It happened around 7:30 a.m. near the intersection of Northwest 109th Street and South River Drive in the town of Medley.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials, crews responded after receiving reports of a person who had been shot.

Officials said one person in critical but stable condition was taken by helicopter to a nearby trauma center.

Police said the incident stemmed from two people getting into an argument at a business, which led to one of them shooting the other.

The subject in the shooting was detained by responding officers, according to authorities.

Investigators are now looking into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

At least half the survey questions could be axed. The cost-saving change is part of an ongoing effort to slim down the 69-year-old National Health Interview Survey, which for years has been suffering from declining response rates.

As many as a quarter of wheelchair users and more than a third of people who are blind or deaf could be miscategorized as not disabled because of the shorter survey, according to some advocates and researchers. That could leave the government unable to recognize the health needs of many disabled Americans, or the damage caused by changes to Medicaid or other health insurance programs, they say.

The cuts are being ironed out and officials predict the whittling won't be as severe as what's been suggested in earlier proposals.

Questions that have been proposed for removal deal with memory, fatigue, arthritis, difficulty walking and climbing stairs, as well as others about the use of hearing aids, canes, wheelchairs and scooters.

“We just won't know any of that anymore,” said Scott Landes, a Syracuse University sociology professor who researches people with disabilities.

Officials are still determining exactly how much cutting will take place. Currently, the survey has 490 health questions for adults. U.S. officials expect that the 2028 questionnaire will have about 200 to 225 questions, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Stephen Blumberg, who oversees the survey.

U.S. Census Bureau workers conduct the survey every year on behalf of the CDC. It’s a $40 million annual project, and around 30,000 households answer the questions each year.

Their answers have shaped the public’s understanding of topics including how common chronic fatigue syndrome is, how many people get X-rays, what proportion of U.S. children suffer seizures, and how many Americans have health insurance. The survey’s responses also are the foundation of how we measure the nation’s progress — or backsliding — on problems such as obesity and smoking.

Fewer people are interested in participating in such surveys. And the National Health Interview Survey is particularly daunting, as it can take an hour or more and has traditionally involved an in-person interviewer asking the questions.

The planned redesign should cut it to about a half hour, Blumberg said.

“People are busy. They're more protective of their privacy, and some don't trust the government to protect their data and use it only for statistical purposes,” he said. “Fewer people see sharing information with the government as their civic duty.”

The survey was first conducted in 1957, and has been updated every 15 to 20 years. The latest update was put into the field seven years ago, prompting some advocates to ask why it was being changed so quickly.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Management and Budget were behind dramatic staff reductions, research funding overhauls and other federal health agency changes under the current Trump administration. But neither ordered this redesign, Blumberg said.

Rather, the factors driving the current redesign include tightening budgets and difficulties fielding enough workers to do so many in-person interviews — which was affected last year by a federal hiring freeze.

Another factor: The Census Bureau is reconfiguring its data collection platforms for the 2030 census in a way that affected the health survey, he said.

Related to all that is a proposed change in how the health survey is conducted. Instead of starting with in-person or telephone interviews, people will receive an invitation to fill out the survey online or to fill out a paper questionnaire. That's because in-person interviews have proven difficult with the proliferation of gated communities, locked buildings without door attendants and doorbell cameras, according to officials.

However, Census Bureau staff will visit homes for a smaller second round of surveying, Blumberg said.

A notice about the survey redesign appeared in the Federal Register in August, opening a public comment period that runs through Oct. 20.

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

Los modelos de pronóstico están prácticamente vacíos para las próximas semanas. Eso podría permitirnos llegar casi a finales de octubre sin ningún sistema importante.

El Golfo y el extremo oriental del Atlántico, las excepciones de esta temporada

Como explicamos en el boletín del lunes, la actividad tropical en la cuenca del Atlántico es hasta ahora la tercera más baja desde que hay registros satelitales. Si la temporada termina a finales de noviembre sin más huracanes, será la única desde que existen registros confiables, en 1950, con un solo huracán.

Oficialmente, la última temporada con un solo huracán fue la de 1925. Pero en esa época no había vigilancia satelital las 24 horas ni aviones de reconocimiento, así que ese conteo es dudoso. Un estudio de 2021 publicado en la revista científica Nature Communications concluyó que en esos primeros años pudieron pasar inadvertidos hasta 4 huracanes por temporada.

Esta temporada, la actividad tropical ha sido menor fuera del Golfo y, sobre todo, en el oeste del Atlántico, donde los huracanes suelen alcanzar su mayor fuerza. Aparte de Isaias y el Golfo, los únicos puntos activos han estado en los extremos del este del Atlántico. Allí se formaron varias tormentas tropicales de corta duración.

En cambio, el Pacífico central y oriental registra hasta ahora su temporada de huracanes más activa desde que hay registros. La actividad ha sido especialmente intensa alrededor de Hawái, donde este año impactaron directamente tres huracanes: Lala en agosto, y Lowell y Nolo en septiembre. En apenas dos meses, el estado 50 del país enfrentó el equivalente a unas tres décadas de amenazas de huracanes.

Aunque no se espera ninguna tormenta cerca de Hawái en las próximas semanas, el Pacífico todavía no se apaga. Se pronostica que Simon afecte la península de Baja California, en México, a finales de esta semana. Además, Trudy podría convertirse en otro huracán de gran intensidad y afectar la costa del Pacífico mexicano a principios de la próxima semana.

According to the Plantation Police Department, officers attempted to stop the driver who was riding the electric motorcycle in the Plantation Acres area on Saturday.

Body camera video obtained by Local 10 News on Wednesday shows the moments that the suspect fled on the motorcycle but was quickly apprehended by officers.

Investigators said the electric motorcycle was stolen from Plantation in September. Police did not specify whether it belonged to a business or an individual.

The teenager, whose gender and identity have not been disclosed at this time, was arrested and faces charges of grand theft, driving with a suspended license, fleeing and eluding police, and resisting arrest, according to investigators.

Police said they transported the suspect to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

The Phillies announced the move Wednesday. Mattingly led the team to a 79-55 record and a spot in the postseason after he replaced the fired Rob Thomson in late April. The Phillies nearly blew a four-game lead for a wild card in the final week of the regular season, then lost in three games to the Atlanta Braves in the NL Wild Card Series.

The Phillies were 9-19 when they fired Thomson in April after he led the Phillies to four straight playoff appearances, including the 2022 World Series, and consecutive NL East titles.

The Phillies and team president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski were rebuffed twice by former Red Sox manager Alex Cora. Dombrowski was spurned by Cora when he made the move to fire Thomson and again after the season ended, leaving him in both cases with Mattingly.

The 65-year-old Mattingly was hired last offseason to serve as a bench coach and had another year left on his contract. With an MLB work stoppage on the table in December, leaving at least parts of next season in doubt, Mattingly is the safe and familiar choice to oversee a roster that includes Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and one of the top rotations in baseball.

Dombrowski has yet to hold his annual end-of-season press conference — he and Mattingly will speak Thursday, the team said. The Phillies were eliminated from the playoffs on Oct. 1.

The Phillies' September swoon prevented them from lining up their pitching against Atlanta because it took until Game 162 to clinch a playoff spot.

Philadelphia forced Game 3 against the Braves with three dramatic solo home runs late in Game 2. But in the end, the Phillies were eliminated from the postseason for the fifth consecutive year as they chase their first World Series title since 2008.

The Phillies’ core of Harper, Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola have made five straight playoff appearances and averaged 91 wins per year during that stretch. They have yet to win a championship and have been eliminated further and further from that goal each season since reaching the 2022 World Series.

The following season, Philadelphia exited in the National League Championship Series, and the next two years saw losses in the Division Series. A wild-card exit this season marked another step in the wrong direction.

Mattingly was one of three interim managers in baseball last season. Andy Green of the New York Mets and Chad Tracy of the Red Sox each were midseason replacements who eventually had the interim tag removed.

A six-time AL All-Star in his playing career with the New York Yankees, Mattingly is the father of Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

There is no launch date yet for the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, which will have a prize pool of $1.5 million. The single-elimination competition will serve as a national championship and a pathway to qualification for the CONCACAF W Champions Cup.

“We’re working very closely with both the NWSL and the Gainbridge Super League to figure out what is the optimal time to do this,” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said. “Obviously, we want to put it into play as soon as possible, but we also want to be respectful of each league’s calendar and how do we best go forth and do this. And I’ve got to say, I’ve been very impressed with both leagues and how much they’re leaning in and collaborating and cooperating to make this happen.”

Parlow Cone said the competition could be open to other clubs, including amateur teams, much like the men's U.S. Open Cup.

“We’re looking at the option for lower division professional teams being able to join, as well as amateur women’s teams being able to join, and what that could and should look like, but we’re also not of the thought that the tournament can’t evolve. So maybe we start with the NWSL and GSL, and then evolve and engage the other teams,” she said. “We’re announcing this in real time as we are still trying to put all the pieces together."

The growth of women's soccer has spurred club competitions in recent years. Internationally, the women's Champions Cup is in its second year, and the FIFA Women's Club World Cup is set to start in 2028.

The aim of Crest Cup is to capitalize on the popularity of the game, which is expected to grow with the World Cup next summer in Brazil. The United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica have a joint bid for the 2031 tournament.

The tournament also aims to give high-level, meaningful competition for club teams, while spurring player development.

“As we gear up for the World Cup in 2031, I think this is a great timing in order to create another competition, because most of the the players and the coaches and the teams in our ecosystem, they only get that international exposure if they make their national teams, or if they’re lucky, one or two teams to be able to play in the CONCACAF tournament. But this is another way to get more players interleague competition that could then lead to international competition in really meaningful games,” Parlow Cone said.

Blank has long been a supporter of U.S. Soccer. The federation recently opened the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Lafayette, Georgia. Blank owns Major League Soccer's Atlanta United and and an expansion NWSL team, Atlanta City FC, set to start play in 2028.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Forecast models are mostly blank for the next few weeks, which could get us through most of the remainder of October without any significant systems.

Gulf and far eastern Atlantic the rare exceptions this season

As we discussed in Monday’s newsletter, tropical activity across the Atlantic basin so far is the 3^rd lowest of the satellite record and if the season concludes at the end of November with no additional hurricanes, it will be the only season of the reliable record (since 1950) with only one hurricane (the last season to record only one hurricane was officially back in 1925 but without 24/7 satellites and aircraft reconnaissance, that count is dubious; a 2021 study in the scientific journal Nature Communications found as many as 4 hurricanes could’ve been missed annually during this early period).

Tropical activity has been most reduced this season outside of the Gulf and over the western Atlantic where hurricanes often hit their stride. The only hot spots of activity outside Isaias and the Gulf have been in the far corners of the eastern Atlantic where several short-lived tropical storms formed this season.

On the other hand, the central and eastern Pacific is notching its most active hurricane season on record to date, with especially significant activity around Hawaii this year which saw direct impacts from three hurricanes – Lala in August and Lowell and Nolo in September. This amounted to roughly three decades’ worth of hurricane threats to our 50^th state in a matter of two months.

Though no storms are expected to be near Hawaii over the next few weeks, the Pacific isn’t powering down just yet, with Simon forecast to affect the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico later this week and Trudy gearing up to be another major hurricane with possible impacts to the Pacific side of Mexico by early next week.

Established in 1798 by Thomas Rule as an oyster bar when Europe was in turmoil in the aftermath of the French Revolution, Rules has survived the British Empire, the Blitz and even plans for a new road layout that would have seen it demolished.

Its menu expanded to traditional British fare and the restaurant welcomed generations of high profile figures from Charles Dickens to Charlie Chaplin, David Bowie to Madonna. King Edward VII would even rendezvous with his lovers there.

Now, the four-decade owner of the building that houses Rules, J-P Mayhew, has made the selfless decision to donate 34-35 Maiden Lane in bustling Covent Garden in central London to the National Trust, itself a British institution hailing back to 1895.

“There are few restaurants in the world that have endured the test of time like Rules,” Mayhew said Wednesday. “The Trust will protect this place in a way that no one else could, safeguarding its bricks and mortar, its famous interior and its invisible atmosphere, too.”

The charity, which seeks to save important sites while opening them up for everyone to enjoy, said that the 11 million-pound ($14 million) donation would secure the future of a building where “kings dined and writers and politicians plotted.”

Along with the building, the donation includes items such as visitor books, menus, caricatures, photographs, stained glass and signs. The gift also includes the annual rent from the ongoing restaurant business, which will go into conservation work each year.

The trust described it as a “rare example of living heritage” where both the historic structure and the original use of the building — a restaurant — remain intact.

“This place is an outstanding piece of living history, with its corners where kings dined and writers and politicians plotted, and the traditions it kept alive through wars and upheaval,” said Hilary McGrady, director-general of the National Trust. “It has defied the odds to be standing here today, doors still open and treacle sponge still on the menu.”

Going into the restaurant is like stepping back into a London that's long gone, with the interiors plush and colorful. The menu is rich and in many cases old-school English — fans of steak and kidney pies and guinea fowl and of course the desserts, such as sticky toffee pudding and apple crumble are unlikely to be disappointed.

There are rooms named after poet John Betjeman, who gave an impassioned speech in defense of the restaurant's “invisible atmosphere” when London's then governing authority planned to expand the nearby Strand thoroughfare in 1971 that would have led to the demolition of Rules.

There's also a room named after one of the restaurant's most loyal customers, writer Graham Greene, who had birthday meals there and featured it in his novel “The End Of The Affair.”

The restaurant’s proprietor Ricky McMenemy, who has worked there for 35 years, will become a commercial tenant of the National Trust.

“As an independent business, it gives us both the security and peace of mind that our home will be in very good hands and be protected and secure going forward,” he said. “Having already established a very amicable working relationship with the Trust, we look forward to another two centuries in this, our home.”

The adjustment translates to $75 extra per month for the 73 million people who receive monthly Social Security benefits and nearly 7.5 million beneficiaries who get Supplemental Security Income.

The announcement comes as inflation adds pressure on household budgets and businesses and as midterm elections are weeks away.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary. That is set to increase to $192,300 in 2027, from $184,500 in 2026.

The agency's commissioner, Frank Bisignano, said in a statement that the adjustment will give recipients “greater financial stability.”

Older adults feel the bite of rising costs

Some older adults feel the increase is a drop in the bucket as inflation has eaten away at monthly savings. The government reported last month that inflation accelerated in August as gas prices spiked in the wake of renewed fighting between the United States and Iran.

Lorrie Ufkin, a 71-year-old retiree who lives outside Rochester, Minnesota, said the COLA will not put a dent in her healthcare costs, which are set to increase after the Trump administration concludes at year's end a temporary Medicare Part D subsidy program that has helped offset premiums. Ufkin said that her premiums and drug cost are expected to rise, although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has projected a modest increase for most people.

The COLA “doesn’t even meet what they’re going to do for changes to Medicare,” she told The Associated Press.

She said one of the medications both she and her husband take will go from $11 per month for each prescription, to $200 per month, after Republican administration changes made to older Americans' healthcare programs. She said that was “catastrophic.”

Senior advocacy groups say the COLA is a strong reminder of the financial straits of many older people.

“There’s a lot on the line financially right now for older Americans — one in five have no retirement savings, and more people feel financially insecure this year than last. That makes Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment critically important,” said AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan.

Jaime Jakubczak, a 68-year-old resident of Buffalo, New York who retired early at 55, has recently gone back to work to make ends meet, specifically to afford rising property taxes. He said the COLA is insufficient because it is offset by high inflation and a proposed 3.9% property tax increase in his town.

Jakubczak called the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment “a pittance," given how high food, healthcare and gasoline prices have become across the country.

“We were getting ahead a little bit with the COLA based on inflation, but the inflation is so high that it doesn’t offset what our COLA allowance is," he said.

Most older adults believe the COLA isn’t adequately keeping up with inflation, according to an AARP poll from September. That poll found that about three-quarters of those 50 or older disagreed with the idea that a 3.5% COLA in 2027 would be enough to keep up with rising prices.

Social Security faces a looming funding shortfall

The Social Security Administration faces a looming bankruptcy date if a funding shortfall is not addressed by Congress.

The June 2026 Social Security and Medicare trustees’ report states that Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034. After that, incoming revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.

While a permanent solution for shoring up the benefits program has not been passed into law, lawmakers on the Hill have called for new measures to replenish the trust funds.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in June proposed lifting the Social Security payroll tax cap, which is a maximum amount of earnings taxable. Treating all income the same "would generate substantial revenue that would extend the solvency of Social Security for another generation,” they wrote in The New York Times.

The move is controversial because Republicans have traditionally criticized calls to raise taxes on the wealthy.

The Peterson Foundation estimates that lifting the payroll tax cap would add roughly $3 trillion into the program over the next 10 years.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations signed into law new benefits for retirees, which boosted their finances, but simultaneously accelerated the insolvency of the old-age benefits program.

The Trump administration, as part of Republicans’ tax and spending bill, gave a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and over, which applies to all income — not just Social Security. But those who aren't able to claim the deduction include the lowest-income older adults who already don’t pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach 65 and those above a defined income threshold.

Additionally, Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024 repealed two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that previously limited Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people, including largely former public workers.

If that capsule description makes “Lincoln in the Bardo” sound like a grim night at the opera, it’s actually far from that, according to its creators.

“It does seem quite heavy,” said Royce Vavrek, who crafted the libretto for composer Missy Mazzoli from George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel. “But it’s also so effervescent, quite hilarious at times. There’s such heartbreak, and such joy.”

The inspiration behind both the novel and the opera is the concept of the bardo, which in Tibetan Buddhism is the period between physical death and rebirth.

They're dead, but they don't know it

The ghosts populating Georgetown’s Oakhill Cemetery refuse to accept the circumstances — often abrupt or violent — that ended their lives.

They refer to their coffins as “sick-boxes,” and only when they are able to acknowledge their true state can they find peace, vanishing in a spectacular explosion of fireworks for which Saunders (in what he calls “a little bit of a nod to James Joyce”) invented the term “matterlightblooming.”

Through the course of the opera we learn many of the characters’ life stories, which range from inspiring to tragic to ridiculous.

“The opera honors that life is not all doom and gloom,” said Lileana Blain-Cruz, who is directing the work for its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. “People have desires and hungers, and we’re silly and we’re funny. There’s something wonderful about encountering the fullness of life in all these characters.”

Into this netherworld come Willie Lincoln, a victim of typhoid fever, and his distraught father, who pays a late-night visit to his son’s crypt and cradles the boy’s body in his arms. By the end of the opera, Willie has accepted the fact that he is dead, and Lincoln leaves the cemetery, ready to take up his burden guiding the nation through the Civil War.

Writing music for a dead child

For Mazzoli, the biggest challenge in composing the score was the fact that it deals with the death of a child.

“When I’m writing, there’s a period of years where I’m alone with these characters,” she said. “I really tried to inhabit the character of this boy, but it’s hard to enter that place every day.”

She solved the problem by focusing on the end of the story, when Willie realizes that since he is dead he is freed from earthly constraints.

“He sings this incredible aria where he says ‘all is allowed me now,’” Mazzoli said. “‘Now that I’m dead I can go down to the party, I can fly out the window, I can hang from the chandelier, I can drink rum.’

“He’s found this beautiful way of looking at it, and he sort of awakens the other dead people in the cemetery to this,” she said. “I had to find this positive slant so I wouldn’t be crushed by the sadder parts of the story.”

A first for soprano Christine Goerke

The opera opens Oct. 19 with Met music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting and will run for nine performances. Baritone Peter Mattei stars as Lincoln, and, in a bit of gender-switching, soprano Christine Goerke is the Reverend and counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is Miss Elise Traynor.

Goerke, one of her generation’s leading dramatic sopranos in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss, said she was thrilled when Mazzoli told her she had her in mind to play the Reverend.

“I have waited my whole life to have a role written for me,” she said. “It’s the most meaty, spectacular role.”

Vocally, it encompasses her full range (“There’s a moment where I go from high C down two octaves!” she said.) And it’s dramatically challenging as well. Unlike the other ghosts, the Reverend knows he is dead but resists his fate because he’s had a vision that he’s doomed to eternal damnation. In the end, he makes a heroic sacrifice that may redeem him.

Mazzoli’s score has its moments of playfulness, starting with the prologue in which the chorus members blow into kazoos.

“I’m interested in non-virtuosic instruments in virtuosic settings,” she said. “I’m sure there are people who are really good at the kazoo, but anybody can pick it up and blow into it and make a noise. And I like that in the context of the Met, and in combination with really skillful singing.”

Blain-Cruz and her production team have made sure there’s plenty for the eye to feast on, from pyrotechnics to puppetry, to a black mustang named Zeus who carries a Lincolnesque figure back toward the White House at the final curtain.

This is the sixth collaboration between Vavrek and Mazzoli and comes close on the heels of the world premiere of “The Galloping Cure,” which got rave reviews in Edinburgh and will have its U.S. premiere in San Francisco next season. Met general manager Peter Gelb promises there will be more Mazzoli at the Met in years to come.

As for Saunders, he’s not quite done with “Lincoln.” He’s written the screenplay for a feature film version directed by Duke Johnson that combines live action and stop motion and will star Tom Hanks in the title role.

Numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected over the weekend. The worst of it is expected Sunday and Monday with 30-40 mph wind gusts. Some downpours could sit and back-build along the coast, leading to a flooding threat. Stay updated through the rest of the week as we fine tune the details on this high impact storm system.

The agency's report on Wednesday said that global oil demand is predicted to drop 2.5 million barrels a day year-over-year in the fourth quarter and fall 2.6 million barrels a day on average this year. Diesel is expected to account for 25% of the drop.

The IEA foresees a partial recovery of 2 million barrels a day next year, but that still puts global oil use 0.6% below 2025 levels.

Global production climbed 2.5 million barrels a day month-over-month to 102.3 million barrels a day in September, driven by Gulf producers. OPEC+ gains of 2.1 million barrels a day were led by Saudi Arabia, while the United Arab Emirates drove non-OPEC+ increases.

Oil supply is expected to drop by 5.8 million barrels a day to 100.7 million barrels a day this year before climbing by 7.7 million barrels a day next year. The agency said that renewed Gulf attacks “leave the recovery fragile.”

While gas prices in the U.S. have moved lower in recent weeks, they remain higher than a month ago. Gas prices averaged $4.33 per gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA, up slightly from a month ago.

Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.6% to $106.37 a barrel Wednesday morning. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $95.30 a barrel.

Brent has been pinballing between $96 and nearly $110 over the last month on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.

On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that he had struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately supply the U.S. more than 300,000 tons of diesel. That would be followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November, then 4 million more tons at some point after that. But energy policy experts say that the new pact is unlikely to make a dent in painfully high prices at the pump or elsewhere.

The price of diesel has shattered records in recent weeks, ratcheting up inflation for a broad swath of consumer goods.

Trump's announcement came a week after the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said that they plan to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products in the coming weeks, starting with “substantial” amounts of diesel.

The release follows on from a March announcement that IEA member countries would release 426 million barrels of oil and products to stabilize the oil market. European Union countries committed about 92 million barrels, a promise weighted toward refined products made from crude such as diesel.

Jordahl was 30 when she started working for the city. Her last post was as the coordinator of the Urban Area Security Initiative special projects with the department’s division of emergency management.

Jordahl, a University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center patient, died on March 4, 2020. She was 48. Her husband, Joseph R. Fernandez, then Broward’s fire chief and now Key Biscayne’s fire chief, survived her.

Joseph “Jo” Zahralban, then Miami Fire Chief, honored her nearly two decades of service during Breast Cancer Awareness Month for years after the debut of the 2021 rescue truck decorated by Brazilian-American artist Romero Britto.

Chief Robert Hevia continued the tradition. On Tuesday, the pink rescue truck rolled into the WPLG-Local 10 News studios in Hallandale Beach with Jordahl’s message about being proactive with self-exams and mammograms.

“We are honoring her and everyone else who has lost their lives to breast cancer,” Lt. Pete Sanchez said.

The truck also included a sign: “Driving Hope In The Breast Cancer Fight.”

The tribute in memory of Jordahl hits home for the Local 10 newsroom’s family. Local 10 News reporter Janine Stanwood and Local10.com digital journalist Andrea Torres have both shared about their experience with the disease.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Local 10 News health specialist Kristi Krueger is featuring patients and their doctors during her weekly episodes of Proactively Pink.

Related Proactively Pink stories

• Watch the episode with Nell Trimble, a registered nurse diagnosed with lobular breast cancer
• Watch the episode with Amanda Marchant, a mother of four diagnosed after her first mammogram at 40

Some of Stanwood’s stories

• ‘The power of women’: Janine Stanwood on marking Breast Cancer Awareness with Artfull Angels
• Local 10’s Janine Stanwood shares her breast cancer survival story

The German airline outbid Air France-KLM, the only other company in the race, Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said.

The government set aside 5% of the company for its more than 9,000 employees to buy shares, with the government remaining the main shareholder.

The deal still requires approval by European Union regulators. The government may conclude TAP’s complete privatization by 2028, Montenegro said.

TAP says it carried 16.7 million passengers last year. Its more than 90 aircraft fly to over 90 destinations, 52 of them in Europe, 16 in Central and South America, 14 in Africa and 11 in North America.

Its routes to Brazil are particularly prized, analysts say.

The airline made a net profit last year of 4.1 million euros ($4.6 million), according to the company’s published accounts.

Two previous attempts to sell off stakes in the airline, in 1998 and 2015, failed, with governments taking the company back into Portuguese state ownership.

El veredicto del martes fue mayormente favorable para Hill. El jurado falló en su contra en solo dos de los 11 reclamos.

El jurado, integrado por tres hombres y tres mujeres, falló a favor de su esposa, Keeta Vaccaro, de quien está separado, en dos reclamos por agresión.

Antes de que comenzaran las deliberaciones, los abogados de Vaccaro retiraron voluntariamente otro de los cargos.

Al final, el jurado le otorgó a Vaccaro $500,000 en daños compensatorios, pero no le concedió daños punitivos.

En sus alegatos finales, los abogados de Vaccaro habían pedido hasta $1 millón por cada cargo.

Minutos después de conocerse el veredicto, los abogados de Hill dijeron estar satisfechos con el resultado.

“Desde el principio sentimos que esto era un intento de sacar dinero, y creo que hoy el jurado lo confirmó”, dijo el abogado Michael Gottlieb.

Los abogados de Vaccaro señalaron que, aun así, el jurado falló a su favor en dos de las acusaciones de agresión.

“El jurado deliberó durante tres horas y media y determinó que el señor Hill cometió violencia doméstica contra su esposa”, dijo el abogado Evan Marks. “Agredió a su esposa y el jurado le otorgó daños compensatorios”.

El veredicto pone fin a un juicio civil de alto perfil, que incluyó varios días de testimonios sobre el matrimonio de la pareja y acusaciones de maltrato reiterado.

Mientras tanto, el divorcio de Hill y Vaccaro todavía no ha concluido.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Miami, el martes los investigadores supieron de un video perturbador del perro que circulaba en internet.

La policía dijo que los testigos encontraron al perro bajo el agua, atado a dos bloques de concreto. Eso dio pie a una investigación sobre las circunstancias del hallazgo.

Los detectives trabajan ahora para identificar al responsable.

Persona interrogada y arrestada por cargos no relacionados

En un comunicado publicado en Instagram, la policía de Miami informó que los investigadores contactaron a una persona que podría ser el dueño del perro.

Sin embargo, las autoridades dijeron que no han podido confirmar si esa persona es la dueña del animal.

Según la policía, los investigadores interrogaron a esa persona y luego la arrestaron por cargos no relacionados con el caso.

Las autoridades no han revelado su identidad ni han dado detalles sobre esos cargos.

La investigación continúa

La agente Kiara Delva, portavoz de la policía de Miami, confirmó que los detectives siguen varias pistas. Buscan determinar por qué el perro terminó en el agua e identificar al responsable.

La investigación continúa.

Según las autoridades, el martes por la tarde agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Palm Beach y de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida localizaron una camioneta pickup Chevrolet negra. La manejaba el sospechoso de un robo por la fuerza.

El robo ocurrió el lunes por la noche en Lake Worth. Según las autoridades, el sospechoso había pedido una pizza.

“Le dice al repartidor: ‘Solo tengo $100. ¿Tienes cambio?’. Cuando el muchacho sacó el cambio, lo agarró y forcejearon por el dinero. Se lo quitó”, dijo el sheriff de Palm Beach, Ric Bradshaw. “Eso se llama robo por la fuerza”.

El repartidor pudo describir el vehículo del sospechoso y dar el número de placa. Con esos datos, los agentes localizaron el vehículo el martes.

“Intentaron detenerlo en una parada de tránsito y fue entonces cuando el tipo salió huyendo”, dijo Bradshaw. “Se fue por la I-95 y la FHP intervino”.

Según la Patrulla de Carreteras, comenzó una persecución. Terminó cuando el conductor de la camioneta chocó en una zona no incorporada del condado de Palm Beach, en Jog Road, entre Woolbright Road y Grand Isle Drive.

Según las autoridades, entonces comenzó un enfrentamiento entre el hombre que manejaba la camioneta y los agentes.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff, los agentes intentaron detener al sospechoso con métodos no letales. Al final, el sospechoso recibió un disparo mortal en el lugar mientras sostenía un objeto en la mano.

“Todo ese tiempo les estuvo gritando a los agentes: ‘Van a tener que matarme’”, dijo Bradshaw. “Ellos sí intentaron tres veces con métodos no letales, pero no le hicieron ningún efecto”.

Según las autoridades, tras el enfrentamiento los equipos de emergencia intentaron salvarle la vida al sospechoso, pero murió a causa de sus heridas.

Según las autoridades, no tenía ningún arma bajo la toalla o camisa que sostenía en la mano.

Las autoridades dijeron que el sospechoso, cuya identidad no se ha revelado, tenía un largo historial delictivo. Incluía robo de vehículo con violencia, agresión, posesión y venta de drogas, secuestro, entrada ilegal a una propiedad, alteración del orden público y fuga tras un accidente con daños graves.

El Departamento de Cumplimiento de la Ley de Florida (FDLE) investiga el tiroteo.

Nota del editor: Un primer informe de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida indicaba que el sospechoso manejaba un vehículo robado. Después, la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Palm Beach corrigió ese dato y aclaró que el sospechoso manejaba su propio vehículo. Esta nota y su titular se editaron para reflejar la nueva información.

Kamala Harris is building out her final fall campaign blitz on behalf of other Democrats, completing a midterm schedule that by Election Day will have taken her to multiple early presidential primary states on Democrats’ 2028 calendar as the former vice president mulls whether to seek the White House again.

