring — but somehow isn't? Maybe it's the anticipation of getting to some mythical destination — the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Death Valley. Or maybe it's the unexpected sights along the way. Tumbleweeds! They're real!

Americans love the idea of a road trip, but we often opt for reaching our destination as quickly as possible instead. The rise of cheap airfare has made it easy to travel without the hassle of driving. When we do drive, we’re likely to stick to the interstates, blasting past the small towns we idealize at 70-plus miles per hour. These options are faster and, for some, safer.

But in gaining convenience, what have we lost?

The decades after World War II were the golden age of the family road trip

As far back as 1921, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. wrote of a road trip he took with his new wife from New York City to Hot Springs, Virginia. “We had heard people say in muffled tones that the roads would be impassable and that it was foolish to even think of trying them,” he wrote. “But within four days after leaving New York we reached Hot Springs, none the worse for wear and a great deal happier for the experience.”

Long-distance travel dipped with the Great Depression and then rationing during World War II, but it came roaring back as the veterans returned home and started families.

In “Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations,” historian Susan Rugh argues that the period after World War II and before the oil crisis of the 1970s was the apex of the family road trip. More Americans were rising into the middle class, many had paid vacation for the first time, car ownership was increasing rapidly, and the federal government was investing in highways that allowed for more comfortable long-distance travel.

Many veterans, having traveled to Europe for the war, were eager to show their children what they had been fighting to preserve. One popular destination was Washington, D.C., where the Allied victory had enhanced the importance of the city as the capital of the free world. Families also visited historic monuments, homes and battlefields.

In the West, the nation's majestic national parks, which belong to the people, were both a tourist destination and a symbol of American democracy. Attendance surged, increasing by more than 650% between 1946 and 1966 as the government pumped in more than a billion dollars to upgrade facilities, Rugh writes.

Traveling together to see America both strengthened family bonds and “provided a way to educate children as citizens,” she writes.

It wasn’t a golden age for everyone

The open road did not signal freedom for all Americans. Black families in particular often had to deal with segregated facilities, even outside of the South.

“The experience is totally different,” says Allen Pietrobon, a professor at Trinity University in Washington, D.C., who teaches a course on road trips. “It’s not carefree. You can’t just, whenever you need gas, stop wherever you want because the gas station may not serve you.”

The National Parks, being run by the federal government, were not supposed to discriminate, but some still did — with separate campgrounds for Black families, for instance. The problem was so systemic that there were guidebooks, like the well known Green Book, specifically made for Black travelers, listing hotels and restaurants where they'd be welcomed.

The obstacles of the vacationing Black family even played a role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Rugh writes. Today the protests of college students going on Freedom Rides and organizing lunch counter sit-ins are recognized as the motivating forces behind the Act’s desegregation of public accommodations. But in Congress at the time, the Senate Committee of Commerce was hearing stories like that of a Black business owner turned away from a motel in St. Petersburg, Florida, even after he offered to pay twice the normal rate. The exhausted family, including two children, had to try to sleep in the car as best they could.

Narratives like these helped engender sympathy for the civil rights struggle among lawmakers.

“In the face of Jim Crow laws in the South and persistent racial discrimination in the rest of the nation, the cultural icon of the family vacation was offered as persuasive evidence of the need for a federal law to ensure the rights of all citizens,” Rugh writes.

The highways were magnets for American entrepreneurs of all stripes

It wasn’t just the national parks that needed more facilities as Americans took to the roads. Vacationers needed lodging, restaurants and service stations along the way.

Some entrepreneurs competed with one another to make their accommodations stand out from the crowd, like Wigwam Village, where the motel rooms are giant concrete teepees. Others saw the opportunity to develop roadside attractions like the world’s largest nutcracker.

“Americans are hucksters," Rugh says. “And if somebody has an attraction, somebody else is gonna serve lemonade or hamburgers right by it.”

One highway that was filled with attractions was Route 66, which turned 100 this year.

Commissioned in 1926 and fully paved by the late 1930s, the highway between Chicago and Los Angeles catered to a mid-century craze for the Old West of the 1880s. A group of business owners promoted the road, dubbing it the “Main Street of America,” but Bobby Troupe’s 1946 hit song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” first recorded by Nat King Cole has had more staying power than any advertisement.

Like so many other things Americans claim to love, the highway that John Steinbeck dubbed the "Mother Road" was victim of a competing American paragon — progress.

The construction of the interstates diverted much of the traffic away from communities, and many businesses closed. Entire small towns disappeared. But a movement is afoot to preserve portions of this iconic highway, and people still come from around the world to experience its neon lights and kitschy Western-themed attractions.

Sometimes it's the bad things that we remember most fondly

Richard Ratay calls himself the King of the Road Trip.

His book “Don't Make Me Pull Over! An Informal History of the Family Road Trip” opens with a harrowing scene of waking up as a child in the backseat of the family car as it is spinning off an icy road and down an embankment. The car was stuck along with dozens of others, and the family had to wait hours in the cold before being towed out.

“Years later," he writes, “we'd all agree it was the best start to a family road trip ever.”

It’s counterintuitive, but sometimes it's the hardships and unexpected bumps in the road that make a vacation memorable.

Pietrobon recalls a story from a coworker who got into a car accident in a tiny town in Nevada.

“It was a Saturday afternoon, everything’s closed. No rental cars available till Tuesday. And so they’re just stuck in this place. And they actually ended up having a really amazing experience,” he says. “The whole purpose now of higher end travel is to eliminate any friction whatsoever. And we do lose something in that, I think.”

Modern travel is all about the destination, not the journey

Before the interstates, the highway system was really just the main street of towns, connected by highways. Someone stopping for the night or even just a meal would participate in the life of that town.

″In meeting so many folks from different places, it gave families traveling by car the opportunity to realize that Americans in different areas of the country may talk a little different, they may dress a little differently, they may eat different foods, but when all is said and done, we aren’t that different after all," Ratay said in an interview.

Today’s interstates mostly bypass these towns, providing chain-store gas, food and lodging right off the exit. This makes driving faster and more convenient, but also less distinctive. Airplane travel elides even the minimal local interaction that the interstates provide.

“We traded the the opportunity to make unexpected discoveries and encounter and engage with small-town America,” Ratay says. “We traded those experiences for the speed and convenience of getting to our final destinations.”

Although many small roadside motels, restaurants and attractions folded when the interstates were built, some have managed to stick around. It's still possible to take the slower road, stopping to talk to locals and soaking in the experience, along with its little inconveniences.

“Get on one of those old highways anywhere,” Rugh says. “Go through Illinois and go on the Lincoln Highway, cross the Midwest on the Lincoln Highway. Go from Arizona to Canada on Highway 89, Highway 1 in California.”

In older travel narratives, Pietrobon says, the destination is almost irrelevant. "I think about who’s going to be the next Jack Kerouac where, you know, the journey is what he’s writing about, not just the snapshots of when you stop for the day."

___

Part of a recurring series of stories marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more, click here. For a presentation of objects that have changed the nation, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

The Vatican published a papal decree repealing 2021 salary cuts that Pope Francis had imposed on many Vatican employees as part of the Holy See’s COVID-19 cost-saving measures.

In the decree, Leo said the salary-containing measures “can now be overcome, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State will continue, through various means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability.”

The unpopular salary cuts had included a 10% cut on pay for cardinals and smaller percentage salary cuts for office heads and lower-ranking priests and nuns. Biennial pay raises were frozen for senior lay employees, though lower-ranking lay employees continued to receive raises.

Francis had reasoned at the time that the cuts were necessary to save jobs, given the Holy See was also facing a structural deficit, estimated then at around 70 million euros, and a 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall.

The pandemic closed the Vatican Museums for months, depriving the Holy See of one of its main sources of revenue. The Vatican’s coffers also suffered from investment and currency fluctuations.

Leo, a math major and former superior general of his Augustinian religious order, is known to be adept at financial matters and reading balance sheets. His brother, John Prevost, recently told Italian broadcaster Mediaset that the pope helped him out recently with a question he had about filing his taxes.

Soon after he was elected, Leo said the Vatican’s financial situation wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought and that Francis had made some important reforms. However, Leo has spent much of his early pontificate amending or outright reversing some of Francis’ financial decisions.

In another decree published Monday, Leo canceled Francis’ plans to move some of the Vatican’s secret archives and library holdings out of the city state and onto the grounds of a pontifical university across town. Francis had decided on the move because the material was outgrowing its current storage spaces, which include a vast underground bunker.

Leo said “unprecedented opportunities have arisen to create new spaces” within Vatican City itself. He ordered the construction of a new building on a current parking lot to house the material, which includes ancient manuscripts and entire archival collections from past popes, religious congregations and benefactors.

Leo visited the Vatican Apostolic Library on Monday, and noted that it was particularly fitting to be celebrating his birthday with its staff since his mother was a librarian.

“I’d just like to say that God, in His providence — and sometimes with a touch of humor — always reminds us that he is with us,” Leo told the staff. “Many of you may not know that my mother was a librarian, and today I’m here on my birthday specifically to say hello to all of you.”

The library and archive are open to scholars and researchers for study. A small exhibition space is also open on a weekly basis to the general public in the library, with reservation and pre-purchased tickets.

Leo was at the library Monday to inaugurate an exhibition about water, the first installment in a new five-year cycle entitled “Catastrophe and Marvel.” It features a giant design of a wave attached by scaffolding to the library's facade by the French artist JR.

___

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

The primaries will set the stage for the November general election, when Republicans will try to break a Democratic lock on Delaware’s statewide offices against the backdrop of a midterm election cycle that tends to punish the president’s party. This is the last state primary scheduled before November.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons faces three primary opponents in his bid for a third full term. His challengers are University of Delaware history professor Jeff Appelhans, naval architect Mary Louve, and former business executive Eric Hansen. Hansen was the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in 2024. He is now running as a Democrat and will appear on the ballot under the name “E. No-Trump Hansen.”

Coons reported raising about $6.9 million for his campaign, compared to about $1,500 for Appelhans. Neither Hansen nor Louve has filed any campaign fundraising reports this cycle.

Former state Sen. Michael Katz and U.S. Army Reserves Col. John Shulli are competing for the Republican nomination. Katz has raised about $159,000 for the campaign, compared with about $118,000 for Shulli.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride is unopposed in her primary as she seeks a second term as Delaware's sole representative in the U.S. House. Republicans Joseph Arminio, Earl Cooper and John Whalen are competing to face her in November.

State Attorney General Kathy Jennings faces primary challenges from attorney Dwayne Bensing and Patty Rickman, an advocate for victims of domestic violence. Republican David Graham is unopposed for his party’s nomination.

In the race for state treasurer, the incumbent, Democrat Colleen Davis, is not seeking a third term, creating the state’s only open seat for statewide office this year. Investment manager Ted Lauzen, business owner Mike Miller and economist Michael Smith are competing for the Democratic nomination. Former state Rep. Michael Ramone is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

About half of Delaware’s 21 state Senate seats and all 41 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Democrats hold roughly 2-to-1 majorities in both chambers.

Although control of the U.S. Senate and House may come down to just a small handful of competitive races, the seats in Delaware are expected to remain firmly in the Democratic column. Once a reliable bellwether in presidential races, Delaware has shifted heavily Democratic since the 1990s. Republicans have not won the governorship since 1988, a U.S. Senate seat since 1994 or the U.S. House seat since 2008.

New Castle County is the most populous of Delaware’s three counties and is the largest prize in statewide contests. It includes Wilmington, the state’s largest city, and Newark, home to the University of Delaware.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, attorney general, treasurer, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

How many voters are there?

As of Sept. 1, there were about 808,000 registered voters in Delaware, including about 331,000 registered Democrats and about 199,000 registered Republicans.

How many people actually vote?

About 86,000 Democratic primary votes and about 37,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2024 state primaries for governor.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 26% of Democratic primary voters and about 23% of Republican primary voters cast their ballots early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 30,800 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, including about 22,200 from Democrats and about 8,500 from Republicans.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All three Delaware counties release almost all of their results from early in-person and mail voting in their first vote updates of the night, before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary election, the AP first reported results at 8:22 p.m. ET, or 22 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:30 p.m. ET with 100% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Automatic recounts are triggered in statewide primaries if the vote margin is less than 1,000 votes. For all other offices, such as state legislative and county-level races, automatic recounts are triggered if the margin is less than 1,000 votes or less than 0.5% of the total vote, whichever is less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 49 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The new rule, which is expected to face immediate legal challenges, also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. It represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

Here's the Latest:

Trump says AI risks to humanity are a ‘hoax’

Trump lashed out at AI critics on social media, saying that the AI companies calling for government regulation of their sector could end up bankrupt.

“Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” Trump said.

The president then said that claims that AI posed a threat to humanity was “hoax” along the lines of his two impeachments during his first term.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” Trump said.

Donald Trump Jr.’s wife confirms May wedding celebration was partially funded by a Russian oligarch

In a post on her Instagram page Monday morning signed by the couple, Bettina Trump wrote that the man, Umar Kremlev, was a “dear friend,” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.”

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative website, reported earlier Monday that the wedding between Trump Jr. and socialite Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas was heavily funded by Kremlev, a Russian oligarch who heads the International Boxing Association. He also has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

▶ Read more

New York and other Democratic-led cities, states challenge new immigration rule

Democratic-led states and cities filed lawsuits Monday challenging a federal rule set to take Friday that they say gives the Trump administration broad discretion to deny green cards to immigrants who use food stamps and other public benefits.

The lawsuits challenge Trump’s plan to revive a “public charge” rule that he originally imposed during his first term but that was reversed under President Joe Biden.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading a coalition of 21 other states in one of the suits, said the rule would force needy immigrant families to choose between seeking assistance and seeking legal status in the country.

Trump’s EPA to eliminate rule that limits emissions from power plants

The Environmental Protection Agency is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action the agency said would remove more than $300 billion in costs for the industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The rule change, first proposed last year, represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama address climate change and clean up industrial pollution.

EPA officials said the change would allow utilities to make the best decisions for their ratepayers rather than be forced to closed aging or inefficient plants.

Manchin will back Susan Collins in her reelection bid

Former Sen. Joe Manchin said Monday that he will campaign on behalf of Republican Sen. Susan Collins as she fights a tough reelection campaign in Maine.

Manchin was a longtime Democrat and centrist who became an independent while nearing the end of his time in office in 2024. He said during an appearance on CNBC that he considers Collins a dedicated public servant.

“You lose the Susan Collins of the Senate, you’re losing the soul of the Senate. Basically, a person you can talk to, wants to do the right thing all the time,” Manchin said.

Collins, the only Republican senator in New England, faces Democratic former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson in November. The race is critical to Democratic aspirations to take control of the Senate.

Landowners sue to stop Trump administration’s plan for Texas border wall project

Laura Allen, whose family owns a Texas ranch, was among the people who turned out Monday for the announcement of the lawsuit. The Trump administration plans to build a wall and other border infrastructure through the remote Big Bend area.

“Where this project goes will be right through the middle of the property, over 2 miles from water,” Allen, a former county judge and two-time Trump voter, said in Marfa, Texas. “All of our working facilities will now be behind the walls, with no guarantee of what will happen to us.”

