During a recent match at the Miami Lighthouse Academy in the Little Havana neighborhood, as a player moved, he or she said in Spanish, “Voy!” or “Going!”

Arianna Taylor, a Miami Lighthouse Academy student and soccer player, said she was glad to have learned and be able to play.

“It looks hard at first, but once you get to learn it, it seems easier,” Taylor said.

Virginia Jacko, the president and chief executive officer of the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Physically Impaired, said 145 of her students play soccer.

“Too often, blind children are leftover of team sports, and team sports teach us so much,” Jacko said.

Oseas De Leon, the Miami Lighthouse’s soccer coach, has experience with the USA Blind Soccer Men’s National Team. He was a baby when a severe case of measles caused blindness.

“The fact that our children don’t have the opportunity to do any physical activity, I think it’s more than a reason to have blind soccer here with us,” De Leon said. “Unfortunately, we are the only ones in the country.”

The International Blind Sports Federation credits Spain as the pioneer of blind soccer in the 1920s and Brazil for making it popular in the 1960s.

De Leon has had big dreams for the national blind soccer movement, so he developed a curriculum for kids as young as one in collaboration with the U.S Association of Blind Athletes, or USABA.

Aside from De Leon, the soccer program also includes eight other employees of the Miami Lighthouse.

To support them, Roborock announced a $50,000 donation and equipped a new classroom “to advance accessibility and independence through technology.”

Useful link: Donate now to support blind soccer at Miami Lighthouse

More on local coverage of the World Cup

• Star sighting in Palm Beach
• Today’s schedule and progress report
• FIFA Fan Festival in downtown Miami
• FIFA exhibit in downtown Miami

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Authorities said at around 6 p.m. Tuesday, a Miami police sergeant noticed Elton Casallas, 58, of southwest Miami-Dade, walking through an exit gate and “greeting multiple security guards while walking through the venue.”

According to an arrest report, the sergeant asked the guards if they knew who Casallas was and who worked for; none of them knew.

Police said the sergeant stopped Casallas at a gate at Chopin Plaza and “and asked him if he was working security for the event.”

According to the report, Casallas told the sergeant that he had been working the event since Saturday. Police said event staffers confirmed that Casallas “does not work for any security company staffed for the event.”

The report states that authorities additionally discovered that Casallas had three traffic-related bench warrants and had “a pocketknife and a canister of pepper spray.”

Police said Casallas had a security license that expired in May.

Under questioning, Casallas said a company had hired him and he “had taken a security post at one of the security checkpoints and was responsible for watching over bags left by patrons at the entrance of the venue,” the report states.

Authorities said he then showed investigators text messages between him and a security supervisor, which police said “at no point proved any employment with any security company.”

Additionally, they said they contacted the security supervisor, who said that he had given Casallas his phone number and Casallas, who “proceeded to text (him) to the point he became uncomfortable responding.”

“It was determined that (Casallas) was at the venue on his own will with the intention of being hired by a security company on location,” police wrote in the report.

Officers arrested Casallas on a charge of falsely impersonating an officer with a deadly weapon, in addition to the traffic warrants. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set.”

Las autoridades dijeron que alrededor de las 6 p.m. del martes, un sargento de la policía de Miami notó a Elton Casallas, de 58 años y residente del suroeste de Miami-Dade, caminando por una puerta de salida y “saludando a múltiples guardias de seguridad mientras caminaba por el lugar”.

Según un informe de arresto, el sargento preguntó a los guardias si sabían quién era Casallas y para quién trabajaba; ninguno lo sabía.

La policía dijo que el sargento detuvo a Casallas en una entrada en Chopin Plaza y “le preguntó si estaba trabajando como seguridad para el evento”.

Según el informe, Casallas le dijo al sargento que había estado trabajando en el evento desde el sábado. La policía dijo que el personal del evento confirmó que Casallas “no trabaja para ninguna compañía de seguridad asignada al evento”.

El informe indica que las autoridades también descubrieron que Casallas tenía tres órdenes judiciales relacionadas con tráfico y que tenía “una navaja de bolsillo y un envase de gas pimienta”.

La policía dijo que Casallas tenía una licencia de seguridad que expiró en mayo.

Durante el interrogatorio, Casallas dijo que una compañía lo había contratado y que “había tomado un puesto de seguridad en uno de los puntos de control y era responsable de vigilar las bolsas dejadas por los asistentes en la entrada del lugar”, según el informe.

Las autoridades dijeron que luego mostró a los investigadores mensajes de texto entre él y un supervisor de seguridad, los cuales, según la policía, “en ningún momento probaron ningún empleo con alguna compañía de seguridad”.

Además, indicaron que contactaron al supervisor de seguridad, quien dijo que le había dado su número de teléfono a Casallas y que este “procedió a enviarle mensajes hasta el punto de que se sintió incómodo respondiendo”.

“Se determinó que Casallas estaba en el lugar por voluntad propia con la intención de ser contratado por una compañía de seguridad en el sitio”, escribió la policía en el informe.

Los agentes arrestaron a Casallas por un cargo de hacerse pasar falsamente por un oficial con un arma mortal, además de las órdenes relacionadas con tráfico. Hasta la tarde del miércoles, permanecía detenido en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center con una fianza que figuraba como “por determinar”.

Pino, de 55 años, está acusado de homicidio involuntario y homicidio de embarcación.

Los fiscales acusan a Pino, entonces de 52 años, de ser imprudente cuando perdió el control de una embarcación Robalo de 29 pies en las primeras horas de la noche del 4 de septiembre de 2022 y la estrelló contra un marcador de canal cerca de Boca Chita Key, matando a Lucy Fernandez, de 17 años. Otras dos jóvenes resultaron gravemente heridas, incluida Katerina Puig, de 17 años, quien quedó permanentemente discapacitada.

La esposa de Pino, Cecilia Pino, dijo a los jurados el martes sobre los momentos caóticos después del choque y señaló que después ella “solo pensaba en las chicas”.

Claudia Portocarrero, quien estaba en la embarcación celebrando el cumpleaños 18 de la hija de los Pino, dijo que ella y sus amigas estaban cantando y levantando las manos antes del choque.

La defensa afirma que algo pudo haber obstruido la vista de George Pino del marcador de canal, pero el estado sostiene que ninguna de las jóvenes estaba de pie ni levantando las manos de una manera que hubiera obstruido la vista de Pino.

“Solo recuerdo abrir los ojos después del impacto y ver como mucho blanco”, dijo Portocarrero. “Y lo primero que vi cuando abrí los ojos fue a George, y pensé que estaba muerto. Solo vi mucha sangre brotando y luego mis amigas me decían que tenía que salir de la embarcación, , para cuando iba a bajarme de la embarcación estaba como casi volteada, inclinada, así que en lugar de saltar desde la embarcación, prácticamente como que entré al agua porque estaba muy inclinada”.

Portocarrero dijo que ayudó a una de sus amigas a mantener a Puig a flote en el agua antes de que llegara una embarcación de rescate.

Tanto ella como otro pasajero que testificó el martes dijeron que, aunque cada uno había tomado un par de bebidas alcohólicas, no vieron a Pino bebiendo y señalaron que la velocidad de la embarcación no se sentía excesiva en el momento del choque.

Un testigo que estaba en otra embarcación dijo al jurado que su amigo le gritó a Pino que revisara debajo de la embarcación y Pino “inmediatamente” se metió debajo y luego sacó a Fernandez antes de entregársela al testigo que se había lanzado al agua.

El testigo dijo que luego ayudó a colocarla en otra embarcación que llegó.

El equipo de defensa de Pino afirma que el choque fue un horrible accidente y no el resultado de negligencia.

The update comes in response to an event last summer in which the musician was charged with attacking Los Angeles police officers.

In April, a judge allowed the 27-year-old to enter a mental health diversion program intended to lead to the charges being dismissed. The musician was eligible for the program because the court found that the encounter involving police was the result of his since-diagnosed bipolar disorder and appeared to be an aberration compared with his usual behavior.

In Wednesday's video, Lil Nas X publicly discussed his mental health diagnosis. “I have a therapist now and a psychiatrist, which has been really helpful. When I got my bipolar disorder diagnosis, I feel like I had known for the past few years, but I didn't want to admit to it ‘cause I didn’t want to have to take medication and, I don't know, have people think different of me."

“I’m doing much better,” he continued after joking that he's “living life on extreme hard mode.”

“I’m feeling better. I’m creating freely. And there’s less fear in my heart,” he said.

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that causes dramatic shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and concentration. These range from periods of extremely elated, irritable or energized behavior — known as manic episodes — to very sad, indifferent or hopeless periods, known as depressive episodes.

“I’ve been doing music for seven years now," Lil Nas X said in switching gears near the end of the clip. “I wanted to let you guys know there is new music on the way.”

Then he addressed his fans directly. “I love you and all I want to do is continue to try to make you proud and make myself proud."

The arrest and treatment plan

Lil Nas X was arrested and briefly taken to a hospital for a suspected overdose in August after Los Angeles police say he charged at officers responding to a report of a naked man walking on a busy boulevard.

Authorities allege the musician was walking naked down a street in LA’s San Fernando Valley and charged at police officers who were responding to calls about him. A criminal complaint says three officers were hurt. Photos and video apparently shot before the police confrontation showed Lil Nas X walking in the street in only white briefs and white boots.

After spending three days in jail, he was released on $75,000 bail on the condition that he attend drug treatment. He pleaded not guilty in a court appearance to three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.

In his first public comments shortly thereafter, the artist posted a video to Instagram, saying “these last four days have been terrifying.”

But he added with a laugh, speaking of himself, that “Your girl is going to be OK. She’s going to be alright.”

Then two months ago, Judge Alan Schneider allowed Lil Nas X to enter the mental health diversion program. If he sticks to his treatment program and obeys all laws for two years, the four felony counts against him will be dismissed.

A history-making artist

The Atlanta-raised artist is best known for 2018’s country and hip-hop merging “Old Town Road,” which spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won him two Grammys. It is one of the most popular singles of all time, and in 2019 broke the Billboard record set by Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day” for most weeks at No. 1.

Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, Lil Nas X’s first full studio album, 2021’s “Montero,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and was nominated for a Grammy for album of the year. Other hits have included “Industry Baby” and "Montero (Call Me by Your Name).”

___

AP entertainment writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

The letters, which went to the governors of every state, are the latest in a series of actions from President Donald Trump's administration focused on fraud, waste and abuse in state-run programs that include federal funding. Like with most of the other similar announcements, the administration focused on issues in states where Democrats control the government.

“We are officially putting governors on notice,” Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said in a statement Wednesday. “The American people will no longer tolerate the blatant waste, fraud, and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars — no state should allow it either. If states allow it, they will suffer the consequences.”

