Democrat David Jolly and his running mate, former Florida Rep. Gwen Graham, were in North Miami speaking with Haitian Americans who want to see Temporary Protected Status restored.

“This governor and this president are not fighting crime in Florida. They’re fighting a community,” Jolly said.

Jolly also addressed concerns about Venezuelans being profiled in Doral.

“Whether there’s a Venezuelan who’s being profiled in Doral. A leader told me last week it’s a hunting field as we’re watching ICE profiling against individuals,” Jolly said.

Meanwhile, in Surfside, Republican candidate Byron Donalds was breaking bread with members of the Jewish community on the third year of remembrance of Oct. 7.

“You can’t forget tragedies like this. You can’t forget them. A lot of them lived here in the United States. They went to Israel to volunteer. That’s why you come,” Donalds said.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, both candidates are working to connect with Florida voters, hoping their messages will resonate when they head to the polls on Nov. 3.

Jolly’s staff told Local 10 he will stay in Miami, with another event planned in the area.

In a wild finish, Jackie Young missed the second of two free throws with six seconds left to give Las Vegas one last chance and Chelsea Gray grabbed the rebound and droved under the basket for a layup attempt. Kiah Stokes blocked the shot and Burton corralled the ball.

Gabby Williams had 20 points and five rebounds and Kayla Thornton scored 16 points as the Valkyries moved one win away from reaching the WNBA Finals in just their second season. Golden State became the first expansion team in league history to make the playoffs in its inaugural season last year.

A shot-clock violation gave Golden State the ball back with 1:01 to play and Burton delivered with her lone basket of the night.

The series now shifts to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Friday with the defending champions trying to stave off elimination. Coach Becky Hammon said before Wednesday's game how important it would be to go home with a split — but the Valkyries have been too good in front of their rocking home crowd and now Hammon's team is on the brink of the season ending without a repeat title.

A’ja Wilson had 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting and seven rebounds for Las Vegas, which trailed 66-55 going into the final 10 minutes and made it interesting down the stretch.

Gray’s jumper with 4:46 to go pulled the Aces to 73-68 then Dana Evans’ 3-pointer made it 74-71 before Gray hit a tying 3 with 2:10 left.

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The Liberty inbounded the ball under the basket, forcing them to go the length of the court, after Angel Reese made two free throws to give the Atlanta Dream a three-point lead with 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime. The broadcast of the game showed that the Liberty had their reset, which is a WNBA rule allowing a team to advance the ball to halfcourt without going back to its bench to huddle.

Breanna Stewart missed a 32-foot attempt and the Dream took a 2-0 lead in the WNBA semifinals with their 101-98 victory.

WNBA rules say that “each team is entitled to one Reset in the final two minutes of the fourth period and one Reset in the last two minutes of any overtime period.”

The Liberty had used both regular timeouts in overtime — they lost a coach's challenge to cost them one — but hadn't used their reset. Yet Stewart said they were told it wasn't available.

“This is not blaming the refs, but when I ask both refs if we have a reset timeout again, and they tell us no, and we leave the game with a reset timeout, it's pretty frustrating,” Stewart said. “Yeah, OK, I kind of got a good look at the end, but we'd just like to have some clarity on that situation as well.”

Stewart clarified that the conversation with the officials happened while Reese was at the line.

“I asked Kevin (referee Kevin Fahy), I said, ‘Do we have a reset timeout?’ And he said, ‘I’m going to check with the table.’ So then he goes to Fatou (referee Fatou Cissoko-Stephens) and she said no. So he told me no," Stewart said. “Of course, who knows what would have happened to end the game, but we would have had hopefully a better shot on goal.”

New York coach Chris DeMarco also confirmed he was told the team did not have a timeout. On the other side, Atlanta coach Karl Smesko was equally surprised.

“I thought they had a timeout left,” Smesko said. “I was expecting it to be advanced, but it wasn't. So we had to play, and fortunately we were able to get the stop.”

The Liberty made an official inquiry with the WNBA. A pool report was expected to provide comments from the crew chief.

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National organizations are pumping money behind candidates that Republicans hope can provide bright spots. Here's a look at places where that cash bump — and prime issues like redistricting, immigration and top-of-the-ticket races — might help the party hold their own on Election Night on Nov. 3.

It still won't be enough, counters Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Aidan Johnson, who says his party remains “firmly on offense and on track to take back” the House majority.

An open New Hampshire seat and Trump PAC spending

The race in the state's first district has no incumbent as Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas runs for Senate against John E. Sununu, a former Republican congressman who served a single term as senator from 2003 to 2009.

Stefany Shaheen, a former Portsmouth city councilor and daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, won a hotly contested Democratic primary. She's facing Anthony DiLorenzo, who was endorsed by Trump and owns several car dealerships.

The seat used to frequently flip between parties, but has remained blue since Pappas first got to Congress in 2019, and the district narrowly supported Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024.

Shaheen has focused on the rising cost of health care and opposing Trump's tariffs and trade wars, which she says have hurt New Hampshire consumers.

DiLorenzo has taken a more moderate stance on immigration than Trump, calling for pro-business reforms to the federal system. But he's also echoed the president's saying that Democrats want to push the U.S. toward outright socialism.

Last year, Republican Jay Ruais, the mayor of the district's largest city of Manchester, was reelected with around 59% of the vote.

Republicans are also looking for a boost from the Senate race. No Going Back Pac has pledged $10 million to back Sununu. The group is associated with MAGA Inc., Trump's behemoth campaign war chest that had more than $400 million in the bank at the end of July.

Top of the ticket could spill also into Long Island race

First-term Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen is facing Republican Jeanine Driscoll, a tax receiver in Hempstead in New York's fourth district, which includes Nassau County and runs east of Manhattan, hugging Long Island's south shore.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is considered an underdog against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statewide race in reliably blue New York. But Blakeman is the Nassau County executive, meaning he may see strong turnout on his home turf and potentially affect Driscoll's chances against Gillen.

In 2024, Trump nearly carried the district after losing it by well over 10 points in 2020.

While Gillen has stressed sometimes working with Republicans to address key issues like the rising cost of living, Driscoll has championed Trump's immigration policies while promising to better shield suburban Long Island from regional and statewide policies she criticizes as government overreach.

Landsman defends redder Ohio territory

Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman 's first district on the westside of Cincinnati backed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 but was redrawn to make it more Republican-leaning ahead of November.

The new boundaries encompass Clinton County and rural western Hamilton County, while reducing the more Democratic-friendly Cincinnati suburbs. It's one of several places with new maps after Trump urged an unusual round of redistricting around the country to help his party keep control of the House.

Landsman, who was first elected to Congress in 2022, is squaring off against Republican former Air Force veteran and CIA officer Eric Conroy.

Like Trump, Conroy spent months suggesting that the war in Iran would reach a swift conclusion. The president now says that won't happen until at least after the midterms.

Landsman has focused on pocketbook issues, including rising utility rates. He's also raised more money than his challenger in recent quarters, which could be an indicator of where the race is headed.

Tax policy spotlighted in a Las Vegas district

Looking to unseat Democratic incumbent Rep. Susie Lee in Nevada's third district is Marty O'Donnell, the composer behind music featured in the wildly popular Halo video game series and the 1990s jingle for Flintstones vitamins: “We are Flintstones kids, 10 million strong and growing.”

O'Donnell even led the crowd in singing a rendition during the midterm convention that Trump led in Dallas.

Lee first won her seat during a Democratic wave in 2018 and survived in 2024 even though her district backed Trump. Nevada relies heavily on the tourism and hospitality industries, and Republicans are touting Trump's legislation to cut taxes on tips and overtime.

Lee and other key Democrats counter that Trump hasn't kept campaign promises to lower costs — especially as the war with Iran has driven up gasoline and diesel prices and renewed fears about high inflation.

There could also be trickle-down effects from Nevada's governor's race. Republican incumbent Gov. Joe Lombardo is a former sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas. He's in what's likely to be a close race with Nevada's attorney general, Democrat Aaron Ford, who previously represented a Las Vegas-area district in the state senate.

Testing immigration messaging in southern New Mexico

Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez narrowly won his seat in 2022. And he narrowly won reelection in 2024 even as Trump carried the district, which stretches from southern and western Albuquerque to encompass the state's entire southern half — including around 180 miles (290 kilometers) of U.S.-Mexico border.

Vasquez has built a political identity around being the son of Mexican immigrants and the first in his family to be born in the U.S. His Republican opponent, Greg Cunningham, is a Marine veteran and onetime undercover police officer, spoke at Trump's midterm convention and has focused on calls for stricter border security and law and order.

Hispanic voters shifted toward Trump in 2024, though a majority still backed Harris. According to AP VoteCast, 43% of Hispanic voters nationally supported Trump, up from 35% in 2020. Vasquez's race with Cunningham may test Trump's continued appeal with Hispanics and whether some voters have become disillusioned with the president’s tougher immigration policies in addition to his handling of the economy.

That was clear when he was introduced for his final home opener.

Ovechkin's sons Sergei and Ilya handled the task of announcing their father onto the ice, and the Russian star received a standing ovation before the Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Wednesday night. The 41-year-old Ovechkin announced earlier this week this would be his final season.

“It was pretty cool moment,” Ovechkin said. “Huge crowd, kids announce my name. It was a special moment.”

The NHL's career leader in goals did not add to his total of 929 on Wednesday. In fact, Ovechkin wasn't even on the ice during an extended period at the end when the Penguins had their goalie pulled. This was the 101st meeting between Ovechkin and Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby, including playoffs. Neither managed a point, only the 11th time that's happened, according to Sportradar.

Crosby actually finished with a minus-4 after being on the ice for all four of Washington's even-strength goals.

The Capitals have assembled a roster with plenty of depth, to the point where Ovechkin no longer needs to play every second of Washington's power-play time.

“I'm not going to say that he doesn't want to be out there,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “But he also is understanding of what we're trying to accomplish as a team, and the great players that he has around him.”

Washington's one power-play goal on the night was scored by Ryan Leonard — from the left circle where Ovechkin so often sets up.

Make no mistake, though. Ovechkin was still the center of attention. When the whole roster was introduced one by one, he was last, with his kids doing the honor.

“I had no idea any of that was happening,” Carbery said. “I think they nailed that moment. Special for I think everybody in the building.”

Ovechkin had two shots on goal, and he was on the ice when Anthony Beauvillier gave Washington a 1-0 lead 23 seconds into the game.

“It's been such an incredible journey. Cool to see his kids down there," said Tom Wilson, who had a goal and two assists for the Caps. “He's a legend in this city, so I think everyone had a big smile. You get chills watching him come out.”

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The FDA gave a court-ordered update on its progress in a legal filing late Wednesday, providing the first substantive information about the controversial reevaluation ordered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000. The agency has repeatedly reaffirmed the pill’s safety and effectiveness over the years, in addition to easing a number of restrictions on the drug, including dropping a requirement that it be dispensed in person.

But since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, anti-abortion groups and their allies in Congress have pushed the administration to revisit the pill, in the hopes of restricting its use.

The FDA said in its filing that it expects to complete a safety study of the pill by mid-December this year. A report on the findings is expected “no later than March 2027,” after which the agency will decide whether to impose new restrictions or other changes on the drug's use.

Gavin Oxley of Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, criticized the move as a lack of “true leadership” by Trump administration officials.

“The administration continues to find itself on the wrong side of women's health, clearly uninterested in mitigating the ongoing harms caused by the abortion pill,” Oxley said.

The two-drug regimen of mifepristone, combined with a second drug misoprostol, is the most common form of abortion in the U.S.

The FDA was directed to provide the latest update by a federal judge in a case brought by the state of Louisiana alleging that mail-delivery of mifepristone undermines the state’s abortion ban. It’s one of several state lawsuits related to mifepristone winding their way through the courts.

Last month a three-judge panel for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the merits of Louisiana’s case, including whether the state had the legal standing to challenge FDA’s oversight of mifepristone.

Any ruling from the 5th Circuit on the Louisiana case would not immediately change the landscape because the Supreme Court has blocked changes to the drug until it sees the case again.

The FDA said Wednesday it is using a “statistical data mining method” to discover “unknown safety concerns,” that may exist with the drug. The data comes from an electronic database that collects reports of medical injuries and drug side effects from major health networks and insurers.

In addition to the safety study, the agency said it is considering a number of petitions proposing changes to how mifepristone is prescribed and distributed.

Abortion opponents have focused most of their efforts on a 2021 decision allowing doctors to prescribe the drug online and send it through the mail during COVID-19. That decision, made permanent under President Joe Biden in 2023, had the effect of undermining a number of state abortion bans, since women can receive the drug through the mail.

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Authorities took Jimmy Alexis, 43, of northwest Miami-Dade, into custody on Tuesday in connection with a June 30, 2023 incident at Gentle Love and Care Group Home in Fort Lauderdale. Its location was redacted from official documents.

Officers said they responded to the facility to conduct a death investigation after rescue crews initially were called in regard to a patient who was unresponsive.

According to Fort Lauderdale police, investigators spoke with Alexis, who told them he had to “restrain him, not choke him” in regard to the patient, who was not publicly identified by police.

Officers later spoke with the owners of the facility, who said the patient was prone to self-harming himself by banging his head on “pretty much anything he could.”

During their investigation, officers also spoke with a staff member who was on duty when the patient was injured and noted that she “was visibly shaken and appeared concerned talking to us.”

Officers said they found that same employee waiting outside when they left, and she indicated she wanted to speak with them away from the facility.

According to official documents, that employee then told the officers that Alexis choked the patient to the point where he became unconscious, and that he did that two times during the night.

After the employee told Alexis not to choke the patient during the first incident, she told officers that she made an audio recording the second time, which she played for them, police said.

In the recording, officers said the victim could be heard moaning.

Additionally, officers asked the employee to make a controlled phone call to Alexis, and during the call, police said Alexis told her “what he is going to tell the police and advises her to say the same thing in her own words” while also cautioning her “not to say things about the logbook because police will want to get a copy” and “not to say anything about the mat that (the victim) was laying on,” ultimately telling her “not to say too many things that would prompt more questions from the police,” according to his arrest form.

In November 2023, a medical examiner ruled the victim’s death as a homicide, though the specific cause of death was redacted from Alexis’ arrest form.

He is facing a charge of aggravated manslaughter for neglect of an elderly disabled adult and as of Wednesday morning was being held at the Broward Main Jail on a $25,000 bond.

After Anthony Volpe's would-be tying homer in the bottom of the sixth inning turned into a double on video review, the Yankees did not get a runner past second base. When leadoff hitter Trent Grisham struck out to end the ninth, it capped a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the AL Division Series and a series sweep that extended the Yankees’ championship drought to 17 years.

After sweeping Boston in the Wild Card Series, New York never led against the Rays and has not advanced past a higher-seeded team in the postseason since 2020.

Without injured slugger Aaron Judge, the Yankees were one-hit and shut out in the opener, when catcher Austin Wells' baserunning blunder loomed large. Game 2 included four errors to get pushed to the brink of elimination.

The Yankees didn't go quietly — at least initially. When Fried gave up a run apiece in the third and fourth innings, the bats responded each time to tie the score.

Victor Mesa Jr. crushed Fried's 80th and final pitch for a go-ahead, two-run home run that was far from a short-porch homer like Ryan Vilade's earlier. It looked like New York would get it right back in a redemption moment for Volpe, but a Jeffrey Maier-esque moment came back to haunt the home team 30 years later.

With rookie George Lombard Jr. on base — and Wells would have been if not for a successful ABS challenge by the Rays — Volpe turned on right-hander Griffin Jax's 95.9 mph sinker and hit it 357 feet to left field. It was a matter of inches as to whether a fan reached over the fence and interfered with the ball or it would have cleared the wall entirely.

Called a home run by the umpires on the field, video review determined the fan did interfere. The replay official scored it an RBI double for Volpe with a run scored, but the run that did not turned out to be the difference.

With the air sucked out of Yankee Stadium, Spencer Jones — who singled and doubled in his first two plate appearances — struck out swinging to end the threat. The eighth started with Paul Goldschmidt reaching on a throwing error and finished with fellow pinch-hitter with Giancarlo Stanton striking out in just his second at-bat of the postseason.

Stanton got chances to swing the bat after strained calf muscles in each of his legs sidelined him since April 24. Judge was not afforded the same opportunity, left off the rosters for the AL Wild Card Series and the ALDS because of his calf injury.

The Yankees hit .130 in the series and were outscored 10-5.

Aaron Boone again fell short of a title in his ninth season as New York's manager, and some fans chanted “Fire Boone!” as they streamed to the exits.

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Ryan Vilade also homered for the Rays, who reached the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2020 and host the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland Guardians in the opener on Monday.

After Mesa's homer gave the Rays a 4-2 lead, Anthony Volpe appeared to hit a two-run shot against Griffin Jax with two outs in the bottom half as a fan reached over the left-field wall and caught the ball over the glove of a leaping Mesa.

A video review determined the ball would not have cleared the fence but would not have been caught by Mesa. Volpe was awarded an RBI double and George Lombard Jr. was allowed to score from first base. Jax recovered to strike out Spencer Jones.

Baseball's adaptation of video technology was key to the inning.

Lombard reached with a one-out walk when a 3-1 pitch called a strike by plate umpire Dan Bellino was ruled inside on an ABS challenge. Austin Wells then walked on full-count changeup but an ABS challenge by Rays catcher Liam Hicks ruled the pitch caught the inside corner for a strikeout, bringing up Volpe.

Quite a change from 1996, when umpires did not have technology to assist and Derek Jeter's homer for the Yankees helped turn around the ALCS opener despite young fan Jeffrey Meier reaching over the right-field wall where Baltimore's Tony Tarasco was set to catch the ball. MLB began using video replay for home run calls in 2008 and allowed challenges to ball/strike decisions starting this year.

Ian Seymour pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, Kevin Kelly struck out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to strand a runner in the eighth and Bryan Baker pitched the ninth for his third save of the series.

Seeking its first World Series title, Tampa Bay celebrated on the field of the big-spending Yankees for the second time in two weeks after clinching the AL East on Sept. 22. New York opened the season with MLB's third-highest payroll at $303 million while the Rays were 26th at $91 million.

Swept in a best-of-five postseason matchup for the first time since the 1980 ALCS against Kansas City, the Yankees ended their 17th straight season without a World Series crown. That equaled their longest drought since winning their first championship in 1923, a gap between titles in 1978 and '96.

Yankees captain Aaron Judge missed the postseason after straining a calf on Sept. 16. The three-time AL MVP played just seven games after May 31 because of a fractured rib and the leg injury, an absence the team couldn't overcome.

New York batted .130 in the series and was outscored 10-5.

After sweeping Boston in the Wild Card Series, New York never led against the Rays and has not advanced past a higher-seeded team in the postseason since 2020.

Jonathan Aranda put the Rays ahead with an RBI single in the third and Ben Rice tied the score against Nick Martinez with a single in the bottom half, his eighth RBI of the postseason.

Vilade, a 27-year-old getting extensive big league playing time this year with his sixth major league organization, hit an opposite-field, 340-foot drive into the right-field short porch in the fourth. The ball, just over the glove of a jumping Jones, would not have been out of any other big league ballpark.

Volpe, starting at second base in place of Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit a 96.6 mph liner off Martinez’s back with two outs in the fourth for an infield single, and Seymour relieved. Jones’ opposite-field double landed beyond Mesa, driving in Volpe.

Junior Caminero singled in the sixth and Mesa sent a sweeper deep into the right-field seats to chase Fried. It was the first home run he allowed to a left-handed hitter since August 2025.

Up next

Tampa Bay gets four days off and will have played just three games in 14 days before starting the ALCS.

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The former MVP and five-time All-Star was overcome with emotion as he tried to explain his role in the Atlanta Braves' exit from the NL Division Series with Thursday night's 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4.

“I feel like I did nothing to help the team this series,” Acuña said through Braves interpreter Franco Garcia. “You know, I’m supposed to be a spark plug for my team out there, and I never lit that fire. And so, extremely disappointed.”

Acuña said his sore knee, on which he had an MRI after Game 3 to check for a potential injury, was not a factor in his performance.

Acuña was 2 for 15 in the series with no home runs and no RBIs. There was a smattering of boos at Truist Park after he grounded out in his final at-bat to finish the night 0 for 3.

“It’s frustrating just because I know the talent that I have,” he said before he sat down and cut off questions.

There was more to the Braves' offensive struggles than just Acuña. Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin, Atlanta's other two top hitters, were just as unproductive. The trio went a combined 5 for 45 (.111) with no homers and one RBI against a Dodgers pitching staff that looks capable of leading the franchise to its third straight World Series title. The three sluggers were 0 for 11 in the clincher.

As a team, the Braves hit .145 in the series and averaged two runs per game, a quiet end to a season in which they won 94 games and the NL East title under first-year manager Walt Weiss.

“Losing is definitely the number one (frustration),” said Baldwin, whose eyes were also red from tears. “(Winning is) the only goal, but just not coming through. I mean, most of it relates back to that. It’s doing what we can to win games and execute that.”

Due to a combination of injuries and scheduling, the Braves were forced to use two bullpen games to start the series at Dodger Stadium, and Atlanta managed to get a split. But with the Braves' top two starting pitchers available at home, the offense dried up. Atlanta scored just two runs in two games.

“The Dodgers have something to do with that,” Weiss said. “They’re going for their third straight world championship for a reason. Their arms just keep coming at you.

“But that’s the postseason. You never know what you’re going to get. It’s very unpredictable. But some guys, you have a lot of unsung heroes a lot of times in the postseason, and sometimes guys struggle. It’s obviously magnified because you’re playing under a microscope. We struggled with runners in scoring position. So did the Dodgers. The games were really tight.”

Austin Riley, who hit a three-run homer to send the Braves to a victory over the Phillies in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, also struggled against the Dodgers' star-studded rotation of Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.

Should the Braves' offense be given a little grace, given who they were facing?

“The competitive side of me is like, no, but you know, they’re tough,” Riley said. “They’re a tough group, they really are. But at the same time, in order to get to where we want to be, we've got to be able put together hits and score runs against those guys.”

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The play was initially called a two-run homer that would have tied the score at 4 with two outs in the sixth inning. But a lengthy video review by Major League Baseball determined a fan reached over the wall to catch the ball as Rays left fielder Victor Mesa Jr. tried in vain for a leaping grab.

Spectator interference became the ruling, and Volpe was awarded an RBI double that scored George Lombard Jr. from first base, trimming Tampa Bay's lead to 4-3 at Yankee Stadium.

There was another slight delay after some fans in left threw debris onto the field, and Spencer Jones then struck out against Griffin Jax to end the inning.

“After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined the spectator interfered with the ball over the field of play. The ball would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught. The call is OVERTURNED, there was spectator interference and no home run. Additionally, the Replay Official scored one run and placed the batter-runner at 2B,” MLB said in a statement from the Replay Center.

Mesa hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer off Max Fried in the top of the sixth to put Tampa Bay ahead.

The AL East champion Rays came in leading the best-of-five series 2-0.

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At issue is an $80 million redevelopment plan that supporters say will transform the waterfront but opponents warn could come at a cost to Biscayne Bay.

David Filler, senior vice president of development for Suntex Marinas, laid out plans for an $80 million makeover of the Rickenbacker Marina and the five-parcel, 75-acre property surrounding the Miami Marine Stadium basin.

“You’re going to see an open-to-the-public baywalk connecting the rowing club and Marine Stadium all the way to the Rusty Pelican,” Filler said.

“This whole area will be open, so you can kayak along this area. You can walk. You can run. You can rollerblade. You can bike. You’ll be able to eat at shops and restaurants,” he said. “It’s going to transform this from a private, basically, facility to a public one on public lands.”

But whether Filler’s vision becomes reality is up to City of Miami voters. Referendum 3 asks them to approve a long-term lease for the private redevelopment of the publicly owned waterfront property.

“It’s all privately funded at no cost to taxpayers,” Filler said.

Opponents question the potential cost to the environment. Friends of Biscayne Bay and the Sierra Club strongly oppose the project, warning it could further damage the bay’s already fragile ecosystem.

“We’re at the tipping point, and the more you shade over seagrass or dredge and silt over seagrass, the more issues we have for manatees, for fish, and for our water quality,” said Laura Reynolds, policy advisor for Friends of Biscayne Bay.

Filler pushed back, saying the redevelopment will actually improve environmental conditions at the site.

“This marina is currently operating as an environmental hazard. It has complete stormwater runoff with toxins going into the bay,” he said.

Ron Schults, CEO of Edgewater Group and the engineer and environmental consultant for the project, said the team has found violations at the marina.

“We’ve actually identified 69 DERM violations over the last 32 years, and the first step will be to fix those things and bring it up to code,” Schults said.

He pointed out what he said were examples of runoff and dirty stormwater at the marina.

“So this is a stormwater pipe that was recently installed. You can see it sheet-drains the whole parking lot, so all the solvents that come off of cars, tire dust, oils, gases, solvents, etc., go directly into the bay,” Schults said.

We checked with DERM, which now says the majority of the violations on that list have been resolved or closed.

DERM said the marina’s pump station is currently under a temporary moratorium, but the facility has not been issued a notice and is operating under its permit conditions.

The marina’s current operator also said every item on the list provided by developers was closed out through DERM’s normal inspection process.

“We just got our marina operator permit with DERM renewed. If we had any open violations or any citations, we would not have renewed our marina operator’s permit from DERM, which we just over a week ago got renewed. We’re in constant contact with every agency, and no one has cited us,” said Aabad Melwani, president of Rickenbacker Marina.

The proposed marina would have up to 202 wet slips, roughly the same number that exists today. But project renderings show slips accommodating much larger vessels. For perspective, the docks are 80 feet long, yet some of the yachts depicted extend well beyond that and are larger than any vessel currently at the marina. Still, Filler said the number of large yachts will be limited.

“The four to five boats that it could possibly handle that are 100 feet are all the way at the very end of the marina,” Filler said.

The renderings in the RFP depict more than four or five large yachts. And the larger the vessel, the deeper its draft, or the amount of hull below the waterline. A 100-foot motor yacht can draw six feet or more. The problem: the waters surrounding Virginia Key are notoriously shallow.

“What that means is increased dredging,” Reynolds said.

Asked whether there will be dredging, Filler said: “The only dredging that would occur, if it’s even necessary, would be what’s called maintenance dredging, where it’s areas of previously dredged areas where you’re cleaning it up.”

But the developers’ own proposal acknowledges a phase two that may require maintenance dredging, with the RFP allowing depths of eight to nine feet. The marina today averages four to five feet.

“It’s a problem for having to dredge deeper. More silt is going to go over top of seagrass,” Reynolds said.

Exactly how much dredging would ultimately be needed, and its potential impact on the bay, would have to be determined by the permitting process. But first, the redevelopment needs voter approval, so City of Miami voters will get the final say.

The ballot question asks whether the city should be authorized to lease about 27.5 acres on Virginia Key for the proposed redevelopment.

If you want the new plan to move forward, you vote yes. If not, you vote no.

Reese scored six of her team's 13 points in overtime. She made two free throws with 4.3 seconds left after Sabrina Ionescu overthrew a pass as Atlanta moved within one win of its first WNBA Finals appearance since 2013.

“I think we did a great job making sure that we were all on the connected stream," Reese said. "We really stayed together and played together, and that's how we won.”

Jordin Canada also scored 23 points and had eight assists for the Dream, who won Game 1 92-82.

Breanna Stewart scored 35 points, including 25 in the first half. She missed a desperation attempt on the final play after the Liberty didn't use their reset to advance the ball, with Stewart saying after the game that officials told them they didn't have one left.

New York hosts Game 3 on Friday.

With the Liberty trailing 86-80 with under two minutes remaining in regulation, Ionescu cut the deficit in half with a deep 3-pointer. An Atlanta shot clock violation with 31 seconds remaining opened the door for the Liberty to get closer, and Stewart hit a quick layup in traffic to make it 86-85.

After New York fouled to extend the game, Reese knocked down both free throws to give the Dream an 88-85 advantage with 14.5 seconds left. Marine Fauthoux knocked down the game-tying 3-pointer with 10.3 seconds to go, boiling the game down to one final Atlanta possession. Rhyne Howard's midrange floater rimmed out just before the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.

“We just had a message that we thought we could be the best team over the last five minutes, let's start off by executing the first couple plays," Dream coach Karl Smesko said. "Everybody was locked in on what those plays were, and they went out there and executed them.”

Atlanta scored the first five points of overtime before New York responded with the next eight, giving the Liberty a 96-93 lead. Canada and Reese scored the next two baskets to flip the advantage again, only for Stewart to respond with one in a pulsating back-and-forth extra period.

Hillmon's layup gave Atlanta the lead for good. The Dream forced a jump ball on New York's first attempt at its final possession, only for the Liberty to win the tip and get another opportunity before Ionescu's wayward pass.