She pointed out that illegal border crossings have plunged since Trump returned to office.

“Thank you, President Trump. You’ve secured the border. But now let it go. It’s time,” she said.

Kennedy Center board to propose new options for honoring Trump

The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees plans to propose adding Trump’s name to the facility’s exterior in recognition of his saving the building from its “precarious fiscal position,” according to a new court filing in a suit aimed at blocking the addition of his name to the building.

The filing made by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the board who’s led an effort to block Trump putting his name on the building, said she was alerting the court to the proposal because it could implicate a pending decision before the court.

“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” the board wrote in the proposed resolution.

The document proposes 10 options for adding the president’s name to the building’s exterior.

Democrat says Trump is asleep at the wheel on AI

The president has long resisted efforts for greater government oversight of AI, embracing his philosophy of “I alone can fix it.” He revoked a Biden executive order on AI oversight and didn’t provide a fuller order of his own until more than 16 months later this past June.

Now AI has emerged as a political liability ahead of November’s elections, with many voters opposing the construction of data centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the education of children.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff, said Saturday that the Anthropic CEO’s essay was “an admission that we’re driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where’s President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again. It’s time to turn the lights on, put both hands on the wheel, and regain control before it’s too late.”

US bond market reaches a new pressure-raising milestone

The yield on the 10-year Treasury hit 5% on Monday for the first time since 2023.

The upward pressure on inflation has much of Wall Street expecting the Federal Reserve to hike its main interest rate on Wednesday, despite Trump’s lobbying.

Such a move then filters out through the rest of the bond market, makes it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, slows the overall economy and undercuts prices for investments. That hopefully would remove some of inflation’s fuel, though Trump has been lobbying for lower interest rates instead of higher.

Besides high inflation, worries about rising debt for the U.S. and other governments have helped send longer-term Treasury yields to their highest levels in years. The jump has already led to the highest average long-term mortgage rate in more than 14 months.

US average price of diesel sets a new record, AAA says

So far, the jump in oil prices has helped send the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Monday’s average price of diesel across the U.S. jumped to a record $6.23, the organization reported.

Oil prices jump again as hopes for ending Iran war dim

Oil industry stocks are up, including a 1.3% gain for ExxonMobil, following another jump in oil prices. Brent crude was up 4.2% Monday to $109.05 as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil.

An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.

While the prospect of a de-escalation of war in Iran may have dimmed, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote Monday that the situation remains fluid and “sizable” volumes of oil have been exiting the strait.

AI stocks are sliding worldwide as leaders join calls for a safety slowdown

Artificial-intelligence stocks have been pressured by worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. Those concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that a deliberate and global slowdown in AI development is needed for safety.

Amodei said there’s a risk that AI could lead a swarm of agents capable of taking over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

Nvidia, whose profits have soared because its chips are helping to train AI models, sank 3.5% and was the heaviest weight on the market because of its massive size.

SpaceX, which gets a chunk of its business from AI, fell 1.7% after Elon Musk said he agrees with Amodei. Softbank Group, the Japanese giant that is a major investor in OpenAI, lost 10.7% in Tokyo after OpenAI’s Sam Altman likewise supported the concept of a slowdown and would likely delay its planned IPO.

Trump EPA is to eliminate limits on power plants’ planet-warming gas emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to repeal limits on planet-warming air pollution from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Administrator Lee Zeldin has said this would remove billions of dollars in costs for the industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The rule change, proposed last year, could be announced as soon as Monday, according to two people familiar with the proposal, and represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

The rule, which is expected to face immediate legal challenges, also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the people familiar with the proposal said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the rule had not yet been made final.

The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— By Matthew Daly

Trump says he alone is enough to contain rogue AI

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.

The president specifically said his administration has already stopped the AI company Anthropic “from doing bad, or potentially bad” things.

Trump pushed back against calls by tech leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft and others to have greater regulation of AI to ensure it is developed in ways that promote safety, address legal liability and preserve national security. He’s opposed such efforts and claims doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI development.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.

Congress races to address questions over AI

House Speaker Mike Johnson says it’s time for Trump to “summon everyone together” and take the lead at the White House, rather than Congress.

“I think we need to go in a big room, close the door, and sort this out,” Johnson said over the weekend on CNN.

The Republican speaker is close to Trump, who has downplayed the risks over AI, and Johnson shied from Congress taking action.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party puts a “high priority” on action and will address the bipartisan proposal for a so-called AI “Kill Switch” during their Tuesday caucus meeting.

“We should take decisive action now,” Jeffries said on ABC.

JD Vance says Americans should not be scared of AI

The vice president told reporters Monday morning that there are risks to any technology, but “I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything.”

Vance said the Trump administration is concerned about AI but wants to make sure it’s regulating the technology smartly.

“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So I think we just have to be careful about this.”

Schumer asks Trump administration for classified briefing on AI risks

As technology leaders have issued warnings in recent days, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says Congress should get a “full accounting” of how the Trump administration is working to put guardrails around testing for AI models, what it is doing to prevent American technology from flowing to China and how the U.S. would defend itself against the potential for increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks.

“Warning bells are ringing louder than they ever have — and the Trump administration is looking the other way,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. If the Trump administration does not act, “then Congress must.”

White House calls Trump’s actions on voting common sense

“The only ‘fears’ Americans have about our elections are being fueled by extreme liberal Democrats who refuse to support commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections and other basic election security measures like Voter ID,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Litigation about election rules has reached such a pitch that the National Bar Association announced a hotline to help voters who encounter trouble casting ballots amid last-minute changes.

Every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations of attorneys, staffers and volunteers to monitor polling places and ballot counting. The Republican National Committee said it’s already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“We’ve built the largest election integrity operation in Republican Party history because our mission is simple: secure every legal vote and ensure Americans can trust the outcome of our elections,” RNC spokeswoman Ally Triolo said.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of reasons to organize a resistance

Law professor Rick Hasen, who directs UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, said it’s important not to unduly scare voters about what might happen, but it’s “hard to walk the line between alarmism and complacency.”

During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to overturn the vote, only to be defied by career officials and more establishment Republicans. He’s stocked his second administration with people who helped his 2020 efforts, used the federal government to target his political enemies and pardoned more than 1,000 people prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was intended to halt the certification of Biden’s win.

Trump demanded Republicans redraw House maps to create more safe seats for themselves, held last week’s unusual midterm convention and has tried to change election rules even as states begin to send out ballots.

Democrats, activist groups plan response to midterms interference

Democratic state parties announced their “New Battlefield Project” on Monday, an effort to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in case armed federal officers show up.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges how to respond if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to Trump’s equally unprecedented moves to interfere with voting this year, including attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements and directing the Postal Service to decide which voters should get a mail ballot.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

▶ Read more

“You could use this technology as a visual, immersive experience to allow people to go deeper for themselves and walk away with a sense of awe and wonder about what it means to be alive,” the media mogul, whose empire was built largely by inspiring viewers of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” told The Associated Press. “I know that there’s more, and the more could really help people see themselves differently. It has the potential to be an incredible experience of magnificent wonder.”

That initial thought became “Oprah Winfrey's AHA,” taking place April 2-4 at the Sphere, the $2.3 billion state-of-the-art Las Vegas arena that has hosted performances by The Backstreet Boys, Phish, the Eagles and No Doubt — and a popular “The Wizard of Oz” film experience.

The two-hour live event will feature Winfrey with special guests and performances, including multiple Grammy winner Jacob Collier, poet and author Ocean Vuong, musician Ajeet and gospel singer Wintley Phipps. Among all-star collaborators crafting the experience with Winfrey are Oscar-nominated composer Max Richter, Grammy-nominated musicians Jason White and Jon Hopkins, playwright and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Tarell Alvin McCraney and Es Devlin, the stage designer for Beyoncé's “Formation” and “Renaissance” world tours. Tickets go on sale to the general public Sept. 25.

It’s been 15 years since Winfrey ended her iconic talk show, which last week celebrated its 40th anniversary of reaching U.S. syndication. She has stayed busy with her podcast, her CEO duties for her namesake OWN TV network, and various tours and live events. At 72, when many are embracing retirement, Winfrey isn't ready to slow down completely.

“I thought about sitting behind the gate and picking roses,” Winfrey joked. “The truth is, I got another strong decade. I feel the urgency of time, and I feel like I have something to say … and using all of these collaborators to help me say it in a more forceful and phenomenal and immersive way is my offering for this remaining decade.”

Though she no longer greets millions of TV viewers daily, Winfrey’s influence remains massive. Her book club is still a bucket list aspiration for authors, products appearing on her “Favorite Things” list can change a company’s fortune, and politicians still court her support.

“I think that I’ve been given this opportunity because you know I know how to use it, I know what to do with it. But I keep asking this question: Why have I been given it? I realize it’s such a huge opportunity that I’m not supposed to take it for granted,” said the philanthropist, who still writes daily in a journal filled with gratitude entries about all she has accomplished. She hopes “AHA” attendees will be inspired to take advantage of their own opportunities as well.

“Maya Angelou says, ‘Baby, I can see why you are where you are because you have been obedient to the call,’” she said, recalling conversations with the poet and literary giant. “That’s my message to everybody: Everybody has the call. If you are obedient to the call, if you surrender to the call, you will be led to higher ground than you ever even imagined.”

___

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

The city's Health Department said Sunday that more tests were being done to determine whether the Legionella bacteria in the towers was live, and the Yankees said none of the current Legionnaires' disease cases in the area has been linked to the stadium. Only live bacteria can cause the disease, which is a form of pneumonia. The initial testing performed on the 10 towers last week found traces of living or dead bacteria.

Health officials said they are investigating a likely community cluster of Legionnaires' in the South Bronx, where Yankee Stadium is located. Ten people have tested positive for the disease including one who died and three who remain hospitalized, the Health Department said.

Authorities ordered the owners of the 10 towers to clean and disinfect them by Monday. The Yankees said the stadium tower that tested positive was drained and cleaned Sunday morning.

The Health Department said anyone who lives or works in the Melrose and Morrisania sections of the Bronx, or have visited there since late August, and are experiencing flu-like symptoms should contact a healthcare provider immediately.

The Yankees said in a statement that new, state-of-the-art cooling towers were installed at the stadium in 2024 and have been tested weekly for water quality and bacteria since then. Those tests results are reported monthly to the city. The most recent testing on Aug. 20 was negative for Legionella bacteria, the team said, noting it uses a different method than the city used last week for its monthly testing.

“No current cases have been associated with Yankee Stadium,” the team said. "Additionally, the New York City Department of Health has not at any point this month asked us to postpone our games.”

The city is now performing culture tests on samples from the 10 towers than can take up to two weeks to confirm whether bacteria were alive.

Legionnaires’ disease is treatable but kills about 10% of patients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s caused by Legionella bacteria, which grow in warm water and can spread in such places as hot tubs and building cooling equipment. People may contract the disease by inhaling contaminated water droplets, but it doesn’t spread person-to-person.

A Legionnaire's outbreak earlier this summer on Manhattan's Upper East Side killed 11 people among more than 90 who tested positive, the Health Department said. The agency said 59 cooling towers at 58 buildings tested positive for live Legionella bacteria. All those towers were cleaned and disinfected.

Last year, another Legionnaires' outbreak in Harlem killed seven people and sickened dozens of others.

The outlet cited multiple law enforcement sources, who they said confirmed that Panettiere “had a ‘long time drug dealer’ in Los Angeles, who was providing her several black-market prescription drugs, including oxycodone.”

TMZ reported that the actress is believed to have taken several drugs the day before her death and the oxycodone pill the morning she died.

“We’re told the DEA in Los Angeles is actively piecing together the relationship between Hayden and her drug dealer, attempting to trace the fatal pill back to him,” TMZ reported.

The day of her death

Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson were at the South Carolina apartment where the actor died on Aug. 16, according to a police report.

A Greenville police officer who responded to the residence was met by the brothers and then observed paramedics performing CPR on the actress, who was unresponsive, the report states.

“The patient did not seem to have any obvious physical reasons to be unresponsive,” the officer notes. After attempting lifesaving measures, the emergency workers declared Panettiere dead at 2:31 p.m.

Panettiere’s death remains under investigation. An autopsy found no signs of trauma, and police said officers saw no signs of foul play.

The onetime child star, who soared to fame in the TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville” while enduring struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, would have turned 37 days after her death.

Tumultuous relationship

Panettiere and Brian Hickerson had been in a tumultuous relationship for years, with allegations the 37-year-old aspiring actor physically abused her.

He was charged in 2020 with multiple counts of felony abuse, and he pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served a short time in jail due to the case. He was sentenced to four years of probation and anger management and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.

He completed the terms and recently asked a judge to reduce his conviction to misdemeanors; that request was denied last month by a Los Angeles judge.

Panettiere wrote of Hickerson’s time behind bars, and how she hoped it would change him, in her memoir, “This Is Me,” which came out in May.

“I wanted Brian to be in jail just long enough to scare him, but not long enough where’d he become a worse person,” she wrote. “I needed him to admit his wrongs and change because of them, but I didn’t want to traumatize him in an irreversible way.”

She wrote about her decision to “let go of my resentment” and try to forgive Hickerson, who she’d met at a West Hollywood restaurant in 2018 after noticing his “charming smile.”

Police report has redactions

The police report, which is heavily redacted, said the responding officer first spoke with Zach Hickerson, who said the unresponsive woman was his brother’s girlfriend.

“I observed Zach to be very emotional while EMS were working on Hayden. Brian did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased,” the officer said.

After she was declared dead, the officer escorted the brothers out of the apartment. The officer spoke with Brian “more in depth,” but the details of that conversation are redacted in the police report.

Also redacted is a list that of medications that Panettiere had been taking.

She had been open about addiction issues

In her book, Panettiere described lifelong scars from her early fame, and acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and enduring postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

Panettiere’s daughter, now 11, began living with Klitschko full-time in Ukraine when she was 2. At the time, the actor was struggling with mental health and addiction. She entered rehab in 2015, while filming “Nashville.”

“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said in an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty in May. “That could not be farther from the truth.”

In a statement Tuesday, Klitschko said he will make sure their daughter always remembers her mother.

“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives,” Klitschko said on Instagram.

Panettiere had endured numerous family struggles, and tragedy. Her parents’ marriage was strained, and eventually ended. Her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.

Started out as a child actor

Panettiere was one of two children born to Skip Panettiere, a former New York City fire captain, and Lesley Vogel, a former soap opera star who had been the prime force behind her early career before the two became estranged. Panettiere began acting in commercials and soap operas, including as the ever-troubled Lizzie Spaulding on “Guiding Light.” In “This Is Me,” she wrote that the traumas her character endured, from being kidnapped to killing her mother’s boyfriend, led her to associate “catastrophe with adoration.”

“Is it any wonder why I’ve faced so many real struggles in my life?” she wrote.