Labor Department offers few details

The Labor Department said Wednesday that poor oversight, outdated technology, weak identity verification and lax controls have “allowed unprecedented fraud to flourish.”

In its announcement, it cited problems in California, Illinois and New York — three states where Democrats control the governments.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office blasted the move and criticized “lax regulations and rushed distribution” of unemployment benefits by the first Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Meanwhile California outperforms other states in addressing fraud,” Newsom spokesperson Marissa Saldivar said in a statement.

The federal Labor Department did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the details of the alleged fraud.

The unemployment insurance program has come into question before

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office estimated that fraud accounted for between 11% and 15% of the amount paid out through unemployment insurance programs from April 2020 through May 2023, when the nation was under a public health emergency for the pandemic.

During that time — which included the last months of Trump's first term and over half of former President Joe Biden's time in office — access to the funds was eased, and the government noticed the issues as the money was going out.

In the new letter to the states, the department said that consequences from pandemic-era fraud “are still playing out.”

The Labor Department said states would receive further directives in coming weeks.

The administration has focused on fraud in state-federal programs

Vice President JD Vance is overseeing an anti-fraud task force focused on potential misuse of social programs.

The Department of Health and Human Services tried to withhold money for child care subsidies and other social service programs from five states — all governed by Democrats — but has been rebuffed by a court. The department has also announced it’s using artificial intelligence to police how states and other recipients of federal dollars are auditing their program.

The Department of Agriculture has threatened to withhold administrative funds from states that don’t provide data on participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including their immigration status.

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Associated Press reporter Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California, contributed to this article.

The victims include four active duty airmen, one reservist and three civilians, according to a statement from the base.

They were identified as: Col. Gregory Watson, 53; Lt. Col. Gabriel Estrella, 40; Maj. Alexander Davis, 34; Maj. Robert Dee, 40; Maj. Brad Hovey, 35; Jeromy Smith, 32; and Christopher Rischar, 41.

“They were dedicated professionals, beloved family members and irreplaceable teammates," Col. Thomas Tauer, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, said in the statement.

The airfield where the crash occurred on Monday was still closed but other base operations have resumed. No cause has been determined. Officials said it could take six months to complete the investigation.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress was taking part in a test mission as part of a program to keep one of the oldest aircraft in the U.S. fleet flying for decades to come. The bomber had arrived at Edwards in December after having a modernized radar installed at Boeing’s facility in San Antonio.

The aircraft took off shortly before noon on a clear day, heading southwest into the prevailing winds. It flew straight and crashed on the same 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway. The compact wreckage indicates the plane dropped sharply.

Lauren Smith told Eyewitness News KBAK-CBS and FOX58 that her husband, Jeromy Smith, was a flight test engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and died doing what he loved.

“It is such a horrible hurt, and I’m still processing everything that happened,” she said Tuesday.

The B-52, a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. It has been used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from Vietnam to Iran. .

Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing, which conducts regular developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their life span. Test missions take place at Edwards daily.

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Toropin reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press journalist Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.

Craig has been the organization's American Hockey League coach in Henderson, Nevada.

Craig will address reporters on Thursday.

___

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

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The larger wildfire, which started on Monday, was 30% contained and had burned 7,500 acres. The smaller wildfire, which started on Tuesday, was 25% contained and had burned 500 acres.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue deployed about seven units to the area of Northwest 137 Avenue and 25 Street, according to the active dispatch calls log.

Drivers reported the smoke affected visibility early on Wednesday morning along the Florida Turnpike near Hialeah. Deputies closed Krome Avenue temporarily at mile marker 23.

Useful link: Temporary road closures possible

The pollution affected air quality in South Florida, so outdoor activities were discouraged, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

MDFR personnel warned that the smoke will lift as temperatures rise and suggested residents “limit time outdoors, keep doors and windows closed, and set air conditioning systems to recirculate indoor air.

Related social media post

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and @FLForestService continue battling two grass fires in West Miami-Dade near NW 137 Avenue and NW 41 Street, and NW 122 Avenue and NW 58 Street.

As temperatures rise throughout the day, smoke is expected to lift, but those in nearby communities may… pic.twitter.com/IjBkv9NYdu

— Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (@MiamiDadeFire) June 17, 2026

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Pino, 55, is charged with manslaughter and vessel homicide.

Prosecutors accuse Pino, then 52, of being reckless when he lost control of a 29-foot Robalo boat in the early evening hours of Sept. 4, 2022 and slammed it into a channel marker near Boca Chita Key, killing 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez. Two other girls were seriously hurt, including 17-year-old Katerina Puig, who was left permanently disabled.

Dr. Diana Barratt, a neurologist, testified Wednesday as a defense expert witness, confirming she was retained by Pino’s defense team to determine whether the real estate mogul had suffered a brain injury in the crash and whether or not that could lead to some form of amnesia or unknowingly giving false information.

She confirmed that she met with Pino and reviewed his medical records, determining that he did suffer a brain injury in the crash.

“They can forget things immediately preceding the injury, and then things immediately after the injury, and sometimes they have trouble retaining old memories,” she told jurors.

Pino’s wife, Cecilia Pino, told jurors Tuesday about the chaotic moments after the crash and said that afterward she was “just thinking of the girls.”

Claudia Portocarrero, who was on the boat celebrating the 18^th birthday of the Pinos’ daughter, said she and her friends were singing and waving their hands prior to the crash.

The defense claims something may have obstructed George Pino’s view of the channel marker, but the state maintains that none of the girls were standing up or placing their hands up in a way that would have obstructed Pino’s view.

“I just remember opening my eyes after the impact and seeing like a lot of white,” Portocarrero said. “And the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was George, and I thought he was dead. I just saw a lot of blood gushing and then my friends were telling me that I had to get out of the boat … by the time I was going to get off the boat it was kind of almost like turned, flipped, so instead of jumping from the boat, I practically like stepped into the water because of how tilted it was.”

Portocarrero said she assisted one of her friends in helping to keep Puig afloat in the water before a rescue boat arrived.

Both she and another passenger who testified Tuesday said that while they each had a couple of alcoholic beverages, they didn’t see Pino drinking and said the speed of the boat did not feel excessive at the time of the crash.

A witness who was on another boat told the jury that his friend called out to Pino to check under the boat and Pino “immediately” went under the boat and then pulled Fernandez out before handing her over to the witness who had jumped into the water.

The witness said he then helped place her onto another boat that arrived.

Pino’s defense team claims the crash was a horrible accident and not the result of negligence.

El incendio forestal más grande, que comenzó el lunes, estaba contenido en un 30% y había quemado 7,500 acres. El incendio más pequeño, que comenzó el martes, estaba contenido en un 25% y había quemado 500 acres.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue desplegó alrededor de siete unidades en el área de la avenida 137 del noroeste y la calle 25, según el registro de llamadas activas.

Conductores reportaron que el humo afectó la visibilidad temprano el miércoles por la mañana a lo largo de la autopista Florida Turnpike cerca de Hialeah.

Enlace útil: Posible cierre temporal de carreteras

La contaminación afectó la calidad del aire en el sur de Florida, por lo que se desaconsejaron las actividades al aire libre, según la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de Estados Unidos.

El personal de MDFR advirtió que el humo se disipará a medida que aumenten las temperaturas y sugirió a los residentes “limitar el tiempo al aire libre, mantener puertas y ventanas cerradas y configurar los sistemas de aire acondicionado para recircular el aire interior.

Publicación relacionada en redes sociales

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and @FLForestService continue battling two grass fires in West Miami-Dade near NW 137 Avenue and NW 41 Street, and NW 122 Avenue and NW 58 Street.

As temperatures rise throughout the day, smoke is expected to lift, but those in nearby communities may… pic.twitter.com/IjBkv9NYdu

— Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (@MiamiDadeFire) June 17, 2026

Chicago-based Invenergy has agreed to end its four offshore wind leases that were very early in development in exchange for reimbursements of lease fees totaling $765 million. The company had already canceled the largest of the four in November, Leading Light Wind off New Jersey's coast. The others are off the coasts of Maine and California. It will invest that money in natural gas and geothermal ventures that can be built more quickly instead.

By buying back leases, the Republican administration is stopping offshore wind farms that President Donald Trump does not support, and redirecting the money to fossil fuel projects that he does. It adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action. Trump has frequently talked about his hatred of wind power and calls turbines ugly.

“Under President Trump, companies are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. "We applaud Invenergy for recognizing the importance of baseload power and investing in energy solutions that deliver real benefits to American consumers.”

Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, said these buyouts are not one-for-one ‘swaps’ for another kind of energy, since the fossil fuel projects won't deliver power to the same states as the offshore wind farms would have.

“Replacing coastal offshore wind with geothermal or natural gas infrastructure in another region does nothing to address rising ratepayer affordability concerns, reliability challenges or potential gaps in power supply in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic,” she said in a statement.

Eight offshore wind projects have been stopped

Under the first deal announced in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting nearly $1 billion — essentially a refund of its two offshore wind leases — if it invests the money in fossil fuels instead. Those leases were off the coasts of North Carolina and New York. New York is leading a lawsuit challenging the TotalEnergies agreement and Democrats in Congress are investigating it.

Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind agreed in April to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided they invest equally in fossil fuels. California is investigating the deal that ended Golden State Wind, a floating offshore wind farm proposed off the state’s central coast. Bluepoint Wind was an offshore wind farm in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.

Invenergy is North America’s largest privately held independent power producer. It has four offshore leases: a large lease area for Leading Light Wind, which would have used traditional turbines that affix to the seafloor; two leases for projects with floating turbines in the Gulf of Maine; and a lease for a floating project off California’s central coast.

Invenergy says it's focused on energy projects that can move forward today

For Invenergy, the deal offered a way to move forward with energy projects that could bring power to the grid more quickly for its customers than the dormant offshore wind leases. Trump has erected roadblocks for permitting wind energy, while trying to speed up fossil fuel development.

The company left the door open to reentering the offshore wind industry in the future. Daniel Runyan, senior vice president for development at Invenergy, said in a statement that at a time of unprecedented energy demand, they "will deploy additional capital into projects that can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline and meet customer demand while continuing to evaluate opportunities as market conditions evolve.”

Leading Light Wind was targeted for as much as 2.4 gigawatts to power more than 1 million homes. Invenergy told the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in November it was canceling Leading Light Wind because of challenges with the supply chain, equipment and vendors, and changing regulatory requirements.

The floating projects were so early in development that Invenergy hadn't yet calculated how much power those sites could provide.

Invenergy, a major player in the natural gas sector, has 14 operational natural gas facilities. It’s expanding into geothermal energy, with 45 leases totaling 144,000 acres in Nevada, Idaho, California, Utah and New Mexico. Invenergy plans to use the $765 million from the agreement for natural gas facilities in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, and geothermal development in the West. It was not refunded interest paid on the offshore wind lease payments or incremental development costs.

