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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is not up for reelection this year, was the only Republican to oppose it over the “Anti-Weaponization” $1.8 billion settlement fund.

There was also controversy over a $1 billion proposal for the U.S. Secret Service to improve security at the White House, including the new ballroom.

Since January, Democrats have been calling for DHS reform at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol.

More on immigration

• Trump’s deportation agenda is about to get a $70B infusion from Congress
• A federal judge strikes down Trump administration immigration policy affecting 39 countries
• Senate OKs $70B immigration bill after rejecting efforts to permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund
• Treasury warns banks of ‘red flags’ tied to customers in the US illegally
• ICE will no longer report deaths of detainees who have recently been released from custody
• New Jersey police sergeant charged with stealing journalist’s camera bag at immigration protest

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Detective Robert Rutkowski, Deputy Zachary Kerin, and Keith Costa, an off-duty Fort Lauderdale Fire captain, worked together on May 1 in Pompano Beach.

“The body-worn camera shows an incredible rescue. It shows the difference between how tragedy and survival was measured in just seconds. The driver is alive today because of their quick actions,” Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony said in a statement.

Kerin’s hand was injured as he shattered the car’s passenger-side window, so they could pull the woman out of the car.

Pompano Beach Fire Rescue personnel and other BSO deputies also responded to the canal in the area of South Palm Aire Drive and South Powerline Road.

Rutkowski said he grabbed a flotation device from a deputy who had it ready to go, and he quickly jumped in the water.

Deputies had tied a yellow rope to the red flotation device, held it, and pulled it during the rescue.

“Our job was to save a life; that’s what we did,” Rutkowski said, according to a video BSO released. “We were successful.”

Location

Attorney Yaakov Roth, speaking during an exchange with U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett, said only Congress could stop the $400 million project. The administration has been asking the court to allow it to press on without congressional approval.

At issue is an April 16 order from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon for Trump’s Republican administration to halt aboveground work on the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, allowed for construction to continue on belowground work on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.

The hearing Friday centered on who has standing to challenge government steps once they have already been taken and whether that standing overrides national security.

In response to hypothetical scenarios put forward by Millett, Roth agreed that the government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House — and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would not have legal standing to oppose the move after the fact.

Millett, nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, asked Roth when the construction was a “fait accompli?”

“Was it when you started doing the underground work, which is now totally completely integral and connected and inseparable from a massive ballroom on top?" she asked. "When did it become impossible for courts to stop this project?”

Roth replied: “I think it would have been improper to enjoin it even on Day One."

The exchange was one of many during the two-hour hearing before the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The hearing concluded without a decision by the judges.

The hearing concluded without a decision by the judges.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to challenge the project in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people.

It is hard to determine how the judges might rule. While there were numerous questions for Roth over the administration’s authority and changing explanations of how it is moving forward, plaintiff attorney Tad Heuer also faced numerous questions.

The judges pressed Heuer on standing in the case and on how basic aesthetic questions can override the national security concerns.

“We have never opposed the underground construction of the bunker, which is where the government until recently has said the national security concerns lay,” Heuer said. He said construction should be halted until Congress weighs in.

“Congress can allow ballrooms to be built — it’s its property,” Heuer said.

Government lawyers have argued that the project includes critical security features to guard against a range of threats, such as drones, ballistic missiles and biohazards.

“These upgrades, alterations, and improvements are essential to protecting the President, his family, and his staff, as well as the White House itself, and the entire project flows from them,” they wrote in a court filing.

Jarrett was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011 after 50 career wins on the sport's top circuit, including championships in 1961 and 1965. He was part of the second five-member NASCAR Hall of Fame class.

Jarrett, known as “Gentleman Ned” for his demeanor, may have been better known by younger NASCAR fans for his broadcasting career. One of his signature moments in the booth came in the 1993 Daytona 500 when he didn't try to restrain from rooting as his son, Dale Jarrett, held off Dale Earnhardt for the win.

Dale Jarrett won the Cup Series in 1999. The Jarretts became the second father-son combination to win Cup Series championships, following Lee and Richard Petty. Bill Elliott and his son, Chase, later completed the father-son achievement.

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said Ned Jarrett was a racing legend.

“Despite his calm demeanor, ‘Gentleman’ Ned Jarrett was as fierce a competitor as NASCAR has ever seen," O'Donnell said in a statement. "His on-track accomplishments speak for themselves with wins and championships across several NASCAR divisions.

“But it was his off-the-track persona that separated Ned from his peers. He was as kind as his nickname indicated. And his endearing personality helped him excel in his second career as a broadcaster. Ned was an outstanding ambassador for the sport for more than six decades and he will be dearly missed.”

Jarrett's family described him as "a devout Christian and a devoted, loving family man.”

“He was a friend to everyone he met and NASCAR’s oldest living champion," Jarrett's family said in a statement. "By all accounts, he was a true NASCAR legend. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate the remarkable life of an amazing man and truly the best father anyone could have wished for. Rest in Peace, Dad.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Robin Pendery of Enumclaw, Washington was a seasonal mountaineering ranger assigned to Denali National Park and Preserve. She fell Thursday while on climbing patrol on Mount McKinley, and died despite immediate rescue efforts, the park service said.

The death is under investigation. It comes only a week after three climbers from a Latvian mountaineering expedition died after falling near a treacherous pass on McKinley. A fourth climber was rescued. They were part of a seven-person team traversing a route known for its exposed sections, where many climbers have died or been injured over the years.

McKinley stands at about 20,310 feet (6,190 meters), and Pendery fell near what's known as the 14,000-foot (4,328-meter) camp.

“Our mountaineering rangers dedicate themselves to serving visitors and helping others in one of the most challenging environments in the world,” Denali Superintendent Brooke Merrell said in a statement Friday. “Today, we mourn the loss of a valued colleague, friend and teammate.”

The Bears' board of directors voted Thursday to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana. The team had been doing its due diligence on a tract of land near Wolf Lake, but it said Friday that an exact site had not been selected.

“We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city," the Bears said in a statement that the team attributed to Chairman George McCaskey and team president Kevin Warren. "It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun welcomed the team's announcement. A committee in the Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill in February that established a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium.

“We look forward to building a partnership as strong as the ’85 Bears defense, creating opportunities and economic growth that will benefit our state and the Bears organization for decades to come," Braun said in a statement. “An NFL franchise in Northwest Indiana will be an economic boost to the entire region like we haven’t seen before.”

The Bears, a charter NFL franchise, have played in Illinois since the team’s founding in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. They moved to Chicago in 1921 and called Wrigley Field home before they started playing at Soldier Field in September 1971.

The Bears’ lease runs through 2033, but they can pay a fee to break the lease early. Soldier Field is about 40 miles south of Halas Hall — the team's headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, — and Hammond is about 20 miles south of the team's lakefront stadium.

Matt Hill, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, said the governor "remains open to a sensible solution that protects taxpayers.”

“The Bears have built a storied legacy in Illinois for over 100 years but have spent the last six years, and especially the last few months, shifting their position on a stadium location," Hill said in a statement. “That has hindered their progress. Today appears to be another instance of that after Illinois leaders have been working with the Bears in good faith.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

The microreactor being developed by Antares Nuclear Inc. at the Idaho National Lab reached “criticality” on Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The milestone occurs when a nuclear reactor achieves a self-sustaining chain reaction capable of producing a steady release of energy.

Antares is the first private company to bring an advanced reactor to criticality under a pilot program begun last year by the Trump administration meant to supercharge nuclear energy production in the U.S. The demonstration was conducted in partnership with the Energy Department and other contractors with support from the U.S. Army.

“We are very excited by this news today,” Wright said Friday on a call with reporters. “I think June 4th will be a historic day in the American nuclear renaissance.”

Antares and its partners "have shown America can do bold things,” Wright added. “America has great technology, great entrepreneurs that are ready to drive energy innovation to power our future, lower energy costs and make our country more powerful."

The achievement shows that the Trump administration’s push to remove regulatory barriers is helping to advance new nuclear technologies, Wright said.

President Donald Trump signed executive orders in May 2025 intended to speed up the development of nuclear power, including steps that grant Wright authority to approve some advanced reactor designs and projects. Trump's orders limit some authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent safety agency that has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.

Skeptics warn that nuclear energy poses risks and say microreactors may not be safe or feasible and have not proved they can meet demand for a reasonable price.

While the Antares system is years away from commercial use, achieving criticality is a notable step. The California-based company, which is initially targeting military applications, said it expects to begin producing electricity by late 2027 and see its systems deployed in the field by the end of 2028, CEO Jordan Bramble said Friday.

"Nuclear in America has been defined for too long by delays, by companies that said they would and then didn’t,” Bramble said in a written statement.

At a briefing on Friday, Bramble said achieving criticality “is the first step on a roadmap toward producing electricity ahead of deploying this technology for customer sites.”

“Microreactors are a technology that’s here today," he added. “2026 is the year where microreactors are becoming real. We’re months to years out from being able to start deploying this technology to military installations.”

The Trump administration has set a goal of achieving the criticality milestone in at least three test reactors by July 4 — the nation's 250th anniversary.

Officials have selected 11 advanced reactor projects, including Antares, to move their technologies toward deployment.

In February, the Pentagon and the Energy Department for the first time airlifted a small nuclear reactor from California to Utah, demonstrating what they say is the country's potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The nearly 700-mile flight transported a 5-megawatt microreactor manufactured by Valar Atomics in southern California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

The reactor — which did not have nuclear fuel — eventually will be able to generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, said Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics. The company hopes to start selling power on a test basis next year and become fully commercial in 2028, he said.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the transport flight, which attracted significant news coverage, was little more than a publicity stunt.

He offered a similar response to the claims by Antares and Wright.

“This stunt is a rudimentary first step that has absolutely no bearing on whether the Antares reactor will be safe or commercially viable,” Lyman said in an email Friday.

The Energy Department's statement that the test “confirms that the reactor can operate safely” is false, Lyman said, adding that more testing of the reactor is needed.

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The nearly $70 billion package, which cleared the Republican-held Senate in a middle of the night vote and now heads to the House, was declared a “rotten bill” by the Democratic leader and an "ATM for ICE” by pro-immigrant advocates.

But for those aligned with Trump’s campaign promise for the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, it all but guarantees an uninterrupted flow of money to carry out the administration's immigration enforcement operations — and comes on top of some $170 billion Congress already approved for the department last summer, as part of Trump's big tax breaks bill.

“We’re going to continue to arrest people, we’re going to continue to detain people and we’re going to keep deporting people,” Trump border czar Tom Homan told CBS News on Friday.

He hinted at summer sweeps of enforcement actions coming next to New York City.

More money, fewer guardrails

The work of Congress comes at a pivotal time for the Republican president and his party as they face restless voters before the midterm elections. About one in three U.S. adults know someone who has been impacted by Trump’s immigration operations, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in April. And as America celebrates its 250th anniversary, most say it’s no longer a great place for immigrants.

The funding package from Congress is just a slim dozen-page bill that carries none of the usual guardrails or directives typically demanded in legislation. It turns loose $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, and billions for the Border Patrol, and others, prepaying the department’s operations into 2029.

“Their options are limitless in terms of what they can do with this money,” said Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director at America's Voice, a longtime advocacy organization for immigrants.

“That is such a hard thing to accept as a taxpaying citizen that our dollars are going to this massive, mass deportation machine, while Americans are struggling to meet health care costs, and have access to food and they’re paying so much in gas.”

The administration has sought to shift the debate over its immigration operations, installing new leadership at Homeland Security in the aftermath of violent scenes of immigration enforcement earlier this year and the shooting deaths of Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Rather than the dramatic street sweeps, the administration is working behind the scenes on actions that are stripping immigrant groups of their ability to remain in the U.S., by doing away with Temporary Protected Status or making it more difficult to secure green cards.

The so-called Dreamers, young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children, have reported delays in renewing their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, exposing them to potential deportation.

But protests on American streets continue, including over detention conditions at the Delaney Hall facility in New Jersey.

At the same time, Homeland Security continues to hire more ICE agents — it's hosting an employment fair next month in Florida — build more detention facilities and partner with countries around the world to take people who are being deported from the U.S.

In a statement, the department said Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are “laser focused on ensuring the hardworking men and women” of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol are fully funded. It said the package from Congress “will ensure our critical national security operations continue despite any Democrat attempts to hold our great patriotic employees hostage in the future.”

Power of the purse becomes a blank check

Typically a funding package from Congress would run hundreds pages or more, with a range of specific instructions about how the money can be spent and on what timelines.

Congress, after all, holds the power of the purse, and often uses that constitutional role to put checks on the administration.

But after Democrats refused to fund Homeland Security earlier this year following the violence in Minnesota, Republicans retaliated by using the congressional budget resolution process to muscle the package through on their own, outside of the traditional appropriations channels.

It’s the same process both parties have used in the past, most recently on Trump’s 2025 tax cuts bill.

“All this important oversight doesn’t happen,” said Bobby Kogan, a former staff member of the Senate Budget Committee and now at the Center for American Progress, a think tank.

Overnight, Democrats in the Senate worked to exert that authority, offering amendments to ensure Congress had some say in the process. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, for example, sought to protect “Dreamers” from deportation as their DACA renewals are being delayed. But those efforts all failed.

Deportations not enough, for some

Meanwhile the administration is under enormous pressure to deliver on its promise to boost deportations to some 1 million a year, after the Republican president's first year numbers fell short.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, is a leader of the Mass Deportation Coalition that is pushing the Trump administration to stick to its promises.

“Everyone’s talking about it like ICE is about to get another massive cash injection, and that’s not how I see it at all," he said. "They're getting like life-support money.”

“We’re not asking them to keep going,” Howell said. “We're asking them to start.”

Howell said there's little chance the Trump administration will be able to reach the president's deportation goals unless it drops its priority to go after what they call the “worst of the worst.”

His group put out a framework earlier this year that proposes more comprehensive sweeps to arrest immigrants, particularly in the workplace. He also wants to see the Trump administration make it more difficult for immigrants who are in the U.S. to use the banking system, get social services and obtain drivers licenses. Republicans in Congress have offered bills tackling some of those issues.

The administration has been amping up its own rhetoric and recently posted a new website that characterizes immigrants as “aliens” — with outer-space themes — and suggests ways the White House is working to prevent people from staying in the U.S.

The 104th-ranked Arnaldi withdrew before the first all-Italian men's Grand Slam semifinal against Flavio Cobolli on Friday at Roland Garros.

Arnaldi believed he caught a virus and said he could not play competitive tennis.

“I think it’s a virus because I was feeling pretty cold,” he said. “I had a fever. I just know that I can’t move, and I can’t eat, and I can’t drink.”

His withdrawal handed Cobolli a place in Sunday's final against second-seeded Alexander Zverev.

Arnaldi said he felt fine during practice on Thursday, until he had dinner.

“I started to feel so-so with my stomach,” he told a press conference also attended by Cobolli, who sat at the other end of the interview desk.

“I was, like, ‘All right, just didn’t digest very well.’ But then I woke up at 1 a.m. and I started vomiting. Then I tried to sleep. I couldn’t sleep at all. At 6, 7 a.m. I vomited again. This time was pretty bad.”

He summoned a doctor to his room and took medicine.

“I was hoping that it would just be something from dinner or something like that, but then throughout the day I couldn’t eat," Arnaldi said. "Every time we did something or would drink, I would go back to the bathroom."

He reached the semifinals after countryman Matteo Berrettini retired in their quarterfinal due to a hip injury before the end of the second set. Arnaldi spent a total of 19 hours, 42 minutes on court, more than any other player has taken to make the semifinals at any major tournament since the ATP Tour began recording match times in 1991.

“It’s tough, because for how the tournament was, for how many hours I spent on court, I was feeling actually very good,” Arnaldi said.

“To have to withdraw from the first slam semifinal is not something that you wish to anybody. I tried to get ready and tried to stay as much as I could here and tried to see if I could go on court, but every time I get up, I feel dizzy, and I don’t feel like the best. I’m pretty sure if I eat again, I’m not going to feel, like, good. That was the right decision for me to take."

Cobolli said he was saddened by the news.

“When he came to me almost one hour ago, I almost cried,” he said. “Matteo is a big inspiration for all of us.”

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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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Gilbert, 53, plans to officially announce his run for the 24th Congressional District on Sunday at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens and livestream it on his new site.

“I grew up here. I went to school here. I served here. And every step of that journey is the reason I’m running,” Gilbert said in a statement on his site.

Oliver, who was elected to the commission in 2020 and served as the commission chair from 2022 to 2024, announced he was resigning from his commission seat effective Jan. 3.

Miami-Dade School Board member Steve Gallon III announced he is running for Gilbert’s commission seat.

The list of candidates running for Wilson’s seat also includes former Miami-Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime, Dr. Rudy Moise, Christine Sanon-Jules, an entrepreneur, and North Bay Village Commissioner Andy Daro, an independent.

Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones asked his supporters on Thursday to meet him on Tuesday at the Koinonia Worship Center in Hollywood.

Jones, 42, announced on May 27 that he was not going to seek reelection for Florida Senate District 34, which he had represented since 2022.

“I also told you that when I was ready to share what comes next, you would hear directly from me,” Jones said in a video released on X.

After Wilson announced her retirement on May 29, Florida Rep. Ashley Gantt announced her campaign for Jones’s seat and released a statement saying Jones was seeking Wilson’s seat.

“As Congresswoman Wilson passes the torch and Senator Shevrin Jones announces his campaign for Congressional District 24, this moment also creates an opening, and I believe I am ready to fill it,” Gantt said in the statement.

Florida Democrats faced conflict after a Republican majority passed a redistricting map on April 29 and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law on May 4.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced on May 22 that she had decided not to run for reelection in the 25th Congressional District, but instead run in the 20th District. She faced backlash from Black Democrats.

On Tuesday, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that he had not decided whether or not to endorse Wasserman Schultz, whom he praised for her “strong” track record.

“I think we all recognize the sensitivities of the moment in terms of an unprecedented Jim Crow-like assault on Black political representation that has been unleashed by the Supreme Court’s outrageous decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, and it’s an environment that all of us need to be sensitive to,” Jeffries said.

The primary election is on Aug. 28, and the midterm election is Nov. 3. For more information about key election dates in Florida, visit this page.

VOTER GUIDE: Here is how to prepare for Florida’s Aug. 18 primary election

Read Gilbert’s resignation letter

La senadora Lisa Murkowski, quien no busca la reelección este año, fue la única republicana que votó en contra debido al fondo de conciliación de $1,800 millones USD denominado “Anti-Weaponization”.

También hubo controversia por una propuesta de $1,000 millones USD para que el Servicio Secreto de Estados Unidos mejore la seguridad en la Casa Blanca, incluido el nuevo salón de baile.

Desde enero, los demócratas han pedido una reforma del DHS en el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) y en la Patrulla Fronteriza de Estados Unidos.

Más sobre inmigración

• Un juez federal anula una política migratoria de la administración Trump que afectaba a 39 países.
• El Senado aprueba proyecto de ley migratoria de $70,000 millones USD tras rechazar esfuerzos para prohibir permanentemente el fondo de conciliación del presidente Trump.
• El Departamento del Tesoro advierte a los bancos sobre “señales de alerta” relacionadas con clientes que se encuentran ilegalmente en Estados Unidos.
• ICE dejará de reportar las muertes de detenidos que hayan sido liberados recientemente de custodia.
• Sargento de policía de Nueva Jersey acusado de robar el bolso de cámara de un periodista durante una protesta relacionada con inmigración.

Gilbert, de 53 años, planea anunciar oficialmente su candidatura al 24º Distrito Congresional el domingo en la Iglesia Bautista Misionera Antioch en Miami Gardens y transmitirlo en vivo en su nuevo sitio web .

“Crecí aquí. Fui a la escuela aquí. Serví aquí. Y cada paso de ese camino es la razón por la que me postulo”, dijo Gilbert en un comunicado en su sitio web.

Oliver, quien fue elegido miembro de la comisión en 2020 y se desempeñó como presidente de la misma de 2022 a 2024, anunció su renuncia al cargo a partir del 3 de enero.

Steve Gallon III, miembro de la Junta Escolar de Miami-Dade, anunció que se postulará para el puesto de comisionado que actualmente ocupa Gilbert .

La lista de candidatos que se postulan para el puesto de Wilson también incluye al excomisionado de Miami-Dade, Jean Monestime, al Dr. Rudy Moise, a Christine Sanon-Jules , una empresaria, y al comisionado de North Bay Village, Andy Daro , un independiente.

El senador de Florida, Shevrin Jones, pidió el jueves a sus seguidores que se reunieran con él el martes en el Centro de Adoración Koinonia en Hollywood.

Jones, de 42 años, anunció el 27 de mayo que no se presentaría a la reelección para el Distrito 34 del Senado de Florida , al que había representado desde 2022.

“También les dije que cuando estuviera listo para compartir lo que viene después, lo escucharían directamente de mí”, dijo Jones en un video publicado en X.

Después de que Wilson anunciara su retiro el 29 de mayo, la representante de Florida, Ashley Gantt, anunció su candidatura para el escaño de Jones y emitió un comunicado diciendo que Jones aspiraba al puesto de Wilson.

“Ahora que la congresista Wilson me pasa el testigo y el senador Shevrin Jones anuncia su candidatura para el Distrito 24 del Congreso , este momento también crea una oportunidad, y creo que estoy preparado para aprovecharla”, dijo Gantt en el comunicado.

Los demócratas de Florida se enfrentaron a un conflicto después de que la mayoría republicana aprobara un mapa de redistribución de distritos el 29 de abril y el gobernador Ron DeSantis lo promulgara como ley el 4 de mayo.

La representante estadounidense Debbie Wasserman Schultz anunció el 22 de mayo que había decidido no presentarse a la reelección en el distrito congresional número 25, sino hacerlo en el distrito número 20. Su decisión generó críticas por parte de los demócratas afroamericanos .

El martes, el líder de la minoría en la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos, Hakeem Jeffries, declaró a los periodistas que aún no había decidido si respaldaría o no a Wasserman Schultz, a quien elogió por su sólida trayectoria.

“Creo que todos reconocemos la delicadeza del momento en lo que respecta a un ataque sin precedentes, similar al de las leyes de segregación racial de Jim Crow, contra la representación política de la población negra, desatado por la indignante decisión de la Corte Suprema de desmantelar la Ley de Derechos Electorales, y es un entorno al que todos debemos ser sensibles”, dijo Jeffries.

Las elecciones primarias se celebrarán el 28 de agosto y las elecciones de mitad de mandato el 3 de noviembre. Para obtener más información sobre las fechas clave de las elecciones en Florida, visite esta página .

GUÍA DEL VOTANTE: Aquí le explicamos cómo prepararse para las elecciones primarias de Florida del 18 de agosto.

Lea la carta de renuncia de Gilbert

It turned garages into impromptu rehearsal spaces for would-be rock stars across the American suburbs. For those who couldn’t play, couldn’t try to play or couldn’t get some friends with instruments together, there was always the air guitar. (Does anyone ever play an acoustic air guitar?)

Nearly 100 years ago, Americans' love of tinkering, music and just making things louder combined when George Beauchamp created and Adolph Rickenbacker produced the first commercially successful electric guitar. That was “the Frying Pan.”

The tinkering continued. Musician and inventor Les Paul put strings and pickups on a block of wood called “the Log” and made it one of the first solid body electric guitars. And now we’re talking.

Imagine the intro to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” without the electric guitar. Would that song about a guitar player even exist? It’s the engine powering Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” It spawned the ax man, the guitar god and the apotheosis of look-at-me American exceptionalism, the guitar solo.

It’s in your face and loud. It goes to 11, after all.

It was so provocative that many felt deep betrayal when Bob Dylan plugged in.

It became so ubiquitous, so essential to rock and pop music, that MTV created its successful “Unplugged” franchise, where bands were forced to play nonelectric instruments as an acoustic counterprogramming novelty.

And like all the best American inventions, it was exported around the world, where it still has the power to make kids dream. As long as they have somewhere to plug in.

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

Trump noted that the size of the office has been “way too high for way too long” and that “if he cut, I wouldn’t mind that."

“He'll do a very good job,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Wisconsin for an event on agriculture. “He'll watch it closely, but Bill Pulte is very good, he's very talented.”

The Republican president said in an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal that he has asked Pulte to start the process of firing employees. In the interview, Trump said he has already conveyed his view to Pulte, who has served as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency but has no apparent national security expertise.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said, which the Journal said was in reference to intelligence community officials who had served in the Democratic administrations of Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Trump told the Journal that he wants Pulte to “start the process” of firing personnel and that the eventual permanent director of national intelligence should continue it. The president has indicated that he would not formally nominate Pulte for the position.

“Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he (Pulte) reduced the size, in conjunction with me … and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in … he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”

Pulte was tapped by the president earlier this week in a surprising move that has been met with bipartisan resistance in the Senate, which confirms presidential nominations. The temporary appointment has now snarled the renewal of a critical national security surveillance program on Capitol Hill, with Democrats key to the vote pointing out that they did not trust Pulte — whose office oversees 18 intelligence agencies — to help administer the surveillance program.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Pulte will stay in the position depending on how long it takes to get his successor confirmed. The president also said he was considering five people who were “all very good, all people that you know very well, all people that do that kind of thing.”

“They're very respected people,” Trump said of his intelligence candidates, without naming them.

Under Pulte’s predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI office had already taken steps to scale back its size. In August, the Trump administration said that the office’s budget would be cut by more than $700 million per year, while slashing the size of its workforce.

At the time, Gabbard said the office had become “bloated and inefficient” while she announced the roughly 40% workforce reduction.

Gabbard resigned last month after revealing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

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Kim reported from Washington.