She had much warmer memories of her role as a cheerleader with supernatural powers in “Heroes,” which propelled her to fame in 2006. The series revolved around the mantra: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

She went on to win three Teen Choice Awards for that role. She was also nominated for a Grammy for a children’s spoken word album, “A Bug’s Life: Read-Along.”

Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on country charts, spawned U.S. tours and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations.

The two rituals have unfolded in parallel since the Christian church's pastor, Sarah Lucas, preached a sermon condemning Arapaho ceremonial ways.

The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes that share the reservation have made clear that Lucas is no longer welcome. Lucas, who is not Native American but owns the land under her church, says she isn't going anywhere. The standoff tests the boundaries of religious freedom and the right of a tribal nation to govern according to its own values and protocols.

The conflict stems from a video that circulated in July as Arapaho people surfaced from their weeklong sundance ceremony. In it, Lucas called that cornerstone of Arapaho spiritual life “idol worship.”

“Jesus is the chain breaker. He is the only God that we should be praying to,” Lucas said.

Lucas says her words reflect her interpretation of the Bible and are constitutionally protected. Many Arapaho people say she took aim at something central to who they are, reopening wounds from a not-so-distant era of religious assimilation and abuse.

With the smell of coffee and sweetgrass swirling, regular Sunday demonstrators were recently joined by activists from the American Indian Movement and Arapaho Chairman Keenan Groesbeck as they marched past ranchland and scattered homes toward the church.

“We brought in our ceremonial elders. We heard them loud and clear,” said Groesbeck. “They don’t want them here no more.”

Lucas condemned the highest Arapaho ceremony

The sundance marks a time of connection, offering and collective renewal. As Arapaho people closed this year's ceremony and welcomed a new year according to their traditions, Lucas and her smaller-than-usual congregation prayed for them.

“You have generations, centuries of people doing this offering, going in and making vows to change,” Lucas said. “Father God, we see no fruit.”

Many Arapahos were stunned to hear an outsider not only disparage the ceremony but talk about closely held details that aren't meant to be discussed openly.

Big Wind Carpenter, who was among the protesters, said Lucas couldn't have chosen a more painful target.

“There's nothing I could say to make non-Arapahos understand,” Carpenter said.

Lucas said she regrets her sharp delivery captured in clips that went viral but not the message itself. Since founding her church nine years ago, she said she has had “hard conversations” urging Native congregants to renounce sundance, sweat lodges and burning cedar during prayer, traditions she equates to idolatry.

“The Bible makes it very clear to only worship one God,” Lucas said.

Some members of her mixed Native and white congregation were unaware of her stance. Lucas said Sunday turnout is down half from 150. Some weeks, the protest crowd has rivaled church attendance.

Arapaho congregant Tearany Black, who considers Lucas a stand-in parent, said she agrees Native Christians should turn away from ceremony but found the tone of the sermon racist.

“She cares for our people,” said Black. “I just don’t think she understands where we’re coming from.”

On Wind River, ceremony and Christianity coexist

DJ Gardner grew up praying in sweat lodges and reading the Bible. He joined Lucas' congregation last year and didn't anticipate being asked to choose.

“I thought they accepted us,” Gardner said. “In my view, why else would you be on a reservation?”

The 28-year-old, who has walked away from Foundations for Nations, associates Lucas' rhetoric with assimilationist boarding schools like the one his grandfather survived.

In part to repair that dark history, the Episcopal and Catholic missions that have been active on Wind River since the late 1800s now embrace ceremonial practices.

“It’s an irony of colonialism, the degree to which Native people have remade Christianity according to their own values,” said Michael McNally, a professor of religious studies at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Lucas interprets the Bible differently.

“I don't believe you can have mixture,” she said.

Foundations for Nations grew through community aid

Mary Rose Goggles was struggling with the costs of raising her grandchildren in 2017 when Lucas knocked on her door and warmly invited her to join her new church.

Goggles, who practices Arapaho ceremonial ways but dabbles in Christianity, liked the worship band and activities that kept her grandchildren busy. As Foundations for Nations grew, she visited its food bank, clothing giveaways and events like a fall harvest festival.

“It was good to see the kids enjoying themselves. It was good to see my relations getting help,” Goggles said.

Lucas built relationships on Wind River by filling gaps. Her church offers free after-school and summer day camps. Visiting missionaries fill tribal members’ gas tanks and replace their sagging roofs.

Foundations for Nations' website solicits outside donations to “revive, raise up and restore” Wind River, listing grim statistics about addiction, sexual assault and unemployment. The Associated Press found those numbers were pulled from national studies not specific to the reservation or could not be traced to a verifiable source.

A page asking donors to “sponsor” a child in exchange for photos and letters was recently removed.

Goggles left Foundations for Nations several years ago after moving away but thought warmly of the church until seeing Lucas' sermon, which she said left her “heartbroken.”

Jenea Mandan has cycled through feelings of anger and shame about sending her children to the church's summer camp. An Arapaho traditionalist, Mandan had misgivings about the Christian program but needed childcare help.

“At that time I was a single mom, I was in a low-income situation,” Mandan said. “It feels like they took advantage of that.”

The church sits on private land. The tribe still wants it gone

Lucas believes God called her to Wind River. But she deliberately built her church on private property within the reservation's boundaries rather than tribal land where, she said, the tribes would effectively be her landlords.

Foundations for Nations is located amid a patchwork of federal, tribal and private property — the legacy of 19th century federal policies designed to eliminate tribes by breaking up collective land bases.

“That era has cascading effects that are devastating for tribal sovereignty,” said Jessica Shoemaker, a professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law.

Shoemaker said tribes have broad civil authority over non-Natives on tribal land, including to banish them. But jurisdiction over private property within reservations is litigated case-by-case.

Lucas and her attorneys with the Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal organization, assert that her ownership of the property shields her from banishment.

In July, the Arapaho and Shoshone councils passed ordinances requiring religious groups to seek their approval before operating on Wind River.

“That’s the law of the land on our reservation,” said Groesbeck.

That has forced Foundations for Nations to suspend youth programming since it is now prohibited from picking up and dropping off children on the reservation.

In an Aug. 31 memo, the Arapaho council acknowledged that “jurisdictional limits” likely prevent it from regulating church activity on private land. And any tribal court enforcement of those ordinances could face federal review, where there's a high bar for proving non-Native conduct threatens tribal well-being.

Meanwhile, the 21,000 square-foot (1,950 square-meter), steel-sided building that houses Foundations for Nations’ sanctuary, community spaces and indoor playground has been unusually quiet. Construction on a neighboring youth center continues.

“God would not have us build this and provided all of it to empty it out,” Lucas said.

Gardner has returned to the Catholic church of his childhood, where Arapaho geometric motifs adorn the sanctuary and he is welcome to burn cedar.

He has been praying for guidance on forgiveness.

“In order for me to strive to be like Jesus, I would have to forgive,” Gardner said. “But there are some lines you just don’t cross.” ___

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

But when it comes to transgender girls and women in sports, particularly at the school level, the Democrat said he largely agrees with the Republican president. Newsom, one of his party's leading White House prospects, believes it's “deeply unfair” for people who are assigned male at birth to compete against girls.

“I don’t want to be on that side of it, but I’m being honest — I’d be lying to you if I said differently,” Newsom told The Associated Press as he was campaigning recently in South Carolina. "I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it fair from my perspective.”

Newsom is not alone.

While most Democratic officials remain steadfast supporters of the transgender community, an increasing number in red and blue states are distancing themselves from their party’s unflinching support for the transgender community’s policy priorities, such as allowing athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity. The shift follows years of conservative attacks against Democrats on the divisive issue, which affects a relatively small number of transgender people and their families, but has emerged as one of Republicans' most potent political weapons in the Trump era.

Soul searching over transgender issues is one facet of a sprawling identity crisis that Democrats are confronting during the midterms and before the next presidential election. Although they risk a backlash from their progressive base, there is also a sense in some corners that the party must evolve on an issue where the overwhelming majority of voters — even many Democrats — agree with Trump.

The issue was a central theme for Trump and his Republican allies on the main stage at their midterm convention in Dallas last week, where the president said he hoped Democrats would continue to stand up for transgender girls and women who want to compete in girls' and women's sports.

“I’m petrified that they’ll change,” he said. “That will really hurt us.”

Republicans are already replaying some of the same political attacks that they used against Kamala Harris in the presidential campaign two years ago, when they said she's “for they/them, not you.” On Friday, they released a new advertisement targeting James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, with the same phrase.

Democrats confront difficult political terrain

A political group backed by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk has begun running digital ads targeting Democrats in key Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Alaska, accusing them of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

In Texas’ pivotal Senate contest, the new ad from Musk’s America PAC opens with a video clip of Talarico saying that “God is nonbinary."

Talarico began to distance himself from those positions months ago. He went further in a Fox News interview last week, saying he would vote in favor of a national ban for gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors, which are rare.

“I’ve missed the mark on some of my past statements. I will be the first to admit it,” Talarico said in an interview near the Republican convention site. “I think the reason that politicians in that convention center across the street want to talk about six sexes is because they don’t want to talk about $6 diesel."

In Iowa, State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor, has spoken out against transgender athletes competing in women's sports as a matter of fairness. Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton has taken a similar position, although she has drawn criticism from the left for adopting Trump's language after saying she opposed “boys playing in girls’ sports."

And in deep-blue Massachusetts, transgender rights became a defining campaign issue during the state's recent Democratic U.S. Senate primary, illustrating the potential backlash that party members can face.

Sen. Ed Markey, 80, secured the nomination and later credited his win to not shying away from advocating for transgender rights. He used the issue to attack his Democratic opponent, Rep. Seth Moulton, who had said he wouldn't want his daughters to play against transgender athletes.

Moulton apologized for his comments, which drew outrage from some progressives, but the damage was done.

While Moulton lost his primary, his position — not Markey's — is in line with the majority of voters nationally.

A June poll from Quinnipiac University found that about 7 in 10 registered voters think that transgender women and girls should not be allowed to play on women’s and girls' sports teams. About one-quarter think they should. Democrats are divided, with about half saying transgender women and girls should be allowed and about half saying they should not.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted last year found that just over half, 55%, of Democrats would be “not too” or “not at all” comfortable with athletes playing on teams that don’t match their sex at birth, while 21% said they were “somewhat” comfortable and only 23% said they were “extremely” or “very” comfortable with this.

There's division among activists

Markey’s public commitment to transgender rights stood out because Democratic politicians are increasingly running away from the issue, said Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, which is dedicated to electing supporters of transgender rights to federal office.

“The reality of being a transgender person in America in 2026 is that on election nights, while other folks are talking about who had a good night and who had a bad night, sometimes you are quietly wondering, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” Hack said.

At the same time, even transgender activists are divided over supporting Democrats who have positions that are unfriendly to transgender people.

Erin Reed, an advocate and independent journalist covering transgender issues, this month put out a guide flagging Democratic candidates who she accused of taking anti-transgender positions. She highlighted 15 states that have such Democrats, saying that she would not vote for the “worst offenders” even if it means a Republican wins.

She doesn’t want Democrats to see that “throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy.”

“One seat can be won back,” Reed wrote. “A party cannot.”

Meanwhile, Hack would probably vote for a Democrat even if that candidate supports some policies the Christopher Street Project opposes, in hopes that the party can take control of Congress. However, those candidates shouldn't expect the organization's endorsement.

“While I hope many of them win, I think they can do it without our resources and without our support," Hack said.

Laws are changing around the country

The political debate is evolving as transgender people increasingly become the target of conservative backlash through state laws and the Trump administration.

Sports participation has become one of the main fronts in a political battle over transgender rights, although most Republican-controlled states have also implemented policies that affect a bigger slice of the population. There are bans on some gender-affirming health care for transgender young people and rules barring transgender people from using the bathrooms that match their gender identity in schools and occasionally other public places.

At least 25 states are now enforcing laws or policies banning transgender women and girls from competing in at least some women’s and girls' sports and three others have adopted laws but have enforcement blocked by the courts.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls from school teams.

Transgender athletes make up a small portion of team rosters. NCAA president Charlie Baker testified in 2024 that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes out of more than 500,000 total.

The debate is a preview for 2028

The debate within the Democratic Party heading into the 2026 midterms offers a preview for those Democrats contemplating presidential bids in 2028.

Newsom, who is considered a frontrunner in the shadow primary, highlighted his long record of supporting LGBTQ+ priorities, including sanctioning same-sex marriage as the San Francisco mayor decades ago and later appointing the first trans judge in California history.

But in sports, he thinks it's unfair to allow people assigned as males at birth to compete against girls.

“It’s a hard issue. I struggle with it,” Newsom said. “I think people know where my heart is, my soul is. I have a trans godson.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another likely Democratic presidential contender, has taken the opposite position.

He has consistently criticized state-level bans and restrictions on transgender athletes, calling them “bullying” and a “setback for equality.” Following the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld state bans on transgender athletes, Pritzker, whose cousin is transgender, reaffirmed his position on social media.

“There’s a place for you in Illinois,” he wrote.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro opposes bans on transgender athletes in school sports, which he's called cruel and designed to discriminate. He argues that athletic participation and eligibility should not be dictated by politicians, but rather handled by local athletic organizations — a stance in line with several LGBTQ+ groups.

He's also raised questions of fairness, however.

“Look, I think it’s a tough deal being born into the wrong body. And I don’t think these kids deserve to be persecuted and bullied by the president of the United States," Shapiro told The Atlantic last year. "I also don’t think they deserve an unfair advantage on the playing field.” Research has been mixed on whether transgender women have advantages in sports, and it depends partly on whether they went through puberty as boys.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay and a potential presidential contender, said on Fox earlier in the year that he takes people seriously on both sides of the debate “whether you’re talking about parents who are wondering what this means for fairness for their kids competing, or parents who want to make sure that their kids aren’t being discriminated against and get a chance to participate.”

“But I also have to tell you,” he added, “I would be surprised if this is a top three or even a top 10 voter issue in the midterms this year." ___

Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed.

The strikes “close to NATO territory” show Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” Rutte said at NATO’s political headquarters in Brussels. “Russia is growing increasingly reckless as it continues its terrible war against Ukraine.”

Rutte pledged to increase support for Ukraine and bolster the 32-nation alliance’s own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia.

“He thinks that he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong,” the NATO chief said of Putin.

Sunday’s strikes near the Polish border are the latest in a string of incidents that officials say point to a deliberate pattern of escalation by Putin, as Moscow tests NATO’s response while pressing its offensive in Ukraine.

Poland and Ukraine increase security cooperation along border

Rutte's comments came as Poland pledged increased security along its border with Ukraine after a wave of Russian drone strikes near the frontier, including two that landed within kilometers of Polish territory.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Sunday that Moscow appears poised to intensify its campaign against Ukraine’s borders with European countries. Ukraine is under mounting pressure from Russia’s intensifying air campaign that uses ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce defenses.

“These coming weeks and months will be a time of very intensified actions on the Russian side, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory,” Tusk said Sunday after a governmental security briefing in Warsaw. He issued a similar warning on Thursday.

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Monday in a post on X that the Polish army recovered what was believed to be a Russian military drone from the Baltic Sea near the coastal village of Jaroslawiec.