Invenergy has a large portfolio of projects other than offshore wind that produce electricity without warming the planet. That includes about 125 land-based wind farms operating and in construction, more than 60 solar and nearly 30 battery storage projects developed, and many more that it's actively planning and building.

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

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Authorities said the crime happened on Thursday at a jewelry store in the Miami Design District. Police took Linda Maria Palacio, 41, of Little River, into custody on three charges on Tuesday while out on bond in the aforementioned case.

Investigators said an employee of Cadar Jewelry, located at 166 NE 39th St., left her purse in an employee-only area of the closed, under-construction store, when Palacio and her son went in through a rear entrance.

Miami police said surveillance video showed Palacio rummaging through the purse and opening a blue backpack she was carrying.

An arrest report states that she held the backpack open while her son placed the victim’s stolen items inside; the two then left together.

Authorities said rather than supervising and caring for her child, Palacio “encouraged and involved him in the commission of the criminal offense.”

Police said they went to Palacio’s home near North Miami Avenue and 75th Street on Tuesday afternoon to take her into custody on charges of burglary, grand theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor; authorities said she “denied knowledge” that her son was stealing the property, despite the video evidence implicating her.

Palacio also faced those exact same charges in January 2025 after Miami police said the previous November, she and her son broke into an apartment in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood and she had her son steal a jar of cash and other items from a man with whom she had been meeting at the apartment for sexual encounters.

That case remained active as of Wednesday and Palacio, who court records show has a history of assorted arrests in Miami-Dade dating back to 2009, was out on bond at the time of her latest cuffing.

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

Las autoridades dijeron que el delito ocurrió el jueves en una joyería en el Miami Design District. La policía detuvo a Linda Maria Palacio, de 41 años y residente de Little River, bajo tres cargos el martes mientras estaba en libertad bajo fianza en el caso antes mencionado.

Los investigadores dijeron que una empleada de Cadar Jewelry, ubicada en 166 NE 39th St., dejó su bolso en un área solo para empleados de la tienda cerrada y en construcción, cuando Palacio y su hijo entraron por una entrada trasera.

La policía de Miami indicó que el video de vigilancia mostró a Palacio revisando el bolso y abriendo una mochila azul que llevaba.

Un informe de arresto señala que ella sostuvo la mochila abierta mientras su hijo colocaba dentro los artículos robados de la víctima; luego ambos se fueron juntos.

Las autoridades dijeron que, en lugar de supervisar y cuidar a su hijo, Palacio “lo alentó y lo involucró en la comisión del delito”.

La policía dijo que acudió a la casa de Palacio cerca de North Miami Avenue y la calle 75 el martes por la tarde para detenerla por cargos de allanamiento, hurto mayor y contribuir a la delincuencia de un menor; las autoridades señalaron que ella “negó tener conocimiento” de que su hijo estaba robando la propiedad, a pesar de la evidencia en video que la implica.

Palacio también enfrentó exactamente los mismos cargos en enero de 2025 después de que la policía de Miami dijo que en noviembre anterior, ella y su hijo irrumpieron en un apartamento en el vecindario Little Havana de la ciudad y ella hizo que su hijo robara un frasco con dinero en efectivo y otros artículos de un hombre con quien se reunía en el apartamento para encuentros sexuales.

Ese caso permanecía activo hasta el miércoles y Palacio, quien según los registros judiciales tiene un historial de varios arrestos en Miami-Dade que se remontan a 2009, estaba en libertad bajo fianza en el momento de su más reciente arresto.

Hasta el miércoles, Palacio permanecía detenida en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center con una fianza que, según los registros de la cárcel, estaba “por determinar”.

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As of 11 AM ET Wednesday, the center of Arthur was located along the middle Texas coast roughly 90 miles south of Galveston. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 40 mph – the threshold for a tropical storm – and little change in strength is expected before it moves fully inland over parts of southeast Texas and Louisiana later today.

A NOAA-owned and operated station at the entrance of Galveston Bay reported sustained winds of around 40-45 mph with gusts to 50 mph around 10 AM local time Wednesday.

It’s worth noting that nearly all thunderstorm activity and heavy rain associated with Arthur is displaced well east of its circulation due to a firehose of nearby westerly wind shear. As a result, Arthur has a very unconventional appearance for a tropical storm, with persistent, deep convection absent over its circulation center. The shear will accompany Arthur inland and keep the wet weather to the south and east side of its sprawling circulation center.

Big rains and widespread flood threat across the Deep South

While Arthur will bring blustery weather to the coast today, its winds will be a secondary hazard to the multi-day flood threat it poses to a large stretch of the Deep South. Hefty rainfall totals since the start of the week approaching double digits have already fallen across central Louisiana, with another 5 to 10 inches of rainfall expected for parts of southern and central Louisiana, lower Alabama, southeastern Mississippi, western Georgia, and the western Florida panhandle through Thursday.

The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center is advertising a moderate risk (threat level 3 of 4) of excessive rainfall for these areas, including cities like New Orleans and Mobile, which could lead to significant life-threatening flooding over the next few days.

Those in the highest-risk flood zone should closely monitor local alerts from the National Weather Service, as extreme rainfall rates exceeding 3 inches an hour could lead to rapid water rises.

Blustery onshore winds could also produce minor or moderate coastal flooding for parts of the upper Texas and Louisiana coastlines today.

Exiting into the western Atlantic this weekend

As we’ve discussed in previous newsletters, Arthur will get quickly mixed up with an advancing cold front on Friday as its remnant circulation zips eastward through Georgia and the Carolinas and into the western Atlantic.

Once it emerges off the Carolina coast late Friday into early Saturday, it could try to redevelop over the western Atlantic, but it’ll be quickly flushed out to sea by jet stream winds on Sunday, which will likely curtail any attempt at a second act.

Otherwise the Atlantic basin looks to settle down to round out the last few weeks of June, with no development expected elsewhere at least into the middle to latter part of next week.

A las 11:00 a. m. (hora del este) del miércoles, el centro de Arthur se ubicaba en la costa central de Texas, aproximadamente a 90 millas al sur de Galveston. Se estimaba que los vientos máximos sostenidos alcanzarían las 40 mph (el umbral para una tormenta tropical), y se prevé que su intensidad se mantenga prácticamente sin cambios antes de que se adentre completamente en tierra firme sobre partes del sureste de Texas y Luisiana más tarde hoy.

Una estación propiedad de la NOAA y operada por ella, ubicada en la entrada de la bahía de Galveston, informó de vientos sostenidos de entre 40 y 45 mph con ráfagas de hasta 50 mph alrededor de las 10 de la mañana, hora local, del miércoles.

Cabe destacar que casi toda la actividad de tormentas eléctricas y lluvias intensas asociadas con Arthur se desplaza considerablemente al este de su centro de circulación debido a la intensa cizalladura del viento del oeste en las proximidades. Como resultado, Arthur presenta una apariencia muy atípica para una tormenta tropical, con ausencia de convección profunda y persistente sobre su centro de circulación. La cizalladura acompañará a Arthur tierra adentro y mantendrá las lluvias al sur y al este de su extenso centro de circulación.

Fuertes lluvias y amenaza de inundaciones generalizadas en todo el sur profundo.

Si bien Arthur traerá vientos fuertes a la costa hoy, estos serán un peligro secundario comparado con la amenaza de inundaciones que se extenderá durante varios días en una amplia zona del sur profundo. Ya se han registrado importantes precipitaciones desde principios de semana, que rozan los diez centímetros, en el centro de Luisiana, y se esperan entre 12 y 25 centímetros más de lluvia en partes del sur y centro de Luisiana, el sur de Alabama, el sureste de Misisipi, el oeste de Georgia y el extremo occidental de la península de Florida hasta el jueves.

El Centro de Predicción Meteorológica del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional advierte de un riesgo moderado (nivel de amenaza 3 de 4) de lluvias torrenciales en estas zonas, incluidas ciudades como Nueva Orleans y Mobile, lo que podría provocar inundaciones importantes y potencialmente mortales en los próximos días.

Quienes se encuentren en la zona de mayor riesgo de inundación deben estar atentos a las alertas locales del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, ya que las precipitaciones extremas que superen las 3 pulgadas por hora podrían provocar crecidas rápidas del agua.

Los fuertes vientos que soplan desde tierra firme también podrían provocar inundaciones costeras leves o moderadas en algunas zonas de las costas del norte de Texas y Luisiana hoy mismo.

Saliendo hacia el Atlántico occidental este fin de semana.

Como ya hemos comentado en boletines anteriores, Arthur se verá rápidamente involucrado con un frente frío que avanza el viernes, a medida que su circulación remanente se desplace hacia el este a través de Georgia y las Carolinas y hacia el Atlántico occidental.

Una vez que emerja frente a la costa de Carolina entre la noche del viernes y la madrugada del sábado, podría intentar regenerarse sobre el Atlántico occidental, pero los vientos de la corriente en chorro la arrastrarán rápidamente hacia el mar el domingo, lo que probablemente limitará cualquier intento de una segunda fase.

Por lo demás, la cuenca del Atlántico parece que se estabilizará durante las últimas semanas de junio, y no se prevén novedades en otras zonas al menos hasta mediados o finales de la próxima semana.

For Emmanuel Macron, that was precisely the point.

On Wednesday night, the French president throws open Louis XIV’s palace to his U.S. counterpart for a private reception, show and dinner marking America’s 250th birthday. At a turbulent moment for the trans-Atlantic alliance, it could help Macron keep a personal channel open as the two navigate differences over Iran, Ukraine and tariffs.

It has already kept Trump from leaving a Group of Seven summit early, as he did last year in Canada.

“I’m a fan of beautiful places,” he told reporters, saying he had planned to leave earlier until “a very nice man” invited him to dinner.

The welcome also served a practical purpose. In an interview earlier this week with France’s TF1 television, Macron said Trump “needs to stay until the end” to help complete the summit’s agreements.

It is perhaps the biggest soft-power flex available to a French president: Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors, the gardens of the Sun King and several centuries of carefully polished national grandeur.

“Versailles is a diplomatic tool and an instrument of influence,” Macron said Wednesday, likening diplomacy to soccer. “Whether I’m playing at home or away, my goal is to score goals. And when I host other teams, I try to give them a nice welcome.”

France holds little economic or military sway over Washington, so pageantry is one of its few levers — even as its use elsewhere has brought mixed results at best.

Soft power built from stone

Macron and Trump have often clashed over policy.

Their relationship has endured partly because Macron understands the power of personal attention, dramatic settings and a well-timed invitation.