In true “Torts” fashion, he is not explaining why.

"I like our team, where we’re at," Tortorella said Friday. “We’re good. We’re ready to play. I like a lot of things about what’s gone on in the first two games. I’m not giving you specifics.”

Tortorella and the Golden Knights return home for Game 3 against the Hurricanes on Saturday night with plenty of lessons to learn from. It's the first time in NHL history that each of the first two games of a Cup final featured a team erasing a multigoal deficit to win.

Vegas trailed 2-0 in the opener and won 5-4, then led 2-0 on Thursday night until past the midway point of the third period. After Carolina scored three times in just over five minutes, it took captain Mark Stone tying it 6 on 5 with goaltender Carter Hart pulled for an extra skater to force overtime.

“We have pretty good control, and then some minor mistakes and it ends up in the back of the net,” center William Karlsson said. “Just kind of ride it out all game long and hopefully not give Carolina any chances to come back.”

Teammates credited the crowd in Raleigh for aiding the Hurricanes' comeback, and with that came an appreciation to be playing the next two games at the arena on The Strip nicknamed the Fortress. The Golden Knights have only been in existence for nine years, but their home-ice advantage quickly became one of the best in the league.

“We feed off the crowd,” forward Keegan Kolesar said. "You can tell from (Game 2), once things started going their way, they’re playing a lot faster, a lot harder when their crowd is involved. Go back to even the COVID year, it makes you realize how important fans are because when they’re not in that building, it can be pretty miserable, so really excited to have that back in our building.”

The Knights are 6-2 at home during the playoffs. They are also 7-3 on the road.

Tortorella has preached consistency since taking over when Bruce Cassidy was fired in late March, and that applies to not changing much depending on where games take place.

“There’s no difference," Tortorella said. "We’re going to play. We know how to play. We know how we want to play.”

Carolina went a perfect 6-0 on the road through the first three rounds, including the Eastern Conference Final at hockey-mad Montreal.

“I don’t think we really care, to be honest, where we play," said Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen, who has a 1.27 goals-against average and .931 save percentage away from home in the playoffs this spring. “We’re really just focused on our foundation in our game, and that’s really what sets us up for success.”

Lingering over Vegas is the potential absence of top-pairing defenseman Brayden McNabb, who took an 87.3 mph slap shot to the face 11 minutes into Game 2 and did not return. If McNabb is unable to play in Game 3, fellow left-handed shooter Ben Hutton or righty Kaedan Korczak are likely replacements.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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At 9 p.m., on June 12, the U.S. team will be playing Paraguay. The arena’s doors will open at least one hour before the game, according to organizers.

At 7:30 p.m., on June 27, Colombia will be playing against Portugal. Security will not allow big bags.

The other two parties are on July 11 for the quarterfinals and on July 19 for the final. The times had yet to be announced on Friday afternoon.

Although the events and parking are free, the arena requires ticket registration through SeatGeek. For more information, visit this page.

Useful links

• Broward County government’s World Cup page
• Lauderhill government’s World Cup page

Related stories

• FIFA cancels World Cup tickets to about 60 fans who got them for free due to error
• Shakira and Burna Boy to play in first of three World Cup opening ceremonies
• Thousands of free World Cup tickets available for veterans, military members and first responders

El 12 de junio , a las 9 de la noche , la selección de Estados Unidos se enfrentará a Paraguay. Según los organizadores, las puertas del estadio se abrirán al menos una hora antes del partido.

El 27 de junio , a las 19:30 , Colombia jugará contra Portugal. El personal de seguridad no permitirá el ingreso de bolsos grandes.

Los otros dos partidos se disputarán el 11 de julio, los cuartos de final, y el 19 de julio , la final. Los horarios aún no se habían anunciado el viernes por la tarde.

Aunque los eventos y el estacionamiento son gratuitos, el recinto requiere la reserva de entradas a través de SeatGeek. Para más información, visite esta página .

Enlaces útiles

• Página del gobierno del condado de Broward dedicada a la Copa Mundial
• Página del gobierno de Lauderhill sobre la Copa Mundial

Historias relacionadas

• La FIFA cancela las entradas para el Mundial de unos 60 aficionados que las habían obtenido gratis debido a un error.
• Shakira y Burna Boy actuarán en la primera de las tres ceremonias de apertura del Mundial.
• Miles de entradas gratuitas para el Mundial disponibles para veteranos, militares y personal de primeros auxilios.

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Pino, 55, is charged in the death of 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez after a boat crash on 2022’s Labor Day weekend.

Authorities said Pino, then 52, was behind the wheel of a 29-foot Robalo boat in the early evening hours of Sept. 4, 2022 when he lost control and slammed it into a channel marker near Boca Chita Key, killing Fernandez. Two other girls were seriously hurt, including 17-year-old Katerina Puig.

On Friday, 76 potential jurors were quizzed on their jobs, life experiences and any biases they may be coming in with and what they knew about the case.

But Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez expressed frustration at both Pino’s attorneys and prosecutors.

The former filed some late motions and provided late witnesses. The latter said that they conducted a deposition and would, in light of some of this new information and things that were turned over from the defense, have to do some more work and asked the judge for a one week continuance.

That request did not go over well.

“Let me tell you all: we are not delaying this trial,” Tinkler Mendez said.

Tinkler Mendez called the defense’s late filings “willful violations” of what’s called the Richardson rule, pertaining to potential violations of pre-trial discovery procedures.

Opening statements are set to begin as early as Monday, provided that a jury can be seated Friday.

Pino, de 55 años, está acusado por la muerte de Lucy Fernández, de 17 años, tras un accidente de bote ocurrido durante el fin de semana del Día del Trabajo de 2022.

Las autoridades indicaron que Pino, entonces de 52 años, estaba al mando de un bote Robalo de 29 pies durante las primeras horas de la noche del 4 de septiembre de 2022 cuando perdió el control y chocó contra una baliza de canal cerca de Boca Chita Key, causando la muerte de Fernández. Otras dos adolescentes resultaron gravemente heridas, incluida Katerina Puig, de 17 años.

El viernes, 76 posibles jurados fueron interrogados sobre sus empleos, experiencias de vida, posibles prejuicios y lo que sabían sobre el caso.

Pero la jueza Marisa Tinkler Mendez expresó su frustración tanto con los abogados de Pino como con los fiscales.

La defensa presentó varias mociones fuera de plazo y proporcionó testigos de manera tardía. Por su parte, la fiscalía indicó que realizó una declaración jurada y que, a la luz de nueva información y materiales entregados recientemente por la defensa, necesitaba realizar trabajo adicional y solicitó a la jueza una prórroga de una semana.

La solicitud no fue bien recibida.

“Déjenme decirles algo a todos: no vamos a retrasar este juicio”, dijo Tinkler Mendez.

La jueza calificó las presentaciones tardías de la defensa como “violaciones deliberadas” de la llamada regla Richardson, relacionada con posibles incumplimientos de los procedimientos de descubrimiento de pruebas previos al juicio.

Los alegatos de apertura están programados para comenzar tan pronto como el lunes, siempre que el jurado pueda quedar conformado el viernes.

Según la policía, la balacera fue reportada a las 4:53 a.m. en la cuadra 6700 de Collins Avenue.

La policía informó que los agentes llegaron al lugar y encontraron a un hombre con una herida de bala.

Funcionarios del Departamento de Bomberos de Miami Beach trasladaron a la víctima al Ryder Trauma Center del Hospital Jackson Memorial en estado crítico.

“Debido a la investigación, el tráfico en dirección norte por Collins Ave. ha sido cerrado a la altura de la calle 67 y desviado hacia el oeste por Harding Ave. e Indian Creek Drive”, dijo un portavoz del departamento de policía a Local 10 News.

No se divulgaron de inmediato más detalles.

Cualquier persona con información debe llamar al Departamento de Policía de Miami Beach o a Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

In its announcement Thursday, S&P Dow Jones Indices said its index committee weighed responses received from a “wide range of market participants,” but ultimately decided not to make any changes to its criteria for determining when a company should be added to the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, or S&P SmallCap 600 indexes.

Some of the criteria for inclusion include headquarters in the United States, listing on NYSE or Nasdaq and profitability over the past year.

S&P also requires companies that complete IPOs to be traded on an “eligible exchange” for at least 12 months before they can be considered for inclusion into an index. The committee weighed shortening that requirement to six months, but opted not to do so.

The committee also decided against creating exceptions to its guidelines solely based on market capitalization, or how the stock market gauges a company’s value.

The move by S&P comes as other major U.S. index operators have taken steps to add very large companies soon after they make their stock market debut.

In March, Nasdaq announced new guidelines that allow for expediting the addition of large companies fresh off their initial public offerings into its benchmark Nasdaq 100 Index.

Nasdaq's guideline change is meant to ensure that the index, which tracks the 100 largest, non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq, accurately reflects the market sooner, rather than possibly months after a very large company goes public.

In its decision, S&P noted that there may be trade-offs in sticking to its guidelines for index eligibility, but said its current approach provides its indexes “substantial market coverage and sector balance.”

Many pension plans and mutual funds use S&P and Nasdaq indexes as an investing benchmark.

The moves by S&P and Nasdaq come as several of the biggest artificial intelligence companies in the U.S. are setting the stage for blockbuster IPOs this year.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expected to go public this month with plans to raise up to $75 billion, which would make it the largest-ever stock market debut.

Meanwhile, Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, announced Monday its plans for a proposed IPO, while OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, is planning an IPO as soon as this fall.

Cooper, 28, was held on suspicion of two counts of domestic violence and one count of criminal mischief, according to Douglas County jail records. He was arrested by Parker Police at 11:16 p.m. Thursday and booked into jail at 2:38 a.m. Friday.

Cooper had his first appearance Friday in the 23rd Judicial District Court and is due back in that court Monday for a disposition hearing.

The Broncos said in a statement to The Associated Press that they “are aware of the matter and are gathering more information.”

The AP left a message with Cooper's agent seeking comment.

A seventh-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 2021, Cooper is entering his sixth season with the Broncos. He has started every game since 2023 and has 31 1/2 career sacks, including eight last season when he also registered a sack in the playoffs.

He had a career-best 10 1/2 sacks in 2024 and late that season signed a four-year, $54 million contract extension.

The Broncos began the football field portion of their offseason program earlier this week and Cooper participated in the Thursday practice that was open to media members.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The tickets were “allocated at no charge (0 USD) due to a prior payment issue during the checkout process,” FIFA said in a statement Thursday.

“FIFA regrets the error and any inconvenience caused,” soccer’s ruling body said. “The tickets requested by these fans remain reserved, and the affected fans have been invited to complete payment of the correct amount.”

It is the latest glitch in an often controversial World Cup ticketing program that the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey are investigating for possible violations of consumer protection laws.

The mispriced tickets were sold through the official World Cup site on May 21, FIFA said in an email message to buyers.

That date was more than three months after FIFA President Gianni Infantino said all 104 World Cup games had sold out.

Tickets are still being sold by FIFA for games at the World Cup, which opens next Thursday in Mexico City. It is unclear if seats for games in less demand will drop in price under FIFA’s surge pricing model that has been controversial for fans.

FIFA also is operating its own resale platform — and taking 15% commission from both buyers and sellers — in order to cut out ticket dealers from the market. However, sales platforms such as Seat Geek were offering widespread availability Friday for many games.

Tickets for the 2026 World Cup are wildly more expensive than any previous edition, which FIFA has justified as helping earn billions of dollars it will give to member federations for developing the game globally.

FIFA took control of pricing and selling tickets as part of bringing World Cup operations in-house. The long-time model at previous editions was working with host nations’ local organizing committees.

When the soccer federations of the United States, Canada and Mexico won hosting rights in 2018, they promised to sell hundreds of thousands of tickets at $21 each for group-stage games.

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

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According to deputies, Raymond Wayne Chambers was last seen at about 2 p.m. May 17 in the 11800 block of Southwest 216^th Street.

Deputies said Chambers has not contacted any relatives and may be in need of services.

Chambers was described by authorities as a Black male who is 6 feet tall and weighs about 180 pounds. He has brown eyes and brown hair.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call Deputy M. Ritch at 305-715-3300, email u308129@mdso.com or call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Según los agentes, Raymond Wayne Chambers fue visto por última vez alrededor de las 2 p.m. del 17 de mayo en la cuadra 11800 de Southwest 216th Street.

Los agentes indicaron que Chambers no se ha comunicado con ningún familiar y podría necesitar asistencia.

Las autoridades describieron a Chambers como un hombre afroamericano que mide 6 pies de estatura y pesa aproximadamente 180 libras. Tiene ojos marrones y cabello marrón.

Cualquier persona con información sobre su paradero debe llamar al agente M. Ritch al 305-715-3300, enviar un correo electrónico a u308129@mdso.com o comunicarse con Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers al 305-471-8477.

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Jimmy, 9, was kidnapped at gunpoint when he got off of his bus, just a block from his home, in the area of Southwest 162nd Avenue and 232nd Street on Sept. 11, 1995.

The murderer in this case would end up confessing to killing Jimmy and then he was later convicted and executed for the crime. But in the decades since that time, the family turned their grief into advocacy and launched the Jimmy Ryce Center, primarily with a focus on bringing bloodhounds to law enforcement agencies and other search groups in order to aid and help the search for other missing children in the future.

Now, a portion of Southwest 162nd Avenue has been given the “Jimmy Ryce Avenue” designation to honor him.

“It’s a tragedy that shook the nation and it was some 30 years ago. And renaming the street where the tragedy took place, in order to recognize him, honor him and honor the work that came after him with the foundation and with our law enforcement, really is the very least that we could do in Miami-Dade County,” Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said.

Edward Montizaan, who maintains a memorial in the area, said that Jimmy “had a short life and that was terrible, but out of the tragedy, a lot of good has come with bloodhounds that the law enforcement has been able to get through the Jimmy Ryce Foundation.”

Family members said they focused on bloodhounds, believing that Jimmy would be alive today if a bloodhound had immediately been brought in to search for him.

In a ruling harshly criticizing the administration, U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” and he accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

“In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making,” he wrote. “In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The policies enacted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries have been “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications.

“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case. “These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum-seekers, and communities across the country who were left in limbo, unable to work, access protections, or move forward with their lives.”

The policies apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, which approves applications for immigrants to work and become citizens. The agency, which is within the Homeland Security Department, often grants asylum, but only for those already in the United States when they apply. Immigration judges grant asylum to those stopped at the border; the ruling does not affect them, nor do the policies that sparked the lawsuit.

The broad ruling would impact all pending cases at USCIS involving people from the travel ban countries, not just those included in the lawsuit, Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“It is an important legal victory to ensure that legal immigration pathways remain open and that USCIS is held accountable to doing their congressionally mandated job of adjudicating applications,” she said.

It is part of an ongoing effort by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, which critics say unfairly prevent travel for people from a broad range of countries. The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

In its motion to dismiss, which the court denied, the government argued that Congress gave the executive branch broad authority over immigration policy, including “the entry of aliens into the United States as well as discretion within the statutory scheme to confer as well as withdraw various discretionary benefits.”

“This case rests on a remarkable premise: that a federal court should prevent an agency from issuing the very policy guidance that provides government personnel with the guardrails necessary to ensure consistent, non-arbitrary, and individualized decisionmaking consistent with federal law,” the government wrote in its brief.

Immigration groups celebrated the ruling.

“This ruling sets a powerful precedent that the administration cannot ignore the law as laid down by Congress and cannot arbitrarily bar immigration benefits on the basis of national origin by fiat,” Jamal Abdi, president at the National Iranian American Council, said. “Fortunately, this is still a nation of laws, and those who uphold America’s values have recourse to challenge and push back on such discriminatory, arbitrary policies.”

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said the ruling was a “significant victory for the rule of law and for thousands of Afghan allies and other immigrants who followed every requirement asked of them.”

“Just this week in Dallas and Fort Worth, we met people who feared losing jobs because delayed work permit renewals threatened their livelihoods, families who postponed education, travel, and homeownership because they did not know when their cases would be resolved, and future Americans who had expected to become citizens only to see their applications stall without explanation,” VanDiver said.

Jimmy, de 9 años, fue secuestrado a punta de pistola cuando bajó de su autobús escolar, a solo una cuadra de su casa, en el área de Southwest 162nd Avenue y 232nd Street, el 11 de septiembre de 1995.

El asesino en este caso terminó confesando el homicidio de Jimmy y posteriormente fue condenado y ejecutado por el crimen. Pero en las décadas transcurridas desde entonces, la familia transformó su dolor en activismo y fundó el Centro Jimmy Ryce, enfocado principalmente en proporcionar sabuesos a las agencias del orden público y otros grupos de búsqueda para ayudar en la localización de niños desaparecidos en el futuro.

Ahora, una parte de Southwest 162nd Avenue recibió la designación de “Jimmy Ryce Avenue” en su honor.

“Es una tragedia que conmocionó a la nación y ocurrió hace unos 30 años. Cambiar el nombre de la calle donde ocurrió la tragedia para reconocerlo, honrarlo y honrar el trabajo que surgió después con la fundación y con nuestras agencias del orden público, realmente es lo mínimo que podíamos hacer en el condado Miami-Dade”, dijo la comisionada de Miami-Dade Danielle Cohen Higgins.

Edward Montizaan, quien mantiene un monumento conmemorativo en el área, dijo que Jimmy “tuvo una vida corta y eso fue terrible, pero de la tragedia ha surgido mucho bien gracias a los sabuesos que las agencias del orden público han podido obtener a través de la Fundación Jimmy Ryce”.

Los familiares dijeron que se enfocaron en los sabuesos porque creen que Jimmy estaría vivo hoy si uno de estos perros hubiera sido utilizado de inmediato para buscarlo.

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According to police, the shooting was reported at 4:53 a.m. in the 6700 block of Collins Avenue.

Police said officers arrived at the scene and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.

Miami Beach Fire Department officials transported the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition.

Northbound traffic on Collins Avenue was shut down for hours at 67th Street during the investigation, police said.

Residents in the area started their day with questions and concerns, especially when the SWAT team was spotted in the neighborhood, searching nearby apartment complexes for a suspect.

“I saw them gathering on the sidewalk with their weapons, getting ready to go inside and make sure that it was safe, and that’s when I rode my bike by and asked an officer ‘Is everybody safe?’ And he goes, ‘Yes,’” Thomas Antone said.

“It just happened so fast,” another resident, Rene Welcome, said. “I saw people and then I saw the police having it roped off and stuff ... It was worse than I thought.”

According to authorities, a person of interest has been taken into custody for questioning.

No other details were immediately released.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Miami Beach Police Department or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Darryl Brown, a sergeant in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, was caught with the missing items after the photojournalist used a geo-tracking device to trace her missing gear to his home, the state’s attorney general said Thursday.

The journalist, Angelina Katsanis, was on assignment for The Associated Press at Delaney Hall on Saturday night when she was struck in the knee by a wood beam during a clash between police and demonstrators.

As she hobbled to a medical tent to seek attention, Katsanis left behind her gear bag, which was marked with her name and contact information. When she was eventually allowed to return to the area — now in a wheelchair — the bag was gone.

“I checked my Airtag and the bag was already on a highway pretty far away at that point,” Katsanis recalled. “Right away, I had a feeling it was the police because they were the only ones with access to that area.”

As Katsanis sought treatment in a nearby hospital, the Airtag pinged to a home in Sparta, New Jersey, which was listed as belonging to Brown, according to the attorney general’s office. The device was later recovered on the side of a road, miles away from the home where it was initially taken.

A subsequent review of Brown’s body camera footage showed him “interacting” with the bag at the protest location, according to the attorney general’s office. A search warrant executed at his home Wednesday turned up several of the missing items, some bearing Katsanis’ name and phone number, the complaint said.

Information for Brown’s attorney was not immediately available. A message left at a phone number listed for Brown was not immediately returned. He faces charges of third-degree theft. He has been suspended without pay, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Katsanis, who has training in covering hostile environments, said the incident had left her deeply shaken.

“I’ve thought a lot about how the officers are supposed to be there to uphold the law and protect us and protect property — and this is the exact opposite of that,” she said.

The detention center has become a flashpoint for protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with frequent clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement.

Those demonstrations intensified in recent weeks as advocates said detainees inside launched a hunger strike over poor living conditions at the 1,000-bed facility. The federal government has denied allegations of substandard conditions and accused protesters of inflaming tensions.

Katsanis said she suffered swelling and bruising on her leg but did not break any bones.

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That mission is already making a tangible impact.

Two months ago, “Good News South Florida” introduced viewers to Edward and Clara Knox, a Richmond Heights couple spending their retirement years in a home that had fallen into severe disrepair. Today, thanks to an outpouring of community support, volunteers, donations, and partnerships, restoration work is underway—and hope has been restored alongside it.

A major milestone was recently reached when the project received its building permit, clearing the way for construction to begin in earnest. Volunteers and supporters celebrated the achievement with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the start of a long-awaited transformation.

The effort began when Rixys Alfonso, CEO of the Nonprofit Executive Alliance, brought the Knoxes’ situation to the attention of Local 10.

“I want to support Mr. Knox and I want to do all I can to make sure he is not homeless,” Alfonso said.

She shared video showing the deteriorating condition of the couple’s home and issued an emotional appeal for help. The call resonated with volunteers throughout South Florida.

“We just need to roll up our sleeves and get this project done,” said volunteer Liudmila Esquerdo.

“If you’ve asked yourself how can you make a difference, this project is it,” added volunteer and police officer Robert McKay.

Local 10 shared the Knoxes’ story with viewers on April 3, launching a community response that continues to grow.

“I got faith that this is actually going to happen,” Edward Knox said at the time.

That faith quickly turned into action.

Today, what may appear to be a construction zone is actually a symbol of progress. Crews and volunteers have removed the home’s failing roof and begun critical repairs.

“I gave the go-ahead to remove the roof, which was the real issue facing this structure, and everything else is good to go,” said structural engineer Eliezer Diaz.

Additional materials have already been secured through donations.

“We already have the tiles donated. We have the windows. We have the doors, so we are going to secure the home once we have the roof,” said Joe Puentes, co-founder of WikiVoice.

For Edward and Clara Knox, the speed of the progress has been both surprising and uplifting.

“It’s moving faster than I thought it would,” Edward Knox said. “Great. Feel great. And all of the band of angels are working so fast.”

Those “angels” are volunteers donating their time, skills, and labor—not for a paycheck, but for the opportunity to help neighbors in need.

Max Santiago, a volunteer with Bedrock Renovations, traveled home from Tallahassee during his summer break to participate.

“I usually never come home during the summer break,” Santiago said. “But coming back and being able to help someone that’s in the community that I grew up in is awesome.”

The project remains entirely volunteer-driven and continues to welcome community involvement.

“This is a 100-percent volunteer project,” said volunteer and real estate appraiser Deiky Vergel. “We welcome anyone in the community that wants to be part of it.”

As work continues, Edward Knox remains grateful—and optimistic that more helping hands will join the effort.

“When I pray, I say, ‘Lord, find some more angels,’” he said. “Just like he found this group, he’ll find some more.”

How to Help

Community members who would like to support the restoration of the Knox home have several ways to get involved.

Those in the construction industry are invited to attend a networking event on June 18. Supporters can also make secure monetary donations to the project.

The special networking event is taking place at Fogo de Chao Miami, located at 8815 SW 72nd Place. Admission tickets are $30 and include light appetizers, complimentary drinks and the opportunity to meet the Knox family and those who have volunteered to restore their home. For more information and to purchase your ticket, click here.

One hundred percent of donated funds go directly toward the restoration of the Knox home. Local 10 will continue providing monthly updates, allowing donors and volunteers to see firsthand how community contributions are making a difference.

• To donate: If you’d like to make a monetary donation toward a Good News South Florida story or project, click here. Local 10 has established the Local 10 Fund with The Miami Foundation and 100% of your donation will go toward the cause you designate in the “additional information” box.
• To volunteer or submit a story idea: If you’d like to volunteer for a Good News South Florida project or would like to submit a story for consideration, email goodnews@local10.com.

Good News South Florida airs Fridays on the Local 10 morning news at 10 a.m. It will encore Fridays at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday mornings, beginning at 6 a.m.

The move rescinds a 2021 policy implemented by the Biden administration that required ICE to report to Congress and investigate deaths of detainees that occur within 30 days of their release.

The goal of the 2021 policy was to ensure that ICE could not avoid accountability for deaths by releasing severely ill people from custody. Detainees who were brain-dead or suffering from infection, for instance, have died shortly after ICE released them in the past.

Two health experts who have investigated ICE custody deaths criticized the change Friday.

“Tracking deaths immediately after custody is a standard approach that allows health systems in jails, prisons and immigration detention to learn about gaps in care that may occur before a person leaves a facility,” said Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system. “Eliminating reporting of these deaths represents a willful act of ignoring the most serious health outcome that can reflect inadequacies in care or help track outbreaks.”

ICE detainees also routinely die at hospitals where they are taken for treatment after their conditions deteriorate inside detention facilities, records show. Those detainees, however, have generally been considered to remain in ICE custody.

The Washington Post first reported the policy change Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later confirmed the move in a statement that framed it as “common sense.”

“Under this updated policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur,” the statement said.

The statement said ICE remained committed to transparency and that the revised policy includes procedures for “timely notification, review and reporting of deaths occurring in ICE custody.” ICE did not immediately release its full updated policy.

The decision to limit death reporting comes as a greater number of ICE detainees have been dying. At least 18 detainees have died since Jan. 1, which is on pace to surpass last year’s death toll, which was the highest in two decades. Detainees are dying by suicide at an unprecedented pace, and experts say many other deaths from natural causes likely would have been preventable with timely medical care.

Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who recently published an analysis of more than 270 ICE custody deaths, said the policy change will “make the mortality statistics appear lower without any actual improvement in care.”

“The period immediately following release is when deaths attributable to inadequate care during confinement become apparent,” he said. “Missed diagnoses, interrupted medications, untreated infections, and decompensating chronic conditions don’t always kill someone while they’re still in the building.”

As of early April, ICE was holding more than 60,000 detainees across its national network of detention facilities, up from around 40,000 at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. ICE denies allegations that detainees suffer from medical neglect, saying they receive comprehensive health care services.

Before announcing Thursday’s policy change, DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis told the AP on Tuesday that no detainees died in its custody in May. That was the first month without a detainee death since November. At the time, Bis did not address AP questions about whether any death reporting policies had changed.

“As we have repeatedly stated, deaths in ICE custody are exceedingly rare,” she said then.

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Associated Press reporter Michael Biesecker in Washington, D.C., contributed.

The defendant, David J. Rush, has both the means and motive to flee while the case against him is pending, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick ruled, citing Rush's professional experience.

“He's in a different position than most people to flee and avoid detection by law enforcement,” Fitzpatrick said.

Rush is charged with fraudulently claiming tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for military leave after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2015. He was arrested last month after investigators searched his home and seized more than 300 gold bars, roughly $2 million in U.S. currency and about 35 luxury watches, according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

Rush's attorney, Jessica Carmichael, noted that Rush isn't charged with any crimes related to the discovery of the gold bars, which she referred to as “basically a non-issue” and “nothing more than a sensational tidbit.” She said Rush properly obtained the gold bars and kept them locked in a safe in his basement.

“Mr. Rush never claimed they were his,” she said.

Between last November and March, Rush requested and received a “significant quantity" of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for "work-related expenses,” according to the FBI affidavit. Justice Department prosecutor Gavin Tisdale said Rush wasn't supposed to have the gold bars at his home.

“That's the issue — his skirting of rules and regulations,” he said.

Tisdale briefly summarized the case against Rush in open court after a portion of the hearing was sealed from the public. The evidence against Rush “grows stronger by the day,” Tisdale told the magistrate.

“Mr. Rush simply cannot be trusted to abide by this court's conditions,” he said.

Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997 and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserves as a lieutenant in 2015, according to the affidavit.

Authorities claim Rush lied about his education and military background on job applications, falsely claiming to be a former Navy pilot who graduated with a bachelor's degree from Clemson University in South Carolina and a master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

Investigators determined that he didn't serve as a Navy pilot and didn't attend either school.

Berlin Open organizers said Williams will compete in doubles at the grass-court event starting on June 13. Her partner and the date of her first match will be announced later.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion stepped away from tennis in 2022. She has yet to say whether she plans to play at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open.

She will make her eagerly anticipated return to professional tennis playing doubles alongside Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club next week. Berlin is the week after. Wimbledon is two weeks after that.

“Every tournament I add to my schedule right now feels special, and Berlin is no exception," she said. "I’m excited to compete in front of the German fans and continue building momentum throughout the grass-court season.”

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

El distrito anunció el viernes que las comidas estarán disponibles en 170 escuelas de todo el condado Miami-Dade desde el 8 de junio hasta el 31 de julio para niños y adolescentes de 18 años o menos.

No existen requisitos de ingresos, solicitudes ni registro para participar.

A diferencia de años anteriores, las comidas deberán consumirse en el lugar. No habrá servicio de comidas para llevar.

Funcionarios escolares indicaron que el programa está diseñado para ayudar a garantizar que los niños continúen recibiendo comidas nutritivas mientras las escuelas están cerradas por las vacaciones de verano.

Los funcionarios del distrito alientan a padres y tutores a aprovechar el programa para ayudar a mantener a los niños saludables y bien alimentados durante los meses de verano.

Las familias pueden encontrar los lugares participantes y obtener información adicional visitando SummerBreakSpot.org.

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The district announced Friday that meals will be available at 170 schools across Miami-Dade County from June 8 through July 31 for children and teens 18 years old and younger.

There are no income requirements, applications or registration needed to participate.

Unlike previous years, meals must be eaten on-site. Grab-and-go meal service will not be available.

School officials said the program is designed to help ensure children continue receiving nutritious meals while school is out for the summer.

District officials encourage parents and guardians to take advantage of the program to help keep children healthy and well-nourished during the summer months.

Families can find participating meal sites and additional information by visiting SummerBreakSpot.org.

The jury found both Rebecca Grossman and Scott Erickson, a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, negligent in the deaths of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander.

The damages awarded Wednesday were for wrongful death and emotional distress. The trial judge will ultimately determine how much each defendant has to pay.

Court was scheduled to resume Friday as jurors must still decide whether to award punitive damages to the boys' parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander.

Grossman was sentenced in 2024 to serve 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving in a separate criminal trial. She is a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the wife of a prominent burn doctor.

The boys' parents also filed lawsuits in civil court against both Grossman and Erickson, who was driving ahead of her when the Iskander brothers were killed. That trial began in April.

The deadly crash occurred on the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, in Westlake Village, a city on the western edge of Los Angeles County.

Brian Panish, the Iskander family's attorney, argued that Grossman and Erickson were both driving recklessly after drinking margaritas together. The two were dating at a time when Grossman and her husband were separated.

Panish said Grossman was driving 73 mph (117 kph) when her car struck the boys in a crosswalk on a road where the posted speed limit was 45 mph (72 kph).

He said Grossman was following Erickson, who was also speeding and narrowly missed the family.

“This was a totally preventable collision," Panish told the jury in closing arguments Wednesday. “They went out for a walk and they never came home.”

Grossman's attorney, Esther Holm, denied that her client was intoxicated. She said Grossman was distracted when she saw the boys' mother dive out of the way of Erickson's vehicle.

“Ms. Grossman was not driving impaired," Holm told the jury. “She did not see the children, as her attention was diverted by Ms. Iskander.”

Erickson's attorney, Jeff Braun, called the boys' deaths a tragedy but emphasized that the vehicle he was driving "made no contact with the children.”

Joseph Magnano, 23, did not speak during the arraignment at Superior Court in Hartford but later hugged officers outside the courtroom. Many displayed badges over their street clothes.

Magnano was fired by the Hartford mayor after the fatal shooting of Steven Jones on Feb. 27. The shooting drew wide public outcry and questions about the police department’s policies when responding to people in mental distress.

The president of the local police union continued to defend Magnano while speaking to reporters Friday. The union has filed several grievances with the city over his firing, seeking to have him reinstated.

“They told him he was a criminal for doing what he was trained to do,” James Rutkauski said.

Magnano's lawyer, Patrick Tomasiewicz, declined to comment after the hearing. Free after posting $50,000 bail following his arrest last month, Magnano is due back in court on July 21. He is expected to enter a not guilty plea at some point.

Jones, 55, who had a history of mental illness, was holding a large knife on a city street when officers arrived on that winter day.

Police body camera video shows three officers, over several minutes, repeatedly telling Jones to drop a knife. The officers also tell him they’re there to help.

“Steve, you’re OK. We’re going to make sure you’re OK,” Officer James Prignano says. “Just drop the knife. We’re going to go talk to somebody, OK?”

Jones can’t be heard saying anything in the videos.

About 12 minutes after the 911 call, Magnano arrives, draws his pistol and shouts at Jones to drop the knife, telling him, “You’re going to get shot.” A woman is heard screaming, “Don’t shoot him!”

The videos show Prignano motioning at Magnano, appearing to tell him to back away. As Jones slowly walks toward Magnano, the officer gives a final warning before shooting at him nine times, about 30 seconds after he got out of his cruiser. Jones died four days later.

Connecticut Inspector General Eliot Prescott, who filed the manslaughter charge and is prosecuting the case, said an investigation found Jones was not an imminent threat and the shooting was not justified.

In his own incident report, Magnano, who had been on the force for a year and four months, said he was “fearful of Jones making a sudden lunge towards either an officer or citizen.”

Hartford Police Chief James Rovella has not commented publicly on the shooting. He and several high-ranking officers also went to court Friday. “It's too early to comment,” he said.

Jones’ relatives did not attend the hearing but local NAACP officials were present Friday.

“They take an oath to protect and serve,” Corrie Betts, president of the Greater Hartford NAACP branch, said of police. “So when they’re called to a mental health call and an individual ends up dead, is that protecting and serving?”

En una visita a militares y policías que despejaron la ruta sin encontrar resistencia, Paz dijo en rueda de prensa que desbloqueará las carreteras “con diálogo y con los instrumentos legales de la Constitución para defender a las mayorías”. Precisó que el Legislativo está analizando ahora ”un marco legal para las Fuerzas Armadas" en caso de que su gobierno aplique un estado de excepción, como demandan varios sectores.

Hasta ahora cientos de familias de La Paz debían caminar kilómetros por cerros para abastecerse en los campos de cultivo de verduras y frutas que desde más de un mes escasean en la ciudad.

En tanto, manifestantes reforzaban un bloqueo en los accesos a una planta estatal en la vecina ciudad de El Alto que abastece de combustible y gas licuado doméstico. Esa ciudad es el epicentro de las duras protestas y es por donde ingresan vitales suministros desde Santa Cruz y Cochabamba, las regiones agrícolas del país.

Hasta el momento los operativos de policías y militares, que no llevan armas letales, han dado escaso resultado. Tras el paso de las fuerzas del orden regresan los bloqueos.

El conflicto ha disparado los precios de los alimentos en la capital política de Bolivia que desde hace semanas está virtualmente paralizada, con escaso transporte y protestas de choferes por la escasez de combustible. Según el vocero presidencial José Luis Gálvez hasta el momento han fallecido 10 personas por falta de auxilio médico debido a los cortes de rutas. Los hospitales han reportado escasez de oxígeno medicinal.

En tanto, el sector empresario estimó en 2.000 millones de dólares las pérdidas provocadas por las protestas.

Paz, que lleva poco más de seis meses en el gobierno, ha priorizado el diálogo con los movilizados y la apertura de “corredores humanitarios” en La Paz y ha evitado sacar a las fuerzas del orden con armamento para evitar posibles incidentes que agravarían el conflicto, según el gobierno.

“Estamos en un momento de inflexión entre la democracia y la dictadura”, dijo hace unos días el ministro de la Presidencia, José Luis Lupo, en referencia al cambio de ciclo político tras los 20 años de gobierno populista de Evo Morales (2006-2019) y Luis Arce (2020-2025) en los que se potenciaron los sindicatos que ahora piden la renuncia de Paz.

“Está en marcha un golpe de Estado”, declaró el viernes Manfred Reyes Villa, el alcalde de Cochabamba, la otra región más afectada por los bloqueos carreteros después de La Paz.

Paz ha recibido el apoyo humanitario de varios países para trasladar alimentos. El mayor respaldo provino del gobierno estadounidense, cuyo secretario de Estado Marco Rubio habló por teléfono con Paz la víspera para “reafirmar el compromiso de Estados Unidos de apoyar la democracia boliviana y al gobierno del presidente Paz en la reconstrucción del país tras 20 años de políticas socialistas fallidas”.

Paz firmó en marzo junto a varios mandatarios conservadores el Escudo de Américas, una iniciativa multinacional impulsada por el mandatario estadounidense Donald Trump para coordinar esfuerzos en la lucha contra las organizaciones criminales.

NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe, following a spat with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. The Trump administration says troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies.

The Republican president announced on social media two weeks ago that he was sending troops to Poland — the same day the Pentagon had officially ordered the cancellation of a rotation of soldiers heading there, one of the defense officials said.

The unit's equipment was already on the way. Sending it cost the military $32 million, said U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.

The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, the official said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

The uncertainty is not only rattling European allies worried about the message being sent to Russia, but it also risks hurting morale among American troops — some of whom had their rotations canceled shortly before departure — and comes as the Army budget is already strained.

Changes to troop deployments to Poland add up

The rotational deployment to Poland of 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, was canceled in a memo sent to the military at the beginning of May. European allies found out mid-month.

Some of those troops were told shortly before traveling not to get on a flight to Poland, while those who had been sent ahead — initially around 1,000 troops — are still waiting for confirmation they are being sent back, a U.S. military official said.

The military also is still waiting for details from the Pentagon on how to satisfy Trump's order to send 5,000 troops to Poland, that official said. The working assumption is that they will come from units already in Europe, rather than an additional deployment from the U.S., the official said.

U.S. Transportation Command had chartered a ship to take the team's equipment from Texas to Poland and transport a departing unit's gear back to America. The incoming team's portion of the cost was $32 million, including chartering the ship and loading and unloading the gear.

Because the ship was chartered to take one unit to Europe and bring another back, it is hard to say if that amount would have been saved had the decision to halt the deployment been made before the new team had already begun moving overseas.

However, the military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense.

Total costs of canceling the rotation are hard to quantify because of many factors, said Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official who now focuses on challenges faced by the U.S. military as director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program.

They most likely stem from returning equipment and troops sent ahead of the deployment and would probably be on the low end of the rotation’s overall cost, Costa said. The greater impact is on the readiness of troops who were trained for one mission and may be deployed on another, he said.

U.S. military contracts with private companies to transport troops and equipment contain cancellation clauses that often add extra fees if a deployment is called off, said John Deni, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied such costs.

“The question is what additional costs were incurred by deciding to send them back prematurely, changing the arrangements, changing the plan?” said Deni, a former U.S. military adviser and planner who focused on forces in Europe.

It is not clear if the Pentagon can recoup those costs or those associated with moving the unit to Europe. The Defense Department did not answer questions about the costs of changing the deployment plans, and the White House referred a request for comment to the department.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they planned to lower troop levels to have Europe shoulder more of its own defense and that the decision was part of a “comprehensive, multilayered process.”

Last month's memo also led to the cancellation of a deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles.

Pulling troops stationed in Germany would be more expensive

When Trump first threatened to remove 5,000 troops from Europe, Pentagon officials initially suggested pulling back the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based permanently in Germany, the defense official said.

Instead, officials decided to cancel the rotation of the other unit to Poland. Then Trump threw that plan into confusion as well.

Pulling the troops stationed in Germany could cost in the low billions because there is no dedicated space and infrastructure in the U.S. to accommodate them and their families, Costa said.

“The other option is basically breaking up the unit,” Costa said. “They move the equipment in different places. They move the people to different places. That carries significant readiness costs because now you’re artificially jamming pieces of units into places where they don’t necessarily belong.”

Pulling or pausing deployments also can hurt morale among soldiers and families because they plan for them months and years in advance, Deni said. The uncertainty can be disruptive.

"That’s often the last thing you want to do to military families,” Deni said.

It is still unclear what will happen to U.S. troops stationed in Europe, the two officials said. Options include moving military units assigned to Germany to Poland, but that could take several years and cost more, the military official said.

Troop changes happen during an Army budget shortfall

The moves come as the Army is facing a budget shortfall, which the service's top uniformed officer, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, recently acknowledged to Congress.

Estimates put the deficit somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion, according to an Army official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive defense matters. One impact has been cutting training courses for soldiers nationwide, which ABC News earlier reported.

In a statement, the Army said it has issued guidance to its commands to “make tough and sound resource decisions that optimize and prioritize resources toward their most critical requirements, to include major training and readiness events.”

The Army official also noted that the service has been tasked with missions like the National Guard deployment in Washington, a bolstered presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and its part in the Iran war — all of which have strained its budget.

The Department of Homeland Security expects to reimburse the Army for its role in the border mission.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers at a May 15 hearing that he was “optimistic” there would progress on those payments “within a week or two.” But to date, the Army has not been reimbursed.

“We want those backfilled payments," Driscoll said then.

The U.S. military in Europe also is scaling back support for non-combat related training and ruthlessly prioritizing critical functions, the military official said.

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Burrows reported from London.

Head’s daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor passed away due to complications from pneumonia.

The stage and TV performer became well known to British audiences in the 1980s as one half of a will-they, won’t-they romantic couple in a series of ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later re-shot for a U.S. audience for Taster's Choice.

Head achieved wider fame as librarian Rupert Giles, mentor to the title character in the cult-favorite supernatural series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which ran from 1997 to 2003.

He most recently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in “Ted Lasso.”

“Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of, and in the audiences that love them,” his daughters said. “How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us.”

Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954 to Seafield Head, a documentary filmmaker, and Helen Shingler, an actor. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor.

Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, the deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady.”

Head portrayed a prime minister himself in the sketch comedy show “Little Britain,” as well as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur, in the “Merlin” TV series. He also appeared in “Motherland," Manchild,” and “Silent Witness,” along with acting in many plays, musicals, and recording music as a singer.

He was predeceased by his longtime partner, animal welfare activist Sarah Fisher, 61, in 2025.

The pressure has been on Alexander Zverev to finally win an elusive Grand Slam title and now the second-seeded German is only one victory away from raising the French Open trophy.

Zverev reached the fourth major final of his career after beating 20-year-old Jakub Mensik 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the Roland Garros semifinals on Friday.

In Sunday’s final, Zverev will face 14th-ranked Flavio Cobolli.

Cobolli advanced when 104th-ranked Matteo Arnaldi withdrew before their all-Italian semifinal due to a virus.

Arnaldi spent 19 hours, 42 minutes on court to reach the semifinal — more than anyone at a Grand Slam since 1991. He said he was vomiting overnight.

“I tried to get ready ... but every time I get up I feel dizzy,” Arnaldi said. “I can’t move and I can’t eat and I can’t drink. So there was really no way that I will be able to play.”

Zverev has been an overwhelming favorite for the title ever since the top-ranked Sinner struggled in the first week’s heat wave and wasted a two set and 5-1 lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round.

Alcaraz, the two-time reigning champion, withdrew before the tournament with an injured right wrist.

The 27th-ranked Mensik, who was playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal, struggled with five double faults.

Mensik overcame post-match cramps that landed him in a wheelchair last week, got past Andrey Rublev in five sets, and beat rising Brazilian João Fonseca in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

“He beat so many unbelievable players. I knew it was going to be the toughest challenge that I had so far. And I managed. I won. I’m happy,” Zverev said.

It will be Zverev’s second French Open final, having wasted a lead of two sets to one against Alcaraz in the 2024 championship match.

Zverev had an even bigger advantage — two sets to none — in the 2020 U.S. Open final and lost that one, too, to Dominic Thiem. He was also beaten in straight sets by Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final.

“That’s in the past,” Zverev said of his loss to Thiem. “I don’t try to think too much about it before Sunday.”

Wind and mishits

Despite overcast and windy conditions at the start, the roof was open on Court Philippe-Chatrier and both players struggled with mishits early on.

Mensik relied often on serve-and-volley tactics while Zverev was more solid from the baseline of the red clay court.

Mensik double-faulted twice late in the first set, leading to the first break.

Zverev broke again early in the second after running down a drop shot from Mensik and then went ahead 5-2 when Mensik double-faulted again.

Mensik's medical timeout

Early in the third, Mensik had his neck treated by a trainer and then left the court for a medical timeout.

When play resumed, Zverev moved Mensik off the court with well-angled shots and the Czech player threw his racket in desperation at a ball he knew he couldn’t reach.

There were more shouts for “Sascha” — Zverev’s nickname — but the crowd attempted to help Mensik back into the match with chants of “Let’s go, Mensik, Let’s go.”

When Mensik produced two well-executed drop shots to finally break Zverev’s serve and take a 4-2 lead in the third, he pumped his fist as the crowd came to life.

It was just the second set that Zverev dropped in the tournament.

“He started playing amazing the third set,” Zverev said. “This is best-of-five-set matches: You know things (are) going to happen. Opponents are going to play better. You have to deal with it. You have to manage it. I did. And I hope to play another great match on Sunday.”

When Mensik rushed the net after a slice serve to the deuce court midway through the fourth set and Zverev used his long wingspan to produce a looping cross-court return that dipped over the net beyond his reach, Mensik just smiled — perhaps realizing in that moment that Zverev simply had too much game for him.

Abuse allegations

Moments after Zverev’s last Grand Slam final in Australia in 2025, a person in the stadium yelled out the names of two of his ex-girlfriends who accused him of physical abuse.

One case was resolved following an agreement between German prosecutors, lawyers for Zverev and his former partner. The ATP Tour investigated another case and concluded there was insufficient evidence.

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

Ronald Ebrain Hernandez-Belisario, de 43 años y residente de Doral, enfrenta un cargo de agresión agravada contra un agente de la ley, bombero o funcionario.

Según un informe de arresto, la víctima, una especialista de control de estacionamiento, trabajaba el jueves en el área del centro de Doral cuando observó un Honda gris estacionado en una zona de pago señalizada en la cuadra 8500 de Northwest 53rd Terrace.

La policía indicó que la especialista verificó la matrícula de Florida del vehículo y descubrió que no se había realizado el pago por el espacio de estacionamiento. Luego hizo contacto con Hernandez-Belisario, quien estaba sentado dentro del vehículo y aparentemente hablaba por teléfono, y le informó que debía pagar antes de abandonar el área, según las autoridades.

La policía señaló que la especialista regresó más tarde y encontró que el automóvil seguía allí y que Hernandez-Belisario aún no había pagado el estacionamiento.

Cuando ella comenzó a emitir la citación, Hernandez-Belisario presuntamente se marchó y golpeó a la especialista con el espejo lateral del pasajero del vehículo.

Según la policía, la especialista no sufrió heridas graves y rechazó recibir tratamiento médico.

Posteriormente, los investigadores localizaron a Hernandez-Belisario en una dirección de Doral asociada con el registro del vehículo. La policía indicó que la víctima lo identificó durante un procedimiento de identificación.

Después de ser informado de sus derechos, Hernandez-Belisario aceptó hablar con los investigadores, según el informe.

La policía indicó que Hernandez-Belisario les dijo a los agentes que no se dio cuenta de que estaba obligado a pagar por el estacionamiento mientras permanecía dentro del vehículo. También afirmó que salió del área apresuradamente, pero sostuvo que fue la especialista quien golpeó el espejo lateral del pasajero, según las autoridades.

De acuerdo con el informe, Hernandez-Belisario dijo a los investigadores que no estaba bajo la influencia de drogas ni alcohol en ese momento, aunque sí toma medicamentos para la ansiedad.

La policía indicó que el incidente fue captado por la cámara corporal de la víctima.

Hernandez-Belisario fue trasladado al Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, el ciudadano venezolano permanecía detenido por el cargo de agresión agravada, además de una retención migratoria.

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Ronald Ebrain Hernandez-Belisario, 43, of Doral, faces a charge of aggravated battery on a police officer, firefighter or official.

According to an arrest report, the victim, a parking enforcement specialist, was working in the downtown Doral area on Thursday when she noticed a gray Honda parked in a marked pay zone in the 8500 block of Northwest 53rd Terrace.

Police said the specialist ran the vehicle’s Florida tag and discovered that payment had not been made for the parking space. The specialist then made contact with Hernandez-Belisario, who was sitting inside the vehicle and appeared to be on a phone call, and informed him that payment was required before leaving the area, authorities said.

Police said the specialist later returned and found that the car was still there and Hernandez-Belisario had still not paid for parking.

As she began issuing a citation, Hernandez-Belisario allegedly drove away and struck the specialist with the vehicle’s passenger-side mirror.

The specialist was not seriously injured and declined medical treatment, according to police.

Investigators later located Hernandez-Belisario at a Doral address associated with the vehicle’s registration. Police said the victim identified him during a show-up identification procedure.

After being advised of his rights, Hernandez-Belisario agreed to speak with investigators, according to the report.

Police said Hernandez-Belisario told officers he did not realize he was required to pay for parking while remaining inside the vehicle. He also said he left the area in a hurry, but claimed the specialist struck his passenger-side mirror, authorities said.

According to the report, Hernandez-Belisario told investigators he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time, but does take medication for anxiety.

Police said the incident was captured on the victim’s body-worn camera.

Hernandez-Belisario was transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

As of Friday morning, the Venezuelan national remained there on the aggravated battery charge as well as on an immigration hold.

Esa misión ya está teniendo un impacto tangible.

Hace dos meses, “Good News South Florida” presentó a los televidentes a Edward y Clara Knox, una pareja de Richmond Heights que pasaba sus años de jubilación en una vivienda que había caído en un grave estado de deterioro. Hoy, gracias a una gran muestra de apoyo comunitario, voluntarios, donaciones y alianzas, los trabajos de restauración están en marcha, y la esperanza ha sido restaurada junto con la vivienda.

Recientemente se alcanzó un importante hito cuando el proyecto recibió su permiso de construcción, despejando el camino para que las obras comenzaran formalmente. Voluntarios y colaboradores celebraron el logro con una ceremonia de corte de cinta, marcando el inicio de una transformación largamente esperada.

El esfuerzo comenzó cuando Rixys Alfonso, directora ejecutiva de la Nonprofit Executive Alliance, llamó la atención de Local 10 sobre la situación de los Knox.

“Quiero apoyar al señor Knox y quiero hacer todo lo posible para asegurarme de que no quede sin hogar”, dijo Alfonso.

Ella compartió videos que mostraban el deteriorado estado de la vivienda de la pareja e hizo un emotivo llamado de ayuda. La petición resonó entre voluntarios de todo el sur de Florida.

“Solo tenemos que arremangarnos y terminar este proyecto”, dijo la voluntaria Liudmila Esquerdo.

“Si alguna vez te has preguntado cómo puedes marcar la diferencia, este proyecto es la respuesta”, agregó el voluntario y oficial de policía Robert McKay.

Local 10 compartió la historia de los Knox con los televidentes el 3 de abril, impulsando una respuesta comunitaria que sigue creciendo.

“Tengo fe en que esto realmente va a suceder”, dijo Edward Knox en ese momento.