Polish officials said intelligence reports, including a CIA briefing last week, suggested Russia was likely to attack border points and intensify sabotage actions inside European countries as part of its efforts to discourage partners from supporting Ukraine.

Tusk said he would consult NATO allies on preparing a potential joint response.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski underscored the alliance’s military edge in a social media post, saying that in the event of Russian aggression against NATO, European NATO air forces, without U.S. participation, would be capable of destroying half of Russia’s oil refineries faster than Ukraine.

Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk described Sunday’s drone strikes as a serious escalation from Russia. He told broadcaster TVN24 on Monday that any spillover into European countries could take the form of sabotage or a sharp intensification of hybrid warfare “on a scale that we have not seen before,” or other actions along NATO’s borders.

The warnings followed a strike Sunday on a train near the Ukraine-Poland border, minutes after a diplomatic delegation that included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had passed through the same station, according to Ukraine’s state rail operator. A second strike hit near a separate border crossing point between Poland and Ukraine.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said Monday that the drone attacks near Poland's border were “clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine.”

“We should show that we are there for Ukraine and we are not scared,” she said.

Kremlin says Russia will continue strikes throughout Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked Monday about the strike on the train near the Polish border, said Russian forces were operating “across the entire territory of Ukraine and continues to do so — and will continue to do so.”

Peskov noted the potential role of Global South nations in a settlement, saying “any country can use its influence on the Kyiv regime to encourage it to show greater flexibility.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi each expressed willingness to help broker a settlement during recent meetings with Putin, who briefed them on the situation in Ukraine, Peskov said.

Peskov also addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel fuel facilities, saying “any call on the Kyiv regime to stop strikes on civilian economic infrastructure can only be welcomed.”

Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage. He spoke after diesel prices in the U.S. hit a record on Friday, soaring past an average of $6 per gallon.

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Morton reported from London. Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

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

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It happened around 11 a.m. in the area of No Name Harbor inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne.

According to authorities, a man was snorkeling before he was found unresponsive in the water.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews took the victim by helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where they said he remains in critical condition.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to the near drowning.

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Local 10 News cameras captured the Fort Lauderdale Grand Hotel’s front overhang, with a large piece of it appearing to have fallen on the ground.

The area outside the hotel was blocked off by yellow police tape and parking cones.

Fire rescue crews said they responded to the scene on Sunday morning.

Officials said there were no reported injuries.

There is no word on the cause of the damage or what measures will be taken to repair it.

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Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a reported shooting at about 2 p.m. near Southwest 173rd Street and 100th Court.

Deputies arriving at the scene said they found a man suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said they transported him to Jackson South Medical Center in critical condition.

The subject fled the scene in an unknown direction, according to deputies.

Detectives with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office General Investigations Unit have taken over the investigation.

No further information was immediately available.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges what they should do if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to President Donald Trump's equally unprecedented moves to interfere in this year's midterm elections, which include attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote and directing the Postal Service to play a central role in deciding which voters should get a mail ballot.

The anxious contingency planning as voting gets underway has become a marker for how fraught democracy has become in the country that once stood as an example to the world.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of reasons to organize a resistance

Democrats say they have reason to plan for doomsday scenarios. During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to overturn the vote, only to be defied by career officials and more establishment Republicans. Upon returning to power, Trump has stocked his administration with those who helped his 2020 efforts, has used the federal government to target his political enemies and pardoned more than 1,000 people prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was intended to halt the certification of Biden's win.

Incumbent presidents' parties usually lose ground in the midterms, but Trump has pulled out the stops to try to keep that from happening this time. He's demanded Republicans redraw maps to create more safe seats for themselves in the House of Representatives, held last week's unusual midterm convention and tried to change election rules even as states begin to send out ballots.

The advice for judges asked to approve search warrants for ballots, for example, was inspired by the Trump administration's seizure of 2020 ballots and other election records in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta, based on old, disproven conspiracy theories.

Rick Hasen, a UCLA Law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project who helped write the guidance on responding to voting machine seizures, noted that Trump has expressed regret that he didn’t take more aggressive action to overturn the 2020 results, such as ordering voting machines to be seized.

“All these things take what was off the wall and put it on the wall,” Hasen said. He said that while it is important not to unduly scare voters about what might happen, it's "hard to walk the line between alarmism and complacency.”

Trump's actions worry Democrats. Administration calls them common sense

Last year, Democrats worried that Trump might intervene in off-year elections in California, Virginia and elsewhere, only to have voting go smoothly with no clashes with the federal government.

“The only ‘fears’ Americans have about our elections are being fueled by extreme liberal Democrats who refuse to support commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections and other basic election security measures like Voter ID,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Still, the stakes are far higher in the midterms, which will determine whether Republicans continue to control both houses of Congress. So far Trump has been unable to change voting procedures before the midterms.

Courts halted Trump's first attempt to reshape election rules via executive order last year. The president backed a bill in Congress to make even more sweeping changes but it's stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.

Then Trump tried to limit mail voting by executive order, but the courts again blocked it, saying the changes couldn't happen before the midterms. That case is before the Supreme Court. Election officials warn that it would be impossible to implement Trump's requirements in time for this election.

Litigation about election rules has reached such a pitch that the National Bar Association last week announced an initiative to help voters of both parties understand last-minute election rule changes and to create a hotline for those who encounter trouble casting ballots.

Concerns that polling places will become targets for immigration agents

Every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations of attorneys, staffers and volunteers to monitor polling places and ballot counting. The Republican National Committee said it's already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“The RNC has spent this entire cycle preparing not just to defy history in November, but to protect it,” spokeswoman Ally Triolo said. “We’ve built the largest election integrity operation in Republican Party history because our mission is simple: secure every legal vote and ensure Americans can trust the outcome of our elections.”

Democrats also have expanded their operations, and the Association of State Democratic Committees is adding to that effort with its “battlefield” recruitment project. That also will include a network to share information about online threats and manipulation, said Jane Kleeb, the chair of the group and of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

“If they're saying they're going to put armed people outside polling places, we should put friendly people outside polling locations to film them,” Kleeb said in an interview. “There's a whole new battlefield we have now.”

Kleeb was referring to widespread fears among Democrats that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be deployed to the polls, something that multiple administration officials for months have denied will happen. There have been scattered instances of ICE officers at polling places over the past year, usually saying they're in pursuit of or investigating a specific person. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this month it's possible that could happen again in November.

In an indication of the distrust of the administration's reassurances, civil rights groups and the city of Denver last week filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to formally bar ICE from polling places. They cited a law dating to the Civil War era prohibiting armed federal agents at election sites.

“This administration is basically using the rhetoric that undocumented citizens are voting and that they’re going to have DHS and ICE at the polls to try and intimidate and suppress the Latino vote,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the plaintiffs.

Activists see Minneapolis immigration protests as a midterms model

A staple of the election buildup is a series of tabletop exercises in which each side runs hypothetical scenarios to practice its response. As part of that, Democrats and civil rights groups are rehearsing for the possible deployment of ICE agents or the National Guard to polling sites, although the Pentagon has said it has no plans to deploy troops to the polls.

Levin, of Indivisible, said his group has run 17 different scenarios preparing for what could happen in November. But the first priority, he said, is to boost turnout.

The No Kings network, which has spearheaded large anti-Trump protests over the president's second term and includes Indivisible, is launching a campaign encouraging early voting that will peak with rallies Oct. 17.

Others are organizing among both left-wing and more traditional groups to push back if the administration is aggressive in November. Some look to the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis as a possible model.

Two activists were shot and killed by ICE agents during those January demonstrations, and the administration eventually backed off the aggressive crackdown the president had launched against the city.

“We recognize there might be a similar moment in November, where Trump attempts to do that again, where everyday working people and students need to band together and say, ‘Actually, no, this is our country, you don’t get to decide who gets elected or who gets to take office,'” said Kidus Girma of the left-wing Sunrise Movement.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the White House spokeswoman to Lauren Bis, not Lauren Blis, and the name of the organization to the Association of State Democratic Committees, not Association of State Democratic Parties.

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It happened along the 4000 block of West Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach.

According to traffic investigators, a 2017 Nissan Sentra was making a U-turn on Hillsboro Boulevard when it was struck by a 2022 Suzuki GSX-R570 motorcycle.

The impact caused the Nissan to flip over, officials said.

Witness Chuck Trice watched the crash happen in front of him.

“The motorcycle and him were under the car and they were pulling the little kids out of the car,” he said. “The helicopters were flying in to get them and it was pretty bad.”

According to authorities, the driver of the motorcycle, Maxwell Patel, died at the scene.

A girl who was inside the Nissan was rushed to Broward Health Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The driver of the Nissan and a boy were both taken to Broward Health North by first responders, with the boy later being taken by helicopter to Broward Health Medical Center for additional treatment, authorities said.

Officials said three other passengers in the Nissan, two adults and a child, were also taken to Broward Health Medical Center.

Both hospitalized juveniles are listed in critical condition, authorities said.

A GoFundMe page set up to help with medical and funeral costs for the victims identified them and said they were on their way to dinner when the crash occurred.

“Kristi, Yamila, Karla, Gisselle, and 8-year-old Abraham were on their way to Cicis Pizza in Deerfield Beach when a motorcyclist reportedly traveling over 100 mph hit their car, leaving it overturned,” the creator of the GoFundMe page stated. “Kristi passed away, while Yamila and Abraham are in medically induced comas and two children are receiving life-saving surgery.”

Antonelli won his eighth race of the season — and second in a row — at Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, extending his championship lead to 81 points with nine races remaining.

The 20-year-old Italian, the youngest ever to lead the F1 championship, doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself, though.

“It’s great, but we’ve just got to keep pushing, keep delivering the results and, you know, just trying to do the best job I can whenever I go on track,” he said. “Of course, yes, I have a big lead, but you never know what can happen. So just need to be ready for anything and keep maximizing every opportunity I get, and then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year.”

His Mercedes teammate, George Russell, hinted he already knows the outcome.

“Realistically, I’m not in the fight for the drivers’ (championship), and that just allows me to focus race by race and try to get some good results.”

Lewis Hamilton, third in the championship, dropped 101 points behind Antonelli after not finishing on Sunday because of a brake failure.

Russell was fifth on Sunday. He had already said earlier in the weekend that Antonelli “has done a better job” than him this season and “deserves to be leading” the championship.

Antonelli doesn't like the rhetoric that the title race is over and that he can start taking a more conservative approach.

“That’s exactly what I don’t want to do,” he said. “I want to keep pushing race by race, keep delivering and keep enjoying all the way, and trying to do my best every race. And then we’ll see where we end up.”

Praise from former champions

Antonelli won Sunday ahead of former champions Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Both rivals praised his performance this season and weighed in on how he may possibly manage his emotions and the pressure of having a big points lead.

“Kimi just needs to do what he’s doing,” Verstappen said. “I mean, it’s fantastic, so it’s working really well. He should not stress about it too much, which I don’t think he is. He’s just delivering, he’s confident, he’s getting more and more experience. He’s still young, he’s still very early in his career, but he’s flying and it’s just working.”

Verstappen said Antonelli “shouldn’t overcomplicate things” and “he’s not doing that.”

“He has a lot of good people around him that know what he needs. So, it’s all working well,” the four-time world champion from Red Bull said.

Norris, who won his first title last year with McLaren, said Antonelli has “been impressive since the first race this year.”

“You know, he’s beating a much more experienced teammate, and a decent teammate, so I don’t want to give him any advice because he’s doing a scarily good job,” Norris said. “It’s cool to see someone so young doing such an incredible job and more than likely go on and win the championship. He’s just not driving like it’s his second year in F1, that’s for sure.”

Antonelli, who is looking to become the youngest F1 champion, credited the support of the team and his family.

“I’m lucky to have really good people around me,” he said. “I have an incredible team that supports me, great family. Especially my dad is the one that keeps me on the ground. You know, especially when he sees that, you know, I might lose a little bit the way.

“On my side, as I said many times, I just try to do my best every race, trying to really drive as fast as I can whenever I go in the car,” Antonelli added. “And then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year. But definitely I don’t want to overcomplicate things or, you know, just drive worrying about championship or result. Just driving, doing my best.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Meanwhile, repairs to a crucial Saudi Arabian oil pipeline that was struck in an attack last week could last three to five weeks, putting it mostly out of service, two regional officials said.

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

Houthis gain ground as oil prices face more pressure

Houthi officials said Monday that rebels had taken over the two islands just as Saudi-backed government forces tried to claw back territory from the rebels' swift advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transits in peacetime — in the opening days of the war. The Saudis have since used the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads out of the Red Sea, for crude oil exports.

The Houthis’ latest takeover, following the seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island last week, puts more pressure on Saudi shipments and, in turn, global oil supplies and prices.

This could give Iran additional leverage in its war with the United States.

Oil might only partially move through damaged line

Saudi Arabia relies on the East-West Pipeline to move crude from Gulf ports to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.

Two officials briefed on the matter said repairing damage from an attack on Sept. 10 could take weeks, including at a major pumping facility.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. One said the line may work partially while teams carry out the repairs.

China, a major Middle East oil importer, called Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure “unacceptable” and said that it was “deeply concerned” about further escalations by the rebels.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo

Iran says Saudi Arabia behind postponed meeting on Hormuz

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday that Saudi Arabia had “demanded" that a meeting bringing together Iran with other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz be scrapped “for the time being.”

Baghaei called the meeting, which was to be hosted by Oman, a “proper opportunity” to restore security in the region.

The spokesman said that an agreement between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz has been finalized and it will be announced later.

Saudi Arabia had submitted amendments to the agreement, citing concerns that it could have lasting implications for the Strait of Hormuz, negatively impacting other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a Gulf official familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran condemns Austria's visa refusal for its nuclear chief

Iran denounced on Monday the refusal by Austria to issue visas to the Iranian nuclear chief and other delegation members for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference in Vienna, calling the decision “completely unjustified.”

Baghaei said that Tehran summoned the Austrian chargé d’affaires, saying Austria was obligated as the host country to issue the visas.

Baghaei accused Western countries of denying Iran an opportunity to defend itself and blamed the U.S. for pressuring Austria to deny the visas.

The refusal is part of U.N. sanctions on Iran, reinstated last year, that include a travel ban on Iranian officials.

Iran fails to live up to nuclear obligations, US official says

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday criticized Iran’s failure to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Wright was particularly critical of Tehran’s refusal to grant U.N. inspectors access to Iran’s nuclear sites affected by the war. He said that Iran had “ample time to address its egregious negligence" toward its obligations "but that time is up.”

Speaking at the IAEA general conference in Vienna, Wright said that giving Iran more time "only delays overdue accountability.”

Wright repeated the Trump administration’s mantra that Iran “must never develop or obtain a nuclear weapon.”

US-Saudi deal contains ‘rigorous’ clauses to prevent proliferation

Wright said that additional safeguards contained in a U.S.-Saudi nuclear accord include “absolutely rigorous” terms against proliferation. He told the IAEA general conference that the U.N. nuclear agency "was part of it all along.”