“We're not focused on winning three games straight right now,” Stewart said. “We're focused on winning one game, and that's Friday, and then we go from there. This group has experience. I've been part of some crazy series and I have a lot of confidence in our group.”

The Dream won without leading scorer Allisha Gray, who missed the game with a left hand injury. Izzy Borlase helped soak up her minutes, and the rookie scored 11 points of the bench.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Addressing a rally in San Antonio, Trump renewed his calls for Clemens to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. That's an honor the pitcher known as “The Rocket” has yet to receive because of suspicions he used steroids during a 24-year career that featured time with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros.

“We’re giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said. “And, along with the Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s the highest award bestowed upon anyone.”

The president continued: “He'll be in the Hall of Fame someday, but he deserves it. One of the greatest athletes, and maybe the greatest pitcher, of all time."

He added that the medal “is a big step up from the Hall of Fame.”

Trump has given the medal to various athletes during his two terms in the White House, including golfing legend Tiger Woods, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, famed Yankees closer Mariano Rivera and Lou Holtz, former coach of Notre Dame football.

He's bestowed the same honor on Elvis Presley posthumously and on Rush Limbaugh the year before the conservative radio host died.

Wednesday's surprise revelation came near the end of a Trump speech that lasted more than 100 minutes, and with the crowd having lost some of its enthusiasm. Clemens was attending the event, and the president called him to the stage, where the retired right-hander offered, “Well, I’m stunned.”

“This supersedes anything that obviously I've done in my playing career,” Clemens said. “And to get it from this man, this president, there wouldn’t be another president I’d want to get it from.”

Clemens, who was raised in Houston, said he was honored that the announcement came in Texas and added of Trump: “You’re talking about a winner. That’s a winner right there.”

Clemens, like slugger Barry Bonds and many other stars widely suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, was repeatedly rejected by baseball writers in his bid for the Hall of Fame. There are other avenues where Clemens and others could eventually make it, but the road is not easy.

Clemens isn't the first star baseball player Trump has made a Hall of Fame case for. The president issued a posthumous federal pardon last year for the late Pete Rose, which led to Major League Baseball lifting its ban on the all-time career hits leader.

Trump has called for Rose to be inducted in the Hall of Fame too — also, so far, unsuccessfully.

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Weissert reported from Washington.

Ramírez broke out of his batting slump Wednesday, helping Cleveland avoid a sweep in its AL Division Series against the Chicago White Sox. The seven-time All-Star had two hits, drove in two runs and scored twice during the Guardians' 9-3 victory in Game 3.

“Josy, that’s why he’s one of the best players in the league,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “He can hurt you with the bat, the legs and the glove. He showed all that today.”

The 34-year-old Ramírez also made a diving stop at third on Miguel Vargas’ bases-loaded smash in the sixth inning, preserving Cleveland’s 5-3 advantage.

“After that play, it was, OK, this is our game to win, and that’s what we were able to do,” Ramírez said through a translator.

Ramírez was sidelined for five weeks after he broke a bone in his left hand on a swing against Detroit on June 13. The switch-hitter had surgery before returning on July 22 against Minnesota.

But he hit just .229 with two homers and 20 RBIs in 53 games after the operation. Then he went 0 for 6 with two walks in the first two games of the ALDS against the White Sox.

With the Guardians facing elimination, Ramírez delivered — just as he had so many times before.

“It feels special,” Ramírez said. “You know the type of season I had, but it’s important for us to win any game going forward because for us it’s do or die. So it feels really good. ... But for us, it’s the same mindset going forward.”

The first sign Ramírez was headed for a big night occurred in the first inning, when he hit a 107.9 mph liner that was caught by a diving Randal Grichuk in left field.

“We always know he’s one swing away,” Vogt said. “When he hit that first ball in the first inning ... great play by Grichuk. You knew he was here.”

Ramírez walked and scored on Jo Adell's three-run triple in the third, helping Cleveland take a 4-1 lead.

Playing in his 48th postseason game — all with Cleveland — Ramírez manufactured an insurance run for the Guardians in the fifth. He doubled, stole third and scored on Chase DeLauter’s grounder to second, beating Kyle Teel’s tag with a headfirst slide.

Ramírez’s savvy baserunning gave the Guardians a 5-2 advantage.

“When he got that stolen base at third, that kind of made it a José Ramírez game,” Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan said.

Ramírez popped up leading off the seventh, but he helped Cleveland put it away with a two-run triple with two outs in the eighth. Ramírez clapped his hands in excitement and threw an upper cut with his right arm as he stood on third after the important swing.

“Great game by Ramírez,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Obviously, we know how special a player he is.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

CPA and lifelong Palmetto Bay resident David Singer served on the Village Council for four years. After a six-year break, he is now running for mayor.

“My tagline is experience matters,” Singer said.

One of the first things he says he would tackle is the budget.

“They’ll start with a zero-dollar line item. They won’t take last year’s budget. They will just start with a zero line item, and they will have to justify every expense,” Singer said.

Palmetto Bay mother Tamara Mourino says being a business owner gives her the knowledge and experience to run the village.

If elected mayor, she wants to maximize resources and streamline departments to save money.

“We need to get our team elevated to where they are able to create those efficiencies so we can be more proactive and supportive and reduce our budget instead of increasing,” Mourino said.

Registered nurse Karen Baez-Wallis has served in the medical field for decades, including being part of establishing a trauma center in Palmetto Bay.

“I really want to look out for the single-family home community,” Baez-Wallis said.

As mayor, her goal would be to find a way to bring even more jobs to the area.

“How do we entice businesses to come here so people can not only live and work but also want to invest locally within our local economy?” she said.

Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers won back-to-back games in Atlanta to take the best-of-five matchup 3-1 and advance to the NLCS as they seek to become the first National League team to win three straight World Series.

Pages lined a full-count pitch from Robert Suarez up the middle to drive in Teoscar Hernández, who singled off starter Tyler Mahle, and pinch-runner Tommy Edman for a 3-1 lead. Didier Fuentes walked pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases. Edman ran for De Paula.

It was an uplifting moment for Pages, who had two hits in the series-clinching win. A year ago, he went 4 for 51 (.078) in the postseason and lost his starting job in the outfield as the Dodgers beat Toronto in the World Series.

“I’ve been preparing myself all series for a moment like that, give myself an opportunity, get a good pitch to hit,” Pages said. “And luckily I was able to put a good swing on a pitch.”

Max Muncy's solo shot off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth padded the lead and gave the slugger 19 postseason homers with the Dodgers, extending his franchise record.

Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow, making his first start since Sept. 24, allowed only one hit but walked five batters in 4 2/3 innings. After he issued two walks in the fifth, left-hander Alex Vesia ended the inning on Matt Olson's groundout to second base.

Mahle, a native of Newport Beach, California, who grew up a Dodgers fan, allowed two runs — one earned — in 6 1/3 innings.

Michael Harris II hit Glasnow’s first pitch for a single before stealing second and eventually scoring from third on a wild pitch that bounced off catcher Will Smith’s chest protector.

The Dodgers pulled even in the second with the help of two Atlanta errors. Shohei Ohtani walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Sean Murphy’s errant throw into center field. Muncy’s pop fly into shallow left field was dropped by shortstop Mauricio Dubón for another error, allowing Ohtani to score.

Hitting woes for Braves

The missed opportunity left the Braves with 18 walks in the series, and none scored. Atlanta hitters finished 1 for 23 with runners in scoring position.

“The Dodgers had something to do with that,” manager Walt Weiss said. "They’re going for their third straight world championship for a reason. Their arms just keep coming at you.

“But that’s the postseason. You never know what you’re going to get. It’s very unpredictable.”

Bullpen pecking order restored

Glasnow and four relievers combined to give up just three hits. Tanner Scott pitched a perfect eighth before Edwin Díaz got three quick outs for his second save of the series. It was his second in two nights and evidence he has reclaimed the closer role just in time for the Dodgers’ run at another championship.

“That’s the reason why we got him,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The last two nights, that’s the reason why we acquired a guy like Edwin Díaz. He’s one of the great closers in the game. For him to be pitching his best right now, that’s what you hope for, and I give him a lot of credit.”

Díaz said he had a long season while recovering from elbow surgery and a neck injury.

“I feel great,” he said. “I’m happy what I’m doing right now. I put in a lot of work this season. ... Those things paid off at the end of the day. Last week and a half of the season, I did my job.”

Collision with wall

Hernández crashed into the left-field wall while attempting to catch Ozzie Albies' double off Vesia leading off the sixth. Hernández pointed to his head and neck when talking to an athletic trainer but remained in the game.

Edgardo Henriquez stranded Albies at second. Henriquez allowed one hit in 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Injury report

Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas was held out after leaving Tuesday night’s 3-1 win during an at-bat in the eighth inning with lower back soreness. Roberts said Rojas would not be available off the bench.

Ronald Acuña Jr. started in right field for Atlanta one day after being moved to designated hitter in a late lineup change due to right knee soreness.

Up next

The Dodgers will face Milwaukee or San Diego in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Sri Lanka has been mired in drought for months, leading to severe water shortages that have left reservoirs dry and strained farming communities that depend on seasonal monsoons. Making matters worse, temperatures in many parts of the country have been higher than usual and high humidity has exacerbated the heat stress.

“We feel like we are being hit from every side,” Pushpakumara said. “If there is no water and we have to give up farming, we will have nothing left to live on.”

Climate experts say the lack of rain is likely due in part to a strong El Niño — a natural temporary warming of ocean waters that shifts weather patterns across the globe — combined with warmer temperatures driven partly by human-caused climate change.

Sri Lanka receives rain from two main monsoon systems. The southwest monsoon, which runs roughly from May to September, normally supplies up to 30% of the country’s annual rainfall, but this year there has been little rainfall through late September.

“We cannot say exactly whether it's due to climate change, since we need more evidence. But these kinds of events are increasing in recent years,” said Gayana Krishanthi Hendawitharana, a climate scientist at Sri Lanka’s weather department.

Recent showers have brought some relief to parts of the island. However, climate experts say scattered rain will not be enough to restore reservoirs and groundwater after months of dryness. The country’s 74 reservoirs have hovered around one-third full in recent weeks, resulting in water rationing in many parts of the island.

And it isn't only humans feeling the impact. The drought has also diminished water and food sources for wildlife in the country’s forests. Authorities are using water tankers and underground pipes to replenish watering holes inside some wildlife reserves.

Fields without water and a landscape transformed

In Medirigiriya, one of the most affected areas, rice farming is central to life. Roads run between villages and broad paddy fields, while small vegetable plots sit beside homes. During wetter years, rain fills irrigation tanks, and water stored there is released through the cultivation seasons.

This year, much of that landscape has been transformed.

The ground is dusty and brown. Vegetable gardens that once provided food and income have withered. Across exposed tank beds, cattle search for fodder.

In villages where household wells have failed, residents wait outside their homes with plastic barrels, bottles and jerrycans for water deliveries that are supplied for free by the Sri Lankan government and charities. On a recent day, a truck fitted with a large black tank pulled up along a dirt road, and families gathered around it with their containers.

For Indika Nuwankumara, a father of three, the drought has driven him into huge debt. He said he’s struggling to repay a $1,500 loan he had taken for farming. Without rain for four months, the rice, okra and eggplant he planted across his 8-acre (3.2-hectare) field have failed.

“I made a loss and am now struggling to repay the loan,” he said.

Nuwankumara said the intense heat has also made it harder to work in the fields.

“The daytime heat is unbearable,” he said. “Even using an electric fan inside our houses is not helpful because it blows warm air.”

Wildlife gathers around shrinking pools

The search for water is also playing out inside Sri Lanka’s wildlife reserves such as Yala National Park in southeastern Sri Lanka. Elephants, deer, water buffaloes, crocodiles and many types of birds including peacocks and cranes are among the wildlife that normally frequent watering holes to drink or cool off from the searing heat.

While the Menik River that supplies most of the 1,000-square-kilometer (386-square-mile) park still has flowing water, sections of the park have natural and artificial ponds that the animals drink from. Most of these have dried up. Wildlife officials say animals are suffering dehydration and heat stress.

In the dry landscape on a recent day, spotted deer bent their heads toward muddy pools. Elephants crossed parched ground and stood beside what remained of watering holes. In one area, hoses snaked across dusty earth near a small pool as wildlife workers tried to keep it supplied.

At another site, a tanker backed toward a watering hole and released water onto the baked ground.

Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said temperatures in affected areas have risen above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), drying vegetation and leaving many natural water sources depleted.

Farmers suffer from weather extremes

Back in Medirigiriya, Vidanaarachchige Wimalasuriya said he was able to harvest only six sacks of rice after borrowing money expecting to harvest at least 50 sacks.

“The lack of water and excessive heat destroyed my crop,” he said. “I could not give the plants water when they needed it most.”

He said only last year his home and field had been flooded.

“Now we are facing drought,” he said. “I don’t know what is happening to our weather anymore.”

Hemapala Mallika, a rice farmer in Medirigiriya, said the sparse rain they have received in recent weeks has done little to help.

“The water disappears as quickly as water poured onto hot iron," she said. "Even when we get a small spell of rain, it is not enough to soak the soil.”

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Arasu reported from Bengaluru, India.

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En ese periodo se han registrado más de 60 ataques armados contra vehículos del transporte público y 25 asesinatos de transportistas, según las autoridades.

El anuncio ocurre luego que la desaprobación de Fujimori casi se duplicó en septiembre hasta 48%, mientras su aceptación cayó 15 puntos ubicándose en 42%. Fujimori tenía una popularidad de 57% y una impopularidad de 25% en agosto, según un sondeo nacional de la firma Ipsos Perú. Su gobierno, que empezó el 28 de julio, prometió desde el primer día actuar “con mucha fuerza contra el crimen”.

“Vamos a poner a estos miserables delincuentes a disposición de la justicia y proteger a la sociedad para que sean procesados de acuerdo a ley”, dijo Fujimori desde el cuartel general del Ejército en un discurso ante batallones de militares y policías junto a carros blindados armados con ametralladoras y dos helicópteros MI17.

La oficina del primer ministro indicó en sus redes sociales que el grupo creado tendrá 1.350 integrantes.

La presidenta, vestida con un gorro de béisbol y chaleco color beige, reiteró que ordenará la expulsión “en tiempo récord a los extranjeros que llegaron para romper la ley”, el retorno del control de las cárceles y la incomunicación de los reos que siguan delinquiendo “para que no continúen dirigiendo sus ataques desde las cárceles”.

El anuncio se realiza antes de que Fujimori viaje a El Salvador del 28 al 31 de octubre para reunirse con el presidente de ese país Nayib Bukele. En su campaña electoral Fujimori indicó que iba a enfrentar el crimen siguiendo el modelo de Bukele y que construiría una cárcel similar al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo.

En agosto el gobierno inició su plan "Escudo" para proteger a transportistas en Lima de ataques armados de los extorsionadores que los acribillan delante de sus pasajeros y empezó un estado de excepción restringiendo varios derechos constitucionales para combatir el crimen en Lima, pero esas medidas no han frenado el crimen.

En más de una década otros gobiernos crearon una decena de grupos policiales para enfrentar al crimen. Sin embargo, los delitos siguieron en ascenso. Las denuncias por extorsiones pasaron de 2.421 en 2019 a 26.734 en 2025, mientras que los homicidios aumentaron desde 2.385 casos en 2019 a 3.675 en 2025, según cifras oficiales.

Pike, 50, suffered burns and blisters to her arms and her prognosis remains uncertain after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital, her legal team said Wednesday. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Although other states have moved forward with attempting to execute inmates a second time, in those cases, the first try had been halted before any drug actually began flowing.

Outgoing Republican Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in Tennessee and ordered an outside review of the failed Sept. 30 attempt to put Pike to death. His office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on whether the state would try again to execute her.

Death penalty experts say it's hard to know what will happen if the state decides to move forward with a second attempt.

“Whether or not it would be lawful for the state of Tennessee to attempt to execute her again is a complex question that will take significant time, attention and analysis of her defense team, the prosecution team, the state government in Tennessee and multiple state and federal courts,” said Stephen Johnson, a criminal defense attorney in Tennessee who is president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Mental competency could be a first hurdle

Pike regained consciousness almost six days after the failed attempt to kill her. Her legal team had believed she was brain dead, but after she woke up, she was aware of what happened and was “angry and confused,” her lawyers said Wednesday.

Her attorneys will surely explore the medical and psychiatric impact of receiving two doses of the lethal injection drug and being on a ventilator for several days to determine if she is “now legally competent to even be executed,” Johnson said. That will likely include neuropsychological and forensic psychiatric evaluations and potentially other medical tests, and then there would “undoubtedly be significant litigation” over those issues, which can take years, he said.

Other cases could serve as a guide, but none are quite the same

There have been dozens of troubled executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, including several attempts that did not end in death.

Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith both survived lethal injection attempts in Alabama in 2022. Both argued that a second execution attempt violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment as applied to them individually, which courts found “plausible” in early litigation stages. However, the U.S. Supreme Court did not agree to decide this question, and both were ultimately executed by nitrogen gas in 2024.

Two other inmates, Thomas Creech of Idaho and Tony Carruthers of Tennessee, remain on death row after failed attempts to administer lethal injection drugs.

But Pike's case is distinguishable from others where a second execution attempt was made because she “bore the brunt of lethal drugs,” said Jordan Steiker, co-director of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas. He said other cases involved “the psychological trauma of facing an execution effort” but not “grievous harm.”

A similar case that predates the modern death penalty era

Louisiana executioners tried to put to death 17-year-old Willie Francis in 1946 but called off their efforts after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to kill him.

But he was executed by electrocution the following year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a second execution attempt did not violate double jeopardy under the Fifth Amendment or constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, attributing part of its reasoning to the “malfunction” of the electric chair.

The court notably said, “Accidents happen for which no man is to blame.” But a dissenting justice called the experience of being subjected to a second execution attempt “death by installments.”

It's not clear whether this case would be viewed as controlling precedent because the Court has not revisited this ruling using its modern “evolving standards of decency” approach to the Eighth Amendment, Steiker said.

“So I think the guide today would be whether or not it would be viewed as repulsive according to contemporary community standards to attempt a second execution,” he said.

Complex legal issues

Experts said they are not aware of any state or federal statute that explicitly bars a second execution attempt after a first one fails.

John Mills, a lawyer who represents people facing the death penalty, said a crucial question would be whether a second attempt to execute Pike would amount to torture.

He said federal courts have declined to intervene in “less egregious” cases, but noted that Pike's lawyers had previously warned that her medical conditions could complicate a lethal injection and make it agonizing.

“Facing her death a second time having thought she was going to die and then instead being tortured raises a strong claim that a second attempt to kill her would amount to torture violating the Eighth Amendment," Mills said.

Steiker said he believes Pike's case would be “uncharted territory” if Tennessee moves forward with a second attempt.

“The most obvious way to avoid litigation over this would be for the governor to commute the sentence," he said.

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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Nashville, Tennessee, and Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, contributed reporting.

Paula Colloff's “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast" won for nonfiction, and Elizabeth Acevedo's “Anger Is Only a Shadow” was awarded for young readers' literature.

Each of the three authors receives a $50,000 cash prize.

Colson Whitehead's “Cool Machine,” Douglas Stuart's “John of John” and Patrick Radden Keefe's “London Falling” were among the finalists.

The Kirkus awards, presented by the industry publication Kirkus Reviews, were established in 2014. Previous winners include Whitehead, Joy Williams and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

But Trump's remarks were not focused solely on Paxton.

Speaking to a packed Freeman Coliseum, Trump also pledged to award retired baseball star Roger Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom, restated his support for the death penalty for drug dealers and clarified recent comments in which he talked about the possibility of Iran bombing American cities as part of a recurring riff about how high fuel costs are “a small price to pay” for the war.

“You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country.”

The president's message was interrupted repeatedly by protesters, including by one who appeared to be close to the stage. In all, at least a dozen demonstrators interrupted the president. Some were led away by police.

Trump stepped away from the microphone briefly after one interruption.

“He’s going back home to mom,” Trump said. “But what he doesn’t know is his mom voted for Trump.”

Texas has become an unexpected battleground for Republicans

The Republican Party did not plan to devote so much money and manpower to Texas this midterm season.

Texas is the nation’s most populous reliably Republican state, where Trump won in 2024 by almost 14 percentage points. But with Election Day less than a month away, Trump’s poor approval ratings, the Iran war and soaring gas prices have threatened Republicans in virtually every state.

Wednesday’s appearance marked Trump’s third trip to Texas in less than a month, and party officials have devoted more than $300 million to elections in the state so far.

In a sign of Trump’s poor standing, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not attend the evening rally. A three-term Republican governor who won reelection in 2022 by roughly 11 percentage points, even Abbott has been caught in the turbulent national currents.

He’s locked in a competitive reelection race against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.

Instead of appearing with Trump, Abbott was scheduled to attend the dedication of a hospital about 330 miles away. Democrats seized on the governor’s absence.

“For years, Greg Abbott has never been shy about embracing Donald Trump, calling Trump a ‘great friend’ and championing his agenda every step of the way,” said Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Long. “But now, as Texas families get crushed by record-high prices driven by Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran, suddenly Greg Abbott has somewhere else to be.”

Trump focuses on helping the Senate candidate he endorsed in GOP primary

While the race for governor has drawn a sudden influx of cash from Democrats, the state’s U.S. Senate race has drawn the most attention as Democrats fight for the chamber’s majority. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, but candidate James Talarico’s fundraising, Trump’s low approval rating and nagging concerns about Paxton’s character have put the race squarely in play.

Trump spent most of his remarks focused on the Senate contest, describing Paxton as “perhaps the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”

“He was tough and he was with us all the way,” Trump said of Paxton, whom he endorsed in the state's GOP primary over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. “He’s a fantastic man.”

Trump made no mention of the recently leaked recording of Paxton lamenting the war in Iran and rising fuel prices, while also complaining his campaign was being run by operatives in Washington.

He repeatedly criticized Talarico, including on the death penalty, a point that would appeal to many conservatives in the state that leads the nation in executions.

Trump restated his support for the death penalty for “large scale drug dealers, human traffickers and anyone who kills a police officer,” while acknowledging that Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army major who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, will be executed by firing squad.

The president approved the method of execution earlier this week and suggested that Talarico opposes it.

The Talarico campaign did not immediately respond when asked about the candidate’s position on Hasan’s scheduled execution.

Paxton, invited onstage near the end of the rally, heaped praise on Trump, who stood behind him: “I am so grateful that you’re here."

Trump makes a big announcement, but not about the Senate race

While Trump promoted Paxton briefly at the beginning of his remarks, he spent almost as much time later talking up Clemens, the retired Red Sox and Yankees pitcher who has been denied a spot in Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame due to his alleged involvement with performance-enhancing drugs.

Trump brought him onstage and said he'd be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor — and, Trump said, “a step up” from the Hall of Fame.

Clemens said he was stunned by the honor.

“This supersedes anything that obviously I’ve done in my playing career,” he said, standing alongside Trump. “And to get it from this man, this president. ... You talking about a winner? That’s a winner right there.”

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Peoples reported from New York and Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed.

Stephanie Rodriguez, 29, was scheduled to get married in February when her 80-year-old father, Jaime, was critically injured in a Sept. 7 crash in Coral Springs.

“He always told me how beautiful I would look on my wedding day, and how excited he was to share that first dance with me,” Rodriguez said.

Jaime was rushed to Broward North Hospital and taken to the trauma intensive care unit. Knowing her father’s time was limited, Rodriguez decided to make his wish come true.

On Sept. 9, Rodriguez got married in her father’s hospital room.

“By the power vested in me by the state of Florida, I pronounce you husband and wife,” the officiant said.

Rodriguez said her father was able to move his fingers slightly, which told her he was there and listening.

Video from the wedding shows Rodriguez leaning down and talking to her father. He could not speak, but she said she knew he felt the joy of the moment.

Jaime died two days later, on Sept. 11.

Rodriguez said she recently found a drawing of an altar her father had planned to build for her wedding.

“He was holding on as much as he could, but think about the gift he was given,” Rodriguez said. “His last memories on the earth, this love, joy, hope, and his only daughter married.”

“Even in heartbreak there can be light, and I know he’s proud,” she said. “I know he’s there with me. I know he’s here with me and every step that I take, he’s gonna be with me.”

The wedding took place in the intensive care unit, where getting family members and a wedding cake into the room was a challenge.

Jaime was the sole provider for the family.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Rodriguez and her mother.

Los peloteros y los integrantes del cuerpo técnico del conjunto capitalino lucieron sus tradicionales casacas blancas y azules con el logo de la empresa “A Granel", una firma cubana de capital privado de distribución de combustible.

Además, el Estadio Latinoamericano — la casa de la escuadra en La Habana — tenía en su valla lateral la misma publicidad, constató el miércoles The Associated Press durante un partido de Industriales contra Pinar del Río en la Serie Nacional de Béisbol.

“Me parece una buena idea”, dijo a la AP el mánager de Industriales, Guillermo Carmona, cuando se le consultó sobre el patrocinio a su escuadra. “Se están tomando medidas nuevas, y en el país hay un cambio en muchas políticas… me parece una cosa que va a ayudar” al deporte rey en la isla.

Esta es la primera vez en las 65 ediciones de la serie que un equipo sale a jugar con un sponsor.

Cuba siempre defendió el amateurismo en el deporte, acusando al profesionalismo de mercantilizarlo y especular con el talento de los atletas, pero en la última década las restricciones ya habían comenzado a flexibilizarse con permisos para que algunas figuras jugaran en otros países o participaran de ligas competitivas financieramente.

El viernes, durante un encuentro con medios nacionales, el presidente de la Federación Nacional de Béisbol, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, indicó que el patrocinio particular está contemplado en las nuevas regulaciones del sistema deportivo de la isla, aprobadas el año pasado.

Tanto Carmona como en Pérez Pardo coincidieron en que el auspicio, que no fue a un deportista individual sino a todo el equipo, permitirá mejorar las condiciones de los conjuntos desde implementos necesarios, como bates o uniformes, pasando por la logística como el combustible para transportarlos o la alimentación de los jugadores, hasta mejoras en los campos de juego.

No se conoce el detalle del contrato firmado por Industriales con la empresa A Granel.

Cuba atraviesa una severa crisis económica de un lustro que fue agudizada por un cerco energético y financiero impuesto por Estados Unidos desde enero y que semiparalizó a la isla, impactando fuertemente en todos los sectores de la vida cotidiana, incluyendo el deporte.

Apagones de más de 30 horas, desabastecimiento, afectaciones en la salud pública, cancelación de vuelos, recortes de la jornadas laborales o escolares, son algunas de las consecuencias visibles.

Las autoridades deportivas reconocieron que dada las dificultades económicas que atraviesa el país, en la presente edición la serie de 16 equipos se dividirá en dos zonas —oriente y occidente— para reducir los viajes y el consumo de combustibles debido a la crisis energética. Los ganadores se enfrentarán en la final. El torneo se desarrolla de octubre a diciembre.

El agravamiento de la crisis económica terminó por afectar aún más la situación de los deportistas, mucho de los cuales salieron del país para integrarse a grandes equipos de otros países.

Deportistas y aficionados dijeron a la AP que esperaban que la medida inédita de permitir los patrocinios ayude a mejorar el desarrollo del deporte más importante en la isla y que fue potencia a nivel amateur y olímpico.

“Es importante que se tomara esta acción. Sabemos muy bien la situación que está atravesando el país en que muchas veces no está al alcance del INDER (Instituto Nacional del Deporte y la Recreación) poder darles todo" a los atletas, señaló a la AP Luisa Álvarez, una aficionada de 55 años que dirige una “peña” o club informal de seguidores de los equipos locales, en este caso Industriales, en cada barrio.

Adell's three-run triple gave Cleveland a 4-1 lead in the third inning. Ramírez's three-bagger drove in Travis Bazzana and Patrick Bailey for a 7-3 advantage in the eighth.

“We continued to pile on,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “I think that’s been the difference of the first couple games to today was Game 2, we were able to get a couple runs but weren’t able to add on. But really good job by our guys today.”

The Guardians hit two triples in a postseason game for the first time in franchise history. They became the first major league team to accomplish the feat since the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees.

Adell, Ramírez, Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each had two of the team's 11 hits — a complete turnaround for the AL Central champions after they managed just three runs and seven hits in the first two games of the series combined.

Game 4 is Thursday in Chicago, with the White Sox leading 2-1 in the best-of-five matchup. Once again, they'll try to clinch a postseason series at home for the first time since the 1906 World Series against the Chicago Cubs.

“Today has nothing to do with tomorrow. Nothing," White Sox catcher Kyle Teel said. "We come ready to go like we always do tomorrow.”

Chicago won its first four games in a surprising postseason appearance after going 60-102 last year. It was backed by a frenzied crowd of 40,590 for the franchise's first home playoff game since 2021, but there wasn't much for the fans to cheer in the final innings.