Their first meeting in 2017 produced a white-knuckled handshake that instantly became a symbol of their competitive rapport.

Months later came dinner inside the Eiffel Tower and a place of honor at France’s Bastille Day parade.

Versailles raises the stakes, allowing a French president to wrap a modern political encounter in the scale and authority of national history.

“It is soft-power flex based on hard buildings,” said Denis Lacorne, professor of American studies at Sciences Po.

Macron has used the palace before, receiving Russian President Vladimir Putin there in 2017 and later hosting King Charles III and Queen Camilla for a state dinner.

Versailles has been a favored setting for French leaders to honor foreign guests for over three centuries, the palace told The Associated Press. It remains “a place in the service of French diplomacy.”

With Trump, the setting carries added resonance.

The former real estate developer has long treated architecture as a statement of status, success and power. In his second term, he has sought to erect a legacy in stone — with plans for a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot (76-meter) triumphal arch resembling Paris’ Arc de Triomphe.

The real deal — and 357 mirrors

French media reported the evening could include a Hall of Mirrors visit and fountain display with fireworks. The full program was not released.

The Hall of Mirrors was once a feat of technology: 357 mirrors set in 17 arches along a 73-meter (240-foot) gallery, showing French manufacturers could rival Venice’s celebrated glassmakers.

They were also built to multiply a king. Every royal entrance ricocheted across the glass, and a modern guest gets the same treatment.

“You will be reflected many, many times, from one mirror to another,” Lacorne said.

For a president who has spent his second term turning the Oval Office gold, the appeal is clear, he added.

Trump arrives, in a sense, at a building he has quoted for years: he has said he modeled Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom after Versailles.

Others have sought to flatter a visiting Trump

Trump remembers spectacle, and often brings it home.

The 2017 Bastille Day parade saw tanks, horses and marching bands fill the Champs-Élysées as fighter jets trailing red, white and blue smoke soared overhead.

Trump called it “one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen.”

“We’re going to have to try and top it,” he said back in Washington, where he began pressing for a military parade. In 2025, he finally presided over a large Army anniversary parade through the capital.

China employed dazzle diplomacy when it hosted Trump for a “state visit plus” in 2017, including a rare tour of its Forbidden City, an experience once reserved for emperors.

Britain offered its own version last September, greeting Trump’s second state visit with mounted troops, a carriage procession and a Windsor Castle banquet.

The gleam is the easy part

The diplomatic pomp has clearly flattered Trump, who called the Windsor banquet one of the highest honors of his life.

But it seems to have won few concessions.

The early Macron-Trump “bromance” has hardened into something rougher and more transactional.

Trump has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on French wine and Champagne amid a broader trade fight. France opposed the U.S. war against Iran, even as Macron pressed Washington to keep backing Ukraine.

At home, the dinner has drawn criticism.

“We must learn once and for all to live without Trump,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the veteran far-left leader.

Versailles hands Macron some advantages, experts say: centuries of diplomatic history, a setting built for Trump’s taste for ceremony, and a palace already familiar to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who visit each year.

History counsels caution. Ronald Reagan dined beneath the same mirrors on the sidelines of the 1982 G7, and central disagreements outlasted the splendor.

Surveillance video shows Christopher Brandi during a shooting targeting Johnny Serrano in the North Beach neighborhood, according to an arrest warrant.

Serrano “battered Brandi and brandished a firearm” on May 26 at The Sand Bar and Kitchen at 6752 Collins Ave., and the shooting was about three hours later on May 27 outside of the bar on Collins Avenue, according to the warrant.

Surveillance video shows Brandi “removed a firearm” from a black cross-body bag and fired at Serrano, who was driving away in a silver 2026 Chevrolet Equinox, according to the warrant.

The evidence also included nine spent bullet casings, “damage to nearby trees and concrete pillars,” and damage to the car “along the driver’s side, rear passenger door,” according to the warrant.

On Tuesday, Brandi was arrested at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, and Miami-Dade corrections booked him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, records show.

Brandi faced charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and shooting a deadly missile. Corrections held him without bond.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

The 50th edition of the nation’s largest Independence Day celebration in New York City will fire 85,000 shells in 30 colors from six barges, as well as host a new laser show from the Brooklyn Bridge. The fireworks show will be accompanied by a vocal performance by “The Voice” season 29 winner Alexia Jayy.

TV viewers can watch on NBC or see it simulcast live on Peacock from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST and live to tape on Central, Mountain and Pacific times. A Spanish language simulcast will air on Telemundo starting at 8 p.m. EST.

"'Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks’ delivers the largest Independence Day celebration in the nation through a show-stopping spectacle that reminds us of the power of connection and shared experience. We’re proud to honor our 50th Fireworks with an expanded show, never-before-seen effects and music’s biggest stars for a truly unforgettable celebration,” Will Coss, Macy’s 4th of July executive producer, said in a statement.

Vozinha became an early sensation of the World Cup after making key saves in a 0-0 draw with Spain, one of the tournament favorites that was expected to rout tiny Cape Verde.

After the match, Vozinha said his mother had not been able to secure a visa to enter the U.S. to see him play.

Jeffries said he spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and “asked the State Department to do everything in their power to ensure that his mother can attend Cabo Verde’s next match.”

Jeffries said all fees have been waived and travel arrangements are being made to get her to Cape Verde's next game Sunday against Uruguay in Miami.

“I thank Secretary Rubio, U.S. State Department officials, the government of Cabo Verde and FIFA for working together to make this possible,” Jeffries said.

Vozinha made seven saves against Spain as Cape Verde delivered a stunning World Cup debut. Afterward, Vozinha said his mother had been unable to gather the money in time to secure a visa to enter the U.S.

Cape Verde is among 50 countries whose citizens face bonds of up to $15,000 to secure a U.S. visa, part of President Donald Trump’s broader crackdown on travelers from countries that officials said had high rates of visa overstays. The Trump administration last month suspended the requirement for ticket-holders from Cape Verde and four other World Cup nations, but critics said it was too late for many fans.

The State Department had said it had no record of her ever applying for a visa, but that it was working on resolving the situation with Cape Verde authorities. The department said it had notified all players from World Cup countries affected by the $15,000 visa bond requirement that they and their families would be exempt from posting the bond.

A person familiar with the situation said that the State Department believes that Vozinha’s mother did not apply for a visa because she did not hold a valid Cape Verde passport, but that she is now in the process of getting one.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential visa deliberations.

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed reporting from Washington.

___

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

The 41-year-old is set to enter the World Cup on Wednesday when Portugal meets Congo after impressive performances by the tournament’s other top stars.

France’s Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland of Norway each had two goals as they opened their World Cup campaigns on Tuesday, while Lionel Messi scored a hat trick for Argentina. That gave Messi 16 career goals in the World Cup, tying him with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the all-time record.

Ronaldo is also looking to make history by becoming the first player to score in six World Cups. Messi, too, is playing in his sixth World Cup but failed to find the net in 2010.

“Well, I wish him the best — I hope that he scores but not against us," Congo coach Sébastien Desabre said of the Portugal forward.

Ronaldo’s focus has been on his team’s success.

“We go match by match, but not with the expectations of winning it all,” Ronaldo told reporters in Portugal last week before the team’s departure. “It has to be step by step. A good start is the most important thing,”

Some Portugal supporters question whether the aging star will be a help or a detriment to the team.

After scoring just once in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Ronaldo was upset after he subbed off against South Korea and benched for the club’s first knockout-stage match against Switzerland. He also failed to score in the 2024 European Championship — the first time that has happened at a major international tournament.

But Ronaldo has also shown signs of his old productivity.

He scored eight goals during Portugal’s 2025 UEFA Nations League title, including an equalizer in the final against Spain. And, he recently won his first Saudi Pro League title with Al-Nassr, scoring a club-high 28 goals.

What to watch on June 17

— Portugal vs. Congo, 1 p.m. EDT in Houston (Fox/Telemundo/Peacock)

— England vs. Croatia, 4 p.m. EDT in Arlington, Texas (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

— Ghana vs. Panama, 7 p.m. EDT in Toronto (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

— Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, 10 p.m. EDT in Mexico City (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)

Kane, England seek strong World Cup start vs. Croatia

Harry Kane, one of the world’s dominant goal scorers, leads England into its first match against Croatia with the Three Lions seeking their first World Cup title since 1966, when they won on home soil.

Kane has been a force over the past year with 61 goals in 51 matches for Bayern Munich across all competitions. The 32-year-old striker has eight goals in two previous World Cups and won the Golden Boot in 2018 by scoring six times in Russia.

But he didn’t score in England’s semifinal loss to Croatia in 2018. In 2022, he missed a penalty late against France in a 2-1 semifinal loss in Qatar when he sent the ball over the crossbar.

Kane’s eight World Cup goals are two shy of Gary Lineker’s England record.

Ghana to be without Partey for opener after appeal denied

Ghana will play its opening match against Panama without midfielder Thomas Partey after a Canadian judge on Tuesday rejected a bid to allow him into the country as he awaits trial on rape charges.

Partey’s visa application was denied last week.

He will remain in the United States while his teammates play in Toronto on Wednesday. He will be eligible to play in Ghana’s next two matches — both in the U.S.

Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had criticized the visa denial, calling it a “high-handed and extremely unfair decision.” Its appeal was heard by the court earlier Tuesday.

Partey is awaiting trial in Britain while facing allegations from several women dating to his time playing for Arsenal from 2020-25. He has pleaded not guilty.

England’s Livramento will miss tournament with injury

England fullback Tino Livramento was ruled out of the World Cup on Tuesday because of a calf injury, forcing coach Thomas Tuchel into a late squad change ahead of his team’s opener against Croatia.

Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah was called up as a replacement and due to head to the England training camp in Kansas City. Livramento was injured during training on Sunday.

“A subsequent scan and medical assessment on Monday unfortunately confirmed he could play no further part in England’s tournament,” it said in a statement.

Uzbekistan ready to make World Cup debut

Uzbekistan will mark the biggest moment in the country’s soccer history on Wednesday when it participates in its first World Cup, facing Colombia.

Coached by Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning captain and a former Ballon d’Or winner, Uzbekistan finished second in Asian qualifying to earn its way into the expanded 48-team field.

Colombia is back in the World Cup after failing to qualify in 2022.

More World Cup news

— France striker Kylian Mbappé scores 13th and 14th World Cup goals, moving into tie for 3rd all time

— US official says Iran knew team would have to leave shortly after match

— Social media star Tim Payne leaves New Zealand for Paraguay’s Olimpia

— Tunisia fires coach Sabri Lamouchi after 1 match at the World Cup and appoints Herve Renard

— US forward Christian Pulisic practices on his own in calf injury rehab, team says he is ‘day to day’

— This Sweden defender at the World Cup isn’t your typical soccer player: He’s a baron!