The U.S.-Saudi accord, signed in July, could potentially provide the kingdom the capability to enrich uranium for its civilian nuclear program.

Wright was responding to a question from the media about why the U.S. requested Iran to sign an Additional Protocol and not Saudi Arabia. The Additional Protocol is an agreement between the IAEA and a country that grants agency inspectors increased access to nuclear sites.

Yemenis flee homes as rebels press on

Nearly 94,000 people have fled their homes in Yemen since fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces escalated this month, the International Organization for Migration said Monday.

The worst-hit areas are Taiz and Lahj, where 48,000 have been displaced. The figure is nearly a 25% increase from a number the U.N. agency released a day earlier. The agency called for shelter, water and sanitation relief.

More than 2,000 people have fled across the sea into Djibouti, the agency said. In a video recorded Sunday, U.N. staff helped families arrive in small boats and distributed food. Women and children took cover from the scorching sun under canopies on the shore.

Fears mount that Yemen is inching closer to a return to a civil war that killed 150,000 before a 2022 ceasefire. The World Health Organization said more than 500 people were killed in a weeklong period ending Saturday, a sharp increase.

WHO said at least seven health facilities in three governorates, or regions, have been put out of service or damaged.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 2

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday killed two people and wounded several others, hospital officials and the health ministry said.

One person was killed in Gaza City, while the other was killed when a strike hit tents in Muwasi, according to Shifa and Nasser hospitals.

The strikes also wounded people in Zawaida in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the health ministry said. The Israeli military confirmed the strikes and said they targeted militants.

The heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas has subsided since a ceasefire last October, but Israeli fire has killed more than 1,360 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the territory.

Israel accused of dismantling ‘Palestinian existence’ in West Bank

The B’Tselem human rights group said Monday Israel is carrying out a systematic and accelerated project aimed at “dismantling the foundations of Palestinian existence” in the occupied West Bank.

The group said in a new report that Israeli actions against Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers and the military are designed to undermine Palestinian collective life “while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy” across the territory.

Settler violence has surged under the ultranationalist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rights groups say the military frequently turns a blind eye to the violence, and that when it intervenes it often focuses on protecting the settlers.

The B’Tselem report also says that Israeli actions rely heavily on open cooperation between state authorities and armed settlers who attack Palestinian communities, while the military either fails to prevent the violence or sometimes participates in it.

Saudi ruler holds talks with top US Mideast military commander

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia met Monday with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, in the coastal city of Jeddah, according to the Saudi state-run news agency.

Bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, discussed with Cooper “bilateral relations and the latest regional developments,” SPA reported, without providing further details.

The meeting came as Saudi Arabia has been squeezed by attacks from the Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq.

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

“It means that the novels, although they can be read entirely alone and independently, have this web of connections between them,” the author said during a recent interview at a cafe on Manhattan's Upper East Side. “I think it’s fair to say that I have certain interests and I’ll build on that and build on that and build on that over time.”

Artists have been known to say that a given work is the culmination of what preceded it, and Mandel's latest, “Exit Party,” gathers characters and themes that readers of “Station Eleven,” “Sea of Tranquility” and other novels will recognize. Her narrative weaves together two genres she has long been known for, crime fiction and science fiction, and continues Mandel's explorations of chaos, identity, impermanence and transcendence.

Like “Station Eleven,” the new book is set in a post-traumatic future. Mandel begins in Los Angeles in 2031, when Ari Waker (previously seen in Mandel's 2010 novel “The Singer's Gun”) has been released from prison and the United States has broken apart. The story continues over the succeeding decades, as alternative lives are revealed and the rules of society blur to the point where Mandel writes that being a criminal or joining the police are “two sides of the same coin.”

Mandel’s own life at times seems recorded in stereo. She has dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship, lives in New York and Los Angeles with her wife Laura Barisonzi (she was previously married to Kevin Mandel) and is active as a novelist and screenwriter. (She is working on adaptations of “Last Night in Montreal” and “Exit Party.”)

Born Emily St. John Fairbanks, the 47-year-old author has been imagining alternate and faraway worlds for much of her life, an impulse she attributes in part to growing up for years in a small community on Canada's Denman Island. Unlike so many of her peers, she never formally studied literature or even took a creative writing course. Her education falls just short of graduating high school; she dropped out to pursue her first career choice, dance, at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

“Nothing on paper points to this life, but here we are,” she says.

Mandel had published three novels before “Station Eleven,” which came out in 2014 and found her switching publishers from the independent Unbridled Books to the Penguin Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf. Jenny Jackson, Mandel’s editor at Knopf, remembers hearing about the author and the following she had developed among booksellers well before Mandel’s agent sent her the manuscript for “Station Eleven” and told her it was “much bigger” than anything she had done before.

“I loved the book,” Jackson says. “Here was this author who already had grassroots support and I knew she was poised to break out.”

Mandel's futuristic story of a world ravaged by a lethal flu virus was already a bestseller and National Book Award finalist six years before the coronavirus pandemic gave it the unwanted status of prophecy. “Station Eleven” has sold more than 1 million copies, was adapted into an HBO miniseries and ranked in a New York Times author survey as among the 21st century's best books.

During her interview, Mandel discussed a few turning points in her life, the appeal of recurring characters and why she finds hope even when conceiving the worst.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: What made you decide to bring back some of the characters from “The Singer’s Gun” and other earlier books for “Exit Party”?

MANDEL: I feel like I've become a better writer. “The Singer’s Gun” was so long ago and I was much more likely to question myself, not wanting to go too far out of literary or noir lines. At this point in my career, I feel a real sense of freedom. I feel like I can write in whatever genre I want.

AP: You write a lot about alternate paths, the life you might have led.

MANDEL: It’s an idea I’ve loved for a while, the life you didn’t live, where you married a different person, went to a different school, took a different job. So over the passage of time, that would turn you into a somewhat different person. Look, I trained as a dancer. It’s easy to imagine a version of my life where I kept dancing and stayed in Canada.

AP: What made you choose to become a writer?

MANDEL: I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, since I was 9. I loved it, but I saw it as a hobby. I had this ridiculous situation where I came from a very working class family, and I took a nondegree conservatory program in contemporary dance. So I graduated with a mountain of student loans, and it’s like a worst-case scenario, very poor planning on my part.

I didn’t want to work in retail forever. I was working in the back room of a store (in Montreal), just putting stickers on martini glasses for 15 hours. That wasn’t something I exactly wanted to do. So I thought, “Well, what comes next?” And I thought, “Maybe I should start writing.”

AP: Before you wrote “Station Eleven,” you were mostly writing crime novels/thrillers (“The Singer's Gun,” “The Lola Quartet”).

What made you decide to start writing science fiction?

MANDEL: I was afraid of being pigeonholed. To be clear, I have huge respect for crime writers, but I didn't want to get pigeonholed.

AP: Do you worry about being pigeonholed as someone who's always going on about disaster?

MANDEL: Yeah, I think my next book needs to not be speculative fiction.

AP: It seems inevitable that when someone says they're writing a book about the future, it's going to be apocalyptic.

MANDEL: I think there will be multiple ruptures and lots of pleasant interludes in between.

AP: In “Station Eleven” you write “What was lost in the co

llapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.” Then in “Exit Party” you write that “the light is gorgeous while it lasts.”

MANDEL: Yeah, can you find beauty in impermanence? That's what I’m trying to drive toward. We need to find peace with the idea that nothing lasts forever.

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In a lengthy essay published Saturday, Dario Amodei warned that a “Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world.” To enable the U.S. to keep its technological edge, Amodei called for maintaining restrictions on sales to China of the most advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment.

A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Amodei's dire warnings about China were counterproductive and that all parties should work together on AI.

“Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance -- which serves no one’s interest,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference in response to a question about Amodei’s essay.

For their part, Chinese leaders have also sounded the alarm about AI, warning of the risks posed by foreign entities with advanced capabilities. A top security official in China’s government published an essay on Sunday in which he accused “certain nations” — a reference to the U.S. — of leveraging AI advantages to hinder other countries’ innovation.

On Monday, President Donald Trump pushed back against calls for his administration to step in to slow down AI development, saying such efforts were part of a “SICK conspiracy” which could allow China to eclipse the U.S. on AI.

Trump and Xi could discuss AI governance at summit

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI governance, among other topics, at a meeting planned on Sept. 24.

Chinese companies have developed powerful AI models that are often cheaper to use than advanced models from U.S.-based companies; by some measures, they are just as capable.

Among the concerns outlined in his essay, Amodei predicted that a swarm of AI “agents” could be able to take over the internet in six to 12 months unless researchers agree to slow down. He said that “global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities.”

Xi has called for the setting up of a global AI governance framework among the Global South, while pitching China as a pioneer in establishing an open-source AI community.

Beijing accuses US of trying to hold it back

In an editorial published Sunday, China’s state-run Global Times newspaper dismissed Amodei’s essay as a veiled call to “contain” China. It said that Amodei’s essay may appear on the surface to be focused on global AI security, but, that it is “packed with containment provisions targeting China and is, in essence, a ‘Cold War playbook’ for the AI sector.”

Amodei’s essay was published a few days after the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory last week. That advisory said Chinese AI developers had engaged in “aggressive, malicious” efforts in extracting, or “distilling,” capabilities from some of the most advanced AI models in the U.S. like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT.

China’s Commerce Ministry dismissed the U.S. claims as groundless and said “distillation” has been commonly used by many AI companies. It also said that the U.S. was pursuing a “monopoly of the AI industry.”

Both China and the U.S. want “to make sure the other side cannot establish a tech chokepoint over them,” said Lizzi C. Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

“So from Beijing’s perspective, there is an obvious question: if the U.S. wants China to cooperate on frontier safety while also restricting its access to frontier compute, what exactly does that cooperation look like?” Lee said.

China has worries about AI in the hands of ‘hostile forces’

In an essay posted Sunday on social media, Chen Yixin, head of China’s Ministry of State Security, warned that, in the hands of “hostile forces and individuals with ulterior motives,” this technology could pose a direct threat to “our political, institutional, and ideological security.”

Citing the capabilities of powerful technologies from U.S. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, Chen warned that “certain nations and organizations” now have the capabilities to “rapidly discover vulnerabilities at scale ... and execute complex hacking tasks.” That, he wrote, poses “serious risks to my country’s critical information infrastructure.”

Foreign spying agencies are turning to AI to “aggressively harvest sensitive data, including critical national data, trade secrets, and citizens’ personal privacy information,” Chen wrote.

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Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writer Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

Dangote, Africa's richest man, dubbed the IPO one "for the people” and said he wants everyone to be able to own a share. Retail investors can buy a 10-share bundle in the sprawling Lagos-based refinery for 5,250 naira ($4), the minimum investment. Dangote retains 87% ownership of the refinery, Africa's largest.

The refinery's scale and potential returns, especially at a time when global oil prices have risen following the U.S.-Iran war, have generated excitement among retail investors.

“We are all going to fully share all our prosperity with the people and that is why we call it the people’s IPO,” Dangote said at Monday's launch at the Nigerian Exchange Group in Lagos, flanked by the refinery's officials and associates.

Although the refinery stock won’t be publicly listed in Nigeria until November, its IPO launch resulted in heavy traffic on some of the country’s digital investment platforms, with at least two knocked offline briefly.

“I will be a fool not to partake in it and see how it goes. I am placing a lot of emphasis on his name and on the refinery being the biggest in Africa,” Titi Adetoye, an Abuja-based operations manager who hopes to buy up to 1,000 shares, told The Associated Press.

Nigeria has relied for many decades on foreign refining of its oil due to decrepit state-run refineries, many of which operate below capacity or have remained stagnant for years due to poor maintenance.

But when the $19 billion refinery began production in 2024, it transformed the energy-rich country of more than 210 million people from an importer of refined oil into an exporter.

“It is going to be a game-changing IPO for Nigeria’s markets,” said Mohammed Saidu, head of research and investment analysis at Lagos-based TrustBanc. Saidu said he predicted there would be millions of new investors from the IPO.

The IPO has raised questions about Dangote retaining significant ownership and the refinery's purported valuation after the offering. At $49 billion, the valuation is more than twice what it cost to build it. The refinery's officials have denied that its valuation is inflated.

“It is not something someone can classify as people-driven if you still own 87% of the refinery and there are many ways that narrative breaks down,” Joachim McEbong, a senior West Africa analyst at Control Risks, said.

The IPO also has its skeptics. Abdulkabeer Tijani, a Lagos-based researcher who invests regularly in Nigerian stocks, said that, priced at 525 naira ($0.40) per share, it might already be too expensive.

“(The share price) puts a bigger duty on the refinery, which suggests that to justify an even higher valuation from the roughly 47 trillion naira ($49 billion), the refinery needs to generate very substantial profits and cash flow consistently,” Tijani said.

The Dangote refinery reached its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day earlier this year. Dangote announced plans last year to increase capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day, a move its officials say will make it the world's largest refinery by surpassing India’s Jamnagar plant.

Dangote has also set out to expand into East Africa, and has proposed building a refinery in Kenya by 2030.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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This version has been corrected to show that the price of 5,250 naira ($4) is for a 10-share bundle, not per share.

It’s been nearly a quarter century since no member of the Big Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — appeared in the top 10 of the men’s tennis rankings.

With the 39-year-old Djokovic — the last member of the trio still competing — dropping from No. 5 to No. 12 when the latest rankings were released on Monday, it's the first time since October 2002 that neither him, Federer nor Nadal appear in the first 10 entries of the list.

Federer and Nadal retired in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Federer was 41 when he stopped and Nadal was 38.

Lleyton Hewitt was No. 1 in October 2002 and — in a measure of just how much time has passed — his son, 17-year-old Cruz Hewitt, is now a rising professional.

Djokovic was beaten in the first round of the U.S. Open by Mariano Navone 15 days ago.

It was Djokovic’s earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades — dating back to the 2006 Australian Open — and the first time ever that he lost his opener at the U.S. Open.

“I’ve been very proud of all the achievements in the past, but now is now,” Djokovic said after the loss in New York.

Djokovic’s 24 major titles are two more than Nadal’s 22 and four more than Federer’s 20.

Record ranking runs

Federer made his first appearance in the top 10 later in October 2002 and remained there until the end of 2016 – during which time he had a record run of 237 weeks as No. 1.

Nadal entered the top 10 in April of 2005, during his breakout run as an 18-year-old on Europe’s clay courts. The Spaniard remained there for a record 912 consecutive weeks until 2023.

Djokovic was the last of the Big Three to enter the top 10 in 2007. He's had a record of 428 total weeks at No. 1.

Alcaraz considers taking more breaks

With current top players Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both missing majors this year due to injury and Alcaraz having said he plans to take more breaks during future seasons, it’s unclear yet if the current generation will have as much staying power as the Big Three.

“I’m proud of the fact that I was able to play from January to November throughout. I never really missed indoor season or Australia or any of the American swings,” Federer said ahead of his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame last month.

“I kind of showed up everywhere,” Federer added. “I never really wanted to make it all about the Slams. I remember Pistol (Pete Sampras) talked a lot about how it was Slams only for him toward the end of the career, and I didn’t like the fact that was going to be my case. I liked too many other tournaments and I love the ATP Tour. So from that standpoint, I really tried to keep everything a priority.”