The White Sox struck out 19 times and went 2 for 11 with runners in position. Their bullpen faltered after coming up big during their fast postseason start.

“I think there was some stuff we could have played better, but they played good, too,” left-hander Hagen Smith said. “It’s a good team, and we’ll come back tomorrow and fight.”

Chicago jumped in front on Teel's RBI double off Daniel Espino with one out in the first. But then Espino fanned Chase Meidroth before Foster Griffin struck out Tristan Peters looking, stranding runners on second and third.

Griffin set a franchise record for a reliever with seven strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. The left-hander allowed one run and two hits in his first appearance since Sept. 23.

“Once we got the momentum going on our side, it was tough to stop it,” said Griffin, who came over in a trade with Washington in August.

Cleveland rallied in the third against Bryan Hudson, who entered after Sean Newcomb pitched two scoreless innings.

Bazzana walked and scored on Steven Kwan's one-out single to left. Facing Smith with two down and the bases loaded, Adell grounded a high fastball down the first-base line for a 4-1 lead.

Adell, acquired in an August trade with the Los Angeles Angels, also hit an RBI triple during Cleveland's 4-3 loss in Game 2. He hit one triple during the regular season in each of the last two years.

“It was huge,” Adell said. “Really just proud of how I kind of cleaned that at-bat up.”

Playing in his 48th postseason game — all with Cleveland — Ramírez manufactured an insurance run for the Guardians in the fifth. He doubled, stole third and scored on Chase DeLauter's grounder to second, beating Teel's tag with a headfirst slide.

Ramírez's savvy baserunning gave the Guardians a 5-2 lead. The seven-time All-Star went 0 for 6 with two walks in the first two games of the series.

The 34-year-old Ramírez also made a diving stop on Miguel Vargas' bases-loaded smash in the sixth, preserving Cleveland's 5-3 advantage.

“I felt it was a significant shift in momentum in the game when we were able to make that play,” Ramírez said through a translator. “I felt like this is going to be our game.”

Up next

Parker Messick starts for Cleveland in Game 4. Messick permitted two runs and four hits over 4 1/3 innings in the series opener. The rookie left-hander went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA in 32 starts during the regular season.

Chicago hadn't announced its pitching plans for Game 4. Smith started Game 1 for the White Sox, striking out four in 2 2/3 hitless innings.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Uno de los años de El Niño más fuertes de los que se tenga registro tuvo un inicio tranquilo en los primeros cuatro meses de la temporada de huracanes del Atlántico, pero eso ya no es el caso. Se tiene previsto que la tormenta tropical Isaías, que se formó el miércoles, alcance categoría de huracán el jueves antes de tocar tierra. En caso de que eso suceda, se igualará un récord establecido hace 121 años como el primer huracán de la temporada del Atlántico que se haya formado más tarde, según el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.

Isaías es la novena tormenta con nombre de la temporada del Atlántico. Ninguna de las ocho anteriores se convirtió en huracán. Una temporada de huracanes habitual tiene 14 tormentas con nombre; siete de las cuales se convierten en huracanes y tres alcanzan categoría tres o mayor, con vientos de al menos 177 km/h (110 mph).

“La temporada ha estado completamente muerta — y aun así vamos a tener una tormenta significativa que golpeará el norte del Golfo", explicó el miércoles el experto en huracanes de la Universidad Estatal de Colorado, Phil Klotzbach. "Está por verse qué tanto impacto tendrá”.

El Niño implica un calentamiento natural y temporal de partes del Pacífico ecuatorial, lo que desencadena una serie de fenómenos meteorológicos en buena parte del mundo. Aunque es apenas uno de muchos factores que intervienen en la formación de Isaías, el actual El Niño “sin duda sigue llevando el timón”, afirmó Klotzbach.

Las temperaturas del agua en el Golfo de México están “súper calientes” en este momento y se consideran “combustible de cohete para los huracanes”, añadió. Otro factor que contribuye a su formación es el patrón meteorológico estacional natural en curso que se desplaza por el planeta cada 30 días aproximadamente, llamado Oscilación de Madden-Julian.

Aun así, la actividad general de huracanes en el Atlántico —medida con un indicador que considera el número de tormentas, su intensidad y duración— va camino a ser la más baja desde que comenzaron a llevarse los datos modernos alrededor de 1950, gracias a un El Niño que podría convertirse en el de mayor intensidad en los registros, puntualizó Klotzbach.

¿Por qué se forma una tormenta a estas alturas de la temporada?

Durante El Niño, los vientos superficiales de niveles bajos que soplan hacia el oeste a través del Pacífico se debilitan o, en ocasiones, se invierten. Esto provoca un desplazamiento de la corriente en chorro y contribuye a un calor global sin precedentes, sequías severas, incendios forestales y la reducción de los suministros de agua. El Niño también suele frenar la actividad de huracanes en la cuenca del Atlántico. Cuando se forman sistemas tropicales en el océano Pacífico durante episodios de El Niño, se incrementa la cizalladura del viento en el Caribe, lo que dificulta la formación de tormentas en esa zona.

Pero ahora, la cizalladura del viento en el Golfo de México se ha debilitado un poco en comparación con otras regiones tropicales, por lo que está “un poco más preparado para el desarrollo”, indicó Lindsey Long, meteoróloga del Centro de Predicción Climática de la Oficina Nacional de Administración Oceánica y Atmosférica de Estados Unidos (NOAA, por sus siglas en inglés).

“En realidad no es tan sorprendente que empecemos a ver cierto desarrollo en el Golfo en esta época del año", comentó Long. "Basta una sola tormenta para causar mucha destrucción. Así que no conviene bajar la guardia”.

Otros huracanes en la cuenca del Atlántico durante episodios previos de El Niño

Entre los huracanes más destacados que han golpeado el este de Estados Unidos durante un El Niño figuran Lili en 2002, Iván en 2004 e Idalia en 2023.

El huracán Andrew, la primera tormenta con nombre de la temporada de huracanes del Atlántico en 1992, no se formó hasta agosto. Provocó la muerte de 65 personas y dejó daños por más de 26.000 millones de dólares en Florida, Luisiana y Bahamas. Un El Niño que comenzó el invierno previo continuó durante la primavera y se extendió hasta el verano de 1992.

Cuando Andrew se formó, el mundo estaba transitando hacia una condición neutral en lo que respecta a la importante Oscilación del Sur de El Niño, un fenómeno natural que distorsiona los sistemas meteorológicos en todo el mundo, explicó Long. La condición neutral ocurre cuando el clima se acerca más a los promedios de largo plazo o a lo normal.

¿Ha habido un año sin huracanes en el Atlántico?

Durante la era moderna de satélites, que comenzó a mediados de la década de 1960, nunca se ha registrado un año en el que no se hayan formado huracanes en la cuenca del Atlántico. Y “tampoco parece que vaya a ocurrir este año”, señaló Long.

Antes de la llegada de los satélites, hubo algunos años en los que no se registraron huracanes en el Atlántico, pero algunas tormentas mar adentro podrían haberse pasado por alto y los registros eran menos fiables, indicó.

Desde el inicio de la era satelital, la fecha más tardía en la que se formó el primer huracán del Atlántico fue el 11 de septiembre, tanto en 2002 como en 2013, informó el servicio meteorológico. Se tiene previsto que Isaías rompa esa marca.

La temporada de huracanes del Atlántico de este año ya había establecido un récord por el mayor tiempo transcurrido durante una temporada sin una tormenta que alcanzara vientos de 119 km/h (74 mph) para calificar como huracán —al menos en la era satelital—, dijo Nick Novella, meteorólogo del Centro de Predicción Climática.

¿Hacia dónde se dirige Isaías?

La mayor amenaza de marejada ciclónica y el riesgo inicial de inundaciones repentinas durante las próximas 48 horas se extiende desde la desembocadura del río Mississippi, en el sureste de Luisiana, hasta Yankeetown, Florida, al norte de Tampa.

Se prevén vientos con fuerza de huracán sobre la franja noroeste de Florida, a lo largo de la costa de Alabama y hasta Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Los riesgos de inundaciones repentinas el sábado llegan tan al norte como Memphis, Tennessee, según el servicio meteorológico.

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

Thursday brings the likelihood of more unsettled weather. Showers and storms are expected to develop. Regarding temperatures, lows are forecast in the mid and upper 70s, highs near 90°F.

The proposal for the retreat on Trump’s private golf course in West Palm Beach would comingle the presidency with Trump's business ventures beyond his time in office, and is the the latest example of Trump seeking ways to leave his imprint on the presidency.

“It’s a great idea, and it’ll be used a lot,” Trump said, claiming it was suggested by the United States Secret Service. “It seems that all presidents play golf.”

The plan has already been submitted to local officials. Trump, an avid golfer, rattled off the benefits of the property a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago home during an unrelated event in the Oval Office, noting that it’s close to an airport and has some distance from residential homes and tall buildings, which pose security risks.

He did not mention that the golf course was the site of an unsuccessful attempt on his life in 2024. Trump was playing at the Trump International Golf Club during a break from the campaign trail when a Secret Service agent spotted an armed man in the trees lining the club’s perimeter fence. The man was arrested after a chase and later convicted of trying to kill Trump, and was sentenced to life in prison.

Past presidents have used Camp David, a rustic compound in Maryland, as a weekend retreat and a place to host presidential meetings. Trump has spent less time there, often opting for his own properties, including golf clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia.

Palm Beach County sees what it calls a ‘historic opportunity’

Trump's proposal follows other projects by the lifelong real estate developer to build a White House ballroom, gild the Oval Office, erect a triumphal arch, renovate the Kennedy Center, refurbish the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and rebuild a golf course in East Potomac Park. He has also begun planning a future presidential library in a Miami skyscraper.

In a letter to Palm Beach County commissioners last month, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, an attorney who represents the golf course said Trump is offering to designate it as a “U.S. Presidential Golf Course.”

“Just as Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the Elysée Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County,” Harvey Oyer said in the letter.

Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo said in a statement that local officials are eager to explore what this “historic opportunity” could mean to the community. “This likely would further cement Palm Beach County’s place on the national and international stage for generations to come,” Abruzzo said.

Oyer's letter said the West Palm Beach golf course could be used by current and former presidents, along with visiting foreign heads of state. The Trump Organization owns the golf club but leases the land from the county, which would need to approve any changes.

Under the proposal, the club would pay to build a new presidential lodging and then work with the Secret Service and other agencies to provide free access to the federal government. The retreat would have a separate entrance from the private club, which earned Trump nearly $37 million during his first year back in office, according to his financial disclosure.

“This is a gift that the President would like to share with his successors, the people of America, and his fellow Palm Beach County residents," Oyer wrote. "It should be noted that President Trump will be out of office before this proposed project could be completed so this is a gift to his successors.”

Oyer highlighted past U.S. presidents who turned over land for public use. Dwight Eisenhower donated his Gettysburg Farm in Pennsylvania to the National Park Service, and Franklin D. Roosevelt donated part of his estate in Hyde Park, New York.

Years before it was bought by Trump, Mar-a-Lago itself was proposed as a “Winter White House.”

Businesswoman and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post left the home to the National Park Service when she died in 1973, but the agency returned the home to her estate in 1980 because of high maintenance costs. Trump bought the property in 1985, and it later became his primary residence.

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Binkley reported from Washington.

As it churns in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the storm continues to gain strength.

Isaias is expected to become the 2026 season’s first official hurricane.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 25 counties in the state as Isaias takes aim at the gulf coast.

Florida Task Force units from both Miami Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue are expected to be deployed to the state’s west coast on Thursday.

Local 10’s Jeff Derderian is on his way to Pensacola Beach where he will have live reports on the impact from the storm.

The petition filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court says the 32-year-old Goth and the 40-year-old LaBeouf have been separated since July 2025.

The two met and became a couple while filming “Nymphomaniac: Vol. II” in 2012, and married in 2016. They had previously split and said they were divorcing in 2018, but remained legally married, reunited in 2020 and had a daughter in 2022.

Goth is seeking primary legal and physical custody of the 4-year-old, with visitation rights for LaBeouf. She also asked the court to deny either party spousal support. It was the first marriage for both.

As with most U.S. divorces, irreconcilable differences were cited as the reason for the split.

Representatives for Goth and LaBeouf did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The actor, born Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth in London, most recently appeared as the unfaithful servant Melantho in this summer's “The Odyssey,” and had a dual role in last year's “Frankenstein.” She previously starred in the horror trilogy “X,” “Pearl” and “MaXXXine.”

LaBeouf was a child star on the Disney Channel's “Even Stevens” and in the 2003 film “Holes." He later starred in “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” and director Michael Bay's first three “Transformers” films.

The day before Goth filed for divorce, LaBeouf, for the second time, settled a lawsuit with singer, songwriter and actor FKA Twigs, whom he dated when he was split from Goth.

FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, had alleged in a suit filed in 2020 that LaBeouf emotionally and physically abused her during their relationship that began when she had a supporting role in the semi-autobiographical film “Honey Boy,” which he wrote and starred in.

The two settled the lawsuit and had it dismissed last year, but she sued him again in March, saying nondisclosure provisions in the settlement illegally silenced her under California law.

On Monday, she moved to dismiss the second lawsuit, saying in court documents that LaBeouf had agreed to void those provisions.

In June, LaBeouf was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to punching three people outside a New Orleans bar during Mardi Gras.

FBI agents broke down the front door of Trina Martin’s Atlanta home before dawn on Oct. 18, 2017, stormed into her bedroom and pointed guns at her and her then-boyfriend as her 7-year-old son screamed for his mom from another room.

The agents quickly realized they had the wrong house and left, but Martin and her boyfriend at the time, Toi Cliatt, said they were left traumatized, and they sued the government and the agent. The U.S. Supreme Court revived their lawsuit last year.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the government was shielded from liability under an exception to a federal law that allows lawsuits over wrong-house raids. But the panel reversed a decision that gave the agent immunity.

“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, a reasonable jury could fairly conclude" that the agent had “failed to engage in reasonable efforts to avoid error, and therefore, violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights,” the judges said.

Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Atlanta office, said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.

The FBI team quickly apologized after the raid and left for the right place, with the team leader later saying that his personal GPS device had led him to the wrong address. The FBI was looking for a suspected gang member a few houses away.

Martin and Cliatt's lawsuit accused the agents of assault and battery, false arrest and other violations.

Their attorney, Patrick Jaicomo, said in a phone interview his clients felt good about Wednesday's ruling.

The decision on immunity for the agent was a clear win, but there was also reason to be hopeful about the ruling in favor of the government, he said.

That decision was based on 11th Circuit precedent, and the judges wrote separately to encourage the full appeals court to revisit those earlier decisions. Jaicomo, senior attorney with the nonprofit Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia, said he plans to seek that review, opening up the possibility that his clients could eventually be allowed to take the government to trial as well.

Un mar de manifestantes vestidos de rojo se abrió paso entre dos plazas históricas del centro de Río mientras coreaban consignas y sostenían pancartas que hacían referencia a la soberanía y la democracia en el país sudamericano, las cuales aseguran están bajo amenaza.

“Estamos luchando por Brasil, no por Lula”, afirmó Talita Amaral, de 19 años y estudiante universitaria de ciencias ambientales. Vestía una camiseta amarilla y verde de la selección brasileña de fútbol, la cual suelen usar los simpatizantes de Bolsonaro, y explicó que era un gesto destinado a recuperar los colores nacionales.

“No tenemos tiempo para estar tristes; tenemos que hacer esto, ocupar las calles, enviar mensajes en grupos de WhatsApp para tratar de convencer a la gente”, añadió mientras el cántico “Olé olé olé ola, Lula Lula” resonaba en la plaza Cinelandia.

Ni Flávio Bolsonaro, hijo del expresidente Jair Bolsonaro —quien cumple una pena de 27 años en prisión por intento de golpe de Estado—, ni Lula obtuvieron el domingo pasado más del 50% de los votos que se requiere para llegar a la presidencia, por lo que se enfrentarán en una impredecible segunda vuelta el próximo 25 de octubre.

Pero Flávio Bolsonaro cuenta con al menos dos ventajas: el domingo recibió 2 millones de votos más que Lula, y los candidatos que quedaron en tercer, cuarto y quinto lugar están todos a la derecha del espectro político. Entre los tres reunieron más de 8 millones de votos.

Bolsonaro es objeto de una investigación por corrupción, lavado de dinero y evasión fiscal debido a sus vínculos con el fallido Banco Master, un caso al que muchos de los manifestantes en Río hicieron referencia el miércoles.

Algunos destacaron la gestión de la pandemia de coronavirus durante el mandato de Jair Bolsonaro, periodo en el que se reportó el deceso de más de 700.000 personas a causa de la enfermedad, mientras que otros sostenían pancartas con leyendas como “Brasil no es el patio trasero de nadie” y “No voto por alguien que vende a Brasil”.

Muchos miembros de la izquierda política temen que, de llegar a la presidencia, Flávio Bolsonaro alinee por completo al gobierno brasileño con Estados Unidos debido a la cercanía ideológica de la familia Bolsonaro con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump .

Trump ordenó el año pasado un arancel del 50% sobre productos brasileños e impuso sanciones sobre un juez del Supremo Tribunal Federal de Brasil, refiriéndose al juicio contra Jair Bolsonaro, al que calificó de “cacería de brujas”.

“Si Bolsonaro gana, Brasil se convertirá en una colonia de Estados Unidos”, afirmó João Victor Vieira, un estudiante de literatura de 20 años de edad. Aseguró que Bolsonaro representa una amenaza para minorías como las personas de color, las mujeres y la comunidad LGBTQ+. El padre de Bolsonaro era conocido por sus comentarios homófobos.

Vieira comentó que, aunque al principio se sintió desanimado por los resultados del domingo, ya ha recuperado la esperanza.

“Esta protesta muestra que los movimientos sociales siguen muy vivos”, sostuvo. “Resistiremos”.

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

Un documento de 185 páginas presentado recientemente revela nuevos y preocupantes detalles del caso de Andrew Tate. En él se exponen las pruebas que, según las autoridades británicas, tienen en su contra para extraditarlo al Reino Unido.

Las acusaciones abarcan varios años. Varias mujeres afirman que Tate las violó.

Según el documento, una mujer asegura que en 2015 Tate la violó con violencia. Mientras lo hacía, le dijo: “Te amo, por eso te estoy violando, porque te amo”.

El documento también describe acusaciones de que Tate atraía a mujeres con promesas de romance, pero luego las obligaba a crear pornografía para internet.

Mientras Tate está preso, alguien ha estado publicando en X en su nombre. El miércoles apareció un extraño video que muestra a una pareja feliz. Luego la mujer inventa acusaciones falsas y un hombre parecido a Tate termina en la cárcel.

El autoproclamado misógino enfrenta decenas de cargos, entre ellos violación, trata de personas, creación de imágenes indecentes de un menor y posesión de pornografía extrema. El documento lo acusa de poseer pornografía extrema con un caballo y una anguila.

Tate se ha pronunciado en el pasado sobre la investigación penal.

“El Estado británico me ha acusado de un delito. Dicen que hace 15 años hice algo que no debía hacer y que soy un criminal”, dijo Tate.

Su abogado, Joseph McBride, le dijo a Local 10 en julio que los hermanos Tate son inocentes.

“Cuando pones a hombres inocentes, o a cualquier hombre, en confinamiento solitario, empiezan a deteriorarse”, dijo McBride.

La semana pasada, un juez le pidió al abogado de los hermanos Tate que propusiera fechas para las audiencias finales de extradición. Todavía no se ha fijado una fecha.

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The Davie Police Department, with assistance from Fort Lauderdale police, Sunrise police, the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Plantation Police Department’s SWAT team, served the warrant around 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at the home near the 5000 block of Southwest 136th Ave., according to Miami police.

Police said the warrant was for Braveone Jones, who was located at Redd’s home and taken into custody. Jail records show Jones is facing two counts of second-degree attempted murder in connection with the Sept. 15 shooting at Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen, located at 316 NW 24th St. in Miami.

The investigation remains ongoing, police said.

A Local 10 News crew went to the property, but there was no police activity at Redd’s home Wednesday morning.

What happened in the September shooting?

Two men were wounded in the shooting outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen shortly after midnight Sept. 15, authorities confirmed.

Miami Fire Rescue officials said the victims, an 18 and 23-year-old man, were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in stable condition after suffering gunshot wounds.

The restaurant is across from the Wynwood 25 apartment building in an area known for its restaurants, shops and nightlife.

Miami police said they received multiple emergency calls and found one man suffering from a gunshot wound outside Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen. Officers said they later found a second victim outside Skinny Louie’s, the restaurant next door.

An employee at a nearby business described the chaos after the gunfire and said he helped a wounded man.

“I seen a crowd of people just running straight towards us,” the employee said at the time. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

The employee said people inside the business were told there had been gunfire outside. He later found a wounded man and helped provide first aid.

“I came outside and I seen a gentleman on the floor,” he said, describing a gunshot wound to the man’s right buttocks. He said he used his belt to help apply pressure and told the injured man not to move.

As of Wednesday morning, Jones was being held at the Broward County Main Jail, where his bond was not immediately set.

Police have not said whether the suspect and Redd are connected, and the motive for the shooting remains unclear.

His estranged wife, Keeta Vaccaro, was back on the witness stand, where she made allegations of domestic violence against Hill.

Much of the day was spent on Vaccaro’s recollection of specific moments where she said she was abused by Hill.

The case centers on Vaccaro’s allegations that Hill physically and emotionally abused her when they were dating, and during their marriage.

She is seeking damages for injuries she says were caused by Hill.

However, Hill has adamantly denied those allegations.

So far, one of the most shocking moments in court was a baby monitor video that Vaccaro said captured the turbulent nature of her relationship with Hill.

In the video, you can hear both of them screaming, loud banging and yelling profanities while their newborn baby was sleeping.

At one point, Hill appeared to take the baby with him.

Vaccaro described the video during Wednesday’s hearing.

“Mr. Hill was angry that day, put his hands on me that day,” she said.

She went on to say that Hill attempted to take the ring off her finger, shouted he wanted a divorce and that he wanted her to move out while also pushing her on a bed and throwing items around the room before charging at her and wrestling with her.

Jurors were also shown new photos taken in a hotel room following a fight which Vaccaro said involved Hill.

A therapist who treated Vaccaro later testified remotely, and Vaccaro’s brother also testified.

He said he noticed changes in his sister and described a phone call where he says Vaccaro claimed Hill threw ash or part of a blunt into her eye.

At some point, Hill is expected to take the stand to recall what he believes happened.

This case is expected to go on for another nine days.

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According to an arrest report from the Hialeah Police Department, the boyfriend of Officer Marcia Sangronis flagged officers down Tuesday morning to report that he had been physically abused.

The HPD report states that the victim told officers that Sangronis, 38, becomes “angry and violent” whenever discussing “his lack of motivation to pursue a career in law enforcement.”

According to the report, he had stayed the night at her home and she brought up the topic the night before the incident and she brought it up again when she woke up the next day.

The report states that he decided to leave at around 11 a.m. and told her he wanted to break up with her, after which she “became upset and stood in front of the doorway to prevent him from exiting the residence” and told him “you are not allowed to leave” as he tried reaching for the doorknob.

“The victim attempted again to reach for the doorknob to leave when (Sangronis) started to attack him. The victim said she scratched him multiple times on his arms, face and back with her nails,” the report states. “The victim said she bit him multiple times as well on his left forearm. The victim said he was able to get away from (Sangronis) and leave her residence. The victim said (she) has been physically and emotionally abusive in the two years that they have been together.”

Police said they documented several injuries on the man’s “body, arms and face.”

A statement Sangronis made to police was redacted from the report.

She was initially arrested on a charge of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a second-degree felony, but in court on Wednesday, a judge found probable cause for misdemeanor battery, giving her a $1,000 bond.

She was ordered to stay away from the victim.

Records show she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Social media posts indicate that she has been with the North Bay Village Police Department for about a year.

The agency released a statement about Sangronis’ arrest on Wednesday afternoon, saying in part that she “has been relieved of duty with pay per our agency’s protocols.”

The statement went on to say that NBVPD “holds all its personnel to the highest standards of conduct and fully accountable for their actions on and off duty.”

Local 10 News also contacted her attorney seeking comment.

Students and graduates of Lincoln University in the state’s capital of Jefferson City allege the lack of financial resources undercut their education and devalued their degrees.

More than a dozen other states are in the crosshairs of a newly formed group called the 1890 Project.

“It is very unfortunate that we still live in a climate where, depending on the color of one’s skin, one gets precedence over the other,” said Lincoln graduate Jeanneth Johnson, a 54-year-old from the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The University of Missouri system and the governor’s office both said in written statements that they couldn’t comment on pending litigation.

HBCUs missed out on money

Back in 2023, the administration of then-President Joe Biden found HBCUs in 16 states had missed out on $12.6 billion in funding over the last three decades. The finding and an ensuing call for the governors in those states to boost spending came one year after members of Congress also raised concerns.

At issue is the funding of land-grant universities. The first batch was established in 1862 under the Morrill Act, which gave public lands to states to pay for colleges that focused on educating students in practical fields like agriculture and engineering.

It was a departure from traditional colleges at the time, which focused mostly on classical subjects for the elite, such as Latin, Greek, philosophy and theology. But the law’s namesake, Justin Smith Morrill, a senator from Vermont, believed higher education should be accessible to all social classes.

In the wake of the Civil War, Morrill, an abolitionist, called for an update to the act. Passed in 1890, the new law required states either to open their land grants to students of all races or establish separate land grant schools for Black students.

Missouri, a border state that allowed slavery but fought with the Union during the Civil War, wasn’t about to open its flagship University of Missouri campus in Columbia to Black students. To meet the new requirement, it looked toward what was then called Lincoln Institute, which a Black Union Army unit started at the end of the war by pooling their wages.

Seventeen other mostly former Confederate states and border states established 18 other land grant schools for Black students. They included Tuskegee University, the only private 1890 land grant.

Federal law requires an equitable distribution of state funding for all of a state's land-grant universities — whether HBCU or otherwise — based on each college's number of full-time staff and students. But the 2023 Biden administration analysis found that only two states funded traditional and HBCU land-grants equitably — Delaware and Ohio. Lincoln University alone was underfunded by $361 million from 1987 through 2020, the newly filed lawsuit says, citing federal numbers.

Today, Lincoln’s enrollment has fallen to around 2,200 students, down from around 3,400 in 2011 and just a fraction of the approximately 32,000 enrolled on the University of Missouri’s Columbia campus, which was roiled by protests in 2015 over racial injustice, leading to the resignation of two top administrators.

“We’re not saying they should be funded equally, but they should be funded on parity,” said Don Calloway, a former Missouri state lawmaker who leads the 1890 Project. “And the feds funded Lincoln with the proper parity. The problem is that the state made an intentional choice not to match the federal appropriation. And that’s where Lincoln really was cheated.”

He blames millions in deferred maintenance on some of Lincoln's enrollment woes.

Calloway said he also is talking to state’s attorneys general in several other states, including Virginia, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. Over the decades, lawsuits also have been filed in several of those states over underfunding of HBCUs, including one in Maryland that led to a $577 million settlement.

Missouri is the first legal target

But those lawsuits mostly focused on state-level funding disparities between all HBCUs and non-HBCUs. There are dozens of HBCUs that aren't 1890s land grants, often started by nonprofits and religious groups. Calloway said his legal strategy is focused just on the 1890s schools.

“We expect to negotiate and/or litigate in multiple jurisdictions over the next year," he said. “Missouri is the first.”

Herbert Kitchen, a plaintiff whose great-great-grandfather, Caleb Lindsey, was one of the soldiers whose pay founded Lincoln, recalled his residence hall frequently was without heat and hot water when he was a student at Lincoln in the 1980s. Rumors were swirling that the school might close, and he said some employers looked at his degree as “second rate.”

Kitchen, a retired California community college administrator, thinks of his great-great grandfather as he fights for Lincoln, a school generations of his family have attended.

“I am," he said, “the hope and dream that my great-grandfather had when he was a slave.”

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

Miller was put back on the Padres' roster for Game 4 of the NL Division Series against Milwaukee, and he joined his teammates for warmups on the field three hours before the first pitch. Miller said his wife, Jordan, delivered their son Tuesday night during the Padres' Game 3 victory over Milwaukee.

“I was just so happy to be there,” Miller said.

The Padres are also hopeful that top setup man Adrian Morejon will be available for Game 4 after he was ruled out of Game 3 with shoulder discomfort, manager Craig Stammen said.

San Diego is facing elimination for the second straight night at Petco Park against the Brewers, who lead the best-of-five series 2-1. Walker Buehler is starting Game 4 for the Padres after missing the first two games of this series on the paternity list.

The Padres put Miller on the paternity list about 45 minutes before the first pitch of Game 3, but San Diego eked out a 4-3 victory with 4 2/3 gritty innings of one-run relief from four pitchers behind starter Nick Pivetta. Game 2 starter Michael King stepped up to pitch the final two innings on one day of rest, earning his first save since 2023.