A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking Trump’s administration from banning reporters for three news outlets from the White House, a pivotal operational development for the organizations as the extraordinary case — pitting the president against the media that cover him — makes its way through the legal system.

The Latest:

IMF chief urges US and other wealthy nations to rein in debt to ease global economic pressure

The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to urgently tackle mounting global debt levels that are weighing most heavily on low-income countries and straining the global financial system, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other U.S. leaders recognize that the federal deficit and national debt are too high. But she said the U.S. can’t grow its way out of more than $40 trillion in national debt.

Meanwhile, rising bond yields, reflecting higher premiums demanded by investors for taking on greater risk, have been disrupting financial markets.

“We believe that growth, of course, helps, but it cannot deliver fast enough the necessary adjustments,” Georgieva said at the autumn meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok. “There is no magic.”

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Social Security recipients to get 3.6% cost of living boost, an average of $75 per month

The Social Security Administration projected Wednesday that the annual cost-of-living adjustment for older adults and people with disabilities will go up by 3.6% beginning in 2027. Some recipients are already complaining it’s not enough to offset soaring prices.

The adjustment translates to $75 extra per month for the 73 million people who receive monthly Social Security benefits and nearly 7.5 million beneficiaries who get Supplemental Security Income.

The cost-of-living adjustment is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary. The cap is set to increase to $192,300 in 2027, from $184,500 in 2026.

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Iowa faces reckoning over water quality, cancer rates in midterms

Water polluted by industrial agriculture runoff and high cancer rates have been the focus of debate questions, roundtable events and campaign advertisements for both Republicans and Democrats, up and down the ballot in Iowa.

The issue has historically been politically taboo in Iowa, where chemical fertilizers and animal waste from huge corn, soybean and hog operations get washed into drinking water sources. The political calculus has shifted amid restrictions on water use in the Des Moines area and a burgeoning “Make America Healthy Again” movement in rural communities.

“The real issue is the water and the nitrates,” Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek told cancer patients.

The Republican congresswoman running against Turek, Ashley Hinson, said Iowans can feel safe because tap water meets federal regulations.

“I don’t think water quality is a partisan issue,” Hinson said as she gathered farmers, researchers and local officials to discuss the water problems.

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Senate Democrats increase spending in Michigan and Maine races

Senate Democrats are pouring another $6.7 million into two competitive Senate races, announcing Wednesday that they will spend an additional $3.7 million to support Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and $3 million to back Troy Jackson in Maine.

The Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Sena te Democratic leadership, is increasing its investment as both candidates face significant Republican spending advantages. Jackson is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a longtime Democratic target, while El-Sayed is locked in a close race with Republican Mike Rogers for an open seat.

Senate Democrats have pulled back spending meanwhile from North Carolina and Georgia, where their candidates have money advantages against Republican opponents.

White House press secretary’s debut raises new questions about her job

Katie Zacharia, now the official voice of the world’s most powerful person, put the “brief” back in briefing during her initial White House press conference, reading from a prepared text before answering just four questions.

“I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” Zacharia said.

Nowhere did she mention the task of disseminating accurate information to Americans.

How will Zacharia fare in coming days and weeks and, if her tenure lasts, months? That, like so much else, depends on one thing: Donald Trump.

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Pricey gas and rising AI costs likely pushed inflation higher in September

U.S. inflation accelerated last month as gas, clothes, and air fares got more expensive just as Americans prepare to vote in elections focused on affordability.

The consumer price index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.4% in August. Monthly costs showed the biggest gain in five months.

The figures reflect the lingering impact of the Iran war on gas prices and surging investments in data centers and artificial intelligence. Core prices rose 2.6% in September from a year ago, up from 2.4% the previous month, well above the Federal Reserves’s 2% target.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found just 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, and only 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low.

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Trump says oil, gas and mineral exploration in Greenland is set to begin. It’s not that simple

Trump said “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is set to begin in “our new and beautiful Greenland ” early Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what exploration or developments the U.S. president was referring to in his post, and Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, rather than a part of the United States.

Rising energy prices — a direct result of Trump’s war in Iran — are creating serious and sustained financial hardships for America’s working class ahead of the midterm elections next month. Trump’s comments Wednesday are likely aimed at addressing voters’ concerns before they head to the polls.

But despite Trump’s optimism, resource exploration and extraction in Greenland has stymied companies for decades thanks to the island’s harsh climate, lack of key infrastructure and difficult geology. Previous efforts to extract so-called rare earth minerals, as well as oil and gas, have never progressed beyond the exploratory stage.

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Judge extends order blocking Trump from banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from White House

A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking Trump’s administration from banning reporters for three news outlets from the White House, a pivotal operational development for the organizations as the extraordinary case — pitting the president against the media that cover him — makes its way through the legal system.

In a victory for media organizations at a time when tension between the White House and journalists is high, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed in their constitutional free speech and due process claims.

“Still,” he added in his late-night order, “no one should interpret the Court’s decision to suggest that President Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media’s reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed.”

But Kelly agreed with the plaintiffs that the national security arguments came after the fact and were unsupported by the administration.

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Kamala Harris adds stops to her final midterm campaign stretch. Her decision about 2028 comes later

Kamala Harris is building out her final fall campaign blitz on behalf of other Democrats, completing a midterm schedule that by Election Day will have taken her to multiple early presidential primary states on Democrats’ 2028 calendar as the former vice president mulls whether to seek the White House again.

Spanning from Oct. 21 to Oct. 30, Harris’ expanded closing stretch will now include New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Mississippi, along with a virtual event in Florida, according to a schedule her office shared first with The Associated Press. Harris already had announced late October stops in Georgia and Nevada.

Harris has said in multiple recent interviews that she’s focused on helping Democrats win in November. But she’s not ruled out another presidential campaign after losing the 2024 general election to Donald Trump.

Her late October tour focuses on nominees for governor and U.S. Senate, including pairings that put the first Black woman to serve as vice president alongside potential history-making candidates.

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Democrats eye opportunities as Republicans drop spending in some House races

Republicans were retreating Tuesday from a handful of battleground U.S. House races while Democrats were racing to raise money to boost candidates who seemed like long shots earlier this year.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the leading House Republican super PAC, canceled spending in four races from the Midwest to the East Coast and increased its investment in 16 other races from Texas to Pennsylvania. Another super PAC allied with President Donald Trump is cutting back in a battleground district in the Las Vegas area.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ House campaign committee is eyeing openings in Republican-held districts and hoping to raise millions of dollars in the next week to fuel a late round of advertising that they say could net at least a half dozen more seats.

The shifting money in the final three weeks of midterm campaigns points to an increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings.

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Former Mayor Dana Goldman is trying to unseat the current mayor, Larisa Svechin.

“I’d like to say that I am the voice for change,” said Goldman, who served as mayor between 2021 and 2022.

She claims sidewalks are deteriorating and parks on the north end of the city need to be improved.

“Our streets are in deplorable condition, our sidewalks, maintenance and repair, the bathrooms,” said Goldman.

Svechin says the city is changing aging cobblestone blocks to cement.

“We’re on Collins Avenue, FDOT comes in anytime they want to do work, and they literally destroy the sidewalk and don’t tell us anything,” said Svechin. “So we’re not in control of everything, but where we can control it and where we can solve for it, we absolutely do.”

Svechin said the city is upgrading its parks and replacing old playgrounds with new facilities.

“We just recently opened a brand-new sports park with tennis courts and basketball courts, literally brand new,” she said.

Both candidates agreed that there is too much traffic, and they have the same idea to fix it.

They want to do away with timed traffic cameras and utilize AI based on actual road demand.

“I believe with AI and new technology, and the adoption of the county with signalization, we can improve that,” said Goldman.

Added Svechin: “I’m already working with barrier island mayors, together with Golden Beach, us, Bal Harbour, Surfside and Miami Beach, to get all of our signals corrected.”

Both candidates also acknowledged South Florida’s affordability problem.

Svechin said Sunny Isles Beach has the lowest millage tax rate in Miami-Dade County.

“There’s plans to continue our low tax rate, potentially decrease it even more,” said Svechin.

Goldman says parking rates are too high, with some parts of the city charging non-residents $10 an hour to park their vehicles.

“I’m promising we’re going to lower it,” said Goldman.

Svechin said the rates are lower for the city’s residents for a reason.

“Our residents pay the lowest parking rate, which is $3 per hour,” she said. “The parking rates that are more expensive are for non-residents, and the purpose of this is to allow our residents to be able to enjoy the city which they pay for.”

A third candidate on the Sunny Isles Beach mayoral ballot, Robert Spence III, did not respond to an interview request for this story.

Local 10 News’ Jeff Derderian spoke with Leslie Rimboeck, a survivor of sexual assault.

Rimboeck said she was a victim of domestic and sexual assault by her ex-boyfriend, who she says slammed her in the face with her own cellphone, an act that was captured on video.

“There are days I stayed in bed, I couldn’t get out of bed,” she said.

Prosecutors in New York are investigating allegations of gang rape at Cornell University after an initial investigation two years ago by school officials resulted in no charges being filed.

Local 10 News has uncovered that colleges and universities are required to report certain crimes to the U.S. Department of Education, including rape and fondling.

Think of it as a school’s ugly secret.

It’s certainly not numbers they promote in any brochure.

Local 10 News reviewed the most recent federally reported data, under what’s called the Clery Act, for colleges and universities in South Florida.

The data is from 2024 and showed there were 25 reported rapes between the University of Miami, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University.

The University of Miami documented seven reported rapes and five cases of fondling, FIU had nine reported rapes and six cases of fondling, FAU reported three reported rapes and six cases of fondling, and NSU reported six reported rapes and five cases of fondling.

“That number, when you said it, gave me chills,” said Rimboeck. “There’s no doubt it my mind the number is way more.”

Rimboeck said the shame and embarrassment is real, and defense lawyers who try to “dirty you up” makes it extremely hard for women to come forward.

“At the time, you feel shame, you feel like it’s your fault, and you feel fear,” she said.

Jewish Community Services in Miami Beach has helped many women, including Rimboeck, a mother of two, and had a message for young women in school: don’t stay silent.

“It’s very hard for them to make sense of how things unfolded, why they are the victim,” said Jewish Community Services Program Manager Dana Hahn. “It’s very hard, and also that they may be blamed.”

Rimboeck hopes young women at schools in South Florida do speak out like she did.

Local 10 News reached out to the four aforementioned South Florida schools.

FAU and UM said they offer to help sexual assault victims report the alleged crimes to authorities if they wish. The other two schools did not respond as of the time of this story’s publication.

According to authorities, deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol troopers located a black Chevrolet pickup truck on Tuesday afternoon being driven by the suspect in a strongarm robbery.

The robbery happened Monday night in Lake Worth, when authorities said the suspect ordered pizza.

“He says to the pizza guy, ‘I only got $100. Do you have change for that?’ When the guy took out the change, that’s when he grabbed him and they wrestled for the money. He took it away from him,” said PBSO Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. “It’s called a strong-armed robbery.”

The delivery driver was able to give a description of the suspect’s vehicle and tag number, and deputies were able to locate that vehicle Tuesday.

“They attempted a traffic stop and that’s when the guy took off,” said Bradshaw. “It went down I-95 and FHP got involved.”

Troopers said a chase ensued, which ended when the driver in the truck crashed in an unincorporated area of Palm Beach County along Jog Road, between Woolbright Road and Grand Isle Drive.

That led to a standoff between the man behind the wheel of the truck and first responders, authorities said.

According to PBSO, deputies attempted to bring the suspect into custody using non-lethal tactics, but ultimately the suspect was fatally shot at the scene while holding an item in his hand.

“During this whole time, he was yelling at the officers, ‘You’re gonna have to kill me,’” said Bradshaw. “But they did try less-than-lethal (measures) three times, but it had no effect on him at all.”

Following the standoff, authorities said the suspect received life-saving treatment from first responders, but ultimately died from his injuries.

He did not have a weapon under the towel or shirt that he was holding in his hand, according to officials.

Authorities said the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, had a lengthy criminal history that included carjacking, assault, drug possession and sales, kidnapping, trespassing, disorderly conduct and hit-and-run with severe damage.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

Editor’s Note: An initial report from the Florida Highway Patrol indicated the suspect was driving a stolen vehicle. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has since corrected that report, saying the suspect was driving his own vehicle. This story and headline have been edited to reflect the new information.

James Robertson, 63, declined to offer any last words before receiving a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. It was a stark contrast to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago, where she was rushed to the hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

Robertson’s execution, the first in Florida since Pike, comes at a time of escalating attention on the death penalty in the United States. The Pentagon said last week that it would livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, drawing criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

“Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol,” Jordan Kirkland, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, said at a news conference before the execution. Although he couldn’t speak to Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure, he said Florida would make sure its process was “humane and dignified.”

Florida executes people by injecting them with a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Robertson wanted to be executed

Robertson had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for strangling Frank Hart while he slept in 2008, and waived all appeals. He told investigators that he did it so he wouldn’t have to live out his days in prison.

Hart was killed just eight days before he was due to be released, his daughter, Rebecca Hart, told reporters at Florida State Prison. She stressed that her father was not just a piece of Robertson’s story.

“When someone you love is taken from you in such a violent way, the world keeps moving, even when a part of yours feels like it has stopped,” she read. “Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow.”

Robertson was 17 years old when he went to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Years of convictions for escape, battery and weapons while in prison kept adding time to his total sentence. Hart had been sent to prison in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction.

A rare reprieve leaves another Florida prisoner on death row

Robertson was supposed to be one of two executions carried out by Florida on Tuesday, but Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew a death warrant last week for William Lee Thompson. The Republican governor did not provide a reason but had temporarily stayed the execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation.

Records show this was the first time DeSantis withdrew a death warrant. Thompson, 74, will remain on death row, and a new death warrant could be signed in the future. His attorneys say he has dementia and failing health, and they want him transferred to a medical facility.

DeSantis is the third Florida governor to sign a death warrant for Thompson. Bob Graham and Bob Martinez both scheduled executions for Thompson in the 1980s, but years of appeals and stays allowed him to avoid the electric chair, the state’s method of execution at the time.

Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the 1976 killing of 23-year-old Sally Ivester.

Florida has the nation’s busiest death chamber

DeSantis oversaw 19 executions in 2025, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Robertson was the state’s 17th execution of 2026, with two more already scheduled, not counting Thompson.

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, has made few public comments about the unprecedented number of executions but explained previously that his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.

William Reaves, 77, is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 20, followed by Jesse Guardado, 64, on Nov. 5. Reaves was convicted of fatally shooting a deputy after dropping a gun in front of the law enforcement officer in 1986. Guardado was convicted of robbing and killing a woman in order to buy drugs in 2004.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Besides leading all other states last year, Florida has carried out more than half the 31 total executions in the U.S. so far this year. In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.

According to the Miami Police Department, investigators became aware of a disturbing video circulating online Tuesday that showed the dog.

Police said witnesses found the dog underwater, secured to two cinder blocks, prompting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the discovery.

Detectives are now working to identify the person responsible.

Person questioned, arrested on unrelated charges

In a statement posted on Instagram, Miami police said investigators had made contact with someone who might be the dog’s owner.

However, authorities said they have not been able to confirm whether that individual owns the animal.

The person was questioned by investigators and subsequently arrested on unrelated charges, police said.

Authorities have not released the individual’s identity or provided details about those charges.

Investigation remains ongoing

Miami police spokesperson Officer Kiara Delva confirmed that detectives are actively pursuing leads to determine what led to the dog being found in the water and identify whoever is responsible.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Tuesday’s verdict was mostly favorable for Hill, with jurors siding against him on just two of 11 claims.

The jury, which was made up of three men and three women, ruled in favor of his estranged wife, Keeta Vaccaro, on two claims of battery.

One additional count was voluntarily dismissed by Vaccaro’s side before jury deliberations began.

Jurors ultimately awarded Vaccaro $500,000 in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages.

Her attorneys argued during closing statements that as much as $1 million per count should be awarded.

Moments after the verdict was announced, Hill’s attorneys said they’re pleased with the outcome.

“We’ve always felt from the beginning that this was a money grab and I think that the jury validated that today,” said attorney Michael Gottlieb.

Vaccaro’s attorneys pointed out that the jury still ruled in her favor on two of the battery allegations.

“The jury deliberated for three and a half hours, and they determined that Mr. Hill committed domestic violence against his wife,” said attorney Evan Marks. “He battered his wife and they awarded compensatory damages.”

The verdict brings the high profile civil trial to a close after several days of testimony over the couple’s marriage and allegations of repeated abuse.

Hill and Vaccaro’s divorce, meanwhile, has not yet been finalized.

Oral arguments are scheduled in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The hearing comes months after the court paused a lower court's ruling that the deployment was illegal.

President Donald Trump deployed the guard in August 2025 as part of what he said was a crime-fighting mission in Washington, D.C. The force, which rose to a peak of about 5,000 troops over the summer, has supported arrest operations, patrolled city streets and neighborhoods and participated in cleanup efforts.

Trump's Republican administration says the deployment has contributed to a decrease in crime in the city, where crime was already on the decline before the National Guard arrived. Officials and activists in the overwhelmingly Democratic city say the deployment is a waste of taxpayer money and has normalized the militarization of a major American city.

The case is about whether the president has the authority

At the heart of the court case, brought by D.C.'s attorney general, is whether the president has the authority to deploy the National Guard to the city, which, as a federal district, has limited autonomy over its own affairs. The U.S. Constitution gives federal lawmakers authority over the District of Columbia, while the Home Rule Act of 1973 lets residents elect a mayor, a council and neighborhood commissioners.

The city has argued that the mobilization is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

Last December, the three-judge panel that paused the lower court's ruling said Trump might prevail in his argument that the president “possesses a unique power” to mobilize the guard in Washington.

The court went on to say in a unanimous 32-page ruling that other factors also favored the Trump administration, including the “disruption to the lives of thousands of service members,” as well as what it said was the president’s interest “in the protection of federal governmental functions and property within the nation’s capital.”

The judges found that the district “has not identified any ongoing injury to its statutory interests.”

Even if D.C. wins at the appeals court level, the Trump administration will undoubtedly go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already shown deference to the president in a number of cases.

Legal experts look at the arguments that could be made

Syracuse law professor William Banks said D.C. might have a slim argument under its home rule, questioning whether National Guard units can be deployed to the city when it isn’t authorized by local law.

But, he said, outside of that argument “there is no overarching federal principle that would bail out the district in this case."

Because D.C. is not a state and because the president is commander in chief, there’s a "tremendous amount of leeway and discretion for the president” to control or delegate control of the local National Guard and out-of-state units, Banks said.

Margaret Hu, a professor at the William and Mary School of Law, said one issue to look for was raised by states supporting the deployment in court briefs. They argued the president was reacting to an emergency. Hu said the open-ended manner of the deployment might allow a challenge to that.

“Some argue that the indefinite nature of the deployment means that there’s no emergency justification here,” she said.

A judge said Trump couldn't unilaterally deploy the DC National Guard

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded last November that Trump’s military takeover in Washington illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district.

Cobb found that while the president does have authority to protect federal functioning and property, he can’t unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he sees fit or call in troops from other states. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the appeal by the Trump administration.

The appeals court stayed the order and has allowed the guard to remain in place while the case is pending.

The mobilization, extended until January 2029 by the Defense Department, has taken on a sense of permanence, despite the court case.

The federal government awarded a $292 million contract to a private company to provide members of the Joint Task Force-D.C. with apartments. The numbers have grown as well, ballooning to around 5,000 during the height of the semiquincentennial celebration. As of last week, that number had dropped to about 2,900.

“Swords,” said performer Deborah Hochberger. “It’s the swords,” she chuckled as she prepared for her rehearsal.

We met The Royal Chessmen, a South Florida stage combat and acting troupe, at T.Y. Park in Hollywood.

The nonprofit group combines Renaissance-era entertainment, staged combat and history lessons. They perform or just meetup at different Ren-faires and Pirate Festivals all across the state of Florida.

Click here to find The Royal Chessmen on Facebook.

“We write all our own shows,” Hochberger explained.

Members aren’t just playing characters. They’re finding their people and drawing new audiences to the park through weekly practice.

The troupe is also now preparing for the upcoming Camelot Days Medieval Festival.

President Chris Toriello says the group will bring its characters, staged duels and adventure quests to crowds at TY Park on Nov. 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22.

Click here for more information on the Camelot Days Medieval Festival.

For some like Hochberger, it’s a family affair. She’s been part of the Royal Chessmen since she was 6 years old and has watched this group evolve.

Find the group on Instagram by clicking here.

Longtime member Barry Schwartz and his then-girlfriend spent years traveling to different festivals and events. They joined the group to get involved and took their relationship to new heights. They got married onstage, as part of the show. But the wedding itself was very real and the audience didn’t know.

The Royal Chessmen welcome newcomers of all ages and experience levels. The group generally meets Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at T.Y. Park.

Members also have access to group costumes, props and equipment.

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

The Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI, the country’s highest and most influential body of Islamic scholars, demanded the cancellation of Bocelli’s scheduled performances at the UNESCO-listed Borobudur Temple in Central Java’s Magelang city on Oct. 31 and in the capital Jakarta on Nov. 3.

The council, which initially announced its opposition on Oct. 10, met with Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism to discuss Bocelli’s Romanza 30th Anniversary World Tour Indonesia, including the Borobudur performance at one of Indonesia's most iconic historical sites.

The council said its objection is in response to Bocelli’s past support for Israel, including his participation in a 2010 fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Israel Defense Forces and a 2022 concert in Tel Aviv.

“Giving a platform to a figure who has funded or supported military actions linked to humanitarian abuses in Gaza runs contrary to the values of the Indonesian nation and MUI’s religious guidance,” the council said in a statement.

Public sympathy for Palestinians is widespread in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, and the government has long supported an independent Palestinian state.

Tourism Ministry Secretary Bayu Aji said the discussions with MUI were aimed at reaching a consensus.

“The government’s stance is clear: we support Palestine, and there are directives from the MUI leaders that we will try to communicate further,” Aji said, ”But if the MUI has already made a statement, we will certainly be aligned with the MUI’s decision.”

At the local level, police in Magelang on Wednesday withdrew a recommendation to issue a permit for the Borobudur complex concert. Opposition from several Islamic groups also has intensified, adding pressure on the event organizers.

Neither Bocelli nor the concert organizers did not immediately issue a public response to MUI’s objections.

The Indonesia performances are part of Bocelli’s Romanza 30th Anniversary World Tour, celebrating "Romanza," the album that launched the singer to international stardom and included one of his signature songs, “Con Te Partirò.”

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Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The charges involve six women and alleged offenses between 1999 and 2009.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London that the six women, who don't know each other, were assaulted by Brand in “a hotel room, workplaces, a toilet cubicle in a bar and at his home address.”

She said that at the time that Brand had an “indiscriminate and voracious” desire for sexual contact, and “women were simply a means to an end.”

The prosecutor said that Brand could be funny and charming, “a flirt with a huge sexual appetite — childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met.”

“He was ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator,” Karmy-Jones said.

The jury will hear from Brand's accusers later in the trial

Brand listened intently from the dock as the prosecutor described each of the alleged incidents, including the earliest, in which Brand allegedly raped a woman in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in 1999. Brand, then a rising stand-up comedian, was performing in a cabaret on the fringe of the conference in the English coastal town of Bournemouth.

Two years later, another woman alleges, Brand tried to drag her into the men’s bathroom at the office building where she worked.

“There can be little doubt as to what Mr. Brand’s intention was,” Karmy-Jones said.

A third woman alleges that Brand orally raped her in 2004 in the restroom of a London bar, telling her “Don’t be a spoilsport” when she asked him to stop.

The prosecutor said that the other charges relate to a woman who says Brand kissed and groped her at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005, leaving her feeling “dirty and disgusting”; a then-21-year-old fan who says Brand anally raped her at his home after she met him at one of his shows in 2009; and a woman who says Brand demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.

Karmy-Jones told the jury that none of the alleged victims reported the alleged assaults at the time, due to guilt, shame and concern that they would be blamed.

She said that jurors would hear from the women later in the trial, and “I have no doubt you will find their evidence compelling.”

Brand denies all the charges. In police interviews, he denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sexual activity.

Brand has shifted away from mainstream media to an online audience

Brand is on bail and arrived at court on Wednesday to a crowd of photographers and video journalists. He said he felt “blessed.”

“I feel, of course, concerned but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved,” Brand said. “That’s my prayer.”

Known for risque stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.”

In recent years he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories and discussions of his religious devotion.

The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.

Despite Trump’s optimism, the harsh climate of Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark, rather than a part of the United States — as well as a lack of infrastructure have foiled all previous attempts to extract so-called rare earth minerals, as well as oil and gas. No efforts have ever progressed beyond the exploratory stage.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform following a campaign event Tuesday in Wasilla, Alaska, to stump for Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan as he seeks his third term to represent the state in an election against Democratic former U.S. congresswoman Mary Peltola.

Rising energy prices — a direct result of Trump’s war in Iran — are creating serious and sustained financial hardships for America’s working class ahead of the midterm elections next month. Trump’s comments Wednesday are likely aimed at addressing voters’ concerns before they head to the polls.

A recent deal paved the way for more US bases but didn't offer exploration rights

Last month Trump signed an agreement with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to strengthen security in the Arctic and North Atlantic, following months of tensions with NATO allies over the U.S. president's repeated demands to take control of the semiautonomous Danish territory. It does not grant the U.S. any special exploration rights, but does place some limits on investments by non-NATO countries in strategic sectors.

The deal also paved the way for more U.S. bases in Greenland and eased tensions over Trump's repeated calls for Greenland to become part of the United States. The agreement would still apply if Greenland eventually chooses independence.

Trump has expressed his desire to acquire Greenland since 2019 and, during his second term, issued threats to seize the territory from Denmark, a NATO ally.

Representatives from Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as from Greenland's prime minister and the island's mining ministry, did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.

Naaja H. Nathanielsen, who represents Greenland at the Danish parliament, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that she believes Trump used his post to get attention.

She said she does not attach significance to Trump calling the island “our Greenland.”

Greenland has valuable resources

Greenland has large deposits of the rare earth minerals that are needed to make everything from computers and smartphones to the batteries, solar and wind technologies that will power the transition away from fossil fuels. China currently dominates the world's supply of these critical minerals and the Trump administration is seeking to break Beijing's chokehold on them.

The U.S. Geological Survey has also identified major potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.

But tapping these resources could be prohibitively difficult: the rare earth minerals are encased in rock, and the offshore oil and natural gas deposits are covered by Arctic ice.

Trump boasts about Greenland’s strategic spot in the Arctic

Trump's Truth Social post also touted Greenland's strategic location, saying that “from a Security Purpose in the Defense and Offense of both the United States of America, and Europe,” the island is “second to none.”

“Any future attack on the United States will have to come across Greenland, where our Defense will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived," he wrote. "It gives us time, location, and sightline, like nowhere else in the World!”

The United States was prominent in Greenland for decades but, since 1945, the U.S. military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers on 17 bases and installations to roughly 200 soldiers on the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest. The base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

Trump said last month that the U.S. would “immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations,” including “building two very major military bases.”

Spanning from Oct. 21 to Oct. 30, Harris' expanded closing stretch will now include New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Mississippi, along with a Florida virtual event, according to a schedule her office shared first with The Associated Press. Harris already had announced late October stops in Georgia and Nevada.

Harris has said in multiple recent interviews that she's focused on helping Democrats win in November. But she's not ruled out another presidential campaign after losing the 2024 general election to Donald Trump.

Her late October tour focuses on nominees for governor and U.S. Senate, including pairings that put the first Black woman to serve as vice president alongside potential history-making candidates.

Harris will open Oct. 21 in Nevada with Aaron Ford, the state's first Black attorney general who would be the state's first Black governor, and other candidates. She'll also meet with Culinary Workers Union members. Nevada holds the second 2028 presidential nominating contest, after South Carolina.

On Oct. 22, she will be in Mississippi with Scott Colom, who would be the state's first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction. Colom has recently begun to garner more attention from national Democrats as he faces Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

From Mississippi, Harris will head to New Hampshire on Oct. 24 to campaign with Senate nominee Chris Pappas and participate in a discussion on reproductive care and abortion rights. As vice president, Harris was the Biden White House's foremost abortion rights advocate, especially during the 2022 midterm campaign. New Hampshire comes third in Democrats' 2028 primary order.

Harris and Wisconsin gubernatorial nominee David Crowley will campaign together Oct. 26. Harris will finish with a three-day swing in Georgia that begins Oct. 28. She will campaign with Sen. Jon Ossoff, attend voter protection events and speak Oct. 30 at the Fulton County Democratic Party's annual gala in Atlanta.

While in Georgia, Harris will headline a virtual organizing event with Florida Senate nominee Angie Nixon, who would be her state's first Black U.S. senator. That will put Harris, who hails from the Democrats' liberal establishment, alongside one of the party's most progressive nominees. A state lawmaker, Nixon identifies as a democratic socialist and draws support from many left-flank activists who in 2024 criticized Harris as too moderate.

The itinerary follows earlier in-person and online campaign appearances and fundraisers, along with voter protection and organizing events Harris helped lead, including for the Democratic National Committee. Most recently, Harris was in Michigan to campaign for Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed — another notable progressive Democratic nominee — and speak at an NAACP event.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other U.S. leaders recognize that the federal deficit and national debt are too high. But economic growth alone would not be enough to address the country’s more than $40 trillion in national debt, she said.

Meanwhile, rising bond yields, reflecting higher premiums demanded by investors for taking on greater risk, have been disrupting financial markets.

“We believe that growth, of course, helps, but it cannot deliver fast enough the necessary adjustments,” Georgieva said at the autumn meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok.

“There is no magic,” she said, adding that other measures would be needed. “You have to go in a direction of tightening, bringing it down, bringing the deficit down.”

‘Fiscal consolidation’ faces challenges

Rising debt levels and global inflation, partly resulting from high energy costs due to the Iran war, have pushed interest rates to multidecade highs, adding to the burdens of the world’s poorest nations.

Efforts to bring debt under control with what Georgieva and other experts call “fiscal consolidation” have suffered setbacks from heavy spending during the COVID-19 pandemic and since.

“Fiscal risks are rising, and a proper reaction is largely absent in many countries,” said Rodrigo Valdes, director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department. “And in major advanced economies, the effect of fiscal indiscipline does not stop at the border. It travels to the rest of the world.”