Esa fe rápidamente se convirtió en acción.

Hoy, lo que podría parecer una zona de construcción es en realidad un símbolo de progreso. Equipos de trabajo y voluntarios han retirado el techo deteriorado de la vivienda y han comenzado reparaciones críticas.

“Di la autorización para retirar el techo, que era el verdadero problema que enfrentaba esta estructura, y todo lo demás está listo para avanzar”, dijo el ingeniero estructural Eliezer Díaz.

Materiales adicionales ya han sido asegurados mediante donaciones.

“Ya tenemos las tejas donadas. Tenemos las ventanas. Tenemos las puertas, así que vamos a asegurar la vivienda una vez que tengamos el techo”, dijo Joe Puentes, cofundador de WikiVoice.

Para Edward y Clara Knox, la rapidez del progreso ha sido sorprendente y alentadora.

“Va más rápido de lo que pensaba”, dijo Edward Knox. “Excelente. Me siento muy bien. Y toda esta banda de ángeles está trabajando muy rápido”.

Esos “ángeles” son voluntarios que donan su tiempo, habilidades y trabajo, no por un salario, sino por la oportunidad de ayudar a vecinos necesitados.

Max Santiago, voluntario de Bedrock Renovations, regresó a casa desde Tallahassee durante sus vacaciones de verano para participar.

“Normalmente nunca regreso a casa durante las vacaciones de verano”, dijo Santiago. “Pero volver y poder ayudar a alguien de la comunidad donde crecí es increíble”.

El proyecto sigue siendo impulsado completamente por voluntarios y continúa recibiendo a personas interesadas en colaborar.

“Este es un proyecto 100% voluntario”, dijo el voluntario y tasador de bienes raíces Deiky Vergel. “Damos la bienvenida a cualquier persona de la comunidad que quiera formar parte de él”.

Mientras continúan los trabajos, Edward Knox sigue agradecido y optimista de que más personas se sumen al esfuerzo.

“Cuando oro, digo: ‘Señor, encuentra algunos ángeles más’”, dijo. “Así como encontró a este grupo, encontrará algunos más”.

Cómo ayudar

Los miembros de la comunidad que deseen apoyar la restauración de la vivienda de los Knox tienen varias formas de involucrarse.

Las personas de la industria de la construcción están invitadas a asistir a un evento de networking el 18 de junio. Los colaboradores también pueden realizar donaciones monetarias seguras para el proyecto.

El 100% de los fondos donados se destina directamente a la restauración de la vivienda de los Knox. Local 10 continuará ofreciendo actualizaciones mensuales para que donantes y voluntarios puedan ver de primera mano cómo las contribuciones de la comunidad están marcando la diferencia.

• Para donar: Si desea hacer una donación monetaria para una historia o proyecto de Good News South Florida, haga clic aquí. Local 10 ha establecido el Fondo Local 10 con The Miami Foundation y el 100% de su donación se destinará a la causa que usted indique en el cuadro de “información adicional”.
• Para ser voluntario o enviar una idea de historia: Si desea participar como voluntario en un proyecto de Good News South Florida o presentar una historia para consideración, envíe un correo electrónico a goodnews@local10.com.

Good News South Florida se transmite los viernes en el noticiero matutino de Local 10 a las 10 a.m. También se retransmite los viernes a las 3:30 p.m. y los domingos por la mañana a partir de las 6 a.m.

Paul Quinn, 52, was found guilty in April following a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court on two counts of rape, one count of choking with intent, and one count of grievous bodily harm. Quinn’s sentence comprises 21 years in custody with an extended license of three years when he will be let out of prison but subject to release conditions. He will be eligible for parole in 14 years.

“You sat back and enjoyed your liberty at the expense of an innocent man,” Justice Robert Bright told Quinn at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Quinn was aged 29 at the time of the rape but had been a sex offender from the age of 12.

Andrew Malkinson, 60, had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in July 2023 after DNA evidence linked Quinn to the crime. Malkinson spent 17 years behind bars for the brutal 2003 attack on a 33-year-old woman in Greater Manchester, who had picked him out from a police lineup.

Malkinson, who was working as a security guard at a local shopping center at the time of the attack, was found guilty in 2004 and sentenced to a life sentence, with a minimum term of seven years. He always maintained his innocence and as a result served ten years more in jail than the minimum sanctioned by the judge in the case. He was eventually released from prison in 2020, but his name remained on Britain’s sex offenders register.

Malkinson voiced his fury at the fact that Quinn did not get a life sentence.

“I hope that this man does not get parole and that he serves longer than me," he said in a statement released through Appeal, a U.K. charity that campaigns against wrongful convictions. “Anything less is not justice.”

Advancements in genetic technology allowed Malkinson’s legal team and Appeal to find Quinn’s DNA on fragments of the victim’s clothing.

Malkinson is seeking recompense from British authorities for the time he spent in prison and has mulled whether the victim had been unduly pressured by police during the lineup.

“While Andy is relieved this chapter of his ordeal is now closed, it is not the end of this matter as far as he is concerned,” said Toby Wilton, of law firm Hickman & Rose, which represents Malkinson.

Fallout from the case continues, with a public inquiry now underway after a 2024 review found failings that could have exonerated Malkinson a decade before he was eventually released.

Five former Greater Manchester Police officers, and one currently serving with the force, are under investigation while two top officials at the body that assesses potential miscarriages of justice have resigned.

The police force has since apologized to Malkinson.

“We know this outcome has come two decades too late for those impacted by this case," said Detective Chief Superintendent Rebecca McKendrick, the senior investigating officer on the case. “However, we will not allow time to be a barrier to justice for anyone who has further information about Paul Quinn and any further potential sexual offending.”

The company behind the Claude chatbot said in a blog post Thursday that as cutting-edge AI gets increasingly faster at carrying out tasks, “it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause” its development.

Anthropic said its internal research institute plans to explore the issue in collaboration with others and “take actions" to help build the systems for a credible slowdown or pause, without being more specific.

Anthropic rival OpenAI argued for a different approach in a report published Wednesday, saying that “democratic governments — not private companies acting alone — must ultimately determine the rules, safeguards, and accountability mechanisms.”

“Our view is that decisions about the pace of AI innovation should not be left to any one lab, company, or special interest group,” it said.

AI models are getting faster, with rapid increases in how quickly they can carry out software tasks like coding on their own, Anthropic said in its post. Based on current trends and given enough computing power, an AI system could be able to design and develop its own successor, in what is known as “recursive self-improvement.”

Self-building AI would be a major technological milestone that would bring benefits in science, healthcare and other areas, Anthropic said, but it “also might increase the risks of humans losing control over AI systems.”

Some tech industry figures have long warned of such a scenario.

Anthropic’s post comes after a different warning this week from a team of researchers at the University of Toronto who showed how AI tools could be used to create a new kind of AI “worm” that adapts its hacking strategy as it spreads from device to device and takes over a vast computing network.

“I think it’s really important that people understand that it’s not just the biggest, most powerful language models that pose the security concerns,” lead researcher Nicolas Papernot said in an interview.

The authors of the Anthropic post, company co-founder Jack Clark and Marina Favaro, head of the research institute, said the pause would be used to enable “societal structures and alignment research" to keep up with AI advances. Alignment is industry shorthand for making sure the technology matches human values and intentions.

The proposed coordination would let advanced AI labs verify that global rivals have actually stopped or slowed their work, “and that a bad actor could not use the auspices of a coordinated slowdown to jump ahead in secret.”

The company said a coordinated global mechanism is needed because without it a slowdown in AI development could let the “least cautious” players catch up and add to pressure on companies and governments as they make tough choices about AI safety.

Anthropic's post comes as the company and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI race to sell shares on the stock market, in an IPO that could value Anthropic at nearly a trillion dollars.

Papernot notified Canadian cybersecurity authorities prior to releasing the report, which shows how researchers developed the worm in a laboratory by using an “open-source” AI tool that is easy for software developers to cheaply access and modify.

“In the past, cyber attackers would focus on targets that are very high value,” he said. “Banking systems, hospitals, electricity grids, water treatment systems, schools.”

Papernot agreed that there should be more collaboration between companies, government agencies and academic researchers to develop countermeasures as AI-powered hacking tools supercharge the search for computer vulnerabilities.

“That old laptop you have in your basement that you don’t check on regularly doesn’t seem like a very high-value target, but It can be used as a launch pad to attack these higher-value targets,” he said. “Anything connected to the internet is now at risk because of how low the cost has become to mount these cyberattacks.”

The five astronauts moved into the SpaceX capsule that is docked at the station while cosmonauts worked to fix the leak, which is on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory.

The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said via X.

The crew left the capsule and returned to regular operations after repair work was paused.

That part of the space station has suffered from cracks and leaks over the years. NASA said Roscosmos decided to do a more extensive repair after fresh problems were found.

The space agencies have been working to determine the cause of the cracks.

___

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

Case is the first woman to receive the award, according to the organization.

The honor recognizes people whose work reflects compassion, leadership and a dedication to serving others while making a meaningful impact in the community.

During the ceremony, Case also announced a $28,000 donation to The HOPE Fund, which was established in 1998 to assist Broward PBA members and their families during times of crisis and personal tragedy.

The fund also awards the Sergeant Christopher Reyka Scholarship Award each year to a child of a Broward County PBA member. Case announced she will fund a $1,000 scholarship going forward.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for our law enforcement officers. They keep our roads and community safe. I tip my hat in gratitude and admiration for their bravery,” Case said in a statement. “It is such an honor to be named Humanitarian of the Year by the esteemed Broward County Police Benevolent Association.”

Case said officers “show up when we need them,” patrol neighborhoods, protect businesses, attend community events and help members and their families in times of need.

“They truly exemplify what it means to be a humanitarian,” she said.

Rod Skirvin, president of the Broward County PBA, said Case was selected because of her longtime commitment to philanthropy and public service.

“Rita Case represents the very best of what it means to serve a community,” Skirvin said in a statement. “Her compassion, generosity and unwavering commitment to helping others has touched countless lives throughout South Florida.”

Skirvin said Case has supported charitable causes, stood beside first responders and helped those in need.

“On behalf of the BCPBA, it is my honor to present Rita Case with our Humanitarian of the Year Award in recognition of a lifetime dedicated to making a difference,” he said.

Case and the Rick Case Automotive Group have long supported charitable organizations across South Florida. According to the company, Rita and her late husband, Rick Case, created and led fundraising initiatives that have raised more than $125 million for organizations in the region.

Those efforts have supported groups including the Boys & Girls Clubs, Feeding South Florida, Habitat for Humanity, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Junior Achievement of South Florida, United Way, Women In Distress and many others.

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While that might feel unusual based on recent, early-blooming seasons – with 8 of the last 11 hurricane seasons notching the first tropical or subtropical storm before June 1 – a longer view of history shows us it’s not uncommon.

In fact, over the past 30 years, the typical date of the first Atlantic named storm is June 20. While that’s the average date, there are wide bookends to this first milestone, and in years like 2009, 2004, and 2000 the first named storm didn’t come until August.

So patience is a virtue when it comes to the Atlantic hurricane season.

First shot at development could come late next week

As we detailed in yesterday’s newsletter, a broad area of spin is forecast to set up across Central America by the middle part of next week and conditions could support gradual development in the western Caribbean or southern and central Gulf by late next week.

Long-range models have trended up in their support for development by next weekend (weekend of June 13), but we’re still over a week out and models don’t currently suggest significant organization. Both the European ensemble system and Google’s machine learning-based DeepMind model, historically our two best performing models in the hurricane world, indicate low odds for now.

Most likely, anything that tries to develop will be large and disorganized, as early and mid-June tropical systems tend to be. That said, June tropical systems can be notorious rainmakers so we’ll follow the trends into next week.

For much of the Gulf Coast, including us in Florida, garden-variety soaking rains could be a welcome relief for the ongoing drought.

Si bien esto puede parecer inusual si nos basamos en las recientes temporadas de floración temprana (en 8 de las últimas 11 temporadas de huracanes se registró la primera tormenta tropical o subtropical antes del 1 de junio), una perspectiva histórica más amplia nos muestra que no es algo infrecuente.

De hecho, en los últimos 30 años, la fecha típica de la primera tormenta con nombre en el Atlántico es el 20 de junio. Si bien esa es la fecha promedio, existen amplias variaciones en torno a este primer hito, y en años como 2009, 2004 y 2000 la primera tormenta con nombre no llegó hasta agosto.

Por lo tanto, la paciencia es una virtud cuando se trata de la temporada de huracanes en el Atlántico.

El primer intento de desarrollo podría producirse a finales de la próxima semana.

Como detallamos en el boletín de ayer, se prevé que una amplia zona de remolinos se establezca en Centroamérica a mediados de la próxima semana, y las condiciones podrían favorecer un desarrollo gradual en el Caribe occidental o en el sur y centro del Golfo Pérsico a finales de la próxima semana.

Los modelos a largo plazo muestran una tendencia al alza en su apoyo a la formación de un huracán para el próximo fin de semana (fin de semana del 13 de junio), pero aún falta más de una semana y los modelos no sugieren una organización significativa. Tanto el sistema de predicción europeo como el modelo DeepMind de Google, basado en aprendizaje automático (históricamente nuestros dos mejores modelos en el ámbito de los huracanes), indican bajas probabilidades por ahora.

Lo más probable es que cualquier sistema que intente desarrollarse sea grande y desorganizado, como suele ocurrir con los sistemas tropicales de principios y mediados de junio. Dicho esto, los sistemas tropicales de junio son conocidos por generar lluvias torrenciales, así que seguiremos de cerca las tendencias la próxima semana.

Para gran parte de la costa del Golfo, incluyéndonos a nosotros en Florida, las lluvias torrenciales habituales podrían ser un alivio bienvenido ante la sequía actual.

El detective Robert Rutkowski, el agente Zachary Kerin y Keith Costa, capitán fuera de servicio del Departamento de Bomberos de Fort Lauderdale, trabajaron juntos el 1 de mayo en Pompano Beach.

“La cámara corporal muestra un rescate increíble. Muestra la diferencia entre la tragedia y la supervivencia medida en apenas segundos. La conductora está viva hoy gracias a sus rápidas acciones”, dijo el sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony en un comunicado.

La mano de Kerin resultó herida mientras rompía la ventana del lado del pasajero del automóvil para poder sacar a la mujer del vehículo.

Personal de Pompano Beach Fire Rescue y otros agentes de la BSO también respondieron al canal en el área de South Palm Aire Drive y South Powerline Road.

Rutkowski dijo que tomó un dispositivo de flotación de un agente que ya lo tenía listo y rápidamente saltó al agua.

Los agentes habían atado una cuerda amarilla al dispositivo de flotación rojo, la sostuvieron y la utilizaron para ayudar durante el rescate.

“Nuestro trabajo era salvar una vida; eso fue lo que hicimos”, dijo Rutkowski, según un video publicado por la BSO. “Tuvimos éxito”.

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Investigators said it all happened after Olivia Rios-Papillo and the victim’s vehicles collided on Kendall Drive, near Southwest 152nd Avenue.

Authorities said after the crash, which happened at around 5:10 p.m., Rios-Papillo was “arguing” with the victim and “took a black (bag)” her passenger had on him, telling the victim that if he didn’t send her passenger $50, “she was going to shoot him and blood would be spilled on the ground.”

An FHP arrest report states Rios-Papillo had her right hand “inside of the black bag the entire time.”

Troopers said the victim, fearing he’d be shot, sent the passenger $50 on Cash App.

“Rios-Papillo told (the victim) that he could leave as they got into their vehicle and left,” the report states.

Troopers said the man reported what happened and later called back to say he saw Rios-Papillo parked outside of a Ross Dress For Less a few blocks away trying to fix her car.

According to the arrest report, a trooper found Rios-Papillo and her passenger there and spoke with them.

Rios-Papillo “denied ever saying anything about a firearm,” the trooper wrote in the arrest report, saying that she only told the man to pay the $50 “because the crash was his fault.”

Troopers said the victim’s Tesla camera recorded the entire interaction, however, and they took Rios-Papillo into custody on charges of strong-armed robbery, attempted evidence tampering, aggravated assault, having no valid driver’s license and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage.

As of Friday morning, she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set” in online jail records.

Los investigadores indicaron que todo ocurrió después de que los vehículos de Olivia Rios-Papillo y la víctima chocaran en Kendall Drive, cerca de Southwest 152nd Avenue.

Las autoridades informaron que, después del choque, ocurrido alrededor de las 5:10 p.m., Rios-Papillo estaba “discutiendo” con la víctima y tomó una bolsa negra que llevaba su pasajero, diciéndole a la víctima que si no le enviaba $50 USD a su pasajero, “iba a dispararle y habría sangre derramada en el suelo”.

Un informe de arresto de la FHP señala que Rios-Papillo mantuvo su mano derecha “dentro de la bolsa negra todo el tiempo”.

Los agentes indicaron que la víctima, temiendo que le dispararan, envió $50 USD al pasajero a través de Cash App.

“Rios-Papillo le dijo a la víctima que podía irse mientras ellos subían a su vehículo y se marchaban”, indica el informe.

Los agentes señalaron que el hombre reportó lo sucedido y posteriormente volvió a llamar para informar que había visto a Rios-Papillo estacionada frente a una tienda Ross Dress For Less, a pocas cuadras de distancia, intentando reparar su automóvil.

Según el informe de arresto, un agente localizó allí a Rios-Papillo y a su pasajero y habló con ambos.

Rios-Papillo “negó haber dicho algo sobre un arma de fuego”, escribió el agente en el informe de arresto, indicando que ella afirmó que solo le pidió al hombre que pagara los $50 USD “porque el accidente fue culpa de él”.

Sin embargo, los agentes indicaron que la cámara del Tesla de la víctima grabó toda la interacción, por lo que tomaron a Rios-Papillo bajo custodia por cargos de robo mediante fuerza, intento de manipulación de evidencia, agresión agravada, conducir sin una licencia válida y abandonar la escena de un accidente con daños materiales.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, permanecía detenida en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, con una fianza registrada en línea como “pendiente de establecer”.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — also known a FinCEN — issued an advisory Friday to banks that tells them to watch out for identity theft, payroll tax fraud, and money laundering schemes tied to hiring unauthorized workers.

This comes after President Donald Trump in May signed an executive order that requires banks to take a closer look at the citizenship of their customers.

The order directs bank regulators and government departments to look for signs that people without legal status are opening accounts or obtaining loans or credit cards. However, the order is less aggressive than banks had previously expected, as earlier reports suggested the White House was drafting an order that would make collecting customers’ citizenship information mandatory.

Still, without encouraging a blanket debanking of broad segments of the population, the order and latest advisory acts to discourage people in the U.S. illegally from interacting with the larger U.S. financial system.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the Trump administration "will not allow illegal aliens to abuse financial institutions to steal billions of dollars from hardworking American taxpayers.”

“Schemes to pay unlawful workers often rely upon access to the U.S. financial system, including U.S. banks," he said.

Since banks have never collected any information about their customers’ citizenship or immigration status, there are no reliable public figures on how much risk these customers pose to the financial system.

The banking industry had been aggressively lobbying for months to stop the White House from issuing an executive order that would have made collecting customers’ citizenship status mandatory, arguing it would be expensive and require vast amounts of paperwork. Since the order only offered guidance to the banks instead of a mandate, it appears the banks were able to win over the White House.

The advisory calls on financial institutions to be alert for more than a dozen so-called '"red flags" that indicate an individual is in the U.S. illegally.

——-

Sweet reported from New York.

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Tradition is known for having issues with feral hogs, which is why trapper Jay with Treasure Coast Wildlife Trappers set up a hog trap equipped with a camera to monitor activity.

Instead of hogs, the camera captured a black bear.

Jay showed where the bear was spotted, in the backyards of homes along Southwest Lake Fern Circle in Tradition.

Early Sunday morning, the camera alerted him that something was at the trap.

He checked the footage.

“And we’re like, ‘Oh my God. There’s a bear by the trap,’” Jay said.

The footage showed an adult black bear.

The bear first appeared around 2 a.m. Three hours later, at nearly 5 a.m., it was still in the area and had become curious about the camera.

Neighbors also took an interest in the unexpected visitor.

“Pretty interesting, to say the least,” resident Rachel Murray said with a laugh.

“We got a lot of critters in the backyard. This is our first bear,” resident Bob Lopopolo said.

The bear returned Monday morning.

Once again, it visited the trap, checked out the camera and remained in the area for hours.

Bear sightings in the neighborhood are rare. Jay said anyone who encounters a bear should keep their distance.

“What you want to do at that point is make loud noises. You want to kind of haze the bear. You want that bear to be afraid of humans,” he said.

Even if residents do not see the bear, Jay said they should remain cautious.

“Just keep your eye out. Be safe. When you’re out there, make sure you have a flashlight at night, you have your dogs on a leash and that you stay vigilant,” he said.

The trapper said the most recent sighting occurred several days ago, and the bear has not returned since. He hopes the animal has moved on but is encouraging residents to stay vigilant in case it wanders back.

Tradition es conocida por tener problemas con cerdos salvajes, por lo que el trampero Jay, de Treasure Coast Wildlife Trappers, instaló una trampa para cerdos equipada con una cámara para monitorear la actividad.

Pero en lugar de cerdos, la cámara captó a un oso negro.

Jay mostró el lugar donde fue visto el oso, en los patios traseros de viviendas ubicadas a lo largo de Southwest Lake Fern Circle, en Tradition.

La madrugada del domingo, la cámara le envió una alerta de que algo estaba cerca de la trampa.

Revisó las imágenes.

“Y dijimos: ‘Dios mío. Hay un oso junto a la trampa’”, contó Jay.

Las imágenes mostraban a un oso negro adulto.

El oso apareció por primera vez alrededor de las 2 a.m. Tres horas después, cerca de las 5 a.m., seguía en el área y había mostrado curiosidad por la cámara.

Los vecinos también mostraron interés por el inesperado visitante.

“Bastante interesante, por decir lo menos”, dijo entre risas la residente Rachel Murray.

“Tenemos muchos animales en el patio trasero. Este es nuestro primer oso”, dijo el residente Bob Lopopolo.

El oso regresó la mañana del lunes.

Una vez más, visitó la trampa, inspeccionó la cámara y permaneció en el área durante horas.

Los avistamientos de osos en el vecindario son poco comunes. Jay dijo que cualquier persona que se encuentre con un oso debe mantener la distancia.

“Lo que se debe hacer en ese momento es hacer ruidos fuertes. Hay que ahuyentar al oso. Queremos que ese oso le tenga miedo a los humanos”, dijo.

Aunque los residentes no vean al oso, Jay indicó que deben mantenerse atentos.

“Simplemente estén pendientes. Manténganse seguros. Cuando estén afuera, asegúrense de tener una linterna por la noche, llevar a sus perros con correa y mantenerse vigilantes”, dijo.

El trampero señaló que el avistamiento más reciente ocurrió hace varios días y que el oso no ha regresado desde entonces. Espera que el animal haya seguido su camino, pero está alentando a los residentes a mantenerse vigilantes en caso de que vuelva a aparecer.

Solari, que sufría desde hace años de Parkinson, murió en su vivienda situada en la localidad de Ituzaingó, a unos 30 kilómetros al oeste de la capital argentina. La fiscalía de Morón, a cargo de la investigación del hecho, informó que el cuerpo del artista fue hallado “en cercanías de una pileta interna de su domicilio y habiendo intervenido la emergencia médica”.

Familiares del cantante publicaron un comunicado en las redes sociales confirmando el deceso. Señalaron que lo despedirán en la intimidad y luego darán detalles de dónde se realizará el adiós público.

Apenas conocida la noticia los primeros fanáticos del artista comenzaron a congregarse en las inmediaciones de la vivienda. Entre los reunidos había padres acompañados por sus hijos adolescentes con banderas y camisetas alusivas al “Indio”. Hombres y mujeres se acercaron con flores.

El poder de convocatoria de Solari era enorme. Fue un compositor de gran talento y al mismo tiempo muy popular, que supo interpretar el sentir de la sociedad argentina a lo largo de su larga trayectoria que comenzó a mediados de la década de 1970.

En sus canciones mostraba una fuerte resistencia al capitalismo, la influencia de las potencias extranjeras y la violencia institucional manifestada en los abusos de las fuerzas de seguridad. Mientras, rescataba a los sectores más postergados.

Era idolatrado por un público masivo de distintas generaciones que recorría grandes distancias en kilómetros para asistir a sus recitales. Fuera de Argentina, el público uruguayo también adoptó plenamente la cultura y la mística del grupo.

Los conciertos de “Los Redondos", como también era conocida la banda que fundó, eran denominados “misas ricoteras” por sus seguidores. Se espera que muchos de ellos se reúnan por la tarde en la Plaza de Mayo de Buenos Aires para rendirle homenaje.

Rockeros que acompañaron al fallecido cantante durante su vida y muchos que lo admiraron manifestaron su pesar en las redes sociales. "Te llevo en cada recuerdo, en cada canción de ayer... ahora sos la luz que viaja entre nosotros y para siempre”, dijo Eduardo Beilinson —conocido como Skay Beilinson—, quien fue compañero de “El Indio” en la banda que lo convirtió en un ídolo de masas.

Dirigentes de la política y del fútbol, así como representantes del arte y la cultura lamentaron la muerte Solari.

“Su obra trascendió las fronteras del rock para proyectarse sobre la literatura, el arte y la identidad de millones de personas”, afirmó la Asociación Argentina de Actores.

Un talentoso que sabía conectar con su público

Con una de las discografías más influyentes en el rock, Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota compuso álbumes como "Gulp!”, “Oktubre”, “Lobo suelto, cordero atado” y “Luzbelito”.