Rather than worrying about the Padres, Miller was so locked in at the hospital that he declined an offer to turn on the television in the delivery room.

“I said, ‘No, I can’t do that,’” Miller said with a smile. “Adrenaline was going pretty hard. Everything went really well, and then right when we got everybody settled, got Jordan in bed with the baby, they said, ‘The Padres won.’ It was pretty amazing.”

Miller was an elite closer throughout his first full season with the Padres, racking up 38 saves in 41 opportunities with a 0.90 WHIP and 129 strikeouts in just 70 innings — but he blew a six-out save attempt in Game 2 of the NLDS in Milwaukee.

Miller walked the bases loaded before giving up Jackson Chourio's two-out, two-strike, two-run single to end the Brewers' 4-3 win on Miller's 40th pitch. Both teams dismissed widespread postgame speculation that Miller had been tipping his pitches.

Miller had been hoping that his son would be born on an off day, but he emerged from his baseball absence with a new perspective.

“Obviously, Game 2 (was) not what I had hoped for or planned on,” Miller said. “Going from that feeling, kind of feeling like you're not really contributing a whole lot, to now being a dad and wanting to be there for my wife, I think it's moments like that that give you the perspective (on) what's important, that keep you grounded to want to go out and do the best that you can every single day. You get those moments to center yourself and then try to come back and be the best version of yourself.”

The Padres have relied on Miller and his 104 mph fastball all season long while winning 91 games and earning the NL's first wild card spot. Miller earned the save in San Diego's clinching victory over the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series last week.

Morejon's absence was also taxing on the Padres' bullpen after he developed “stickiness” in his shoulder earlier in the series, leading the club to decide he shouldn't attempt to pitch in Game 3. The Padres will evaluate Morejon before Game 4 to see if he feels good enough to pitch.

“He was feeling a little bit better postgame last night,” Stammen said Wednesday. “So we’re hopeful today that he’ll be available.”

The Padres are hoping for a strong start from Buehler, who hasn't pitched since Sept. 26. The two-time World Series champion has a career 3.04 ERA over 19 postseason appearances — and in his most recent playoff outing, he secured the save in the Dodgers' championship-clinching victory over the Yankees in 2024.

Stammen said the Padres were fully supportive of Buehler and Miller with their growing families.

“Everybody has a different situation, a different way of looking at it, a different expectation,” Stammen said. “There’s always health implications that go with it, and the No. 1 thing is you want a healthy baby and you want Mom and Dad to enjoy it. I think we’ve been able to accomplish that with the two births we’ve had here in October.”

Stammen even claimed that King is also available to pitch in Game 4, even after already throwing 14 innings with two starts in the Padres' first five playoff games.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Sierra, 42, could get the death penalty for killing his 29-year-old estranged wife, Gladys Machado and her daughters, 6-year-old Julia Padrino and 3-year-old Daniela Padrino,

The defense started its case with expert witness testimony from Dr. Leonardo Thaler, an endocrinologist who reviewed Sierra’s medical records.

Discussing a 2018 document, Thaler said, “He was noted as having witnessed seizure from jail.”

Referring to a 2018 emergency room document, Thaler said, “There was a note that the seizure might have been related to use of synthetic marijuana or K2.”

Thaler shared with the jury what caught his eye: Sierra’s struggles with managing Type 1 diabetes. Testimony showed he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2005, when he was 21.

“It says here that the findings are consistent with diabetes ketoacidosis, so it is a very serious medical condition,” Thaler said.

The medical record was from July 23, 2012, a few months before Sierra confessed on Nov. 10, 2012, to killing his estranged wife and her two little girls.

“They managed him with intravenous insulin, straight into the veins,” Thaler said.

The jury also saw Sierra’s hospital bill from childhood.

“This is May 13, 1996, through May 20, 1996,” Thaler said.

The billing codes documented what Sierra was treated for after being hit by a car when he was 12 years old.

The defense said he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

“Skull fracture, facial bone fracture, skull-based fracture,” Thaler said. “This indicates a traffic accident involving a pedestrian.”

Seeking a jury recommendation of a life sentence, the defense wants jurors to consider the impact attorneys say the car crash and Sierra’s chronic diabetes have had on his cognitive functioning.

Prosecutors, seeking the death penalty, punctuated the testimony with legal objections.

On cross-examination, lead prosecutor Abbe Rifkin pointed out the number of times the records showed that Sierra refused treatment.

Rifkin questioned whether Sierra received attention from guards and was taken to the hospital or to see a doctor each time he was noncompliant and his blood sugar spiked.

Testimony also showed Sierra was not compliant with his diet, ate a large amount of carbohydrates and had a sedentary lifestyle.

The state also asked whether a medication he was taking at a very high dose could be used by some people to get “high.” Thaler said it could.

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According to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, it happened at around 11 a.m. in the 1700 block of Northwest 13th Court, in the city’s Lauderdale Manors neighborhood.

Police said that medics took the victim to Broward Health Medical Center with “life-threatening” injuries.

Police said they identified a possible suspect vehicle, found it in North Lauderdale and tried to pull the driver over.

“The vehicle fled and ultimately the driver bailed out of the vehicle and ran into a nearby residence. The driver was taken into custody a short time later without issue,” police said. “At this time, the driver is detained pending further investigation. We are not able to confirm a connection to the shooting at this time as this will become a part of the ongoing investigation.”

The watchdog group urged OpenAI to restrict the chatbot to adults “until it can offer a safe, developmentally appropriate experience.”

OpenAI said the group’s testing doesn’t reflect how the chatbot’s safeguards work.

Parents, educators and child development experts have been sounding alarms over children’s use of AI chatbots, which have been blamed for facilitating cheating on schoolwork and even suicide.

While even adults can fall victim to anthropomorphizing AI and develop unhealthy relationships with it, teenagers’ brains are not yet fully developed and they can be particularly vulnerable, child development experts say.

“We are concerned that ChatGPT for Teens could give parents false confidence in guardrails that frequently don’t work,” said the report from Common Sense Media, a group that advocates for using digital media sensibly.

Its report said that some teen-mode features worked as intended, including the chatbot’s refusal of explicit sexual role-play. Others that did not work as intended included alerts meant to notify parents if their child is at risk for suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, along with support for teens in crisis, Common Sense Media said.

“ChatGPT still talks like a friend when teens treat it like a person,” the group said, though OpenAI had promised that the chatbot is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings toward the user or implying that it is conscious or experiences emotions.

OpenAI said it is “deeply committed to teen safety,” to developing safeguards and giving parents tools to guide their teens’ use of AI.

The San Francisco company said its review of the report’s methodology shows “the bulk of their testing may have begun and concluded before activation of parental controls was complete, making their findings inaccurate.”

Common Sense Media receives funding from OpenAI and other tech companies, including those whose services it evaluates.

A newly filed 185-page document is now exposing troubling new details in Andrew Tate’s case. It lays out what British authorities say is the evidence they have against Tate as they seek to extradite him to the United Kingdom.

The allegations span years, with multiple women claiming Tate raped them.

According to the document, one woman claims that in 2015 Tate violently raped her and, while doing so, said, “I love you, that’s why I am raping you because I love you.”

The document also describes allegations that Tate lured women with the promise of romance but coerced them into creating online porn.

While Tate is locked up, someone has been posting to X on his behalf, including a bizarre video on Wednesday. It shows a happy couple before the woman makes up false accusations and a man who looks like Tate is thrown in jail.

The self-proclaimed misogynist is facing dozens of charges, including rape, human trafficking, making indecent images of a child and possessing extreme pornography. The document accuses Tate of possessing extreme porn involving a horse and an eel.

Tate has been vocal about the criminal investigation in the past.

“The British state has accused me of a crime. They said 15 years ago I did something I wasn’t supposed to do and I’m a criminal,” Tate said.

Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, told Local 10 in July that the Tate brothers are innocent.

“When you put innocent men or any men in solitary confinement, they begin to deteriorate,” McBride said.

Last week, a judge asked the Tate brothers’ lawyer to propose dates for final extradition hearings, but a date has not been set.

The announcement stunned an attorney who had represented Nidal Malik Hasan in a civil case, and raised concerns among experts on military law about whether the Army followed its mandated process for setting an execution and notifying a prisoner they’ve been condemned to death.

President Donald Trump's announcement on Monday that Hasan would be executed by firing squad also sparked questions about how a firing squad would be assembled and what procedure it would use. The last time the military executed someone by firing squad was shortly after World War II.

Here’s a look at what we know about the military execution process and how experts said this case may proceed.

Military officials declined to provide details

In a post on social media Tuesday, acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle said he scheduled the execution for 1 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood — the site where Hasan opened fire killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others.

Telle confirmed in his post on X that Trump had approved the execution on Oct. 2, starting the clock in Army regulations that requires an execution date to be set no sooner than 60 days and no later than 150 days after that approval.

Telle also noted that the execution would be carried out by firing squad, but did not offer details of where on base the execution would take place, what personnel would be a part of that squad or what procedure they would follow.

The Associated Press asked both Pentagon officials and the Army for more details, but those requests were declined. A message to the Army seeking comment on the potential procedural issues was sent Wednesday.

The procedures for execution in Army regulations do not contain specific protocols for particular methods of execution. Experts said in previous iterations of the firing squad — nearly 80 years ago — one shooter would be given a blank so they all could plausibly believe they had not fired the fatal shot.

Hasan could file a Habeas petition in civil court

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building where soldiers were getting checkups, shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun.

He said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims — a defense a military judge barred him from presenting during his trial. Hasan made almost no effort to defend himself in court, telling jurors when he acted as his own counsel that evidence would show he was the shooter and describing himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”

“What happens now, is if Dr. Hasan decides he wants to resist execution, he can go to federal civilian court for a Habeas Corpus petition … and that can last years,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law.

“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” he added.

Trump resumed the federal death penalty after an informal moratorium during previous administrations. The federal government executed 13 people between 2020 and early 2021, contributing to making Trump the most prolific execution president in over 130 years.

Lawyer questions if notification was done incorrectly

Death sentences are extremely rare in the military justice system, and executions even rarer. Four men, including Hasan, are currently on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the last execution took place there by hanging in 1961.

John Galligan, a retired colonel and a former military judge, represented Hasan in civil matters. The attorney said Wednesday that he's limited on what he can talk about, but called the rush to conduct the execution “horrific.”

Galligan, who spoke with Hasan on Wednesday, said he believes the Army regulation to have the facility's Army commandant notify Hasan, accompanied by a chaplain and a Trial Defense Service attorney or civilian counsel if possible, was not followed. Galligan said that, according to Hasan, there was no legal counsel present.

“For the life of me, I don’t know what they are trying to accomplish in such a rush fashion … and by trying to conduct this execution at Fort Hood, when he has such medical issues,” Galligan said, raising questions about how Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, would be transported to Fort Hood.

Even states have spent time and money on planning

Before Hasan's execution was set for Fort Hood, there was speculation the Army might reach out to one of the handful of states that have recently reinstated the firing squad for use in executions — particularly South Carolina or Utah, where they've renovated facilities and established protocols.

South Carolina has killed three prisoners by firing squad in the past 18 months, the only such executions in the U.S. in the past 16 years.

It's unclear if the Army will borrow from the state's protocol, but it sets out for three volunteer shooters to stand 15 feet (4.6 meters) from the condemned prisoner, who is strapped to a chair. A medical professional uses an X-ray to find the prisoner’s heart and place a target over it. A hood is placed over the prisoner’s head after his final words, and a shade is lifted so the shooters can see their target.

All three shooters have live ammunition and fire at the same time without a verbal warning. South Carolina spent about $54,000 to renovate its death chamber for the firing squad.

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Associated Press reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

Since his seminal 2008 abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days,” the Romanian filmmaker has loosely based his rigorously realistic films on real events, using them to explore the larger social forces shaping our world. It is not, anyone would grant, the easiest way to go about making movies.

“R.M.N.,” for instance, was based on a 2020 incident when Sri Lankan immigrant bakery workers were harassed in a rural Romanian village. It captured a familiar global clash involving tradition, migrants and xenophobia. The film even recreated, in one unbroken 17-minute take, a town hall meeting you can find on YouTube.

“I don’t like writing screenplays in which I try to invent a story starting from ideas,” Mungiu says. “My effort is to understand the things happening next to me.”

Mungiu’s latest, “Fjord,” draws from a real 2015 episode in Norway. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as a Christian couple with five children who have immigrated from Romania to Norway. They are warmly welcomed by a progressive rural community, but their traditional and religious ways are increasingly scrutinized until their children are seized by the state.

The film, which Neon opens in theaters Friday, has been widely celebrated. In May, it won the Palme d’Or, Mungiu’s second time winning the Cannes Film Festival’s top honor. Romania has since selected “Fjord” as its Oscar entry for best international feature.

But “Fjord” is also something unusual. It’s the rare art house movie to pose uncomfortable questions for largely left-leaning audiences. Mungiu is himself politically liberal, but “Fjord” dramatizes a progressive brand of closed-mindedness and sanctimony that, he feels, rivals traits of the far right.

“The extreme left behaves the same,” Mungiu said over coffee in a recent interview. “They are certain that they hold the truth. The only thing you do is divide the society to the level of division that exists today. We don’t live in society. We live in bubbles, on different shores of the same river.”

“This is what this film does, boldly,” he adds. “It speaks out and says things that we all feel but don’t dare say aloud.”

Making a social drama that doesn't preach to the choir

“Fjord,” as in previous Mungiu films, is shot with an objective, seemingly neutral perspective. But as the family’s case proceeds through the Norwegian legal system, Mungiu seems to question whether the liberal Scandinavian society is punishing the Gheorghiu family for the alleged slap of a child or scrutinizing their fundamentalist Christian practices.

Mungiu hoped his film, his first set outside of Romania, would touch a nerve.

“Absolutely. This is what we aimed for,” he says. “But it’s better than we expected.”

Still, the attention for “Fjord” has also brought what Mungiu calls some misinterpretation of his intensions. Some have even labeled it “a MAGA movie,” a description that Mungiu and his stars have pushed back on. For Mungiu, there has to be room in cinema that goes beyond preaching to the choir.

“It doesn’t mean, not even for a second, that I encourage the conservative view of the world,” Mungiu says. “But nowadays it’s considered that if you don’t use your energy as a filmmaker to make a film directly against that, it’s a big sin. Most of the films that people produce today are for or against something. These films don’t create a dialogue. Nobody else will watch them but people in this bubble. The film confirms to them they are already on the good side of things. The others are guilty.”

A polarization that goes much further than Norway

While playing “Fjord” at film festivals, Mungiu has stressed that this story could been set in any liberal society. He believes the same evolution of leftist ideals throughout Europe and in the United States is part of what’s fueling political polarization.

“Show a little bit more understanding,” says Mungiu, addressing progressives. “Try to be less dogmatic. The general habit is to label people. But you pretend to be smarter. I have more expectations from you.”

“This is a bit dangerous,” he adds, alluding to Romania's 20th century history. “I come from a Communist past where somebody else knew better than you what is good for you.”

The heightened attention around “Fjord” makes the 58-year-old filmmaker a little uneasy. He knows it's partly because of the fans of his stars and the Palme award — neither of which, he notes, signifies much about a movie's worth. The criminally underseen “R.M.N.,” he acknowledges, was more deserving of awards than “Fjord.”

But Mungiu also feels the movie carries with it a vital, even urgent message. When “Fjord” won the Palme, Mungiu said in his acceptance speech that society had become “radicalized” — split down the middle, with one side judging other and neither communicating any longer. He called his film “a pledge against any type of fundamentalism.”

“It’s very dangerous if we continue like this,” he says. “We have seen in the U.S. that we are seconds away from having this huge clash, like a physical clash between these two groups. We need to do something while we still have time.”

One of those was at Miami Beach Fire Station No. 2, where mourners reflected and remembered the 1,200 people killed and 251 hostages abducted during a music festival on that fateful day.

A story of perseverance unfolded as Ben Ladany stood before an audience, three years after the Hamas terrorist attack.

Ladany, a former Israel Defense Forces soldier, was shot seven times while serving in Gaza.

“And after being in a wheelchair for two years, I stand in front of you guys today and I love to share with you the seven lessons I learned from the seven bullets that I received,” Ladany said. “If you look at me today, my body’s not 100%, but my mind and soul is at one and sadly, you guys will only recognize this when something terrible happens to you. And you will remember that it’s 50-50.”

Shaina Verbitzky, a student at Hebrew Academy High School, recalled her family’s experience in Israel.

“A few years ago, my family made the decision to move to Israel, and we built our lives here,” Verbitzky said. “On Oct. 7, we woke up. From our balcony, we watched as missiles were being intercepted right above our heads, not fully understanding what was happening.”

Despite a ceasefire deal reached almost a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.

Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner spoke with a heavy heart, sharing words of resilience and strength.

“I pray to God that the world gets the clarity, the moral clarity, and the courage to stand up for what’s moral and right,” Meiner said.

Meanwhile, another event took place at the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial.

Oct. 7 survivor Maya Izoutcheev spoke to Local 10 News.

“It takes everything out of me because to wake up in the morning, to go to sleep, to be like happy with friends, it’s not something that I will go back to the way I was,” Izoutcheev said. “We realized how many friends were taken hostage, how many people are missing.”

Yair Yifrah, another survivor, spoke to Local 10 News at an event in Surfside hosted by U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor.

“People died next to me. I had to run to the road that was being shot and cross it and a police officer got shot next to me as well,” Yifrah said. “We ran. We got into a forest. I lost everyone in the forest; I was alone; I hid in an avocado plantation.”

He then walked 16 kilometers to safety. He said getting away from the attack couldn’t get him to escape the trauma, so he turned to drugs.

“It would be disrespectful to God if I killed myself from drugs after he saved me from what happened,” He said. “Now, in November, I’m going to be two years clean.”

The survivors all had one message: Remembering is part of moving forward.

And for many survivors, that means holding on to the words: “We will dance again.”

The 94-page report was compiled from October 2025 to July 2026 by experts appointed by the U.N. Secretary General. They traveled to Haiti, meeting with dozens of people including confidential sources whose information they say was corroborated by independent sources.

The experts noted there are now “violent fractures” within a powerful gang alliance known as Viv Ansanm. The alliance, formed in 2023, launched attacks in 2024 on key state infrastructure.

The fragmentation of the gang alliance “exposes civilians to renewed violence, displacement and sexual violence in areas that were … stabilized,” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Le Cour said that in the lead-up to elections, relationships between criminal leaders, brokers, and political and economic figures are re-activating.

“Each leader will seek political and electoral arrangements on its own terms, not Viv Ansanm anymore, based on what it can offer: territory, access to voters, security of the process, protection of economic assets, and rewards once the vote is over," he said.

The report noted that gangs remain resilient despite two U.N.-backed missions aimed at quelling violence, warning that “targeting gang leaders without addressing the networks that sustain them will inevitably fall short.”

The report asserted that gangs remain strong thanks to “political, economic and security actors who back gangs when it serves their interests.” It warned that ties between some local authorities and gangs are aimed “at consolidating territorial control and influencing upcoming elections.”

It noted that in late May, a new municipal commission was established in the Port-au-Prince community of Cite Soleil, and that at least one commissioner is an active gang member.

Report singles out well-known politicians

The report accused Alfrédo Junior Antoine, a former legislator representing Kenscoff, of arming and supporting youth groups “as a political tool for his agenda.” It also held him responsible for kidnappings and for sponsoring an attack in Kenscoff in 2025 that led to more than 100 deaths and multiple rapes. Kenscoff is a once peaceful farming community near Haiti's capital.

The report accused Antoine of providing weapons, ammunition and financial resources to Viv Ansanm.

Experts said Antoine denied the allegations in an email.

The report also singled out former Haitian Senator Nenel Cassy, accusing him of controlling a criminal group in Miragoane and supporting armed people “to advance his political agenda and interests.”

In 2025, Haitian National Police issued a warrant for Cassy, describing him as “armed and dangerous.”

“I am a pacifist,” he told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday.

He called on the experts to retract his name and allegations from the report, saying it was “incorrect and unfounded.”

Cassy said Haiti’s judicial system has not found him guilty of anything.

“I am accused of having relations with armed groups,” he said. “Nothing has been established.”

He dismissed alleged ties to gangs, saying he has never bought or sold arms and that he doesn’t have the funds for such activities. He asserted that the accusations are political persecution.

Cassy said he wants to see free, honest, democratic and inclusive elections in Haiti, adding that “for the instant,” he is not considering a run for president or Parliament.

Concerns grow as elections near

The report noted that the lower region of the Artibonite Department — Haiti’s second-largest electoral district — has been hit with an “unprecedented level of coordinated gang violence” since March.

Experts said that the “historic use of gangs” by former Senator Youri Latortue and ex-lawmaker Prophane Victor has fueled the violence.

“Sources warned that, ahead of elections, these individuals may exploit ties to gangs to mobilize support, intimidate rivals and undermine stability. They also cautioned that self-defense groups linked to local political dynamics could be used as tools of intimidation,” the report stated.

It also called out delayed implementation of U.N. sanctions, noting that one of Victor’s frozen bank accounts only has $421: “The meagre amounts of money frozen by banks do not correlate with the wealth accumulated by those individuals.”

The report found $0 frozen in Haiti’s central bank accounts for multiple gang leaders, and only $2.63 frozen in the account of Dimitri Hérard, ex-head of security at Haiti’s National Palace who is accused in the July 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse.

A handful of wins as election looms

The report called out corrupt police officers — including one nicknamed “My Man” — accused of supplying gangs with weapons, ammunition and intelligence.

One policeman was responsible for picking up a gang leader’s girlfriend at the airport and for verifying the financial status of people before they were kidnapped.

Help from some officers aside, the report noted that traffickers find it so easy to smuggle weapons into Haiti that most use their own names from federal firearms licensees.

Women and children are vulnerable as elections approach

As Haiti pushes to hold elections soon, the experts warned about an increase in sexual violence and in gangs recruiting children.

Children earn about $1,000 and a motorcycle for enrollment, and they receive $114 to $190 every two weeks. They also get food, alcohol and drugs and an extra $500 for participating in “important combat operations,” the report revealed.

In addition, two gangs now have cells that are exclusively female, experts said.

The report noted that Haitians are increasingly relying on vigilantes for protection, and that while authorities have regained control of some areas, “gains remain fragile" and main roads remain under gang control.

Officials with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office announced that DNA research led them to identify “Cinnamon” as Cumie Doylene McCutcheon.

Investigators found the 56-year-old’s body on a boat moored off Key West in September 1999, but ran out of leads before they could identify her.

According to MCSO, this year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told Keys detectives that DNA research tied the remains to McCutcheon.

Deputies said a DNA test from her son confirmed the finding.

An MCSO news release states that the agency worked with the FDLE, along with the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office, to solve the mystery.

“I want to thank the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and the FDLE for their hard work on this case and for providing closure to this family,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a news release.

The forecast is for Isaias to quickly strengthen into the season’s first hurricane – the latest first-forming Atlantic hurricane of the reliable record by a wide margin – by late today or early Thursday, and conditions ahead look ripe for Isaias to peak as a major (Category 3 or stronger) or near-major hurricane on approach to the northern Gulf Coast early Friday.

While Isaias is forecast to weaken as it’s moving ashore late Friday or during the early morning hours Saturday – most likely somewhere between coastal Mississippi and the western Florida panhandle – it’s expected to remain a hurricane through landfall, with a growing wind field that will mean wide-reaching impacts, including damaging winds and significant, life-threatening storm surge and coastal flooding well east of where the center crosses the coast.

In addition to damaging winds and coastal storm surge, Isaias will bring a multi-day heavy rain and flash flood threat across the southeastern U.S. from North Florida northward to the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians this weekend.

The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center upped its flash flood risk to moderate (threat level 3 of 4) for Friday through early Saturday for South Alabama and the western Florida panhandle – including the cities of Mobile and Pensacola – for the risk of numerous and significant flash flooding.

We’ll also need to monitor for the risk of tornadoes in outer bands along the north-central Gulf as Isaias nears the coast on Friday into Saturday.

Rapid strengthening forecast today into Thursday

The first low-altitude Hurricane Hunter mission into Isaias Wednesday morning found it still organizing, with pressures down slightly and a still-broad circulation accompanied by low-end tropical storm winds.

Despite its humble beginnings, the environment over the next day or two will support strengthening, especially by later today and on Thursday as Isaias establishes a compact core and begins to tap the rich reservoir of exceptionally warm waters of the southwestern Gulf.

The National Hurricane Center is explicitly forecasting Isaias to rapid strengthen from a tropical storm today to a near-major or major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricane by late Thursday or early Friday as it finds a lane of conducive upper-level outflow ahead of a jet stream dip that’ll whisk it toward the northern Gulf on Friday.

Some of our better-performing, high resolution hurricane models like the HAFS model and its configurations suggest Isaias should peak in intensity Friday around Category 3 strength (winds of 111 to 129 mph) before weakening as it nears landfall late Friday or early Saturday morning. It’s also worth noting that over 60% of Google’s DeepMind ensembles – one of our best-performing intensity models so far this season – bring Isaias to major hurricane strength.

The weakening could come quickly as wind shear ramps up late Friday, but timing the point of weakening is an extremely difficult and risky exercise. It’s worth reiterating that despite some forecast weakening, NHC expects Isaias to be a significant and dangerous hurricane when it hits the U.S. Gulf Coast.

AI models lean east

As we discussed in Tuesday morning’s newsletter, an earlier strengthening trend would favor a stronger, faster-moving, and eastward-leaning storm in the long run, which is precisely what forecast models have seized on over the past 24 hours.

The AI camp of models – including Google’s DeepMind and the Euro AI – have been consistently advertising a track toward South Alabama or the western Florida panhandle, which NHC is siding with in its forecast for Isaias.

The latest 1,000-member Google DeepMind run Wednesday morning brought the center of Isaias inland between Mobile and Panama City Beach, with the highest strike odds from Pensacola to Navarre Beach in the western Florida panhandle.

Meanwhile, the conventional physics-based European model and its ensembles continue to show a weaker storm, with highest strike odds closer to southeastern Louisiana and coastal Mississippi.

It’s important not to focus on the exact landfall point with a large hurricane that’ll be growing in size as it approaches the coast. Areas well east and north of the track will be at highest risk for impacts, as tropical storm conditions extend over 150 miles from the center and outside the forecast cone.

Once watches are issued later today, we’ll have more information on the storm surge threat but expect a significant and life-threatening coastal flood threat in areas of onshore flow near and to the east of where Isaias makes landfall.

El ojo del ciclón se ubicaba a unos 285 kilómetros (175 millas) al sur-sureste de Lázaro Cárdenas, México, y se pronostica que se acercará a la costa el sábado.

Se prevé que Simón genere fuertes lluvias que podrían provocar inundaciones en partes del suroeste de México, con pronósticos de que algunas zonas reciban entre 20 y 30 centímetros (8 y 12 pulgadas) de lluvia hasta el domingo, según un aviso del NHC. En partes de Colima y Michoacán eran posibles acumulados aislados de hasta 38 a 63 centímetros (15 a 25 pulgadas) de lluvia.

Los vientos máximos sostenidos de la tormenta eran de alrededor de 65 km/h (40 mph), y se esperaba que se fortaleciera hasta convertirse en huracán a última hora del jueves y potencialmente en un huracán de categoría 3 para el sábado, indicó el NHC.

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

Even as she took her allegations about a 2024 gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house through Cornell's internal disciplinary process, the university's police department gave her the impression that a criminal investigation was continuing, lawyer Thomas Giuffra told The Associated Press.

In fact, the criminal inquiry ended almost as soon as it began.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, the local prosecutor, made the decision not to go forward with a criminal case within days of the woman giving her first substantial interviews to police.

Van Houten has said that he asked Cornell's police department to convey the decision to the woman, who is referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, but never spoke personally to her or her lawyer.

Giuffra said the woman was told that the criminal investigation was ongoing.

“I think she was misled. She was told it was still — they weren’t going to prosecute, but they were still investigating," Giuffra said. ”I was involved with this case early on. I thought they were still investigating. It was news to me that they weren’t doing anything."

Giuffra added that at the time, he assumed investigators just needed more time to speak with witnesses and build a case.

“But nothing was being done, and we didn’t know that,” Giuffra said.

A message seeking comment was left for Van Houten. Cornell’s media relations office, citing pending litigation, declined to comment on behalf of the university’s police department.

The district attorney said in a statement last week that he was confident that no further investigation was necessary after prosecutors and criminal investigators from his office reviewed a six-page summary of the woman's account, written by a police officer.

Summary left out key details, lawyer says

Based on that summary, Van Houten said he believed no crime had been committed, and that the woman's participation in drug use and sex was “voluntary, conscious and consensual.”