“Among the world’s poorest countries, interest payments have reached historic highs relative to revenue, and declining amounts of aid are creating gaps that some countries have been unable to finance,” the IMF's latest Fiscal Monitor said.

That is forcing countries to make hard choices between supporting their most vulnerable people and meeting their debt repayment obligations.

“The Global South is paying the price for rising interest rates in wealthier countries,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said at an event on the sidelines of the IMF meetings.

“We need a new deal on debt, a deal that supports countries to repay over longer time horizons and, crucially, refinancing with better rates to give developing countries precious fiscal space,” he said.

Nations need help with job creation and investment

The median developing country pays three times as much in interest as developed countries, said Alexander De Croo, former Belgian prime minister and administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

On average, nearly 10% of government spending goes toward debt repayments. High fuel and fertilizer prices, the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon and rising borrowing costs have left many low-income countries with little room to recover.

“I mean, we don’t see really a light at the end of the tunnel,” De Croo told The Associated Press.

Creating jobs is another top priority, particularly as the growing use of artificial intelligence threatens to make many traditional occupations obsolete. More than 1.2 billion young people are expected to enter the global workforce over the next decade or so, while forecasts suggest only 400 million net new jobs will be created.

The UNDP this week announced its “Jobs for Prosperity” initiative to bring together governments, development banks — such as the World Bank — and private businesses to encourage investment in sectors such as tourism, healthcare and food processing.

The initiative and related efforts will help countries attract investment by strengthening governance and policies and developing pipelines of “investible projects,” De Croo said. “These are things that are feasible. It’s been proven that you can do it in many places of the world,” he added.

Separately, the IMF, Bank of Thailand and World Bank Group announced a “Bangkok Blueprint” on Wednesday to combat cybercrime, financial fraud and online scams.

The announcement came a day after cyberattacks caused refrigeration systems to overheat at hundreds of stores in France.

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Associated Press journalists Haruka Nuga and Tian Macleod Ji contributed to this report.

Moscow’s forces pounded Ukraine’s power grid, as well as oil and gas facilities, for the third straight night, Zelenskyy said, after Trump claimed that Russia and Ukraine had agreed not to strike energy infrastructure 4 ½ years after Moscow’s forces invaded.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has agreed to halt Ukraine's monthslong campaign targeting Russian oil refineries that caused fuel shortages for Russians. Ukraine’s last reported hit on an oil refinery was last Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that details of the energy ceasefire are still being decided. “The work in that direction is continuing,” he told reporters.

Trump’s efforts to stop the fighting have made no progress.

Ukraine claims it is pushing Russia back on the battlefield

Ukrainian officials say they are pushing back Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, which Russia’s bigger army has been trying to capture for years. Ukraine has liberated 277 square kilometers (107 square miles) in the operation that started in the summer, Ukraine’s Third Army Corps commander Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi said Wednesday.

It was not possible to independently verify the claim, and Russian officials did not comment.

Ukrainian officials fear U.S. support for the war effort is falling away after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel despite international efforts to sanction Russia for its invasion and isolate Putin.

Ukrainian officials said the deal would help Russia continue its invasion, while European leaders fear Moscow’s wider ambitions on the continent and accuse Russia of sabotage as part of a hybrid war on the continent.

Zelenskyy arrived in London on Wednesday for talks with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham as Kyiv and its European supporters race to shore up Ukrainian defenses. The Ukrainian leader could go to Brussels to attend a European Union summit later this week after his London trip.

“We ask America and EVERYONE in the world who does not turn a blind eye to reality to respond — and to respond forcefully” to Russia’s ongoing aerial barrages, Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday.

“Russia has squandered the opportunity for de-escalation and has clearly chosen to continue its insane war of annihilation,” he said.

Russia hits three Kyiv power plants in attack, causing outages

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that its forces attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in Kyiv, the wider Kyiv region and the northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, striking a total of six power plants.

Russian forces hit all three of Kyiv’s combined heat and power plants overnight into Wednesday, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said. At least 600,000 people were left without power, Zelenskyy said.

Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones at energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Kharkiv overnight, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine fears dwindling US support for its war effort

Ukrainian officials are concerned that U.S. support, especially the provision of military intelligence and the use of American tech titan Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system, may be in jeopardy.

Musk’s SpaceX overnight imposed a speed limit on Ukraine’s Starlink terminals mounted on drones, Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said on social media.

Starlink is a vital tool for Ukraine, both in attack and defense. It is used in long-range drone missions, interceptor air defense systems, and front-line logistics, Beskrestnov said.

“Obviously, this action cannot be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation,” Beskrestnov said, without elaborating.

SpaceX made no immediate comment.

Ukraine didn’t receive the usual advance warning from its partners of Russian missile attacks that hit Kyiv for the second consecutive night, Zelenskyy said Tuesday. He did not specify which partners he was talking about when referring to the lack of a warning, but the development raised fears that the U.S. may not be providing Kyiv with usual intelligence.

Yurii Ihnat, Ukraine’s air force spokesman, said there was no warning of an initial Russian ballistic missile attack on Tuesday night but Kyiv was warned about three later waves of missiles.

Trump has said the U.S. has not stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, and a lawmaker on Ukraine’s parliamentary Defense Committee told The Associated Press that intelligence sharing with international partners has not stopped.

The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements to the press.

Five people were killed and 36 injured in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital that lasted from Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, Kyiv police said.

Ukraine attacks a Russian data center with long-range drones

Ukraine is trying to fight back with attacks on other targets on Russian soil.

Russian air defenses overnight downed 902 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Azov Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a separate statement Wednesday.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones flew toward the capital region. Most were downed far away, and 180 were intercepted as they approached the Russian capital, he said. He did not report any damage or casualties.

In Russia’s Saratov region, one person was killed and several residential buildings were damaged, Gov. Roman Busargin said.

Russia’s state-backed Sberbank confirmed an attack on its Saratov data center, once slated to become Europe's biggest data center.

Russian state news agency Tass quoted Alexander Vedyakhin, Sberbank’s first deputy chairman of the board, as saying that Sberbank systems were operating normally.

Zelenskyy visits London for talks on more help in the war

Burnham, the British prime minister, vowed to keep backing Ukraine in the war.

“My message to the Ukrainian people could not be clearer: We are with you for as long as it takes, and we will go further and faster in our support to back your courageous fight for peace in Europe,” he said ahead of Zelenskyy's visit.

Analysts noted that Trump’s latest moves girded Europe into standing firm behind Kyiv.

“Ahead of a tough winter for Ukraine, Donald Trump’s swing back toward Russia bodes ill,” Rym Momtaz of Carnegie Europe wrote Tuesday. “But instead of panicking, Kyiv’s European allies are focusing on action.”

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AP reporter Jill Lawless in London contributed to this story.

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

The officials said the top three floors in a building used by top executives were damaged. One official said the office of the Aramco chief executive was among those hit. There were no casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The sight of smoke rising from some of Saudi Arabia’s most sensitive facilities in recent days has rattled the region and global markets while increasing questions for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he is evaluating whether the U.S. should join Saudi strikes against the Houthis in the latest front in the Iran war.

The Houthis earlier said they targeted the city of Dhahran, which hosts the headquarters, with a ballistic missile as part of their latest attacks. The Saudi energy ministry reported a “limited fire” at the Aramco administrative building Tuesday night. Aramco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Saudi civil defense said debris from an interception in the capital, Riyadh, injured a foreigner from an Arab country. The state-run SPA news agency published images showing a vehicle with a large cylindrical object lodged in the front and a building damaged.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said it intercepted cruise and ballistic missiles and drones targeting Riyadh, a ballistic missile targeting Dhahran, and a cruise missile targeting Al-Kharj, home to Prince Sultan Air Base and the state-owned Military Industries Corporation.

Rebels call the strikes retaliation for ones at home

The Houthis called the attacks retaliation for “treacherous Saudi aggression” against the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other areas, as the kingdom backs the forces of neighboring Yemen's internationally recognized government in a major military offensive launched a week and a half ago. The rebel-run Health Ministry reported two dead in attacks in Yemen on Tuesday and blamed the Saudis.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi airports, military facilities and oil infrastructure. Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport has been targeted multiple times in the past week with strikes that have killed at least 18 people and hurt over 300 more, greatly affecting aviation across the kingdom.

The Houthis, hardened by years of civil war, have emerged as Iran's most effective armed proxy of the moment, but experts say they also have their own agenda. Either way, they are applying increasing pressure on a key U.S. ally.

Houthi official describes diplomatic outreach for a ceasefire

A senior Houthi official told The Associated Press that regional and international powers have reached out in an effort to stop the attacks on Saudi Arabia as part of a ceasefire deal.

Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said Oman has tried to get both sides back to the negotiating table, and Russia and China also tried via Iran.

“We’re welcoming any mediation that leads to an end of the war and the blockade between Sanaa and Riyadh,” he said. “We’re ready for a comprehensive end of the war and the blockade from both sides, not just a temporary ceasefire.”

The rebels continued to warn of attacks on both airports and oil facilities. Over 3,000 flights scheduled to depart from airports across Saudi Arabia have been canceled or listed as not operating in the past week, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Experts say Saudi Arabia can’t intercept everything

The escalation has highlighted Saudi Arabia’s struggle to intercept Houthi missiles and drones. The kingdom has pressed allies like the United States for more military support. Regional officials say Saudi Arabia, the world’s top purchaser of U.S. weapons, is running low on interceptors.

The Saudis are trying to intercept daily attacks across a territory about three times the size of Texas. Experts have said trying to intercept all of the missiles and drones is impossible. The Houthis have a large arsenal capable of striking targets well over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Some warheads change direction during flight.

The fighting between the Saudis and Houthis erupted this year when the rebels blamed the Saudis for a strike on the airport in Sanaa. That revived anger over a Saudi blockade of the Houthis, who in turn declared a blockade against the kingdom.

The Saudi-led coalition also is striking oil targets. Earlier Wednesday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said two people were killed in an airstrike Tuesday in the Ras Isa port area in Hodeida province. The strike hit a facility of the state oil company, the ministry said. The Saudi-led coalition also attacked an oil facility in Sanaa.

The targeting of fuel storage facilities in Houthi-controlled areas marks a new phase, said Ahmed Nagi, senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, a think tank. He added that in a war of attrition, the rebels could risk losing much of their military capacity.

“The Houthis are betting on pressure, while the Saudis are betting on time. The Houthis are trying to strike critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia to raise the cost of continued military intervention,” Nagi added.

The fighting has revived Yemen's civil war after four years of relative calm.

“There’s a huge fear,” said one Sanaa resident, Umm Shadi, after the Saudi-led strikes there on Tuesday, adding that people are largely staying home.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said all front lines there have seen an “unprecedented surge in weapon-wounded cases,” especially in Marib, Taiz and along the Red Sea. And the World Food Program said it can no longer reach over 600,000 people in the besieged city of Taiz who depend on aid.

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Anna reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Ahmed al-Haj in Aden and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed.

Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among about a dozen people detained by police Tuesday after they climbed over barricades to enter the grounds of Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory in central New Delhi that has long been a site for protests.

Police said this week that the site was no longer an official protest venue and accused Das and Ranka of trespassing and defying prohibitory orders.

The arrests follow a sweeping police crackdown over the weekend aimed at preventing mostly young Indians from gathering in New Delhi to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Police briefly detained thousands of demonstrators.

“Jantar Mantar belongs to the people of India. We will reclaim it,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on X in a post condemning the arrests as “an act of cowardice.”

Protests have intensified over an ongoing nationwide revision of voter lists that has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise is politically motivated and could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.

The Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.

Abhijeet Dipke, the “Cockroach” movement’s founder, criticized Modi in a post on X.

“If you’re so determined to crush dissent, have the courage to officially declare an Emergency instead of hiding behind these cowardly tactics,” Dipke wrote.

The “Cockroach” movement began as an online satirical campaign this summer after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites. Many young Indians embraced the remark, adopting the cockroach as a symbol of resilience.

Protests led by the group forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister in July, a rare setback for the prime minister, who has been in power for more than 12 years.

The United States is Taiwan’s main informal supporter and arms provider in the face of increased military threats by China, which sees the island as its own breakaway province, to be annexed by force if necessary. The details of the natural gas purchase plan came as Taiwan awaited a $14 billion arms sales package from the U.S.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement that state-owned oil and gas firm CPC Corporation signed a letter of intent in March 2025 on the natural gas project in Alaska, and the company and the U.S. side have made significant progress after more than a year of negotiations and evaluation.

Under the current plan, the annual purchase and participation in the Alaska project development, with an estimated maximum investment of $4.4 billion, are part of the cooperation areas, the ministry said. If the project proceeds as scheduled, it is expected to start supporting the island's natural gas supply in 2032 at the earliest, it said.

Approaches such as long-term energy procurement and project investment would help diversify natural gas supply, enhance flexibility and deepen Taiwan-U.S. cooperation, the ministry said.

It stressed that the cooperation would be conducted on the principles of mutual benefit and professionalism, while CPC Corp would continue to coordinate with the U.S. side. The specific investment arrangements, shareholding ratios and related terms would be handled in accordance with subsequent negotiations between both sides and commercial contract procedures, it added.

At a political rally in Alaska on Tuesday, Trump hailed Taiwan's planned purchase from the proposed mega-gas project — an 807-mile (1,300-kilometer) pipeline connecting Alaska’s North Slope to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in the southern part of the state.

“Taiwan has just agreed to buy 30% of the gas coming off the pipeline for the next 20 years,” Trump said. “That guarantees success. It’s one of the biggest commitments in history for anything. It’s one of the biggest deals ever made.”

The statement from Taiwan did not specify how many years it has committed to in the plan.

Trump had similarly touted a $54 billion investment from South Korea in the Alaska pipeline. But South Korean officials were more cautious, saying they needed to assess the project’s commercial viability before committing to the investment.

Maintaining a good relationship with the U.S. is important to Taiwan, which faces growing military and diplomatic pressure from Beijing.

China has been pressing Trump to halt arms sales to Taiwan. After his summit in May with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, a record-breaking $14 billion arms sales package to Taiwan was stalled. Trump described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

In September, Xi told Trump that he hoped the U.S. would adhere to “the correct position of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’” during his visit to Washington.

Washington approved another $11 billion package for Taiwan in December.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that the external exchanges of “China’s Taiwan region” must be handled in accordance with the “one-China” principle.

“The DPP authorities’ attempts to pursue Taiwan independence under the guise of economic and trade cooperation will not succeed,” she said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when a civil war brought the Communist Party to power in Beijing. Defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan. The island has operated with its own government since then.

Meanwhile, a hospital in Gaza said that a woman was killed in an Israeli strike. And Iran has executed a man accused of an “armed operation” against the theocracy in support of exiled former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Read our full coverage here.

Iran says a cargo ship sank after hitting a naval mine

A cargo ship has sunk after hitting a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said. It was the first time Iran has reported a ship sinking after hitting a mine during the war.

There were few details, including about the fate of the crew. State television quoted a Guard statement saying the ship was traveling on what it called an illegal and dangerous route when it hit the mine Wednesday morning. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the images.

The unidentified ship, which was shown tilted in the water and spewing a thick plume of smoke, was carrying 2,500 containers, the broadcast said.

Iran has repeatedly warned ships from trying to transit through the strait without its approval. The U.S. military has been guiding ships through the strait on a route nearer to Oman's coast.

Houthi rebel strike hits Saudi oil company's headquarters

The headquarters of the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco were hit in an overnight Houthi strike, two regional officials said, damaging the offices of the firm's chief executive and other top officials. It was the latest demonstration of the Iran-backed rebels’ ability to attack high-profile targets.

There were no casualties in the attack, which the officials said targeted the top three floors of a building used by top executives in the city of Dharan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

Earlier Wednesday, new explosions were heard in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, residents said, as blame again quickly fell on Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.

The sight of smoke rising in recent days from some of Saudi Arabia’s most sensitive facilities has rattled the region and global oil markets while increasing questions for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he is evaluating whether the U.S. should join Saudi strikes against the Houthis.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo

Israeli strike in Gaza City kills a woman

An Israeli strike on an apartment in Gaza City killed one woman early Wednesday, according to officials at Shifa hospital.

Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas militant but was still assessing the strike's outcome, without elaborating.

Just over a year since a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, Israel still launches near-daily deadly strikes on the Palestinian enclave.

More than 1,490 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its figures are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It doesn’t give a breakdown of civilians and militants, but says almost half the dead are women and children.

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This item has been corrected to show that almost half, not most, of the dead are women and children.

Iran executes a man accused of ‘armed operation’

Iran on Wednesday hanged a man accused of an “armed operation” against the theocracy in support of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah.

A report by Mizan, an outlet affiliated with the Islamic Republic's judiciary, identified the man as Ali Sina Mostafavi and said that he opened fire earlier during the Iran war and wounded several people, including a child, in the southeastern city of Kerman.

Executions of people on similar charges have prompted an international outcry. U.N. experts this month called on Iran to halt all executions.

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

Leo’s two doctors, Dr. Luigi Carbone and thoracic surgeon Dr. Stefano Margaritora, provided a medical update on Wednesday. Blood tests and a chest x-ray confirmed a normal post-operative recovery, with levels within the norm, they said.

“The Holy Father underwent respiratory physiotherapy and has begun walking in his room. He resumed his regular diet and had breakfast and lunch,” they reported. “Recovery is proceeding as planned.”

Tuesday's surgery showed the 71-year-old pope has the most common type of lung cancer, known as lung adenocarcinoma. Experts said further tests are needed to know if the disease has spread and if more treatment is needed, but those test results weren't yet available on Wednesday.

The revelation of the diagnosis — within a few hours of an operation that was announced by Leo himself — offered further evidence that the American pontiff is taking a new approach to communicating about his health.

The Vatican said the surgery lasted approximately 90 minutes and was successful, with no complications.

Doctors were waiting for the results of further tests before deciding on a course of treatment, the Vatican said. The press office pointed to the medical statement’s mention of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors took out all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer.

The right lung has three sections or lobes while the left has two. After one lobe is removed, the rest of the lung can gradually compensate, especially in otherwise healthy and physically active people. Leo is known to be sporty, with weekly tennis games and swimming.

Experts said some of Leo’s lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested to determine if the cancer had spread. There was no word yet on those test results.

If the cancer has spread, tests will determine what kind of therapy to pursue, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy or targeted therapy, which involves pills for specific cancers.

Liu, who is not involved in the pope’s care, said adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, and also has the most favorable prognosis.

“While we know the diagnosis, we now need to know the stage,” Liu said. “We now need to know how big it is, how many spots in the lung are involved. Is it just one nodule, or more than one, and the lymph nodes, are they cancerous?”

Dr. PierCarlo Gentile, head of radiation oncology at the San Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome, said the kind of video-assisted minimally invasive chest surgery the pope underwent could allow him to be back on his feet within 48 to 72 hours. Recovery from the surgery itself takes 15 to 20 days. Post-op complications, including infections, are rare, he said.

The pope is breaking with a tradition of secrecy surrounding health issues

The American pontiff has offered a rare level of transparency about the first publicly disclosed major health problem of his 17-month papacy. He revealed the discovery of the nodule, or growth, on his lung during his Sunday noon prayer, announcing it to the world on live television almost as an aside at the end of his blessing.

“That was truly a revolution. It was like he was reading a medical bulletin himself,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and the former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican has long been secretive about the health of popes and tightly controlled any such information — a practice encapsulated in the popular Italian saying, “ The pope is fine until he’s dead.”

St. John XXIII died in 1963, nearly a year after doctors diagnosed stomach cancer that was kept hidden at the time. St. John Paul II died in 2005 after suffering for years from the obvious effects of Parkinson's disease that the Vatican only confirmed after he died.

Pope Francis seemed more up front about his health problems, giving an Argentine doctor a tell-all interview for a book about his physical and mental health. But in the end Francis, too, tightly controlled the information that was released in his dying months.

Vian, who was part of the Vatican communications team from 2007 to 2018, said the Vatican's obsession with secrecy about the pope's health was due to both practical and cultural considerations. He noted the Vatican is a 2,000-year-old institution that is culturally European — and Europeans tend to be more guarded about health problems than people in the United States.

“In theory, the pope has an absolute power, so you can understand that there are many people who would aspire to that absolute power," he said. Secrecy about a pope's health, therefore "is a legitimate defense of both the pope in question and the institution itself.”

That said, Leo didn't share everything he knew on Sunday: Tuesday's medical bulletin said doctors had suspected cancer based on tests, a suspicion that was confirmed in surgery.

The pope has a trip to South America planned for November

The Vatican on Monday canceled all Leo’s audiences through Oct. 20. But there was no word on whether he would be able to keep his planned trip to South America next month.

Oncology surgeons often advise patients not to fly for three weeks after surgery — which would give the pope just enough time to make his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. But whether he can go will depend on his recovery.

The current itinerary for the trip is ambitious and the longest of his papacy to date, calling for Leo to clock just over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) on a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, and a significant altitude change in Peru.

“If it is stage 1, he can complete these trips. If more treatment is needed, I would likely advise against the trips,” said Liu.

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Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press video producer Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Associated Press writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

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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.

Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, needed surgery for a broken leg after being hit by a car Saturday, said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights organization that is helping the man's family.

The encounter has set off new criticism over immigration enforcement in Houston, where local prosecutors have also investigated a July fatal shooting by a federal immigration officer.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, a Democrat, expressed concern over surveillance footage that shows Parra Hernandez and another person jumping out of a white truck and running as a dark SUV pursues them. A vehicle strikes Parra Hernandez, who is seen on the ground seconds later.

“In a case like this, the most obvious criminal charge is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,” Teare told FOX 26 Houston. “Meaning the car was used as a deadly weapon. And it certainly is what appears to have happened based on the surveillance footage.”

Tim Oberle, a spokesperson for ICE in Houston, said in a statement sent to The Texas Tribune on Saturday that “As ICE officers attempted to apprehend the illegal aliens, Miguel Parra-Hernandez ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck.”

Spokespersons for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

Parra Hernandez has been in the U.S. for 34 years and was on his way to work when the encounter began, according to Espinosa. Espinosa declined to share Parra Hernandez’s status.

He said he saw two ICE agents in Parra Hernandez's room while visiting him at the hospital.

“He already had a surgery for the injury under his knee and now we’re waiting for swelling to go down in his ankle to be able to have a reconstructive surgery on his ankle,” Espinosa said.

Teare said ICE and DHS have not cooperated with his office during its investigation.

In July, Teare said DHS also ignored his request for information after an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. The shooting was one of at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration officers since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung attended the memorial services at Le Thi Rieng Park, where the remains were recovered from mass graves after over three months of excavations. They were laid to rest at Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs’ Cemetery in the city previously known as Saigon.

Generations in Vietnam have spent decades searching for loved ones who never returned from war, hoping to recover their remains, give them a proper burial and finally find some measure of closure.

Hundreds were buried in mass graves after bloody fighting

The Tet Offensive began on Jan. 31, 1968, when North Vietnamese communist forces launched coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam during the Lunar New Year holiday, known in Vietnam as Tet. One of the largest campaigns of the Vietnam War, it sparked fierce fighting and heavy casualties, including in the southern capital Saigon, where communist fighters attacked the U.S. Embassy, military installations and government buildings.

Although the communist forces suffered a military defeat, the offensive shocked Washington, undermined U.S. public support for the war, and became a turning point in the conflict. “The resultant conflict has changed the pattern of the war,” The Associated Press reported in February 1968.

The South Vietnamese government collected the bodies of communist fighters and civilians and buried them in mass graves during and after the fighting, according to Vietnamese government news.

The remains at Le Thi Rieng Park, which was previously the site of Do Thanh Cemetery, were discovered during excavations that began on June 23 at the park. Over weeks, excavators painstakingly unearthed bones and fragments, along with weapons, ammunition, military hammocks and personal belongings, said the Vietnamese government’s official news portal.

They discovered a wallet containing a faded military document bearing the name Huynh Van Quen, which helped authorities identify one of the dead as a soldier from the 1st Long An Battalion, a communist unit that fought a fierce seven-day battle at Saigon’s Y-shaped Bridge.

Among the mourners was Vo Huy Thinh, 70, who remembered watching bodies being buried there when he was 12. “The memory of that burial pit has stayed with me,” he told Vietnamese state media.

An AP photograph helped uncover the graves

For years, architect Nguyen Xuan Thang pored over photographs from the Vietnam War, searching for clues to the location of the burial site.

A breakthrough came when he found a color photograph taken by an AP photographer on Feb. 12, 1968, with a caption describing three large burial trenches that each contained about 300 bodies, he told state media.

The photograph shows two men carrying a body as two others look on. Three boys stand nearby, one of them wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and looking directly at the camera. A water tower is visible in the background, providing a crucial clue to the site’s location. The image was shot by a French photographer credited as Gautron.

Thang told state media that he spent months riding his motorbike through Ho Chi Minh City, comparing old military maps with present-day landmarks, including the water tower. His research was part of a nearly eight-year effort, from November 2018 to May 2026, involving his team and the military, which helped authorities narrow their search to the park.

Investigators worked with researchers, historians, journalists and witnesses to piece together the location of the mass graves. They examined other wartime photographs, satellite images, military maps and archival records from Vietnam and abroad, comparing them with field surveys and accounts from people who witnessed the burials, said the Vietnamese government’s official news portal.

The long effort to identify Vietnam’s war dead

The recovery is part of a nationwide 500-day campaign running through July 2027 to locate the remains of about 7,000 war dead and identify them.

More than half a century after the war ended in 1975, many Vietnamese families are still searching for relatives who never returned home. The remains of about 175,000 Vietnamese soldiers have yet to be recovered, while hundreds of thousands more lie in graves without confirmed identities, according to government figures.

Of the 731 sets of remains recovered in Ho Chi Minh City, 307 were found with personal belongings, according to state media. Most have not yet been identified.

“Due to the harsh conditions of war and the passage of time, we have been unable to identify the names, ages, or hometowns of the majority of the martyrs in this group,” said Nguyen Manh Cuong, who heads the city's war dead identification efforts.

Samples have been sent to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi for DNA testing and comparison with samples from relatives.

Similar memorial and burial ceremonies will be held Thursday in three other parts of Vietnam, with the remains of what are believed to be 93 people to be buried in Tuyen Quang province. Another 65 will be buried in Hai Phong and 120 in Can Tho.

The consumer price index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.4% in August. On a monthly basis, costs jumped 0.6% from August to September, the biggest gain in five months, up from a 0.4% increase the previous month.

The figures underscore the lingering impact of the Iran war on gas prices and the stubborn persistence of inflation, which fell sharply from a 9.1% peak in 2022 but this year has ticked higher since the war began in late February. The rise isn't all linked to gas prices, as surging investment in data centers and AI has also pushed up prices for computer chips and the consumer electronics that also use them. Elevated inflation has posed political problems for Republicans in Congress and is a challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is required by Congress to seek stable prices.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.6% in September from a year ago, up from 2.4% the previous month. And they climbed 0.3% from August to September, an elevated pace that, if it continued for a year, would run well above the Fed's 2% target.

Ongoing inflation has taken a toll on Trump’s standing with U.S. voters. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 17% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living issue. And only 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low.

Federal Reserve officials are watching inflation data closely to determine whether they need to raise their short-term interest rate further, and by how much.

Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said last month that inflation isn't moving quickly enough back to the central bank's target, causing the Fed to hike rates for the first time in three years, to about 3.9%.

Yet some key Fed officials have suggested the central bank can wait before increasing rates again. The Fed has a policy meeting Oct. 27-28, but most Wall Street investors expect it to hold rates then, and potentially implement another hike in December. Fed officials have penciled in just one more rate hike this year.

By raising borrowing costs, the Fed hopes to slow spending and growth and cool price increases. Yet much of the current inflation comes from supply shocks, such as the Iran war's disruption to oil and gas supplies, and higher interest rates can't address those bottlenecks.

Warsh has said his goal is to keep the gas price spike from seeping into more areas of the economy. It's already pushed up the price of air fares about 22% from a year ago.

Gas prices jumped more than 9% from August to September, Wednesday's report said. Rising gas costs are a highly visible sign of inflation and often drive down measures of consumer sentiment about the economy.

Prices at the pump have ticked lower in the past two weeks to a nationwide average of $4.33 a gallon, according to AAA, though they remain higher than a month ago.

Those costs raise shipping and other expenses for many large and small businesses, some of which are forced to pass the cost to consumers. Last week, PepsiCo said that it will raise prices for its snack foods, including Doritos, Ruffles, Sun Chips, and some sodas to offset higher costs for fuel, aluminum, and food ingredients.

The artificial intelligence buildout has also sharply elevated the cost of semiconductors, computer equipment, and electrical components, which have been passed on to consumers in the form of more expensive electronics such as gaming devices, laptops, and smartphones.

Goldman Sachs estimated in a report Tuesday that the AI buildout has added about a half-percentage point to the annual inflation rate, according to the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.

On September 1, Nintendo increased the price for its Switch 2 gaming system by 11% to $499.99. And Apple's newest iPhone, the iPhone 17, cost about 10% more than its previous upgrade, though some of that likely reflects greater capabilities.

After a lifetime of dreaming in Jane Austen — reading every novel and watching every adaptation she could get her hands on — she’d been cast as Elinor, the elder, more sensible Dashwood sister, in “Sense and Sensibility” (in theaters Friday).

If it wasn’t an inevitability that she, as one of the bright young talents of her generation, would eventually get to be in an Austen adaptation, it might seem that way in retrospect. For English actors of a certain age, starring in one is almost a rite of passage. Ang Lee's 1995 version would earn Kate Winslet her first Oscar nomination and Emma Thompson her first screenwriting win. And this one was going to be special, having the distinction of being the first major “Sense and Sensibility” to be directed by a woman, Georgia Oakley.

And though it was also an inevitability that there would be a slew of handsome men in the mix, including George MacKay, Frank Dillane and Herbert Nordrum (it is the law in Austen adaptation-land, isn’t it?), the relationship between the sisters was, Edgar-Jones said, “kind of everything.” And the search for the more outwardly romantic Dashwood was ongoing.

Casting Marianne Dashwood

“The film, as I saw it, would kind of live or die by the relationship between those two actors,” said Oakley, who studied Austen in school. “It was quite a pressurized situation trying to find sisters that, to me, were believably sisters.”

One of the names in the mix was Esmé Creed-Miles, who might not have come into the audition process with a deep Austen reverence, but who had something even better going for her. She and Edgar-Jones didn’t just know one another: They had spent a formative summer in Yorkshire together as teenagers making an indie film called “Pond Life” and watching “Love Island” together at night.