Zverev was the most consistent this year

Already, this year has been quite different from last year in terms of men’s finals at the Grand Slams.

After Sinner and Alcaraz met in three of the four major finals last year, they didn’t meet in any in 2026.

Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon due to a right wrist injury and Sinner withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a right knee injury.

While both Alcaraz (Australian Open) and Sinner (Wimbledon) won majors this year, the most consistent performer on the men’s side was Alexander Zverev, who won the French Open and the U.S. Open, lost in the Wimbledon final and reached the semifinals in Australia.

Still, Zverev wasn’t about to declare himself the best.

“If everyone is healthy, I think Jannik is still ahead,” Zverev said after beating Ben Shelton for the U.S. Open title on Sunday. “It’s as simple as that.”

In the new rankings, Sinner, Zverev and Alcaraz remained 1-2-3, respectively, while U.S. Open finalist Ben Shelton jumped five spots to No. 4.

Rybakina replaces Sabalenka at No. 1

The picture was a bit clearer on the women’s side, where Elena Rybakina won two of the four Grand Slams this year, at the Australian Open and U.S. Open.

Rybakina’s run in New York enabled her to climb to No. 1 in the rankings, ending Aryna Sabalenka’s 99-week run at the top.

“Her serve is amazing,” Sabalenka said after Rybakina cranked out 12 aces against her in the U.S. Open final. “The way she (is) able to step in and overpower you on court and especially if it’s a U.S. Open court where it’s super fast, definitely huge advantage for her.”

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AP Sports Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

The crash on Sunday night in the Western Cape Province took place between the small towns of Prince Albert and Leeu-Gamka, around 380 kilometers (235 miles) east of Cape Town, according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, or RTMC, the national traffic agency.

The collision involved two Toyota minibus taxis and a Suzuki sport utility vehicle, police spokesperson Warrant Officer Christopher Spies said.

Eighteen people were declared dead at the scene. Three others were declared dead after being taken to a hospital, bringing the toll to 21, Spies said. Four other people were seriously injured, the Western Cape Mobility Department.

The death toll “may change as emergency services and authorities in the Western Cape continue their assessment of the scene,” RTMC said.

The N1 highway was closed at the crash scene. Police opened a culpable homicide case, and the cause of the collision remained under investigation, Spies said. RTMC also sent investigators to the scene.

The Western Cape collision was one of two major crashes that killed at least 29 people across South Africa over the weekend, the government said in a statement. Eight people were killed in a separate crash near Ermelo in Mpumalanga province early Sunday.

Minibus taxis are the main mode of public transport for millions of people in South Africa and are often involved in fatal collisions. Two separate crashes involving minibus taxis in January left at least 25 people dead, including 14 children.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

British long jumper Jazmin Sawyers took second in her event over the weekend, so she did not get a medal (nobody did) or a trophy (only winners did) or the first prize, $150,000.

She did get $75,000, though, which for the majority of track and field athletes, can make a huge difference.

“I look at the next year now, and I don’t need to necessarily worry about being able to train full-time,” Sawyers said.

A 32-year-old with five national titles in Britain, Sawyers said she came into the season ranked in the 30s and climbed her way into the top 10.

Injuries suffered by the two top-ranked jumpers, Tara Davis-Woodhall and Malaika Mihambo, landed Sawyers in the Ultimate Championships and she took advantage.

She said she’s aware that $150,000 or $75,000 isn’t life-changing for every athlete here. But for some, it is. Suddenly, Sawyers can see a pathway to making her third Olympics.

“I will buy myself something. I’m going to upgrade my sewing machine,” she said. “Aside from that, I’m excited to know there won’t be a scramble to be able to train the way I want to be able to train for the next two years.”

Jefferson-Wooden puts the world on world-record watch (again)

About this time in the last Olympic cycle, it seemed a matter of when, not if, Florence Griffith Joyner’s decades-old world records of 10.49 in the 100 and 21.34 in the 200 would fall.

Then, injuries to two Jamaican sprinters, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson, put that talk on hold and led to a reshuffling of the deck in women’s sprints.

Coming out on top: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who added the 100 and 200 titles at Ultimate to her world championships from last year. More impressive were her times. She ran 10.62 in the 100 — where she is the fourth woman ever in that event — then followed it up with a 21.47 in the 200 that even she did not expect.

The 21.47 made her the third-fastest woman ever in that event behind Flo Jo and Jackson.

It was the fastest time ever run into a headwind and, maybe most impressively, it came 24 hours after her 100-meter win. She’ll have far more rest between events when she hits the track for her next shot at the 100-200 double, next year at worlds in Beijing.

“It’s insane,” she said. “I can’t wait to go back and look at the race. It’s like one of those things where, you don’t know until you know.”

Bolt applauds new sense of mystery about who will win sprints

When Usain Bolt was on the track, the drama almost always had to do with whether he would set a record, not who would win the race.

For years, the mystery that was absent was a price worth paying because of the show the Jamaican great put on before, during and after all those sprints.

He’s nearing 10 years in retirement and now watching a sport where, in so many cases, nobody knows who’s going to win the sprints.

As a sign of how long it's been, Bolt, who was in Budapest for the meet, was cheering wildly for Kenny Bednarek as Bednarek cruised to his 200-meter victory Sunday night in 19.52. Afterward, Bolt caught up with Bednarek to offer congratulations.

“It was the first time I'd actually met him in person,” said the 27-year-old Bednarek, who is 13 years younger than Bolt. “I've looked up to him since I was a kid.”

Who will Bolt congratulate next? Hard to know.

Over the last three years, Noah Lyles (Paris), Oblique Seville (Tokyo) and Bednarek (Budapest) have won the biggest 100-meter races of the year. The 200s have gone to Letsile Tebogo (Paris), Lyles (Tokyo) and Bednarek.

“To see different people winning makes it more exciting,” Bolt said. “Now, you show up on the day and you don’t know who’s going to win. I think that’s good for the sport.”

Dalilah Muhammad's barrier-breaking run comes to an end

Before a teenager named Sydney McLaughlin started setting world records and winning everything there was to win in the 400-meter hurdles, Dalilah Muhammad gave her and everyone else a preview of what was possible.

Muhammad, the American who broke a 16-year-old world record in 2019 that eventually led to McLaughlin's lowering of the mark to 50.37 over the next five years, bid adieu to competitive track Sunday night.

Muhammad finished fourth with a season-best time of 53.11, which made for a $25,000 payday, though that was hardly the point of the evening for her.

“I think just being one of the leaders in this event and pushing what was possible in the event,” Muhammad said when asked what she wants to be remembered for.

Though she had been a four-time All-American at USC from 2009-12, she was almost an afterthought by the time she won the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

She set the record in 2019 (52.20), then lowered it with a .07-second win over McLaughlin at world championships three months later. That helped light a fire under McLaughlin, who switched coaches, to Bobby Kersee, knowing if she couldn’t handle Muhammad, she’d never be the best.

McLaughlin, now married and with a 2-month-old daughter, has lowered the record that once belonged to her rival six times since those world championships. Muhammad won a silver medal behind McLaughlin at the Tokyo Games, a bronze at worlds in 2022 and leaves as one of the greats of the event.

“I think you had that motivation knowing this high school kid is coming into college and she’s going to be the one to beat,” Muhammad said. “I’m just truly honored to be a person who’s been part of her journey.”

Next edition of Ultimate will come during an Olympic year

Among the biggest tests for the future of the Ultimate Championship is whether World Athletics will get as much buy-in from athletes when it holds the event around two months after the LA Olympics in 2028.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said he's more impressed with the deep talent pool across events in track and field than he is concerned over the sport's awkward calendar.

American pole vaulter Sandi Morris, who pocketed $150,000 for her win over the weekend, might have summed it up best for a sport where the majority of athletes still need paychecks and sponsors to pay for their training.

“I mean, they put the stakes out there and athletes are going to compete,” she said.

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https://apnews.com/sports

Oil prices gained more than 2% amid growing worries about global petroleum supplies and the effect of the new developments on the ability of the world's biggest exporter to get its crude to market. The Iran war has forced the kingdom to shift its exports away from the Persian Gulf, since Iranian attacks have stifled shipping through the gulf's sole exit, the Strait of Hormuz.

So the kingdom has relied on the East-West Pipeline, which runs 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) across the breadth of the country, to move its crude production from Gulf ports to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea. From there it can be put on tankers for export. But authorities were forced to shut down the pipeline after an attack Thursday that Saudi Arabia blamed on drones from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Repairing the damage, including at a major pumping facility, could take three to five weeks, the officials, who have been briefed on the matter, told The Associated Press. The pipeline may work partially during the repairs, one of the officials said, but they could not say how much oil might get through.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media.

The pipeline has been moving a weekly average of 2.6 million to 4 million barrels per day since late August — a quantity that will be lost to the market if the pipeline's flow stops completely, according to an analyst note issued Monday by Rystad Energy, a Norway-based energy analyst. It said the jump in prices for Brent crude, which reached $109, “is a clear signal that the market is increasingly pricing in a significant loss of supply.”

The Saudi oil company Aramco, which operates the pipeline, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The government-run Center for International Communication, which oversees foreign media in the kingdom, said it was looking into an AP inquiry about how long it will take to repair the pipeline.

Houthis' capture of islands strengthens hold on a key outlet from the Red Sea

Meanwhile, Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continued to expand their threat to Saudi shipping routes out of the Red Sea by capturing the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish, government and Houthi officials said Monday.

The islands lie 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is a choke point that connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and Saudi Arabia's key Asian markets.

The Houthis’ advance also puts them just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

For more than a month, the Houthis have been striking Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, stepping up pressure on global oil prices and boosting Iran’s leverage in its war with the United States.

The Houthi advances have seemed to come with little resistance from Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. The rebels deployed on the Hanish islands after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago, according to two government officials and a Houthi official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

Last week, the rebels seized the port city of Mokha and the island of Mayun, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Government forces are now attempting to rally and fight back. On Sunday, the military said it launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and elsewhere in Taiz province.

A rebel spokesman said the Houthis fired dozens of missiles and drones at the King Khalid Air Base in the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, targeting hangars, radar installations and ammunition depots. The statement on Monday by Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree did not specify when the attack took place, but the Houthis often take hours or days to claim responsibility for attacks.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the Houthi claim of striking the base.

The attacks narrow Saudi export options

The Iran war gouged Saudi oil production, which was down to 6 million barrels per day in August from nearly 10 million in September the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental group.

After the war began, the East-West Pipeline carried a large majority of Saudi Arabia's oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. When Houthi attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait started in late July, most of the tankers from the port of Yanbu turned north in the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean, sending their cargo through the Suez Canal or an Egyptian pipeline.

That, however, dramatically increased the time and cost of delivering oil to Saudi Arabia's main clients in Asia. Also, the Houthis turned to targeting Saudi shipping in the northern Red Sea as well.

The pipeline shutdown threatens to turn off the tap for an extended period.

Rystad Energy said that a monthlong closure would represent a “large disruption” that would see crude deliveries take longer and become more expensive. It said “the market could initially manage it,” but a longer shutdown would “require a major reallocation of global crude flows.”

Thousands of Yemenis are fleeing the fighting

The fighting in Yemen is pushing the impoverished nation back into full-fledged civil war, after a truce that largely maintained quiet since 2022. Even as they advance along the Red Sea, the Houthis have waged an offensive farther inland, particularly in the longtime battleground province of Taiz.

The World Health Organization said more than 500 people were killed in Yemen in the last week alone, on top of nearly 200 in the previous week, a sharp increase.

The Houthi rebels have made strategic gains in lightning advances, capturing territories previously held by forces of the internationally recognized government. The fighting has also displaced nearly 94,000 people.

Thousands of families have fled their homes in Taiz and nearby provinces in the past day, said Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, a charity that operates in the area.

“Many of them don’t have enough food or water as they had to flee with whatever they could carry. In some areas, whole villages have reportedly emptied,” he said.

The United Nations has estimated that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including over 2,000 people who fled by boat to Djibouti.

The fighting threatens to reignite a war that for more than a decade brought disaster to Yemen, killing more than 150,000 people and driving the country to the brink of famine. Since 2014, the Houthis have controlled the north, including the capital, Sanaa, and much of the western heartland of the country where most of the population is located.

The internationally recognized government, backed by an array of disparate militias, controls the south and east, including the key southern port of Aden.

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Associated Press Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips in Chicago contributed to this report.

The Americans' fifth championship in a row came Sunday in a 97-79 victory over France. It wasn't as easy as the previous four, with the U.S. showing some vulnerability throughout the tournament.

A three-point win over Italy in group play gave other teams hope. A tight game against Spain in the semifinals also raised some eyebrows.

France held a 14-point first-half lead in the title game — the biggest deficit the Americans had faced since their last loss in a major competition when Russia beat them in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup.

But the U.S. was calm and not worried. The game ended the same way the previous 35 had for the Americans, with a victory.

“We are the standard,” said Breanna Stewart, who scored 22 points and earned MVP honors of the tournament for a record second time. “USA Basketball has continued to show up and go for gold and to have done that however many times consecutively is an insane stat. We want to make sure that we continue to build on that standard and everybody else knows it.”

Missed opportunity for the U.S. challengers

This might have been the best chance for someone to beat the U.S.. They were missing four-time MVP A'ja Wilson and the roster was full of newcomers, including Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. Kara Lawson was coaching and getting better acquainted with the second-youngest American squad in the past 40-plus years.

Clark, Reese and Bueckers gained valuable experience and will be integral for the U.S. to continue its success over the next decade.

France, which lost to the U.S. by a point in the Paris Olympics gold medal game two years ago, thought it could be the team to end the Americans' two decades of dominance. For nearly a half they had it going.

There was no panic though on the U.S. side, thanks in part to the ultimate winner Stewart, who has two World Cup MVPs now — the first player to ever accomplish that. She's only 32 years old and has four World Cup championships on her resume.

The Americans calmly rallied within two points at the half as Clark's 3-pointer just before the buzzer capped the rally. The U.S. then put it away in the third quarter.

“I think we felt really good about where we were at,” said Clark, who finished with 12 points. “I think France was 8 for 14 (from 3-point range). We dug ourself a hole, but we climbed out of it, and I felt like we were never rattled by anything.”

U.S. will be tested again at 2028 Olympics

With Stewart and Wilson most likely leading the way at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, teams will be hard-pressed to end this run by the Americans. Besides their World Cup success, they also haven't lost an Olympic game in 34 years.

While the U.S. will be favored to capture gold at home, there are teams on the rise that will challenge them.

France has a really good core led by Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga. The French looked dominant throughout the World Cup blowing past opponents by an average of 35.6 points. They kept that momentum going at the start against the U.S. before falling short once again.

Still, the silver medal finish was the country's best in the history of the event. Spain, which won the bronze medal, has a really talented young nucleus with Iyana Martin and Awa Fam, who are both 20.