La banda se disolvió en 2001 y “El Indio” comenzó a desempeñarse como solista, afianzando su poder de convocatoria en cada presentación que realizaba junto a Los Fundamentalistas del Aire Acondicionado, la banda que lo acompañaba. “El Tesoro de los Inocentes”, en 2004, fue su primer trabajo como solista.

Su gran éxito siguió intacto y llegó a reunir hasta 400.000 personas en sus recitales en pequeñas ciudades.

Solari describió la enfermedad que lo aquejaba como “muy invalidante”.

“Hay días en que me quiero matar y hay días que ni se nota... Por el camino se va notando la progresión, el éxito que va teniendo el profesor Parkinson con mi vida”, señaló en entrevistas periodísticas.

Pero acotaba que no tenía miedo a la muerte. “La pienso en términos poéticos. Vivo de la misma manera que cuando tenía 20 años, en el presente”.

Saturday will be the dry day of the weekend, even into the Keys. Late Saturday night into Sunday, a few showers return. Nothing that will ruin the weekend with plenty of dry time. Our normal pattern of 90° and afternoon thunderstorms will continue by Monday.

Marie has denied the allegations and cannot be prosecuted over Otis' case because of France’s statute of limitations. But the complaint could allow other women, whether their cases are time-barred or not, to join the proceedings, Otis’ lawyer, Mathias Darmon, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The complaint, seen by the AP, alleges rape of a minor and human trafficking.

Sent to Paris in 1986 by Elite Model agency, Otis, who was then 17, was housed in Marie’s apartment, “mistakenly believing that he wanted to support her modeling career,” according to the complaint. “While living in the apartment, she alleges that she was raped on multiple occasions by the accused, who subsequently arranged for her to be provided to other wealthy men across Europe.”

Otis was never paid for her modeling work, the complaint said.

“The goal is to give other victims the opportunity to find the courage to join our complaint,” Darmon said. “We are opening the door for all those affected by this internationally significant case to come forward and have their voices heard.”

Otis, 58, became a supermodel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, appearing on the covers of Elle, Vogue and Vanity Fair and featuring in the Pirelli calendar.

Marie, a 76 year-old French national, supervised operations at Elite from 1985 to 2010, during a period when the agency dominated the modeling industry. He helped launch the careers of some of the world’s best-known supermodels.

French broadcaster France Info reported Friday that Otis said she wanted to “denounce an entire system of sexual abuse of models that lasted for years in the fashion industry,” drawing parallels to the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein case.

A complaint previously filed in 2021 by Otis and several other former models alleging rape and sexual assault by Marie in the 1980s was dismissed because the claims were beyond the statute of limitations.

Under French law, victims who were minors at the time of alleged sexual abuse can file a criminal complaint until 30 years after reaching adulthood, allowing them to do so until age 48.

In Florida, the average price for regular gas is $4.47. With summer travel on the horizon, Local 10 and Tropical Financial Credit Union are teaming up to bring drivers some relief.

“Right now, a lot of people across South Florida are feeling the pressure of everyday expenses, and even something as routine as filling up the gas tank can create real stress,” said Richard Shaw, Tropical Financial Credit Union President & CEO. “We wanted to do something simple but meaningful to help lighten the load, which is why we partnered with Local 10 on this gas card giveaway.”

All you have to do to sign up is complete the contest form below to be eligible to win a $100 fuel gift card. The deadline to enter is Sunday, May 31, at 11:59 p.m.

From June 1 through June 5, we will give away $2,500 in fuel gift cards to 25 Local 10 viewers. The winners will be chosen at random and five will be announced each day during our 6 a.m. newscast.

Sign up today for a chance to receive your “Prize at the Pump.”

“Even a little relief can make a difference, and we want people to know we’re here for them,” added Shaw.

June 1 winners:

• Bernard Hardge
• Dawn Cochran
• Alicia Gomez
• Nathaniel Jackson
• Carolina Guerrero

June 2 winners:

• Carol Burns
• Raul Sobrino
• Erik Von Dyck
• Imani Scott
• Karol Geimer

June 3 winners:

• Judson Walker
• Michelle Galanter
• Alain Perez
• Tywana Greene
• Noris Milian-Carpintero

June 4 winners:

• Calvin Brown
• John Nigro
• Frederick Arbour
• Michelle Laing
• Gayle McKeen

June 5 winners:

• Bruce Johnson
• Cecile Krinski
• Tiffany Llaguno
• Katrina Shellman
• Stu Lind

Thursday's letter, the first public message Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, was a sweeping critique of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power as well as some taunts about his age.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin described Zelenskyy’s open letter proposing the meeting as “boorish.”

“Is it a way to create conditions for personal meetings and talks, or create an environment which makes any personal meetings impossible?” Putin said at a question-and-answer session at his annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “I think it’s the second.”

Putin added that a Russian businessman whom he didn’t identify traveled to Kyiv last month and met with Zelenskyy to hear his offer of a personal meeting.

However, Putin said that he currently sees “no point” in such a meeting, especially after a May 22 drone attack by Ukraine on a college dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region that Moscow said killed 21 and wounded scores of others.

In response to Zelenskyy’s barbs about his age and long stay in power, the 73-year-old Putin pointed at other global leaders who are older, adding that “the main thing isn’t age; the main thing is the ability to work.”

He also mocked Zelenskyy's rocky Oval Office meeting in 2025 and thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for “educating” Zelenskyy “before the eyes of the whole world” and teaching him a proper dress code.

“There is still a lot to be done,” he said.

Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting U.S. priorities, saying it would be wrong to simply wait for the Trump administration to return its attention to ending the fighting in Ukraine while it remains heavily focused on the Iran war.

In Washington, Trump said Thursday it “would be great” if Putin and Zelenskyy meet.

Putin has previously offered for Zelenskyy to come to Moscow for talks, an offer that the Ukrainian leader pointedly rejected. Putin said last month he doesn’t exclude a meeting in a third country, but only when there is a deal to sign.

On Thursday, Putin again rejected Zelenskyy’s push for an immediate ceasefire, arguing that Moscow wants a comprehensive settlement, not a temporary truce.

Putin said Russia is open for a compromise on Ukraine in line with understandings reached at his last year’s summit with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, adding that Ukraine needs to accept them to make a deal to end the conflict.

“Naturally, the Ukrainian side would like us to suspend the advances made by Russian troops,” he said. “But it would be better to end the war by agreeing to the compromises that were discussed in Anchorage.”

Asked about Iran, Putin voiced hope for an eventual deal to secure lasting peace. He shrugged off claims that Moscow provided Iran with satellite images, saying that Tehran could use widely available commercial ones.

"As for weapons, Iran hasn’t asked us for them and we haven’t supplied any weapons to Iran,” he said, adding that Russia stands ready to take enriched uranium for storage as part of a potential peace deal, and that Moscow has stayed in contact with Iran, the U.S. and Israel.

Global turbulence

In a speech earlier Friday at the forum, Putin said developing countries have gained an increasingly important role in the global economy, while the share of output by Western countries has shrunk.

He accused the West of undermining the global economy and finances with unilateral sanctions. By freezing Russian assets abroad through sanctions, Western nations eroded trust in their own currencies, he said.

“The sanctions and blocking of Russia’s sovereign reserves have irreversibly impacted the standing of international currencies, the dollar and the euro,” he said. “Just like Russia, any other country could lose access to their legitimate assets in dollars or euros, as well as Western financial and payment systems.”

He alleged that high state debt had helped undermine global trust in Western institutions.

“The roots of the current global turbulence lie in the transition from a vertical, hierarchical model, which served the interests of a small number of states, to a more complex, distributed and multipolar one,” Putin said. “Russia views global changes not only as a threat but also as immense opportunities. And to capitalize on them, we aim to act swiftly and pragmatically.”

The Russian leader said the world needed a “modern, flexible and responsible financial architecture — free from risks, bans and barriers.”

Putin stresses Russia's macroeconomic stability

Putin played down Russia’s economic slowdown and sought to emphasize its macroeconomic stability. He noted that Russia’s state debt is a fraction of that in Western countries and its budget deficit is considerably smaller, compared with the West.

The forum comes at a time when Russia’s economic outlook has clouded amid the conflict in Ukraine. The government raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to keep its budget deficit under control.

On Thursday, Putin told heads of international media on the forum's sidelines that it was an exaggeration to say Russia's economy was struggling. He noted that his government had taken deliberate steps to cool the economy to keep inflation under control.

Putin has used the St. Petersburg forum, likened to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to showcase his country’s economic advances and encourage foreign investment. While Western officials and business leaders have stayed away after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, Russia has sought guests from elsewhere to underline its declared goal of promoting a “multipolar world.”

Saudi Arabia sent a large delegation this year, and the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania and vice president of China also gave speeches Friday. A U.S. official, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, is attending for the first time in years.

Cook was singled out in the audience during a question-and-answer session following Putin's speech. Cook praised the beauty of St. Petersburg and Putin thanked him for the remarks about his hometown and asked to convey his greetings to Trump.

Hours before the forum opened Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack set ablaze an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and also hit a nearby naval base.

Putin declared that Russia was “calmly and resolutely” moving to reach its goals in Ukraine. He acknowledged the damage from Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia and vowed to build up defenses.

“They do inflict a certain damage,” he said. “For us, it means only one thing: we need to strengthen our security, strengthen air defenses, and we will do that.”

How long the government can withstand the economic strain -- and what it will ultimately take for it to make changes -- remains unclear.

The communist island is seeing an exodus of international companies. Hotels, along with Visa and Mastercard, are shuttering operations as they rush to meet an end-of-week deadline to avoid sanctions threatened by the Trump administration.

The latest economic blow targets Grupo de Administración Empresarial, known as GAESA.

“GAESA is an economic conglomerate created by Raul Castro while Fidel was still alive,” said Cuba analyst Andy Gomez.

The U.S. government believes the conglomerate controls billions of dollars in assets. It was created in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union and is run by the Cuban military apparatus.

“So the purpose of GAESA was to lift the economy, not just for the government but for the nation,” Gomez said.

Critics argue it evolved into something else.

“They own the tourist sector, they own mining, they own the gas stations. They own everything. So you have people literally starving, a power grid that hasn’t been maintained in 10 years, and yet you have this military government sitting on these assets,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Gomez said he sees only one path forward.

“I see for them no way out but sitting down and negotiating with the United States,” Gomez said. “Now I say negotiate.”

But Gomez warned that any such process would take time.

“This cannot be done overnight,” he said.

“There is no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba,” Gomez added.

Amid the worsening social and economic fallout, Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez Oliva Fraga, the grandnephew of Fidel and Raul Castro, is reportedly seeking business investments from Russia.

La oficina de la alcaldesa anunció en un comunicado de prensa la renuncia del director de Operaciones del Condado, Jimmy Morales, y de la directora de PortMiami, Hydi Webb.

La medida ocurre una semana después de que residentes de Fisher Island demandaran a un desarrollador, solicitando a un tribunal que impida la venta del depósito de combustible sin su consentimiento por escrito, argumentando que la transacción viola un acuerdo previo.

También sostienen que la amenaza del condado de recurrir a la expropiación es inconstitucional. Una demanda federal separada también continúa su curso en el sistema judicial.

Local 10 News está trabajando para preguntar a la oficina de la alcaldesa si la más reciente demanda tuvo alguna influencia en los cambios de liderazgo y también contactó al desarrollador para solicitar comentarios.

Mientras tanto, en un comunicado, Levine Cava dijo en parte que está “profundamente agradecida” con Morales y Webb “por su extraordinario servicio al condado Miami-Dade y a nuestros residentes”.

“Su liderazgo, integridad y dedicación han ayudado a fortalecer nuestro condado”, dijo.

Local 10 News solicitó copias de sus cartas de renuncia.

El director de Servicios Públicos y Regulatorios, Roy Coley, fue ascendido al cargo de vicealcalde, donde supervisará varios departamentos e instalaciones del condado, incluido el aeropuerto y el puerto marítimo.

El subdirector del puerto, Frederick Wong, se desempeñará como director interino de PortMiami.

Lea la demanda:

249080291 Complaint by Chris Gothner

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Rogerio Miranda De Souza, 49, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Wednesday night on a new charge of indecent exposure, according to jail records.

South Miami police said the incident related to his latest arrest occurred May 11 and involved a different female victim.

According to an arrest report, the victim was driving south on U.S. 1 near the 5700 block of South Dixie Highway when De Souza drove his gray Tesla “extremely close” to the driver’s side of the woman’s vehicle, at which time she saw that he had his penis exposed and was stroking it.

Police said De Souza continued to follow the victim, even driving through a red light to catch up to the woman who was trying to get away from him.

According to the report, the victim eventually lost sight of De Souza near the 11400 block of South Dixie Highway.

Police said the victim remained there until Pinecrest police officers arrived, but they told her she would need to report the incident to South Miami police since the alleged incident occurred in their jurisdiction.

According to the report, the victim did not want to file a police report at the time, but decided to come forward after learning that De Souza had been arrested for a similar incident.

“She was frightened, she was scared. She did not want to come forward,” Detective Jackie Del Sol said. “She had actually seen it on the news and that’s what made her come forward. She had been involved in the same incident.”

Investigators said they were able to identify De Souza through the use of a license plate reader. Detectives later contacted his attorney, and De Souza surrendered to authorities Wednesday.

The arrest comes just weeks after De Souza appeared before a judge in a separate indecent exposure case.

In that incident, police said a woman reported being followed for nearly 30 minutes on May 15 after leaving a gym in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. According to investigators, De Souza repeatedly drove around the woman’s vehicle, cut her off in traffic and, at one point, was seen touching himself while driving alongside her.

Police said the woman provided detectives with a license plate number that helped lead investigators to De Souza.

At the time of that arrest, detectives told Local 10 News they were investigating another case involving similar allegations. However, authorities have not confirmed whether the latest arrest is connected to that earlier investigation.

De Souza appeared in bond court Thursday morning and was ordered held on a $25,000 bond. If he posts bond, he will be placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor. He has also been ordered by a judge to stay away from the victims in both cases.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward informaron que el hecho ocurrió poco antes de las 3:30 a.m. del 11 de abril en la cuadra 3000 de West Sample Road, en un área no incorporada a las afueras de Pompano Beach.

Los agentes indicaron que Sult President, de 47 años y residente de Pompano Beach, conducía una Nissan Pathfinder 2006 hacia el este por los carriles en dirección oeste en el paso elevado de Florida’s Turnpike cuando chocó de frente en el carril central contra una Hyundai Tucson 2025, causando la muerte de su conductor, Nicholas Addis.

Los paramédicos declararon muerto a Addis, de 36 años, en el lugar y trasladaron a President a un hospital con lesiones graves.

Los fiscales informaron en la corte que President tenía un nivel de alcohol en sangre de 0.23%, casi tres veces el límite legal, y los investigadores indicaron que conducía a velocidades de hasta 75 mph.

Desde entonces fue arrestado y trasladado al centro de detención North Broward Bureau en Pompano Beach, donde permanece encarcelado enfrentando cargos de homicidio vehicular, conducir bajo los efectos del alcohol causando una muerte, conducir bajo los efectos del alcohol con daños a una persona o propiedad y conducción temeraria, con una fianza total de $210,000 USD.

Si paga la fianza, un juez determinó que deberá portar dispositivos de monitoreo GPS y de alcohol, además de someterse a pruebas aleatorias. También deberá permanecer en el condado Broward, no podrá conducir y deberá entregar su pasaporte.

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The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says the suspect is dead and confirmed that the suspect and one of the victims were both students at USF.

Officials say HSCO deputies responded to a call just after 4:30 a.m. Wednesday when they found the victims at an off-campus apartment.

They said both victims are in stable condition.

Hours later, around 3:45 p.m., authorities say they found the presumed suspect dead at another apartment complex for USF students.

Deputies also confirmed that the suspect and one of the victims were roommates, while the second victim was not affiliated with the university.

“I could have walked out of my apartment, and it could have been me and that’s definitely very scary,” said resident McKenzie Miller.

The apartment where the suspect was found dead is just half a mile down the street from Avalon Heights, the student housing complex where prosecutors said two USF graduate students were stabbed to death in April.

Right now, officials say this week’s stabbing appears to be an isolated event and that there are no threats to the USF community.

Local 10 News también conversó con el comisionado de Pembroke Pines, Jay Schwartz, propietario de la escuela de vuelo vinculada a la aeronave involucrada en el accidente.

Los investigadores informaron que una aeronave despegó de North Perry Airport el 29 de mayo. Poco después del despegue, la aeronave sufrió una falla de motor, lo que obligó al piloto a intentar un aterrizaje de emergencia.

La aeronave se estrelló en las afueras del South Florida State Hospital.

Un estudiante piloto y un instructor de vuelo se encontraban dentro de la aeronave volcada. Ambos resultaron heridos, pero sobrevivieron, en parte gracias a las personas que acudieron a ayudar.

“Mientras conducía hacia el sur por University, de regreso a casa, vi esta aeronave sobre mí y parecía que estaba perdiendo altitud”, dijo Nathan Gansert, el buen samaritano que ayudó.

Según un informe policial, la empresa de la escuela de vuelo vinculada a la aeronave es Blue Sky, propiedad de Schwartz. El informe también indica que uno de los sobrevivientes dijo que la aeronave había estado experimentando problemas de motor el día anterior al accidente.

El miércoles, líderes de la ciudad reconocieron a Gansert por ayudar a rescatar a las dos personas que iban a bordo.

Gansert dijo que conducía cuando notó una aeronave volando inusualmente bajo antes de que desapareciera de su vista.

“Me di cuenta de que ya no la veía en el cielo”, dijo Gansert. “Doblé una esquina, luego otra y vi ramas de árboles en el suelo. Vi a una de las jóvenes comenzar a salir y me bajé de mi auto y corrí hacia allí para ayudar a la otra. Hice lo que mejor sé hacer y supongo que eso es ser humano”.

Schwartz agradeció a Gansert durante la ceremonia.

“Salvaste a nuestras muchachas”, dijo Schwartz. “Una de ellas está viendo esto ahora mismo. Solo han pasado cinco noches. Cuando las cosas mejoren, vamos a reunirnos”.

Se espera que ambos sobrevivientes se recuperen.

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Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said it happened at just before 3:30 a.m. on April 11 along the 3000 block of West Sample Road in an unincorporated area outside of Pompano Beach.

Deputies said Sult President, 47, of Pompano Beach, was driving a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder, heading east in the westbound lanes on the overpass for Florida’s Turnpike when he hit a 2025 Hyundai Tucson head-on in the center lane, killing its driver, Nicholas Addis.

Medics pronounced Addis, 36, dead at the scene and took President to a hospital with serious injuries.

Addis is the son of former Coral Springs Mayor Vincent Boccard.

Prosecutors said in court that President had a blood-alcohol level of 0.23%, nearly three times the legal limit, and investigators said he was driving up to 75 mph.

He has since been arrested and taken to the North Broward Bureau detention center in Pompano Beach, where he remains behind bars on charges of vehicular homicide, DUI resulting in death, DUI with damage to a person or property and reckless driving. His total bond was set at $210,000.

If he bonds out, a judge ruled he must wear a GPS monitor and alcohol monitoring devices and submit to random testing. He must also remain in Broward County, he cannot drive and he must surrender his passport.

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Local 10 News also heard from Pembroke Pines Commissioner Jay Schwartz, who owns the flight school connected to the aircraft involved in the crash.

Investigators said a plane took off from North Perry Airport on May 29. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft experienced engine failure, forcing the pilot to attempt an emergency landing.

The plane crashed outside South Florida State Hospital.

A student pilot and a flight instructor were inside the overturned aircraft. Both were injured but survived, thanks in part to people who rushed to help.

“As I was driving south on University (Drive), going back home, I see this plane above me and it looked like it was losing altitude,” said Nathan Gansert, a Good Samaritan who helped.

According to a police report, the flight school company connected to the plane is Blue Sky, which is owned by Schwartz. The report also states that one of the survivors said the plane had been experiencing engine issues the day before the crash.

On Wednesday, city leaders honored Gansert for helping rescue the two people onboard.

Gansert said he was driving when he noticed a plane flying unusually low before it disappeared from view.

“I noticed I didn’t see it in the sky anymore,” Gansert said. “I turn the corner, turn the other corner and see tree branches on the ground. I see one of the girls start to climb out and I jumped out my car and ran over there and helped the other one. I did what I do best, and I guess that’s being a human.”

Schwartz thanked Gansert during the ceremony.

“You saved our girls,” Schwartz said. “One of them is watching right now. It’s only been five nights. When things get better, we’re going to get together.”

Both survivors are expected to recover.

The stars were stars.

The finals, though, tends to get won by the sum of the other parts.

Game 2 of the title series is Friday night in San Antonio, with the Spurs hoping to pull into a tie before the series heads to New York — and the Knicks aiming at becoming the first team since Houston in 1995 to start the NBA Finals with two road wins.

Tipoff is at 8:42 p.m. EDT and the game will be aired on ABC. The Spurs are 6.5-point favorites.

New York got 30 points from Brunson in the Game 1 win, in which the Knicks rallied from 14 points down in the third quarter and closed the game on an 11-0 run. And while Brunson got tons of credit, the Knicks pointed to other efforts, like the one from Josh Hart.

He had three points. That's not what mattered. It was everything else — 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals. The only other player to have that many rebounds, assists and steals in a finals game since all those stats began being tracked was Larry Bird in 1986.

“His energy is just relentless. It doesn’t stop,” Brunson said of Hart, his former Villanova teammate. “I mean, he eats candy all the time. That tells you who he is. He’s a big kid with an absurd amount of energy.”

The Knicks are trying to win their 13th consecutive playoff game, which would be the second-longest single-season streak in NBA history. Golden State won 15 consecutive playoff games in 2017.

“We know it’s a long series,” Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox said. “Obviously you want to win every game that you have on your home court, but it’s not the way it happens every day. We try to go in and fix the things we need to fix. Obviously, we want a different outcome.”

___

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

Here's everything you need to know about “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

Taylor Swift goes country ... again

Swift doesn't sing with a familiar twang on “I Knew It, I Knew You,” but no matter — the song features some elements inextricable from the country genre: Live instrumentation, plucky banjo and harmonica that opens the track.

Most view Swift's last official foray into the country music genre to be 2012's “Red,” though the album is much more of a crossover experiment. It would be more astute to label “Speak Now” as her last true-blue, full-length, country music release — and that was more than 15 years ago.

Additionally: “I Knew It, I Knew You” is also Swift's first original material since “The Life of a Showgirl” was released in October.

The song is also co-produced by Jack Antonoff, her former, frequent collaborator. Swift started working with Antonoff on 2014's “1989” through 2024's “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Notably, the pair started their long collaboration after Swift's country era, perhaps with the rare exception of “Betty” from her 2020 “Folklore” album.

“Writing this song felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time. Creating something for Jessie was a new challenge and also felt like second nature all at once,” Swift wrote on social media Friday, referencing the beloved cowgirl character. “And being a ‘Toy Story’ kid from the age of 5 til now… is an adventure I plan to be on, to infinity and beyond.”

The ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ rollout

Last weekend, billboards with the initials “TS,” stylized like the “Toy Story” logo, appeared in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Toronto, Mexico City and London — fitting, as “TS” works both for the beloved franchise and the musician.

On Monday, Swift confirmed the song was forthcoming, writing on Instagram, “I’ve always dreamed of getting to write for these characters who I’ve adored since I was a 5-year-old kid watching the first Toy Story movie. I fell instantly in love with Toy Story 5 when I was lucky enough to see it in its early stages, and I wrote this song as soon as I got home from the screening. Sometimes you just know, right?”

She also shared that preorders for three CD single versions of the track were available on her site. They quickly sold out: One features the song as it appears in the film, another is an acoustic version and the last is a piano version.

“It’s incredible just how meaningful it’s been having Taylor write and perform this song. Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable,” “Toy Story 5” director and writer Andrew Stanton said in a press statement at the time. “The song is so deeply connected to ‘Toy Story.’ So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member. It was kismet.”

Is Taylor Swift headed to the Oscars?

Some fans online have begun speculating: Could this be an Oscar contender in the original song category?

Quite possibly, if it adheres to all relevant rules and regulations! For 2027 Academy Awards consideration, a feature film — and its song submissions — must have a qualifying theatrical release between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 this year. “Toy Story 5” will be released in theaters worldwide on June 19, so it qualifies there.

It also depends on when “I Knew It, I Knew You” is placed in “Toy Story 5.” There's a new rule this year: If the song plays over the end credits, it must also overlap with the last 15 seconds of the film before the credits actually begin.

At any rate, if Swift's song is submitted — and if she were to win — she'd be just that much closer to an EGOT. She has 14 Grammys and an Emmy. An Oscar would mean she'd only need a Tony. Could Broadway be next?

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Now, for the first time in its 100-plus-year history, the legendary brand is expanding beyond California — and it has chosen Miami as its first destination.

Located on the ninth floor of the Gale Miami Hotel & Residences in downtown Miami, Yamashiro Miami brings the glamour of old Hollywood together with Japanese-inspired design, elevated cuisine, and immersive entertainment.

“This is our first expansion outside of the 100 years that we’ve been open in LA,” said Executive Chef Gustavo Montes. “The vision being capturing that beautiful dynasty of Yamashiro and reimagining it to the Miami market.”

The nearly 9,000-square-foot venue spans multiple levels and features sweeping views of the Miami skyline, lush Japanese-inspired gardens, and a design that feels more like an escape than a traditional restaurant. The space seamlessly blends Hollywood elegance with Japanese architecture, creating an atmosphere that’s both luxurious and welcoming.