— Highlights from Day 6 in photos

Stats of the day

England has struggled against European opposition at the global showcase, losing six of its last eight matches. Its overall record versus UEFA teams at the World Cup includes 14 wins, 12 losses and 13 ties.

___

This story was updated to correct the spelling of Partey.

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AP Sports Writers Jim Vertuno and Kristie Rieken contributed to this report.

___

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

Dream guard Rhyne Howard predicted before the season Reese “could be exactly what we were missing.”

After 13 games, the fit still looks perfect.

As it prepares for back-to-back games against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, Atlanta has one of the best records in the WNBA. Reese has been on a double-double tear, providing the inside presence on the boards and clutch points to keep the offense balanced even while All-Star center Brionna Jones continues to recover from a knee injury.

Reese and the Dream are winning and the two-time All-Star can't stop smiling, especially when she interacts with new teammates. The wins and smiles mean the trade has delivered just as Howard expected.

“Yeah, for sure,” Howard said. “I think there’s a lot of games where in the past we would have let them slip away. The tenacity that she brings, the fire that she brings, is forcing us to match her energy. You know she’s always gonna work hard, she’s always gonna be a dog, and we’re gonna always have her back. So if she’s going out to play hard, we’re also gonna play hard for her.”

Reese has filled in for Jones at center. When Jones is healthy, Reese will move back to forward, making the Dream's lineup even more daunting. With Howard leading the league in steals and 3-pointers, Jordin Canada ranking among the assists leaders and Allisha Gray and Howard ranking among the top 10 scorers, Reese is surrounded by talent.

Atlanta (9-4) is a half game ahead of the Fever (9-5) before Thursday night’s game at Indiana. The teams play again on Saturday at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA’s Hawks.

The Dream have become accustomed to moving their biggest games, including visits from Clark, to State Farm Arena because their primary home, Gateway Center Arena in College Park, has a capacity of 5,000 fans. Clark and the Fever were already a big draw, but Reese’s rivalry with Clark, which created headlines in college and has continued in the WNBA, makes the matchup even more attractive.

The Dream acquired Reese from Chicago on April 6. Atlanta gave up first-round draft picks in 2027 and 2028 and received the right to swap second-round picks with the Sky in 2028.

Reese is averaging 14.6 points and leads the WNBA with 12.3 rebounds per game. The averages are nothing new. After all, Reese led the league in rebounds in each of her first two seasons with Chicago.

What's new is the winning atmosphere that she missed in Chicago. Reese is all smiles as she is surrounded by talent and depth that makes the Dream look like a championship contender.

When asked whether the camaraderie with her teammates or the winning record are the best part of her first season in Atlanta, Reese beamed and said "Oh my. You said everything. I don’t know, I’m just really happy.

“I’m in a lot of joy just being able to be here, be surrounded by so many great people and every day I just show up to work and I don t have to think about anything else. That’s probably the best thing, just being to show up at work and take care of my job and everything feels great.”

Through 13 games, Reese already has nine double-doubles. Her 59 career double-doubles are the most in WNBA history through 76 games.

Reese set a career high with 11 offensive boards, one shy of matching the WNBA single-game record, and finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds in Atlanta's 102-77 win at Toronto on Sunday. She appears to be peaking just in time for important back-to-back games against Clark and the Fever.

Reese also has contributed to Atlanta's strong defense.

“We love that our team takes pride in defense, and that has been pretty consistent in every game,” said Dream coach Karl Smesko. “That we’re willing to compete each possession, and we understand that we wanna work to make sure that we don’t give up anything easy at any time. Angel is somebody who’s very serious about her defense and wants to learn to have every advantage defensively.”

The Dream-Fever matchups will be important as Atlanta tries to remain close to the top of the Eastern Conference. Reese said she’s trying to be patient as she seeks her first winning season in the league.

“Probably just telling myself, give myself as much grace as I can,” Reese said. “I’m a player that really wants results to happen fast, and I’m sure every player wants that, but I have to give myself grace and pace myself.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Group stage matches

JUNE 17: DAY 1

Portugal vs. Congo is at 1 p.m.

• Ronaldo looks to make history by scoring in 6th World Cup

Uzbekistan vs. Colombia is at 10 p.m.

The next matches

JUNE 23: DAY 2

Portugal vs. Uzbekistan is at 1 p.m.

Colombia vs. Congo is at 10 p.m.

JUNE 27: DAY 3

Congo vs. Uzbekistan is at 7:30 p.m.

Track the groups’ progress

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group L

Group stage matches

JUNE 17: DAY 1

England vs. Croatia is at 4 p.m.

Ghana vs. Panama is at 7 p.m.

JUNE 23: DAY 2

England vs. Ghana is at 4 p.m.

Panama vs. Croatia is at 7 p.m.

JUNE 27: DAY 3

Panama vs. England is at 5 p.m.

Croatia vs. Ghana is at 5 p.m.

Track the groups’ progress

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group K

La tormenta tropical Arthur era un conglomerado desorganizado de tormentas que llevó lluvia durante días a partes del este de México y del Golfo. El Centro Nacional de Huracanes en Miami indicó que las condiciones eran propicias para que se formara una tormenta tropical de corta duración.

El centro de la tormenta se ubicaba la mañana del miércoles a unos 65 kilómetros (40 millas) al este-noreste de Port O'Connor, Texas. La tormenta se desplazaba hacia el noreste a cerca de 15 kph (9 mph) con pronósticos de aumentos de velocidad.

Arthur tenía vientos máximos sostenidos de 64 kph (40 mph). No está prevista a cambiar mucho de intensidad antes de desplazarse sobre tierra, dijeron meteorólogos. A medida que se mueva tierra adentro debe debilitarse y podría disiparse el miércoles por la noche o temprano el jueves, según los pronósticos.

Arthur no estaba prevista a ganar mucha fuerza de viento a medida que se desplace sobre tierra. Pero los meteorólogos advirtieron que eso no significa que el sistema vaya a ser débil. Sus principales amenazas son inundaciones repentinas o urbanas a medida que bordee la costa del Golfo. Podría haber inundaciones hasta el viernes en partes de Luisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia y el Panhandle de Florida, según el pronóstico.

“Las lluvias prolongadas podrían extender la amenaza de inundaciones hasta el fin de semana”, advirtió el director del Centro Nacional de Huracanes, Michael Brennan.

Arthur podría arrojar de 13 a 25 centímetros (de 5 a 10 pulgadas) de lluvia, con totales aislados de cerca de 50 centímetros (20 pulgadas), lo que podría generar peligrosas inundaciones repentinas. La combinación de la marejada ciclónica y la marea hará que zonas normalmente secas cerca de la costa se inunden por el aumento de las aguas que avanzan tierra adentro.

Es probable que el oleaje generado por Arthur provoque condiciones de resaca y corrientes de retorno a lo largo de la costa noroeste del Golfo durante los próximos dos días. Son posibles tornados hasta el jueves.

__________________________________

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

También de manera sorpresiva fue convocada para el jueves una sesión extraordinaria de la Asamblea Nacional, el Parlamento, que le dará seguimiento a la reunión del partido.

El PCC, cuyo primer secretario es Díaz-Canel y el único con reconocimiento legal, no es un partido electoral –no se presenta a comicios--, sino que por la Constitución orienta a los otros poderes, incluido el Legislativo, sobre la dirección del país.

La semana pasada, y sin dar detalles o plazos de aplicación, Díaz-Canel dijo a periodistas que las reformas contemplarían la ampliación de autorizaciones para la creación de empresas privadas —recién permitidas este lustro—, que se admitirá a cubanos residentes en la isla y el exterior como inversores en el sector del turismo y una mayor libertad a las empresas estatales que incluye su asociación con privados.

También anticipó modificaciones en el mercado cambiario y la posibilidad de que negocios privados puedan importar y exportar sin intermediación estatal –como se hace actualmente--.

Díaz-Canel a su vez anticipó el debate de una ley —ya en el Parlamento— para reducir el Estado y llevar a 20 los 27 ministerios actuales.

El anuncio se produjo en medio de la paralización económica provocada por el cerco petrolero que el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump impuso en enero y que ha agravado la crisis económica que la isla atraviesa desde hace cinco años.

El cerco energético tiene un serio impacto en la vida diaria de los cubanos, que padecen apagones de hasta 20 horas diarias y limitaciones en los servicios de salud, el transporte, la industria y la educación.

Group stage matches

JUNE 17: DAY 2

Austria gets 3 points after 3-1 opener against Jordan

• FIFA game video: Austria’s Marko Arnautovic scores
• FIFA game video: Jordan’s Ali Olwan scores

JUNE 16: DAY 1

Argentina gets 3 points after 3-0 opener against Algeria

• Game analysis: Messi has his first World Cup hat trick as defending champion Argentina beats Algeria 3-0 in opener
• Argentina is defending its World Cup title, and its fans are more obsessed than ever
• Lionel Messi ties men’s World Cup goals record with a hat trick as Argentina tops Algeria
• FIFA game video: Messi’s opening goal
• FIFA game video: Messi’s hat trick

The next matches

JUNE 22: DAY 3

Argentina vs. Austria is at 1 p.m.

Jordan vs. Algeria is at 11 p.m.

JUNE 27: DAY 4

Algeria vs. Austria is at 10 p.m.

Jordan vs. Argentina is at 10 p.m.

Track the groups’ progress

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group K
• Group L

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Flash flooding was the main threat from Arthur, a weak tropical storm that the National Hurricane Center in Miami said would be short-lived. Maximum sustained winds were around 40 mph (65 kph), with little change in strength forecast before it is expected to dissipate by Wednesday night or early Thursday.

The storm hung over coastal Texas on the same day a World Cup match was being played between Portugal and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Houston. The stadium is covered, and no plans were announced to move or reschedule the match.

National Hurricane Center director Michael Brennan said during a briefing that flash flood warnings were already being issued in the Houston metro area, with more likely to follow across the region, even after the center of the storm passes.

“The main threat from Arthur is going to be a prolonged, multiday, heavy rainfall event that could produce dangerous to life threatening flash flooding,” Brennan said.

A teenager appears to have drowned in a flooded retention pond outside Houston, authorities said Tuesday evening. A group of teens were playing near a construction zone and an adjacent retention pond when a 15-year-old boy entered the water, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said on social media. Rescue workers found his body using sonar technology following an extensive search.

“This incident serves as a solemn reminder of the dangers associated with floodwaters, particularly following periods of heavy rainfall,” the post said.

Flooding was likely through Friday over parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, the hurricane center said.

The tropical storm is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters), with isolated higher totals near 20 inches (50 centimeters). The combination of storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.