“So much of sisterhood is a shared history, a shared context, a knowledge of one another and so sort of acting across from Esmé, having such an image of her 17-year-old face, really helped,” Edgar-Jones said. “We just slotted straight into the roles.”

At their chemistry read, everyone in the room could feel an immediate intimacy as they dove into some challenging scenes, like one where the ever-reserved Elinor finally reveals to Marianne that she too is heartbroken over a man. The exercise even helped Edgar-Jones understand her Elinor a little better.

“Daisy feels like family to me,” said Creed-Miles. “We felt so almost spiritually, eerily connected to these women.”

It wasn’t just the dramatic moments that were revealing, either. That day of the chemistry reads, Creed-Miles had a bit of a break while Edgar-Jones read with someone else and, Oakley said, “helped herself to Daisy’s lunch.”

“I can’t really explain it, but it immediately felt very Elinor and Marianne,” Oakley said. “They were both really funny and kind of goofy with each other and, straight off the bat, they were just like making fun of each other and they just had a very sisterly dynamic.”

Creed-Miles, whose parents are actors Samantha Morton and Charlie Creed-Miles, has been acting on and off for most of her life, starting with a role at age 6 playing a Shirley Temple impersonator in a Harmony Korine movie. She also starred in the Amazon Prime series “Hanna” but has kind of resisted committing to being a career actor.

“It’s not that I don’t like acting or don’t want to act or don’t think it’s important and special, it’s just that there’s lots of other things that I’m also really interested in,” Creed-Miles said.

Those other pursuits include photography (her photos from the set were featured in “Vogue”), music (she’s in the alternative rock band Cusk) and filmmaking (she's directed a short). She was interested in “Sense and Sensibility” partly for the chance to work with an up-and-coming filmmaker like Oakley, as a fan of her debut film “Blue Jean,” about a closeted gym teacher in England in the late 1980s.

“I had always loved this Jane Austen,” Oakley said. “She doesn’t announce that she’s writing a political manifesto, but she at the same time is like unpacking some really kind of knotty and subversive themes in this book.”

Giving the film a messier, more undone aesthetic

To tell this story about a family of four women (Caitríona Balfe plays their mother; Bodhi Rae Breathnach plays the youngest sister) who have suddenly lost their fortune and now have to survive on their own, Oakley leaned into an earthier and slightly more undone aesthetic than is often depicted in Regency-era films. She showed the cast Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” and Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” and made playlists full of violin music. The dresses she referenced had raspberry stains and soil on them.

“I was keen to kind of make a film where the characters didn’t feel at arm’s length. That they felt like human beings that we can kind of reach out and touch through the screen. And so this idea of everything being a little bit more undone kind of came in through that,” Oakley said. “This is actually a family who are going through something difficult and who aren’t constantly thinking about how they’re going to be perceived and how they are presenting themselves because they’re not always in the presence of visitors.”

Edgar-Jones said the prospect was exciting to her as she’d never seen an Austen adaptation done this way before.

“We were not trying to rebel against or go against the grain of Regency-era hair and makeup,” Creed-Miles added. “We were actually finding pockets of nuance to how these women express themselves in their interior lives that hasn’t actually been seen before in film.”

She also found herself developing a deeper relationship with Austen than she’d come in with.

“I think what’s nice about the fact that me and Daisy both had these different relationships to Austen before is that it kind of speaks to, I think, the success of the film and that it really is a movie for everyone, not just Austen fans, but also people that maybe haven’t read her books before,” Creed-Miles said. “It might introduce them and introduce a new generation to her characters.”

Someone let him into an adjacent room, and he found a place to change.

“Much better," Antetokounmpo said. With that, he sprinted back to practice.

Change, he believes, can be good. After 13 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks — with 10 All-Star selections, nine All-NBA picks, two Most Valuable Player awards and one NBA title during that span — the 6-foot-11 Greek forward is starting anew with the Heat, who have a lot in common with Antetokounmpo. Both have been to the top of the NBA mountain, and now, both are counting on the other to help them reach that height again.

But why now? Put simply, Antetokounmpo just wanted a fresh uniform.

“I feel like I was in my comfort zone for many years and I just wanted just a new challenge," Antetokounmpo told The Associated Press. “And I feel that with where I am in my career, Miami is the organization that will bring the best out of me. It’s an organization that loves to compete. Every single game, every single minute. And I’m the same. I’m the same person, so hopefully this — me being here — allows me to compete, allows me to help my team win games and get to the ultimate goal, which is winning the championship.”

The Heat gave up a ton to make the deal happen. The full trade, finalized in July, brought Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. to Miami in exchange for Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, three first-round picks, a first-round pick swap and a second-round pick. Miami won't finish paying off the trade, in terms of the draft capital, until 2033.

And then there's the not-so-small matter of Antetokounmpo's next contract, one that could be worth as much as $275 million over four seasons if he ends up with a max extension sometime in the coming months.

It is a ransom. But if this goes as Miami hopes, the price could seem like a bargain.

“I feel lucky to be his teammate, especially at this stage of my career,” said new Heat guard Klay Thompson, a four-time champion from his time with Golden State. “I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. I’ve played against Giannis for many years, but now to be able to build chemistry with him and watch him hopefully have another MVP-like season is just a joy for me. And Heat fans should be ecstatic because when your best player is one of your hardest workers, it’s contagious and it’s just great to be a part of.”

He has averaged 24.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in his career, something only eight other players — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Karl Malone and Bob Pettit — either have done or are doing (since Davis and Embiid are still active).

And over the last 10 seasons, Antetokounmpo ranks first in total points and fourth in total rebounds. Injuries limited him last season — he wanted to play more than he did and grew frustrated that the Bucks had a differing stance — but his stat averages haven't dipped.

His game is elite, by any and all measures.

“If you’re going to turn the page to a new chapter, it's extremely exciting to be able to add a two-time MVP, somebody that is fully in his prime," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "His competitive spirit is aligned with ours. It’s so tough to be able to get a player of his caliber. To be able to do that, for him to choose this to be the place he wants, for us to choose him ... and the possibilities of what we can accomplish together, then yes, that is exciting.”

Antetokounmpo wasted no time in starting to rave about the Heat culture, a phrase that has become a lightning rod for criticism from talking heads around the NBA — especially after the franchise slapped the word across shirts and jerseys. But the culture, the noncommercial version, still exists, brought in by Pat Riley more than three decades ago and protected by Spoelstra and others still today.

It's simple: Work harder than everyone else and see what happens. Antetokounmpo spoke highly of it from afar for years. He's raving about it even more now.

“I love the culture and I want to be in a place that can bring the best out of me," Antetokounmpo said. "I want to play as many games as I can, be available for my teammates as much as I can. I'm always going to be honest. Last year, when I played, I thought I played at a very high level. The first 15 games, I thought I could be in the MVP discussion.

“Sometimes, things don’t work out the way you want and sometimes, when you think things don’t work out the way that you want, they actually do. I know when I’m healthy and I have the right mindset, I’m very hard to deal with.”

He speaks Greek, English and some Nigerian, plus has made a vow to learn Spanish — which makes tons of sense for someone who just moved to Miami. He says he already has learned to love much of what Miami has to offer (with iguanas the notable exception). He's building relationships within the organization and insists that the acclimation process is far from complete.

He sees the potential. He wants another title. The Heat want another title. It's a match.

“I’m just trying to fit in," Antetokounmpo said. "And when I find the time to kind of be myself, I will be myself.”

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

The trial that opened Wednesday in Hamburg centers on undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany in what is considered one of Europe’s biggest acts of sabotage since World War II.

Serhii Kuznietsov, 50, faces charges of causing an explosion, damaging property, disrupting public service and being an “accomplice to war crimes” by attacking civilian infrastructure.

His lawyers, making the motion for dismissal, argued that Kuznietsov was still an active duty soldier and as such was obligated by Ukrainian law not to speak for reasons of secrecy linked to national security.

As the proceedings got underway at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court, Kuznietsov, dressed in a gray suit and dark tie, kept a calm expression as he sat between two lawyers in black robes. From the dock, Kuznietsov glanced over to a packed visitors area and exchanged smiles with two people.

He did not speak during Wednesday’s proceedings, which lasted about two hours, and listened to simultaneous translation from German into Ukrainian through white headphones.

After the charges were read out, a judge asked whether Kuznietsov wanted to comment, and his defense lawyers said he did not. They went on to request that all the charges be dismissed.

Kuznietsov’s legal team said allegations of war crimes would be better targeted against the Russian forces acting on orders from President Vladimir Putin during the 4-1/2-year-war, citing examples like atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

The defense team also disputed the accusation that the attack was sabotage of civilian infrastructure, with defense lawyer Nicola Canestrini saying the pipelines “were a weapon in the hand of the Russians.”

But the crux of their call for dismissal was that Kuznietsov had to keep quiet as a Ukrainian officer.

“He is not permitted to speak. His two immediate superiors told him that he does not have authorization to make any statements — not even to his lawyers,” defense attorney Jes Meyer-Lohkamp told the court, adding that under German law: “Anyone who cannot speak out cannot be convicted.”

Meyer-Lohkamp also decried the detention conditions of his client, likening them to solitary confinement: “He is brave, but he is locked up for 23 hours a day and suffers because of it. He has no opportunity to participate in social life.”

A trial under tight security measures

The trial of the suspect, who is alleged to be the ringleader of the attack, is being held under strict security measures.

While international observers initially blamed Moscow for the blasts, investigators later found suggestions that Ukrainian state security agencies may have been involved — even though Ukraine counts Germany as one of its closest allies.

More than 100 media representatives from around the world, including Britain, China, France, Ukraine and Russia, have been accredited to cover the case, according to the court.

Pro-Ukraine protesters gathered outside the courthouse as attendees filed into the building, holding up placards and signs that carried messages including “Russia is a Terrorist” written in red.

Ivan Kuritsyn of Citizens’ Initiative Vilni De Ua, a nonprofit formed by Ukrainians displaced by the war, said the demonstrators were on hand “to show our solidarity with Serhii Kuznietsov and to support him.”

“I want to emphasize here that we in no way question the court’s decision, because only the court can decide whether Serhii is guilty or not, but we must support him regardless,” Kuritsyn added.

Explosions that damaged the pipelines at center of case

According to the charges, the defendant was allegedly involved in causing the Sept. 26, 2022, explosions that damaged pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

At the time, European countries were moving to wean themselves off Russian energy sources, following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Prosecutors say the aim of the plot was to permanently disrupt gas deliveries and prevent Russia from using the revenues to finance its military operations.

The defendant and others allegedly used a yacht that departed from the German port of Rostock. It had been rented from a German company using forged IDs and with the help of intermediaries.

Kuznietsov’s lawyers argued that his fingerprints were not on the yacht and no witnesses spotted him on it.

The explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was Russia’s main natural gas supply route to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies in August 2022. They also damaged Nord Stream 2, which never entered service because Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The suspect allegedly organized and carried out the detonation of at least four bombs between 14 and 27 kilograms (around 31 to 62 pounds) at a depth of 70 to 80 meters (230 feet to 263 feet) near the Danish island of Bornholm.

Kuznietsov was detained last year in an Italian village, where officers raided a bungalow where he was staying with his family. Police said he surrendered without resistance. He was publicly named in extradition proceedings in Italy that led to his transfer to Germany in November.

Ukraine has denied any role in the pipeline blasts

A second suspect was arrested on a European warrant in the northern Croatian town of Pula in August. He has applied for asylum in Croatia to fight his extradition to Germany.

The pipelines were long a target of criticism by the U.S. and some of its allies, which warned that they increased dependence on Russian gas.

Russia has claimed that U.S. and British intelligence agencies were involved in staging the explosions and has also accused NATO of involvement in the attack, while several Western countries initially blamed Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied allegations that his country was involved in the pipeline blasts.

The German government has so far refrained from comment on the trial, pointing out that no verdict has yet been reached and the case is in the hands of the independent judiciary.

So far, 16 court dates have been scheduled through Dec. 17. Additional dates are also planned for January, court officials said Wednesday. It is not yet known when the verdict will be announced.

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Associated Press Journalists Pietro De Cristofaro and Fanny Brodersen contributed to this report.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if the party wins power, said the Democrats will be united “right out of the gate” on reinstating Affordable Care Act tax breaks, reversing Republican Medicaid cuts, holding votes against the Iran war and undoing President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.

They expect to launch the agenda in the first 100 hours, once the new Congress is seated in January.

“Fighting for an affordable America — that's what unites Democrats all across the country,” Jeffries said recently at the party campaign headquarters in Washington.

“That’s our commitment to the American people, because the cost of living is way too high and far too many people who are working hard, playing by the rules, can’t thrive and can barely survive — and are drowning — in the Trump economy."

It’s a hyper-focused agenda tapping into the voter sentiment that is driving much of the midterm election as Americans wrestle with affordability concerns and inflationary costs from the Iran war and other policies.

The undertaking will also test the ability of the sprawling House Democrats to work together and avoid the chaotic divisions and disruptions that have hobbled Republicans under Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership.

Democrats have been out of power in the House since 2023. If Jeffries takes the helm, he would be the first Democratic speaker since Nancy Pelosi, leading a new generation of lawmakers that includes a handful of far-left candidates who are aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

“The antidote to that is getting things done,” said Illinois Rep. Nikki Budzinski, who is poised to become chair of the New Democrat Coalition, the largest caucus within the House Democrats. She said the party is determined to show the American people that “Democrats know how to govern."

A Freedom Caucus of the far-left?

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said he is often asked if Democrats will be confronting their own version of the Freedom Caucus, referring to the far-right Republicans who often grind the House agenda to a halt.

“It doesn’t work that way," Casar told The Associated Press in an interview. “The Freedom Caucus breaks things. But if you're a progressive, you want to pass things.”

Leader Jeffries, Casar and other Democrats have been in touch with the progressive candidates, many of whom are backed by the DSA as the party focuses on shared priorities.

“This notion that because we'll have new members somehow we're going to be disjointed — not so,” said Louisiana Rep. Troy Carter, who hopes to become chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. "All those banking on that, save the popcorn for another day."

The Republicans, who are confronting an increasingly difficult election-year climate to hold onto their majority, portray Democrats as beholden to a far-left socialist agenda.

If Republicans retain power, Johnson has said they would press on with what they have already accomplished alongside Trump, which has been an agenda focused on cutting taxes and federal spending.

“What we would do in the next two years is exactly what we have been doing already," Johnson said on CNBC's Squawk Box, “and that is putting the conditions in place for a strong America again.”

Fix healthcare, stop the war, end the tariffs – and investigate Trump

Months ago, Jeffries launched five working groups to tackle the affordability agenda focused on healthcare, housing, groceries and goods, gas and utilities, and care-giving.

Each group is headed by a progressive and a centrist Democrat — the healthcare working group, for example, is run by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama — with the goal of striking common ground on draft policies that all House Democrats can support.

At the same time, Jeffries has tasked the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees with preparing investigations. They are focused on Trump, his family and his administration, as part of a sweeping anti-corruption agenda. Impeachment, Jeffries has said, is neither on nor off the table.

“We need to lower the cost of groceries and gas. Two, we need to make healthcare affordable for every single American. Three, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable who’ve visited unprecedented corruption on the American people,” Jeffries said. “Beginning on day one.”

Democrats plan to vote quickly to reinstate the health care tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, which expired in 2025, leaving millions of Americans confronting higher health insurance costs.

Proposals are also ready to reverse the Medicaid cuts that Republicans put in place as part of their “One Big Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and program cuts, including new work requirements for recipients.

There are measures to reverse Trump's tariffs as Congress works to claw back power from the White House.

And Democrats, who have forced multiple votes on ending the Iran conflict, plan to pressure the Trump administration to end the military action by pushing forward more war powers resolutions.

Much of the House Democrats' agenda, if they regain power, would depend on the size of the majority. Details also depend on the Senate, and whether it flips to Democrats.

“We cannot simply go back to the status quo,” said Usamah Andrabi, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, an outside group that supports the far-left progressives.

And Trump, at the White House, has ultimate say, with veto power at the stroke of a pen.

“We’re going to do a lot and we’re going to be very busy,” Carter said. "We will not be able to fix everything overnight.”

But problems that have simmered for decades — water quality and cancer rates — have been forced to the forefront of state politics this year. They are the focus of debate questions, roundtable events and campaign advertisements for candidates from both parties, up and down the ballot.

The issue has historically been politically taboo to avoid pointing fingers at the powerful agricultural industry in Iowa, one of the country’s top producers of corn, soybeans and hogs. Chemical fertilizers and animal waste contain nitrates and phosphorus that can get washed with rain or snowmelt into the state’s web of rivers.

The problem has long caused tension between Iowa’s more liberal urban centers, which rely on rivers and lakes for drinking water, and mostly conservative stewards of its rich farmland. Farmers are increasingly participating in practices to prevent runoff, although critics say the lack of regulation forces downstream Iowans to pay for the pollution.

The spotlight has grown — and the political calculus has shifted — after back-to-back years of restrictions on water use in the Des Moines area coupled with a burgeoning “Make America Healthy Again” movement in Iowa's small towns and rural communities.

Cancer rates are a growing problem in Iowa

Iowa has the second highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers in the country. Specific diagnoses, like prostate, breast and lung cancer, are increasing in Iowa faster than in the U.S. overall. It's affecting urban and rural parts of the state.

New state-funded research at the University of Iowa shows most — but not all — of Iowa’s above-normal rates for five cancers can be explained by demographic and behavioral factors, such as smoking and binge drinking. Researchers next assess environmental factors, including nitrate levels.

“The real issue is the water and the nitrates,” said Democrat Josh Turek, who is running for U.S. Senate, as he talked with cancer patients last week. “Every Iowan deserves when they turn on the tap to ensure that their water is clean and not giving them cancer.”

Some studies have found a link between nitrates in drinking water and certain diseases, but it remains an area of debate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently classify nitrates as a cancer risk. The agency initiated a plan to review that assessment in 2017, but it's been stalled, revived and stalled again under different White House administrations.

The Republican congresswoman running against Turek, Ashley Hinson, recently gathered farmers, researchers and local officials to discuss Iowa's water problems. She said there is an ongoing need for investments in infrastructure, water quality monitoring and conservation programs to ensure Iowans have safe drinking water. She also said people can feel safe because treated tap water meets federal regulations.

“We all know that we have some challenges here in Iowa," she said. “I don't think water quality is a partisan issue."

Farm runoff is a key contributor to river pollution — and political tensions

It’s been more than a decade since the Des Moines area’s water utility, fed up with paying roughly $16,000 per day to remove nitrates from water, sued counties further upstream to get them to help cover the cost. The complaint was ultimately dismissed, and Iowa’s Republican leaders celebrated the ruling.

Last year, Central Iowa Water Works issued its first-ever ban on lawn watering to reduce demand on its nitrate removal facilities, and state politicians rejected any suggestion of a “blame game” that would implicate farmers. Iowa had been investing nearly $100 million annually in its nutrient reduction strategy in recent years.

In May, though, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and lawmakers committed an additional $320 million for water infrastructure, conservation initiative incentives and other projects, including millions to Central Iowa Water Works to update equipment.

“Water quality isn't a farm issue. It isn't a city issue, and it isn't a political issue,” Reynolds said. “But it absolutely is non-negotiable.”

Still, criticism of slow progress has continued, including from candidates running to replace Reynolds.

Governor candidates make the issue central

Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand both emphasize that the state needs to better prioritize the water problem, though neither have called for mandating farming conservation practices that reduce runoff.

Lahn, who was endorsed early in his primary by political committee MAHA Action, has diverged from many of his Republican peers in directly linking polluted water and agrochemicals to Iowa’s cancer crisis.

At Lahn's agriculture-focused town hall in northeast Iowa in August, one attendee raised the issue.

“Right now the farmers, I would say, are really getting blamed for the high cancer rate in Iowa,” she said. “Even our daughter calls from Des Moines and says: ‘Should we be drinking this water?’”

Lahn said he knows certain agrochemicals are important “tools in the tool chest.”

“We’re not here to ban products," he said, "but we do have to address the water quality issue.”

Federal regulations say drinking water is safe with a maximum nitrate level of 10 milligrams per liter. That threshold was set to prevent what’s known as blue baby syndrome, a condition when an infant’s blood doesn’t have enough oxygen, but more scientific studies are now analyzing the relationship between nitrate-laden water below that threshold and certain cancers.

Lahn said he tested the nitrate levels from his well water and creek in rural east-central Iowa, finding both well above the federal limit.

Central Iowa Water Works ran its nitrate removal treatment for a record 193 days straight earlier this year, and the treated water's nitrate levels hovered around eight to nine milligrams per liter in the heart of summer.

Sand usually references water early in his stump speech, naming one reason he initially registered as a Democrat is the party’s advocacy for clean water because he likes to fish. He said Tuesday after meeting with cancer survivors and parents of children with cancer that he's seen the topic rise in the public consciousness over the past few years.

“I hear from people regularly who are so concerned about it that they wonder whether or not they want to be in Iowa," Sand said.

Iowa’s race for agriculture secretary illustrates the tension

Twenty years ago, research scientist Chris Jones said he’d give his boss at Des Moines' water utility updates on the rivers' nitrate levels.

“He’d say to me, ‘Where’s the outrage?’” Jones recalled. “Now, the outrage has arrived.”

Jones, who later worked on water quality monitors at the University of Iowa, says it’s a huge failure of the state for Iowans to lose faith in drinking water.

Jones is a Democrat running in the election to be Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, trying to unseat incumbent Republican Mike Naig.

Chief among their differences is whether conservation solutions should be mandatory. In a debate, Naig said Jones is an outlier in demanding farmers be required to adopt conservation practices. Iowa’s agricultural industry resists mandates, in part because not all farmers own the land they farm and some conservation efforts might lead to profit loss, at least initially.

Naig, who previously worked for chemical manufacturer Monsanto, highlighted the records that his department has set under Reynolds’ leadership and said conservation work is being scaled up to accelerate progress.

“It’s been a hot topic on the campaign trail,” Naig said, but “we have to have a long view of these things, and we’re making progress.”

But just because we might all have the same impulse, we all don’t have the same reach and impact. Exhibit A: a dispute between singer Kelly Clarkson and a small store in Brooklyn that's brought out angry fans and heated commentary.

The conflict from over the weekend, involving a high-priced mechanical bird, is raising more issues than just the quality of customer service. It's also a case study in power dynamics, and the differential that exists between someone with a high profile and those without.

It started Saturday when Clarkson went to Art of Play, a store in Brooklyn that offers items like books, games and playing cards and also hosts magic shows. But the interaction turned negative, she said in a social media post, when she “was looked at as if I couldn’t afford it” and went on to say the store had “just lost a huge sale.” She named the store and gave it a thumbs down.

A back-and-forth ensued, with the store making its own posts saying initially that the item wasn't for sale and then adding that they had tried to find her an alternative. Clarkson said that wasn't true.

Since Clarkson's initial post, there's been a barrage of commentary online — and, the store owners say, in the real world. There have been hateful messages and reviews, and even someone showing up at the store, said Adam Rubin, one of the partners.

“I don’t understand why these people are willing to debase themselves on behalf of a celebrity they never met,” he said. Representatives for Clarkson did not respond to repeated attempts to get comment.

The power of celebrity is potent

Celebrities have power in different ways. They can influence what people feel as well as impact what they think or believe, said Alfred Archer, assistant professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who has done research around the ethics and politics of fame.

In a situation like Clarkson's, the influence is heavily weighted in the celebrity's favor as a result, he said. That doesn't mean celebrities should be censored or barred from speaking, but they should be cognizant of that reality in determining what they say and how they say it.

“You can’t hold the celebrity responsible for everything that their followers do, of course,” Archer said, but those who have influence should remember that their words can resonate widely and “be careful about what they put on social media and what they communicate in public for that reason.”

That power can also have positive ripples — like when Ms. Rachel, the children's educator and YouTube star, asked people on social media for Black-owned businesses to support. She gave recognition to small businesses like a coffee shop in New Jersey, leading to a huge jump in sales and popularity.

“I think really the responsibility here is to use this power in a responsible way,” Archer said. “And of course, what that looks like in any individual case is going to be a decision for a particular celebrity to make. But they do have to think about it a bit more carefully than an ordinary member of the public does.”

Social media changed the equation

While everyday people have always been fascinated by the famous, the explosion of social media and the glut of information — and the way we follow our family and friends right along with our favorite stars — means there's more of a likelihood that people can develop parasocial, or one-sided, unreciprocated relationships with celebrities. That can lead to the kind of harsh messages and bad reviews that the Brooklyn store says it has experienced.

That aspect of modern life is baffling to Franchesca Ramsey, a writer, podcaster, and content creator.

“I think social media itself has heightened people’s ability to feel a connection to a celebrity or a public person that they don’t know,” she said.

“Back in my day, you liked a musician, you put up a poster on the wall. You read the magazine articles about them. You maybe went to their concert. You watched their music videos. But beyond that, it didn’t feel like a two-way relationship. It felt like I’m the fan and this is the person that I really enjoy,” she said.

“Social media has ... kind of created this false sense of reality where, I really think even the act of watching someone’s content on your phone and it looks like they’re talking directly to you," she said.

Asked what advice he would give another small-business owner facing this kind of situation, Rubin didn't have any. “This is not something that a small business owner has the capability to deal with,” he said. “This is something that happens on a level of fame and celebrity that I don’t have access to, (that) most normal people don’t have access to.”

Watching the crowd of reporters from his plumbing supply store next door to Art of Play, Daniel Graffeo couldn't believe the uproar was still going on several days after the initial encounter, but wasn't totally surprised. “Nowadays everybody's looking for something, you know, publicity,” he said.

He hoped it would never find him. “I would not want to be in that situation.”

Even so, deaths on roller coasters are still extremely rare, and Georgia officials have said little about what happened Monday when Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, was thrown from his seat while riding the Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia before striking other patrons and then landing below the ride.

Goliath uses a sheer drop from 200 feet (61 meters) to reach top speeds of 70 mph (112 kph) and focuses on velocity and downhill plunges rather than turning riders upside down through loops or corkscrews. It has operated at the park for two decades.

Six Flags temporarily closed nine similar coasters across North America following the death, saying it was doing so out of an abundance of caution.

Ride manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard said it is “actively investigating the incident and will not comment further until we have a better understanding of what happened.”

The US has a patchwork of rules regarding rides

In the U.S., roller coasters and other rides at major amusement parks such as Six Flags are not regulated by the federal government. That responsibility falls to states.

Some say this has led to an inconsistent patchwork of rules where some states have strict regulations and others have little to no oversight.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts has repeatedly introduced legislation to close what he calls a “loophole” in federal law that allows U.S. safety officials to regulate mobile rides but prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from overseeing stationary rides like those at major amusement parks.

Brian Avery, a University of Florida professor and amusement ride safety expert, agrees that more federal regulations are needed.

“Who’s watching those in these organizations to ensure that they are adequately trained, that they are compliant, that they are monitoring these rides to the level in which the standards have established?” Avery said.

Georgia’s Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, which oversees annual ride inspections in the state, is “conducting an in‑depth and comprehensive review” of what happened Monday at Six Flags, said Garrison Bennett, a spokesperson.

Amusement park industry has set its own safety standards

Amusement park operators worldwide generally adhere to what are known as ASTM standards set by industry experts, which cover everything from ride design and construction to how much acceleration and force each rider is allowed to experience.

The industry has multiple layers of inspection, said Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant and past president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a trade group. Park operators are under pressure from insurance carriers that could face a hefty payout if something goes wrong.

“With the checks and balances that are put in place, theme parks are really one of the safest places to be on the planet,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

The trade group said the chance of being seriously injured on a U.S. amusement park ride is 1 in 15.5 million rides taken.

Martin Lewinson, a roller coaster expert and a professor at Farmingdale State College, said it was difficult to imagine there being a mechanical malfunction on a roller coaster such as Goliath because of its design.

The ride features a pull-down lap restraint, called a “clamshell,” that works with a ratchet mechanism that makes clicking sounds as you press it down over your hips. These have multiple disks to ensure redundancy if one fails, Lewinson said.

“They’re dependable. They’re not so technically advanced that theme parks have difficulty with operations,” Lewinson said.

The operator then has a safety system that displays a green “go” light for every seat on the train before it can be dispatched. The train should theoretically not be allowed to proceed unless all restraints are locked, Lewinson said.

But few things are 100% safe.

In 2022, a 14-year-old Missouri boy fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride when the harness didn't lock properly due to his size. In 2013, a 52-year-old Dallas woman was killed when she slipped out of her seat on the Texas Giant ride at Six Flags Over Texas. Six Flags has since added redesigned restraint-bar pads, seat belts and a coaster seat at the ride’s entrance so guests can check before they get on whether they fit safely into the cars.

Nick Mendenhall, who has been on the Goliath more than a dozen times in recent weeks, said he saw Six Flags staff check the restraints each time he rode it.

“There are two employees, one on either side of the train, and with their hands they push down and they make sure it locks every time. I’ve never seen them not do it,” Mendenhall said.

States handle oversight in different ways

In California, the state Department of Industrial Relations approves new rides and rides that have been modified. State officials either directly inspect them and how they are being operated each year or rely on an annual inspection by the owner, according to the department's website.

Florida’s largest theme parks, on the other hand, are exempt from state safety inspections, unlike smaller venues and fairs. Instead, the largest theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal conduct their own inspections and have their own protocols, but they must report to the state any injury or death. Texas, similarly, relies on inspections carried out by private inspectors hired by park operators or their insurance companies.

Arizona, where Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Phoenix is located, does not have a state-level agency that regulates amusement park rides or conducts safety inspections at all. The law requires an annual private inspection, with enforcement largely by local government.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and was on track for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 144 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.

Stocks felt pressure from rising yields in the bond market, where worries grew after a report said U.S. consumers had to pay prices for fuel, food and other costs of living last month that were 3.7% higher than a year earlier. That means inflation accelerated from its 3.4% rate in August and was worse than the 3.6% that economists expected.

Inflation has remained more painful than anyone would like since the economy launched out of the crevasse created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s breathed in new life recently because of jumps in fuel prices caused by the war with Iran, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude added 0.1% Wednesday to $105.77.

That has added to signals that the U.S. economy is still growing, longstanding worries about fast-growing debt loads for governments and other factors to send yields to their highest levels in years or even decades in bond markets worldwide.

The centerpiece of the U.S. bond market, the 10-year Treasury, saw its yield jump to 5.28% from less than 5.17% just before the inflation report’s release. That’s a notable move for the bond market.