While the brand’s history is rooted in Los Angeles — even making appearances in films such as Kill Bill — the Miami location offers a completely original culinary experience.

“This menu here in Miami is a one-off menu,” Montes explained. “It is a new interpretation of Yamashiro. We’re looking to showcase the best ingredients and the best techniques in the world. So we try to showcase everything for quality, freshness, and simplicity.”

The menu highlights a range of inventive dishes that combine Japanese influences with Miami flair. Among the standouts is the Katsusando, a toasted sandwich layered with aioli and finished with a touch of 24-karat gold — a nod to Miami’s love of luxury. Another signature dish is the black cod, marinated with citrus and miso before being finished in the oven and brushed with a delicate sauce.

Montes believes the city is the perfect place for Yamashiro’s next chapter.

“Being a Miami local, I’m kind of one-sided on this,” he said. “But I feel like Miami has become a new culinary capital of the world. We have done a lot to change the landscape of the scene.”

The restaurant’s cocktail program is equally ambitious. One of the most talked-about experiences is the signature martini cart, which rolls directly to guests’ tables and allows them to customize every aspect of their drink, from the spirit selection to specialty garnishes, including caviar.

“The inspiration behind this cart was to create an experience for our guests,” Montes said. “You have the option of having an extremely dirty martini, of making a kimchi martini, or going very classical.”

Beyond dining, Yamashiro is expanding its entertainment offerings with the recent opening of the 400 Vinyl Room, an upscale lounge inspired by Hollywood’s Golden Age. The intimate, 60-seat venue exclusively spins vinyl records and features a music program rooted in funk, soul, disco, and 1980s Latin sounds, with themed nights throughout the week.

Montes says the goal is simple: create a destination where guests can celebrate life’s successes while enjoying exceptional hospitality.

“You should definitely come out and enjoy the fruits of your labor,” he said. “Yamashiro is here to provide A1 hospitality with A1 food.”

Even for guests familiar with the original Los Angeles location, Yamashiro Miami offers a distinctly South Florida experience. And the restaurant’s growth isn’t slowing down. Coming soon, Yamashiro plans to open additional indoor dining space with seating for approximately 180 guests, further expanding its footprint in downtown Miami.

To make a reservation at Yamashiro Miami, click here.

Ahora, por primera vez en sus más de 100 años de historia, la legendaria marca se expande fuera de California y ha elegido a Miami como su primer destino.

Ubicado en el noveno piso del Gale Miami Hotel & Residences, en el centro de Miami, Yamashiro Miami combina el glamour del viejo Hollywood con diseño inspirado en Japón, gastronomía de alto nivel y entretenimiento inmersivo.

“Esta es nuestra primera expansión fuera de los 100 años que hemos estado abiertos en Los Ángeles”, dijo el chef ejecutivo Gustavo Montes. “La visión es capturar esa hermosa dinastía de Yamashiro y reinventarla para el mercado de Miami”.

El local, de casi 9,000 pies cuadrados, se extiende por varios niveles y ofrece amplias vistas del horizonte de Miami, exuberantes jardines inspirados en Japón y un diseño que se siente más como una escapada que como un restaurante tradicional. El espacio combina a la perfección la elegancia de Hollywood con la arquitectura japonesa, creando una atmósfera lujosa y acogedora.

Aunque la historia de la marca está arraigada en Los Ángeles e incluso ha aparecido en películas como Kill Bill, la ubicación de Miami ofrece una experiencia culinaria completamente original.

“Este menú aquí en Miami es un menú único”, explicó Montes. “Es una nueva interpretación de Yamashiro. Buscamos mostrar los mejores ingredientes y las mejores técnicas del mundo. Tratamos de destacar todo por su calidad, frescura y simplicidad”.

El menú destaca una variedad de platos innovadores que combinan influencias japonesas con el estilo de Miami. Entre los más destacados se encuentra el Katsusando, un sándwich tostado con alioli y terminado con un toque de oro de 24 quilates, un guiño al gusto de Miami por el lujo. Otro plato distintivo es el bacalao negro, marinado con cítricos y miso antes de terminarse en el horno y cubrirse con una delicada salsa.

Montes cree que la ciudad es el lugar perfecto para el próximo capítulo de Yamashiro.

“Como residente de Miami, quizá soy un poco parcial”, dijo. “Pero siento que Miami se ha convertido en una nueva capital culinaria del mundo. Hemos hecho mucho para cambiar el panorama de la escena gastronómica”.

El programa de cocteles del restaurante es igual de ambicioso. Una de las experiencias más comentadas es su carrito de martinis exclusivo, que se lleva directamente a las mesas y permite a los clientes personalizar cada aspecto de su bebida, desde la selección del licor hasta las guarniciones especiales, incluido el caviar.

“La inspiración detrás de este carrito fue crear una experiencia para nuestros invitados”, dijo Montes. “Tienes la opción de pedir un martini extremadamente seco, preparar un martini de kimchi o irte por algo muy clásico”.

Más allá de la gastronomía, Yamashiro está ampliando su oferta de entretenimiento con la reciente apertura de 400 Vinyl Room, un salón exclusivo inspirado en la época dorada de Hollywood. El íntimo espacio, con capacidad para 60 personas, reproduce exclusivamente discos de vinilo y cuenta con una programación musical basada en funk, soul, disco y sonidos latinos de la década de 1980, con noches temáticas durante toda la semana.

Montes afirma que el objetivo es simple: crear un destino donde los clientes puedan celebrar los éxitos de la vida mientras disfrutan de una hospitalidad excepcional.

“Definitivamente deberían venir a disfrutar los frutos de su trabajo”, dijo. “Yamashiro está aquí para ofrecer hospitalidad de primera y comida de primera”.

Incluso para los clientes familiarizados con la ubicación original de Los Ángeles, Yamashiro Miami ofrece una experiencia claramente del sur de Florida. Y el crecimiento del restaurante no se detiene. Próximamente, Yamashiro planea abrir espacio adicional para comedor interior con capacidad para aproximadamente 180 comensales, ampliando aún más su presencia en el centro de Miami.

Para hacer una reservación en Yamashiro Miami, haga clic aquí.

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According to police, Raul Gabino Salvador, 88, was last seen driving his white Dodge Avenger with Florida tag JFQG08.

Police did not confirm the day he was last seen, but said he was wearing a gray polo shirt, black pants and black shoes.

Salvador is 5 feet tall and weighs about 140 pounds. He has white hair.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call the Hialeah Police Department at 305-687-2525.

Según la policía, Raul Gabino Salvador, de 88 años, fue visto por última vez conduciendo su Dodge Avenger blanco con matrícula de Florida JFQG08.

La policía no confirmó el día en que fue visto por última vez, pero indicó que vestía una camisa tipo polo gris, pantalones negros y zapatos negros.

Salvador mide 5 pies de estatura y pesa aproximadamente 140 libras. Tiene el cabello blanco.

Cualquier persona con información sobre su paradero debe llamar al Departamento de Policía de Hialeah al 305-687-2525.

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The Broward Sheriff’s Office arrested Darrien Marquez Fleno in Dania Beach and booked him into jail on charges of traveling to meet a minor and transmission of harmful materials to a minor.

According to his arrest report, Hollywood police officers were called to a Family Dollar store on South Federal Highway on Oct. 17, 2025, and were told by two people there that a man, later identified as Fleno, was inside the store, trying to meet a teenage girl for sex.

Officers made contact with Fleno and he agreed to provide a statement to detectives and allow them to search his cellphone, the report stated. His statement to detectives was redacted from the publicly released report.

According to the report, detectives discovered that Fleno had been communicating with who he thought was a teenage girl, but was actually a man who is a member of an organization called New York Predhunters.

Detectives said the man agreed to send the phone used to send and receive text messages with Fleno to South Florida for authorities to review.

According to the report, throughout the text messages, the topic of age was discussed multiple times and at one point, Fleno stated that he wouldn’t want to be seen with the teen in public because people might question what an older man was doing with a teenage girl.

Detectives said Fleno believed the “teen” lived in West Palm Beach and made arrangements to stay overnight with her at a hotel in Hollywood.

Police said Fleno sent the “teen” explicit photos of himself and made multiple sexual comments about what he wanted to do with her at the hotel.

As of Friday morning, Fleno was being held at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on a $100,000 bond.

La Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Broward arrestó a Darrien Marquez Fleno en Dania Beach y lo ingresó en la cárcel acusado de viajar para encontrarse con un menor y de transmitir material perjudicial a un menor.

Según el informe de su detención, agentes de la policía de Hollywood fueron llamados a una tienda Family Dollar en South Federal Highway el 17 de octubre de 2025, y dos personas que se encontraban allí les dijeron que un hombre, posteriormente identificado como Fleno, estaba dentro de la tienda, tratando de encontrarse con una adolescente para tener relaciones sexuales.

Los agentes contactaron con Fleno, quien accedió a prestar declaración ante los detectives y a permitirles registrar su teléfono móvil, según consta en el informe. Su declaración a los detectives fue eliminada del informe publicado.

Según el informe, los detectives descubrieron que Fleno se había estado comunicando con quien creía que era una adolescente, pero que en realidad era un hombre miembro de una organización llamada New York Predhunters.

Los detectives dijeron que el hombre accedió a enviar el teléfono utilizado para enviar y recibir mensajes de texto con Fleno al sur de Florida para que las autoridades lo revisaran.

Según el informe, a lo largo de los mensajes de texto se habló varias veces del tema de la edad y, en un momento dado, Fleno afirmó que no quería que lo vieran con la adolescente en público porque la gente podría cuestionar qué hacía un hombre mayor con una chica adolescente.

Los detectives dijeron que Fleno creía que la “adolescente” vivía en West Palm Beach e hizo arreglos para pasar la noche con ella en un hotel de Hollywood.

La policía dijo que Fleno le envió a la “adolescente” fotos explícitas de sí mismo e hizo múltiples comentarios sexuales sobre lo que quería hacer con ella en el hotel.

Hasta el viernes por la mañana, Fleno permanecía detenido en el centro de detención Paul Rein bajo una fianza de 100.000 dólares.

En la primera vuelta de abril Keiko Fujimori, de Fuerza Popular, y Roberto Sánchez, de Juntos por el Perú, se elevaron por encima de más de una treintena de rivales, pero la suma de votos entre ambos no superó el 30%.

La conservadora Fujimori, hija del fallecido y condenado expresidente Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), obtuvo 17,18% de los sufragios mientras el nacionalista Sánchez, aliado del exmandatario encarcelado Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), consiguió 12,03%.

“Hay un bolsón de indecisos... creo que es ahí donde los anti-voto en clave emocional van a jugarse el partido final”, dijo a The Associated Press el analista político Iván García.

Una encuesta de fines de mayo de la firma Ipsos Perú dio a Fujimori 38% de intención de voto y 35% a Sánchez, mientras quienes no se habían decidido por uno de ellos sumaron 27%. El margen de error del sondeo fue de 2,8 puntos porcentuales.

A su vez, ambos candidatos cosechan un alto nivel de rechazo: 40% de los encuestados dijo que no votaría por Fujimori y 38% que no lo haría por Sánchez.

La oposición a Fujimori está ligada a la herencia autoritaria y de corrupción del gobierno de su padre, mientras las objeciones a Sánchez apuntan al temor de su alianza con Castillo, percibido como corrupto y caótico. En la breve gestión de 16 meses de Castillo hubo más de 70 cambios ministeriales.

Fujimori busca otra vez el poder

La política de 51 años —que se postula por cuarta vez a la presidencia— afirma que en su eventual gestión habrá “orden” para las inversiones extranjeras y la seguridad interna, amenazada por el incremento de la delincuencia. En el último quinquenio se han quintuplicado las extorsiones y duplicado los asesinatos en el país.

En el único debate previo al balotaje Fujimori reivindicó el gobierno de su padre y prometió que vencerá a la criminalidad al igual que Alberto Fujimori derrotó al grupo terrorista Sendero Luminoso.

Afirmó que en su gobierno habrá “pollo más barato, balones de gas a precio accesible, fertilizantes a buen precio para tu cosecha, saber que saldrás a trabajar y volverás sano y salvo a tu casa”.

La candidata ha intentado matizar su imagen de “mano dura” con muestras de proximidad hacia antiguos rivales como el expresidente Pedro Kuczynski (2016-2018), quien la venció en los comicios de 2016.

Kuczynski renunció en 2018 en medio de pedidos de destitución y censuras a ministros claves impulsadas por el partido de Fujimori, quien luego le pidió disculpas por la inestabilidad generada durante su gestión.

“Sé que a lo largo de mi vida política he cometido errores, de ellos aprendí", aseguró la candidata durante el debate.

Qué propone Sánchez

El legislador, popular en el sector rural y el sur del país, ha intentado calmar la preocupación que genera su candidatura entre los inversionistas. El psicólogo de profesión ha repetido públicamente que no expropiará ningún activo de empresas transnacionales que extraen minerales o gas de Perú.

Durante el debate dijo que un eventual gobierno suyo estará abierto a “todas las banderas para generar trabajo y progreso”, pero destacó su apoyo a las inversiones de China como el tren bioceánico que busca conectar al estratégico puerto de Chancay, sobre el Pacífico, con la costa atlántica de Brasil.

Sánchez, de 57 años y quien viste un sombrero campesino de ala ancha que le regaló Castillo, también ha tomado distancia de un socio menor, el ultranacionalista Antauro Humala —exmilitar y hermano del encarcelado expresidente Ollanta Humala (2011-2016)— que propone aplicar la pena de muerte en casos de corrupción.

En declaraciones a The Associated Press dijo que buscará renegociar los contratos mineros de forma consensuada, incluido el de Las Bambas, una de las minas de cobre más grandes del mundo controlada por la estatal china Minmetals.

Las expectativas del mercado

En un documento emitido a inicios de esta semana la agencia de calificación crediticia Fitch Ratings sostuvo que una victoria de Fujimori “impulsaría la inversión privada y la ejecución de proyectos", mientras que si gana Sánchez “aumentaría la incertidumbre sobre impuestos, regalías, estabilidad contractual e intervención estatal”.

Sin embargo, destacó que “independientemente de quién gane” los problemas de gobernabilidad de Perú — que vio pasar ocho presidentes en una década — y la composición del Congreso bicameral, en el que ningún partido tiene mayoría, “limitarán la capacidad del próximo gobierno” para impulsar reformas claves, grandes planes mineros y obras de infraestructura cruciales para el crecimiento.

En el nuevo Senado, compuesto por 60 legisladores, se necesitan al menos 40 votos para destituir a un presidente. Según los expertos la única protegida contra una eventual remoción es Fujimori que posee 22 senadores, mientras Sánchez sólo tiene 14 y estará obligado a tejer alianzas con otras fuerzas políticas.

Para García, si gana Fujimori el Congreso “sería mucho más favorable”, pero si triunfa Sánchez “estaría afilando los cuchillos todas las semanas”.

Las víctimas fueron identificadas por la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade como Ryan Charles Whiten, de 42 años; Melanie Lauren Hyer, de 46; y sus hijas biológicas, Savannah Whiten, de 11 años, y Sienna Whiten, de 8.

Según los investigadores, los detectives determinaron que Ryan Whiten era el padre biológico de Savannah y Sienna y compartía la crianza de las menores con Hyer. La investigación concluyó que él mató a los tres familiares antes de quitarse la vida.

Los registros muestran que Ryan Whiten y Hyer habían estado divorciados durante años.

Según los investigadores, agentes de la Policía de Doral respondieron el martes por la noche a una vivienda en la comunidad cerrada Doral Isles después de que un amigo de la familia, preocupado por su bienestar, solicitara una verificación.

Las autoridades informaron que los agentes ingresaron a la vivienda y encontraron a las cuatro personas fallecidas. La policía confirmó que todas presentaban heridas de arma blanca en sus cuerpos.

Mientras la investigación continúa, vecinos y padres de familia de la comunidad luchan por asimilar los asesinatos.

“Eso es una tragedia”, dijo Anderina Zerpa, quien vive cerca. “Es la peor pesadilla para un padre”.

Zerpa dijo que quedó atónita al enterarse de lo ocurrido tan cerca de su hogar.

“Vivo súper cerca de su casa y ni siquiera lo sabía”, agregó.

Entre quienes lamentan la pérdida se encuentra la alcaldesa de Doral, Christi Fraga, quien dijo que conocía personalmente a Hyer a través de la comunidad escolar de sus hijos.

“La veía casi todas las mañanas cuando dejaba a mi hijo en la escuela”, dijo Fraga.

Fraga describió a Hyer como una madre que trabajaba para unir a las familias.

“Fue ella quien creó el chat de todas las mamás para organizar almuerzos, reuniones y construir una comunidad alrededor de nuestros hijos”, agregó.

Fraga dijo que espera que la familia sea recordada por el impacto positivo que tuvo en quienes los rodeaban y no por las circunstancias de sus muertes.

“Queremos recordarlos por sus personalidades alegres, sus hermosas sonrisas y orar por sus almas, por sus familias y por todos los que los rodeaban y que se verán afectados por esto”, añadió.

Un representante de Downtown Doral Charter Schools confirmó previamente que Savannah y Sienna eran estudiantes de la escuela, donde se han puesto a disposición consejeros de duelo para estudiantes y personal.

Fraga también alentó a cualquier persona que esté experimentando violencia doméstica o problemas de salud mental a buscar ayuda.

Hay recursos disponibles a través del programa de servicios para víctimas de violencia doméstica de la Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade y de la página de recursos de salud mental de la ciudad de Doral.

Los detectives de la Oficina de Homicidios de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade han asumido la investigación.

The disappearance of the girl identified by police as Lyhanna and days of searches that ended with the discovery of her body in a disused grain silo have gripped national and, increasingly, political attention since she went missing in the southwestern Gers region on May 29.

Police notices said she'd been wearing a black-and-white striped top, black shorts and yellow socks with branding from the Japanese manga series “One Piece.”

After six days of searching by police and volunteers, authorities announced Thursday that a child's body dressed in “similar clothes” had been found.

Police were led to the grain silo by a tip-off that the suspect in custody had previously worked there, Gers-region prosecutor Olivier Naboulet said in a statement on Friday evening.

DNA matching confirmed the body was Lyhanna's but more autopsy work is needed to determine the cause of death, Naboulet said.

Speaking earlier Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron joined the outpouring of dismay, saying the case revealed cracks in the system and that he was “shocked.”

“Things didn't happen as they should have done. That is clear. And so it is unacceptable,” Macron said. “We cannot look her family in the face and say everything went well."

French media reported that the 41-year-old man taken into custody was seen in front of Lyhanna's school in the Gers town of Fleurance and, on surveillance cameras, later spotted driving with her in his car. He told investigators that he dropped her off near the municipal swimming pool, media reports said.

Another Gers-region prosecutor, Clémence Meyer, said this week that young girls and their families had previously lodged multiple complaints about the suspect, including allegations of rape.

An allegation that the man raped a minor at his Gers-region home in 2020 was looked into, with medical evaluations and police interviews, but authorities closed the case in 2024 for lack of evidence, the prosecutor said.

The man was the subject of another, still ongoing police investigation for alleged rape when Lyhanna disappeared. The child in that case alleges that the suspect raped her repeatedly at his home in 2024 and 2025, the prosecutor said. That case has bounced between jurisdictions.

She said another allegation of raping a minor was lodged against the man this week.

The government has launched an investigation. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said officials will look at the time it took for casework to be transferred between jurisdictions, why information is transmitted on paper, not electronically, why police seemingly didn't follow orders and “why we didn’t intervene despite many months of complaints against the man.”

“It’s completely unacceptable,” Darmanin said, speaking Thursday. “We are all terrified by this malfunction."

He said it reveals "our poor organization and without doubt, the fact that at the Justice Ministry and elsewhere, we don’t take the words of children seriously.”

The judge said the policy threw countless immigrants' lives “into indeterminate legal limbo,” and accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early Friday morning, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.

The American job market continues to show surprising strength, shrugging off the high costs of the Iran war. Employers added 172,000 jobs in May – roughly double what forecasters had expected – and the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.

Here's the latest:

US military spent $32M to send gear ahead of nixed deployment, military says

The U.S. military spent $32 million to send equipment to Poland for a 4,000-soldier deployment that was canceled last month, according to U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.

A ship was chartered to take one unit of troops to Europe and bring another back, Transportation Command said. It’s hard to say how much money would have been saved if the deployment was canceled before the troops and equipment began to move.

However, a U.S. military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

— By Emma Burrows and Konstantin Toropin

Trump confirms he’ll be at NBA Finals in New York on Monday

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he plans to be at Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. He clarified his plans a day after saying he was going to a game, possibly on Monday.

A New York native, Trump has said he was invited by Knicks owner James Dolan. “They just have a great team,” Trump said of this year’s squad.

Asked about sky-high prices for tickets to the Finals, Trump said it’s a product of the Knicks’ success. “They can watch it on television,” he said of fans. “That’s the way life is, you know.”

Trump wants to see more cuts in the intelligence community

Trump said Friday that he wants Bill Pulte, his new acting director of national intelligence, to cut the office, which has already been significantly scaled back during the president’s second term.

Trump noted that the size of the office as been “way too high for way too long,” and that “if he cut, I wouldn’t mind.”

“Bill Pulte is very good, he’s very talented,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Wisconsin. The president said in an earlier interview with the Wall Street Journal that he has asked Pulte to start the process of firing employees.

Trump’s zig zag on US troops in Europe is potentially costing millions, officials say

U.S. defense officials say Trump’s recent back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe is upending service members’ lives and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Trump first said he would pull 5,000 troops from Germany after a spat with its chancellor. The Pentagon then cancelled an impending deployment of a similar number of troops to Poland. That was followed by Trump saying that he would be sending 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland.

The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, one of the officials said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

— By Emma Burrows

Legal advocacy group reacts to the ruling on Trump immigration policies

The policies are part of a ongoing efforts by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, in what critics say unfairly prevents travel for people from a broad range of countries.

“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case.

“These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum seekers, and communities across the country,” he said, “who were left in limbo, unable to work, access protections, or move forward with their lives.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Who did these Trump immigration policies affect?

The halted policies apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which approves applications for immigrants to work and become citizens.

The agency, which resides in the Homeland Security Department, often grants asylum but only for those already in the United States when they apply.

Immigration judges grant asylum for those who are stopped at the border; the ruling does not affect them and neither did the policies that sparked the lawsuit.

Judge blocks a Trump policy that made it harder for immigrants to stay and enter the country

The policies enacted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries have been “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications.

In Friday’s ruling harshly criticizing the administration, U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” and he accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

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Rubio meets top Philippine diplomat over the South China Sea and other issues

Secretary of State Marco Rubio affirmed the strength of the two countries’ alliance to Philippine Foreign Minister Theresa Lazaro during Friday’s meeting in Washington.

A State Department statement said their discussion included economic priorities and the South China Sea, where Beijing has been aggressive in its territorial claims over disputed islands and atolls.

The South China Sea is a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil.

In particular, Beijing and Manila have clashed over Scarborough Shoal, which China prefers to call Huangyan Dao.

On Sunday, the Chinese naval and air forces conducted “readiness patrols” near the shoal, after Philippine and U.S. forces conducted a five-day drill in the same waters.

Treasury warns banks of ‘red flags’ tied to customers in the US illegally

The Treasury Department’s financial crimes arm wants banks to help identify payroll schemes tied to people living in the country illegally, as part of the Trump administration’s latest measure to clamp down on immigration.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — also known as FinCEN — issued an advisory Friday to banks that tells them to watch out for identity theft, payroll tax fraud, and money laundering schemes tied to hiring unauthorized workers.

This comes after President Trump in May signed an executive order that requires banks to take a closer look at the citizenship of their customers.

The order directs bank regulators and government departments to look for signs that people without legal status are opening accounts or obtaining loans or credit cards. However, the order is less aggressive than banks had previously expected, as earlier reports suggested the White House was drafting an order that would make collecting customers’ citizenship information mandatory.

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Democratic Wisconsin senator says Trump’s stop in the swing state shows he’s nervous

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin says President Trump’s visit to a rural swing district in Wisconsin shows he knows Republicans are in trouble in the midterms.

The stop on Friday for a farmer-focused round table in Chippewa Falls marks the first time Trump has visited Wisconsin in his second term. It comes just four days after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. toured a dairy farm in the congressional district held by Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.

“They know they’re in trouble,” Baldwin said of Republicans. “They know across the country they’re in trouble.”

Baldwin says Trump’s visit is “not going to do the job in convincing our farmers they are doing better than they’re doing. They know the reality.”

Trump is scheduled to be joined by Van Orden, one of his most vocal supporters. Democrats have targeted that district this year.

US boards an oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean

American forces have boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean, the U.S. military said Friday as the U.S. pushes to prevent the Islamic Republic from profiting off its oil and other goods.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command posted on X that the U.S. forces boarded the MT Davina. The post lacked further details, but U.S. forces around the world have been directed to stop ships tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is enforcing a blockade of Iran’s ports as part of an effort to force Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a deal to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the war.

US set to hold latest oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas development in Alaska faces a new test Friday, with the latest lease sale set for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Opponents of drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain have pointed to a lack of industry interest in the prior two sales held there and ongoing changes in Alaska’s Arctic region due to climate change as proof the region should be off-limits to drilling. But supporters of drilling see the coastal plain, which is roughly the size of Delaware, as a potential untapped resource that could boost U.S. oil production and generate new revenue and jobs.

A coalition of conservation groups this spring sent a letter to leaders of 11 petroleum companies including major ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp, both major players in Alaska, urging them to not participate in the sale. The letter cited ongoing litigation over the leasing program, dating to President Trump’s first term, and warned of “financial, operational and reputational risks.”