Swells generated by Arthur are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along the northwestern Gulf Coast for the next couple of days. Tornadoes are possible through Thursday.

The center of Tropical Storm Arthur was located Wednesday morning about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east-northeast of Port O'Connor, Texas, according to an advisory. The storm was moving northeast near 9 mph (15 kph), and an increase in forward speed was expected.

The disease has sickened humans for thousands of years and wiped out a significant chunk of Europe's population in the 14th century during what's known as the Black Death. Though rare, the plague is still around today and is treated with antibiotics.

“To understand our own history, we believe that understanding the history of plague is extremely important,” said study co-author Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Willerslev and other researchers looked for traces of plague-causing bacteria in remains from four cemeteries near Siberia's Lake Baikal. They found remnants of plague DNA in teeth from 18 ancient hunter-gatherers.

Dating the carbon in the bones revealed that the plague triggered two outbreaks, with the first cases detected around 5,500 years ago.

The team found that the prehistoric plague developed in stages and infected several small families. It likely spread from marmots — large native rodents — when people ate their raw organs or touched infected hides during butchery. The disease also traveled between people through coughing and sneezing, the authors said.

Many of those who died were young children aged 8 to 11. Three young girls were buried side by side, two of whom were likely cousins. An aunt and nephew were found together, but her niece was in a different shared grave, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“People were around to bury the dead who knew who these people were when they were alive. And that’s a really human element to all of the scientific work,” said study co-author Ruairidh Macleod, who studies ancient DNA at the University of Oxford.

Kids may have been at greater risk because their immune systems weren’t as strong, researchers said.

The presence of multiple victims suggests that the prehistoric plague was capable of causing both individual cases and outbreaks, said geneticist Aida Andrades Valtueña with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. She had no role in the study.

Researchers found that this type of ancient plague evolved long before bubonic plague, which was responsible for the Black Death that struck medieval Europe. But there's evidence that earlier plagues were just as deadly. The disease decimated not only crowded cities, but also small, nomadic hunter-gatherer groups.

Knowing this can help us “understand the steps that the bacterium took to become the deadly pathogen we know today, and that can provide clues on how pathogens may emerge in the future,” Andrades Valtueña said in an email.

___

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

The new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified earlier this year allows the league to play up to 50 games for the next two seasons. There can be up to 52 regular-season games in 2029 and for the rest of the CBA.

“Demand for the WNBA has never been greater, and expanding to a 50-game regular season reflects the extraordinary momentum we are seeing across the league,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.

“This move reflects our commitment to growing the game and creating more opportunities for fans to watch the best players in the world and experience the extraordinary talent and competition that define the WNBA.”

The league is playing 44 games again this season. Over the next few seasons the WNBA is adding three new teams through expansion. Cleveland is joining in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. Connecticut is moving to Houston next year.

When the league first started in 1997, teams only played 28 games. That's grown over the past three decades with the exception of 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Engelbert has said she'd love to play games overseas starting next saeson. The league expanded its footprint to Canada this year with the addition of the Toronto Tempo — the first WNBA franchise outside of the United States.

The WNBA has added a lot of new TV and streaming partners over the past few years including ION, USA Sports, NBC and Amazon to go along with ESPN and CBS.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Según un informe de arresto obtenido el miércoles por Local 10 News, Steven Devon Mason Rivers, de 31 años y residente de Miami, llamó repetidamente a la víctima desde el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center entre el 24 de mayo y el 13 de junio.

La policía dijo que la víctima contestó una de las llamadas y grabó la conversación.

Según el informe, la víctima preguntó: “Hola, ¿quién es?” y Rivers le dijo: “Necesitamos hablar. ¿Por qué no contestas el teléfono? Ves que te he estado llamando. Soy Steven”.

La policía dijo que la víctima luego colgó el teléfono.

Según el informe, la víctima notificó por primera vez a un defensor de víctimas del Departamento de Policía de Miami Gardens el 24 de mayo después de que Rivers la llamara por primera vez.

La policía dijo que la víctima, quien es una estudiante internacional de Colombia, señaló que teme por su vida y cree que Rivers podría ser liberado pronto de la cárcel.

Dijo que escuchar su voz ahora le está “provocando recuerdos” de cuando fue agredida sexualmente por él.

Según las autoridades, la presunta agresión sexual ocurrió poco después de las 7 a.m. del 25 de enero en el campus de FMU en 15800 NW 42nd Ave. en Miami Gardens.

La policía dijo que la estudiante estaba esperando en una parada de autobús cuando Rivers, quien es indigente, le susurró y la siguió de regreso al campus.

Indicaron que Rivers entró al campus saltando una cerca y le pidió a la víctima usar su teléfono celular. Cuando ella se negó, la arrinconó contra una puerta y la agredió sexualmente, dijeron las autoridades.

Hasta el miércoles, Rivers permanecía detenido en TGK con una fianza de $513,001 USD por cargos de agresión sexual, robo por arrebato repentino, intento de agresión sexual, agresión a un oficial de policía/bombero/oficial correccional, resistirse a un oficial sin violencia y acoso a una víctima de un delito.

Según un informe de arresto, Jorden Stephen Perozo, residente de Miami Beach, fue arrestado por un cargo de daños criminales.

La policía indicó que el balón de la FIFA de Uruguay estaba en exhibición en la intersección de 71st Street y Rue Vendome mientras Miami comenzaba a albergar algunos de los partidos de la Copa Mundial el lunes, incluido el encuentro entre Uruguay y Arabia Saudita.

De acuerdo con el informe, un testigo dijo a los agentes que vio a un hombre cortando el balón inflable y luego alejándose rápidamente en un scooter eléctrico.

La policía indicó que cámaras de la ciudad ayudaron a los agentes a localizar a Perozo mientras estaba sentado dentro de un Nissan sedán estacionado en la intersección de 81st Street y Hawthorne Avenue.

Las autoridades informaron que se realizó una identificación presencial con el testigo, quien identificó a Perozo como el hombre que destruyó el balón inflable.

La policía señaló que Perozo fue trasladado a la estación policial, donde inicialmente dijo a los detectives que estaba intoxicado y que no recordaba nada, pero poco después les proporcionó “una confesión completa”.

Hasta la tarde del martes, Perozo permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $2,500 USD. Los registros carcelarios en línea muestran que se encontraba en libertad bajo fianza por delitos graves al momento de su arresto por cargos de huir o evadir a la policía, resistencia a un agente sin violencia y alteración del orden público.

Leer en español

According to an arrest report obtained Wednesday by Local 10 News, Steven Devon Mason Rivers, 31, of Miami, repeatedly called the victim from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center between May 24 and June 13.

Police said the victim answered one of the calls and recorded the conversation.

According to the report, the victim asked, “Hello, who is this?” and Rivers told her, “We need to talk. Why aren’t you answering the phone? You see I’ve been calling you. This is Steven.”

Police said the victim then hung up the phone.

According to the report, the victim first notified a Miami Gardens Police Department victims advocate on May 24 after Rivers called her for the first time.

Police said the victim, who is an international student from Colombia, said she is in fear for her life and believes Rivers might soon be released from jail.

She said hearing his voice is now “giving her flashbacks” of being attacked by him.

According to authorities, the alleged sexual battery happened just after 7 a.m. on Jan. 25 at FMU’s campus at 15800 NW 42^nd Ave. in Miami Gardens.

Police said the student was waiting at a bus stop when Rivers, who is homeless, whispered at her and followed her back onto campus.

They said Rivers entered the campus by jumping a fence and asked the victim to use her cellphone. When she refused, he pinned her against a door and sexually battered her, authorities said.

As of Wednesday, Rivers remained held at TGK on a $513,001 bond on charges of sexual battery, robbery by sudden snatching, attempted sexual battery, battery on a police officer/firefighter/corrections officer, resisting an officer without violence and harassing a victim of a crime.

El partido del Grupo K , Portugal contra Congo, es a la 1 pm.

El partido del Grupo L , Inglaterra contra Croacia, es a las 16:00.

El partido del Grupo L , Ghana vs. Panamá, es a las 7 pm.

El partido del Grupo K , Uzbekistán vs Colombia, es a las 22:00.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas de 12:00 a 22:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Progreso de la etapa de los grupos

Grupo J : Austria y Argentina obtienen 3 puntos cada una.

Grupo I : Francia y Noruega obtienen 3 puntos cada una.

Grupo H: Cada equipo tiene 1 punto

Grupo G: Todos los equipos tienen 1 punto.

Grupo F : Suecia consigue 3 puntos

Grupo E : Alemania y Costa de Marfil obtienen 3 puntos cada una.

Grupo D : Australia y Estados Unidos obtienen 3 puntos cada uno.

Grupo C : Brasil y Marruecos obtienen 1 punto cada uno; Escocia obtiene 3 puntos.

Grupo B: Catar y Suiza obtienen 1 punto cada uno.

Grupo A: México y Corea del Sur obtienen 3 puntos cada uno.

Calendario del torneo

18 de junio : Hay cuatro partidos: El partido del Grupo A , República Checa vs. Sudáfrica, es a las 12:00. El partido del Grupo B , Suiza vs. Bosnia, es a las 15:00. El partido del Grupo B , Canadá vs. Qatar, es a las 18:00. El partido del Grupo A , México vs. Corea del Sur, es a las 21:00.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 11:00 a 21:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

19 de junio : Hay cuatro partidos: Grupo D , EE. UU. vs. Australia, partido a las 15:00 h. Grupo C , Escocia vs. Marruecos, partido a las 18:00 h. Grupo C , Brasil vs. Haití, partido a las 20:30 h. Grupo D , Turquía vs. Paraguay, partido a las 23:00 h.

Fiestas para ver el evento en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra desde las 14:00 hasta la medianoche en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

20 de junio : Hay tres partidos: Grupo F , Países Bajos vs. Suecia, partido a la 1 pm. Grupo E , Alemania vs. Costa de Marfil, partido a las 4 pm. Grupo E , Ecuador vs. Curazao, partido a las 8 pm.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta las 11 de la noche en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Fiesta para aficionados en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 18:00 horas del 20 de junio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para un evento para aficionados uruguayos organizado conjuntamente por el Consulado General de Uruguay.

21 de junio : Hay cinco partidos: Grupo F , Túnez vs. Japón, el partido es a medianoche. Grupo H , España vs. Arabia Saudí, el partido es al mediodía. Grupo G , Bélgica vs. Irán, el partido es a las 15:00. Grupo H , Uruguay vs. Cabo Verde, el partido es a las 18:00. Grupo G , Nueva Zelanda vs. Egipto, el partido es a las 21:00.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 11:00 a 21:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

22 de junio : Hay cuatro partidos: Grupo J , Argentina vs. Austria, partido a la 1 pm. Grupo I , Francia vs. Irak, partido a las 5 pm. Grupo I , Noruega vs. Senegal, partido a las 8 pm. Grupo J , Jordania vs. Argelia, partido a las 11 pm.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas de 12:00 a 20:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 11 de la mañana del 22 de junio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido entre Argentina y Austria que comienza a la 1 de la tarde.