Yields on shorter-term Treasurys leaped even more as traders ratcheted up their expectations for coming hikes to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed last month raised the interest rate that it controls, which affects very short-term loans, for the first time in three years in hopes of reining in inflation. Higher rates do that by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money and slowing the overall economy.

Traders now see roughly a coin flip’s chance that the Fed will raise the federal funds rate at its next meeting in two weeks, up from the 22% probability seen just a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.

“The consumer price index was a little hotter than expected, but not scorching hot,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “It was just hot enough to keep traders on edge.”

Higher rates push downward on prices for stocks, and the main way companies can offset that is to deliver bigger profits. That’s exactly what analysts are expecting, and it’s how the S&P 500 has been able to set records despite the many challenges weighing on Wall Street.

BlackRock rose 3% after the investment company reported stronger profit and revenue for the summer than analysts expected. Customers poured a net $205 billion into BlackRock’s funds, including iShares exchange-traded funds, from July through September to bring its total assets under management to $15.5 trillion. BlackRock makes money by charging fees on those dollars.

But the high expectations for profit growth also mean companies will likely get punished if they fall short of targets, which is what several other financial companies did Wednesday morning.

Bank of America dropped 7.3% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the third quarter than analysts expected. The profit would have fallen short even after ignoring the $1.2 billion in fines that the U.S. Treasury Department announced late Tuesday for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

State Street sank 7.5% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though its profit was slightly above their forecasts.

In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia. Indexes rose 0.5% in Paris and fell 0.9% in Shanghai for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

As recently as 2024, the nonprofit consultant that works to strengthen public radio stations reported $3.42 million in revenue, according to tax filings. Public Media CEO Tim Isgitt said he was proud of his “small, but mighty team” and the impact that they had on the sector.

Then came the federal funding cuts.

One day in June 2025, Isgitt told a roomful of funders that federal cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could create a “doom loop” with catastrophic effects on the entire public radio sector, requiring them all to act immediately.

The next day, the House of Representatives voted to rescind all of CPB’s funding, about $1.1 billion that stations were already promised. Within weeks, the Senate followed suit.

“It felt just like a wave that washed over us all of a sudden,” Isgitt told The Associated Press.

Isgitt and Public Media were quickly pressed into service. His idea to help was suddenly in demand.

“PMC had never been a grantmaking organization before, but everybody was saying, ‘You’ve got to do this,’” he said. “So we sort of turned ourselves inside out, hired some staff and became a grantmaking organization.”

The Public Media Bridge Fund is born to keep radio stations alive

By August 2025, Public Media had organized a fundraising bonanza. It created the Public Media Bridge Fund to raise and quickly donate $100 million to stabilize public radio stations that depended on CPB funding for more than 30% of their annual budgets and were in danger of closing after the federal cuts.

The fund launched with $27 million, including an initial $10 million donation from the Knight Foundation and support from Pivotal and the Ford, MacArthur, Robert Wood Johnson and Schmidt Family foundations. By December, it had distributed all $27 million to stabilize endangered stations. Stations with support from other sources, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs for tribal stations and the state of New Mexico for stations there, did not receive funding.

“That was a good thing,” Isgitt said, “because we committed every dime that we had.”

The Public Media Bridge Fund has raised about $87 million and stabilized 186 public radio stations that serve about 30 million people in the United States. The Knight Foundation’s additional $10 million donation, announced Tuesday, is part of PMC’s new $38 million fundraising effort to help stations become more financially sustainable without federal funding.

Knight Foundation President and CEO Maribel Perez Wadsworth said she was impressed with how quickly and effectively Public Media deployed funds last year.

“Now, it is really turning all of its attention to sustainability and the things that are critical to sustainability,” said Perez Wadsworth, adding that PMC’s focus on fostering collaboration between local news organizations can “drive the kind of business model change that will hopefully support sustainability in the long run.”

Helping public radio stations become economically sustainable - without federal funding

The bridge fund will still support stations with unstable budgets; the fund is now also looking at projects with broader impact, Isgitt said.

“Our attention now is more on the nationwide system and how it can sort of re-engineer itself to work more efficiently,” he said.

Judy Diaz, general manager of Delmarva Public Radio, said its stations relied on CPB for about 33% of their funding. The public radio network is a collaboration of three Maryland nonprofit stations owned by Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Cost-cutting and increased donations allowed Delmarva Public Radio to use part of its Public Media Bridge Fund grant to modernize equipment and purchase new marketing database software. It also established a content-sharing agreement with Baltimore Public Media.

The changes tripled the number of donors and listeners in the station’s marketing database and increased membership revenue by 20% over last year's already unusually strong donations as supporters responded to the federal cuts, Diaz said.

“I can now see a clear path for the foreseeable future,” she added. “We didn’t have that before.”

Ashley Alvarado, president and CEO of Texas Public Radio, said Public Media and its bridge fund are helping her organization navigate a combination with the nonprofit newsroom San Antonio Report. The two nonprofits decided in July to join forces, believing they would be stronger financially together.

“What we found is that the strengths and weaknesses of each organization would really benefit from that combination,” Alvarado said.

It’s the kind of transformation Public Media hopes to bring to all its stations: improving financial stability while better serving communities. “Media and technologies are evolving quickly,” Isgitt said. “If these community organizations want to remain relevant, they have to evolve too.”

Knight’s Perez Wadsworth said the Public Media Bridge Fund was intended as a stopgap to keep public stations operating while they developed financial plans without federal support. However, she also knows philanthropy cannot replace large federal grants for long.

She hopes Congress will see the importance of public radio stations — for emergency broadcasts, for providing news and community information, and for fostering connection and civic participation.

“It is my belief, maybe because I’m a hard-wired optimist, that after stepping back from the brink and seeing the absolute need and critical nature of these stations, we will see some level of funding again, even at the federal level,” Perez Wadsworth said. "I think we will see a path to a thoughtful recalibration of what funding these stations looks like.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Fourteen minutes and just three questioners later, she was done. In the aftermath, it was clear that the former Newsmax commentator accomplished at least one thing: She put the “brief” back in briefing.

In her debut Tuesday, Zacharia looked downward and often read directly from a script. She paused and grinned when she uttered the words “Department of War.” She stumbled on a question about her background and mixed up the words “husband” and “president.” The few questions she took were nonconfrontational and from media outlets that have been sympathetic to the Republican president. In short: She made no memorable impression — or at least, to hear some tell it, not the one she likely wanted.

This would not be an easy job under any circumstances. Trump most frequently serves as his own spokesman. And his antagonism toward the media has created a new layer of tension. Zacharia is finding out on day one that she, too, will be under constant watch. Some — including a few of those who have stood in her shoes — didn’t think it went all that well.

In fractured times, in a national media scrum unimaginable just a few decades ago, what is the proper way to approach a job like this? How do you speak effectively when your boss speaks for himself so often that he commandeers the news cycle multiple times a day — and sometimes late into the night — with remarks provocative, unexpected and sometimes incendiary?

For one, you realize for whom you work: not your audience of millions but your audience of one, and the absolute need for his approval.

“I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” Zacharia said. Nowhere did she mention the task of disseminating accurate information to Americans.

The press secretary role has been many things

Over the nearly 10 decades since former journalist George E. Akerson made his and the office's debut as Herbert Hoover's press secretary in 1929, the job has served many purposes: deliverer of information, amplifier of policy, jouster with journalists, protector of the presidential reputation and, sometimes, overlord of obfuscation.

Under Trump and his second-term press secretary so far — Karoline Leavitt, who resigned in August — the job has been primarily one of acting as the immovable object against an irresistible, and in Trump's eyes sometimes treasonous, force.

Leavitt got to know this terrain well in her 17-month tenure. She took a smiling but combative stance against a press that was increasingly coming under Trump's criticism for coverage — and was named in at least one lawsuit about White House media access. She was not shy about interdicting what she considered media bias. "What a stupid question," she said to one reporter at a briefing last year.

Trump, outside the White House on Tuesday shortly after Zacharia’s briefing, praised her debut as “excellent.” She was standing behind him at the time.

Other early reviews were more critical. MS NOW quoted one unnamed White House official as saying of the performance: “She needs to get much better fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.” Anthony Scaramucci, an early White House communications director for first-term Trump, lasted 11 days in 2017. Said Scaramucci on X Tuesday afternoon: “I hope she makes it.”

Joe Biden's former press secretary, Jen Psaki, now the host of a show on MS NOW, put it more succinctly, posting on X: “Well that briefing was basically an SNL skit….except it wasnt.”

Talking up Trump but taking few questions

While Zacharia's performance — and of course, that's what every briefing is — may have been bumpy to some, it was also mostly content-free except for news she broke about the White House asking U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to quit, which she immediately did.

Predictably, also like Leavitt before her, Zacharia spent a great part of her opening monologue praising Trump and giving an “up 'til now”-style update on his second term's priorities and accomplishments so far. Talking points included a “booming economy,” “his historic boom in energy production” and “a great relationship with Venezuela.”

She was also fond of superlatives, a trait that likely will resonate with a president whose remarks are often equally if not more expansive: “President Trump is working to secure the Western Hemisphere for centuries to come.”

When it came to questions, though, she was downright parsimonious. She allowed three questioners, then answered an additional one as she prepared to depart. The three called on during the briefing were Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail, all of which have been friendly to Trump in varying degrees during periods of his two terms. And she said she would continue Leavitt's policy of bringing “new media” in — which has often meant outlets more sympathetic to Trump.

“We love new media and we want to be able to embrace it,” she said. Currently, three major outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — are fighting to regain White House access after Trump banished them last month, saying he didn't like their coverage and calling it “fake news.”

How will Zacharia fare in coming days and weeks and, if it lasts, months? That, like so much else, depends on one thing: Donald Trump.

The late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker once famously said that, when being asked difficult things, handle it something like this: If you don't like the question being asked, just answer a different question. On Tuesday, a half-century later, Katie Zacharia found a different way in — pick three nonconfrontational questioners, then defer to your boss and say: The End.

Hill, who has played for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, was found liable for two counts of battery — one stemming from an incident in January 2024, and another from April 2025. The jury awarded Vaccaro $500,000 in compensatory damages but did not award her punitive damages.

The jury found Hill, 32, not liable for eight other counts that included battery, assault and continuing domestic violence.

The trial involved allegations of abuse made by Vaccaro, 30, who on the stand described instances in which Hill allegedly pulled her hair and “treated me like I was, just, a man.” Hill took the stand last week and mostly denied what he called “false allegations” made by his estranged wife, while saying in one instance he shoved Vaccaro and “created a hole in the wall."

Hill, wearing a dark polo shirt on Tuesday, embraced one of his attorneys and shook hands with others following the verdict before leaving the courtroom by himself.

It wasn't immediately clear what the verdict means for Hill's return to the NFL. He is still working his way back from a dislocated knee and torn ligaments suffered in September 2025 while he was with the Dolphins, but his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has indicated that he could be ready to play by November.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday that both sides will hold a ceremony for the launch of the New Yalu River Bridge. The four-lane, 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) bridge will connect the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju.

The bridge initially was expected to enter use in 2014 after China apparently completed construction of access roads, customs facilities and other related infrastructure on its side. But the date passed with no sign of an opening and without North Korea doing corresponding works on its side.

At that time, it prompted an unusually sharp report in the Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, which quoted Dandong residents expressing frustration over delays in what they had hoped would be an economic boon for their border city.

A lack of substantial work on the North Korean side prompted speculation that North Korea was wary of an increase in economic dependence or was unhappy with China voting for United Nations resolutions toughening international sanctions on the North over its nuclear program. Some observers said North Korea and China also differed over the location of the bridge.

The old bridge could only handle one-way vehicle traffic

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday the new bridge will further promote economic, trade and “people-to-people exchanges."

“China and the DPRK are friendly neighbors linked by rivers and mountains,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. She added the bridge is an important “project for connectivity” between the two countries.

The new link is expected to lessen the burden on an existing yet aging bridge on the Dandong-Sinuiju route, which handles more than 70% of official trade between the two countries. The old bridge built in 1937 carries a railway line as well as cars and trucks, but vehicle traffic can move only one way at a time.

The South Korean government said last year there were at least 17 active road and rail links across the porous North Korea-China border, which stretches more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).

The new bridge’s opening will likely boost bilateral trade and enhance logistical efficiency gradually. But in the short term, trade won't likely result in a sharp increase in Chinese exports to North Korea as Beijing would take Pyongyang's interests into consideration to some extent, according to a recent report by Gyubeom Kim, an expert at Seoul’s state-run Institute for National Security Strategy.

North Korea’s export of processed goods, food products, cosmetics and alcoholic beverages to China could increase, Kim said.

Bridge could affect relations with China and Russia

The bridge’s opening comes about a month after North Korea and Russia opened a 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) road bridge over the Tumen River as part of their efforts to cement relations.

Experts say Chinese officials likely felt uneasy about the opening of the North Korea-Russia bridge, which the Russian government said would allow daily passage of up to 300 vehicles through a newly built border crossing point.

The North Korea-China bridge is much bigger and likely capable of carrying round-the-clock, two-way traffic including containers and heavy cargo trucks, according to Jeong Eun-i, an analyst from South Korea’s Institute for National Unification.

China has long been North Korea's biggest trading partner and economic pipeline. But in past years, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has prioritized Moscow, sending thousands of troops and conventional weapons to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, apparently in exchange for military and economic assistance.

Kim has recently drawn closer to China with the apparent intent to improve the economy and build a front against the United States. China, for its part, wants to restore its unique influence over North Korea. Last year, about 98% of North Korea’s external trade was with China.

The bridge’s opening has been anticipated since Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Pyongyang in June for a meeting with Kim. During their summit, Xi expressed Beijing’s willingness to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, agriculture, construction and technology, while Kim described ties with China as a top strategic priority.

“Nosotros tenemos un plan y creo que beneficiaría más o menos a un 50% de los presos que hay en El Salvador, que han colaborado con pandillas, con una liberación anticipada”, dijo el mandatario en conferencia de prensa.

“Hay mucha gente que sí, ha cometido delitos, pero su delito fue colaborar con las pandillas. Merecen estar en la cárcel, pero venimos de un país donde colaborar con las pandillas no era tan inusual y si nosotros nos pusiéramos a capturar todos los que colaboraron con las pandillas tuviéramos que arrestar al 20% de la población”, explicó.

Sin entrar en detalles, el mandatario señaló que planean aplicar ese criterio para definir condenas anticipadas con monitoreo, lo que podría beneficiar a la mitad de los detenidos durante la vigencia del régimen de excepción.

A su vez, Bukele también arremetió contra organismos y organizaciones nacionales e internacionales que han denunciado supuestas violaciones a los derechos humanos durante la aplicación del régimen de excepción, el cual ha permanecido vigente desde marzo de 2022.

“Cuando aquí mataban a 30 personas diarias, nadie decía nada, nadie se pronunció, no hubo una organización de derechos humanos o una organización que dijera ‘miren, en El Salvador hay que hacer algo, están matando gente inocente, están matando gente honrada, están violando niñas, están cortando cabezas de gente por no pagar la extorsión’”.

Afirmó que estas organizaciones, incluida la OEA, aplaudieron cuando se suscribieron pactos con las principales pandillas del país durante el primer gobierno del exguerrillero Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) (2009-2014), durante los cuales las pandillas se repartieron territorios para mantener sus actividades ilícitas.

“No hubo ni una condena en el mundo, al contrario, hubo aplauso. fue puesto como un ejemplo de lo que se debía hacer en los demás países. Pero es que no le alcanzaban las manos para aplaudir”, dijo.

Pero criticaron “cuando nosotros hicimos lo contrario y dijimos que no vamos a negociar con los grupos terroristas, sino que lo vamos a poner en la cárcel”.

En respuesta a las críticas de organismos defensores de los derechos humanos respecto al régimen de excepción, Bukele comparó la medida —que forma parte de sus estrategias de seguridad— con un tratamiento médico intensivo.

“Nosotros aplicamos la quimioterapia llamada régimen de excepción, entonces funcionó y ahora el cáncer está en remisión. No hay homicidios, no hay asaltos, no hay robos, no hay violaciones", afirmó.

Defendió la necesidad de mantener el régimen de excepción “porque todavía existen células cancerígenas. Todos los días atrapamos a pandilleros escondidos, entonces si nosotros retiramos la quimioterapia, el cáncer va a regresar”.

Sin embargo, Bukele expresó su deseo de suspender la medida en el futuro. “A mí me encantaría quitarlo y lo vamos a hacer en algún momento, por supuesto”.

Luego de que el país registró 62 asesinatos a manos de las pandillas en un solo día, el Congreso salvadoreño aprobó el 27 de marzo de 2022 un estado de excepción a solicitud de Bukele para combatir a las pandillas. Ese año cerró con 495 asesinatos.

Las pandillas operaban en el 90% del territorio, recaudaban casi 2.000 millones de dólares en extorsiones y asesinaban a los que no pagaban, según las autoridades.

El estado de excepción suspendió derechos fundamentales, incluido el de ser informado de los motivos de la detención y el de tener acceso a un abogado. Además, las fuerzas de seguridad pueden intervenir las telecomunicaciones sin orden judicial, y la detención sin audiencia se prolonga de 72 horas a 15 días.

Desde que entró en vigor la medida, las autoridades han reportado la captura de 93.162 personas acusadas de pertenecer o tener vínculos con las pandillas. Bukele ha dicho que 8.000 personas que eran inocentes han sido liberadas.

Sin embargo, organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos aseguran que han registrado más de 6.000 denuncias durante el régimen de excepción y documentado la muerte de al menos 575 personas bajo custodia de las autoridades.

El Salvador registró 6.656 asesinatos y una tasa de homicidios de 103 por cada 100.000 habitantes en 2015. Ese año fue uno de los más violentos en la historia de la nación y el más violento desde el fin de la guerra civil. El Salvador cerró 2025 con apenas 82 casos de homicidio, un mínimo histórico.

Con pancartas de “Yo apoyo al IMSS” o “Médicos: salario justo, retiro digno”, empleados, estudiantes y jubilados de la institución marcharon por las calles del centro de la capital mexicana como parte de una ola de protestas que comenzó la semana pasada y se extendió a varios estados del país, entre ellos Campeche, Oaxaca y Querétaro.

“Estamos protestando porque no tenemos suficiente personal en las unidades”, dijo Ingrid Jiménez, una enfermera que se unió a la marcha. “Eso se deriva en sobrecarga para los que estamos laborando, además de que no tenemos insumos, no hay material”.

Los trabajadores afirman que la escasez dificulta una atención médica oportuna, además de que algunos exigen el restablecimiento de un sistema de pensiones ya eliminado y aumentos salariales superiores a los que ofrece el gobierno.

México tiene un sistema de salud pública muy fragmentado y desarticulado —varias entidades nacionales que dan servicio a poblaciones distintas, además de los servicios estatales— y en medio siempre ha habido un sistema de compra y distribución de medicamentos marcado por la corrupción, coinciden los expertos.

El modelo de compra cambió en 2019 con el expresidente Andrés López Obrador. La Secretaría de Hacienda lo centralizó y se separó el proceso de distribución, el cual era coordinado previamente por las farmacéuticas, y quedó en manos del Estado, en un intento por combatir la corrupción. Pero el resultado fueron altos índices de desabasto de medicinas, los cuales mejoraron en los próximos años, aunque sin llegar a solucionarse por completo.

La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum ha insistido recientemente en que su gobierno ha hecho avances, pero reconoció que todavía quedan temas pendientes, como la contratación de más médicos especialistas, el aumento de los salarios de médicos residentes, y mejorar la distribución de medicamentos.

In a victory for media organizations at a time when tension between the White House and journalists is high, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed in their constitutional free speech and due process claims.

“Still,” he added in his late-night order, “no one should interpret the Court’s decision to suggest that President Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media’s reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed.”

But Kelly agreed with the plaintiffs that the national security arguments came after the fact and were unsupported by the administration.

The judge also wrote that without a preliminary injunction the outlets “are likely to suffer irreparable harm, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest tip in their favor.”

An email to the Justice Department, which is arguing the case on behalf of the administration, was not immediately returned. The White House also did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Theodore Boutrous Jr., attorney for the three media organizations, hailed the judge's ruling.

“When the President issued his ‘ban on the free press,’ he blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment,” Boutrous said in a statement. “The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound. The Court was right to enjoin the White House from enforcing this ‘unconstitutional ban on the free press’ for the foreseeable future.”

Judge says no warning given before banishment

Kelly, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, previously ordered the White House to restore the reporters’ “hard pass” press credentials while he weighed their claims. With that temporary order expiring Tuesday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction that preserves the status quo indefinitely while the case is pending.

Kelly said that, “to put it mildly,” the White House didn’t give the plaintiffs any warning that they were in danger of losing their hard passes before Trump’s Sept. 18 social media post about their bans.

The judge also said the impact of the White House ban goes far beyond a single reporter's ability to do their job.

“The ban threatens to cut off all Plaintiffs’ access to the White House press area—a space open to many of their competitors—thereby restricting their ability to observe happenings there firsthand, immediately report on those activities, and try to engage with government officials,” the judge wrote.

Hard passes give journalists who regularly cover the White House longer term access to its campus without having to get permission ahead of time.

The government asked Kelly to suspend his own decision pending an appeal, but the judge said it didn’t justify that request. Kelly said the bans impacted a total of 78 reporters at the three news organizations.

Earlier judicial action against White House had

been only temporary

Trump provided no notice before announcing the bans in a Sept. 18 social media post, which criticized their reporting as “fake news.” Kelly temporarily blocked the bans on Sept. 24 at the request of the news outlets, which jointly filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C.

Attorneys for the outlets have described Trump’s move as “unprecedented and blatantly unconstitutional” under the First and Fifth amendments. They argued that it’s illegal for Trump to punish the journalists because he doesn’t like the content of their reporting.

“The ban also inflicts an injury on all news media organizations — which now risk a similar fate if they engage in fact-based, independent reporting the President deems insufficiently favorable,” plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.

Government lawyers argued that access to the White House is a privilege — not a right — and said the president can impose the bans to protect national security and to stem the spread of misinformation.

“The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President,” Justice Department attorneys wrote. “Presidents have had a relationship with the press since the beginning. They have long decided which journalists should receive privileged access, which has varied substantially from administration to administration.”

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Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone contributed.

The exports data, which was better than what economists had expected, accelerated from the 25% growth in August. High-tech goods such as semiconductors and autos have helped fuel its rising shipments overseas.

September's export growth pace was the fastest since February, according to FactSet data.

Imports climbed 31% in September year-on-year, also accelerating from August’s 28.2% rise. Still, China recorded a $133.5 billion trade surplus last month, widening from $119.1 billion in August.

For the first nine months, China’s trade surplus reached $938 billion, with expectations growing that it could surpass last year’s full-year $1.2 trillion record.

Strong exports have helped drive China’s overall economic growth this year, at a time when domestic consumption and investment remained sluggish, weighed on by a yearslong real estate sector downturn.

However, China’s export resilience is now faced with mounting challenges, said Ecaterina Bigos, a senior market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

“While U.S.-China trade tensions have eased somewhat, the EU’s push to rebalance directly targets high-value exports,” she said.

The U.S. has launched an ongoing probe against China and other trading partners this year on their excess industrial capacity, although Washington and Beijing last month reached an agreement to extend their trade truce and cut tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods.

The 27-nation EU has particularly been struggling to rebalance a trade deficit exceeding $1.1 billion a day with China. EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič, following his visit to Beijing where he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao last week, said a deal has been reached with Beijing, including halving Chinese hybrid car imports into the EU over the next few years.

Many of China’s trading partners are facing weak growth prospects and are fearful of their manufacturing industries being overrun by exports from China, said Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University.

Policymakers have also pointed to a weakened yuan, China’s currency, versus the U.S. dollar and other currencies contributing to Chinese exports being cheaper overseas when compared with goods from other countries, adding to trade imbalances.

China has said it has “no need or intent” to gain competitive advantages through currency devaluation and that its trade growth has been driven by its industrial competitiveness in the global market.

Between January and September, China’s semiconductor exports soared 108.1% year-on-year in terms of value, customs data showed. Its exports of automatic data processing equipment and parts jumped 54.6%, while auto exports rose 54.3%, driven by an increased global demand for Chinese electric vehicles and hybrids.

China’s trade surplus and its high-tech export model depend on open markets, Bigos said, and while diversifying its exports into markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America can help, it cannot fully substitute for Western demand.

The country’s reliance on high-tech exports, meanwhile, could face challenges as some U.S. technology industry leaders called for a global slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence over safety reasons.

“A slowdown in the global AI investment cycle could pose a greater threat to China’s export growth than trade restrictions imposed by other countries,” said Max Zenglein, Asia Pacific senior economist at The Conference Board.

Chinese leaders have set an annual economic expansion target of 4.5%-5% for 2026. It is set to release its July-September quarterly economic growth figures next week.

This week, the International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for China’s 2026 economic growth to 4.5%, down 0.1 percentage point from its previous projection, as it warned that the country's robust exports were unable to fully offset domestic weaknesses.

While Chinese officials have highlighted the need to bolster domestic demand, analysts believe that has yet to become a priority for this year even after authorities recently rolled out new measures to help lift its economy, including subsidies for homebuyers’ mortgage interest payments.

Peralta threw six innings of four-hit ball, Liam Hicks lined a two-run single after José Ramírez's fielding error and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 Tuesday night to even the AL Championship Series at 1-1.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Cleveland.

Peralta threw the hardest pitch of his big league career at 99.4 mph and relied on his four-seam fastball on 71 of 99 pitches — his 71.7% usage was his highest since June 11, 2019.

“It’s no secret that I trust in my fastball a lot and it’s my best pitch,” Peralta said.

Peralta's 96.9 mph average fastball velocity was 2.6 mph above his season average.

“It plays a big role, the adrenaline,” Peralta said. “And also I define myself as a competitor, and I like these kind of games. I’ve always said in the past, that I enjoyed this as a Dominican pitcher. I grew up watching the games in D.R., and that’s the game that you see. And I got used to that because I grew up watching it. And I feel that I have that in me, in myself. And that’s the way that I feel when I am on the mound in these kind of games.”

Peralta pumped a fist and screamed joyfully walking off the mound in the sixth after fanning Petey Halpin swinging at a 3-2 changeup.

“I just enjoyed the moment because it was a really good at-bat,” Peralta said. “It wasn’t an easy game since the first pitch that I threw until the last one. It was a lot of competition between me and the hitters. ... I think that was why I was fired up like that.”

Ramírez, whose two-run homer in Game 5 of their AL Division Series against Chicago helped the Guardians become the 11th team to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series, misplayed a grounder in the fourth inning that led to three unearned runs against rookie lefty Parker Messick.

Junior Caminero walked to start that inning and Victor Mesa Jr. grounded into a forceout originally ruled a double play. The Rays challenged the calls at both first and second and Mesa was ruled safe when a video review overturned the out decision by first base umpire Mark Ripperger.

After Jonny DeLuca struck out, Chandler Simpson beat out a high chopper to shortstop, and the Mesa reached third standing up when Ramírez failed to cover the bag.

Ben Williamson followed with a grounder that scooted underneath Ramírez’s glove and between his legs after the ball hit the edge where the artificial turf met the infield dirt. The third baseman played back rather than charging.

“It's a little bit faster here this type of surface,” Ramirez said through a translator. “It's frustrating. I feel bad.”

Williamson reached second and Simpson went to third. Hicks drove the next pitch to right-center for a 3-0 lead, electrifying the towel-waving, cowbell-ringing crowd of 32,125 fans at Tropicana Field.

Peralta and three relievers didn’t need any more support.

“I think the velocity really stood out,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Peralta.

Kevin Kelly got two outs in the seventh, retiring Ramírez on a fly ball to center with two runners on.

Lefty Ian Seymour replaced him and Chase DeLauter lined an RBI double to the right-field corner.

Seymour struck out Jo Adell swinging at a changeup, leaving runners at second and third. Seymour pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Bryan Baker finished with a perfect ninth for his fourth postseason save.

Acquired by the Rays from the Mets at the trade deadline, Peralta turned around his season in Tampa Bay going 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts after posting a 4.99 ERA for New York.

He pitched his latest gem in front of Mets owner Steve Cohen, who was in attendance.

“We have a good relationship,” Peralta said of Cohen. “I think he’s awesome. And I’m happy that he was here watching, not watching me, watching the Rays.”

Messick, who grew up going to Rays games at the Trop, took the loss after giving up six hits and the three unearned runs in five innings.

Cleveland had won four straight in the postseason for the first time since winning their first six playoff games in 2016 on the way to a World Series berth.

The 98-win Rays swept the New York Yankees before a 7-3 loss in Game 1 on Monday.

That was their first loss in two weeks. Now, they're back on the winning track and need three more in a series that's reduced to a best of five to advance to their third World Series.

Liam's lineup drop

After batting cleanup in the first two games against the Yankees and sixth in Game 3 of that series, Hicks wasn't in the lineup against lefty Foster Griffin on Monday and batted eighth against Messick.

He doesn't care where he hits.

“This lineup is so good, you can hit anywhere in the lineup, and you’re not getting offended,” Hicks said. “There’s going to be opportunities.”

No hit for you

Caminero leaped to his left to snag Steven Kwan's hard liner to third in the fifth and then wagged a finger toward the batter. Caminero, who played all 162 games in the regular season and hit 42 home runs, was in the lineup after a collision with DeLuca on a foul ball in the ninth inning Monday night.

Up Next

Rays RHP Griffin Jax (8-10, 3.52 ERA) starts Thursday night. He struck out four and gave up one run in two innings of relief against the Yankees. RHP Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76) is expected to start for the Guardians. Williams started Games 2 and 5 against the White Sox and tossed an inning in relief in Game 4. He had 24 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and six hits.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

“Los óculos son pequeñas hendiduras en las fachadas que dejan entrar la luz y creo que, en este momento, lo que más necesita Cuba es esa luz y compartirla entre todos”, dijo el padre Yosvany Carvajal, párroco de la Catedral y rector del Centro Cultural Padre Félix Varela, en declaraciones a The Associated Press,

El vitral –el óculo— de casi tres metros de altura, se encuentra ubicado sobre la puerta principal del templo del siglo XVIII y es el primer paso en un proceso de restauración necesario para evitar el deterioro adicional de la ornamentación. La obra lleva el nombre de “Madonna Luminosa” y fue creada por el artista cubano Aluan Argüelles.