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Trump looms large over upcoming primary elections in Washington, DC

The last time Washington, D.C., residents chose a new delegate to Congress and a new mayor in the same election, gas was $1.33 a gallon and George H.W. Bush was president.

This fall they’ll do it again — under starkly different circumstances.

As the city heads toward pivotal primaries this month to pick candidates for those roles, President Trump’s influence on the nation’s capital is shaping up as a major campaign issue. The fresh slate of candidates is weighing how best to approach Trump’s Republican administration and congressional control over the heavily Democratic city’s affairs.

“It’s going to be a big sea change in city politics, no matter how the elections shake out,” said Amanda Huron, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia who teaches courses on D.C. history and politics. But Washington’s lack of full autonomy brings “all sorts of peculiarities around the city’s governance.”

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Trump says he will attend NBA Finals game in New York to root for his hometown Knicks

Trump, a longtime New York Knicks fan, said he plans to attend an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden next week at the invitation of the team’s owner.

Describing himself as a “big fan” of the team and owner James Dolan, Trump said Thursday that he will be in the arena for at least one game next week. The NBA believes it would make him the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.

“The answer is yes — he’s invited me, I’m going,” Trump said of Dolan’s invitation. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was eyeing Game 3 on Monday but didn’t rule out Game 4 on Wednesday. “Maybe I’ll do both.”

Trump, who is simultaneously contending with a war in Iran, strife in Congress and looming midterm elections, said he made sure to catch some of Game 1 on Wednesday as the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.

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Water begins refilling Reflecting Pool after Trump’s renovation to repaint it ‘American flag blue’

Water began refilling the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday, Trump announced from the Oval Office.

Trump showed a video during an unrelated event with water bubbling into the freshly painted basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.

“That’s clean, beautiful water,” the president said.

Live video showed water accumulating in the center of the basin, with workers and trucks still inside the pool.

Trump noted the work to paint the shallow basin a deep shade, which he calls “American flag blue,” was completed Wednesday. The administration said in a court filing that it was set to be filled with water no later than Sunday.

Trump also announced a plan to build a “promenade” that would allow pedestrians to walk from the back of the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.

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Trump says Pulte won’t be his nominee for director of national intelligence

Trump said Thursday that federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, his pick for acting director of national intelligence, would not be his “permanent” choice for the critical security post.

The Republican president’s disclosure that he was ruling out installing Pulte in the position full-time came after bipartisan pushback on Capitol Hill in recent days over Pulte’s lack of national security experience. The position requires Senate confirmation, something that lawmakers indicated was unlikely if Pulte were the nominee.

“He’s not going to be permanent because, you know, I don’t think he’d want to be permanent,” Trump said while taking questions in the Oval Office after an event on coal. He called Pulte a “very smart guy” and said he may look at past elections that Trump claims, without credible evidence, were “rigged” against him.

Senate OKs $70B immigration bill after rejecting efforts to permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund

The Senate passed legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early Friday, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.

Senators voted 52-47 to pass the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term, after Democrats had blocked the money for months. The bill will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up next week.

The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by members of both parties to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund for allies who believe they’ve been politically persecuted.

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The victims, all Nigeriens, were returning home from a religious festival in Mali when the truck stopped running more than 80 kilometers (49 miles) west of Assamaka, near the borders with Mali and Algeria, Niger's Agadez region governorate said in an online post late Thursday.

Two men survived after trekking more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) to a water source and then continuing to Assamaka, where they alerted authorities, the governorate said.

A delegation sent to the scene by the Agadez Region Governor Gen. Ibra Boulama Issa learned the truck had traveled for several days from the Malian town of Talhandek about 300 kilometers (187 miles) from the Nigerien border.

It was not immediately clear what led to the breakdown or how long the passengers waited.

“On the spot, the findings were particularly disturbing. Dozens of lifeless bodies were found under the immobile truck and in its surroundings,” the Agadez governorate said.

Photos published by the governorate showed bodies in the desert with pieces of clothing and other belongings scattered around.

“Deprived of water and unable to repair the vehicle despite the efforts of the driver, his apprentice and passengers, travelers found themselves trapped in the heart of a hostile environment where extreme temperatures and lack of supply points make survival extremely difficult,” the governorate said.

The 49 victims were buried in mass graves at the scene in what officials called a “particularly delicate and emotionally exhausting task” for the survivors.

Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, claimed he shot Joseph Ryan after he came across Ryan attacking his wife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. But prosecutors said Brendan Banfield and au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães set Ryan up in a scheme to get rid of Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.

Judge Penney Azcarate called Banfield’s actions evil and calculated.

“The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable,” she said in handing down the sentence, which is mandatory in Virginia for an aggravated murder conviction. The scheme involved “luring a completely innocent man into your deadly trap; continuing on after the murders without a care; and not once — not once — thinking of the impact” on the Banfields' 4-year-old daughter. Brendan Banfield “took everything from her,” Azcarate said.

In addition to murder, jurors in February convicted Banfield of child endangerment because the couple’s daughter was home during the killings. Azcarate sentenced Banfield to an additional five years on that charge and three more years on a firearms charge.

Speaking at his sentencing, Banfield proclaimed his innocence. Banfield said he loved his wife and, although he had affairs, he never intended to leave her.

Azcarate was unmoved, citing his lack of remorse as a reason she felt no hesitation in ordering him to remain behind bars for life.

During Friday's hearing, Christine Banfield’s older sister, Danielle Hocker, described her sister as kind, caring, reliable and selfless. She said they grew up chasing fireflies and sleeping next to each other on the floor in sleeping bags.

“When she was born, 'I' became ‘we’,” Hocker said. “I haven’t stopped saying ‘we’ when I speak about my childhood after her death, except now when I do, it takes my breath away — a pause filled with love that has nowhere to go.”

Ryan’s mother, Deidre Fisher, told the court that her son was an “extremely caring” person who was a caretaker for his grandmother and other loved ones.

“Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog, and even actual neglected dogs,” Fisher said, with a small laugh. “He would walk into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest dogs, bring them home and love them for years.”

Ryan's aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, said Banfield “didn’t just take Joe and Christine from us. He tried to erase the truth of who they were.”

During Banfield's trial, Magalhães testified he had told her he wanted to marry her and have children with her, but he needed to “get rid of” his wife first. He didn’t want a divorce because “she would have more money than he would” and because he wanted custody of the couple’s daughter, said Magalhães, who was 21 when she started working for the Banfields in 2021.

Magalhães also testified that she and Brendan Banfield staged the scene at the home in Herndon, Virginia, to look as if they had shot a violent intruder. The pair had pretended to be Christine Banfield on a fetish website to lure Ryan to their house for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

On the day of the killings, Magalhães waited in a car outside the house with the daughter. When Ryan arrived, she called Brendan Banfield, who was waiting at a nearby McDonald's. The pair took the child to the basement and then went to the bedroom, where they encountered Ryan. Brendan Banfield shot Ryan and then stabbed Christine Banfield with the knife Ryan had brought. When Magalhães saw Ryan moving, she fired a second shot that killed him.

On Friday, Banfield emphasized that there was dissent within the police department over the theory that he had impersonated his wife, saying it would have been impossible for him to send some of the messages.

Some media have dubbed the case the “au pair affair.” Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter after agreeing to testify against Banfield. Magalhães was sentenced to 10 years in prison after Banfield's trial.

This fall they will do it again — under starkly different circumstances.

As the city heads toward pivotal primaries this month to pick candidates for those roles, President Donald Trump's influence on the nation's capital is shaping up as a major campaign issue. The fresh slate of candidates is weighing how best to approach Trump's Republican administration and congressional control over the heavily Democratic city's affairs.

“It’s going to be a big sea change in city politics, no matter how the elections shake out,” said Amanda Huron, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia who teaches courses on D.C. history and politics. But Washington’s lack of full autonomy brings “all sorts of peculiarities around the city’s governance.”

Since Trump returned to office last year, the National Guard is on an open-ended deployment as part of what he calls a crime-fighting mission. He is putting his personal imprint on the city’s storied landmarks. And major cuts to the federal workforce have compounded economic pressures on the capital, which has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates.

The city has long had a unique, if fraught, relationship with the federal government: While residents can vote for their local leaders, they are limited by Washington’s status as a federal district in how much influence they can actually have on the city’s affairs. That limited autonomy has been further squeezed under Trump and his federal law enforcement takeover, launched last year.

This fall, current council members Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are the frontrunners vying to replace Mayor Muriel Bowser, elected in 2014. The leading candidates in the race to succeed long-serving congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton are Robert White Jr. and Brooke Pinto, also D.C. council members.

On June 16, primaries will be held for those roles, which in an overwhelmingly Democratic city usually dictate who will take the top spot come November.

Washington, and its elected officials, have limited autonomy

Washington, unlike other cities, does not control its fate.

What choices voters have is through a limited home rule agreement passed by Congress in 1973 that allowed residents to elect their local government leaders.

But Congress retains control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the city council. Congressional members elected by voters from thousands of miles away routinely introduce measures to impact city affairs.

That has meant local leaders must balance pressures from their constituents with the demands of Congress and the administration — an act Bowser was forced to perform repeatedly.

During Trump's first term, she ordered the painting and naming of Black Lives Matter Plaza, just north of the White House, in 2020. Just months after Trump’s inauguration to his second term, she agreed to remove it in response to pressure from congressional Republicans.

That act, the decimation of the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency and the surge by federal law enforcement and the National Guard into the city have emerged as central themes in the election season. Right now, about 3,500 troops are in the city — a number authorities say will climb to 5,000 as the country's 250th anniversary celebrations approach.

Trump has routinely said his intervention has made Washington “one of the safest" and most beautiful cities in the country, enjoying a historic drop in crime.

Candidates campaign on promise of resistance to Trump

George told The Associated Press that her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in D.C., which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”

McDuffie said his top priority is public safety as crime continues to be an issue. He has said he would add 1,000 police officers over four years, fully staff the 911 call center after years of chronic staffing shortages and take a public health approach to violence reduction.

“We cannot have an affordable city," he said, “without public safety as its foundation.”

Both said they would bolster the city’s legal defenses against federal overreach and said Bowser should have been less cooperative with federal authorities as they targeted members of the city's immigrant communities.

Alex Dodd, co-founder of Free DC, an activist group supporting city independence, said the organization endorsed George because of her willingness to be more aggressive in opposing Trump and congressional Republicans.

“When our leaders comply with this administration before being forced, they are giving this regime an enormous advantage,” he said.

Pat Wheeler, a native Washingtonian and communications consultant who served as a department head at Morgan State University, applauded Bowser for cooperating with the Trump administration on some aspects. She noted failure to do so could have sparked retribution and a loss of what little control city officials have.

“Trump can snap his finger and the whole Republican Congress will say, ‘Let’s put a federal control board over the mayor,’” she said.

Affordability and social issues also concerns

The D.C. delegate position is a nonvoting one, but it grants the nearly 700,000 people of the district, who have no other representation in Congress, a voice through speechmaking on the House floor and bill introduction.

But critics said the 88-year-old Norton was diminished during the second Trump administration and not visible enough in the fight against administration and congressional overreach on the city’s autonomy. She filed paperwork to end her campaign for reelection in January.

Norton, who has served 18 terms, has had a storied career. She and her predecessor, Walter Fauntroy Jr., both had national standing coming out of the civil rights era.

“Eleanor Holmes Norton is maybe one of the last major political figures who comes out of the civil rights movement,” said Matt Dallek, a political historian at The George Washington University. "It’s a real passing of the torch.”

The campaigns of candidates running to replace her have centered on local control, Trump and affordability. Frontrunners and council members Pinto and White have also engaged in personal skirmishes questioning the origins of campaign contributions and connections to Republicans.

Pinto told the AP her top priority for the city is self-governance, something that has “never been a true reality for the people of D.C.”

She said affordability for the middle-class and working families is another concern.

White's campaign has said he's “not willing to continue to see our tax dollars used to allow DC police to cooperate and conspire with federal agents to trample our constitutional rights and to terrorize our communities.”

Brenda Manley, a longtime resident of Ward 7, an area with a storied Black history across the Anacostia River, said the city was well managed despite the tensions with Trump. But she said she hoped all the candidates would spend more time on the campaign focusing on programs that are beneficial to all residents, like a tuition grant program championed by Norton or major strides made in education during Bowser's tenure.

“Those type of programs matter,” Manley said.

Dawa Sherpa was found Thursday crawling in the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above Everest base camp, a week after he went missing. The 57-year-old was flown to a Kathmandu and reunited with his family. He was being treated for frostbite, dehydration and problems in his thighs but was stable and recovering, HAMS Hospital said in a statement.

His family said they were upset that the search had not begun earlier and filed a police case against Dawa's employer, the Kathmandu-based Himalayan Traverse company, and a complaint at the Department of Tourism, which handles mountaineering in Nepal.

“Action needs to be taken by the mountaineering department. It was negligence of the company that resulted in so much delay in starting rescue,” Dawa's nephew, Karma Gelje Sherpa, said. “If he had been a foreign climber, rescue would definitely have been organized much faster and prompt, but he happened to be an old Nepali.”

Himalayan Traverse could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

Dawa was last seen around May 29 descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though two other foreign climbers who were with him did. They were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled.

Dawa's last location was a spot called Yellow Band above the Camp 3, which is located at 7,200 meters (23,622 feet). The base camp is at 5,300 meters (17,388 feet).

Dawa was last seen with British climber Chris Thrall and a Polish climber identified by local media as Mariusz Chmielewski. Thrall said in his Instagram post that he had to help the Polish climber down the mountain because he was in bad shape and had frostbites.

“He (Dawa) had been in death zone for 19 hours and at that point, a decision was made that we needed to descent through the Icefall,” he said earlier this week, explaining why he did not go up the mountain to look for Dawa.

When helicopters were finally sent to look for him, they could not find him.

It was not clear why the men were on the mountain when authorities had removed the ladders on the path on May 29.

Dawa's family had already given up hope and they were on the second day of a funeral ritual, which lasts for several days.

The team that spotted him was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which lays the ladders and ropes on the route at the start of each climbing season and then removes the equipment and cleans up the site after climbers have left.

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The filing asks the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the main human rights body of the African Union, to order Equatorial Guinea to immediately halt any further deportations, transfers or removals and improve detention conditions. It also asks the body to grant compensation to people who already have been returned to their home countries.

The case is being brought by several rights groups, including the Global Strategic Litigation Council coalition, on behalf of 14 African migrants deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea between November 2025 and April 2026.

Advocates call it a landmark case

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights can issue decisions and urgent measures, as well as refer cases to the Africa Court on Human and Peoples' Rights but these orders are not binding. Nonetheless, advocates say this is a landmark case that could exercise pressure on governments of African countries who have taken in deportees from the U.S.

It is the first of its kind in the region involving people who had legal protection from removal but were still sent to countries where they face persecution, said Beatrice Njeri, the Global Strategic Litigation Council's regional litigator for Africa.

In March, the commission had already allowed a suit challenging the unlawful and prolonged detention of third country deportees in the African kingdom of Eswatini to proceed.

A month later, Eswatini’s Supreme Court ruled that four of the men sent there could finally meet with a lawyer after they were denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while held at a maximum-security prison.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say, all part of the broad U.S. crackdown on immigration. Immigration lawyers said the Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries.

Equatorial Guinea is one of at least eight other African nations that the U.S. has struck third-country deportation deals with.

Deportees returned to countries where they face persecution

Last week, Equatorial Guinea authorities transferred six deportees to their country of origin in eastern Africa, which lawyers say amount to “chain refoulement,” the indirect return of people to places where they face persecution, despite legal protections by courts in the United States.

The lawyers said the migrants face political, religious and ethnic persecution in their home countries, as well as violence based on sexual orientation. Some had previously been arrested or detained by police or military there, and many had experienced torture and sexual violence. All had previously been protected by U.S. immigration judges from being sent back to their home countries under federal immigration law.

Upon arrival in their home country, two of the deportees later fled to another country and have gone into hiding.

Three others were returned to Equatorial Guinea after their country of origin refused to admit them because they lacked valid travel documents and had not been notified of their arrival.

The migrants were then sent back to Equatorial Guinea, where they remain in legal limbo.

“They have effectively been rendered stateless,” said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, describing the process as a “a cycle of hell.”

Equatorial Guinea is a key U.S. partner despite rights concerns

Under an opaque $7.5 million deal with Washington, at least 32 people were deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea, which the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, has called “one of the most corrupt governments in the world.”

The Associated Press reported on the conditions of deportees who were forced back to their home countries. It also got exclusive access to a hotel turned into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the United States by Equatorial Guinea’s all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to its oil resources. It is also rife with corruption and human rights abuses, according to U.S. officials.

There are virtually no critical voices in Equatorial Guinea, where the government has been accused by rights groups and the U.S. State Department of detaining, torturing and even killing those that dare to speak out.

The country's largest foreign investors are U.S. businesses, and its military receives funding for training from the U.S. government.

There’s barely time to rejoice. As Kemp raises his trophy for a picture, the charter boat’s captain rushes over and then drives a knifelike tool into the fish’s gas-filled bladder. The procedure, required by federal law, is intended to improve the fish’s chances of survival after release.

“Send it overboard,” orders the captain. And with that, Kemp's hopes of bringing the fish home to eat was lost.

Recreational fishermen like Kemp are pitched against commercial fishermen and environmentalists in a legal dispute that has halted what was expected to be the longest snapper season in years, reflecting broader tensions over the Trump administration's efforts to loosen fishing rules and deregulate the seas.

As part of those efforts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in May exempted states from some restrictions under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the landmark law that guides fisheries management. But the decision was halted at the last minute by a federal judge in Washington who blocked the plan.

The Atlantic red snapper is known for both its fighting ability and popularity at the dinner table. After decades of overfishing, regulators in 2010 restricted recreational fishing to only a handful of days each year — when not banned altogether.

Starting last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis led a charge with officials in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to take over management of the recreational Atlantic snapper fishery, casting the effort as guaranteeing anglers’ “God-given right to fish.”

In May, NOAA issued special permits exempting the states from some legal requirements to protect fish. Instead of imposing wholesale fishing bans on bottom fishing each winter, as NOAA had proposed last year, the agency set up an Atlantic snapper season in four states ranging from 39 to 62 days, allowing anglers to keep one fish per day.

“We were excited,” said Kemp, who booked a charter to coincide with the season’s opening day.

Court battle pits recreational anglers against commercial fishermen

The conflict landed in court just before the season was about to begin May 22, and U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued an injunction based in part on environmental concerns. He relied on estimates from the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy suggesting recreational catches could reach up to 485,000 in Florida alone during the expanded season — 20 times the number of landed catch allowed.

Kemp learned about the judge's order from a text message sent by a friend while driving to the marina.

“Originally we thought it was a joke, given the severity,” said Kemp.

The ruling sparked immediate backlash. Florida wildlife officials denounced the decision as the work of a “rogue federal judge,” while some fishermen involved in the lawsuit reported receiving threats after DeSantis falsely accused them of trying to commandeer the quota all for themselves.

One of the plaintiffs, North Carolina fisherman Jeff Oden, said commercial fishermen are struggling to survive amid rising costs and competition from imported seafood. He worries that expanded recreational harvests could leave too few snapper available when the commercial season begins later this year.

“We’re vanishing,” Oden said. “You as a consumer, you’re the loser.”

Stock is rebounding but scientists urge caution

The dispute stems in part from disagreements over the health of the fishery. NOAA estimates that roughly one-quarter of released red snapper die, despite techniques designed to improve their survival like puncturing the bladder to reduce gases that build up in their bladder when pulled up, hindering them from returning to the ocean’s depths where they live.

Yet many fishermen argue the stock is thriving. Kemp’s group hooked about a dozen fish within 40 minutes of arriving to a reef off Florida’s coast.

“To be completely honest, we have never seen an unhealthy stock,” said Haley Stephens, who with her husband operates the Sea Spirit, a charter boat in Ponce Inlet, Florida.

Scientists counter that the abundance of younger fish is misleading and point to biological sampling that indicates most fish being caught haven’t reached the peak of their reproductive maturity.

“It’s tricky because this is a rebuilding fish stock,” said Meredith Moore, a program director at Ocean Conservancy. “So people out in the water are seeing more of the fish than they have seen in a long time, and so that gives them the sense that everything is great.”

NOAA declined to comment on the snapper dispute, citing ongoing litigation. However, it said that it is working with fisheries managers across the country “to better prioritize work around existing resources, explore efficiencies, and streamline operations” in accordance with the “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” executive order signed last year by President Donald Trump.

The judge, in his ruling, faulted Florida and the other states for declining to provide their own harvest projections. Officials, however, argued that existing federal estimates were unreliable and would eventually be replaced with improved state-collected data.

Oden said he understands the frustrations of recreational anglers but believes everyone must share the burden of conservation.

“There’s only so many fish to go around,” he said.

___

Wieffering reported from Washington. Serginho Roosblad contributed from Washington.

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Those killed have since been identified by MDSO as Ryan Charles Whiten, 42; Melanie Lauren Hyer, 46; and their biological daughters, Savannah Whiten, 11, and Sienna Whiten, 8.

According to investigators, detectives determined that Ryan Whiten co-parented the children with Hyer. Authorities said their investigation revealed that he killed the three family members before taking his own life.

Friends of Ryan Whiten and Hyer told Local 10 News that they had been divorced for years.

According to investigators, Doral police officers responded to a home in the gated Doral Isles community Tuesday night after a concerned family friend requested a welfare check.

Authorities said officers entered the home and found all four dead. Police confirmed they all had stab wounds on their bodies.

As the investigation continues, neighbors and parents in the community are struggling to come to terms with the killings.

“That is a tragedy,” said Anderina Zerpa, who lives nearby. “That is a worst nightmare for a parent.”

Zerpa said she was stunned to learn what happened so close to home.

“I live super close to their house and I didn’t even know,” she added.

Among those grieving is Doral Mayor Christi Fraga, who said she knew Hyer personally through their children’s school community.

“I said hi to her almost every morning (while) dropping off my child, my son,” Fraga said.

Fraga described Hyer as a parent who worked to bring families together.

“She’s the one that created the chat of all the moms to kind of go have lunches and stuff, and get together and build a community around our kids,” she added.

Fraga said she hopes the family is remembered for the positive impact they had on those around them rather than the circumstances of their deaths.

“We want to remember them by their bubbly personalities, their beautiful smiles and pray for their souls, pray for their families and for everyone that surrounded them that this will impact,” she added.

A representative for Downtown Doral Charter Schools previously confirmed that Savannah and Sienna were students at the school, where grief counselors have been made available to students and staff.

Loved ones are also focusing on remembering the victims’ lives.

Sandra Bermudez, CEO and founder of The Lucy Project, remembered Hyer as a dedicated mother who gave her time and energy to helping others.

“She fundraised and brought her energy,” Bermudez said of Hyde. “(She was) a mom that cared.”

Bermudez said Hyer was a real estate agent and supported South Florida nonprofit efforts, including literacy programs for children through The Lucy Project.

Her daughter Savannah also participated in the program and had dyslexia, according to those familiar with her involvement.

Virginia Talieh, a learning specialist who worked with Savannah and Sienna, told Local 10 News that she was expecting to work with both sisters in the summer.

“They had a wonderful contagious smile,” Talieh said. “Sienna was like a little Tasmanian devil, like all around all the places. Savannah was like a ray of sunshine. No child deserves anything like that.”

“I’ll miss them,” she added. “ I’ll miss them very much. I haven’t been able to delete them from my calendar for next week.”

Talieh says working with spelling tiles were one of Savannah’s favorite activities.

“She got a 100 percent on that spelling test after discovering the tiles,” Talieh added. “She came back with the tiles and I said, ‘You keep them. My present.’”

In the Doral neighborhood where the family lived, residents said they are grieving and planning to cancel a community event, choosing instead to gather in solidarity and reflection.

Fraga has also encouraged anyone experiencing domestic violence or mental health challenges to seek help.

Resources are available through the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office’s domestic violence services program and the city of Doral’s mental health resources webpage.

MDSO Homicide Bureau detectives have taken over the investigation.

Nursing home worker Danuja Chathuranga's comments came as public outrage grew over the treatment allegedly meted out to residents at the home in Galpatha, where 13 people are now known to have died in the blaze that started late Wednesday.

“There were two who were chained,” said Chathuranga. “You only have to take your eyes away for one moment, they run away. One of them had gone one day with the chair he was tied (to) and was found entangled in a barbed wire fence. Another with sores on (their) legs was brought back from a muddy field.”

“Our intention was not to harm them. They were patients receiving psychiatric treatment. If they run away or fall into a pit, well or get run over by a vehicle, we have to take that responsibility,” he said.

Building now a burned-out shell

The nursing home for people with mental health conditions was abandoned Friday. Glasses cases, medicines and reclining chairs lay strewn around the burned-out shell in the small town about 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo.

The fire-ravaged nursing home and two other nursing facilities run by the same management are unregistered but government officials and institutions have worked with them.

Amala Rajapaksa, the homes' chief administrator, said residents include referrals from the state's main mental hospital, courts and police. Government doctors visit the residents to treat them.

Authorities transferred 21 fire survivors to another nearby home run by the same management.

The area's government welfare officer declined to comment on the arrangements, citing restrictions on state employees to speak to the media.

Rajapaksa said she has managed the homes for 22 years and that her late husband first started a home in memory of his late father. A few years ago, her stepson Isuru Anushka Perera, who is now in detention for negligence, became the director and popularized the homes through social media.

Director drummed up business using TikTok

The home's TikTok videos show a resident doing martial arts moves and others singing and dancing to music with the director, who is known among social media followers as “Loku Ayya,” or older brother.