23 de junio : Hay cuatro partidos: Grupo K , Portugal vs. Uzbekistán, partido a la 1 pm. Grupo L , Inglaterra vs. Ghana, partido a las 4 pm. Grupo L , Panamá vs. Croacia, partido a las 7 pm. Grupo K , Colombia vs. Congo, partido a las 10 pm.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la 1 de la madrugada en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

24 de junio : Seis partidos: Grupo B , Suiza vs. Canadá, partido a las 15:00 h. Grupo B , Bosnia vs. Qatar, partido a las 15:00 h. Grupo C , Marruecos vs. Haití, partido a las 18:00 h. Grupo C , Escocia vs. Brasil, partido a las 18:00 h. Grupo A , Sudáfrica vs. Corea del Sur, partido a las 21:00 h. Grupo A , República Checa vs. México, partido a las 21:00 h.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 14:00 a 21:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 4 pm del 24 de junio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido entre Escocia y Brasil que comienza a las 6 pm.

25 de junio : Seis partidos: Grupo E , Curazao vs. Costa de Marfil, partido a las 16:00 h. Grupo E , Ecuador vs. Alemania, partido a las 16:00 h. Grupo F , Túnez vs. Países Bajos, partido a las 19:00 h. Grupo F , Japón vs. Suecia, partido a las 19:00 h. Grupo D , Turquía vs. Estados Unidos, partido a las 22:00 h. Grupo D , Paraguay vs. Australia, partido a las 22:00 h.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre de 15:00 a 01:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

26 de junio : Hay seis partidos: Grupo I , Noruega vs. Francia, partido a las 15:00 h. Grupo I , Senegal vs. Irak, partido a las 15:00 h. Grupo H , Cabo Verde vs. Arabia Saudita, partido a las 20:00 h. Grupo H , Uruguay vs. España, partido a las 20:00 h. Grupo G , Nueva Zelanda vs. Bélgica, partido a las 23:00 h. Grupo G , Egipto vs. Irán, partido a las 23:00 h.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 14:00 a 23:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

27 de junio : Seis partidos: Grupo L , Panamá vs. Inglaterra, partido a las 17:00 h. Grupo L , Croacia vs. Ghana, partido a las 17:00 h. Grupo K , Colombia vs. Portugal, partido a las 19:30 h. Grupo K , Congo vs. Uzbekistán, partido a las 19:30 h. Grupo J , Argelia vs. Austria, partido a las 22:00 h. Grupo J , Jordania vs. Argentina, partido a las 22:00 h.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 16:00 a 01:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Fiesta para ver el partido al amanecer : El Amerant Bank Arena, un recinto cubierto, organiza una fiesta gratuita para quienes tengan entrada a las 19:30 h del 27 de junio. El estacionamiento es gratuito. El condado de Broward ofrece transporte gratuito en autobús exprés desde el estadio hasta el Miami Stadium, también conocido como Hard Rock, en Miami Gardens, para los poseedores de entradas para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA.

Comienza la ronda de 32.

28 de junio : Hay un partido a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 13:00 a 22:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

29 de junio : Hay tres partidos a la 1 pm, 4:30 pm y 9 pm.

Fiestas para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

30 de junio : Hay tres partidos a la 1 pm, a las 5 pm y a las 9 pm.

Fiestas para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

1 de julio : Hay tres partidos a las 12:00, a las 16:00 y a las 21:00.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre de 11:00 a 23:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

2 de julio : Hay tres partidos a las 15:00, 19:00 y 23:00.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 14:00 a 22:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

3 de julio : Hay tres partidos a las 14:00, 18:00 y 21:30.

Eventos para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans se celebra de 13:00 a 21:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Comienza la ronda de octavos de final.

4 de julio: Hay dos partidos a la 1 pm y a las 5 pm.

Fiestas para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas desde el mediodía hasta la medianoche en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

5 de julio : Hay dos partidos a las 16:00 y a las 20:00.

Fiestas para ver el partido en Miami : El festival para fans abre sus puertas el último día de 15:00 a 23:00 en Bayfront Park, en 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

6 de julio : Hay dos partidos a las 15:00 y a las 20:00.

7 de julio : Hay dos partidos a las 12:00 y a las 16:00.

Comienzan los cuartos de final

9 de julio : Hay un partido de cuartos de final a las 16:00.

10 de julio : Hay un partido de cuartos de final a las 15:00.

11 de julio : Hay dos partidos de cuartos de final a las 17:00 y a las 21:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido al amanecer : El Amerant Bank Arena, un recinto cubierto, organiza una fiesta gratuita para ver el partido a las 17:00 horas del 11 de julio para quienes tengan entrada . El aparcamiento es gratuito.

Comienzan las semifinales

14 de julio : El festival de aficionados ha finalizado. Hay un partido de semifinales a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 14 de julio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido de semifinales.

15 de julio : Hay un partido de semifinales a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver el partido en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 15 de julio en The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para el partido de semifinales.

Comienzan las finales

18 de julio : El partido por el tercer puesto se jugará a las 17:00.

Fiesta para ver la final en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a las 3 pm del 18 de julio en The Sandbowl, detrás de The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para la final de bronce de las 5 pm.

Viaje al amanecer al estadio : El Amerant Bank Arena ofrece estacionamiento gratuito para los poseedores de entradas para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA que utilicen el servicio de autobús exprés gratuito del condado de Broward para llegar al Miami Stadium, también conocido como Hard Rock, en Miami Gardens.

19 de julio : El partido final es a las 15:00.

Fiesta para ver la final en Miami Beach: Las puertas se abren a la 1 pm del 19 de julio en The Sandbowl, detrás de The Bandshell, en 7275 Collins Ave., para la final que comienza a las 3 pm.

Fiesta para ver el partido al amanecer : El Amerant Bank Arena, un recinto cubierto, organiza una fiesta gratuita para ver la final el 19 de julio para los poseedores de entradas . El estacionamiento es gratuito.

Historias relacionadas

• Información clave para los aficionados que asistan a los partidos en el Estadio de Miami.
• Un guardia de seguridad fue acusado de robar un uniforme de árbitro de la FIFA de un hotel en Miami Beach.

Seguimiento de los grupos de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA

• Grupo A
• Grupo B
• Grupo C
• Grupo D
• Grupo E
• Grupo F
• Grupo G
• Grupo H
• Grupo I
• Grupo J
• Grupo K
• Grupo L

FIFA

• Mesas altas
• Última clasificación mundial masculina

Leer en español

The Group K, Portugal vs. Congo, game is at 1 p.m.

The Group L, England vs. Croatia, game is at 4 p.m.

The Group L, Ghana vs. Panama, game is at 7 p.m.

The Group K, Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Groups’ stage progress

Group J: Austria and Argentina each get 3 points

Group I: France and Norway each get 3 points

Group H: Every team sits at 1 point

Group G: Every team sits at 1 point

Group F: Sweden gets 3 points

Group E: Germany and Ivory Coast each get 3 points

Group D: Australia and United States each get 3 points

Group C: Brazil and Morocco each get 1 point; Scotland gets 3 points

Group B: Qatar and Switzerland each get 1 point

Group A: Mexico and South Korea each get 3 points

Tournament’s schedule

June 18: There are four matches: The Group A match, The Czech Republic vs. South Africa, is at Noon. The Group B, Switzerland vs. Bosnia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Canada vs. Qatar, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A match, Mexico vs. South Korea, is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 19: There are four matches: The Group D, U.S. vs. Australia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Haiti, game is at 8:30 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. Paraguay, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 20: There are three matches: The Group F, Netherlands vs. Sweden, game is at 1 p.m. The Group E, Germany vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Curaçao, game is at 8 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach fan party: Doors open at 6 p.m. on June 20 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for an event for Uruguayan fans co-hosted by the Consulate General of Uruguay.

June 21: There are five matches: The Group F, Tunisia vs. Japan, game is at midnight. The Group H, Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Iran, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Cape Verde, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Egypt, game is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 22: There are four matches: The Group J, Argentina vs. Austria, game is at 1 p.m. The Group I, France vs. Iraq, game is at 5 p.m. The Group I, Norway vs. Senegal, game is at 8 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Algeria, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 8 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 11 a.m. on June 22 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 1 p.m. Argentina vs. Austria match.

June 23: There are four matches: The Group K, Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Ghana, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Panama vs. Croatia, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Congo, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 24: There are six matches: The Group B, Switzerland vs. Canada, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Bosnia vs. Qatar, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Morocco vs. Haiti, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Brazil, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A, South Africa vs. South Korea, game is at 9 p.m. The Group A, Czech Republic vs. Mexico, game is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 4 p.m. on June 24 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 6 p.m. Scotland vs. Brazil match.

June 25: There are six matches: The Group E, Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Germany, game is at 4 p.m. The Group F, Tunisia vs. Netherlands, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Japan vs. Sweden, game is at 7 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. U.S., game is at 10 p.m. The Group D, Paraguay vs. Australia, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 26: There are six matcuphes: The Group I, Norway vs. France, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Senegal vs. Iraq, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at 8 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Spain, game is at 8 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Belgium, game is at 11 p.m. The Group G, Egypt vs. Iran, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 27: There are six matches: The Group L, Panama vs. England, game is at 5 p.m. The Group L, Croatia vs. Ghana, game is at 5 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Portugal, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group K, Congo vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group J, Algeria vs. Austria, game is at 10 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Argentina, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 7:30 p.m. on June 27. Parking is free. Broward County is offering free Express bus transportation from the arena to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens, to FIFA World Cup ticket holders.

Round of 32 begins

June 28: There is a match at 3 p.m.

Miami watch party: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 29: There are three matches at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 30: There are three matches at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 1: There are three matches at noon, 4 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 2: There are three matches at 3 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 3: There are three matches at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Round of 16 begins

July 4: There are two matches at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 5: There are two matches at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 6: There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 7: There are two matches at Noon and 4 p.m.

Quarterfinals begin

July 9: There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 5 p.m. on July 11. Parking is free.

Semifinals begin

July 14: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15: There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals begin

July 18: The third-place play-off match is at 5 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

July 19: The final match is at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

Related stories

• Key information for fans attending matches at Miami Stadium
• Security guard accused of stealing FIFA referee uniform from Miami Beach hotel

Track FIFA World Cup groups

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group K
• Group L

FIFA

• Standing tables
• Latest men’s world ranking

Clarkson, 66, said that the disease is “aggressive,” but was detected early.