La obra muestra a la virgen en tonos amarillos y azules con un singular movimiento en el diseño de su manto que destaca la iluminación

El vitral iluminado permanecerá en la fachada del templo por lo menos hasta el primer trimestre del próximo año, explicó el padre Carvajal. La Catedral festejará su aniversario 250 en 2027 y para entonces se tiene previsto que ya esté colocada la obra original restaurada.

Cuba atraviesa una complicada situación económica y social a partir del cerco energético y financiero impuesto por Estados Unidos en enero pasado como herramienta de presión para un cambio en el modelo de gobierno de la isla, agudizando la crisis al dejar al país prácticamente paralizado en todos sus sectores.

Apagones de más de 30 horas, carestía, desabasto de productos básicos y medicinas, recortes de horario en los centros de trabajo y jornadas perdidas son algunas de las consecuencias que el cerco ha provocado entre la población.

El proyecto de restauración de la Catedral de La Habana fue financiado a través de una recaudación de fondos realizada por la ONG Cuba Foundation, con sede en Nueva York.

“Nos enfocamos en apoyar al sector privado en Cuba, obviamente pasando por las regulaciones norteamericanas y de Cuba”, explicó el fundador de Cuba Foundation, Gustavo Arnavat, a la AP. Añadió que para él era una prioridad restaurar el óculo antes de que se perdiera del todo.

En el marco de las peores sanciones impuesta a la isla en décadas, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump ordenó a finales de septiembre restricciones adicionales para los viajes desde Estados Unidos a la isla, en particular en lo referente a permisos académicos o intercambios, además de limitar las cuentas bancarias de empresarios isleños en Estados Unidos.

Arnavat aclaró que las sanciones no alcanzan a esta iniciativa, aunque reconoció que las medidas de este tipo suelen entorpecer los acercamientos binacionales.

“Las políticas del presidente Trump desde su primer mandato, que no cambiaron mucho durante Biden, han causado mucho ruido en los Estados Unidos. Entonces hay gente que es muy cautelosa, no sabe y tiene la impresión de que no se puede venir a Cuba… y claro no se puede venir como turista, pero se puede venir a apoyar al pueblo cubano”, sostuvo Arnavat.

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Siga a Andrea Rodríguez en X: https://x.com/ARodriguezAP

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Sam Reinhart added two goals and an assist, extending his point streak against Columbus to a franchise-record 12 games.

Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three of his brother’s goals and had an assist on Verhaeghe’s goal in the second for the first four-assist period in Panthers history. He extended his points streak to six games.

Brady Tkachuk became the ninth Panthers player with three goals in a period. He also had four points in the second as the brothers became the third and fourth Florida players with a four-point period.

Seth Jones contributed four assists, and Akira Schmid stopped 24 shots a night after replacing Jacob Markstrom following the first period of the Panthers’ loss at Buffalo.

Kent Johnson, Denton Mateychuk and Cole Sillinger scored for Columbus, and Damon Severson had two assists. The Blue Jackets lost for the third time in four games and have allowed seven power-play goals in 18 opportunities.

Cam Talbot stopped 17 shots before being replaced after allowing his sixth goal at 3:28 of the third period. Jet Greaves made four saves in relief.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead on Johnson’s unassisted goal at 14:11 of the first period, but Florida took control from there.

Brady Tkachuk took advantage of a turnover by Carson Soucy in the Florida zone and pulled the Panthers even at 2:27 of the second with his first goal of the season. He added a power-play goal 3 1/2 minutes later and completed his fourth career hat trick, and second against Columbus, with another power-play goal at 10:30.

Mathieu Olivier was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing Uvis Balinskis at 13:44 of the second, leaving Columbus short-handed for five minutes. Verhaeghe scored on the ensuing power play.

Reinhart’s power-play goal 1:20 into the third gave him a Panthers-record 86 career power-play goals.

Columbus made it 6-3 with third-period goals from Mateychuk and Sillinger 22 seconds apart. Reinhart had an empty-netter.

Florida improved to 11-2-0 against Columbus since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Up next

Panthers: Host Vancouver on Thursday.

Blue Jackets: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

HIs recovery has been nothing short of remarkable.

“Getting struck by lightning was probably about one of the last things I would have thought that happened,” said Rick Stanczyk.

Stanczyk, who comes from a family of fishing guides, and whose family owns the iconic Bud N’ Mary’s Marina in Islamorada, was scheduled to take three people out for a day of tarpon fishing on August 20th.

There were storms in the area, said friend and client Mark Fravel, but nowhere near where they were.

“We actually did see some lightning strikes, but it was so far away, you just saw the flash,” Fravel said.

The calm would soon change

Fravel heard what sounded like a loud crack.

“It was a crack so loud that it felt like it lifted the boat up in the air,” he said.

Stanczyk said not only does he not remember anything about that moment, but he doesn’t remember anything about that entire day. But he surmises that because he was holding on a metal steering wheel at the helm of his Contender center console boat, the lightning electrified him.

“I was holding the wheel and so it got me and everyone else on the boat was fine,” he said.

Fravel believes the lightning struck the water first, “chased up the engine and through the steering column,” he recalled.

Stanczyk, 44 and a father of two, collapsed.

His Contender was dead in the water.

Fravel and another onboard began CPR, while calling 911.

In minutes, Islamorada Fire Rescue paramedics raced to Bud N’ Mary’s and got onboard another boat captain’s vessel.

“It was dark and rainy,” recalled paramedic Steven Mejia. “We went onboard a vessel to reach where the patient was. If they weren’t there to initiate CPR - who knows what the outcome would have been.”

Stanczyk was flown to the hospital where he spent several days in a medically induced coma.

He recalls his wife telling him what happened as he slowly regained consciousness.

“‘Stay calm, Rick, you’re in the hospital,’” he said she told him. “‘You’re okay, but you were struck by lightning.’ And I was like, ‘What?’”

Florida is known as the lightning capital of the world.

Lightning activity in the state was reported to be nearly 28 percent above the 10-year average, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.

And even higher late this summer.

Meteorologist Chris Vagasky provided Local 10 with data that showed that lightning activity in August was 58% above average, and 108% above average in September.

Scientists are still working to find out why.

Now, Stanczyk is back on the water and says he’s cleared all medical tests - and is feeling strong.

In an abundance of precaution, he uses a rubber sleeve that covers the metal steering wheel of the boat he’s using. The Contender is still in the shop.

“As the captain of the boat, you always kind of think of yourself as the one who’s gonna be in charge,” he said. “(I’m) a little more grateful for being here and realizing you’re never really guaranteed tomorrow So you’ve got to enjoy the day.”

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The vote gives the county the authority to take any necessary legal action to go inside the Broward Sheriff’s Office headquarters and examine the sheriff’s budget to see how he is spending taxpayer dollars.

“Everything stops if they just open their books and say, ‘Here’s what we’re spending our money on.’ It’s that simple, folks,” Broward Mayor Mark Bogen said.

The emergency meeting was led by Bogen on Tuesday morning.

The vote gives the county attorney the authority to sue the sheriff if negotiations go nowhere.

The board wants a closer look at the sheriff’s $870 million budget and exactly how the agency is spending taxpayer dollars.

The mayor says the county has a legal right to see the budget.

“We have a sheriff who refuses to disclose things, fights our requests, locks his doors, hides in his office making videos,” Bogen said.

On Monday, the mayor and commissioners were blocked from going inside BSO’s officer the to see its training facility, which the county auditor says cost more than twice what was expected, ballooning from $34 million to $73 million, which was already shown in audit in 2024.

“We sent many emails to the command staff saying we would like to view the gym and they don’t respond,” Bogen said. “They don’t respond.”

Right afterward, during a news conference, Tony claimed it was a distraction as statewide prosecutors sent subpoenas to all commissioners last month while investigating the county’s study about possibly removing BSO from both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.

“It has been nothing more than a disguise to distract from what is actually taking place: an unprecedented criminal investigation,” Tony told reporters.

Tony went a step further on Tuesday, showing Local 10 News reporter Janine Stanwood the training facility.

“So this is a little uncommon, Janine, for me to show anyone what our toilets look like,” Tony said.

One commissioner claimed the facility has “gilded toilets.”

“And there you are, no gold,” Tony told Stanwood.

He showed Local 10 News the facility’s cold plunge, gym and sauna, as well as two massage tables for physical therapy.

All of it, Tony said, is “getting our people back into the field faster.”

Tony responded to criticism about placing his name on the logos on curtains and other places within the facility.

He said commissioners have turned it into “some scandalous approach about branding.”

Stanwood asked, “People might look at those weight plates and they say, ‘Why do you need to put Broward County Sheriff?’”

“Pride,” Tony, who said the branding was a nominal cost, said. “Organizational pride. Keep fighting. Let’s go.”

He said of commissioners’ request to tour the facility, “Over the span of two years since we’ve opened, there has been not one formal email request from any of those commissioners.”

Stanwood asked Tony, “So why not just say to the county ‘Here, look at the books. You don’t have to put in a FOIA because the taxpayers should be able to see what’s going on?’”

Costs, he said, are “already in the books. It’s in their audit report. I have tried everything possible to negotiate in good faith, present data and factual figures and it has fallen on deaf ears.”

“But why won’t you go to a commission meeting?” Stanwood asked.

“Because attending commission meetings, at this point in time, has become nothing more than theater,” Tony responded.

Tony has claimed the battle is a distraction as statewide prosecutors sent subpoenas to all commissioners last month while investigating the county’s study about possibly removing BSO from both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades.

“It has been nothing more than a disguise to distract from what is actually taking place: an unprecedented criminal investigation,” Tony told reporters at a news conference on Monday.

He later called Tuesday’s vote an “assault” on his independence as a constitutional officer.

Local 10 News has reached out to state investigators.

During Tuesday’s commission meeting, Bogen said he has not heard of any criminal probe and asked the county attorney to confirm that.

“Counsel, are you aware of any of us or any of the staff here (who are) under a criminal investigation?” Bogen said.

“Um, mayor, I’m not aware of any criminal investigation,” the county attorney replied.

Commissioner Lamar Fisher is also proposing taking the 911 system away from the sheriff.

There is a meeting next Tuesday when that proposal will come up.

If approved, he says the transition will happen immediately.

But mainland U.S. hurricane strikes tend to have harder bookends that fall within the prescribed June to November season. The earliest official mainland U.S. hurricane landfall from the National Hurricane Center’s historical database – coined HURDAT 2, which extends back to 1851 – was Hurricane Alma that struck the Florida Big Bend on June 9^th, 1966. The latest landfalling mainland U.S. hurricane was Hurricane Kate on November 21^st, 1985, that struck the Florida Panhandle.

While other out-of-season U.S. hurricanes have been documented – such as the retroactively named Hurricane Amanda uncovered by researchers in 2013 that struck the Florida Panhandle on May 28^th, 1863 – no mainland U.S. hurricane landfalls outside of the June to November hurricane season are officially listed in NHC’s historical HURDAT 2 record.

When do we typically see the last mainland U.S. landfall?

As we’ve written about in previous newsletters, the last U.S. hurricane landfall often precedes or even helps to usher in the start of South Florida’s dry season, which typically arrives around the middle of October.

Examining all hurricane landfalls in the satellite record (since 1966), 90% of seasons see their last hurricane landfall by around the middle of October (October 18^th). For named storms, which include both tropical storms and hurricanes, we’re usually done with mainland U.S. hits by the end of October.

That of course doesn’t mean we haven’t seen or can’t see November threats from tropical storms and hurricanes. They’re just far less common than any other month of the season and about a once-every -decade-or-less event (as we discussed in yesterday’s newsletter, November U.S. hurricanes are about a once-in-50-year event).

So let’s get through the next few weeks and then we can rest a little easier knowing the threats from hurricane season are mostly in the rearview mirror.

No development expected deep into October

Our longer-range computer models don’t show any viable candidates over the next week or two across the Atlantic basin.

Each week is especially meaningful this time of year and gets us closer to November when U.S. landfalls become the exception, rather than the norm.

Soccer’s world governing body planned to use the financial success of the latest World Cup to enhance investment in the sport's development across 211 FIFA member associations, confederations and other stakeholders. Originally, each association was to receive $10 million for the four-year period.

FIFA planned to distribute more than $3.5 billion from its financial reserves which were boosted with the success of its 48-team World Cup, said two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal had not been announced.

FIFA estimates approximately $15 billion in revenue in the 2022-26 cycle, including the men’s World Cup hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, significantly above projections, both people told AP.

The proposal comes as European soccer leaders seek a candidate to try to oust Gianni Infantino as FIFA president. Infantino’s divisive World Cup private investment plan — that was scrapped within days of being revealed in July — prompted UEFA to act.

Infantino, who became FIFA president in 2016, is seeking reelection next year.

On Sept. 28, the leaders of soccer's six continental confederations received a letter from Infantino with the plan, which is expected to be finalized at the upcoming FIFA council meeting and approved at its congress in March. The AP has reviewed the letter.

“Taken together, your submissions confirm broad agreement on the central objective: FIFA’s financial success must serve football and all FIFA’s 211 member associations,” Infantino said in the letter. “I am confident that together we can reach a sustainable and properly supported outcome for FIFA’s member associations and for football in every part of the world.”

One of the people with knowledge of the proposal said continental confederations made the suggestion for FIFA to use its reserves in the plan, which now offers $99 million for each of the six confederations.

UEFA announced in August it was preparing a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for possible financial mismanagement in the World Cup sell-off deal, and has asked courts in the United States to authorize discovery of evidence.

UEFA's 55 members account for more than a quarter of FIFA’s 211 member federations who can vote in the election on March 18 in Rabat, Morocco.

Any candidate to challenge Infantino must enter the race by a Nov. 18 deadline.

Infantino indicated last month he would be open to an independent review of FIFA's governance system and signaled a willingness to consider reforms.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Sam Reinhart added two goals and an assist, extending his point streak against Columbus to a franchise-record 12 games.

Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three of his brother's goals and had an assist on Verhaeghe's goal in the second for the first four-assist period in Panthers history. He extended his points streak to six games.

Brady Tkachuk became the ninth Panthers player with three goals in a period. He also had four points in the second as the brothers became the third and fourth Florida players with a four-point period.

Seth Jones contributed four assists, and Akira Schmid stopped 24 shots a night after replacing Jacob Markstrom following the first period of the Panthers’ loss at Buffalo.

Kent Johnson, Denton Mateychuk and Cole Sillinger scored for Columbus, and Damon Severson had two assists. The Blue Jackets lost for the third time in four games and have allowed seven power-play goals in 18 opportunities.

Cam Talbot stopped 17 shots before being replaced after allowing his sixth goal at 3:28 of the third period. Jet Greaves made four saves in relief.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead on Johnson's unassisted goal at 14:11 of the first period, but Florida took control from there.

Brady Tkachuk took advantage of a turnover by Carson Soucy in the Florida zone and pulled the Panthers even at 2:27 of the second with his first goal of the season. He added a power-play goal 3 1/2 minutes later and completed his fourth career hat trick, and second against Columbus, with another power-play goal at 10:30.

Mathieu Olivier was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing Uvis Balinskis at 13:44 of the second, leaving Columbus short-handed for five minutes. Verhaeghe scored on the ensuing power play.

Reinhart’s power-play goal 1:20 into the third gave him a Panthers-record 86 career power-play goals.

Columbus made it 6-3 with third-period goals from Mateychuk and Sillinger 22 seconds apart. Reinhart had an empty-netter.

Florida improved to 11-2-0 against Columbus since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Up next

Panthers: Host Vancouver on Thursday.

Blue Jackets: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

El decreto firmado modifica una norma de 2021 que daba prioridad al diálogo y la mediación como forma de intervención en las protestas, mientras que dejaba como último recurso la intervención de los agentes antidisturbios para controlar actos de violencia.

La nueva norma permite la intervención policial sin agotar necesariamente el diálogo e indica que puede retomarse después del empleo de la fuerza, siempre que las “acciones violentas” hayan cesado y “se adopten medidas orientadas a garantizar los derechos de quienes manifiestan pacíficamente” y de quienes no participan.

“Frente a actos de violencia, la obligación de privilegiar el diálogo y la mediación constituye una regla de preferencia... y no un requisito previo que condicione, suspenda o posponga las actuaciones de intervención dirigidas individualmente contra quienes ejecuten actos de violencia”, indica el decreto publicado por la Presidencia.

Los actos de violencia son entendidos en la norma como las agresiones contra personas, lanzamiento de objetos, retención de personas, ataques contra infraestructura pública o privada y uso de menores de edad o mujeres embarazadas.

El gobierno argumenta que con las modificaciones en el protocolo busca garantizar los derechos de quienes participan en la protesta y de quienes no lo hacen, por lo que introducen “corredores solidarios” que estarían destinados al tránsito de ambulancias, organismos de socorro y personas gestantes, mayores o menores de edad.

El decreto entra en vigencia justo antes de que los sectores opositores, liderados por el expresidente Gustavo Petro (2022-2026), salgan a las calles el miércoles para manifestarse contra las políticas de De la Espriella, que consideran pueden ser regresivas en temas sociales, especialmente para los trabajadores.

Reaviva miedo al uso excesivo de la fuerza

El protocolo del uso de la fuerza del 2021 se dio en cumplimiento de una sentencia de la Corte Suprema de Justicia que encontró excesos de la fuerza pública en una protesta de 2019.

La modificación del protocolo genera especial preocupación en los movimientos sociales y sectores de izquierda que recuerdan la violencia registrada en las multitudinarias protestas de 2021 contra el gobierno, en las que hubo al menos 46 víctimas fatales, en muchos de los cuales miembros de la fuerza pública serían los presuntos perpetradores, según la ONU.

“El temor que tenemos es sencillamente que se repita y, de hecho, que se empeore lo que Colombia ya ha vivido”, aseguró a The Associated Press la congresista Jennifer Pedraza, crítica del gobierno de De la Espriella.

Para Pedraza, el gobierno pretende disuadir a la ciudadanía de protestar por sus derechos al estigmatizar a quienes lo hacen y también tener “una justificación en la opinión pública de los posibles excesos de la fuerza pública” que se puedan dar en su gobierno.

“En vez de atender las causas de la ciudadanía... la propuesta del gobierno es represión y justificación a partir de esta modificación regresiva del decreto”, cuestionó Pedraza.

The panel is part of a portable solar kit given to the Rohingya refugee family as humanitarian aid six years ago. It's been the family's primary source of electricity, making daily life so much easier in the camp for the displaced in Teknaf, Bangladesh.

"We can now charge our phones, cook with light, children can study at night and use fans during the hot season,” said Saber, 35.

From the flood zones of Nepal to refugee camps in Africa, experts say that solar energy is increasingly becoming part of disaster relief as technology improves, costs fall and humanitarian organizations recognize that having access to electricity is a fundamental need.

Renewable energy solutions are needed more than ever, they say, as climate change drives and intensifies extreme weather while wars, sanctions and political upheavals keep fossil fuel prices volatile.

Solar energy kits are portable, rechargeable and grid-independent

When disasters strike and humanitarian needs surge, solar kits can become an invaluable resource, says Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen, a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, an independent research and policy institute specializing in sustainable development.

These solar kits — all-in-one, compact units that use solar panels and are not reliant on utility companies — are easy to move and recharge, according to Rosenberg-Jansen.

“In emergency situations, solar kits can be deployed immediately,” she said, adding that they are particularly useful in situations with rapidly rising floodwaters, changing front lines in a conflict, or for moving around in areas where damaged roads make it difficult to travel.

In terms of function, the kits can be "anything from solar lanterns to solar home systems, solar torches, solar heating pads, to electric cook stoves that use solar as their energy source,” she said.

Lower costs of solar energy helped its role in disaster relief

Rosenberg-Jansen also pointed out that solar panels are not prone to price shocks like fossil fuels, which can be difficult and costly to transport to a disaster zone.

Only a few decades ago, solar energy was a luxury, she added, but as technology evolved, mindsets and the price tag changed. Now it's more affordable, thanks to the scaling up of mass manufacturing and technology advancement.

It's also so much easier to use, said Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope For Ukraine, a nonprofit based in the United States that provides solar kits to families living in war-torn Ukraine.

“We have grandmas and grandpas who are around 75-80 years old ... receiving kits,” said Boyechko. “It’s just a matter of plug (in) and play.”

Solar panels are becoming more common now.

On the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub, a tuberculosis clinic run by Doctors Without Borders uses solar energy. In South Sudan's Renk county, the U.N. migration agency installed solar-powered water filtration systems for families displaced by the war in neighboring Sudan.

And after Nepal's massive floods in August that killed 1,455 people and left 5,285 missing — including hundreds of foreign nationals — solar kits were distributed by local and international organizations, including Australia-based charity SolarBuddy.

Funding issues and bureaucracy are still an obstacle in disaster relief

Mark Gibson from Global Platform for Action, or GPA, which promotes affordable, reliable and clean energy access, said that integrating solar energy hasn't come without difficulties.

Aid agencies have had time-tested systems in place, which often include diesel generators as part of long-term leases and agreements. Switching to solar means having to trust new systems and setting up new distribution chains, sometimes in risky environments.

Recent slashes in international donor funding have also undermined — or completely erased — new practices that were starting to take root, said Aimee Jenks, a program leader at GPA.

“Much of the technical expertise in the humanitarian sector on energy has been cut,” she said. “That’s now retracting a lot of progress.”

And while the cost of solar energy has decreased, it's still prohibitive for many.

Boyechko, of Hope For Ukraine, said that by the end of 2026, his nonprofit will have distributed over 3,200 kits.

“But it took us two years to get to that number, because of funding needs,” he said. ”We have a waiting list of about 20,000 families. We just cannot keep up with demand.”

While no energy source is perfect, the move towards renewable energies is likely to decrease reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

For Saber, whose family is among more than 1 million refugees from Myanmar’s Rohingya ethnic and religious minority now living in Bangladesh, the kit means keeping the lights on.

“It’s improved my family’s life,” he said.

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Freelancer photographer Ayub Khan Dkl in Teknaf, Bangaldesh, contributed to this report.

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

Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Ohtani will bat anywhere from second to sixth with the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers losing the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

“He was very convicted that he is onto something mechanically (with his swing),” Roberts said. “He was adamant that he can help us. He’s well enough to help us win a baseball game, so that’s all I needed to hear.”

Ohtani is hitting .150 (3 for 20) over six postseason games. He has seven strikeouts, three walks and one stolen base with no home runs, no RBIs and an OPS of .411.

He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18 at Colorado.

Ohtani admitted before the NLDS against Atlanta that he’s not 100% healthy from right biceps and left knee issues that bothered him the last the last few months of the regular season. He has appeared visibly uncomfortable at the plate while flailing at pitches.

“The symptoms have subdued a lot,” Ohtani said Tuesday through a translator while making an unscheduled appearance in the off-day interview room. “The symptoms shouldn’t be the reason why I can’t hit, and even if the injuries happen by accident, I take full responsibility.”

Roberts spoke to Ohtani before the team worked out at Dodger Stadium, where Ohtani took on-field batting practice, something he rarely does during the regular season.

Roberts said their conversation wasn’t about benching the Japanese superstar, but rather offering him time off similar to Freddie Freeman during the postseason in 2024. Freeman had a sprained ankle and bone bruise, and took three days off spanning the NL Division Series and NLCS before earning World Series MVP honors.

“Over the course of this long season, there’s only really a short period of time when my mechanics is completely in sync,” Ohtani said. “So it’s just really kind of just going back and forth, finding the right parts of the swing and managing just the different parts of the swing. It’s a constant, ongoing process that’s headed in the right direction.”

Ohtani led the Dodgers to a four-game NLCS sweep of Milwaukee last year, when the Brewers hit a measly .118 against LA's pitching.

He was 5 for 14 (.357) with three home runs, four walks and five strikeouts as NLCS MVP — all three homers came in a memorable Game 4 clinch in which he also struck out 10 as a pitcher. He had a 1.643 OPS and 1.143 slugging percentage.

“We remember vividly at this time last year that he maybe had the best baseball game ever played the day he pitched against us and hit a home run every time up, it seemed like,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You can’t forget that, his capabilities. But you still have to go at him.”

Ohtani is known for hitting homers but the offensively starved Dodgers would take any kind of production from him at this point.

“In this big moment, we’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him," Roberts said, "and that’s it.”

Snell looking to rebound for Dodgers in Game 3

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell starts for Los Angeles against Robert Gasser of the Brewers in a matchup of left-handers on Wednesday.

The Dodgers will be looking to get considerably more innings out of Snell than in his last start on Oct. 4.

He lasted 3 2/3 innings, giving up one run, three hits, walking five and striking out five, in a 3-2 loss in Game 2 of the NLDS against Atlanta. He didn't speak to media afterward and has kept a low profile since then.

“Just a lot of time talking to myself, figuring out where I need to get to, where I’m at,” he said. “Watching two games against Milwaukee, just kind of game planning, seeing what I can expose, what they’re doing really well. Just trying to figure them out.”

Mitchell back home

Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell grew up in Orange County as a Los Angeles Angels fan. His family had season tickets in left field. He went to high school with the son of Angels star Garret Anderson.

“Got to have some good conversations with him, take some blasts into the past and talk about memories,” Mitchell said. “I was a shortstop when I was a kid, too. So I enjoyed watching David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy, and I also have a personal relationship with Adam Kennedy as well.”

Mitchell said the way the Angels played reminds him of how the Brewers approach games.

“Guys who maybe aren’t the greatest or the best on the field but know what they’ve got to do and know their roles and grind and compete to the best of their abilities,” he said. “That’s what it takes, it’s a team effort.” ___

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It was the first penalty handed down as part of an investigation that revealed a sprawling network of professional gamblers and college basketball players who, prosecutors say, profited off fixed games.

Prosecutors said Jalen Smith, 30, played a “central role” in helping fix games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA Division I basketball seasons, placing bets and recruiting players with the promise of a big payment for purposefully underperforming during a game, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said on Tuesday. Bettors would then wager against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other gamblers, authorities said. Smith pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribery and wire fraud charges.

The sentencing comes at the start of the 2026-27 NCAA basketball season, when bettors will wager billions of dollars both legally and illegally on games nationwide. In the meantime, law enforcement, regulators and sports leagues have struggled to keep up with gambling's growing popularity in collegiate and professional sports alike.

“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: Those who exploit professional and collegiate athletes for personal gain will be held accountable,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia office. “This conduct does more than harm individual athletes. It undermines the integrity of sports and the trust placed in fair competition.”

Smith's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, said his client took full responsibility for crimes at the sentencing hearing and apologized to those impacted. Cipparone also noted that the federal judge seemed to take Smith's apology as sincere, sentencing him to less time than what prosecutors recommended.

The point-shaving scheme Smith was involved in is said to have involved nearly 30 NCAA basketball games, and included schools like DePaul University, State University of New York at Buffalo and Tulane University, among others.

Prosecutors accused Smith and at least 26 other named defendants of wagering millions of dollars and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes. Payments to players typically ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, according to an indictment.

Smith and others strategically targeted players considered “underdogs” in games, encouraging them to underperform in order to guarantee certain spreads. Those players were prime targets, prosecutors said, because they were offered money that exceeded potential income from legitimate sponsorships.

Smith, of Charlotte, North Carolina, trained and developed local basketball players for professional scouting combines and used those connections with players when he became part of the scheme, according to prosecutors.

The point-shaving scheme resulted in more than $3 million in fraudulent wagers. Smith, who also pleaded guilty to a separate felony gun possession charge, will have to pay $1.1 million in restitution, which prosecutors said is the cost incurred by gambling platforms as a result of the scheme.

Besides the fixers who recruited players and placed bets, the charges targeted over a dozen former college basketball players and four other players who were active with their college teams last season.

The NFL announced the suspension Tuesday for Jackson, who is slated to miss Los Angeles' games against Arizona and Las Vegas. Jackson will appeal the league's ruling, Rams coach Sean McVay said.

“Have to make better decisions than that,” McVay said. “I spoke with him. We’ll keep that in-house. ... I want to understand the totality of the situation. I’m not condoning by any means, but I want to gather all the information.”

David Quessenberry will be the Rams' starting left tackle during Jackson's absence, McVay said. The 36-year-old veteran has played only 128 offensive snaps over the previous two seasons, and he hasn't started an NFL game since 2023.

Jackson struck Chubb after the two exchanged words following the Bills' 37-34 overtime victory over the Rams at SoFi Stadium. In a press release, the league called Jackson’s blow “an act of unsportsmanlike conduct.”

Jackson was doing a jersey swap with another Bills player when Chubb had words with him and walked away. Jackson followed and confronted Chubb before throwing a strike that knocked Chubb's hat off his head.

Teammates quickly separated the two, but Jackson was already in trouble yet again.

Jackson was arrested on June 9 on suspicion of felony domestic violence after a confrontation with a woman at his home in the San Fernando Valley. His case was assigned for a prefiling diversion that likely allows him to avoid criminal charges, but the NFL has yet to announce a decision on possible league discipline for that incident.

He was sued in 2025 by a woman who alleged he recorded sexual acts with her on his phone without her consent. The incident, which wasn’t publicly revealed until the lawsuit was filed, led to Jackson being suspended for the first two games of the 2024 season for an undisclosed violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Jackson, a Canadian-American dual citizen, is one of the Rams’ longest-tenured players. He won a Super Bowl ring as a backup lineman in February 2022.

The former undrafted free agent out of Iowa is in his fourth season as the Rams’ starting left tackle and the protector of Matthew Stafford’s blind side. The Rams re-signed Jackson to a three-year, $57 million deal in February 2025.

Jackson's absence is potentially serious for the Rams because they don't have a trusted backup at the most important position on their offensive line.

Despite being the Rams' putative backup to both tackle positions, Quessenberry only took 10 offensive snaps for the Rams last year — and none yet this year. When Jackson missed one game last season, the Rams played relatively new signee DJ Humphries instead of Quessenberry, who was a full-time NFL starter for just one season with Tennessee in 2021.

Rookie Keagen Trost, another potential backup tackle, has been on injured reserve all season with a hamstring problem. McVay said the Rams are hopeful Trost will be in game shape soon.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

In an affidavit opposing the temporary order becoming permanent, Bryan Seaver said text messages Nozell cited as evidence against him were a “private conversation between two friends who were both frustrated, grieving and discussing strategy." The text messages were sent shortly before and after Parton's Aug. 25 death.

Seaver said he never sent threatening messages to any of Parton’s businesses or business partners or their employees.

The filings represent Seaver’s first public defense of himself since a serious rift opened up in the country music legend’s circle and spilled into public view shortly after her death, with Nozell and Seaver on opposing sides.