That description differs sharply with what the woman told police and university investigators, and with what she alleged in a lawsuit filed against seven Chi Phi fraternity members, Cornell and others last month.

Among other things, Giuffra said, the six-page report omitted the woman telling investigators, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped," that she was subjected to physical violence, and that a fraternity brother had sent a message to a group chat using a vulgar term to advertise that a woman’s body was freely available.

Last week, citing investigative records it obtained, The New York Times reported that a Cornell police investigator tried to get Van Houten’s office to consider additional evidence in the weeks after the alleged rape, but was rebuffed.

“At first I thought these police were incompetent," Giuffra said. "It sounds like they were doing the right thing. And they just got shut down.”

Giuffra said that while he and Jane Doe have received death threats, he has been heartened by an outpouring of support, including rallies and protests on the Cornell campus and more than 1,000 women who have emailed him to share anger, frustration, solidarity and stories of their own assaults.

Students rally against sexual violence

Some Cornell students staged a sit-in at a dining hall and vowed not to spend money on campus Wednesday to protest sexual violence and how the university has handled complaints, in the latest expression of outrage over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.

A handwritten sign reading “Justice for Jane Doe ” — the name under which the accuser is suing — was propped on an empty table in the dining hall in the afternoon. Some students sat around the room without eating, while others lunched. Another small group sat outside holding signs with messages such as “we are Jane Doe.”

The demonstrations were meant to spotlight complaints that the university is slow to respond to reports of sexual assault while quick to protect its reputation. Among other demands, the groups want the university to retool disciplinary procedures for addressing complaints and expel or revoke the degrees of anyone involved in the alleged October 2024 sexual assault.

Jane Doe, who was a student then, alleges that Chi Phi members plied her with alcohol and drugs and several sexually assaulted her. One man sent others a message inviting them to participate, according to a lawsuit she filed last month.

Lawyers for two of the men have denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the others or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Some of the men who underwent a university disciplinary hearing in 2024 told investigators that the sexual activity was consensual or said they were not involved.

Man in lawsuit wants attorney general removed

The woman went to Cornell police in November 2024, though no criminal charges resulted. In the wake of her lawsuit, Van Houten said he was reopening the investigation. Days later, Gov. Kathy Hochul took the case away from him and appointed the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor.

Giuffra applauded the move, saying he was troubled by Van Houten’s plan for conducting the reopened investigation and “didn’t think he was up to the task.” Giuffra said the district attorney wanted to take the case to a grand jury and have Jane Doe testify before the panel within two weeks.

That timeline, leaving little time to review evidence or interview witnesses, suggested that Van Houten may have been trying “to go take a dive and not really give it his best effort and not do any investigation,” Giuffra said.

James hasn't said how long her investigation might take, but she suggested it would take months.

On Wednesday, one of the men named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit filed a court petition seeking James' removal from the case, arguing she showed bias by posting on social media a few days before her appointment: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for James declined to comment.

Cornell closed down the Chi Phi campus chapter in 2024 and says it expelled some students and suspended others after an investigation under the federal Title IX law.

This week Cornell trustees brought in former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the school investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, the campus police response and more.

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Sisak reported from New York.

Manager Dave Roberts said Rojas is “not great” and would not be available off the bench. That leaves Rojas' status uncertain if the Dodgers advance to the National League Championship Series. Rojas appeared to hurt his back on a swing in the eighth inning.

“Back’s sore. Laying low,” Roberts said of Rojas. “Won’t be available today. I think for us it’s, like, we have an extended bench anyway. So to try to make any decisions that would compromise his status for a potential next series doesn’t make sense. So we’re going to kick this one to another day.”

Kiké Hernández, who hit a homer in Tuesday night's win, is starting at second base. Roberts said he also hoped to use Tommy Edman, who replaced Rojas on Tuesday.

Roberts said he liked the matchup of Hernández against Braves right-hander Tyler Mahle.

“I like where he’s swinging,” Roberts said. “But we’ll see what happens today. But having him as an option, I think we’ve got some very good options, obviously. I also want to get Tommy involved at some point, too. So we’ll see where we go.”

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who was moved down to fifth in the batting order on Tuesday night, is hitting fourth.

Meanwhile, Ronald Acuña Jr. is starting in right field for Atlanta after being moved to designated hitter in a late lineup change due to right knee soreness on Tuesday night.

Braves manager Walt Weiss waited to finalize Wednesday night's lineup until having an opportunity for Acuña to test the knee in pregame warmups.

Weiss said Acuña was “Just a little sore. If he is limited, I think it’s minimally.”

The Dodgers lead the best-of-five series 2-1 and can win the series Wednesday night. If necessary, Game 5 would be played Friday night in Los Angeles.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

A sea of red-clad demonstrators made their way between two historical squares in Rio’s center, chanting and holding signs referencing Brazil’s sovereignty and democracy in the South American country, which they said were under threat.

“We’re fighting for Brazil, not for Lula,” said Talita Amaral, a 19-year-old environmental science student at a nearby university. She was wearing Brazil’s yellow and green soccer jersey, often worn by supporters of Bolsonaro, which she said was a gesture aimed at reclaiming the national colors.

“We don’t have time to be sad, we need to be doing this, occupying the streets, sending messages in WhatsApp groups, trying to convince people,” Amaral said, as the chant “Olé olé olé ola, Lula Lula” rang out across Cinelandia square.

Neither Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup, nor Lula received more than the required 50% of the vote needed to become Brazil’s leader on Sunday. Therefore, they will face each other in an unpredictable runoff on Oct. 25.

But Flávio Bolsonaro has at least two advantages: He received 2 million more votes than Lula on Sunday and the candidates who placed third, fourth and fifth are all on the right of the political spectrum. They gathered more than 8 million votes between them.

Bolsonaro is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion because of his ties to the failed Banco Master — a case that many protesters in Rio made reference to on Wednesday.

Some pointed to Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, during which 700,000 people were reported to have died from the disease, while others held signs emblazoned with messages such as “Brazil isn't anyone's backyard” and “I don't vote for someone who sells Brazil.”

Many on the left fear a Flávio Bolsonaro presidency would fully align the Brazilian government with the United States because of the proximity in ideologies between U.S. President Donald Trump and the Bolsonaro family. Last year, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods and imposed sanctions on a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, citing Jair Bolsonaro’s trial, which he called a “witch hunt.”

“If Bolsonaro wins, Brazil will become a colony of the United States,” said João Victor Vieira, 20, who studies literature. He said that Bolsonaro represented a threat to minorities such as people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ community. Bolsonaro's father was notorious for homophobic remarks.

Vieira said that while he was initially dispirited following the results on Sunday, he has since regained hope.

“This protest shows that social movements are still very much alive,” he said. “We will resist.”

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This story corrects a previous version that stated the candidates who placed third, fourth and fifth gathered 6 million votes. The correct number of votes is more than 8 million.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

“We are not blind to who this defendant is,” Brunswick County District Attorney Jon David said of defendant Nigel Max Edge. “He served this country in Iraq as a Marine, suffered a traumatic brain injury, and has struggled with serious mental illness. Those facts are important and they were weighed, but must be balanced against the circumstances of the crime.”

Authorities allege Edge piloted a small motorboat up to a dockside cocktail bar in Southport on Sept. 27, 2025, and opened fire with a short-barreled semiautomatic rifle. He faces three counts of first-degree murder, as well as multiple attempted murder and weapons charges.

In April, Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow ordered Edge to undergo psychiatric treatment after it was determined he was unable to understand his legal proceedings enough to help his lawyers.

Defense attorney Matthew Geoffrion filed a motion to continue Wednesday’s hearing, arguing that the extent of Edge's brain injury will likely make it impossible for him to stand trial. Edge was shot multiple times during a firefight in Iraq, including once in the head.

“The chances of capacity restoration in this case appear low,” Geoffrion said in his motion.

David countered that experts at the state hospital where Edge is being treated “have concluded he is likely to be restored.” But he added that the decision to proceed with a capital punishment case was not final.

“A capital designation guarantees the defendant the highest level of protection our system offers, including the appointment of a second qualified attorney and the most rigorous scrutiny our courts provide,” David said. “If evidence emerges bearing on Mr. Edge’s sanity at the time of the offense, we will reassess. If he is never restored to capacity, the death penalty would not be a lawful sentence and would be removed from consideration.”

Edge’s next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7.

Legislation to create Chiricahua National Park is expected to be transmitted to the White House in coming days for President Donald Trump’s signature. It passed Congress with bipartisan backing and would be the 64th national park.

The 19-square-mile (49-square kilometer) site is within the historical territory of the Chiricahua Apache tribes. It was designated a national monument in the 1920s to preserve hundreds of pinnacle-shaped rocks formed from an ancient volcanic eruption.

“We’re the Grand Canyon state, so we know about this kind of landscape,” Rep. Juan Ciscomani, House sponsor of the Chiricahua National Park Act, said Wednesday. “It's hard to compare anything to the Grand Canyon, but Chiricahua holds its own. This is something that really hasn’t been discovered.”

National Park Service officials declined to say if new staff would be hired to address an expected increase in visitors as the new designation elevates the site's profile.

The park service has undergone deep cuts to its workforce under Trump. Maintenance projects at many sites — including Chiricahua — were ranked a “low priority” by officials who have instead focused on projects wanted by the White House including repairs to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

For centuries the site of the proposed park was home to the Apache, nomadic tribes who often resisted European newcomers to North America. They continued clashing with settlers until surrendering to U.S. troops in 1886 and being forcibly removed to the San Carlos Apache reservation.

The bill creating Chiricahua National Park preserves tribal access for traditional ceremonies. It allows temporary public closures within the park to protect those cultural uses, although Ciscomani said specifics have not been decided.

San Carlos Apache tribal leaders did not take a formal position on the national park designation, a spokesperson said Wednesday. In response to questions from The Associated Press, the tribe provided its 2024 testimony before Congress, where San Carlos Apache Deputy Attorney General Justine Jimmie asked for uninterrupted access to the site.

“National parks have become so packed with tourists," Jimmie said. "In contrast, we go to our cultural areas in what are now parks to seek sanctuary, pray, and perform ceremonies.”

Early settlers called the site Wonderland of Rocks. The name Chiricahua comes from the surrounding mountains.

The area has evidence of thousands of years of human use, according to the park service. That spans from prehistoric people to the famed Buffalo Soldiers. The U.S. troops who were Black were stationed there after the Civil War during a government campaign against Apache leaders Geronimo and Cochise.

Former President Calvin Coolidge named the site as a national monument in 1924 under a federal law known as the Antiquities Act. Former President Franklin Roosevelt expanded it in 1938.

About 85% of the park is designated as wilderness. It gets roughly 60,000 visitors annually.

National monuments are designed to protect specific locations and objects, such as archaeological or historical sites, whereas national parks have a broader purpose including recreation and the preservation of vast expanses of wilderness. Parks and monuments alike are managed by the park service.

Chiricahua would be the first new national park since New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia in 2021.

The mayor of nearby Willcox, Arizona, Greg Hancock, said the change could bring in more customers for its hotels, restaurants and small businesses.

The monument has a visitor center, campground and hiking trails. Park service officials declined to say if any immediate changes were planned.

The park service will "evaluate those matters consistent with the law, available funding and applicable planning requirements,” officials said in a statement. The Congressional Budget Office said it would cost less than $500,000 to establish the park, but did not specify how that might be spent.

House lawmakers approved the park's creation in a voice vote in March, and the Senate passed it Sept. 30 by unanimous consent.

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According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, the crash happened near mile marker 41.

A BSFR spokesperson said medics took a man and a woman to Broward Health Medical Center for treatment as trauma patients.

Officials haven’t provided further details about the extent of their injuries.

First responders temporarily shut down the highway in response to the crash.

The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

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Federal authorities said they seized 90 shipments of biodiesel: 71 at Port Everglades, totaling about a half-million gallons, and another 19 at the Port of Houston, totaling about 119,000 gallons.

The seizure was a coordinated enforcement operation between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

The shipments were valued at nearly $3 million.

Paperwork showed the oil was bound for Enitec, which is a Havana-based oil wholesaler sanctioned by the U.S. government.

While oil shipments to private companies are legal, DHS officials said that was not the case with these specific shipments.

“Today’s actions underscore our commitment to safeguarding the integrity of our ports and trade systems and ensuring that they are not exploited to advance the interests of regime-connected insiders at the expense of the Cuban people,” DHS Special Agent in Charge Jose Figueroa said.

Officials went on to clarify that the seizure was not an attempt to block legitimate humanitarian aid to the Cuban people.

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Miami Police Department investigators said the wife of Leonel Orozco, 26, of Allapattah, found the illicit content in a hidden folder while looking through his cellphone and called them.

They said she also found pictures of underage relatives edited to depict them nude.

Police said after responding to Orozco’s home in the 2400 block of Northwest 34th Street, he consented to a search of his phone.

They said investigators found five videos showing boys and girls as young as 5 to 7 years old being raped and sexually abused.

They said they also found the edited pictures.

A statement made by Orozco was redacted from an MPD arrest report.

A judge found probable cause Wednesday to charge Orozco with five counts related to the possession of child sexual abuse material and two counts of promoting an altered sexual depiction without consent, ordering he be held on a $10,000.

But the Colombian national is also facing potential immigration consequences. Besides his bond, records show he’s being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold.

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According to Fort Lauderdale police, officers responded to the 700 block of Northeast 17th Court after getting calls about the driver, later identified as Eliezer Valcourt, 32, of northwest Miami-Dade.

A responding officer said Valcourt nearly hit her as she turned a corner in his United States Postal Service mail truck. Another officer was able to pull over Valcourt, police said, and “observed possible signs of impairment,” leading to a DUI investigation.

According to an arrest report, Valcourt, who failed field sobriety tests, told officers that he was working and that he had not had anything to drink that day.

Valcourt told officers that he was “almost done” working and that he “only had three more streets,” per the arrest form.

He is facing charges of DUI and DUI with a blood alcohol content level .15% or higher.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Valcourt remained behind bars at the Broward Main Jail on a $1,000 bond.

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Even after being slapped with charges in May after being accused of stealing pricey jewelry and valuables from two victims, police said the Wisconsin woman, once described as an “escort,” went back to the same thievery after leaving jail.

Police said Hood, 21, of Madison, Wisconsin, has a known modus operandi: “Meeting victims at nightlife establishments, accompanying them to their residences or hotels and leaving with valuables after they fell asleep.”

She’s now accused of targeting men she met at the Booby Trap on the River strip club in August and September.

Authorities said both incidents happened at locations in Miami after the men took her home from the strip club, located near the airport at 3615 NW South River Drive.

Miami police said on Aug. 9, a man celebrating his birthday at the Booby Trap took an “unknown” woman “wearing a burgundy dress,” later identified as Hood, back to his Airbnb and the pair “continued drinking in an upstairs bedroom.”

The victim then “placed two gold chains on the bathroom counter, took a shower and went to sleep,” according to an arrest report

Authorities said the victim’s brother saw Hood “rushing out the front door while speaking on the phone.”

According to police, after the victim’s brother woke him, he discovered that the two gold chains, valued at about $110,000, were gone.

Police said fingerprints at the home came back to Hood and a detective recognized Hood from her prior arrest on Booby Trap surveillance footage.

Meanwhile, on the morning of Sept. 11, police said another man met two women, one of whom was later identified as Hood, at the Booby Trap and brought them back home.

The women, according to a separate arrest report, “brought a bottle of Don Julio tequila, and one poured a shot into the victim’s mouth, which he later spit out. One of his friends also consumed several shots.”

Police said the victim couldn’t remember the rest of the morning and, after waking up, found that the women were gone ― and so too were the valuables in his SUV.

“His roommate reported hearing what sounded like vehicle doors slamming at approximately (7 a.m.),” police wrote in the report. “The victim provided an Instagram handle associated with one of the (women) and reported observing an unknown substance in the remaining liquor. The empty tequila bottle remained at the scene with apparent lipstick stains.”

Once again, a detective recognized Hood on surveillance footage, police said, and the victim later picked her out of a photo lineup.

The man said his stolen jewelry, apparel and cash were worth more than $25,000.

Hood surrendered at the Miami Police Department with her attorney on Tuesday.

She’s now back in jail on two more grand theft charges, on top of the three other felonies she was out on bond for at the time, according to jail records.

As of Wednesday, she was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Según los investigadores del Departamento de Policía de Miami, la esposa de Leonel Orozco, de 26 años y residente de Allapattah, revisaba el celular de su esposo. Encontró el contenido ilícito en una carpeta oculta y llamó a la policía.

Los investigadores dijeron que también encontró fotos de familiares menores de edad editadas para que aparecieran desnudos.

Según la policía, los agentes acudieron a la casa de Orozco, en la cuadra 2400 de Northwest 34th Street. Allí, él accedió a que revisaran su celular.

Los investigadores dijeron que encontraron cinco videos de abuso sexual contra niños y niñas, algunos de apenas 5 a 7 años.

También encontraron las fotos editadas, según la policía.

Una declaración de Orozco fue tachada del informe de arresto de la policía de Miami.

El miércoles, un juez encontró causa probable para acusar a Orozco de cinco cargos relacionados con la posesión de material de abuso sexual infantil. También enfrenta dos cargos por difundir una representación sexual alterada sin consentimiento. El juez fijó su fianza en $10,000.

Sin embargo, el ciudadano colombiano también podría enfrentar consecuencias migratorias. Además de la fianza, los registros muestran que permanece en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center con una retención del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE).

The Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive that is typically reserved for significant achievement in combat, was bestowed upon the Lincoln and accompanying ships for “40 days of combat operations and an ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury,” Hegseth said, referring to the Trump administration’s code name for the Iran war.

The carrier endured a record 265 uninterrupted days at sea, and its extended deployment drew national attention following reports of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products. After more than 10 months deployed, the Lincoln's crew got a stop in Thailand early last month on the way back from the Middle East.

Pentagon chief visits the crew and acknowledges long time at sea

Hegseth, who flew out to the ship before its arrival Thursday in San Diego, acknowledged to the crew that “I’m the only thing standing between you and home” and that his intention was “once they pull up to the dock, we’re getting out of the way.”

Long deployments can tax service members who are away from their families for extended periods while facing threats, and can add wear to the aircraft carriers, which have been used for President Donald Trump's military operations in the Middle East and South America.

The Lincoln is the second carrier that has endured an unusually long and arduous deployment to support the war against Iran and the second to receive the top unit award afterward.

Hegseth in May met the crew of the USS Gerald R. Ford during its return from a 326-day deployment — the longest for an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years and a record in the post-Vietnam War era.

As for the Lincoln, it departed San Diego in late November, arrived in the Middle East in January and now will be back in its home port.

Hegseth said Wednesday that Trump “tracked your activities from day one and couldn’t be more proud of what you executed.”

Issues had been reported aboard the USS Lincoln

The Navy initially played down early reports of supply problems on Lincoln and Trump said its lengthy deployment was “not nearly long enough,” Navy leaders, however, eventually acknowledged there were some issues aboard.

In August, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Lincoln maintained adequate food supplies, but because combat operations limited resupply opportunities, meal options were reduced from two to one for a short time. He said in a letter to a Democratic lawmaker seeking information that four nutritionally balanced meals were served daily.

Navy officials also said that while combat operations led to delays in scheduled resupply shipments, they prioritized the delivery of hygiene products and established a rotation to streamline distribution to different squadrons.

More recently, the service told lawmakers that eight sailors attempted suicide while on the long deployment. Experts say that number is low in a strike group of 6,000 sailors over 10 months.

Hegseth pushed back against what he said were efforts to turn the “Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission.”

He said that “what makes the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you’re resilient and you overcome — you finish the mission nonetheless.”

Aircraft carriers have been key to Iran war operations

According to the award that Hegseth read to the crew, the Lincoln and the strike group executed 3,693 combat missions, delivered 1.37 million pounds of ordnance, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 one-way attack drones, sank 64 Iranian warships, destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles and defended against four fast attack craft and explosive-carrying ships.

There are now two aircraft carriers assigned to the Middle East. The USS George Washington, though usually based in Asia, relieved the Lincoln in August.

The other aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, has been deployed for about six months, but it pulled into Phuket, Thailand, for a port visit several days ago.

U.S. officials have said a third aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and thousands of troops aboard it and accompanying ships could join the Washington and the Bush as early as the end of October.

The latest example came Wednesday, when Trump voiced support for Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin’s governor race while pledging millions to help with recent storms.

In addition, the president recently joked that he would cut off money to North Carolina, which is still healing from Hurricane Helene two years ago, if Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley lost. And the day before an Ohio campaign rally with Sen. Jon Husted last Saturday, Trump approved a disaster declaration for the state while leaving 15 other requests pending.

Disaster survivor advocates say they want elected officials to prioritize their recovery — not wield it as a political tool.

“Recovery isn’t partisan,” said Sierra Lindsey-Kos, co-founder and co-executive director of Extreme Weather Survivors, an advocacy nonprofit.

“Neighbors help each other without asking who anyone voted for, and that’s exactly the way it should be," she said.

The White House rejected the idea that it's injecting politics into disaster recovery. “There is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief,” spokesperson Lauren Bis said Tuesday.

Trump’s Truth Social posts intertwine endorsements with disaster funding

Trump has frequently mentioned disaster support in social media posts about the midterms, sometimes announcing new funding in conjunction with reminders of endorsements for Republican candidates like Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Andy Barr in Kentucky.

On Wednesday, Trump posted that he’d spoken to Tiffany, “who has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of the Great State of Wisconsin,” and told him about $17.9 million in disaster funds were coming to the state. “18 Million Dollars should help, A LOT,” Trump wrote. Tiffany is up against Democratic nominee David Crowley in Wisconsin’s governor’s race.

A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said their office had not been informed about the money, and Evers responded to the post on social media.

"Clearly, President Trump and Congressman Tiffany are continuing to play politics with emergency aid that’s meant to help communities recover in the wake of disasters like tornadoes and floods."

FEMA later confirmed that Trump approved a disaster declaration for Wisconsin, along with West Virginia and Guam, though he didn’t announce those on social media.

Even creating the perception that disaster relief and votes are connected has traditionally been “out of bounds,” said Rafael LeMaitre, FEMA spokesperson under former President Barack Obama.

“It diminishes the integrity of the disaster management system and it erodes trust in the way the government addresses disasters generally,” he said.

Disaster relief seeps into campaign speeches

When Trump held a rally in North Carolina for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, the president acknowledged the state was still waiting for billions of dollars in federal recovery funds for Hurricane Helene.

“Now if Michael loses, I’m not sending it,” he said. “No, I’m only kidding, you’re getting it,” he added.

Republican Jennifer Balkcom, a congressional candidate in a western North Carolina district, later defended Trump's comments.

"I don’t know if he was being funny,” Balkcom told WLOS ABC News 13. “I think he was trying to persuade voters to vote for Michael Whatley.”

While the joke might not faze Trump’s most dedicated supporters, others found it off putting, said Jon Council, who works for the organizing group Down Home North Carolina.

“That just doesn’t strike me as a person or administration that’s taking the conditions on the ground here seriously, and taking the responsibility to the American taxpayer seriously,” Council said.

Trump also brought up disaster relief funds at a campaign rally in Ohio last Saturday, telling supporters in a high school gymnasium in Vandalia that he had signed a “special” disaster declaration for the state after August severe weather.

“You had some bad storms, and Jon and everybody wanted me to help, and I took care of it,” Trump said, referring to Republican Senator Jon Husted, who is running a tight reelection race against Democrat Sherrod Brown.

The major disaster declaration for Ohio authorizes direct assistance to residents of seven of the 23 counties requested by Republican Governor Mike DeWine. It came while 15 other requests from states, tribes and territories remain pending, including two from Hawaii, which experienced back-to-back hurricanes in August and September.

Trump did not answer pending disaster requests before rallying in two other Republican states last week with less consequential races, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Concerns over politicization predate the midterm elections

Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who tracks presidential disaster declarations, said politicians “have always tried to use disasters to their advantage." However, he said this White House's behavior has been “unusual and frankly concerning."

An Associated Press analysis in July found that Trump had approved more than three-quarters of the requests from states that voted for him in the 2024 election but less than half the requests from states that did not.

A FEMA spokesperson said Tuesday that “any suggestion that disaster decisions are politically motivated does not reflect how this process works or how FEMA carries out its mission.”

Politics has permeated recent communications from FEMA itself.

A September news release about preparations for a nor'easter storm listed 18 Republican members of Congress with whom it said agency leadership was “working closely” during the weather event, omitting mention of any Democrats despite the states mentioned being Democrat-led.

A FEMA spokesperson did not address questions about why only Republican representatives were named.

Según Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, el accidente ocurrió cerca de la milla 41.

Un portavoz de BSFR dijo que los paramédicos llevaron a un hombre y a una mujer al Broward Health Medical Center, donde fueron atendidos como pacientes de trauma.

Las autoridades no han dado más detalles sobre la gravedad de sus heridas.

Los equipos de emergencia cerraron temporalmente la carretera para atender el accidente.

La Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida investiga el choque.

En mayo, Hood fue acusada de robarles joyas costosas y objetos de valor a dos víctimas. Aun así, según la policía, la mujer de Wisconsin, a quien en su momento se describió como “acompañante”, volvió a las andadas al salir de la cárcel.

La policía dijo que Hood, de 21 años y residente de Madison, Wisconsin, tiene un modus operandi conocido. Según los agentes, “conocía a las víctimas en lugares de vida nocturna, las acompañaba a sus casas o a sus hoteles y se iba con objetos de valor cuando se quedaban dormidas”.

Ahora la acusan de robarles en agosto y septiembre a hombres que conoció en el club de striptease Booby Trap on the River.

Según las autoridades, ambos casos ocurrieron en Miami, después de que los hombres se la llevaran a su casa desde el club. El local queda cerca del aeropuerto, en el 3615 NW South River Drive.

La policía de Miami dijo que el 9 de agosto un hombre celebraba su cumpleaños en el Booby Trap. Esa noche se llevó a su Airbnb a una mujer “desconocida” que “llevaba un vestido color vino”, luego identificada como Hood. Según la policía, los dos “siguieron tomando en una habitación del piso de arriba”.

La víctima luego “dejó dos cadenas de oro sobre el lavamanos del baño, se dio una ducha y se fue a dormir”, según un informe de arresto.

Según las autoridades, el hermano de la víctima vio a Hood “salir apurada por la puerta principal mientras hablaba por teléfono”.

Según la policía, el hermano lo despertó y la víctima descubrió que las dos cadenas de oro habían desaparecido. Estaban valoradas en unos $110,000.

La policía dijo que las huellas dactilares halladas en la casa eran de Hood. Además, un detective la reconoció en los videos de vigilancia del Booby Trap por su arresto anterior.

Por otra parte, la policía dijo que la mañana del 11 de septiembre otro hombre conoció a dos mujeres en el Booby Trap y se las llevó a su casa. Una de ellas fue identificada después como Hood.

Según otro informe de arresto, las mujeres “trajeron una botella de tequila Don Julio y una le sirvió un trago directamente en la boca a la víctima, que él luego escupió. Uno de sus amigos también se tomó varios tragos”.

La policía dijo que la víctima no recordaba el resto de la mañana. Al despertar, descubrió que las mujeres ya no estaban, y tampoco los objetos de valor que tenía en su SUV.

“Su compañero de casa dijo que escuchó lo que parecían puertas de un vehículo cerrándose de golpe alrededor de las (7 a.m.)”, escribió la policía en el informe. “La víctima dio un usuario de Instagram asociado con una de las (mujeres) y dijo que vio una sustancia desconocida en el licor que quedaba. La botella de tequila vacía quedó en el lugar con aparentes manchas de pintalabios”.

Una vez más, un detective reconoció a Hood en los videos de vigilancia, según la policía. Más tarde, la víctima la identificó en una rueda de reconocimiento fotográfico.

El hombre dijo que las joyas, la ropa y el dinero en efectivo que le robaron valían más de $25,000.

Hood se entregó el martes en el Departamento de Policía de Miami, acompañada de su abogado.

Según los registros de la cárcel, ahora está de vuelta tras las rejas con dos nuevos cargos de hurto mayor. A eso se suman otros tres delitos graves por los que estaba en libertad bajo fianza.

Hasta el miércoles, permanecía detenida en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

The Democratic National Committee was first to sue the Republican administration, alleging the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accusing Trump of personally directing them. Later Wednesday, a coalition including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause filed a separate lawsuit, also alleging an illegal misuse of funds.

Both complaints asked federal judges to stop the use of federal funds to pay for the ads. The lawsuits represented the first legal challenges to the TV spots, which have faced bipartisan backlash for glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign message with November's midterm elections less than a month away.

The ads, which began airing in September, already have cost more than $12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $20 million contract for the campaign.

Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended them as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d start paying for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.

But on Tuesday, a fifth ad began airing with a notice it was paid for by the U.S. government. It promoted Trump’s military actions to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”

“Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes," he added.