Change in World Cup dates

One of the biggest weaknesses for the U.S. is just a lack of training time. The team got together as a whole group for the first time a few days before the World Cup began. That won't be a problem in 2030 when the tournament will be played in Japan. FIBA shifted the dates of it to late November and early December. That means the Americans will have ample time after the WNBA season is over to get together to train.

FIBA also said that there won't be any more back-to-back games with rest days for each team between group games as well as a day between the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. In Berlin, the semis and finals were on consecutive days.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

He's not ready to call himself the best player in tennis though.

Ben Shelton seemed willing to at least consider it after Zverev beat him 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday in the U.S. Open final to add that trophy to the French Open title he won in June.

“You’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year,” Shelton told Zverev during the trophy presentation.

This year, of course, was different than last year.

Alcaraz and Sinner were injured at times during the majors

Carlos Alcaraz won the Australian Open title, but then had to miss the French Open and Wimbledon with a right wrist injury, getting hurt in April and then not playing again until the U.S. Open. Jannik Sinner beat Zverev in the Wimbledon final, but then the top-ranked player in men's tennis couldn't play in New York because of a knee injury.

Sinner and Alcaraz met in the last three Grand Slam finals in 2025.

Zverev took all that into consideration when asked if he considered himself the best player in men's tennis.

“With Jannik Sinner being injured and Carlos Alcaraz coming back from injury after four months, right now, this moment, probably yes. Both of them healthy and both of them at the top of their game, maybe not,” Zverev said.

“But if we say right now with Jannik being injured and Carlos coming back from injury, maybe. I mean, four, five months ago when both of them were healthy, I wasn’t. I was losing to Jannik all the time. So if everyone is healthy, I think Jannik is still ahead. It’s as simple as that.”

Zverev did his job in the majors by beating the players who were there.

He went 25-2 in the four biggest tournaments and was the only man to reach the semifinals of all four. Forced to play five-setters in each of the first two rounds of the U.S. Open, the first No. 1-seeded man to do that in the Open era that dates to 1968, he didn't drop another set until the final.

Shelton, who can fire serves at more than 140 mph, said Zverev had the best serve on tour.

“I think you combine that with as good as he is as a tennis player outside the serve, you know how complete he is, he’s gotten so much better at the net,” Shelton said. “He’s an elite mover at 6-7. He’s got a lot of length, so he returns really well. Solid from the baseline and one of the fittest guys on tour, too. Yeah, he’s a tough guy to play, 100%.”

Hard work pays off for Zverev in 2026

Shelton also said Zverev works harder than anyone he knew, and the German seemed more willing to agree with that assessment than the one about being the best player.

“I think I’m up there, for sure, because I’ve said it before, I don’t think I’m the most talented in any way. I don’t think I’m a God-given talent like some other guys are,” Zverev said. “I think most of my tennis is through hard work, through a lot of hours spent on the court, and through a lot of hours spent in the gym and on the track. That’s how I play tennis.”

The hard work helped him climb back toward the top after a severe ankle injury he sustained in the French Open semifinals in 2022, and finally to win the U.S. Open trophy he thought he should have had two years earlier.

Zverev won the first two sets against Dominic Thiem and got within two points of victory before becoming the first man to blow a two-set lead and lose in the final since 1949. That loss became easier to stomach once he finally broke through in Paris, even more so after he added another trophy and the $5.5 million winner's check Sunday.

“I think the scars of the 2020 final, they kind of disappeared after I won in Paris,” Zverev said. "I said it in Wimbledon. Even though I lost the final, I enjoyed the match, I enjoyed being in the Grand Slam final, I enjoyed playing on Centre Court, I enjoyed playing in front of an amazing crowd, in front of some celebrities and all that. I enjoyed doing that.

“Whereas before winning in Paris, I felt a lot of stress all the time, because there was always a question mark: Will I ever win one? What I think now is just more of a joy to play those kind of finals.”

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Here's a quick rundown of baseball's remaining unresolved races:

In the American League

The New York Yankees and Boston are almost certain to join Tampa Bay in the playoffs out of the AL East. The Rays have a comfortable four-game lead in the division over the Yankees, and they're likely to have the tiebreaker over New York, but that race isn't completely over since the two teams face each other in a four-game series in the final week of the regular season.

The Red Sox can plan on being the second wild card.

That leaves three spots up for grabs: the AL Central title, the AL West title and the third wild card. The Chicago White Sox lead Cleveland by a half-game for the AL Central, with the Guardians holding a one-game lead over Toronto for the final wild card. Houston leads Texas by one game for the AL West, and the Rangers are also two behind Cleveland for the last wild card. Everyone else is at least four behind Cleveland.

Head to head: White Sox at Cleveland (Sept. 14-16), Toronto at Texas (Sept. 18-20).

Other key tiebreakers that have been determined: White Sox over Blue Jays and Rangers; Astros over White Sox, Guardians and Rangers; Blue Jays over Guardians; Rangers over Blue Jays and Guardians.

There's also a tight race brewing between the AL Central and AL West leaders for the second of the AL's two first-round byes. Right now Chicago leads Houston by 1 1/2 games for that.

In the National League

The Brewers, Atlanta and the Los Angeles Dodgers all have substantial leads in their divisions. Milwaukee (93-57) seems pretty safe for a first-round bye. Los Angeles (90-59) leads Atlanta (88-62) in the race for the other one.

The wild-card race is basically four teams fighting for three spots — the Chicago Cubs (83-67), Philadelphia (83-67), San Diego (81-68) and Arizona (79-71). San Diego hosts Arizona in the final three games of the season Sept. 25-27.

Tiebreakers: Braves over Dodgers; Cubs over Phillies, Padres and Diamondbacks; Phillies over Padres.

Trivia time

Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has a chance to finish the season in double digits in the FanGraphs version of wins above replacement. That's been done a few times in recent years by the likes of Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Mookie Betts and Mike Trout, but no National Leaguer has accomplished the feat since Barry Bonds had 11.9 fWAR in 2004.

Who was the last NL player to do it besides Bonds?

Performance of the week

Philadelphia's Jesús Luzardo struck out 12 in a two-hit shutout of Atlanta on Monday. The Phillies won 1-0 thanks to Kyle Schwarber's eighth-inning homer, salvaging a split of a four-game series with the Braves in a game that took 1 hour, 51 minutes.

But Philadelphia probably needed more to stay in the NL East race. Atlanta is now five games up.

Comeback of the week

Down 6-1, San Francisco stormed back with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat St. Louis 7-6 on Wednesday. All those runs came with two outs.

Bryce Eldridge hit a bases-loaded single to bring home two runs. Then Jonah Cox hit an RBI single and Jung Hoo Lee tied it with a two-run double. Shay Whitcomb's double made it 7-6. After the second out, the Giants had a win probability of 1.1% according to Baseball Savant.

Team of the week

San Diego went 6-0 to jump ahead of Arizona in the playoff race. The Padres have won seven in row overall, four of which were by one run and only one of which was by more than two. Mason Miller has four saves during the streak.

Trivia answer

In 1998, Kevin Brown finished with 10.0 fWAR, going 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA in 257 innings for San Diego. That pitching performance was actually worth just 9.6 fWAR, but Brown also got a small amount of credit for his batting.

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Arévalo dijo que su gobierno ha visto a “otros actores aprovecharse del malestar ciudadano para provocar bloqueos y acciones violentas” que lejos de ser manifestaciones pacíficas "buscan sembrar el caos y el desorden".

“Por ejemplo en Río Hondo, (departamento de) Zacapa políticos locales se han coludido con actores del narcotráfico para pagarle a los participantes en los bloqueos, o (los municipios de) Cuyotenango (en Suchitepéquez al sur del país) y Villa Nueva (de la capital), donde actores políticos espurios, pandilleros en unos casos y crimen organizado en otros, se han asociado para montar los bloqueos”, dijo Arévalo y agregó que tales acciones pretendían desestabilizar a su gobierno.

Las tensiones se elevaron la semana pasada cuando trasportistas organizados y otros grupos bloquearon carreteras, incendiaron vehículos, atacaron con armas a policías y provocaron destrozos en varios puntos del país, principalmente en la capital guatemalteca.

En su mensaje, el presidente dijo que trabaja con el Congreso para crear medidas complementarias en las próximas semanas para abordar los efectos del alza al combustible, que también ha encarecido los productos de la canasta básica.

El martes, el Congreso guatemalteco aprobó una ley para poner tope al precio del diésel y la gasolina que establece que el consumidor pagará un máximo de 39 quetzales (unos cinco dólares) por galón (3,8 litros) de diésel y gasolina regular, y 41 quetzales (unos cinco dólares con 40 centavos) por galón de gasolina superior.

En caso de que el precio de los combustibles rebase el tope establecido, entonces entrará vigencia un subsidio por parte del gobierno que irá a los importadores del material.

Sin embargo, la ley no ha entrado en vigencia debido a que el diputado Allan Estuardo Rodríguez Reyes, electo por el partido VAMOS, del expresidente Alejandro Giammattei, pidió revisiones a la Ley, lo que hace imposible publicarla y que entre en vigencia.

“Esta semana también vimos que hay políticos que quieren aprovecharse del dolor de las familias, como un diputado que ha obstaculizado la entrada en vigencia de la ley ya aprobada, retrasando la reducción de precios y obligando que miles de guatemaltecos sigamos pagando altos montos”, dijo Arévalo.

El ministro de Gobernación, Marco Villeda, dijo el sábado tras los disturbios que dos policías fueron heridos de bala, 14 personas fueron detenidas y se incautaron unos ocho vehículos usados para bloquear carreteras.

The nation's highest court already is considering the administration's appeal of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston prohibiting the Postal Service from enforcing its new rule on mail voting before this year's midterm elections.

Late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C., handed down a similar hold on the rule, which was issued Aug. 21.

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections,” Nichols wrote in issuing the preliminary injunction. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen.”

Nichols in May had refused to issue an injunction because he ruled the lawsuit seeking one was brought too early. That was the high court's reasoning late last month when it lifted an earlier freeze by Talwani. But because the administration had just issued its rule to move ahead with Trump's plan, the plaintiffs in Boston and Washington, D.C., refiled their lawsuits.

Talwani was nominated by former President Barack Obama and Nichols was nominated by Trump.

The new Postal Service regulations stem from an executive order Trump issued earlier this year. Election officials say it would be impossible to implement the changes this close to a general election.

The regulations would require all ballot envelope designs to be pre-approved by the Postal Service and that states upload the identities of those who are to receive them into a still-inactive online portal. Mail ballots already are being sent out in at least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin — and more states are preparing to distribute mail ballots this week.

A whistleblower report to Congress warned that millions of people would be disenfranchised if the rule was allowed to take effect for the midterms. The union representing U.S. Postal Service workers has pushed back against the executive order, saying it is not the job of postal workers to verify voter eligibility.

Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, who has falsely blamed it for his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and claimed it is a pathway to fraud despite his own use of the voting method.

Despite all the downers for Wall Street, gains for many stocks outside AI helped limit the market's losses. So did a midday tempering of oil prices, and the S&P 500 fell a relatively modest 0.3% as more stocks rose within the index than fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 116 points, or 0.2%, as of 2:02 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower after clawing back most of an early loss of 1.3%.

AI stocks have been under pressure a while because of worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. The concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after one of the industry’s leading voices, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called for a deliberate and global slowdown in the development of AI.

He cited safety issues, including the risk that AI becomes capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

Nvidia, whose profits have soared because its chips are helping to train AI models, sank 2.8% and was the heaviest weight on the market because of its massive size.

SpaceX, which gets a chunk of its business from AI, rose 0.4% after Elon Musk said over the weekend that he agrees with Amodei. Softbank Group, the Japanese giant that is a major investor of OpenAI, lost 10.7% in Tokyo after OpenAI’s Sam Altman likewise supported the concept of a slowdown.

Altman also said in an interview with Fortune published Saturday that OpenAI would likely wait until next year for a sale of its stock on Wall Street, potentially delaying a gusher of cash for Softbank and other early investors in OpenAI.

In South Korea, the Kospi index dropped 3.3% due to losses for its two most influential stocks, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

President Donald Trump played down the need for his administration to check the development of AI, saying he worried about ceding his country's edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology.

Even with so many voices inside and outside the AI industry calling for a slowdown to protect humanity, Trump said on his social media network Monday that the only guardrail it needs “is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

Helping to limit Wall Street's losses on Monday were several software companies that tumbled earlier on worries AI-powered competitors would undercut their businesses.

Intuit, the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks, rose 5%. Autodesk, whose software helps designers, climbed 8%, and Adobe added 4.7%.

Oil prices, meanwhile, continued to climb as fighting in the Middle East keeps squeezing the global flow of oil. The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 1.1% to $105.76 after getting near $110 in the morning.

An important Saudi oil pipeline will mostly be out of service for weeks following an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline offered a way for Saudi Arabia to shift exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stifled the movement of oil tankers.

Brent has jumped from less than $72 in early July as doubts rise that the United States and Iran can come to an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf through the strait again.

While the prospect of a de-escalation of war in Iran may have dimmed, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary on Monday that the situation is still fluid and “sizable” volumes of oil have still been moving through the strait.

So far, the jump in oil prices has sent the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline across the country to nearly $4.32 from $4.08 a month ago and $3.18 a year ago, according to AAA.

Such upward pressure on inflation has much of Wall Street expecting the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate on Wednesday at the end of its next meeting.

That’s the traditional way the Fed tries to rein in high inflation. Such a move then filters out through the rest of the bond market, slows the overall economy and undercuts prices for investments. That hopefully would remove some of inflation’s fuel, though Trump has been lobbying for lower interest rates instead of higher.

Besides high inflation, worries about rising debt for the U.S. and other governments and other concerns have sent longer-term Treasury yields to their highest levels in years.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury breached the 5.00% level during the morning for the first time in nearly three years. That's up from 4.96% late Friday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began in February.

But the 10-year yield later pulled back to 4.96% as oil prices came off their highs for the day.

The 10-year yield has not consistently remained above 5% since the turn of the millennium, and its jump has already made it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow. That includes the highest average long-term mortgage rate in more than 14 months.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

“Casi la mitad del presupuesto dependerá de la plata prestada”, afirmó el mandatario en una declaración nocturna a través de redes sociales. No detalló las fuentes específicas de financiamiento interno y externo a las que acudirá.

El denominado “presupuesto de la verdad” para 2027 asciende a 635 billones de pesos (206.131 millones de dólares). De estos, indicó el mandatario, 281 billones (91.217 millones de dólares), es decir, el 44% provienen de deuda, lo que “muestra con toda claridad la gravedad de lo que recibimos”.

El gobierno anterior “acudió de manera irresponsable al endeudamiento”, acusó el jefe de Estado y afirmó que “año tras año se gastó sobre ingresos que no existían”. El resultado, “es un estado con más obligaciones, más deuda y menos capacidad para responder cuando el país más lo necesita”, reprochó.

El expresidente Gustavo Petro, el primer gobernante de izquierda en el país andino, no se pronunció de inmediato sobre las afirmaciones de su sucesor, pero ha defendido en anteriores ocasiones su gestión financiera y lo que denominó una reducción “histórica” de la pobreza y la deuda externa.