Seaver's court filing says Nozell did not react with alarm to his text messages at the time and that he agreed with or reacted positively to some of them. Seaver says Nozell encouraged him to publicly tout the military and arms aspect of his security company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, as a smart business-promotion move, then turned around and used them as evidence of Seaver's capacity for dangerous violence.

She's Alive, an entity run by Nozell and founded to manage and protect Parton’s estate, terminated Seaver and SAPS in early September, and the following week petitioned for the restraining order against him, arguing that his“terrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable.”

In granting the temporary restraining order, Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles, cited Seaver's “claimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.”

The two sides will make their cases to Myles at a hearing on Oct. 20. Emails seeking comment were sent to lawyers for She's Alive and Nozell.

Seaver said he was blindsided by the order, which was granted while he was doing contract security work in Haiti.

Seaver and SAPS must refrain from entering any She’s Alive property or talking with or being within 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) of She’s Alive employees and business partners. The order is also meant to keep Seaver from interfering with its business relationships.

Seaver argued in his response that the order is so broad, and Parton's business reach so great, that much of Nashville and even his own relatives are off limits to him.

In one message written Sept. 1 that was cited by She's Alive, Seaver said: “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or f——— pay me.”

Seaver said his anger and the demand were only over more than $250,000 that his company was owed for completed work by Herschend Family Entertainment, which operates Parton’s amusement park Dollywood and her Songteller Hotel, which opened after her death.

Seaver acknowledged being overly crude and profane in his messages to Nozell. He said allegations that he had “menaced and intimidated” HFE employees were simply false.

He included as an exhibit a 2024 letter from Parton praising him and his company. Parton had handpicked Seaver to announce her death once she succumbed to cancer.

Parton was a widely beloved country music giant, philanthropist and cultural icon who wrote hundreds of songs, including classics such as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You.” Her music earned a total of more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams.

Los manifestantes también reclamaron pensiones dignas al asegurar que llevan más de cuatro años sin incrementos del salario mínimo, base para calcular ese pago.

La marcha que tenía como destino el palacio presidencial de Miraflores fue bloqueada por agentes de la Policía Nacional, que se habían apostado desde temprano en las calles y avenidas del centro de Caracas. Los manifestantes apenas pudieron acercarse a unos 500 metros de la casa de gobierno. No se registraron choques entre manifestantes y policías.

“El salario mínimo es inexistente en Venezuela, desde el 2022 se redujo prácticamente a cero”, dijo a la prensa Luis Crespo, representante de la Asociación de Profesores de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, la mayor y más antigua del país.

El salario mínimo mensual de 130 bolívares (0,14 dólares) no ha aumentado desde 2022, lo que lo sitúa muy por debajo del umbral de pobreza extrema de 3 dólares al día establecido por las Naciones Unidas. En 2022, 30 bolívares era equivalente a 30 dólares.

La mayoría de los 3,5 millones de trabajadores del sector público subsisten con aproximadamente 240 dólares al mes, casi en su totalidad bonos. De acuerdo con el Centro de Documentación y Análisis Social (CENDAS) de la Federación Venezolana de Maestros, una familia compuesta por cinco personas necesita unos 755,36 dólares para cubrir su gasto mensual en alimentos.

Un empleado promedio del sector privado, en tanto, ganaba a mediados de año unos 283 dólares, según cifras de Fedecámaras, el principal gremio empresarial del país. Los precios en Venezuela se fijan de acuerdo con su costo en dólares.

Los manifestantes entregaron un documento donde exigen que los beneficios, incluido el bono de fin de año y vacaciones, sean calculados en base al llamado “ingreso mínimo integral”, un mecanismo de compensación para los trabajadores por sus servicios, introducido por el ahora depuesto presidente Nicolás Maduro y que está constituido por la suma del salario mínimo y bonos que no tienen incidencia en otros beneficios laborales.

La presidenta en funciones ha prometido a los trabajadores un ajuste de sus ingresos antes de fin de año, pero no ha revelado un monto ni ha dicho si contempla un incremento del salario mínimo.

Como ha sido habitual en Venezuela en las últimas dos décadas de gobiernos autoproclamados socialistas, el martes también hubo una marcha organizada por el gobernante Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela que se desarrolló cerca de la protesta de los trabajadores. No se registraron incidentes entre los manifestantes.

La jueza del Tribunal de Distrito de EE.UU. Jacqueline Becerra condenó a Yusiel Lopez Insua a 18 meses de prisión. Lopez Insua se declaró culpable de homicidio involuntario marítimo como parte de un acuerdo con la fiscalía en julio.

Lopez Insua era el capitán de un remolcador de 25 pies que empujaba una barcaza de 108 pies. El 28 de julio de 2025, la barcaza chocó contra un velero y causó la muerte de Mila Yankelevich, de 7 años; Arielle Buchman, de 10, y Erin Ko, de 13.

Los fiscales acusaron a Lopez Insua de usar su teléfono para hacer compras en línea mientras trabajaba y lo imputaron en marzo. Habían recomendado una pena de 12 meses y un día de prisión, seguida de seis meses de arresto domiciliario.

Lopez Insua “no designó a un vigía y estuvo usando el celular mientras la embarcación navegaba. Admitió que su incumplimiento criminal de las normas básicas de seguridad marítima causó este choque mortal”. Así lo dijo el fiscal federal del Distrito Sur de Florida, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, en un comunicado en julio.

En el velero también iban un monitor de campamento de 19 años de la Miami Youth Sailing Foundation y dos niñas del campamento, que sobrevivieron. El choque hundió el velero bajo el casco de la barcaza. Una de las niñas que sobrevivió fue hospitalizada.

El Servicio de Investigaciones de la Guardia Costera de EE.UU. trabajó en el caso. El abogado Walter A. Reynoso representó a Lopez Insua. La jueza Becerra le ordenó entregarse en un plazo de 60 días.

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A recent American Heart Association report warned that one-third of U.S. Hispanic adults report no moderate or vigorous physical activity.

That is the highest rate among all U.S. racial and ethnic groups. Clara Assael was born in Venezuela and lives in Broward County. She plans to be the exception.

“Exercise for me it’s more than the way I look. Exercise for me is about my health and a quality of life. I want to have a strong heart. I want to have energy. And most of all, I want to continue doing the things I love the most as I get older,” said Assael, an exercise trainer.

Dr. Sandra Chaparro, the director of advanced heart failure at the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, said the main risk factors are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, lack of exercise, and lack of sleep.

“In the Hispanic culture, usually we tend to have poor diets, poor access to healthcare, and poor management of the risk factors,” Chaparro said. “All those things contribute to earlier presentation of cardiovascular disease.

Other findings in the American Heart Association report included that 44% of Hispanic adults have high blood pressure. The highest prevalence is among Puerto Ricans and Cubans.

Exercise is just one part of the puzzle. Chaparro said 80% of heart disease risk factors are all about life-style choices. The only things that can’t change are family history and age. Assael encourages everyone to exercise.

“Exercise gives you so much energy,” Assael said. It releases your endorphins. It changes mood. It helps you with stress."

More facts from the American Heart Association:

• Hispanic people represent nearly 1 in 5 of the U.S. population and are the nation’s largest ethnic minority group, yet many continue to face barriers to achieving heart health and accessing high quality healthcare
• Nearly 46% of Hispanic adults have obesity, with the highest rates reported among Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage groups.
• Hispanic adults are diagnosed with heart failure about 8 to 9 years younger than white adults.
• Hispanic adults, on average, experience a first stroke about 6 to 8 years younger — 67 years old compared to 73 to 75 years old among white adults.
• Type 2 diabetes affects 15.5% of Hispanic adults, nearly twice the prevalence among white adults. Prevalence is highest among Mexican and Puerto Rican individuals.
• Dietary quality remains a challenge. Fewer than 2% of Hispanic adults meet recommended sodium intake goals, and fewer than 10% meet recommendations for healthy fats. Increased intake of ultraprocessed foods and sugar sweetened beverages is more commonly observed among U.S.-born Hispanic adults.
• Approximately one-third of Hispanic adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep per night, a factor linked to obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Short sleep duration was most prevalent among individuals of Puerto Rican background.
• About 41% of all Hispanic adults and 66% of older Hispanic adults have low or limited health literacy compared with 9% of white adults. This significantly impacts how they understand medical information and work within healthcare systems to get care.
• Approximately 20% of Hispanic adults remained uninsured in 2023, compared with 6.4% of white adults and 9.8% of Black adults. This creates significant challenges for prevention and treatment.
• Cardiovascular risk factors are highly prevalent among Hispanic adults and often emerge at younger ages and occur more frequently among Hispanic adults compared with white adults.
• Hispanic people remain underrepresented overall in the research that guides prevention and treatment strategies. More detailed data collection and reporting across Hispanic heritage backgrounds will be essential to better understand community-specific risks, strengths and healthcare needs

U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Becerra sentenced Yusiel Lopez Insua to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to a charge of seaman’s manslaughter as part of a plea agreement in July.

Yusiel Lopez Insua was the captain of a 25-foot tugboat that was pushing a 108-foot barge that struck a sailboat on July 28, 2025, and killed 7-year-old Mila Yankelevich, 10-year-old Arielle Buchman, and 13-year-old Erin Ko.

Prosecutors, who accused Lopez Insua of using his phone to shop online while working and charged him in March, had recommended 12 months and one day in prison, followed by six months of house arrest.

Lopez Insua ”failed to assign a lookout and engaged in cellphone activity while underway. He admitted that his criminal failure to follow basic maritime safety rules caused this deadly collision,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement in July.

A 19-year-old Miami Youth Sailing Foundation camp counselor and two campers who were in the sailboat survived the crash, which submerged the sailboat beneath the barge’s hull. One of the girls who survived was hospitalized.

During the sentencing hearing, Becerra compared Lopez Insua’s negligence to driving down Interstate 95 with a blindfold on.

The U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service worked on the case. Attorney Walter A. Reynoso represented Lopez Insua, whom Becerra ordered to surrender in 60 days.

“He is sick with grief and will hold his intense guilt and remorse for the rest of his life,” Reynoso said after the sentencing hearing.

Alberto Sierra’s mother took the stand.

Through a Spanish-language interpreter, Mercedes Pedraza shared with the jury what her son told her after his arrest in the 2012 triple homicide.

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“Mommy, everything is going to be OK. Don’t worry,” Pedraza recalled her son saying. “I gave him a kiss and that was it.”

Sierra, 42, has already confessed to brutally killing Gladys Machado, 29, and her two little girls, 6-year-old Julia Padrino and 3-year-old Daniela Padrino.

Asked whether she would be there for Alberto if he were sentenced to life in prison without parole, Pedraza said, “Sure, but he is my son, and I am not justifying what he did. I am not making up any excuses, but he is my son.”

His defense team, seeking a life sentence, wants the jury to consider aspects of its client’s background, including his struggles with Type 1 diabetes.

“Yes, I do remember he had another hospitalization regarding diabetes,” Pedraza said.

The defense also wants jurors to consider what it says was a life-changing car accident when Sierra was a minor that affected his brain.

“He was more uneasy than he used to be,” Pedraza said.

On cross-examination, lead prosecutor Abbe Rifkin pointed out that Sierra learned English after the accident.

The state, which is seeking the death penalty, raised other points on cross-examination that it wants the jury to consider.

After questioning, Pedraza testified that her son hadn’t done well in school prior to the accident.

Pedraza also testified that she knew her son smoked marijuana.

Sierra teared up as his mother said she could not excuse his actions but that he was her son, showing the most emotion he has displayed in the courtroom to date.

Un informe reciente de la Asociación Americana del Corazón advirtió que un tercio de los adultos hispanos en EE.UU. no hace ninguna actividad física moderada ni intensa.

Es la tasa más alta entre todos los grupos raciales y étnicos del país. Clara Assael nació en Venezuela y vive en el condado de Broward. Ella quiere ser la excepción.

“Para mí, el ejercicio es más que verme bien. Es mi salud y mi calidad de vida. Quiero tener un corazón fuerte, quiero tener energía y, sobre todo, quiero seguir haciendo lo que más me gusta a medida que envejezco”, dijo Assael, que es entrenadora física.

La Dra. Sandra Chaparro, directora de insuficiencia cardíaca avanzada del Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, dijo que los principales factores de riesgo son la obesidad, la hipertensión, la diabetes, el tabaquismo, la falta de ejercicio y la falta de sueño.

“En la cultura hispana, por lo general, tenemos una mala alimentación, poco acceso a la atención médica y un mal control de los factores de riesgo”, dijo Chaparro. “Todo eso hace que las enfermedades cardiovasculares aparezcan más temprano”.

Según el informe de la Asociación Americana del Corazón, el 44% de los adultos hispanos tiene la presión arterial alta. La mayor prevalencia se da entre los puertorriqueños y los cubanos.

El ejercicio es solo una pieza del rompecabezas. Según Chaparro, el 80% de los factores de riesgo de enfermedades del corazón dependen del estilo de vida. Lo único que no se puede cambiar son los antecedentes familiares y la edad. Assael anima a todo el mundo a hacer ejercicio.

“El ejercicio te da muchísima energía”, dijo Assael. “Libera endorfinas, te cambia el ánimo y te ayuda con el estrés”.

Otros datos de la Asociación Americana del Corazón:

• Los hispanos representan casi 1 de cada 5 habitantes de EE.UU. y son la minoría étnica más grande del país. Aun así, muchos siguen enfrentando obstáculos para tener una buena salud cardiovascular y acceder a atención médica de calidad.
• Casi el 46% de los adultos hispanos tiene obesidad. Las tasas más altas se registran entre las personas de origen puertorriqueño y dominicano.
• A los adultos hispanos se les diagnostica insuficiencia cardíaca entre 8 y 9 años antes que a los adultos blancos.
• En promedio, los adultos hispanos sufren su primer derrame cerebral entre 6 y 8 años antes: a los 67 años, frente a los 73 a 75 años en los adultos blancos.
• La diabetes tipo 2 afecta al 15.5% de los adultos hispanos, casi el doble que entre los adultos blancos. La prevalencia es mayor entre las personas de origen mexicano y puertorriqueño.
• La calidad de la alimentación sigue siendo un reto. Menos del 2% de los adultos hispanos cumple con las metas recomendadas de consumo de sodio, y menos del 10% cumple con las recomendaciones de grasas saludables. El mayor consumo de alimentos ultraprocesados y bebidas azucaradas se observa con más frecuencia entre los adultos hispanos nacidos en EE.UU.
• Alrededor de un tercio de los adultos hispanos duerme menos de siete horas por noche, un factor relacionado con la obesidad, la diabetes y la presión arterial alta. Dormir poco es más común entre las personas de origen puertorriqueño.
• Cerca del 41% de todos los adultos hispanos y el 66% de los hispanos de mayor edad tienen un nivel bajo o limitado de conocimientos sobre salud, frente al 9% de los adultos blancos. Esto afecta mucho su capacidad para entender la información médica y para moverse dentro del sistema de salud y recibir atención.
• Alrededor del 20% de los adultos hispanos seguía sin seguro médico en 2023, frente al 6.4% de los adultos blancos y el 9.8% de los adultos negros. Esto dificulta mucho la prevención y el tratamiento.
• Los factores de riesgo cardiovascular son muy comunes entre los adultos hispanos. Suelen aparecer a edades más tempranas y con más frecuencia que en los adultos blancos.
• Los hispanos siguen teniendo poca representación en las investigaciones que orientan las estrategias de prevención y tratamiento. Será esencial recopilar y reportar datos más detallados según los distintos orígenes hispanos. Así se podrán entender mejor los riesgos, las fortalezas y las necesidades de salud de cada comunidad.

La madre de Alberto Sierra subió al estrado.

Mediante un intérprete de español, Mercedes Pedraza le contó al jurado lo que su hijo le dijo tras ser arrestado por el triple homicidio de 2012.

“Mami, todo va a estar bien. No te preocupes”, recordó Pedraza que le dijo su hijo. “Le di un beso y eso fue todo”.

Sierra, de 42 años, ya confesó haber matado brutalmente a Gladys Machado, de 29 años, y a sus dos pequeñas hijas, Julia Padrino, de 6 años, y Daniela Padrino, de 3.

Le preguntaron si estaría al lado de Alberto si lo condenaran a cadena perpetua sin posibilidad de libertad condicional. Pedraza respondió: “Claro, porque es mi hijo. Y no estoy justificando lo que hizo. No estoy buscando excusas, pero es mi hijo”.

Su equipo de defensa busca una condena a cadena perpetua. Quiere que el jurado tome en cuenta aspectos de la vida de su cliente, como sus problemas con la diabetes tipo 1.

“Sí, recuerdo que tuvo otra hospitalización por la diabetes”, dijo Pedraza.

La defensa también quiere que el jurado considere un accidente automovilístico que, según los abogados, le cambió la vida a Sierra cuando era menor de edad y le afectó el cerebro.

“Estaba más inquieto que antes”, dijo Pedraza.

Durante el contrainterrogatorio, la fiscal principal, Abbe Rifkin, señaló que Sierra aprendió inglés después del accidente.

La fiscalía, que pide la pena de muerte, planteó en el contrainterrogatorio otros puntos que quiere que el jurado tome en cuenta.

Al ser interrogada, Pedraza declaró que a su hijo no le iba bien en la escuela antes del accidente.

Pedraza también declaró que sabía que su hijo fumaba marihuana.

Sierra lloró cuando su madre dijo que no podía justificar lo que hizo, pero que era su hijo. Es la mayor emoción que ha mostrado en la sala hasta ahora.

President Donald Trump’s administration had said earlier Tuesday it had asked Guilfoyle to leave her post after she faced severe criticism over allegations she engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.

That revelation came in response to a question to freshly minted White House press secretary Katie Zacharia at her first media briefing Tuesday morning. Zacharia said Guilfoyle “has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”

“She went to Greece. She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading,” Trump said just after Guilfoyle’s resignation, which was posted on her X account. He said he had not spoken to her but “she will not be there.”

Guilfoyle’s departure comes after its possibility was previewed to The Associated Press over the weekend and Trump registered his unhappiness on Monday at reports about her alleged conduct. Those comments came a day after the AP, citing a senior U.S. official, reported that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “extremely pissed off” by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct.

Guilfoyle denies the accusations and cites her ‘decades of public service’

In a series of stories dating to late last month, The Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the Republican administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.

Guilfoyle addressed the accusations directly in her resignation post on X, saying, “These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”

“I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional,” she said. “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”

In a statement released late Sunday, Guilfoyle’s lawyers denied that she had done anything wrong and claimed that the money she was seeking from a Trump donor was payment for services — public appearances and speaking engagements that predate her ambassadorial nomination — that had not been paid.

The lawyers, David Schwartz and Jesse Binnall, also rejected allegations of impropriety related to Guilfoyle’s travel on private planes, saying that before every such trip she “sought, obtained and followed State Department guidance and followed the Department’s travel regulations.”

They did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

The allegations began surfacing weeks ago

After defending Guilfoyle following the first report, Rubio declined to comment publicly on the growing allegations. Last week, Rubio said: “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”

But after another report appeared later, Rubio — speaking Thursday before leaving Athens — berated journalists for asking about the allegations. He said that he didn’t know if they were true and that he would not respond if he could not confirm them.

“You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me. That’s not the way we do things,” Rubio said at the foot of his plane as Guilfoyle, who was there to see him depart, looked on.

A second U.S. official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the State Department’s inspector general was looking into the allegations, which first began surfacing in the Journal late last month and have since multiplied.

The second official could not say if a formal IG probe had begun. Inspectors general often conduct informal inquiries into complaints against staffers, and many times those inquiries do not result in a full-on investigation, which can result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. The State Department has declined to comment on a potential IG investigation.

There was no immediate response to Zacharia’s statement from the Greek government or Cabinet members.

Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, Greek opposition parties had called on the Foreign Ministry to summon Guilfoyle to respond to the allegations made against her. “This, most importantly, is an issue of national dignity,” Sia Anagnostopoulou, a former deputy foreign minister, said in parliament Friday. Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis responded that Guilfoyle had been treated “the same way as every other ambassador” and argued that an official summons had not been necessary.

Hours earlier, Guilfoyle had posted photos of her meeting this week with the Spanish ambassador to Athens as well as birthday wishes for Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, accompanied by Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” from the 2023 soundtrack of the movie “Barbie.”

Greece has taken on an increasingly important and influential role because of its geographic location in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly on energy issues as the war with Iran has spiked global oil prices. Besides the vast number of Greek-registered oil tankers that regularly ply the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, Greece is well positioned to be a pipeline conduit for liquefied natural gas imports into the Balkans and beyond.

As the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Guilfoyle had put an emphasis on energy issues, although her close association with executives in that sector was part of what got her into trouble.

Democrats call for an investigation

The top two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as the ranking member on the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., have already called for an investigation into Guilfoyle.

Since late September, the Journal has detailed numerous accounts of questionable conduct by Guilfoyle. Its first report said that she had told guests at a reception that the United States could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.

While Rubio was in Athens, the Journal reported — citing text messages — that Guilfoyle had asked a Trump donor and supporter to pay a $100,000 credit card bill just before her confirmation hearing, promising him access to administration officials if he did.

The Journal then reported that Guilfoyle had been enraged about not being invited to a Greek-themed event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year and demanded to attend while boasting about luxury travel to France with energy company executives.

Another report, from the British tabloid The Daily Mail, said that Guilfoyle had alienated staff at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and had pushed the bounds of behavior appropriate for the top representative of the U.S. government to Greece.

Guilfoyle is a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was married to Democrat Gavin Newsom when he was San Francisco’s mayor, before he became California’s governor. She later was engaged to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.

___

AP journalists Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Darlene Superville at the White House contributed.

“There’s only one party that has been consistent from the beginning until today about what happened,” Vaccaro’s attorney, Paul Schwiep, told jurors.

Vaccaro filed for divorce in 2025 and later amended her complaint to seek damages, alleging battery, assault, domestic violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They were married for 18 months before the filing.

“In this courtroom, they don’t care how many touchdowns you have,” Schwiep said. “We respectfully request you find for Lakeeta on each count for liability and award her damages that are fair and just.”

Hill’s attorneys disputed the allegations, arguing that Vaccaro had not presented sufficient evidence to support her claims.

“The law requires the greater weight of the evidence, not the greater number of allegations,” Hill’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, told jurors.

Gottlieb also argued that Vaccaro’s financial expectations had not been met, saying, “Her ambition to take his money wasn’t met, so she files this action.”

Vaccaro alleged that she hid in a bathroom during the incident and that Hill grabbed her and forcibly tried to remove her wedding ring. Before the judge could rule on the motion, Vaccaro’s legal team voluntarily withdrew count four.

Dr. Patricia Zapf, a clinical forensic psychologist who testified via Zoom, was the final witness in the trial.

Hill’s estranged wife, Lakeeta Vaccaro, has accused him of abusing her during their 18-month marriage.

Zapf said she interviewed Vaccaro, reviewed information about the couple’s marriage and background, examined police reports and depositions from both Vaccaro and Hill, and conducted psychological testing.

Asked whether Vaccaro suffered from a psychological diagnosis or disorder as a result of her allegations against Hill, Zapf testified: “My opinion is that Mrs. Hill does not meet requirements for diagnostic criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD or any other mental illness. She does not meet diagnostic criteria. I have not diagnosed her with any mental disorder.”

Earlier Tuesday, Hill’s attorneys renewed their request for a directed verdict on a claim related to an alleged incident at Hill’s home in Southwest Ranches.

Vaccaro alleged that she hid in a bathroom during the incident and that Hill grabbed her and forcibly tried to remove her wedding ring.

Hill’s attorneys argued that Vaccaro had not presented sufficient evidence to support the claim. Before the judge could rule on the motion, Vaccaro’s legal team voluntarily withdrew count four.

Vaccaro filed for divorce in 2025 and later amended her complaint to seek damages, alleging abuse during the marriage.

Hill testified last week that he did not abuse his wife. He said he put his hands on her only once, claiming he was restraining her because she was being aggressive toward him.

If jurors find Hill liable, they will also have to determine whether damages should be awarded and, if so, how much. Vaccaro’s attorney suggested damages of approximately $1 million per count, while leaving the final determination to the jury.

As deliberations continue, the outcome will determine whether Hill is held financially liable for any of the claims raised in the lawsuit.

It was the vision of Jim Moran, the founder of JM Family Enterprises, who died in 2007. More than $800,000 has been donated in honor of more than 200 honorees.

On Tuesday night, the ceremony, sponsored by JM Family Enterprises, Southeast Toyota Distributors, and JM Lexus, is at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale.

Here is the list of four honorees and a promising student who will receive a scholarship to Florida State University:

Darius V. Daughtry is the Arts & Culture honoree.

Gordon Eric Knowles is the Business & Entrepreneurship honoree.

Kirk Brown is the Community Service honoree.

Tameka Bradley is the Education honoree.

Samuel Touze is the 2026 Jerome Edmund Gray Youth Achiever.

Wednesday will offer sunshine, scattered clouds and east-northeast winds, sustained 5 to 15 mph. Humidity levels will start to increase. An isolated shower or two is not completely out of the question.

Alexandra Baraga, 29, of Shoreview, Minnesota, entered a no-contest plea in the case.

The judge accepted the agreement, sentencing her to four years in prison and six years of probation.

When the crash happened in April of 2024 near mile marker 87 in Islamorada, investigators said Baraga, then 26, was driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.31% when she hit MCSO Deputy Julian Garcia, also 26, at full speed while he was conducting a traffic stop.

That’s nearly four times the legal limit of 0.08%.

Doctors were forced to amputate Garcia’s leg as a result of the crash.

Video from the scene shows him pinned between two cars.

“I didn’t want, just because I lost a leg, that I can’t live no more,” said Garcia, who refused to let the crash define him.

The young deputy went through extensive rehab and eventually returned to law enforcement.

“People need to realize that distracting driving or driving under the influence, it cannot just affect the person that you hit, but they’re family members and friends,” said Garcia. “It’s obviously changed my life now. I wear a prosthetic above the knee. I can still do things, but I have to find ways to adapt to make it easier for me.”

Deputy Landon Gardner was there when the crash happened.

“You can’t even put it into words really,” he said. “He was back to work in less than, I want to say a year and a half, maybe two years, after losing his leg.”

Garcia credits Gardner and other first responders with helping to save his life.

“This is a very demanding job,” said Gardner. “And to be able to recover from losing your leg, and get back to being a law enforcement officer, it’s just insane to even think about it.”

The Korn Ferry report that was made public Tuesday — a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press — contains a list of six strengths and seven weaknesses which Flores' attorneys say show the league still uses racial stereotypes in hiring and is unlawfully retaliating against the coach for his lawsuit against the league alleging racial discrimination.

The report, which was first published by Front Office Sports, was prepared in connection with the Las Vegas Raiders' coaching vacancy in 2024. Flores is now the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.

“The recently unsealed documents demonstrate two unfortunate, but unsurprising, realities,” attorney Michael J. Willemin wrote in a statement. “First, that Mr. Flores’ decision to hold the league and its teams accountable for systemic race discrimination has been met with unlawful retaliation. Second, discrimination continues to play a significant role in the hiring process for NFL Head Coaches, as evidenced by the fact that the candidate profile prepared for the Raiders leans heavily on racial stereotypes. We and Mr. Flores are committed to eradicating the institutional racism and retaliation that permeates the league, its teams and their partners.”

The NFL didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the strengths listed says Flores is a “polished and a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn (same as Mike Tyson). He was able to build a strong friendship with a billionaire’s son which gave him opportunities to socialize and learn how to build relationships with white-collar and upper-class individuals.”

Brownsville is a predominately Black and Hispanic neighborhood in Brooklyn.

One of the negatives says Flores “can fool you with his polish upwards. Has little people skills, lacks self-awareness and can sometimes exhibit erratic behavior. (Former Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's) statements have opened the narrative that Brian was “pessimistic and adversarial” and his style “shattered his confidence.”

Other negatives listed included that Flores' “personality is unpredictable” and that he “once threatened violence to his GM and made irrational demands during an ownership meeting.”

The report goes on to say that a long-term senior executive said Flores “may have changed since, but he was the worst hiring decision we've ever made.”

The final negative was that the ongoing litigation related to the coach's discrimination case against the NFL could cause a distraction.

Flores, who is Black, sued the league and three teams in February 2022, alleging the league was “rife with racism” regarding its hiring practices when it comes to Black coaches. Flores had recently been fired from his head coaching job with the Miami Dolphins.

He was later joined in the lawsuit by fellow Black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.

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Melody Bryant, also known as James Cody Bryant, of Bellingham, Washington, was charged this month with conspiring to murder people in a foreign country. Investigators said she provided assistance to Jesse Van Rootselaar, who killed eight people and wounded 27 in the mountain community of Tumbler Ridge in February.

Bryant declined to report Van Rootselaar's plans, agreed to distribute a livestream of the attack, provided money and shared advice on how to delete online messages to keep the plot a secret, according to a criminal complaint filed this month in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

At a detention hearing Tuesday, Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler said she did not believe there were any conditions — such as internet restrictions — that could ensure the safety of the community if Bryant were to be released pending trial.

Bryant has not entered a plea, and her public defender, Greg Murphy, said in court he has not yet been provided with evidence needed to evaluate the government's case against her.

Murphy argued for her release pending trial, noting that federal agents first interviewed Bryant just days after the attack and allowed her to remain free in the ensuing seven months.

Even after filing the complaint against her on Oct. 2, the government waited for four days to take her into custody, Murphy noted.

“There is no evidence that suggests any new danger to the communty in the last seven months since the government first interviewed her,” Murphy said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg told the judge that the criminal charge carried a presumption that Bryant would be detained.

“The defendant was, over the course of months, in daily communication with someone who was planning a mass murder event in British Columbia,” Greenberg said. “Bryant chose not to intervene.”

Authorities say Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother at home before attacking a nearby secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, killing five children ages 12 and 13 as well as an educational assistant. Van Rootselaar was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, near the provincial border with Alberta. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from Grades 7 to 12.

The families of victims are suing artificial intelligence company OpenAI in U.S. federal court, seeking to hold the ChatGPT maker responsible for failing to alert police to the shooter’s alarming interactions with the chatbot.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the leading House Republican super PAC, canceled spending in four races from the Midwest to the East Coast and increased its investment in 16 other races from Texas to Pennsylvania. Another super PAC allied with President Donald Trump is cutting back in a battleground district in the Las Vegas area.

The decisions were disclosed by three Republican campaign officials familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private strategy conversations.

Meanwhile, Democrats' House campaign committee is eyeing openings in Republican-held districts and hoping to raise millions of dollars in the next week to fuel a late round of advertising that they say could net at least a half dozen more seats.