A person familiar with the ad campaign who was not authorized to speak publicly said the ad buys placed prior to Trump’s pledge to start paying for them with his super PAC will end this week. Outside groups will begin to pay at that point, the person said.

The second lawsuit was filed by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward on behalf of Common Cause, a New York public employee union and a Democratic state legislative candidate in Alabama.

Taxpayers “shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the president’s politics,” said Skye Perryman, who leads Democracy Forward.

Omar Noureldin, senior vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, said his organization doesn’t trust that Trump will stick to outside money for future ads. He cited Tuesday's new ad as proof that the government-sponsored ads were still being scheduled.

“Even if he said that moving forward, he plans to have his super PAC pay for this, that’s not enough for us,” Noureldin said. “We are not going to take the president’s word for it.”

Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a $175 million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. But the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren’t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs. One of the ads is a near replica of a 2024 ad that Trump ran during his presidential reelection campaign.

Según la policía de Fort Lauderdale, los agentes acudieron a la cuadra 700 de Northeast 17th Court tras recibir llamadas sobre el conductor. Más tarde fue identificado como Eliezer Valcourt, de 32 años y residente del noroeste de Miami-Dade.

Una de las agentes que respondió al llamado dijo que Valcourt estuvo a punto de chocarla al doblar una esquina con su camión del Servicio Postal de EE.UU. Otro agente logró detenerlo y “observó posibles señales de que estaba bajo los efectos del alcohol”, según la policía. Por eso, comenzó una investigación por manejar bajo la influencia (DUI).

Según un informe de arresto, Valcourt falló las pruebas de sobriedad en el lugar. Les dijo a los agentes que estaba trabajando y que ese día no había tomado nada.

También les dijo que “ya casi terminaba” y que “solo le faltaban tres calles”, según el formulario de arresto.

Enfrenta cargos de DUI y de DUI con un nivel de alcohol en la sangre de 0.15% o más.

Hasta la tarde del miércoles, Valcourt seguía detenido en la cárcel principal de Broward con una fianza de $1,000.

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson said the 250-foot (76 meter) arch compounds multiple safety concerns that she said have gone unaddressed from a deadly January 2025 crash over the Potomac River that killed 67 people. Nelson also criticized Trump's plan to turn the arch into "a top grade military complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition.

“DCA is already stretched to its limit, we do not need an obstacle taking up space in our flight path,” said Nelson. “Nor should commercial aviation have to dodge military drones, missiles or snipers while attempting to take off or land at Washington National Airport. Safety first always.”

Nelson’s statement on behalf of the union, which represents 55,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, joins the voices of an assemblage of veterans’ groups, Congress members and others with safety concerns and complaints about the memorial's threat to historic and symbolic sightlines between different landmarks in Washington, D.C.

Though the arch has received early approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all tapped by Trump, a group of three veterans and an architectural historian sued, saying the project needs to be approved by Congress.

Last month, the Republican president said in a social media post that he had agreed, at the “strong request” of the military, to convert the planned 250-foot-tall (76-meter) memorial arch “into a top grade Military Complex.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said last month before Trump's announcement on it becoming a military complex that the arch would not pose a hazard to aircraft, but it should be “appropriately marked with a non-standard eternal flame on top of the structure and floodlight projectors pointed towards the arch to make it noticeable for pilots.

An assessment by the National Park Service said the memorial arch could disrupt the historical significance of dozens of nearby sites. The Park Service approved the project despite its assessment.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced early last month that excavation work on the site in Memorial Circle would begin within weeks. The Interior Department did not respond immediately to questions on the status of that work.

The arch is one of several projects around Washington that Trump has undertaken as he remakes the city, from renovating one of its storied public golf courses to threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

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This story has been updated to correct the union’s name. It is the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA , not Flight Attendants Association-CWA.

Industry groups said they appreciate President Donald Trump’s executive order expanding the use of a diesel now reserved for off-road work, but farmers already have access to the fuel and many have already wrapped up harvest. Truckers will struggle to navigate differing state rules.

“In the context of diesel prices that are over two dollars more than they were last year, it just doesn’t come close to closing that wound,” said Matt Perdue, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union.

With less than a month to go before the November election, diesel prices continue to hit record highs as some farmers transport their crops for processing and others rush to complete their fall harvest. Many have been feeling the squeeze as costs for inputs like diesel, fertilizer and seed have soared thanks to refinery constraints and supply disruptions amid the Iran war.

Diesel averaged $6.30 per gallon across the country on Wednesday, more than 70% higher than one year ago, according to motor club AAA. The executive order defers the $0.24 federal tax per gallon of regular diesel, used for road projects, until the end of the year. Most states also levy their own tax on diesel.

“Dyed” diesel is the same as regular diesel, except for its red dye to help law enforcement enforce penalties for on-road use. It's already allowed for off-road purposes like farming equipment, such as tractors and combines, as well as construction and heating uses.

Who will see benefits

Savings can compound if states take similar actions; many have eased restrictions or waived taxes on dyed diesel, including South Dakota and Iowa. Perdue said North Dakota has waived the tax on regular diesel. But where the state decision is focused on farmers, he believes the federal decision would largely benefit those on other levels of the supply chain.

Farmers who will see the most benefit are those who haul their own product, like livestock or fresh produce, on public roads. Those who have already wrapped up harvesting won't see savings.

“Most of our diesel use is behind us,” said Perdue, who grows spring wheat, durum and canola on his family farm.

Both trucking companies and independent truckers may not see much relief either. The effect is likely to be negligible for big trucking companies because the order is on a federal level and states make their own rules, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote in a social media post.

“The largest diesel users are the least likely to use dyed diesel,” he wrote. “A national carrier crossing five or six states in a day faces enormous risk with a patchwork of rules, legal in one state, and subject to fines in the next.”

Many states exempt road diesel from sales tax but apply sales tax to dyed diesel instead, he said.

Easing limits on red-dyed diesel will likely have a minimal effect for small truckers, who pay for fuel up front, said Todd Spencer, president and CEO of trade group the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. He estimates every $1 increase per gallon in fuel costs independent truckers about $400 more per week.

Increased demand for dyed diesel

The savings will be small, but it could still increase competition for dyed diesel, said David Ortega, food economics and policy professor at Michigan State University.

“I think there's a real chance this could backfire and make the situation worse for farmers," he said. “Basically anybody that’s running a truck on the highway on regular diesel can now be using this off-highway diesel. Even someone that owns a diesel pickup truck potentially has access to this other type of diesel.”

Perdue in North Dakota said he expects a “rush for dyed diesel, and we’ll see how the supply responds.”

But not all dyed diesel pump stations are set up for larger trucks like semis, said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s going to come down to infrastructure ability to get your vehicles to a place that you can use and fill them up with,” he said.

Supply shortages persist

Henry Hanscom, American Trucking Associations chief advocacy and public affairs officer, pointed out that the executive order directs temporary penalty relief and potential tax deferral for using red-dyed diesel, not outright tax forgiveness. He said the ATA would review the Internal Revenue Service’s implementing guidance of the policy when it is available.

Last month, Trump had threatened a diesel export ban, though he later said it is off the table. On Friday, G7 countries agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products.

“One of the problems we have right now in the world is there’s not enough diesel fuel,” said Gregg Ibendahl, farm management specialist at Kansas State University.

But underlying causes like geopolitical issues won't be solved overnight.

“The problem we’ve accumulated right now with the Strait of Hormuz and the Russia-Ukraine war, those are going to be longer term things to get fixed,” he said. “Getting that world supply back up again is going to be, I think, at least a year, even in the best cases.”

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Anderson reported from New York.

The judges revealed through their questions that there are still many legal issues to be decided in the lawsuit even though it has dragged on for almost a quarter-century.

They didn't say when they might rule on whether claims can proceed to trial alleging that Saudi Arabia provided aid to at least two of the 19 men who hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field that day.

Still, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada was killed in the attacks, said she was encouraged that more than 100 family members of 9/11 victims turned out and by the judges' questions.

“It really was a good day for us,” she said afterward. “The judges asked really meaningful questions and hammered the Saudi attorneys and didn’t let up. They weren’t buying what the Saudis were selling.”

In lawsuits, hundreds of victims’ relatives and injured survivors, along with insurance companies and businesses, claim that employees of the Saudi government directly and knowingly assisted the hijackers and other plotters and fueled al-Qaida’s development into a terrorist organization by funding charities that supported them.

Some defendants, including Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida, already have been found in default.

On Wednesday, lawyers from both sides were questioned repeatedly by the appeals judges who seemed unsure exactly how they would respond to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's claims that it should be dismissed as a defendant on sovereign immunity grounds.

Lawyers for Saudi Arabia say the nation and the U.S. were partners in the 1990s against terrorism, al-Qaida and its founder, Osama bin Laden.

Although 15 of the 19 attackers on 9/11 were Saudis, the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Lawyers for victims' relatives claim that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia aided the hijackers.

The appeal by Saudi Arabia stemmed from an August 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who decided that the case could proceed in federal court, though he did not rule on the merits of the claims.

The Brewers announced Gasser (5-5, 3.87 ERA) as their starter a day after the Padres announced right-hander Walker Buehler (9-6, 4.63) as theirs. San Diego won 4-3 on Tuesday night to avoid elimination and trim Milwaukee’s lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1.

This will be the first appearance for both pitchers in the Division Series. Buehler had opened the series on the paternity list before getting reinstated on Monday.

Gasser had two relief outings during Milwaukee’s playoff run last year and allowed two runs over 2 2/3 innings. He pitched extremely well late in the regular season, as he allowed six runs — five earned — over 27 innings in September for a 1.67 ERA.

Gasser was drafted by the Padres and pitching in their farm system before going to the Brewers in the 2022 trade that brought reliever Josh Hader to San Diego.

Buehler has much more postseason experience after pitching on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2020 and 2024 World Series championship teams. He is 4-4 with a 3.04 ERA in 19 career playoff appearances, including 18 starts. He earned the save in the Dodgers' title-clinching Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series.

Buehler was the starting pitcher and took the loss when the Brewers earned their last road playoff win, in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series with the Dodgers. The Brewers have lost 12 straight road playoff games since.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez led the way on social media offering his condolences after housing activists and Abascal's lawyer announced her death. Known widely as “Maricarmen,” she had become a symbol for renters struggling with Spain's housing affordability crisis.

“All my love to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones,” Sánchez said in a post on X. “A hug as well to all of us who feel this loss as our own today. Rest in peace.”

The emotions ran into anger on the street among the protesters gathered near Spain's Parliament who chanted “Maricarmen lives, the fight goes on!”

Iciar López, a 32-year-old psychologist, shared her feelings with The Associated Press at the protest in Madrid.

“A great deal of sorrow. And above all, the thought that she is the cause, the head of this whole revolution that has happened, and that she can’t see it,” she said. “It makes me very sad that she can’t see if anything comes of it ... That’s what angers me the most, honestly.”

A case that captured media attention and traveled around the world

Spaniards increasingly frustrated by housing costs periodically march in major cities demanding action from lawmakers. But a fresh wave of indignation has swept Spain since Sept. 23, when Maricarmen, who used a wheelchair, was carried on a stretcher from her home of seven decades after police cordoned off the street and removed protesters. She was taken to a hospital because of her fragile health.

Televised images of the eviction prompted thousands of people to protest in Madrid and other cities across the country.

Maricarmen's lawyer, Beatriz Duro, did not disclose the cause of death when she confirmed it to Cadena Ser radio. Duro said that she and the activists were all devastated.

“Maricarmen's case, which captured media attention and traveled around the world, leaves us the image of the shameful violence of these types of evictions and the impact they can have on people’s health,” Duro said.

She had been expected to return home after leaving the hospital. The real estate company that evicted her in order to rent the property at a much higher price eventually caved in under immense public pressure and agreed to let her return to the apartment.

“Although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return home, this solution came too late,” the Madrid Tenants' Union said in a statement Wednesday. “It was an entirely avoidable situation following a harrowing ordeal.”

Maricarmen's plight galvanized a social movement

The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to the real estate website Idealista. Spain’s government said that 26% of Spaniards who rent housing spend an average of 40% of their income on rent and utilities, compared with the European Union average of 18% of renters who do so.

Protesters camped in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square held a minute of silence after learning of her death.

Maricarmen spent almost her entire life in her apartment, where she first lived with her parents and brother. She later worked as a secretary for the board of a pharmaceutical company, Spanish daily El País reported. She said both her parents died in the apartment.

After retiring in 1998, she spent her days walking around the neighborhood, doing errands and taking care of the precious items in her home. The paper reported that black-and-white family photographs were among the only things she had brought with her to the hospital.

“Maricarmen only wanted to die in her home. She wasn’t asking for anything else,” Eugenio Melchor, 22, said at the protest in Madrid. “She was dying in her home and she almost did. They have killed her. I mean, there’s no other word for it, and I hope those responsible for this pay and go to trial.”

Maricarmen’s plight galvanized a social movement, prompted Spain’s unions to announce a general strike next month and intensified pressure on political leaders. Sánchez called an early election Monday after his government failed last week to push emergency housing measures through Parliament. He now hopes the issue will reinvigorate his Socialist Party and help him form a new government after the Nov. 29 election.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez also expressed condolences, writing on X: “I deeply lament the death of Maricarmen. My condolences to those who accompanied her and fought by her side until the end.”

Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who hopes to unseat Sánchez and his left-wing coalition, also offered condolences.

“I want to express my condolences to Maricarmen's family and loved ones. No campaign, no party, no use for political advantage,” the Popular Party leader wrote. “When faced with the death of a person, we must only show respect.”

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Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Teresa Medrano, in Madrid, and Renata Brito, in Barcelona, contributed.

John Beck, the attorney Rahm hired for LIV's bankruptcy proceedings, said during a Wednesday hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey that Rahm reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 and decided he would not be participating in 2027.

Rahm, a Masters and U.S. Open champion and the last player to be No. 1 in the world before Scottie Scheffler, was among the biggest and most stunning acquisitions by LIV Golf at the end of 2023 when he was the reigning Masters champion.

Rahm had said in May he has several years left on his contract. His signing bonus, never confirmed, was reported to be in the $300 million range.

While the hearing was confirmation he wants out of LIV — he had not answered questions directly most of the summer — the decision was not surprising.

The court earlier this week allowed Sergio Garcia to end his contract when the 46-year-old Spaniard and former Masters champion asked for clarification on his status. Garcia was among the first to defect to LIV in 2022.

Still to come was formal separation from LIV Golf and word on where Rahm would play next. The PGA Tour has said it would not hold conversations with any LIV player still legally under contract. Beck declined to comment when reached by phone.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp brought back five-time major champion Brooks Koepka with heavy financial stipulations at the start of this year, after Koepka negotiated an end to his LIV contract. Rolapp offered the deal to three other major champions, including Rahm, giving them a two-week deadline to decide. None took the offer.

Two months later, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia said it would no longer bankroll the rival league after the 2026 season.

The PGA Tour did not immediately comment on Rahm’s decision.

Rahm's plans were revealed two days after BC Partners Credit announced an initial investment payment to LIV Golf 2.0, which still requires approval, that would allow the league to move forward with a team-focused theme in which players would be equity owners.

Part of LIV's amended restructuring support agreement extended the deadline for players who decide whether they want to stick around for LIV 2.0.

LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil had said Monday: "We believe deeply in the future of this league and in the opportunity to build something distinctive alongside our players. We’re delivering on our major milestones, and while there is still work ahead, today marks meaningful progress toward a player-owned, team-focused, truly global league that complements the wider game and creates new opportunities for players, fans, partners and the next generation of golfers.”

Rahm was the individual points champion each of the last three years, when the prize money was $20 million for individual competition and bonuses were awarded for the points race. His total earnings from LIV over the last three years topped $100 million.

Rahm withdrew this week from the Spanish Open because his wife, Kelley, is home in Arizona expecting their fourth child. He remains a European tour member and plans to play in Abu Dhabi and Dubai at the end of the year.

The PGA Tour typically bans players for one year after their last LIV event, though it made an exception for Koepka. Bryson DeChambeau, among those who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tour when LIV began, has not indicated any desire to return.

Rolapp has consistently said he wants what's best for the PGA Tour, and Rahm is LIV's best player as a former No. 1. He is still at No. 15 despite limited access to world ranking points.

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More than 60 laborers, mostly from India, signed the deals Wednesday to receive their share of a 31-million-euro (nearly $35 million) settlement agreed last month with Alabama-based Caddell Construction. The signings began Tuesday.

Prosecutors say it is the largest settlement ever for labor exploitation in Europe.

Each worker signed a document seen by The Associated Press agreeing not to discredit Caddell and not to disclose the individual payments. Caddell said in the document that the settlement was not an admission of liability. Individual payments are to be made within 30 days of the signing.

The workers saw the potentially life-changing sum in black-and-white for the first time at the signings — with the highest reaching nearly 90,000 euros (nearly $101,000), said Francesco Brigatti, the court-appointed administrator working to return the consulate construction site to legality.

The payouts combine unpaid overtime, reimbursement for housing illegally deducted from their pay and hefty damages personally sought by investigating Prosecutor Paolo Storari, Brigatti said.

“The damages component alone amounts to 60–70% of the overtime total,” Brigatti said, well above the 10% to 30% that he said is more customary in such cases.

Dilip Ram, a 43-year-old mason from India, has worked at the Milan consulate site for more than two years. He said the money would go a long way to helping his family of five back home in the Indian state of Bihar.

“Things are better now than before … we get more rest now,” Ram said, after signing the deal. “This has led to a lot of change. This settlement will be good. Because the workers had troubles, that’s why this settlement has been applied.”

Over two days, 115 workers signed the deals, with the procedure continuing next week.

Prosecutors say workers were paid less than $2 an hour, were illegally docked money for housing and denied overtime for working up to 10 hours a day, six days a week. They also were allegedly subjected to threats and not given proper medical care when they were injured on the job. Most of the workers were from India, but also Nigeria, Kenya and Bangladesh.

Workers from India reported having to pay 5,000 euros ($5,600) to recruiters to get the jobs, but the settlement did not directly address abuses in India, where prosecutors could not investigate, officials said.

The investigation against Caddell remains open, pending the payouts, which are expected to be completed by February. Two managers under investigation for extortion and facilitating illegal immigration remain under house arrest.

Caddell’s settlement includes about 11.2 million euros ($12.5 million) for Italy’s social security coffers and workplace injury insurance. Under the deal, the workers are also getting permits to work in Italy even off the Caddell site.

Caddell, a major contractor for U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, said in June that it was cooperating fully with Italian authorities, reviewing its global subcontractors and consultancies for compliance with labor laws, and working with authorities to protect workers on the project.

“Caddell continues to cooperate in good faith with the appropriate authorities throughout this process, and we remain focused on the care and well-being of the people working on an important project,” the company said Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department has said it is investigating the allegations made by prosecutors and that U.S. law enforcement is working with Italian authorities. Last week, it added that it is following the case closely.

“The U.S. government has zero tolerance for illegal activity,” it said.

In all, nearly 480 workers can expect payouts — some 300 still working on the site, another 100 elsewhere in Italy and the rest in their home countries.

“We have asked the Indian consulate to help,” said Adelio Riva, a labor lawyer working as a consultant for the prosecutor’s office. “We are relying heavily on word-of-mouth because, as they say, ‘follow the money.’”

The signings are being followed also by three construction worker trade unions that are assisting the workers. It is a bittersweet coda to a saga that started when unions were denied access to workers at the consulate job site, erroneously citing diplomatic status, said Trifone Radogna, an organizer for the Feneal Uil construction workers union. He said the union had never been barred from informing workers of their rights on job sites in Milan, which has been undergoing a construction boom over the last two decades.

“We have never encountered a labor-exploitation system on this scale,” Radogna said.

“Here workers’ dignity was lost: they found themselves without accommodation, without meals, and they were already starting at a disadvantage because they had to pay 5,000 euros before leaving.”

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AP social media producer Nandini Gupta contributed from New York.

On Wednesday, the 1-year-old is celebrating his birthday — clapping, dancing, digging into his birthday cake and playing with his favorite pal, Woody from the movie “Toy Story.”

But getting to this moment was anything but easy.

Jayce is a survivor of an EXIT procedure — short for Ex-Utero Intrapartum Treatment — a rare procedure performed during delivery that allowed doctors to secure his airway before he was fully separated from his mother.

Before he was born, doctors discovered a rare tumor called a teratoma growing on Jayce’s neck. The mass was stopping him from breathing and was also attached to his swallowing tube.

“His tumor, by the time he was born, was about seven centimeters in size. It spanned all the way from the jaw to the root of his upper chest,” said Dr. Leonardo Torres, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital

On Oct. 7, 2025, more than 30 doctors took part in the procedure.

Doctors performed a partial C-section while Jayce remained connected to his mother through the umbilical cord and placenta.

For his family, the diagnosis was terrifying.

“That’s all I would hear is, ‘get prepared for the worst,”' Jayce’s grandmother, Silvia Soriano, said.

His mother, Juliana Soriano, said she turned to her faith.

“It was a tough battle from the moment I was first told that my baby wasn’t going to make it. Being 18 and going through my first pregnancy, it hit me harder than I could have imagine,” she said. “But I left everything in God’s hands, and he took over. I talked to God and left it all to him,” she said.

During the procedure, doctors had only minutes to establish an airway and give Jayce a chance to survive.

“(He) only had a few minutes,” said Torres. “Thankfully, through God’s grace, he guided me.”

One year later, the fear has given way to celebration.

Jayce spent his first birthday surrounded by family, smiling, making sounds, clapping and enjoying his cake.

And when it came time to show just how far he has come, Jayce had a message of his own — breathing into the microphone, all on his own.

His mother says seeing her son healthy and strong is a blessing.

“I’m just so blessed to be able to look at my baby. He’s here, he’s strong, he fought everything,” Soriano said.

The boy’s father and other family members were sentenced to life in prison in 2024 after jurors convicted them in what prosecutors described as a “sick end-of-times scheme.”

A panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a decision issued Tuesday that there was no evidence of a federal kidnapping crime when the family took the boy, noting that no court order or state law made it illegal for Siraj Ibn Wahhaj to take his son.

The group already was living in New Mexico when a Georgia juvenile court issued a pickup order for the boy after his mother petitioned for emergency custody. The appellate panel took issue with jury instructions that implied the mother's lack of consent could satisfy the unlawfulness element under the federal kidnapping statute.

“This instructional error was not harmless,” the panel wrote. “Had the court correctly instructed on the law, the jury couldn’t have found unlawfulness based on the government’s evidence.”

The family members can't be retried on the kidnapping charges, the panel ruled.

The appeals panel also vacated convictions stemming from accusations that Wahhaj and his brother-in-law were preparing for attacks against the government. It said the two men, who had represented themselves during the trial, had been excluded from bench conferences with the judge about notes jurors had sent during deliberations.

The court remanded that part of the case back to the district court, clearing the way for new trials for the men if prosecutors opt to pursue the case.

“What happened at the Taos compound was horrific. We are reviewing the case and assessing what further action may be appropriate,” the U.S. attorney's office for the district of New Mexico wrote in an email Wednesday.

During the three-week trial in 2023, the defendants suggested that the case was the product of “government overreach” and that they were targeted because they are Muslim.

A fifth defendant — Jany Leveille, a Haitian national — avoided the trial by pleading guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and being in possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the United States. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged that it was under Leveille’s instruction that the family fled Georgia with the boy, ending up in a remote stretch of the high desert where they conducted firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against the government. Prosecutors said it was tied to a belief that the boy would be resurrected and then instruct the family which corrupt government and private institutions needed to be eliminated.

In a complex case that took years to get to trial, jurors heard weeks of testimony from children who had lived with their parents at the compound, other family members, firearms experts, doctors and forensic technicians.

Authorities raided the compound in 2018, finding 11 children and dismal living conditions. They also found 11 firearms and ammunition that were used at a makeshift shooting range on the property near the Colorado state line.

The remains of Wahhaj’s son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, were found in an underground tunnel at the compound. Testimony indicated that the boy died just weeks after arriving in New Mexico and that his body was kept for months with Leveille promising the others he would be resurrected.

An exact cause of death was never determined amid accusations that the boy, who had frequent seizures, had been deprived of crucial medication.

Lee was on hand for construction crews to break ground in Fort Worth on a museum dedicated to telling the history of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. The planned 50,000-square-foot (4,600-square-meter) National Juneteenth Museum, located in a historically Black neighborhood, is projected to open in 2029.

Wearing a flower lei and surrounded by family and friends, Lee expressed her happiness and gratitude after the announcement of a $3 million donation by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I’m so happy I could do a holy dance, and these old legs won’t respond, but let me tell you how thankful I am and that this deed won’t go unnoticed,” Lee said.

Later Wednesday, Obama was expected to join museum leaders for an event honoring Lee, who is widely known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth.”

When then-President Joe Biden in 2021 signed a bill into law making Juneteenth a federal holiday, Lee was by his side.

The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the freedom of the enslaved people in Texas. It was about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed the enslaved people in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Six months later, the ratification of the 13th Amendment permanently ended slavery in the United States.

Lee has been a force in Fort Worth, where she worked for decades as a teacher, counselor and community activist.

She has said she has cherished childhood memories of celebrating Juneteenth with food, music and games, and as an adult, she was involved in planning the celebration in Fort Worth.

“Long before there were historic walks, cameras, books and well-deserved national acclaim, my childhood memories are filled with you making sure that Fort Worth remembered,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee H. Toliver said at the event.

She told Lee that she remembered her planning community events, parades and festivals.

“You always reminded us that history is not something you leave behind, it’s something you actively protect,” Toliver said.

The future site of the museum is not far from the home that was built for Lee a couple of years ago on the same tree-lined corner lot that her family had been driven from by a racist mob when she was a young girl.

Lee was 12 when, on Juneteenth in 1939, a white mob of hundreds descended on her Black family’s home, days after they moved into a white neighborhood. The mob smashed windows and furniture, according to newspaper reports from the time.

Jarred Howard, the museum’s CEO, was among those who honored Lee on Wednesday.

“It was important for us to do this on this date because everything we’ve done for the last several years, everything we continue to do, is built around the spirit of the venerable Miss Opal Lee,” he said.

Isaias strengthened into a hurricane late Wednesday, and forecasters say it could make landfall late Friday or early Saturday somewhere along the Alabama-Mississippi-Florida coastlines before moving north. The storm could prompt schools to cancel games, change kickoff times or even move games to other locations. The Southwestern Athletic Conference moved Florida A&M’s game at Alabama State from Saturday to Friday morning.

Trump, who attended Texas' win over Tennessee in another Southeastern Conference game on Sept. 26, was asked Wednesday about the storm.

“I love Alabama. I’ve got to go to the game,” Trump responded.

Trump said he didn’t want to do “anything to take the focus” away from “all of the great people that work on those things,” including first responders and police, adding “We’ll have to see” about his travel plans.

Georgia and Alabama have not disclosed backup plans for the game scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. EDT in Tuscaloosa, 200 miles inland from the coast. Alabama issued a statement saying “at this time there are no plans to alter the contest” but officials at the school and the SEC will continue to monitor conditions. The SEC ultimately makes the decision.

“It’s uncertainty beyond my control,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I’m focused on trying to prepare our team and game plan and scheme.”

Smart said Georgia went through similar preparations last week with the threat of severe weather surrounding its game against Vanderbilt. The weather turned into a non-event in the Bulldogs’ 38-14 win.

“We had that same prep last week with the threat of those things,” he said. “You can’t really practice conditions. You can’t simulate them, so you’re much better off to educate, learn from the past of other people that have played in them, and prepare your team to play and not make it about that.”

The storm could trigger flash floods with dangerous winds, heavy rain and tornadoes. Events in Alabama have already been canceled. Alabama meteorologist James Spann told AL.com that moving the game to Sunday night would be the best choice.

Smart and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said they were being updated but didn't outline contingency plans.

“I’m not really involved in too much, just updated on kind of where things stand,” DeBoer said. “If there’s anything that would need to be adjusted, but you know, I haven’t heard anything recently.”

In 1988, Alabama postponed a Sept. 17 game at Texas A&M to December because of Hurricane Gilbert. Georgia's 2016 game at South Carolina was pushed to Sunday due to Hurricane Matthew while the LSU-Florida game that same Saturday was postponed to November.

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The officials unanimously agreed that inflation was still elevated and had not made much progress toward their 2% target in recent months, the minutes said. The Fed increased its key interest rate at the Sept. 15-16 meeting by a quarter-point to about 3.9%, its first increase in three years.

The increase defied President Donald Trump's repeated calls for the Fed to cut rates and prompted the president to criticize the Fed's rate-setting committee, though he still expressed support for Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom he appointed earlier this year. The rate increase comes as Americans are already struggling with high costs for groceries, gas and housing, and as affordability has taken on a leading role in the upcoming midterm elections, just seven weeks away.