Rajapaksa said it was a struggle to care for residents until Perera's social media campaign attracted volunteers and donors. Relatives who had the means paid for their resident family members, but others who could not pay were also looked after.

It was not immediately clear how much funding the organization received or how it was used.

On Friday, a victim's family stood near the local hospital morgue awaiting the completion of an autopsy, so they could claim the remains. The father of the victim refused to speak to The Associated Press saying he did not wish to comment on the home's living conditions.

Dolawatta Mudiyanselage Chandra Rajapaksa, the mother of a 45-year-old resident living in another home run by Perera, said she had to keep her son there because she no longer had the strength to care for him.

“He is a mental patient. It's difficult for me to look after him, I am old and in my seventies and a patient myself," she said. She said she brought her son to the home having learned about it “on the phone.”

AP video footage showed the building gutted with charred furniture and equipment. Bodies lay nearby.

71 lived at the home and 50 were rescued

Local television showed images of firefighters, police and residents trying to contain the raging fire. Police and soldiers put those rescued on buses to be taken to a safe location.

According to police, 71 people were staying at the home at the time of the fire, of which 50 were rescued by neighbors, firefighters and police. Seven remained hospitalized Friday.

Chathuranga said it is thought the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit in wiring attached to a water pump.

“The fire initially caught a pile of mattresses and pillows and then quickly spread across the house,” he said, adding that the majority of the residents were rescued, but 10 people were caught in the fire and burned to death. Three others have since died in hospital.

Perera, the director of the home, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death through negligence. He appeared in court Thursday and was ordered held for a week pending an investigation.

Chathura Mihudum, director of Sri Lanka's National Secretariat for Elders, said the facility was not registered as a nursing home and had been warned to follow laws and guidelines. He said it was overcrowded, with enough beds for about 15 people in a space where 71 people were living.

Amala Rajapaksa said the institution was in the process of being registered.

One thing they are unlikely to debate is the politics of many Southern Baptists, the vanguard of broader white conservative evangelical support for President Donald Trump.

Officials for the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, say more than 11,000 church representatives have preregistered for the two-day meeting in Orlando.

Revisiting a ban on churches with women pastors

In the previous three annual meetings, a majority of representatives voted to amend the SBC constitution to ban churches with women in any pastoral role. But the measures failed to get a two-thirds supermajority in two consecutive years that is required to pass an amendment.

The denomination’s statement of belief, the Baptist Faith and Message, declares that the office of pastor is limited to men. While nonbinding on churches, this has prompted the SBC to expel some churches with women in leading pastoral roles. Now the focus is those who preach or serve in subordinate pastoral roles.

This year, an amendment proposed by Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, would exclude any church that acts “to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.”

Mohler noted the debate has consumed too much time and attention. “Clarity in the constitution would settle that,” he said.

The outgoing SBC president, Clint Pressley, supports the amendment, as do both candidates running to succeed him.

Another nonbinding resolution with similar language will be considered. It requires only a simple majority to pass.

As an association of independent congregations, the SBC can’t tell them what to do. But it can expel any church deemed not to be in “friendly cooperation.” The convention has ousted churches in recent years that appointed women to top pastoral positions or asserted the right to do so. But the status of churches with female assistant pastors is still debated.

On his own podcast, Mohler recently said it would even be a “problem” for a church podcast to include a woman answering questions about that week’s sermon.

Array of issues queued up for debate

That view drew pushback online, including from prominent Bible teacher Beth Moore, who left the SBC after she faced criticism for advocating for victims of sexual abuse and criticizing evangelical support for Trump despite such things as his crude sexual boasts.

“How in heaven’s name a woman discussing a sermon on a podcast could be objectionable to some is beyond me and what I believe to be beyond scripture,” she posted on X.

She added later: “Which has been the greater problem: women trying to become your senior pastors or pastors misusing or abusing women?”

Amy Sims, associate pastor of preschool and children at Sugarland Baptist Church in Sugarland, Texas, described a now-yearly contrast of preparing for vacation Bible school just as Southern Baptists are debating women's ministry.

“I preach. I teach. I disciple children and families,” she wrote on the independent site Baptist News Global. “I walk with parents through crises. I visit hospitals. I help lead people to faith in Christ. I perform baptisms. ... I serve now at a church that is beautifully supportive of my work and calling as a woman and pastor.”

Every June, Sims added, "there are those who seem determined to remind me they do not believe God could have called me to do the very work I am doing.”

Even as the convention's membership shrinks, the annual meeting serves as a bellwether for religious and political trends among evangelicals. And as is typical, the biggest attention will be on whether the already-conservative SBC decides to move further rightward.

The upcoming meeting follows the release of internal statistics showing a continuation of a nearly two-decade-long decline in membership. It’s down to 12.3 million, the lowest since 1973.

Southern Baptists have, however, seen a bump in baptisms. They consider this a key spiritual vital sign because it measures conversions, though the increase is not enough to stem the overall decline.

Southern Baptists will consider other policy statements. One proposed resolution calls for humane treatment of immigrants and rejecting nativistic and dehumanizing rhetoric while also affirming the government's responsibility for immigration enforcement.

Another denounces antisemitic violence and conspiracy theories, notably those arising since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. At the same time, the resolution affirms Southern Baptists' hope for Jews' conversion to Christianity.

In 1996, an SBC resolution called for the evangelization of Jews, prompting major Jewish leaders to call it a setback for interfaith relations.

Baptists' long ties to conservative politics

Beyond denominational politics, the majority-white SBC is a core part of the wider, predominately white evangelical constituency that has coalesced behind Trump. Prominent Southern Baptists say they see little change in that.

They like Trump’s official policy recognizing only two, biologically determined genders, though they worry about his administration’s moderation on abortion. Baptist leaders have largely supported his war against Iran, but were quick to move on from Trump’s posting in April of a social media meme they deemed to be blasphemous.

Trump won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters in 2020 and 2024, according to AP VoteCast, a large voter survey.

About two-thirds of white born-again Protestants approved of Trump’s overall performance in April, compared to about one-third of U.S. adults overall. That’s according to survey findings from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Mohler said evangelicals were widely appalled at the Trump social-media meme depicting himself as a healing savior.

“You had the vast majority of evangelicals saying this is fundamentally wrong,” Mohler said. But that's “within the context of the fact that overwhelmingly evangelicals supported President Trump as president."

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the large First Baptist Church in Dallas and a longtime Trump supporter, said he appreciated that the president “had enough sensitivity to remove” the meme after the backlash.

Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself and not his church or the SBC, Jeffress added that he supported Trump's creation of a Religious Liberty Commission, where Jeffress testified about what he contended was unfair scrutiny of his church by the IRS.

Jeffress also supported Trump's decision to go to war against Iran, saying a president has “not only the right but the God-given duty to protect our nation.”

Mohler agreed, but sought to temper expectations. He said he supported past wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but now realizes that some of their objectives, such as nation-building, were not realistic. A just war needs “limited and honest aims,” he said.

Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, has criticized fellow Southern Baptist leaders for both their political slant and their gender focus.

The Black pastor posted on X that the SBC and its theologians have been wrong about issues ranging from slavery and segregation to the mistreatment of sexual-abuse survivors.

“And now they expect us to just blindly trust them on gender theology and women in ministry issues?" McKissic wrote.

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

The comments by the country's leaders came as the Israeli military struck multiple parts of southern Lebanon and issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including one that has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the three-month war. The strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.

Addressing a statement issued a day earlier by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said: “It’s not your job to interfere into our country. I reject the statement totally because our people (are) being killed, our houses being destroyed.”

Iran, he told CNN, is “using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with the United States.”

In separate remarks, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the Lebanese people to put the interest of their country first, saying that Lebanon "should not remain a battlefield for others.” He added that Iran should stop dealing with southern Lebanon and its people as “a bargaining chip to improve the conditions of its negotiations.”

Latest ceasefire seeks to pull Lebanon away from Iran

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce should extend to Lebanon. The Revolutionary Guard statement said “there will be no calm in the region if the Zionists don’t withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories.”

The ceasefire deal has also been rejected by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, which demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. The Lebanese government accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities.

The U.S.-brokered agreement that was reached Wednesday in Washington sought to pull Lebanon away from Iran with a statement that any agreement to cease hostilities must be reached directly through Lebanon and Israel “and not through any separate track.”

Aoun said Hezbollah should also understand that negotiations and diplomacy are the only way “to save what’s left” of Lebanon.

Speaking at a meeting at government headquarters in Beirut, Salam said: “Let me be clear in front of you. The people of south Lebanon are not part of the war between Iran and America.”

Meanwhile, the new evacuation warnings forced hundreds of Lebanese families to flee the village of Anqoun and the area of Aarnaya, on the edge of the predominantly Christian community of Maghdoucheh, near the southern port city of Sidon. Elsewhere, people began to return to their homes to survey the aftermath of fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group.

Some villages are in ruins

Wide parts of the south have already been devastated by the war. An Associated Press team traveling in the south Friday saw multiple villages in ruins, including Dibbine, near Marjayoun town, from which Israeli troops withdrew a day earlier.

It was the first time Israeli troops pulled out of an area in southern Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in early March. U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were at an entrance of Dibbine, clearing rubble and opening roads.

The Lebanese army set up barbed wire at one of the entrances, preventing some residents from returning.

At least one family arrived to search the rubble of its home along the road leading to the village, while the owner of a petrol station in Dibbine looked at his destroyed property and called village residents to report on the destruction he saw from behind the barbed wire.

Shrapnel and pieces of missiles were seen in the rubble of homes lining the road into Dibbine. Israeli troops entered the village weeks ago for the first time and were engaged in heavy clashes with Hezbollah fighters in the area. The troops returned this week, before withdrawing Thursday.

The road to Dibbine was dotted with villages entirely emptied of residents and destroyed by Israeli strikes, including Khiam. But no Israeli troops were visible from the road.

Nearby Christian villages were largely untouched, and many of their residents decided to stay. The strategic Beaufort castle, recently captured by Israel, appeared in the distance, with a flag of the Israeli Golani Brigade. Smoke from strikes around the nearby Nabatiyeh city billowed above.

Nearly three hours after Friday’s evacuation warnings were issued by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Israeli warplanes struck the Lebanese villages, including Anqoun. About 2,500 people displaced by the fighting were sheltering in Anqoun, the Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

Israel had warned Lebanese residents against returning to villages in the south, saying the area is still a combat zone.

Parliament speaker makes first comments since ceasefire deal

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a strong ally of Hezbollah who has been acting as a mediator on behalf of the group, echoed the militants' demands for a broad Israeli withdrawal. In his first comments since the agreement was announced Wednesday in Washington, Berri said that he accepts Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the areas south of the Litani River as long as it coincides with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.

The river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, forms the boundary of a 2006 U.N.-established buffer zone in which Hezbollah is banned. Israeli troops have pushed far past the river into southern Lebanon.

Berri added in a written statement that the ceasefire should be “complete and comprehensive,” without any exceptions for land, sea or air, and “without bulldozing and demolishing everything that exists.” He was referring to wide areas that have been demolished by Israeli troops.

US forces board tanker linked to Iran

The war in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south since March 2, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a globally important conduit for oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other commodities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

In Iran-related developments, American forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to the Islamic Republic in the Indian Ocean, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command posted on X that the forces boarded the MT Davina, without offering details. U.S. forces around the world have sought to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods. They have been directed to stop ships tied to Tehran or those suspected of carrying supplies that could help its government.

The U.S. Navy has imposed a blockade of Iran’s ports as part of an effort to force Tehran to open the strait and accept a deal to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the war.

Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country’s south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began. The fighting has killed at least 29 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Ben Finley in Washington contributed to this report.

The drone that self-detonated in the port of Constanta occurred at around 10:30 a.m., after the area had been secured and isolated by the Romanian Intelligence Service, coast guard and the Defense Ministry, authorities said.

“Immediately after identifying the drone, the Ministry of Defense contacted its Ukrainian counterparts, who confirmed that they had lost control of the operation of four drones,” the Romanian government said in a statement. “The other three drones self-detonated — two offshore and the third outside the port.”

“Confirmation of these events came from both the Ukrainian side and from data obtained by the Romanian authorities,” it added.

Romanian President Nicusor Dan said in a statement online that the Ukrainian forces “lost control of the assets as a result of electronic warfare actions" by Russia,” likely jamming, and that the drone's incursion into “Romanian sovereign space is a direct consequence of the war waged by Russia” against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Navy confirmed in a statement that it had lost control of an unmanned naval boat “while performing tasks in the Black Sea operational zone,” and that its military was in contact with Romanian authorities "to prevent losses among the civilian population.

Raed Arafat, the head of Romania's Department for Emergency Situations, told a news conference Friday morning that helicopters had been deployed to search for more drones and that the authorities had issued text message alerts to residents.

“There is a possibility that there may be other drones,” he said. “We are not panicking. These are preventive measures. If there are other drones, we want to make sure there is not another explosion in an area where people are not evacuated.”

After the port explosion, more than 1,300 people were evacuated from several Black Sea beaches and the routes leading to them were temporarily blocked. Just before 3 p.m., the emergency authorities announced they had suspended evacuation measures.

The incident occurred a week after a Russian aerial drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in Romania’s eastern Danube port city of Galati, injuring two people in the NATO member country.

The Russian Embassy in Bucharest accused Romania on Friday of intentionally releasing “incomplete information” regarding the drone's origin, and said “three other similar drones” belonging to Ukraine were drifting toward Romanian territorial waters.

“These are Ukrainian unmanned maritime vehicles, used by the Kyiv regime to commit terrorist acts against civilian ships and to create threats to the safety of navigation in the Black Sea,” the embassy said. “Any attempts to associate, directly or indirectly, these drones with Russia and to assign it responsibility for the incident are without any reason.”

The two incidents are some of the latest in a series of drone incursions — from both Russia and Ukraine — to hit NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A month ago, Greece made a formal complaint to the Ukrainian government after a military sea drone carrying explosives was discovered off a Greek island. Greece determined that it was Ukrainian-built. Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias called it “an extremely serious issue," and the complaint was forwarded to both NATO and the EU.

Romanian forces destroyed another maritime drone in the Black Sea on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the war next door, the Defense Ministry said that the Romanian navy has neutralized nine of the 156 sea mines in the Black Sea basin.

For its part, the European Union was giving “full solidarity and support to Romania,” European Council President António Costa said Friday.

“The EU condemns the repeated violations of airspace of Member States and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the security of all Member States,” he said in an online statement Friday. “This is the third significant security incident in Romania in recent weeks. These incidents are a direct consequence of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England. Sam McNeil in Brussels and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

The music stars will perform Dai Dai, the official song for the tournament, ahead of the opening game between co-host Mexico and South Africa on Thursday.

FIFA has planned opening ceremonies for each host nation, with curtain-raisers ahead of games in the United States and Canada as well.

World soccer’s governing body has revealed the line-up for the show in Mexico, which also includes Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná and Tyla. It said more artists would be announced for the ceremonies in the U.S. and Canada.

Alanis Morissette and Michael Bublé headline in Toronto on June 12 ahead of Canada vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Later that day Katy Perry, global pop star LISA, Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema, Brazilian pop artist Anitta, and hip-hop artist Future are performing in Los Angeles before the U.S. faces Paraguay.

The trio of shows is being created by Italian producer Marco Balich, who was behind the spectacular opening ceremony for this year’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Each show will be held about 90 minutes before kickoff.

Shakira is also among headliners performing at a Super Bowl-style halftime show for the World Cup final along with Madonna and boy band BTS.

Diana Ross performed at the opening ceremony in Chicago when the World Cup was last held in the U.S. in 1994 and famously missed a penalty kick as part of the show.

The song Dai Dai aims to raise $100 million in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund.

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

It also disclosed that his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, live in rent-controlled palace properties paid for by their uncle, King Charles III.

The National Audit Office report said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received income from renting out the cottages on the Royal Lodge estate, his home near Windsor Castle for more than 20 years. A lease for Royal Lodge signed in 2003 shows he paid only a nominal fee known as a “peppercorn rent” for the property, which included a 30-room mansion and eight cottages, three of which he was allowed to sublet.

The amount of income was not included in the report, an omission that Margaret Hodge, a Labour member of the House of Lords and former head of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, said was concerning.

“It’s shocking that the National Audit Office was not able to establish how much money Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secured from the properties he let,” she said.

The audit office review was carried out at the request of lawmakers after Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles and evicted from Royal Lodge by his brother, the king, following revelations about his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor moved earlier this year to the king’s Sandringham Estate in eastern England.

In February, the former prince, 66, was arrested and questioned by police about allegations of misconduct in public office. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and has not been charged.

The royals' housing arrangements

The audit office report shows that 11 working royals receive free housing within palaces in return for their official duties. They include the king and Queen Camilla, Prince William and his wife Catherine, and the king’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie.

William and Kate also have a family home near Windsor, for which they pay rent of 307,200 pounds (about $413,000) a year.

The rents on Eugenie’s cottage in Kensington Palace and Beatrice’s apartment in St. James’s Palace are set at a portion of open-market value that has ranged in recent years between 50% and 68%. Both rents are paid out of the Privy Purse, the monarch’s private funds.

The pair are not considered “working” royals who carry out public duties, and both have outside jobs.

Buckingham Palace said the audit office report “is in line with the royal household’s commitment to transparency. We hope that the findings will help correct, clarify or contextualize a number of points regarding royal properties.”

Critics of the monarchy cited the findings as evidence the royal family does not pay its way.

“It shows an absolute total contempt for the taxpayer, not only that Andrew was able to have a peppercorn rent for a gigantic property, but then to make potentially millions on the side from subletting properties,” said former Liberal Democrat lawmaker Norman Baker, a longtime critic of royal finances.

The prince's links to Epstein

Mountbatten-Windsor has featured in millions of pages of documents about Epstein released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, showing how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women and girls.

British police are looking into claims that Mountbatten-Windsor sent confidential trade information to the disgraced financier when he served as U.K. trade envoy from 2001 to 2011. Detectives say they may broaden their investigation to include allegations of sexual misconduct and have appealed for witnesses to come forward.

Mountbatten-Windsor has rarely been seen in public since he moved to the Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London. He was photographed Thursday in a car with a large bruise on his face.

The Times of London said, without citing sources, that the bruise was the result of a “nonserious medical condition.”

An estimated 60,000-70,000 Bosnians live in St. Louis, with many arriving in the early 1990s during the Bosnian War and the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Bosnia faces Panama on Saturday in an international friendly at St. Louis' Energizer Park and plays World Cup group matches in Toronto (vs. Canada), Los Angeles ( vs. Switzerland) and Seattle (vs. Qatar).

“We should be able to create an atmosphere like a home match,” said Elvir Kafedžić, a Bosnia-born St. Louisan and an assistant coach for the city’s MLS team, St. Louis City SC.

He was only 9 1-2 when he fled Bosnia in 1992 with his mother and brothers to escape the war.

“Unfortunately, I remember a lot of it,” said Kafedžić, whose story mirrors many who rebuilt in St. Louis after meandering across Europe.

“We kind of tumbled through some different countries like Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Sweden and wound up in Germany," Kafedžić explained.

That ended when Germany stopped granting temporary protection to Bosnians in the late 1990s.

“We didn’t have anywhere to go back to in Bosnia. And we already had some relatives living in St. Louis. So in 1999 we made the move with my mom and two older brothers."

Bosnia defeated Italy

Bosnia qualified for the World Cup two months ago, defeating four-time World Cup champion Italy 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. The deciding penalty was converted by Esmir Bajraktarević, a Bosnian-American from Appleton, Wisconsin.

“That day you could see cars flying Bosnian flags in the streets,” Kafedžić said of the St. Louis scene. “All the restaurants, all the coffee shops were packed wall-to-wall with strangers hugging each other. For me, this goes beyond soccer. This shows who we are, the pride, where we come from and how deeply we’re connected to our roots.”

Bosnia's World Cup team is led by 40-year-old captain Edin Džeko and 18-year-old winger Kerim Alajbegović. Džeko has scored at least 50 goals playing in the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, and the German Bundesliga.

Bosnia’s only other World Cup appearance was at Brazil in 2014, where it was narrowly eliminated in the group stage. The team’s first World Cup goal was scored by Vedad Ibišević in a 2-1 loss to Argentina.

Ibišević played high school soccer in St. Louis, starred at Saint Louis University and followed up with a successful professional career, primarily in the Bundesliga.

“Little Bosnia” in St. Louis

St. Louis surfaced as a destination for Bosnian refugees because it offered jobs, reasonable housing prices and had a small community in place.

“We all came looking for a better life because everything was taken away from us at home,” Kafedžić said. “You can’t put in words how thankful we are.”

A swath of the city’s South Side is known as “Little Bosnia,” anchored by rows of tidy red-brick houses, bars, cafes and bakeries and a replica wood fountain that mimics one in the capital Sarajevo, known as the Sebilj.

“It represents Sarajevo in the heart,” said Jasmina Silić, working across the street from the monument at the Skala Bar on Gravois Avenue, the fulcrum of the community.

A reminder of the war

Skala is located just a few doors away from the “Association of Survivors of the Srebrenica Genocide,” a constant reminder of the war and the ethnic cleansing committed by Bosnian Serb forces.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims died in Srebrenica, which was declared a genocide by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and others. It’s estimated that 104,000 died from the war, 2 million were displaced, and 83% of the civilian deaths were Bosnian Muslims.

Bosnian imprint

Bosnia's influence is all over St. Louis, a metropolitan area of almost 3 million on the banks of the Mississippi River.

The best-selling food at St. Louis’ MLS stadium is Bosnian fare from a restaurant called the “Balkan Treat Box.” Saint Louis University houses the Center for Bosnian Studies, and several books document the diaspora including “Bosnian St. Louis: Between Two Worlds” by Patrick McCarthy and Akif Cogo.

It tells of tragedy, resilience and the community’s ties to Europe.

“One woman in St. Louis still carries the keys to her house in Bosnia,” they wrote. “Another man describes his feelings toward Bosnia as a divorce he did not want from a woman he still loves.”

Bosnia was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation before the war, predominantly Muslim but with a large number of Croatian Roman Catholics and Serbian Orthodox Christians.

The mix binds the World Cup team, a symbol of pride and reconciliation.

“A lot of people from here go to Bosnia every year to see families,” said Silić, speaking at the Skala Bar. ”The team represents unity because it’s all three religions and everybody is one like it used to be when it was still Yugoslavia.”

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

At least 63 people have died from 397 confirmed cases, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Yet the outbreak has been challenged by skepticism, attacks on health workers and misinformation.

Vérité Johnson, a journalist and editorial secretary at the Radio Télévision Mont Bleu station in Bunia, the capital city of the eastern Ituri province where the outbreak is concentrated, decided to produce a new program to combat rumors.

The radio show has emerged as a vital tool to win over some residents who have been unaware or skeptical about the facts of Bundibugyo.

WHO chief says misinformation almost as dangerous as the virus

The 45-minute program runs daily at 10 a.m., reminding people of the dangers of Ebola and regularly featuring health specialists who provide updates and answer questions. The show’s jingles about the virus play intermittently throughout the day and residents are able to call in with questions.

“So far, there’s still a layer of resistance within the population, and that’s where the media plays an important role,” Johnson said.

“Misinformation is almost as dangerous as the virus itself and spreads just as fast. Earning and keeping the trust of communities is at the heart of everything we do,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday as WHO and the Africa CDC launched an Ebola response plan with partners.

Tedros said the new plan aims to raise $518 million to “stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today and ensure that neighboring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear.”

Resistance to protocols during public health emergencies is common in Congo, which is battling its 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified there in 1976. There currently is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo type of Ebola, which has added another layer of fear.

Widespread rumors, often arising from fear and misinformation, discourage residents from adhering to health warnings or seeking medical help during an outbreak, health officials say.

Mistrust among residents leads to delays in seeking care

Many residents remain distrustful of health authorities, with some alleging that officials are profiting from the outbreak.

“I can never take the vaccine, I prefer to die because if the vaccine arrives, it can scare us even more," said Samson Gerson, a 52-year-old Bunia resident and father of seven children.

Analysts say some people in Congo have been receptive to disinformation due to mistrust of the healthcare system and because some local officials have not become actively involved in containing the disease.

“What is key is to involve the local actors at all levels. If we try to impose what we think is right to the community, we are running towards failure,” said Basile Rambaud, emergency programs director for Mercy Corps in Congo. “If people do not trust the response, they end up delaying to seek care, rejecting protective measures, or avoiding working with health teams, giving the virus more time to spread.”

Ituri province residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers, demanding the bodies of deceased patients. Some people who are believed to have Ebola left the centers during the attacks and health workers could not account for their whereabouts.

“We don’t even know what the body of a person who died of Ebola looks like, but we just see images and montages on our phone,” said Bunia resident Chantal Francine, who expressed doubts over the reported deaths.

Full scale of the outbreak is unknown

The virus has rapidly spread from an initial three health zones to 24, according to WHO chief Tedros.

Experts and WHO officials have warned the numbers might not reflect the true scale of the epidemic as weeks of testing for the wrong type caused a delay in containing the virus.

The outbreak has been worsened by an ongoing armed conflict between Congo's government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, as well as attacks by the Islamic State-affiliated group the Allied Democratic Force, which killed 16 people in Beni territory in North Kivu on Tuesday.

The attacks by both groups have caused massive displacement of people living in the conflict areas, officials said.

Despite the growing Bundibugyo outbreak and the conditions that are enabling the disease to spread, Johnson said Radio Télévision Mont Bleu continues providing residents with vital facts.

“Everyone is free to think what they want, but the information remains the same. The epidemic is here,” Johnson said.

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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.

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