The shifting money in the final three weeks of midterm campaigns points to an increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings.

“You can tell now where people are competing based on where they’re putting the money,” said Stu Sandler, a Republican strategist working on House and statewide races this year.

David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club For Growth, said there are only a few places where Republicans could pick up seats this year.

"The economic environment has not been good," he said. “Voters are dissatisfied with their Republican majority and the base is also dissatisfied with that they weren’t able to get the SAVE America Act passed,” referring to Trump's plan for a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill.

“It looked like Republicans were weak,” McIntosh said, “and so you’ve seen a lot of drop-off in enthusiasm.”

Republicans cut back in front-line districts

The Congressional Leadership Fund is no longer spending on advertising in Iowa's 1st District, where three-term Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is defending her seat against Democrat Christina Bohannan.

Bohannan is running for her third time against Miller-Meeks. Last time, the race was decided by only 799 votes, making it the second-closest in the country. It's an eastern Iowa district where congressional cuts to Medicaid have been linked to hospital service closures and high diesel prices have been a challenge for farmers.

Likewise, the officials said the group won't keep spending in New Jersey's 7th District, where second-term Republican Rep. Tom Kean is facing off against Democrat Rebecca Bennett. Kean has been under scrutiny for his four-month absence from Congress, which he left unexplained until disclosing a mental health crisis upon his return. Kean, who won by 5.4 percentage points two years ago, has also faced questions over his support for Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war.

These races, as well as one in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area and one in east-central Michigan, have accounted for $13.3 million in Congressional Leadership Fund spending, more than 12% of its total through Oct. 13.

The group will instead reinforce districts where Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris by narrow margins in 2024.

Safety and Affordability, an offshoot of MAGA Inc., pulled nearly $1 million in ad spending aimed at helping Republican Marty O’Donnell’s campaign in Nevada’s 3rd District. Republicans had hoped that Trump's tax-cut legislation — specifically no taxes on tips — would resonate in Las Vegas and help defeat Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, who voted against the bill.

Sandler said his party needs to turn out voters who usually participate in presidential elections but often stay home in the midterms.

“One thing you can’t say is that they’ve been under-resourced,” he said. “Republican resources are at a high. They’ve never been this well-funded in the midterm.”

Democrats try to scrounge up more money

As House Republicans have retrenched, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee believes at least a dozen more races could be within striking distance. However, they need more money to take advantage.

The committee launched a $17 million fundraising drive, with a deadline of Oct. 22, to pump advertising onto the air in districts that were once seen as out of reach.

“It’s not that we need the money to win in the districts where we have been running to get to 218 seats,” said Courtney Rice, the committee’s communication director. “We’re talking about the next level.”

One is Ohio's 10th, a Dayton-area district represented by 12-term Republican Rep. Mike Turner. Democrats see Turner as beatable despite the former Dayton mayor's durability and 18 percentage-point victory two years ago. Trump carried the district by six percentage points in 2024.

Turner didn't begin advertising until late September, according to AdImpact, later than most competitive House incumbents, and the National Republican Congressional Committee started spending there this week.

If the Democratic committee reaches its goal, it would also start spending in the Miami area, suburban St. Louis, Missouri and the Little Rock, Arkansas, area. They would be able to buy ads in coordination with the campaigns at the lower rate available to candidates, due to a June Supreme Court decision, squeezing more ad time from those dollars.

Nebraska sees surge of spending

Senate Republicans are pouring millions more into Nebraska to protect Sen. Pete Ricketts, the latest sign of how dramatically their spending priorities have shifted from battleground states toward defending seats they once expected to hold comfortably.

Ricketts is facing a challenge from independent Dan Osborn, who is backed by Democrats. Trump won Nebraska by more than 20 percentage points in 2024.

The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate GOP leadership, said Tuesday it was behind a $15 million investment in the state.

Other groups are also pumping money into the race, with the cryptocurrency-backed super PAC Fairshake launching a $7 million advertising campaign, according to AdImpact data.

The group has also increased its investment in Ohio’s Senate race, bringing its total spending there to $45 million in support of Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is up against Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The Nebraska investment follows new spending by the Senate Leadership Fund in Kansas and South Carolina, two other states Trump won by double digits in 2024. All three were absent from the group’s initial $342 million advertising plan in April, which has since been reshaped as Republicans pulled back from Georgia and North Carolina, two states that were central to their original strategy.

Democrats are also shifting their resources. The Senate Democrats’ main spending arm said Tuesday it was pulling its advertising last week from Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has built a substantial fundraising advantage over Republican Rep. Mike Collins, and focusing instead on Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Alaska and Ohio.

The shifting investments come as both parties make their final spending decisions in the battle for Senate control, with Democrats pointing to their candidates and the political environment as potential counterweights to Republican money.

In a letter to fellow senators Tuesday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the battle for control of the chamber “comes down to one defining question.”

“Will the unprecedented tsunami of Republican money defeat the massive Democratic advantage in candidates, policies, and political climate?” Schumer asked.

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According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the shooting happened early Monday morning outside the Pearl Dadeland Apartments at 7440 N. Kendall Drive.

An arrest report states that an MDSO deputy responded to the area just after 3:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a gunshot. A bystander flagged down the deputy “and reported that a group of individuals had been involved in an altercation but left the area minutes before deputies arrived.”

At about the same time, South Miami police reported that the victim arrived at Baptist Health South Miami Hospital with a gunshot wound, deputies said.

The victim would tell deputies that he delivered food to a woman living at the building about an hour before and “engaged in a brief conversation with (her) and took a liking to her,” according to the report.

Deputies said he returned at around 3:25 a.m. “in an attempt to see the (woman) again and possibly obtain her phone number,” but was unsuccessful.

As the man was going back to his car, deputies said the woman’s boyfriend, Khuslen Saruultuya, pulled up in a Chevrolet Corvette.

Deputies said Saruultuya ordered the victim “to lie on the ground” as he pointed a handgun at him.

“The victim complied and laid flat on the ground (and Saruultuya) fired one round, which grazed the victim on his right buttock,” the report states. “While the victim remained on the ground, (Saruultuya) struck him on the back of the head with the buttstock of the handgun, causing a two-inch open wound.”

According to the report, Saruultuya then ordered the man to stand and pointed the gun at his head, telling him, “I am going to kill you.”

The report states that Saruultuya’s girlfriend, witnessing the incident, pleaded with him, yelling, “Babe, please stop!”

The victim told deputies that Saruultuya “chased” him around the Corvette, still pointing the gun at him, as the woman “attempted to hold (Saruultuya) back.”

Authorities said they were able to trace the Corvette’s license plate back to Saruultuya and, after the victim picked him out of a photo lineup, went to his unit at the nearby Palmer Dadeland Apartments to take him into custody.

Deputies said during a “cursory sweep” of his unit at the building, located at 8217 SW 72nd Ave., they found a trove of illegal drugs, including Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone, amphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana.

They said Saruultuya also had 16 pills of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and two bags of the party drug tusi, also known as “pink cocaine.”

“Those are my prescriptions,” Saruultuya said in court on Tuesday, before Judge Mindy Glazer admonished him to not speak about the facts of the case.

Besides attempted murder, the Mongolia-born Saruultuya is now facing a host of other charges, including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and nine felony drug trafficking charges, according to jail records.

As of Tuesday evening, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

In a statement, an Uber spokesperson called the allegations “concerning” and said the platform is “continuing to investigate.”

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, one in seven crashes in Florida involves driver distraction — anything that takes a driver’s eyes, hands or attention away from the road.

More than 300 people died in distracted-driving crashes in Florida last year, according to the state.

One of those deaths occurred in August in Miramar, where a 4-month-old girl died after a crash.

Police said the mother was driving when the baby began crying. As the mother reached back to give her a bottle, her foot pressed on the accelerator, and the vehicle crashed into a tree.

Dr. Claudia Vicencio of Memorial Healthcare System said parents may be dealing with exhaustion and stress when a child begins crying in the car, making it difficult to resist the urge to intervene.

“I think about how that parent probably is on very little sleep, and now you’re in the car and the baby’s crying and every instinct is soothe the baby,” Vicencio said.

Children also may act out because they recognize that their parents cannot give them their full attention while driving, she said.

“I think sometimes it’s like they don’t have our attention,” Vicencio added. “They know that at that moment, we are not looking at them, we can’t look at them, and so that they might escalate trying to get more attention.”

Experts say planning ahead and recognizing signs of stress can help parents manage these situations without taking their attention off the road.

Vicencio recommends acknowledging the emotion before reacting.

“I love to say name it to tame it, and so you know, recognizing, I’m feeling really anxious about being in the car with the baby, and then you can come up with a plan,” she said.

Parents can also talk with their children before getting into the car and find ways to make the ride more comfortable, including adjusting the music to suit their needs.

“So maybe it’s like the soothing music, or maybe it’s having no music,” Vicencio said.

If a child becomes too upset or the driver feels overwhelmed, experts recommend finding a safe place to pull over before addressing the situation.

Officer Brittany Vezina with the Davie Police Department said drivers remain responsible for their vehicles and everyone inside, regardless of what is happening in the back seat.

“When you are driving, period, whether you have somebody in the car or not, you are responsible for that car<’ Vezina said. But then you put your kids in the backseat, and now you’re responsible for what you do with that car and the kids that are in the backseat, and those are your kids, and you want to get from point A to point B as safely as you can.”

Vezina said arriving late is preferable to risking a crash by trying to handle a child’s needs while the vehicle is moving.

“And if that means that you’re a little bit late or you have to pull over so that you can address what’s going on in the back do it,” she said.

Drivers should not treat a red light as an opportunity to turn around or tend to children, Vezina said.

“The red light is not a break time because you don’t want to accidentally lift your foot off of the brake pedal (and) roll into the car in front of you,” she said.

Vezina also stressed the importance of ensuring children remain properly secured in their car seats throughout the trip.

“Unfortunately, if that child is not in a car seat, they become a missile,” she said.

For parents experiencing persistent stress or anxiety, Vicencio recommends seeking professional support if coping strategies are not helping. Parents can speak with their doctor, obstetrician-gynecologist or their child’s pediatrician.

The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline offers free, confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling or texting 1-833-852-6262.

People experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts can also call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Additional postpartum mental health resources are available through Postpartum Support International and the Health Resources and Services Administration’s National Maternal Mental Health Hotline.

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Graphic video obtained by Local 10 News shows the moment the man was struck by a vehicle near Northwest Seventh Avenue and 27th Street shortly before 6 a.m.

According to the Miami Police Department, officers were flagged down regarding a pedestrian who had been struck by a driver in a vehicle.

Police said the victim was crossing the street with an electric scooter while a woman nearby was pulling a bicycle when the crash occurred.

“The victim in this case was crossing the street hauling a scooter, an electric scooter, as he was crossing the street with a female that was also pulling a bicycle,” according to MPD spokesperson Mike Vega.

Miami Fire Rescue medics responded to the scene and transported the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Authorities said the driver is expected to survive but likely suffered multiple broken bones.

Police said the pedestrian was unresponsive but breathing when emergency crews arrived. His identity has not been released at this time.

Police said the pedestrian was crossing the street improperly. However, authorities said the driver could now face a felony charge for leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injuries.

“We always say if you don’t have a driver’s license, if you don’t have registration or insurance, you remain on the scene, you face the consequences for that,” Vega said. “But by leaving the scene of an accident with serious injuries, now you’re facing a felony charge.”

“We’re looking for a sedan or SUV, black or dark, colored, that should have extensive damage to the front windshield,” Vega added.

The circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation.

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

The nation’s highest court on Tuesday denied a request from Andrew D. Parker, an attorney who represented Lake in the lawsuit, to review a lower-court decision over the legal costs arising from the unsuccessful litigation.

The lawsuit by Lake and state lawmaker Mark Finchem sought to ban electronic tabulation devices. It was dismissed by a judge who found Lake and Finchem lacked standing to sue and that their lawsuit was filed too close to the election.

In 2022, Lake lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs and Finchem was defeated in the secretary of state’s race by Democrat Andrian Fontes. Both Republicans had promoted the narrative that the 2020 election was marred by fraud.

Maricopa County had sought sanctions against Lake, Finchem and their lawyers, alleging they broke a court rule by making unfounded allegations and by not conducting the necessary research before filing the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi later concluded the lawsuit’s claims lacked an adequate basis in fact, that the standard inquiry attorneys must make before pressing litigation hadn’t been done and that the lawyers acted recklessly in seeking a court order based on frivolous claims.

The requirement to pay the legal fees applies to the lawyers who pressed the lawsuit, not to Lake and Finchem.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected appeals over the lawsuit’s dismissal and the awarding of the legal fees.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages Tuesday for Parker, whose firm is based in Minneapolis.

Earlier this year, Parker asked the Supreme Court to throw out the requirement to pay Maricopa County’s legal fees in the case, arguing such sanctions would deter attorneys from bringing aggressive or novel legal claims.

Maricopa County said lawyers for Lake and Finchem had disregarded a letter that identified false allegations they had made in their lawsuit and relied on some of those claims in a later court filing. The county’s attorneys said those who brought the lawsuit failed to present evidence to support their allegations and falsely alleged that Arizona didn’t use paper ballots and that its electronic voting systems hadn’t been subjected to expert analysis.

The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden inside a company conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.

The complaint did not identify the company, but the company confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices," reported the finding to the FBI and fired the employee.

“We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated,” the statement said.

The complaint does not detail what Alfozan might have wanted to do with any captured communications, but the company said the device was sophisticated, designed to evade detection and featured advanced encryption and audio monitoring capabilities. OpenAI said it had evidence the employee planned to place other listening devices throughout other parts of the office building for the purpose of recording meetings.

“This alleged attempt by a Saudi national to steal sensitive communications from OpenAI was taken extremely seriously. Theft of intellectual property involving cutting-edge super intelligence technology poses a serious threat to our national security,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X.

Alfozan made his first court appearance Tuesday on a charge of using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. He is due back in court on Oct. 19.

The recording device was found September 30 concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room, according to the complaint.

Though the conference room where the recording device was found did not have a security camera at the time the object was installed, closed-circuit television footage inside the company's offices revealed that Alfozan was near the conference room on nearly a dozen occasions last month despite not having any authority to access the space or participate in meetings there, the complaint says.

The company subsequently added a camera to the room that last week captured Alfozan entering and checking behind the television where the recording device had been installed, according to the FBI.

The complaint also alleges that he used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about the company's building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars.

Days before his arrest last week, the complaint says, Alfozan left behind an unattended bag in a different room that, when opened by OpenAI personnel, was found to contain his wallet, identification and another recording device similar to the one placed in the conference room.

Algunas, como Jacqueline Tapia, se persignaron cuando observaron la estatua hiperrealista de 1.75 metros de altura de Robert Prevost, y le desearon suerte al pontífice en su operación. Otras como Teresa Ramírez, enterada del diagnóstico postoperatorio, le deseó “la mayor suerte del mundo al peruano más querido”.

La cirugía a la que se sometió el papa el martes confirmó que tiene cáncer de pulmón, y por ello se le extirpó el lóbulo inferior del pulmón derecho, informó el Vaticano.

“Apenas me enteré de su cirugía, me puse a orar y quiero que salga bien", dijo Tapia a The Associated Press antes de que se conociera el diagnóstico. “Si debe postergar su viaje un poquito lo seguiremos esperando”, añadió.

Ramírez, de 73 años y quien levaba en una mano tres rosas de color rojo, blanco y amarillo en la plaza de Lima, indicó más tarde: “para venir al Perú hay tiempo todavía, que se haga la santa voluntad del padre celestial”.

“Tiene rostro de persona calmada, sus ojitos dan tranquilidad, pensé que era el papa en persona”, expresó la vendedora de helados Alicia Caso, de 25 años, quien en su niñez vivió en un convento de monjas.

Varios peruanos también expresaron sus dudas sobre si el papa vendría a Sudamérica luego que el domingo Prevost anunció que sería sometido a una operación para extirparse un nódulo pulmonar.

“Si Dios quiere que se postergue su viaje no tengo problemas", dijo Rogelio Vargas, de 80 años, quien miraba la estatua junto a su perro llamado Chester.

Además de la estatua de estilo hiperrealista se han construido otras dos en Perú inspiradas en el papa estadounidense que también tiene la nacionalidad peruana: una está en la ciudad de Chiclayo donde Prevost fue obispo entre 2014-2023 y otra será colocada a fines de octubre en la ciudad portuaria de Callao.

El creador de la estatua hiperrealista es el peruano Walter Huamán quien en dos décadas ha creado más de un centenar de esculturas de diversos personajes, entre ellos Sylvester Stallone, Diego Armando Maradona y otros de la historia local.

Huamán indicó que revisó cientos de fotos de diferentes perfiles de Prevost para poder elaborar la escultura que le ha demorado casi medio año, incluyendo detalles como los zapatos talla 42, el anillo dorado que lleva en el anular derecho e incluso los pequeños lunares de sus manos.

El artista indicó que usó silicona de grado médico en el rostro y las manos de la estatua de Prevost. “Los seres humanos no tenemos un rostro homogeneo, tenemos características, cicatrices, lunares”, comentó.

León XIV, de 71 años, visitará Sudamérica por primera vez en noviembre, en una gira que incluye Uruguay, Argentina y finaliza en Perú.

The league announced the punishment on Tuesday. Chicago visits Atlanta on Sunday and hosts New England on Oct. 22.

The loss of Sweat is a big blow for the Bears as they look to bounce back from Sunday's 31-7 loss at Green Bay. He has two of the team's 12 sacks through five games.

Fellow defensive lineman Shemar Turner replaced Sweat on Chicago's roster. The 23-year-old Turner, a second-round selection in last year's draft, opened the season on the physically unable to perform list while he continued his recovery from a torn ACL.

The 6-foot-6 Sweat was selected by Washington in the first round of the 2019 draft. He played for the team for four-plus seasons before he was traded to Chicago on Oct. 31, 2023.

Sweat has 23 1/2 sacks in 47 games with the Bears, including 10 last season. He has 59 sacks in 114 games overall.

___

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The Cadillac Escalade was on the southbound lanes of East Country Club Drive, between Yacht Club Way and the William Lehman Causeway ramp.

Aventura police officers also responded to the two-vehicle crash at about 10:45 a.m.

Fire rescue personnel reported taking the person injured to a trauma center.

Local 10 News Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez and Assignment Editor Mariana Ortiz contributed to this report.

Photos courtesy of MDFR

Location

El Insituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC), a cargo del reporte oficial, indicó el martes que los aumentos de los precios Estacionales (2,9%), como verduras, y de los precios Regulados (2,3%) —tarifas de gas, electricidad, salud privada— motorizaron el alza del costo de vida respecto al 1,7% registrado en agosto, la más baja en los últimos 14 meses.

En septiembre la variación interanual fue de 33,4% y acumula en el año 23,6%.

Con recortes y disciplina fiscal, Milei llevó la inflación del 300% cuando asumió en 2023 al 31,5% en 2025. Para este año, el mandatario ultraliberal había prometido una inflación mensual de un dígito a partir de agosto.

Sin embargo, la desaceleración de los precios no fue lineal en gran medida como consecuencia de factores externos, como la guerra en Medio Oriente, que impactaron en el costo de los combustibles y la energía.

“El tema de Ormuz no es trivial”, dijo Milei en una entrevista el lunes antes de conocerse el dato de inflación, en referencia al estrecho que es epicentro de la tensión entre Estados Unidos e Irán. “O sea, a usted le sube el precio a la energía, se le contrae la oferta. Al contraerse la oferta, con la misma cantidad de dinero que usted tiene, ¿qué le pasa? Y le sube el nivel de precios”.

Si bien Milei definió como “transitoria” esta dinámica inflacionaria, los analistas proyectan que al menos hasta marzo del año próximo la inflación mensual osilará entre 1,6% y 1,8%.

The new policy, which goes into effect Wednesday, reduces from 30 to 10 the number of days refugees have to challenge the revocation of their status. It is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to restrict and transform a program that has served for decades as a pathway for refugees.

The goal of the new policy, according to the document, is to “mitigate potential risks” associated with people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status.

The policy does not say exactly how many people could be affected, but it specifically refers to refugees admitted during President Joe Biden’s administration, when it says there was an “alarming erosion of the integrity” of the refugee program. Refugee advocates dispute that claim.

The Trump administration is already reviewing the cases of at least 185,000 refugees admitted during the Biden administration who still have pending green card applications.

Welcoming refugees has been a matter of bipartisan consensus in the United States since Congress passed the Refugee Act with overwhelming support in 1980. That law made refugee applications some of the most rigorously scrutinized within the immigration system.

Advocates and refugee resettlement groups condemn the new policy

Some maintain refugees will not have enough time to defend their status under the new policy.

“These families did everything asked of them,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge. “They submitted to interviews, background checks and years of waiting abroad, only setting foot on U.S. soil once government officials approved their applications.”

Now, she said, "the Homeland Security Department wants to revisit those decisions on a 10-day clock, a notice period wholly insufficient to find a lawyer, translate documents or get records out of a country they were forced to flee.”

HIAS, a major refugee aid group, warned that refugees who have fled violence, persecution and displacement will be at risk of being deported to the countries where they could face harm, persecution and torture.

“They are trying to upend the core principle that refugee resettlement represents permanent protection,” said HIAS vice president Naomi Steinberg.

Church World Service (CWS) said refugees will have “no meaningful opportunity” to respond or appeal before their status is terminated.

“This is a policy designed to facilitate the uprooting and expulsion of members of our communities who fled persecution and were promised safety,” Danilo Zak, director of policy at CWS said.

Zach Kahler, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency has found “an alarming erosion of screening and vetting measures” during the Biden administration in order “to rush processing and maximize the number of refugees admitted.”

The Trump administration, he said, is “ensuring that refugee status is reserved only for those who were eligible under the law.”

The refugee program has been transformed

The Trump administration has drastically altered the refugee program and transformed it into a mechanism for resettling white South Africans in the country.

In September, the government announced plans to limit the total number of refugees admitted to the country in 2027 to 17,500, the majority of whom are white South Africans.

During his first administration, Trump slashed the number of refugees approved every year. The Biden administration built it back and set a goal of admitting 125,000 refugees during the final year of his term.

Upon returning to the White House for his second term, Trump immediately suspended the refugee program, stranding people around the world who had been slated to come to the U.S. Later the administration reopened the program and limited it mostly to white South Africans.

The difference between a refugee and an asylee

Refugees are individuals who applied for their status while outside the U.S., often while living in a refugee camp or a transit country. They undergo screening and processing abroad and are approved for and granted refugee status before arriving in the U.S. Once in the U.S. they can request the green card.

A refugee differs from an asylee, although both are individuals fleeing persecution in their home countries.

An asylum seeker submits a request upon arriving at the U.S. border or after already being within U.S. territory. The process can take several years. An asylee is someone who has already been granted asylum while residing in the United States.

“(Cannes director) Thierry Frémaux was like, ‘I love this movie. Who are you?’” says Ambrossi, laughing.

But five months later, there are few in global cinema who aren’t now familiar with Ambrossi and Calvo. The directing pair, known in Spain as Los Javis, have taken the movie world by storm with an audacious queer epic that’s brought them to the center of the Oscar race.

“La Bola Negra,” which Netflix will release in select theaters Friday, is about the interconnected lives of three gay men across a history that spans the early 20th century, the Spanish Civil War and the modern day. “La Bola Negra” tells a story of generational pain and queer legacy with a grand, lyrical melancholy.

After a rapturous response in Cannes, Calvo and Ambrossi were almost instantly catapulted onto the global stage. They shared the festival’s award for best director with Pawel Pawlikowski (“Fatherland”). Netflix emerged victorious in a bidding war. Now, the streamer is giving “La Bola Negra” a 46-day exclusive run in cinemas, the longest ever for the company.

Expectations are high. “La Bola Negra” — a $15 million Spanish film — is expected to challenge “The Odyssey” for best picture.

For Ambrossi, 42, and Calvo, 35, it’s been a head-spinning rise. They went almost straight from a darkened editing suite to the bright lights of the Cannes premiere. Since then, with the help of some therapy, they’ve gotten used to the dramatic shift in their lives. In an interview last month, the pair warmly greeted a reporter and soon fell into considering why “La Bola Negra” has struck such a nerve.

“I hear a lot, ‘It was so poetic.’ Maybe audiences aren’t used to that because movies are supposed to be liked by everyone at the same time,” Ambrossi says. “People are asking themselves: Why was I crying?”

“Every generation needs that big movie that speaks to their desires, their warmth,” says Calvo. “People really connect to that feeling of: Don’t lose your life, just live. Just make the decision you want to make. We only have now.”

From reality TV to international auteurs

Beginning with the sound of a mournful trumpet, “La Bola Negra” (“The Black Ball” in English) opens with the story of Sebastián (played by the Spanish singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente in his screen debut), a musician who, after the bombing of his village, joins the Nationalist army. There, he becomes infatuated with an imprisoned freedom fighter named Rafael (Miguel Bernardeau) recuperating in a military hospital.

But that story is only the spine of a movie that reaches both into the past and into the future. Rafael’s relationship with the (real) poet Federico García Lorca involves their private struggle as gay men in a strictly heterosexual military world — a struggle that includes the preservation of a work about gay identity, dignity and survival begun by Lorca before his assassination by Nationalist forces in 1936.

“It’s a way of honoring our grandparents and our LGBTQ elders,” Calvo says. “They fought for us. They died for us. We were crying on the set every day.”

“We have forgotten them,” adds Ambrossi. “It was not that long ago. My grandmother is 90. It was yesterday, and we have forgotten that.”

Ambrossi and Calvo are far more glamorous than most filmmakers. They both began as actors. Their dark curls and expressive eyes suggest they belong in front of the camera rather than behind it. In Spain, they are celebrities.

They have been judges on the Spanish edition of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” They have been game-show panelists and award-show hosts. And Ambrossi and Calvo's films and TV series have won them a wide range of fans, including Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, both of whom co-star in “La Bola Negra.” Pedro Almodovar, the master Spanish filmmaker, is a producer on the film.

Resolving to remain a tandem after an almost-split

Calvo and Ambrossi were a couple for years until making “La Bola Negra,” an ironic development for a deeply emotional movie about love.

“Every project is a road to the unknown and we know we’re going to be different at the end of the road,” says Calvo. “We faced desire, love and all these complex feelings.”

As they completed the film, the pair split romantically, and decided to go their separate ways professionally. But by the time Ambrossi and Calvo reached Cannes, they reversed course.

“We have been working together forever,” Ambrossi says. “I don’t know what it is to be a director if he’s not there. It’s going to stay that way. We love to work together.”

“It’s natural to wonder what’s next,” says Calvo, nodding. “But we won best director, the two of us. Très chic. It’s like: Yes, we are unstoppable together.”

“La Bola Negra” has already been a box-office smash in Spain, setting records for an independent film. In September, it won the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award, confirming its Oscar status. “La Bola Negra” will soon reach American audiences, and Oscar voters. If the film continues to garner such an emotional response from moviegoers, it could even lead Netflix to the streamer's first best-picture win.

“Netflix understood perfectly that we did a movie for theaters," says Ambrossi. “Even with the round borders of the 35 mm, it is made for that. But they understood and we understood that it’s a movie with a powerful message, and being with Netflix, it’s going to go directly to the people. It’s a movie that could really change consciousness.”

A common compliment “La Bola Negra” receives is that its historical sweep and stylish telling suggest a movie with a much heftier budget. But for Los Javis, this is part of the power of being a duo.

“Being two really helps you,” Ambrossi says. “You can do more with less. He can be rehearsing and I can be thinking about the next day with production design.”

He smiles. “It makes us big.”

The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history.

“When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”

Treasury said Bank of America also reached an $11.6 million settlement with the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control over “apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism."

In a statement, Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed the $1.2 billion penalty for Bank of America's "failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.''

The penalty includes $750 million that will go to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest fine ever imposed by that federal bank regulatory agency.

Treasury said that Bank of America "admits that it willfully violated'' the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to help the government detect and prevent money laundering.

“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,’’ Bank of America said in a statement. “We worked with regulators to reach these penalty resolutions stemming from violations cited in the previously reported 2024 (Comptroller of the Currency) Consent Order and FinCEN’s investigation.

“ We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.’’

The latest action is the third-largest penalty ever issued by the Treasury Department, behind a roughly $4 billion settlement in 2023 with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and an approximately $3 billion settlement with Canada-based TD Bank the following year. Both those historic actions happened as part of the Biden administration’s focus on anti-money laundering and efforts to promote compliance with the then-emerging virtual currency industry.

Months later, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison over charges that he looking the other way as criminals used his platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.

___

Amiri reported from New York.

AP Business Writer Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

HBO announced Tuesday that creator and star Lena Dunham and nearly all of the core cast will return for a limited five-episode run a decade after its finale.

Dunham, now 40, will again play her aspiring writer and sort-of alter-ego Hannah, along with Allison Williams as Marnie, Jemima Kirke as Jessa, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna and Andrew Rannells as Elijah.

Judd Apatow will return as executive producer. The announcement makes no mention of Adam Driver returning.

The show will begin production in 2027, 10 years after the finale of the series that ran for six seasons from 2012-2017 and was nominated for 19 Emmys, winning two.

“We always said we would only return to GIRLS if there was a specific story we were burning to tell,” Dunham said in a statement. “I’ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn’t quite picture them in the present day. Then, right around my fortieth birthday, they started talking to me in the shower. And, as you may remember, once this fivesome starts talking it’s pretty hard to get them to stop.”

The revival is among the first production announcements made by HBO since its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery was taken over by Skydance-owned Paramount.

The show was both a touchstone and a lightning rod for its depiction of a group of millennial young women in New York, with its vocal haters often louder than its many devotees. Affection for it has seen a major surge in the decade since, especially among younger viewers, who see it as aspirational as well as endlessly quotable and meme-able.

In one of its most repeated lines, Hannah, while asking her parents to keep supporting her, tells them “I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice of a generation.”

Dunham has kept making film and television, directing the 2022 movie “Catherine Called Birdy” and co-creating the TV series “Camping” and “Too Much,” but none of it has had nearly the cultural impact of “Girls.” Her screen appearances have been mostly limited to small guest roles.

Williams has had several memorable movie roles especially in horror films including “Get Out” and two “M3GAN” movies.

But while the show was all about the lives of young women, the biggest star it spawned was Driver, who went on to star in a “Star Wars” trilogy and has been nominated for two Oscars.