“Tenemos menos deuda externa que antes, pagamos completo el crédito del FMI (Fondo Monetario Internacional) por USD $5.000 millones y pagamos otros USD $5.000 millones más”, había señalado Petro en su cuenta de X, cuando aún ocupaba la presidencia.

Más de 30 días después de asumir el gobierno, De la Espriella anunció que se adoptarán medidas de austeridad para reducir el gasto en 17,4 billones de pesos (5.630 millones de dólares). Esto incluye la disminución en compras de bienes y servicios y en proyectos de inversión, dijo.

“No vamos a seguir gastando por gastar”, declaró el gobernante.

El Congreso colombiano tiene hasta el 20 de octubre para aprobar o modificar el presupuesto remitido por el Ejecutivo. De no hacerlo entrará en vigor la propuesta gubernamental.

De la Espriella declaró hace poco una emergencia económica que le permite recaudar impuestos temporales para orientarlos a la recuperación de las zonas afectadas, tras el devastador terremoto de magnitud 7.4 que sacudió gran parte del país en agosto.

In his first public comments since the NBA announced a sweeping punishment against the Clippers this month, Ballmer said in a statement posted online Sunday night that the team would comply with the penalties handed down by the league.

The league suspended Ballmer for one year, fined the team $30 million and forced it to forfeit five first-round draft picks.

Ballmer said the team has paid the fine.

“While there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report, this is not where I want to focus,” he said. “Team owners should support, not distract.”

Ballmer apologized to Clippers fans, employees and his fellow owners for the “distraction and distress” caused by the investigation that found the team violated salary cap circumvention rules involving Kawhi Leonard.

“This has been a very difficult time for everybody associated with the Clippers, and for that, I have sincere regrets,” Ballmer wrote. “I want to apologize to our fans, employees, and fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused, for which I accept responsibility as principal owner.”

The league came down hard on the organization after a nearly yearlong investigation led by an outside law firm. The Clippers had said multiple times that they had done nothing wrong and expected to be exonerated.

After the penalties were announced, the team said it “vehemently” rejected the NBA’s findings and called it “a heavily biased investigation.”

The Clippers also released a letter from Ballmer’s attorney David Kelley to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in which he described the investigation as “a witch hunt” and the subsequent penalties as a “gross injustice.”

The NBA began investigating in September 2025 whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy last year — broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Earlier this year, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.

The league said Ballmer knowingly sought to help Leonard obtain off-court income deals, approved a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement contract with Leonard, and for failing to create conditions under which his team followed league rules.

Ballmer said the team is “committed to putting this chapter behind us.”

“The challenges ahead of us are significant, but so is our resolve,” he said. “We will continue to build our team and invest in our community. The confidence of our fans is our priority. With our talented roster, outstanding staff and clear vision, I am certain that we will compete at the highest level and be an organization our fans can be proud of.”

Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors has been on hold pending the outcome of the investigation. The Raptors have said they still want Leonard, and he apparently is just as eager to return to the team where he won an NBA title and was Finals MVP in 2019.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Mariska Hargitay, the longtime “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star and a three-time Emmy winner, will host the show on NBC, which has rolled out a peacock blue carpet for the occasion, a nod to the network's 100th anniversary.

The ceremony will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the 50th anniversary of “Charlie's Angels,” with cast members among the presenters.

How to watch the Emmy Awards

The Emmys telecast rotates between the broadcast networks, and this year it’s airing live on NBC and streaming live on Peacock at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific.

“Live from E!: Countdown to the Emmys” will show stars arriving beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on YouTube and Peacock. The Associated Press will also have a delayed feed of celebrity arrivals on YouTube.

‘The Pitt,’ ‘Widow’s Bay' and ‘Hacks’ will compete for the top prizes

HBO Max's real-time emergency room drama “The Pitt” was a rookie upstart a year ago when it won best drama, best actor for star Noah Wyle and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. Now an esteemed veteran, the show is expected to repeat in all three categories and could win three more, with Wyle himself up for three trophies. The show's ensemble got four nominations in the supporting actress category and three more for supporting actor.

“Hacks” got the most nominations of any comedy for its fifth and final season on HBO Max, and star Jean Smart is a virtual lock to make it 5-for-5 with yet another win for best actress in a comedy.

But the Apple TV horror comedy “Widow's Bay” may spoil the “Hacks” send-off. It comes into the evening with eight wins at earlier ceremonies where most of the well over 100 Emmys categories are awarded.

The show can add up to six more Monday. If it does, it will break the record of 13 Emmys for a comedy in a season set last year by “The Studio.”

“Widow's Bay” star Matthew Rhys is a favorite to win best actor in a comedy, and the show's breakout star Kate O'Flynn is a strong candidate for best supporting actress.

Rhea Seehorn, Harrison Ford and Zendaya are also in the mix

Rhea Seehorn plays the lone central character on Apple TV's “Pluribus,” and she could ride the role to her first Emmy for best actress in a drama.

Seehorn's competition includes Zendaya, who won for the first two seasons of “Euphoria” in 2020 and 2022, and is nominated for its third and final season.

The night could also bring the first Emmy — and first major competitive Hollywood award of any kind — to 84-year-old Harrison Ford, who is among the favorites for best supporting actor in a comedy for playing a therapist coping with Parkinson's disease on “Shrinking.”

For many people, the way a menu item or packaged snack feels in the mouth has become as big a draw as flavor, although consumers don't always recognize the part texture plays in their cravings for crispier takeout, frothier coffees and juicier candies, according to industry experts.

The importance of “mouthfeel,” a food science term for oral sensation, has inspired new products like Starbucks’ Aerocano, an air-whipped iced espresso; PowerCrunch, a waferlike protein bar; and Trolli Gummi Pops, which are frozen but still soft and chewy.

“Texture drives consumer behavior. It plays a key emotional role in the eating experience, shaping satisfaction, perception and repeat interest,” Ingredion, an Illinois-based ingredient provider, said in a recent report.

The company, which has 35 food labs around the world, said the trend is a global one. Stretchy yogurt is a fast-growing seller in China, while Swedish confectioner Cloetta just released Sprinkled Foamies, which have a crunchy coating and a marshmallow center. Parisian bakers are experimenting with new pastries like the crookie, a crispy croissant with a melty chocolate chip cookie inside.

“It’s not just about flavor anymore. People are thinking about the whole experience,” said Tana Davila, the chief marketing officer at Dutch Bros Coffee. The drive-thru U.S. beverage chain lets customers customize their drinks with toppings like the Soft Top, a sweet and creamy whipped foam, and juice-filled pearls that pop when bitten into.

Interest in texture goes back centuries and extends beyond food

Texture is so integral to the act of eating that people often describe how a food feels when they’re asked how it tastes, said Patrick Kalotis, the executive vice president of texture and healthful solutions at Ingredion.

“You know, ‘This drink is fizzy’ or ‘I love the creaminess of the yogurt,’” Kalotis said. “They think they’re talking about taste, and of course the texture helps propagate the taste, but they’re actually describing texture.”

Food makers have long played with consistency. Pillowy Japanese mochi and stretchy Turkish ice cream date back centuries. Bubble tea, with its chewy tapioca boba pearls, was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. In the 1990s, high-end European restaurants whipped up culinary foams flavored with things like truffle oil or lobster broth.

But interest in texture has exploded in recent years, said Jenny Zegler, the principal strategist for food and drink at market research company Mintel. It's reflected in toys like squishy NeeDoh cubes and beauty products like jelly cleansers. With food, qualities like chewy, soft, gooey and melt-in-the-mouth are seeing fast-rising demand in online product searches, according to Mintel data.

Zegler thinks the craze around the Cronut — a doughnut-shaped pastry with a crispy fried outside and an airy, buttery inside like a croissant — started a fascination with food textures about a decade ago. Multilayered products like Dubai chocolate and sound-enhanced social media videos of influencers breaking crackly peanut brittle and slurping creamy noodles heightened the interest.

“Consumers are gaining new expectations for the experience of a product, and texture is the perfect way to deliver that,” Zegler said.

Nerds Gummy Clusters and the pandemic led to more complex candy

The coronavirus pandemic elevated interest in texture because COVID-19 caused many people to temporarily lose their sense of smell and taste, said Shannon Weiner, senior director of consumer insights at candy company Ferrara. In 2020, the Chicago-based company debuted Nerds Gummy Clusters, a sweet round gummy coated in crunchy Nerds candy.

The hit product led to other innovations in the candy aisle, like crispy freeze-dried Skittles. Gummi Popz, chewy bite-sized squares filled with fizzing candy, went on sale earlier this year. Ferrara-owned Brach’s plans to introduce jelly beans with a crunchy exterior for Easter next year.

Weiner said layers of texture create contrasts, which heighten people’s perceptions of indulgence and quality and encourage them to pay closer attention to what they're eating.

“It’s a world of overstimulation that we’re living in, right?” Weiner said. “Oftentimes, if consumers are snacking as they’re scrolling or going through these mindless activities, texture can help break through and help stimulate and offer a sensory engagement.”

Delivered meals and a desire for healthier foods are expected to keep texture in focus

Meeting consumers’ texture demands and preferences is a growing challenge for the food industry. McDonald’s, which released new McCrispy chicken strips in May 2025, changed the recipe this year after customers said the strips weren’t crispy enough.

The rise of meal delivery has left restaurants searching for ways to ensure food retains its texture while it’s in transit, Kalotis said. Ingredion has developed potato starch-based coatings that can keep french fries crispy for 30 minutes; it’s working on extending the time to 45 minutes, he said.

Food companies are trying to find ways to make products healthier or more affordable by changing ingredients without disturbing familiar textures. For example, Ingredion makes additives that help keep reduced-sugar yogurt creamy.

Zegler, at Mintel, sees a lot of innovation ahead for texture. She expects companies to explore the texture needs of different populations, like older people. Snack foods will keep getting more layers, she said. Ferrara last year brought out Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters, which added a liquid center to the original two-layer candy.

In the meantime, Kalotis said, food companies need to do a better job of illustrating and explaining textures on product packaging. Mintel found that 59% of packaged foods introduced in the U.S. this year had no textural claims on their labels despite customers actively seeking out foods with novel physical properties.

“In a lot of ways, texture is one of the most powerful and yet somehow underrated parts of the food experience,” Kalotis said. “It makes a snack more satisfying.”

The CEO of Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind Claude, said he thought the industry needed to reduce the speed of its work, cautioning Saturday that a swarm of AI agents might be able to take over the internet in six months to a year unless companies devoted more time to putting safeguards in place.

Days after two former Anthropic safety researchers publicly aired concerns that the existential threats AI might poste to humanity were receiving too little attention, Dario Amodei outlined a plan for companies like his and governments around the world to ensure that increasingly capable AI models remain aligned with the commands and values of responsible people.

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, said this weekend that companies should start coordinating on AI safety without waiting for the government to introduce legislation. The “pacing" of AI development doesn't mean stopping it, Altman wrote on X. “But it should be slower than it otherwise could be."

Here’s what to know about the recent dire predictions and whether any brakes might be put on AI advancement:

AI models are becoming more powerful

Concerns over the potential risks of the technology are rising as new AI models become more powerful, heightening both the potential for misuse by people with criminal aims, such as creating and spreading a disease that kills most of the world's population, and the risk of AI systems going rogue in a dangerous way.

Anthropic disclosed last week that it blocked efforts by bad actors to use its AI models for malicious activity, such as cyberattacks, surveillance and research that could have led to biological weapons.

The company said it put stronger safeguards in its latest models to restrict biological research that could be used to make weapons but noted that “as models become increasingly capable, their risks will increase, unless AI developers and society’s defenders act to make them safer.”

Last year, Anthropic reported that hackers used the company’s AI in a cyberattack targeting about 30 companies and government agencies around the world. It said the hackers were very likely part of a Chinese state-sponsored group.

Multiple AI models have acted on their own

When an AI agent “goes rogue,” it means the AI has taken action beyond the task it was asked to perform. Both Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said in July that their AI models had acted on their own.

Anthropic disclosed that three AI models — Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5 and an internal research test model — hacked into three other organizations during testing, just days after OpenAI revealed that its AI system hacked into the servers of AI startup Hugging Face.

OpenAI described the intrusion by a combination of models, including its newly released GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable” model that was still being tested internally, as a “significant security incident.”

Meta followed suit in early August with a similar case of an AI model finding ways around another company's digital security.

Although some observers noted that people had disabled some guardrails in the OpenAI and Anthropic cases, the episodes seemed to reflect one of the biggest fears around AI: that if models achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a loosely defined term for AI that can match or surpass human abilities across a broad range of intellectual tasks, the technology could cause an irreversible catastrophic event or subjugate the human race.

How or when AI might cause a catastrophe is debated

Doomsday scenarios generally fall into two categories: An AI that achieves self-improving superintelligence and controls people instead of vice versa, or AI used by a rogue state or nefarious actors.

Worries that artificial intelligence might overcome human limits on its reach or actions are not new.

Alan Turing, a British mathematician widely regarded as one of the earliest authorities on artificial intelligence, predicted in 1951 that AI would eventually take control from humans. Less than a decade later, Norbert Wiener, another mathematician, warned intelligent machines would seek to accomplish their own objectives and humans would not be able to stop them.

In 2026, how reasonable are fears that AI, either by escaping human control or through misuse by unscrupulous people, could cause a cataclysmic event or the downfall of civilization?

No one knows.

Experts across computer science, philosophy and other fields have envisioned numerous routes by which a future AI system might cause a global catastrophe, either by escaping human control or in the hands of an unscrupulous people. They range from deploying weapons and identifying a lethal pathogen to manipulating governments into conflict or disrupting the food, energy and communications networks societies rely on to function.

There is no widely accepted estimate for how soon any of these scenarios might happen and no consensus on their likelihood.

In 2023, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety issued a statement cosigned by more than 350 researchers and technology executives, including Anthropic's Amodei and OpenAI's Altman, saying: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.”

The 2026 International AI Safety Report, written with guidance from more than 100 independent experts, says current systems show early signs of some relevant capabilities but not at levels that could enable a loss of control, and describes the risk’s likelihood, nature and timing as “unusually ambiguous.”

Some are stressing the need for AI safeguards before it's too late

An Anthropic researcher said last week he was resigning from the company over concerns that neither the company nor its competitors were acting responsibly in developing the technology. In social media posts, Jacob Coxon estimated a 10% chance of AI causing human extinction within the next decade and said both Anthropic and OpenAI “are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

Researchers have called for a slowdown of AI development and warned for years that the technology could pose existential risks to humanity.

Following the recent incidents, experts called for improved testing by AI companies and more dialogue between the U.S. and China to come up with shared solutions.

But AI is growing so fast that government and evaluation systems are struggling to keep pace with the technology. Countries are cobbling together their own laws, some conflicting.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned at a conference in July of the need to keep AI from evading human control. The Trump administration initially demonstrated reluctance to regulate AI but has become more keen to reduce cybersecurity risks.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump downplayed the necessity for his administration to check AI development, but acknowledged the need for some regulation.

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AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed from London