Longer-term interest rates for mortgages and other borrowing have also jumped in the past few months for a range of reasons, including rising government debt, heavy borrowing by tech firms to finance data center construction, climbing oil and gas prices, and signs that growth and inflation remain elevated. The Fed's rate hike has likely played only a limited role in the increase.

Still, key policymakers have said since the meeting that the Fed can take some time to monitor the economy and the impact of last month's rate hike before making another move. Wall Street investors now forecast the Fed will keep its rate unchanged at its next meeting Oct. 28-29, according to futures pricing, and raise it when they meet in December.

Philip Jefferson, vice chair of the Fed’s board of governors, said last week that policymakers “will need to come to our own judgement, which may take more time.”

Inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, came in lower than many economists expected in August but remained elevated. Overall prices rose 3.4% compared with a year earlier, while core prices — which exclude volatile food and energy categories — increased 3%. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% from July to August, and core prices just 0.2%.

According to the minutes, even with the rise in longer-term rates, many officials said that financial conditions—which includes rising stock prices — “appeared to be supportive of economic growth,” a sign that more rate hikes may be needed to cool the economy.

Several policymakers said that they saw the Fed’s rate as too low to restrain the economy, or only acting as a mild restraint. That suggests they would support multiple rate hikes to rein in inflation.

Higher oil and gas prices stemming from the Iran war and the lingering effects of tariffs have lifted costs in recent months. But even excluding those trends, many Fed officials believe inflation is stuck between 2.5% and 3%, above its target. Spiking prices for semiconductors, computer equipment, and electrical components due to the rapid surge in data center construction have also played a big role in accelerating inflation.

The Fed lifted its key interest rate to about 3.9% at its Sept. 15-16 meeting, its first increase in three years. Higher rates are intended to slow borrowing and spending, cool the economy and bring down inflation.

Warsh emphasized after the announcement that the economy has shown signs of gathering speed since the central bank decided to keep rates unchanged in late July.

“The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said at a news conference after last month’s meeting. “We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective clearly and at sufficient speed. Today the FOMC decided that this standard has not been satisfied,” he added, referring to the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, an arm of the Fed.

Trump criticized the committee for voting to raise rates, calling them “very political,” but he did not single out Warsh.

“They’re raising rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do,” the president said.

Less than one-third of all Medicare recipients are eligible for the payments, which are expected to be sent out this week. Not eligible are roughly 35 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, millions of other people with disabilities and low-income Medicare recipients.

The election-year promise that the Republican president made over the weekend comes as the Nov. 3 midterms are fast approaching, with the cost of living and healthcare expenses among the top issues for voters.

Some questions and answers about the payouts:

Who will benefit?

Some 20.8 million people in the original Medicare Part B who are living in the United States, not receiving premium assistance from Medicaid or not paying an income-related monthly adjusted amount.

Medicare Advantage enrollees, who make up more than half of the eligible 64.2 million Medicare beneficiaries, will not receive a payment, according to KFF, a healthcare research nonprofit. Nor will 12 million low-income older adults and people with disabilities who get premium assistance.

The Part B program covers expenses such as doctor’s visits, ambulance services and lab tests. Total monthly costs generally start at about $200 and vary with income.

Allison Schuster, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that the administration “is enabling Americans to take control of their health by putting money directly back in the hands of Medicare patients.”

When will the payments go out and how will they be disbursed?

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website, eligible beneficiaries will receive one $90 rebate this month, with most getting a direct deposit on or around Friday. Others will receive a paper check from the Treasury Department later in October.

Juliette Cubanski, director of KFF’s program on Medicare policy, said the payment will be automatic.

“As far as a benefit goes, people don't have to call or sign up — it's just money they receive directly, but not everybody on Medicare will receive this money.”

A White House fact sheet says people can call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to check on their eligibility for the premium rebate. To check on payment status, people should call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213.

What is the source of the money?

Payments will come out of the Medicare Improvement Fund created by Congress in 2008 and intended to make improvements to the Medicare fee-for-service program.

The fund was created to improve program management and conduct oversight of contracts and contractors, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but its purpose has expanded after various legislative changes.

This is not the first time the fund has been used.

Democratic President Barack Obama's administration, along with Congress, redirected $20 billion to expand healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

But under Trump, it is the first time that the fund has been used to directly pay recipients.

What are critics of the plan saying?

Critics of Trump's promise characterize the $90 payments as a preelection stunt designed to sway voters rather than address structural problems in healthcare costs and administration.

The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, said in a statement that "this is another desperate attempt by a failed president to escape Americans’ revulsion with his failed agenda, amounting to one tank of Trump-inflated gas.”

Trump recently promised $500 rebate checks to an estimated 1 million Obamacare enrollees across 30 states whom the White House alleged were overcharged by the Biden administration for some fees.

Cubanski said the Medicare rebate payments were being doled out when Americans were feeling the bite of higher food, energy and gas prices. Surging healthcare costs are only compounding those pressure, she said.

“This might be helpful for people but it might not go very far.”

Las disculpas fueron dirigidas a Luis Pacheco y Héctor Chaclán, quienes estuvieron presos más de un año acusados de terrorismo, así como a Basilio Puac y María Juana Elías, dirigentes de la organización 48 Cantones de Totonicapán, la organización indígena más grande del país. También fueron extendidas a Esteban Toc, de la alcaldía indígena del departamento de Sololá, así como a las juntas directivas de ambas organizaciones en 2023.

“El proceso penal en su contra fue arbitrario e ilegal, una persecución sesgada y espuria”, dijo Arévalo en su discurso de disculpas, y agregó que se estigmatizó la lucha de las comunidades.

El mandatario destacó que los líderes indígenas ejercieron su derecho a defender la democracia de forma pacífica, con la legitimidad que les otorgan sus comunidades “y con la vocación de servicio que distingue a la autoridad ancestral”.

"Pero el Estado, en lugar de reconocerlos y protegerlos, los criminalizó utilizando maliciosamente el derecho penal a través del Ministerio Público y el sistema de justicia”, reprochó el presidente.

Liberados por falta de pruebas

La disculpa fue ordenada por un juzgado que a principios de agosto dejó en libertad a los dirigentes, estableciendo que estuvieron presos sin pruebas ni sustento. Los detenidos siempre defendieron su inocencia.

“Fue una agresión, un ataque contra instituciones legítimas, contra autoridades territoriales y ancestrales que existen desde mucho antes que el propio Estado y que generación tras generación han sostenido la vida comunitaria de sus pueblos”, dijo Arévalo.

Pacheco, que en 2023 era el presidente de la Junta Directiva de los 48 Cantones y lideró las protestas, agradeció el gesto del gobierno. “No tengamos miedo, manifestar nuestros derechos, apegados al derecho, no es delito”, afirmó el líder indígena.

Julio Saavedra, procurador general, destacó que "el Estado persiguió penalmente a los 48 Cantones de Totonicapán y a su junta directiva como si se tratara de una organización criminal, la prueba determinó lo contrario”.

Los 48 Cantones de Totonicapán es una organización comunitaria indígena maya y ancestral del pueblo K'iche'. Su origen es colonial y su lucha se fundamenta en la defensa de su cultura y cosmovisión.

En 2023 organizaciones indígenas, estudiantiles, profesionales y de la sociedad civil paralizaron el país por 20 días para exigir que la fiscalía a cargo de Porras respetara la voluntad popular en los comicios en los que Arévalo fue elegido presidente. Porras y sus fiscales buscaban que las elecciones se declararan fraudulentas y fueran anuladas para impedir la llegada del dirigente político al poder.

La fiscalía acusó y persiguió a los líderes de las protestas por delitos que iban desde la asociación ilícita, la sedición, el terrorismo, la obstaculización de la acción penal y la obstrucción a la justicia.

Eduardo Tax, actual presidente de la junta directiva de los 48 Cantones de Totonicapán, dijo que “los pueblos comunitarios no somos enemigos de la democracia" sino parte de ella, y que el acto de disculpa debe servir para “reivindicar su nombre y su dignidad”.

Miguel Ángel Vicente, alcalde indígena de la Municipalidad de Sololá, afirmó por su lado que las disculpas deberían ir acompañadas de acciones, como mejoras en la economía comunitaria y en la salud, y servir para “contribuir a restablecer la dignidad de las autoridades indígenas”.

Porras fue sancionada en 2024 junto a empleados y funcionarios cercanos por la Unión Europea por socavar la democracia y el Estado de derecho. Años antes fue sancionada por Estados Unidos por obstaculizar la lucha anticorrupción. Son sanciones que se mantienen hasta hoy.

“The right mixes religion and faith, whereas I think those things should be separate, while (Lula’s) Workers’ Party has robbed the country,” said Bon Raggio, a 19-year-old studying theater in Rio de Janeiro, while walking around a shopping mall in downtown Rio. “I’m very undecided.”

Her distrust is rooted in history: Bolsonaro is under investigation for corruption and Lula was jailed for 19 months on corruption and money laundering charges that were later annulled. Bolsonaro’s father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is currently serving a 27-year sentence for planning a coup after his 2022 defeat to Lula.

As the second round nears, both Lula and Bolsonaro are hyperfocused on winning over undecided voters such as Bon Raggio, as well as those who voted for one of the eliminated candidates in the first round. More than 33 million, or 21% of the electorate, did not go to the polls on Sunday.

A tight second round is expected

The abstention percentage is the highest since 1998 for a first round. First-round non-voting has been slowly increasing since 2006, according to data from Brazil’s electoral court. Not voting in Brazil incurs a small fine as participation is mandatory for literate citizens aged 18 to 70.

“Abstention of 20% isn’t ideal,” said the president of Brazil’s electoral court, Kassio Nunes Marques, after Sunday’s vote. “The idea is to intensify and perfect all the available mechanisms to diminish this percentage in the second round.”

Neither Lula nor Bolsonaro received more than 50% during the first round on Sunday, and will now face each other in the runoff scheduled for Oct. 25.

Bolsonaro has at least two advantages: He received 2 million more votes than Lula on Sunday and the candidates who placed third, fourth and fifth — Augusto Cury, Renan Santos and Ronaldo Caiado — are all on the right of the political spectrum. Caiado, who garnered around 2.6 million votes, endorsed Bolsonaro on Tuesday. Cury and Santos have said they will not support either candidate.

Economic woes and election polarization grip Brazil

Nearly six million people cast a blank or spoiled vote — including Alexandre Moreira, a 21-year-old university student. Ahead of the second round, he is also undecided, though he's leaning toward Lula because he believes the incumbent is open-minded.

“But things are more expensive, and I’m feeling it,” said Moreira, who works three part-time jobs to earn a living while studying.

He pointed to the rising price of gasoline, which has increased from 5 reais ($1) a liter in January 2023 to 6.54 reais ($1.31) in September 2026, according to Brazil’s National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.

On Sunday, many lined up to cast their vote wearing either red hats and T-shirts — signaling support for Lula’s party — or the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag traditionally used by Bolsonaro's movement, reflecting the polarization gripping the country.

But others feel alienated, misrepresented and worn out by the opposing political forces, said Carolina Almeida de Paula, a political scientist from Rio de Janeiro State University.

“We talk a lot about polarization in Brazil, but we forget the higher percentage of people who don’t like this fight,” she said.

Brazil’s polling agency Datafolha predicted around 11% of people were undecided ahead of the first round. Around the same time in 2022, the Datafolha poll found just 2% were undecided.

The final result may be a surprise

Meri Oliveira, 62, is among those who won’t vote for either candidate in three weeks’ time. “Flávio Bolsonaro is as corrupt as Lula,” said Oliveira.

Oliveira called the current president “the biggest thief in Brazil” and referred to his stint in prison. She also decried Jair Bolsonaro’s misogynist comments and his handling of the pandemic, during which more than 700,000 people died in Brazil — the second-highest toll after the U.S.

Getting people to participate in the second round is difficult, Almeida de Paula said, adding that this year’s election campaigns have been atypically subdued after several scandals.

“We could see more mobilization ahead of the second round, which could bring many more votes. That could mean increasing votes for Bolsonaro or allowing Lula to turn the election around,” she said.

Bon Raggio, the theater student, said that if the vote were tomorrow, she would probably cast a blank ballot.

“Brazil’s situation is complicated; I don’t think it’s a good idea for either of them to govern,” she said. “But I could still change my mind.”

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The disagreement is affecting more than politics, they say — reaching into businesses, social life and the daily routines of residents in a city with one of the largest Venezuelan populations outside Venezuela.

Ahead of Wednesday’s Doral city council meeting, community members and activists gathered with a petition bearing about 200 signatures calling on city leaders to end the agreement.

One activist said elected officials are facing pressure over the issue.

“So many elected officials are operating from a place of fear, fear of retaliation from the governor and the attorney general, including the threat of removal from office,” the activist said.

Critics say the agreement has created fear and anxiety among residents, particularly immigrants who worry that interactions with local law enforcement could lead to immigration consequences.

Liz Alarcón, a Doral resident and founder of Pulso, said she has seen what she describes as a noticeable change in the community.

“I have never seen the city so desolate, so empty, and residents so scared,” she said.

The 287(g) program allows participating local law enforcement agencies to enter agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, giving designated officers certain immigration-enforcement responsibilities.

Jeanette Ynfante of the Southern Poverty Law Center said Doral was not required to enter into such an agreement.

“Only certain entities or officials are required to enter a 287(g) agreement, and the city of Doral unequivocally is not one of them,” she said.

Doral was among the first cities in South Florida to enter into the agreement.

Some community members have sharply criticized Mayor Christi Fraga over the decision, while others have raised concerns about political pressure surrounding the issue.

One resident accused Fraga of supporting the governor’s immigration policies for political reasons, saying, “Christi Fraga was on the short list to be lieutenant governor, precisely because she licked the boots of the governor and did what he asked. It’s humiliating, embarrassing.”

Fraga has defended the city’s decision.

She says that since Doral entered the agreement, no Doral police officer has participated in an ICE-related detention.

Community members who gathered Wednesday said their goal is to capture the attention of city leaders and get discussions moving.

One activist pointed to other cities that have sent letters seeking clarification about how 287(g) agreements are being implemented.

The activists say they plan to collect 25 affidavits and use them to request time during a future city council meeting to discuss their concerns.

The 18-year-old had been on the FBI's radar since December 2024, when he began trading messages with a confidential informant. A criminal complaint says he initially expressed an interest in traveling to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab militants. As his plans to instead attack the mall solidified, the complaint says, agents sold him the gun and ammunition on Tuesday and arrested him on the spot.

“This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched,” U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said. Agents “were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people.”

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the Mall of America, after he paid $600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic State group for the rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, the agency said.

Mohamud appeared in a yellow jail uniform for his initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul. He told the judge he did not have a job, own a house or a car, or have any money in the bank. He was represented by Siri Carlson McDowell, a federal public defender. Carlson McDowell and relatives of Mohamud declined to comment after the hearing.

Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent.

According to an FBI agent's sworn complaint, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed in chat messages to the informant that he intended to attack and kill non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24, the date of a scheduled arts celebration by the Hmong community, Minnesota’s largest Asian ethnic group.

When the informant asked if he was serious about committing the attack, Mohamud replied, “yes i am 100% sure,” the complaint said, and added: “I would have backed out by now if I wasn't sure.”

The agent wrote that Mohamud's messages expressed admiration for recent terror attacks as well as an interest in traveling to fight in Somalia, ultimately for the Islamic State group. He later decided he couldn’t afford to travel there and would attack the mall instead, the complaint said.

The teen first came to the FBI’s attention in December 2024, the same month the source began exchanging messages with him, the complaint said. By May 2025, agents were concerned enough that they went to his home. His mother told them he wasn’t home from school yet and called the boy’s father, who declined to speak with them and said he would give their contact information to his lawyer, the complaint said.

“What I would say to parents all over Minnesota, and all over America: If you get any indication — especially if you hear from federal law enforcement — that your son or daughter is being radicalized, to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, those are warnings that ought to be heeded,” Rosen said.

Tens of thousands of people of Somali descent live in Minnesota, dating back to when refugees began arriving in the 1990s. Over the years several have been charged with attempting to join militant groups.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo in New York contributed.

Según ellos, el desacuerdo va más allá de la política. Afecta a los negocios, la vida social y la rutina diaria de los residentes en una ciudad que tiene una de las mayores poblaciones venezolanas fuera de Venezuela.

Antes de la reunión del concejo municipal de Doral del miércoles, miembros de la comunidad y activistas se reunieron con una petición de unas 200 firmas. En ella piden a los líderes de la ciudad que pongan fin al acuerdo.

Un activista dijo que los funcionarios electos están bajo presión por este tema.

“Muchos funcionarios electos están actuando por miedo, miedo a las represalias del gobernador y del fiscal general, incluida la amenaza de ser destituidos”, dijo el activista.

Los críticos afirman que el acuerdo ha generado miedo y ansiedad entre los residentes. Les preocupa sobre todo a los inmigrantes, que temen que cualquier contacto con la policía local tenga consecuencias migratorias.

Liz Alarcón, residente de Doral y fundadora de Pulso, dijo que ha notado un cambio evidente en la comunidad.

“Nunca había visto la ciudad tan desolada, tan vacía, ni a los residentes con tanto miedo”, dijo.

El programa 287(g) permite a las agencias policiales locales que participan firmar acuerdos con el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de EE.UU. (ICE). Así, ciertos agentes designados asumen algunas funciones de control migratorio.

Jeanette Ynfante, del Southern Poverty Law Center, dijo que Doral no estaba obligada a firmar ese acuerdo.

“Solo ciertas entidades o funcionarios están obligados a firmar un acuerdo 287(g), y la ciudad de Doral, sin lugar a dudas, no es una de ellas”, afirmó.

Doral fue una de las primeras ciudades del sur de Florida en firmar el acuerdo.

Algunos miembros de la comunidad han criticado duramente a la alcaldesa Christi Fraga por la decisión. Otros han expresado su preocupación por la presión política que rodea el tema.

Un residente acusó a Fraga de apoyar las políticas migratorias del gobernador por razones políticas. “Christi Fraga estuvo en la lista corta para ser vicegobernadora precisamente porque le lamió las botas al gobernador e hizo lo que él le pidió. Es humillante, vergonzoso”, dijo.

Fraga ha defendido la decisión de la ciudad.

Según la alcaldesa, desde que Doral firmó el acuerdo, ningún policía de la ciudad ha participado en una detención relacionada con ICE.

Los miembros de la comunidad que se reunieron el miércoles dijeron que su objetivo es llamar la atención de los líderes de la ciudad y lograr que avance el diálogo.

Un activista mencionó a otras ciudades que han enviado cartas para pedir aclaraciones sobre cómo se están aplicando los acuerdos 287(g).

Los activistas dicen que planean reunir 25 declaraciones juradas. Con ellas pedirán un espacio en una próxima reunión del concejo municipal para exponer sus preocupaciones.

The decision not to accept the NBA's proposal of a single Europe entity was made Tuesday in Cernobbio during a gathering of the EuroLeague's 13 shareholder clubs. They include Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Milan, Tony Parker -owned ASVEL in France and two Istanbul-based clubs.

A statement on the EuroLeague's website said they met to “discuss and align on key strategic decisions regarding the future of their collective property,” without mentioning the NBA.

Barcelona told The Associated Press in an emailed response that a formal merger offer from the NBA had been rejected. In a statement, the club confirmed that Barcelona president Joan Laporta attended the meeting and that club owners “took several decisions regarding the future of the competition.”

“Among those decisions was the rejection of the NBA’s proposal as it currently stands. Should that proposal be amended in the future, the clubs and the EuroLeague will reconsider it,” the statement read.

It's not clear how each club voted. The EuroLeague declined to comment and pointed to its initial statement.

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 20-team EuroLeague is comprised of 13 shareholder clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation.

The NBA, in partnership with FIBA, is eying a 16-team model.

French sports daily L'Equipe reported that the NBA offered each future member 400 million euros ($448 million).

At Tuesday's EuroLeague meeting, club owners agreed to move forward with converting the current 10-year licenses into franchises for the shareholder clubs. They also agreed to continue plans to increase the number of franchises.

European ambition

France’s Victor Wembanyama, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic are among the biggest basketball stars worldwide.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reaffirmed in January that the league was pressing forward on plans to bring a new league to Europe.

The NBA was targeting October 2027 as a potential launch date, with franchises paying what is expected to be a substantial entry fee. Media reports indicated the NBA was looking for at least a $500 million fee.

Many European basketball teams, including some in the EuroLeague, have struggled financially. The system has often relied on wealthy owners to cover team debts each year. ___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Miguel Salguero Olivares is charged with first-degree murder, rape and burglary in the death of Faith Hedgepeth. She was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment in September 2012.

In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca said the defendant left his DNA on the murder weapon – a bottle of rum found covered in blood – inside Hedgepeth’s body and on a note written on a fast-food bag found at the scene.

“The evidence in this case is louder than the noise around it,” she said.

She described Hedgepeth as a caring friend who was beloved by everyone who knew her and was on track to become the first person in her family to graduate from college.

“You will see from the evidence in this case that the defendant committed these acts against Faith in a fit of rage, not because he knew her,” she said. “He didn’t do this to her because of who she was, he did it because of who he is.”

Garcia-Lamarca said Hedgepeth and her roommate had been at a popular club that night, and that Hedgepeth, the designated driver, drove them home around 2 a.m. The roommate was drunk and sick, she said, but later called a friend to come pick her up around 4 a.m. She returned hours later and found Hedgepeth dead.

“This case is not complicated. It’s devastating, it’s horrifying, it’s a family’s worst nightmare. ... but it’s also simple,” the prosecutor said. “The evidence is loud and clear.”

In his opening statement, defense attorney James Rainsford said prosecutors left out key details and urged jurors to ask themselves, “Where’s the rest of the evidence?”

The friend who picked up Hedgepeth’s roommate told police he saw what looked like blood on her hands. A downstairs neighbor reported hearing loud thumps between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. And police later lost evidence related to what appeared to be blood in the apartment’s bathroom.

“Is this just noise or are you starting to hear things that don’t add up?” he said. “Maybe that’s noise to some people; that sounds like forensic evidence to others.”

Salguero Olivares was arrested in 2021, more than nine years after the killing. His arrest came after a DNA sample submitted to the state crime lab by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Chapel Hill Police Department matched a profile found at the original crime scene, authorities said.

“Finding something doesn’t mean a crime occurred. You have to connect them,” Rainsford said of the DNA evidence. “It doesn’t mean what you think.”

The prosecutor said the message on the fast-food bag -- “I’m Not Stupid (expletive) Jealous” -- called to mind an old adage.

“Men, some men, are terrified women will laugh at them," she said. "Women are terrified of being killed or raped.”

___

Ramer reported from Concord, N.H.

Según las autoridades federales, se incautaron 90 cargamentos de biodiésel. De ellos, 71 estaban en Port Everglades, con un total de alrededor de medio millón de galones. Los otros 19 estaban en el Puerto de Houston y sumaban unos 119,000 galones.

En el operativo trabajaron de forma coordinada el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE.UU., la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza y la Oficina de Industria y Seguridad del Departamento de Comercio.

Los cargamentos estaban valorados en casi $3 millones.

Según la documentación, el combustible tenía como destino Enitec, una mayorista de petróleo con sede en La Habana y sancionada por el gobierno de EE.UU.

Los envíos de combustible a empresas privadas son legales. Sin embargo, funcionarios del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional dijeron que no era el caso de estos cargamentos.

“Las acciones de hoy reflejan nuestro compromiso de proteger la integridad de nuestros puertos y de nuestro sistema comercial”, dijo Jose Figueroa, agente especial a cargo del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional. “Queremos garantizar que no se usen para favorecer los intereses de personas vinculadas al régimen a costa del pueblo cubano”.

Las autoridades aclararon además que la incautación no busca bloquear la ayuda humanitaria legítima al pueblo cubano.

Tres años después del ataque terrorista de Hamás, Ben Ladany compartió ante el público una historia de perseverancia.

Ladany, exsoldado de las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel, recibió siete disparos mientras servía en Gaza.

“Después de pasar dos años en silla de ruedas, hoy estoy de pie frente a ustedes y me encanta compartirles las siete lecciones que aprendí de las siete balas que recibí”, dijo Ladany. “Si me miran hoy, mi cuerpo no está al 100%, pero mi mente y mi alma están en armonía. Lamentablemente, solo van a entender esto cuando les pase algo terrible. Y van a recordar que es 50-50”.

La Estación de Bomberos No. 2 de Miami Beach fue la sede de la ceremonia. El acto sirvió para reflexionar y recordar a las 1,200 personas que murieron y a los 251 rehenes secuestrados aquel fatídico día.

Shaina Verbitzky, estudiante de Hebrew Academy High School, recordó lo que vivió su familia en Israel.

“Hace unos años, mi familia decidió mudarse a Israel y construimos nuestra vida aquí”, dijo Verbitzky. “El 7 de octubre nos despertamos y, desde el balcón, vimos cómo interceptaban misiles justo encima de nuestras cabezas, sin entender bien lo que estaba pasando”.

Pese al acuerdo de alto el fuego alcanzado hace casi un año, los ataques israelíes continúan casi a diario.

El alcalde de Miami Beach, Steven Meiner, habló con el corazón apesadumbrado y dejó un mensaje de resiliencia y fortaleza.

“Le pido a Dios que el mundo tenga la claridad, la claridad moral, y el valor de defender lo que es moral y correcto”, dijo Meiner.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale, los hechos ocurrieron alrededor de las 11 a.m. en la cuadra 1700 de Northwest 13th Court, en el barrio Lauderdale Manors.

La policía dijo que los paramédicos llevaron a la víctima al Broward Health Medical Center con heridas que ponen en riesgo su vida.

La policía describió el caso como una “investigación en curso”. No indicó de inmediato si ha identificado a algún sospechoso ni el posible motivo.

Según un informe de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Hialeah, el novio de la agente Marcia Sangronis les hizo señas a unos policías el martes por la mañana. Quería denunciar que había sido agredido físicamente.

El informe de la policía de Hialeah indica que la víctima contó que Sangronis, de 38 años, se pone “furiosa y violenta” cada vez que hablan de “su falta de motivación para hacer carrera en la policía”.

Según el informe, él había pasado la noche en casa de ella. Sangronis sacó el tema la noche anterior al incidente y volvió a sacarlo al despertarse al día siguiente.

El informe señala que alrededor de las 11 a.m. él decidió irse y le dijo que quería terminar la relación. Entonces ella “se molestó y se paró frente a la puerta para impedirle salir de la casa”. Cuando él intentó alcanzar la manija, ella le dijo: “No puedes irte”.

“La víctima intentó otra vez alcanzar la manija para salir y (Sangronis) empezó a atacarlo. La víctima dijo que ella lo arañó varias veces en los brazos, la cara y la espalda”, señala el informe. “La víctima dijo que también lo mordió varias veces en el antebrazo izquierdo. Dijo que logró zafarse de (Sangronis) y salir de la casa. También dijo que (ella) lo ha maltratado física y emocionalmente durante los dos años que llevan juntos”.

La policía dijo que documentó varias lesiones en “el cuerpo, los brazos y la cara” del hombre.

La declaración que Sangronis dio a la policía fue tachada del informe.

Inicialmente fue arrestada por agresión agravada con lesiones corporales graves, un delito grave de segundo grado. Pero el miércoles, en el tribunal, un juez encontró causa probable solo para agresión simple, un delito menor, y le fijó una fianza de $1,000.

También se le ordenó mantenerse alejada de la víctima.

Según los registros, permanecía detenida en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Según publicaciones en redes sociales, lleva alrededor de un año en el Departamento de Policía de North Bay Village.

El departamento emitió un comunicado sobre el arresto el miércoles por la tarde. En parte, dice que Sangronis “fue relevada de sus funciones con goce de sueldo, según los protocolos de nuestra agencia”.

El comunicado añade que el departamento “exige a todo su personal los más altos estándares de conducta y lo hace plenamente responsable de sus actos, dentro y fuera de servicio”.

Local 10 News también contactó a su abogado para pedirle comentarios.

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Jail records show Devany Primero is facing one count each of second-degree attempted arson and criminal mischief.

According to an arrest report, officers working an off-duty detail at the stadium were alerted by security personnel that a group of men had been seen lighting what appeared to be a flare in the bleachers while spectators were nearby.

Officers said they detained three men while they investigated.

They said surveillance video showed Primero holding and appearing to ignite “an object consistent with a flare” inside the stadium.

The video review also showed that the other two men detained were not seen handling, possessing or igniting the flare, police said. One of the men told officers he had been recording Primero during the incident but denied taking part in lighting the device.

Police said Primero had brought the flare into the stadium after passing through security screening. They said flares and other incendiary devices are prohibited inside the stadium because of the potential safety risks to spectators and personnel.

The report states that event staff told police that the flare caused damage to a chair and the floor where it was ignited.

Primero, a Colombian national, was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $3,000 bond as of Wednesday morning. An immigration hold was also listed.

President Iliana Yotova spoke to reporters after an emergency meeting of the country’s Security Council following drone attacks on ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. While she didn't directly blame Russia for those strikes because there's an ongoing investigation by Bulgarian authorities, Yotova said that the war in Ukraine was undermining security for commercial vessels.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine has led to a significant deterioration of the security environment in the Black Sea region,” she said. “There is a growing trend of attacks by maritime and aerial drones against commercial vessels, leading to damage and the sinking of ships, as well as loss of life.”

Senior government and security officials discussed the Balkan country’s maritime security and critical infrastructure in the context of the war in Ukraine.

“The Security Council categorically condemns the attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea as a gross violation of international law and demands a fast check to identify the perpetrators,” Yotova said.

On Tuesday, two commercial vessels were struck by drones in the first attack on shipping in the NATO member’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.

Sea and aerial drones attacked the two ships about 80 miles (128 kilometers) off Bulgaria’s coast.

The Togo-flagged ship Alfa Watan suffered critical structural damage and sank at the scene. The second vessel, the Palau-flagged Able, caught fire after the attack. A Bulgarian ferry evacuated all 18 crew members.

Bulgarian maritime authorities said on Wednesday that the search efforts for the crew of Alfa Watan had been suspended and wouldn't resume.

Vice Admiral Rumen Nikolov, who led the rescue operation, said that no survivors or bodies had been found. He said that the drone strike had sparked an extremely powerful explosion, and the ship had sunk almost instantly.

Bulgarian authorities said that the origin of the drones was under investigation, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the drone strikes.

In a statement sent to local media on Wednesday, the Russian Embassy in Sofia rejected Russian involvement in the drone attacks on the two ships, saying “they were not among the targets hit by Russian armed forces.”

It quoted the Defense Ministry in Moscow as saying that “to determine the ‘nationality’ of the drones used to strike the ships, it is necessary to wait for the results of the investigation.”

Tuesday’s attacks came a day after a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn caught fire following a drone attack and later sank in the Black Sea. Two people died and 11 crew members were rescued.

While Bulgaria and Romania are still narrowing down the list of suspects, the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday that they had asked for satellite imagery following the attacks, and that the European Union, which has a center that analyzes data from space, is providing them.

Should the allegations made by Zelenskyy prove true, the attacks conducted on a NATO member’s territory would mark a new escalation in what European leaders and intelligence officials have said is a growing hybrid campaign by Russia aimed at testing the military alliance and the 27-nation EU.

Hybrid attacks can aim to destabilize a country, probe its defenses, strain resources, or influence public opinion — often in a way that makes it hard to identify those responsible.

An Associated Press interactive map tracking the incidents of hybrid attacks shows an escalation, from 59 in March 2025 to more than 200 at this point.

___

Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.

Según los registros de la cárcel, Devany Primero enfrenta un cargo de intento de incendio provocado en segundo grado y otro de daños a la propiedad.

Según un informe de arresto, unos agentes hacían un servicio extra en el estadio cuando el personal de seguridad les avisó de lo ocurrido. Habían visto a un grupo de hombres encender en las gradas lo que parecía una bengala, con espectadores cerca.

Los agentes dijeron que detuvieron a tres hombres mientras investigaban.

Según los agentes, el video de vigilancia muestra a Primero dentro del estadio sosteniendo y aparentemente encendiendo “un objeto compatible con una bengala”.

La revisión del video también mostró que los otros dos detenidos no tocaron, tuvieron ni encendieron la bengala, dijo la policía. Uno de ellos contó a los agentes que estaba grabando a Primero durante el incidente, pero negó haber participado en encender el artefacto.

La policía dijo que Primero metió la bengala al estadio después de pasar por los controles de seguridad. Las bengalas y otros artefactos incendiarios están prohibidos dentro del estadio por el riesgo que representan para los espectadores y el personal.

Según el informe, el personal del evento le dijo a la policía que la bengala dañó una silla y el piso donde fue encendida.

Hasta la mañana del miércoles, Primero, ciudadano colombiano, permanecía en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center con una fianza de $3,000. Los registros también indicaban una retención migratoria.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators said the most urgent priority for the U.S. must be to tackle the “shadow fleet” of tankers that Moscow is using to transport oil and bypass America’s sanctions. They also pushed for a halt of Russia's emerging satellite system that Ukraine has warned could prove devastating with real-time bombing attacks this winter.

"Every day that passes without maximum economic pressure allows Moscow to sustain this military escalation," wrote Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The senators note that the bulk of the law's provisions go into effect Oct. 18, the end of the administration's 30-day review period. The Trump administration has remained mostly quiet since the passage of the bill with large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate after Graham’s sudden death, with lawmakers urged ahead by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump has been expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose birthday is Wednesday, to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute.

Congress backed Ukraine with the Russian sanctions package

The sanctions package had been a year in the making but was suddenly rushed to passage after Graham, the long-serving South Carolina senator, died in July of a likely torn aorta after a whirlwind trip to a NATO summit in Turkey and a stopover in Kyiv.

Senators had been negotiating a bipartisan bill that could win robust support but it was only when Graham received the nod of approval from Trump in the days around the senator's overseas trip that it gained momentum.

Zelenskyy had also been pushing the U.S. to act, and he arrived in the Senate after a visit at the White House late in the evening before a key vote that advanced the package. The House gave final approval to the bill, sending it to Trump's desk, but Democrats in both chambers warned that they doubted the president would use the vast tools available to slap back at Russia.

In the month since, momentum appears to have stalled without public steps from the administration toward the law's implementation.

Trump's next moves against Russia are uncertain

With the bipartisan push, Shaheen and Wicker in their letter sent late Tuesday are urging the administration to take several specific steps to impose the sanctions regime. Many of the steps are aligned with goals pushed by the Ukrainians.

The senators, who were both key to the bill's passage, said it's most crucial for the U.S. to focus on the several hundred rogue tankers that are able to “transport Russian oil with impunity and thereby provide the Kremlin a financial lifeline.”

It’s also, imperative, they wrote, “that the administration paralyze the global financial networks that allow Russia to evade our sanctions.”

They said the Kremlin continues to “move billions of dollars through networks that shield it from scrutiny." They urged the administration to focus specifically on overseas bank branches, including in Shanghai, and "a growing network of Kyrgyz financial institutions” they said serve as clearinghouses for sanctioned capital.

“Foreign banks must be forced to make a choice." the senators wrote. “They can either do business with the United States or finance Russia’s war. They cannot do both.”

They said the Trump administration should work to undermine Russia's “weaponization of space” with its emerging low Earth orbit system. Ukraine has warned that such a satellite system would prove deadly in the coming winter as Russia prepares its attacks.

The senators also noted that the sanctions law bans all new U.S. investment in Russia and handling of sovereign debt. They said it's imperative that the Treasury Department “issue clear regulatory guidance ahead of the October deadline to ensure American financial institutions completely sever these capital pipelines.”

Additionally, the senators said the U.S. must stop the flow of dual-use technologies and electronics for Russia’s frontline operations, and use the sanctions tools available to “penalize entities feeding Russia’s military-industrial complex.”

Attorneys for Pike, 50, called her recovery “medically unprecedented” after she was placed on a ventilator following the bungled Sept. 30 attempt to make her the first woman put to death in Tennessee in 200 years. On Wednesday, they said Pike was confused, “speaking limitedly” and could not move her arms, one of which had a blood clot.

Pike, who was convicted in the 1995 torture and killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer, is the only person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Many details of the execution process remain secretive, and Tennessee officials say they are investigating what went wrong.

Still, medical experts raised a few possibilities that could explain how Pike was able to survive, including the potential drug quality and the placement of IV lines. Tennessee's executioners had difficulties earlier this year with IV lines for another execution, leading to it being called off.

Only a small amount of the drug may have entered her bloodstream

The 5-gram dose of pentobarbital used in executions is many more times the amount that should put someone in a medical coma, said Dr. Jonathan I. Groner, a retired pediatric general surgeon at Ohio State University College of Medicine who has studied lethal injections.

“The fact that she woke, on one hand, says she got really little of it into her system. So that’s kind of shocking,” Groner said. “It says how badly they botched the execution.”

At high doses, the potent barbiturate should make a person lose consciousness and stop breathing.

Groner said the IV might have been placed improperly, or Pike's veins could have been fragile and ruptured, causing the drug to seep into the surrounding tissue instead of flowing through the bloodstream. Pike's attorneys have said she was poked with needles at least seven times in the state’s death chamber and that she has a blood disorder that makes it tough to get needles into her veins.

Sourcing of drugs for executions is shrouded in secrecy

Another possible problem could be the drug quality, said Michaela Almgren, a South Carolina pharmacist and educator who has consulted on several lethal injection cases.

Many major pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply drugs for lethal injections, which has raised questions about how states get them. Court orders have revealed that some states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which create custom drugs from raw ingredients and operate with less regulatory oversight.

Tennessee does not disclose its drug supplier and has not said where Pike’s supply came from. Almgren said that makes it difficult to track if a drug was prepared, tested, handled and administered properly.

That also means the public may never know exactly what happened in Pike’s case.

Pike’s attorneys asked a court to require the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence, including drug lot numbers, communications and other material from the attempted execution. A judge told prison officials on Wednesday that they must preserve “anything that was in the actual room.”

Outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” It's unclear whether the state will try executing Pike again.

Hospital treatment likely involved flushing the drug from her system

Before the execution attempt, Pike’s attorneys told courts and prison officials that she had medical conditions that could complicate a lethal injection and make it agonizing.

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said Pike has a blood-clotting disorder that causes her body to produce an excess of platelets. Her lawyers had argued that the condition could cause clotting at injection sites or bleeding that could affect her lungs.

State protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first doesn’t result in death, but it doesn't spell out what to do if an inmate survives the second injection.

The attempted execution got underway around 7:30 p.m. At some point Pike appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at 9:14 p.m. and took Pike to a hospital.

Once there, doctors likely tried to stabilize her breathing, checked how much pentobarbital was in her system and worked to quickly flush it out, said Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City.

Pike’s lawyers said the failed attempt left her arms burned and blistered. She was unconscious and on a ventilator for several days.

“She was very fortunate that there was enough (pentobarbital) to put her into a deep sleep, but they were able to keep her breathing going and they were able to start flushing it out,” Baden said.

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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville contributed reporting.

“24 pages of notes,” he muttered. “That’s a new record!”

By the end of the night, commissioners voted unanimously to allow the Daily Wire-affiliated movie about an ICE agent doing battle with Antifa protesters and MS-13 gang members to continue. The decision came two days after the commission temporarily paused operations on set, and served as an added plot point in a weeks-long drama over the film’s production in the southwest Montana town since filming began in late September.

The commission’s decision means that filming — on a set featuring a fictional Minneapolis pawn shop and Korean grocery store — can recommence. Filming is slated to end on Saturday. Producers pledged to abide by permit regulations, including keeping a local food pantry open and accessible, reining in private security activity, and continuing signage and notifications to impacted neighbors.

“I’m sad that we’re all gathered here under these circumstances,” local producer Ari Novak testified. “In five days from now, much of this film crew will leave. I will still be your neighbor. And I want to be a good neighbor to people I have like-minded ideas with and disagree with.”

More than 120 people crammed into the Livingston City Commission meeting, sitting cross-legged on the floor and spilling over into the hallway and adjacent rooms. Roughly 150 more tuned in online. Over about two weeks, news stories and social media accounts had spiraled over the drama: This tension over a movie in a small Montana town appeared to be a microcosm of immigration and culture-war drama seizing communities all over the nation.

At first, opponents of the film took issue with its content: A leaked copy of the script — working title “Pawn Shop” — features thinly veiled allusions to both the murder of Renee Good and the saga of Kilmar Albrego Garcia, both depicted through a conservative, tough-on-immigration lens. In the script, a copy of which was reviewed by Montana Free Press, the film’s protagonist shoots a protester as she drives maniacally into his car, killing his law enforcement partner. A detained immigrant claims to be innocent, but later turns out to be a key player in MS-13.

While the film contains echoes of real-life incidents, the bulk of the movie is an over-the-top action flick starring Danny Trejo and Harvey Keitel, according to a leaked call sheet — a movie opponents criticized as rife with guns, gore, explosions and conservative tropes.

“It’s 87 pages of bullshit,” protester Brooklyn Wilde said in a late September interview.

But soon after filming began, detractors of the production took issue with the process, too. Producers hadn’t adequately notified the public of the shoot, they said, and especially not of the violence involved. The shoot involved firing blanks and igniting explosions, theatrics that shocked the film’s residential neighbors and spurred concerns over public safety. Many members of the public also described to reporters and on social media feeling intimidated, scared and harassed by heavily armed security guards hired by the film company to keep the public off streets closed for the movie set.

The closures particularly impacted the Livingston Food Resource Center. “We were not notified of the plans to film,” the organization said in an early October press release. They said the film’s security forces stopped cars and bikes trying to access the center, driving attendance at their food pantry to an 18-week low.

Fielding community concerns, the Livingston City Commission held an emergency meeting on Saturday morning, while the movie filmed about a quarter mile away. No supporters of the film attended. Ultimately, the commission voted to temporarily pause the movie’s permit.

“I think this has been a runaway train,” Commissioner Cindy Daniels said at the time. “I think that they’ve taken advantage of the situation to make their movie that they’re going to profit off of.”

At Monday’s meeting, producers of the film showed up to voice their side of the story. Lead producer Dallas Sonnier described dealing with genuine security concerns as furor over the film escalated: A truck drove through the barricades marking the street closure on the first day of filming, he said, the driver screaming obscenities at cast and crew. Amanda Presmyk, another producer, said protesters also yelled “cut” and “action” during stunt sequences, creating potentially dangerous distractions. “It was only then that I decided to hire professional security to protect the crew and maintain the permitted road closures,” Sonnier said.

Several commenters who spoke in favor of the movie production argued the commission’s decision to pause the permit was based on politics, not law. “Government cannot suppress lawful expression simply because an audience objects to its message,” Sonnier said. “A film permit should depend on lawful compliance, not approval of the story being told.”

City attorney Jon Hesse said the question before the commission was narrow, and unrelated to the content of the production: Had the film production violated the conditions of its permit? The answer to that would decide whether, and how, commissioners would allow the operation to continue.

“Please honor the permit the city issued to us and reinstate it tonight,” Presmyk urged, doubling down on the producers’ commitment to seeing the project through. “We will finish the movie either way.”

Livingston resident Katy Canetta, who lives near the filming location, said the pushback to the production at Saturday’s meeting had nothing to do with the subject matter of the film. “It was about the terrorism 2nd Street has been experiencing at the hands of armed guards in paramilitary gear with guns who have been harassing vulnerable people and using violence and intimidation to enforce the closure of public property for private gain.”

Taylor Wallace, owner of The Gem, a coffee shop adjacent to the film set, said he was never notified about the shoot. He said staff couldn’t perform basic duties like taking out the trash without being harassed by security guards. Ultimately, he closed his shop, fearing for workers’ safety. “This film’s inability to effectively notify neighboring businesses and residents led to fear, chaos, and ultimately risk,” he said. “Nobody should feel unsafe in their workplace or at their home.”

The city of Livingston has a minimal framework for issuing film permits. The binding document has only a few boxes to check and blanks to fill in. Officials said over two weeks of filming, the production will bring in only a little more than $5,000 in permit revenue to the city. The city does reserve the right to revoke the permit due to public safety concerns.

“Food security is a public safety concern,” Livingston local Bex Frucht said. “Misinformation is a public safety concern. Mental health is a safety concern. We are enduring all of this because this production came into our town, literally guns blazing, without comprehensive, proper notice. And they were able to take advantage of our lax regulations.”

Both sides of the movie debate expressed fear and insecurity, but opponents and proponents of the film directed the blame at one another. Film crew and even security told commissioners their personal information had been doxxed, and that they’d received death threats and harassment due to their involvement with the production.

The movie’s proponents also stressed that the film industry was an economic engine for the city. Richard Gray, co-founder of the old-Western-style Yellowstone Film Ranch roughly 30 minutes south of Livingston, said movie productions had injected tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into the region in the last decade alone. “If you boot a film out of town because of things that could be fixed, it’s just a really bad look,” he said. “And it will severely impact our film industry.”

Yetta Stein, a poet and executive director of Elk River Arts and Lectures, took issue with that idea. “A brief economic boon is not worth the safety of my neighbors,” she said. “I also find this whole conversation to be a bit of a distraction from the important work of running our town.”

As attendees trickled out of the meeting as the hours wore on, commissioners debated the future of the city’s film regulations.

“We don’t have the ordinances and codes in place to meet the wants of our community,” Commission chair Melissa Nootz said. “The things people are asking for, we haven’t written those laws and policies yet.”

Approached for comment as attendees left the meeting, Sonnier declined an interview until after the film wraps. But the producer gave a tired yet vigorous thumbs up after the commission’s vote. He said in testimony he would be on set to resume the film at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.

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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Las autoridades detuvieron el martes a Jimmy Alexis, de 43 años y residente del noroeste de Miami-Dade. El arresto está relacionado con un incidente del 30 de junio de 2023 en Gentle Love and Care Group Home, en Fort Lauderdale. La dirección del centro fue tachada en los documentos oficiales.

Los agentes dijeron que fueron al centro para investigar una muerte. Antes habían llamado a los rescatistas porque un paciente no respondía.

Según la policía de Fort Lauderdale, los investigadores hablaron con Alexis. Él les dijo que tuvo que “sujetarlo, no ahorcarlo”, en referencia al paciente, cuya identidad la policía no dio a conocer.

Más tarde, los agentes hablaron con los dueños del centro. Según ellos, el paciente solía hacerse daño golpeándose la cabeza contra “prácticamente cualquier cosa que pudiera”.

Durante la investigación, los agentes también hablaron con una empleada que estaba de turno cuando el paciente resultó herido. Según los agentes, la mujer “estaba visiblemente afectada y se veía preocupada al hablar con nosotros”.

Los agentes dijeron que, al salir, encontraron a esa misma empleada esperando afuera. Les dio a entender que quería hablar con ellos lejos del centro.

Según los documentos oficiales, la empleada les contó que Alexis ahorcó al paciente hasta dejarlo inconsciente, y que lo hizo dos veces durante la noche.

La primera vez, ella le dijo a Alexis que no ahorcara al paciente. Según la policía, la segunda vez hizo una grabación de audio y se la reprodujo a los agentes.

Los agentes dijeron que en la grabación se oía a la víctima gemir.

Además, los agentes le pidieron a la empleada que hiciera una llamada controlada a Alexis. Según el formulario de arresto, durante la llamada Alexis le dijo “lo que va a decirle a la policía” y le aconsejó “decir lo mismo con sus propias palabras”.

También le advirtió que “no dijera nada del libro de registro, porque la policía va a querer una copia” ni “nada sobre la colchoneta en la que (la víctima) estaba acostada”. Al final le pidió que “no dijera demasiadas cosas que hicieran que la policía preguntara más”.

En noviembre de 2023, un médico forense determinó que la muerte de la víctima fue un homicidio. La causa específica de la muerte aparece tachada en el formulario de arresto de Alexis.

Alexis enfrenta un cargo de homicidio involuntario agravado por negligencia hacia un adulto mayor o discapacitado. Hasta la mañana del miércoles, seguía detenido en la cárcel principal de Broward con una fianza de $25,000.

The patient, a Kenyan man, had been living in Congo for seven years and started feeling ill a month ago. He had traveled by road to Uganda, before boarding a flight to the Kenyan capital on Saturday. There, he tested positive for the Ebola virus in a hospital and died Monday.

The Africa CDC Director-General, Jean Kaseya, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that all stakeholders need to ask themselves how one case could have driven and flown to so many places without anyone noticing.

“We need to ensure that at point of entry, we have a strong surveillance system in place,” he said.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

Officials are trying to trace all who came into contact with the patient

The Kenyan man drove for hours by road within Congo and across the border into Uganda. He boarded a local flight while in Congo, and it is unclear if he used any other forms of public transport.

Authorities have looked at the flight manifest of the other flight he took from Kampala, Uganda, to Nairobi, and passengers and crew onboard have been added to the contact list.

They're also looking to trace workers who cleaned the plane after it landed, as well as passengers who traveled on the same plane subsequently.

Health Minister Aden Duale told journalists on Wednesday that contact tracing was ongoing and that the number of contacts had risen to 57, with 10 already quarantined.

“Even the people who cleaned that aircraft after it landed on Saturday, they are part of the people we are tracing. The immigration and the customs officials who served that patient will also be part of the contact tracing,” he said.

Africa CDC’s Kaseya acknowledged it is a challenge. He said that the Kenyan man had not come up in existing contact lists in Congo.

“Before saying that the outbreak is under control, you need to ensure that you have a contact list where all cases are coming from,” he said.

Questions raised about how the patient traveled through Uganda

It's also unclear how the patient was able to cross into Uganda, which has closed its border with Congo because of the Ebola outbreak.

Alan Kasujja, executive director of the Ugandan government's media center, dismissed the question, saying only that journalists should instead ask Kenya how the man was able to bypass surveillance at its airport.

“Leave Uganda out of this conversation. We don’t have Ebola here,” he wrote on X.

Two of the man's journeys were by air, while the rest were by road, covering long distances and passing through various towns and cities. On arrival in Nairobi, the patient underwent port health screening but his symptoms were not detected. He then boarded a private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where he was isolated and later tested positive for Ebola.

When asked how the patient was able to travel through three countries undetected, Kenya’s Director-General for Health, Patrick Amoth, said on Wednesday that a meeting was scheduled with officials from Congo and Uganda and the Africa CDC to investigate what transpired during the patient’s journey.

Kenya has been boosting its border controls

Kenya’s Health Ministry has heightened surveillance at border entry points and created an Ebola hotline for citizens to report symptoms related to Ebola.

The country has also designated five health facilities with a total of 241 isolation beds to manage patients, and is working to increase this capacity.

The ministry said the country has enough supplies, including personal protective equipment, and has mobilized resources since the outbreak started in May in Congo.

The ministry added that it had designated a specific gate at the country’s main airport for passengers travelling from 10 countries located within the outbreak’s epicenter.

Leo opened a weeklong, closed-door conference assessing the implementation of Francis' 2016 document “The Joy of Love.” Leo called the text an “important” step in the church's long tradition of ministering to Catholic families for the sake of passing the faith on to future generations.

The document covers a host of issues relating to how the Catholic Church can better minister to families today as they cope with issues such as poverty, war, LGBTQ+ children and divorce. But when it was released after a yearslong consultation, “The Joy of Love” immediately sparked controversy, because it opened the door to allowing civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Church teaching holds that unless these Catholics obtain an annulment — a church decree that their first marriage was invalid — they can't receive the sacraments, since they are seen as living in sin and committing adultery.

Francis didn’t create a church-wide pass for these Catholics, but suggested that bishops and priests could do so on a case-by-case basis after accompanying them on a spiritual journey of discernment.

Leo urges church to accompany people in fragility

In his opening remarks, which reporters were invited to watch, Leo didn’t refer specifically to Francis’ opening to civilly remarried Catholics. Speaking in English, he seemed keen to redirect the conversation to the broader issues facing young people and families today, including how to incorporate sex and intimacy within the Christian “vision” of marriage.

He urged the bishops to pay specific attention to families in their weakest moments, to listen to them, and to look at whether the church is able to respond to them.

“The experience of fragility raises the question of whether we are able to remain close to one another when life no longer corresponds to what had been hoped for, and whether we can recognize the work of grace even in situations marked by limits, wounds and apparent failure,” Leo said.

The pontiff challenged the bishops to consider what kind of church people encounter when they are most fragile.

“Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be encountered through the patience, closeness and mercy of our pastoral presence?” he asked.

A text prompts claims of heresy

Francis’ 2016 document became one of the most divisive of his pontificate and in many ways became the focal point of conservative opposition to his papacy. Mostly conservative Catholics said that it had sown confusion among the faithful about the church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

Some even accused Francis of heresy.

Within the first year of publication, four conservative cardinals formally asked Francis to clarify certain questions, or “dubia,” raised by the text. They argued that church doctrine held that Catholics who remarried without a church annulment were living in sin and couldn’t receive the sacraments.

He never replied.

For a variety of reasons, such annulments often can't be obtained, though Francis issued a separate reform to simplify, facilitate and accelerate the process. The aim was to respond to cases where a spouse wasn't at fault for the failure of a marriage, such as a woman who experienced abuse at the hands of her first husband and merely wanted to remarry in the church and raise her children in the faith.

Sister Helen Alford, president of the Vatican’s social sciences academy, urged the bishops attending this week's conference to consider the concept of the “law of gradualness” in applying church law to such difficult family situations. The gradualness concept calls for nuance rather than black-and-white application of rules and norms.

“When social situations are turbulent and changing quickly, it can be necessary to find new ways of putting together both the objective demands of the law and the law of gradualness that many experience,” she said.

Top Francis cardinals, including Americans, among participants

Organizers of the conference insisted that the meeting wasn't convened to debate or rewrite Francis' original text, but rather to understand how it had been implemented around the world and what lies ahead. No new document was expected, but a summary text was expected to be released next week wrapping up the points of discussion.

The main participants of the conference were the presidents of 115 national bishops' conferences from around the world and the heads of eastern rite churches. Joining them were 11 couples, who were to offer their experiences for reflection, as well as theological experts.

Leo also extended 22 personal invitations, including to four of his fellow Americans who were also close advisers to Francis: Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich; Brownsville, Texas Bishop Daniel Flores; Washington Cardinal Robert McElroy and Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin.

Two of Francis' top Vatican aides, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, also were on Leo's guest list. Two other close Francis allies, Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and Spain Cardinal José Cobo Cano, as well as two bishops from China were on his list.

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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.

A proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the optional practice training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school. Students are generally eligible for one year of work post-graduation, though certain science, technology, engineering and math majors are eligible for an additional two years.

Schools would be required to pay the $70,000 for each new student's initial application to the program, and a $30,000 fee for each renewal.

Change would be a blow to higher education and some businesses

American colleges and universities heavily recruit students from overseas as a source of tuition revenue. Tech companies and other industries also hire many international students for technical roles.

The OPT program allows international students to gain hands-on experience and fill labor shortages in high-demand STEM fields, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association that represents international education.

“Driving away the talents, perspectives, and aspirations of international students will only hurt American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership,” Aw said in a written statement.

In a statement, DHS described the fee as a response to fraud and abuse of the visa program, which it called a “pipeline for cheap foreign labor.”

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal before DHS can finalize it and put it into effect. The proposal also could face legal challenges from higher education groups or business associations that could delay it.

Trump administration puts pressure on international students

The proposed rule is part of its wider efforts to crack down on immigration and reshape higher education. Last year, the Republican administration began suddenly terminating the legal status of thousands of international students, detaining and deporting many of them.

This summer, the administration finalized a rule that sought to prevent international students from staying in the U.S. for more than four years without approval from the federal government. The move drew swift backlash from higher education leaders who said it would increase the burden on schools and noted that many programs are longer than four years by design. A federal court prevented the rule from taking effect in September.

Doug Rand, a former senior adviser at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration, predicted that the fee would be struck down in the courts, as was a $100,000 fee for the H-1B work visas that many tech companies and universities rely on to fill openings for skilled jobs.

The Trump administration is now trying a different way to raise the fee for the visas to more than $100,000.

Rand said fees are not the answer.

“When we educate international students at our universities, and they want to work and apply their talents here after graduating, of course we should embrace them -- not use an exorbitant fee as a pretext to send them packing,” Rand said in an email.

Enrollment concerns mount among education groups

Sarah Spreitzer, vice president at the American Council on Education, which represents college and university presidents, said international enrollment has suffered.

Last fall, the number of new students entering the United States for the first time fell by 17%, the sharpest decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall numbers for this fall are not yet available, but Spreitzer said some individual colleges are reporting drops of 30% to 40%.

She said the new Trump plan will not help.

“We know that OPT is one of the reasons that international students choose to study in the United States because they’re able to have that post-graduation work experience,” she added.

A similar program that allowed international students to participate in internships and practicums also has faced scrutiny from the Trump administration. New guidance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the program, Curricular Practical Training, should only be authorized when the work experience is a degree requirement led to a lawsuit Monday.

Education groups, including the Association of American Universities and NAFSA, said that in the past that program was allowed if it was “directly related to the student’s major area of study.” The groups also said ICE was threatening college university officials with criminal prosecution if they did not comply.

“We know the administration has been trying to hinder legal employment-based immigration through numerous means,” said Steven Brown, a Houston-based immigration lawyer. “I think this is the next level of attack, and I think it’s a design to kill the program without killing the program. I don’t see too many schools wanting to pay $70,000 for a student to get OPT."

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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kan.

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