He gave advance warning on social media Tuesday that he would share somber news on the final episodes of the fifth season of “Clarkson’s Farm,” the show based on the challenges of running Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire. The episodes were released on Wednesday.

“Ordinarily we try to keep the show bucolic and charming, and cheerful, but two episodes which drop in the middle of the night tonight are, they’re none of those things,” he said on Instagram. “They’re a difficult watch, they’re really, really difficult.”

In one of the episodes, he breaks the news to farm manager Kaleb Cooper and consultant Charlie Ireland during harvest planning discussions saying, “I’ve got cancer.”

Clarkson, who made his name as the combative host of the BBC car show “Top Gear,” underwent a heart procedure two years ago. He said at the time in his column in The Sun tabloid that his doctor told him to replace work with playing golf.

In 2023, Clarkson’s column landed him in hot water with media regulators when he wrote about fantasizing about seeing Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, paraded naked through the streets and pelted with feces. He apologized after the press watchdog found the column sexist.

Since taking up farming in 2019, Clarkson has become an outspoken agriculture advocate who has railed against the government’s decision to introduce inheritance tax on farmland in November 2024.

In the finale to season five, Clarkson spoke from a hospital bed, saying a surgeon removed part of his prostate and he would know his prognosis in November.

“If this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six, and if it isn’t, I won’t," he said. “Take care, everyone.”

Group stage matches

JUNE 16: DAY 1

Norway gets 3 points after 4-1 opener against Iraq in Boston

• Game analysis: Erling Haaland scores twice in World Cup debut as Norway tops Iraq 4-1
• FIFA game video: Haaland’s 1st World Cup goal
• FIFA game video: Haaland scores again

France gets 3 points

• Game analysis: France striker Kylian Mbappé scores 13th and 14th World Cup goals, moving into tie for 3rd all time
• Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup
• FIFA game video: Kylian Mbappe scores
• FIFA game video: Bradley Barcola scores

The next matches

JUNE 22: DAY 2

France vs. Iraq is at 5 p.m.

Norway vs. Senegal is at 8 p.m.

JUNE 26: DAY 3

Norway vs. France is at 3 p.m.

Senegal vs. Iraq is at 3 p.m.

Track the groups’ progress

Here is the list of the groups:

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group J
• Group K
• Group L

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Miami Gardens Police Executive Officer to the Chief Emmanuel Jeanty and lead investigator Stephanie Saint-Fleur of the agency’s special victims unit provided the update during a Wednesday morning press conference.

Police said the female victim, a FMU student who was here on a visa from Colombia, was waiting at a bus stop when Rivers whispered at her and followed her back onto campus.

They said Rivers entered the campus by jumping a fence and asked the victim to use her cellphone. When she refused, he pinned her against a door and sexually battered her, authorities said.

Police on Wednesday also shared surveillance video of who they said was Rivers jumping a campus fence prior to the attack.

Miami Gardens police later received a tip from the Opa-locka Police Department, after officers spotted a man wearing similar clothing two days after the incident — described as a Black male wearing a black hoodie and black pants.

Jeanty said investigators executed a DNA warrant, and at 7 a.m. Wednesday, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office crime laboratory confirmed a positive DNA match to Rivers in less than 24 hours.

Local 10 News was there as Rivers was taken into custody on Tuesday.

Authorities said as Rivers was being detained, he attempted to grab a female detective’s buttocks. The bizarre move forced officers to brace him against a nearby railing when Rivers said “good catch but I don’t give a f---” before he was placed in a patrol car, authorities said.

Jeanty credited the lab for working overnight to expedite the results. Rivers’ arrest report lists him as homeless.

Police also confirmed that Rivers was released from the Florida Department of Corrections in December 2025 following a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct in an unrelated case.

According to court records obtained by Local 10 News, Rivers has multiple prior cases listed under lewd or lascivious exhibition, with offense dates of February 18, 2024; April 19, 2024; July 23, 2024; and March 27, 2025, all out of Palm Beach County.

Additionally, prior prison records list convictions in Miami-Dade County, including:

• Sudden snatching without a weapon (offense date May 6, 2019)
• Aggravated stalking with a credible threat (offense date August 1, 2019)
• Carrying a concealed firearm (offense date June 26, 2020)

Jeanty said the department has extended patrols and increased security measures in the area. Local 10 News was on site as school staff installed additional security cameras and lighting around the campus.

Saint-Fleur said investigators are “very pleased with the outcome of this case.” She added that the victim, who remains an active student and lives on campus, told police she is “very happy” and plans to continue taking classes at FMU.

Students on campus said they were relieved an arrest was made, while also keeping the victim in their thoughts.

“I do feel bad for her,” a student said. “I said prayers for her all week.”

In this case, jail records show Rivers is facing one count each of sexual battery and robbery by sudden snatching.

Rivers appeared in Miami-Dade bond court via Zoom Thursday morning, where Judge Mindy Glazer set his total bond at $510,501 after calling him “a great danger to the community.”

She also ordered him to stay away from the victim and FMU.

Investigators believe there may be additional victims and urge anyone with information to contact the Miami Gardens Police Department at 305-474-6473.

The enclave has seen near-daily strikes, as well as shelling and gunfire along the boundary that divides Gaza into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled zones. The most recent deaths were recorded after a series of Israeli drone strikes in the past few days on towns and refugee camps in central Gaza and Gaza City.

Also Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed two Palestinians and wounded six others in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, health officials at Nasser Hospital said. The Israeli military acknowledged carrying out the strike and said the target was a “terrorist” but did not elaborate. Families at the hospital said the strike targeted a group of people near the beach in the sprawling tent camp of Mawasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians live.

Israel has said it is continuing to operate against Hamas and allied militants in Gaza and has expanded the amount of territory it controls inside the strip.

In a separate statement Wednesday, the Israeli military said that it killed two militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in strikes over the weekend.

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Sunday said the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war that started in October 2023 had surpassed 73,000 in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

El terreno alberga la instalación de combustible que abastece a PortMiami.

La comisionada Raquel Regalado fue el único voto en contra.

Antes de la votación, expresó su preocupación de que, mediante la expropiación, el condado heredaría un “dinosaurio” debido a la antigüedad de la instalación.

Por otro lado, el comisionado Oliver Gilbert afirmó que cree que será menos costoso modernizar el sitio existente que construir uno nuevo.

“El otoño pasado, la Junta de Comisionados del Condado autorizó a la administración a iniciar negociaciones para esta propiedad y, en caso de que esas negociaciones no tuvieran éxito, a iniciar procedimientos de expropiación”, dijo el vicealcalde de Miami-Dade, Roy Coley, a Local 10 News después de la votación. “Desde entonces, y dado que la alcaldesa determinó que las negociaciones no tuvieron éxito, se identificó que la descripción legal de la propiedad podía reducirse a una superficie ligeramente menor que la contemplada en nuestra resolución original. Por lo tanto, se trata realmente de una medida de ajuste que vuelve a autorizar lo que ya había sido autorizado con una descripción legal más precisa”.

La terminal de combustible en la exclusiva Fisher Island ha sido objeto de varias demandas y de una disputa de alto perfil sobre su futuro.

La alcaldesa del condado Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, dijo que el objetivo del condado es garantizar un suministro confiable de combustible para las operaciones de PortMiami.

En cuanto a los próximos pasos en el caso federal relacionado, Coley dijo que el condado ahora procederá con dominio eminente y que la ley de Florida “requiere negociaciones”.

“Hay un período de negociación estatutario de 30 días en el que esperamos poder sentarnos con los nuevos propietarios, los desarrolladores, y negociar un acuerdo final que el alcalde pueda respaldar”, dijo.

Coley indicó que no podría decir si los demandantes que han presentado la demanda tendrán un lugar en la mesa de negociación.

“Bueno, Fisher Island nos ha demandado, como usted sabe, y también ha demandado a los desarrolladores”, dijo. “Y entonces, cualquier negociación sería de naturaleza confidencial, al igual que todas las negociaciones hasta ahora de las que estamos hablando son confidenciales por requisito. Así que si todos están dispuestos a sentarse juntos en la mesa, lo sabremos después de que presentemos nuestro dominio eminente”.

Roberto Perez, el CEO de HRP Group, emitió la siguiente declaración a Local 10 News en nombre de HRP Fisher Island, LLC:

“La acción de hoy para proceder con la incautación de propiedad privada es la consecuencia directa y totalmente evitable del fracaso de décadas del condado Miami-Dade para planificar. El condado sabía que esta propiedad existía y fue contactado repetidamente por el propietario anterior antes de que saliera al mercado y durante la venta pública. Rechazaron de manera proactiva la oportunidad de comprarla una y otra vez.

“El propietario anterior proporcionó amplio aviso al condado y al puerto de que la propiedad eventualmente sería vendida a un desarrollador dado el uso más alto y mejor del terreno en uno de los códigos postales más caros del país y ofreció alternativas para la ubicación y financiamiento del suministro de combustible. Además, la propiedad fue comercializada a desarrolladores inmobiliarios en la venta pública.

“HRP finalmente adquirió la propiedad a través de un proceso totalmente transparente y anunciado públicamente y dejó claras nuestras intenciones de construir un desarrollo residencial de clase mundial desde el primer día.

“Cuando el condado amenazó por primera vez con el dominio eminente, apenas semanas antes del cierre de nuestros dos años de esfuerzos de desarrollo para desbloquear el valor de un proyecto de $2,500,000,000 USD, nos sentamos a la mesa y pasamos ocho meses participando en un proceso de mediación confidencial solicitado por el condado. Según las propias declaraciones públicas del condado, ese proceso resultó en una resolución mediada que habría permitido al condado asegurar la propiedad de inmediato sin costo ni riesgo para los contribuyentes.

“HRP luchará agresivamente contra esta incautación inconstitucional de nuestra propiedad y construiremos One Fisher Island. La única pregunta ahora es cuánto tiempo y dinero del público está dispuesto a desperdiciar el alcalde para ocultar las numerosas malas decisiones que su administración y el condado han tomado durante décadas.”

Leer en español

The land holds the fuel facility that supplies PortMiami.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado was the only dissenting vote.

Ahead of the vote, she expressed concern that with eminent domain, they would be inheriting a “dinosaur,” due to the aging facility.

Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, on the other hand, said he believes it will be less costly to upgrade the existing site than it would be to build a new one.

“Last fall, the board of county commission authorized the administration to enter into negotiations for this property and should those negotiations not be successful to enter into eminent domain proceedings,” Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Roy Coley told Local 10 News after the vote. “Since that time, and the mayor has determined the negotiations to not be successful, it has been identified that the legal description of the property could be reduced to a slightly smaller footprint than our original resolution. And so, it’s really a cleanup item that reauthorizes what’s already been authorized with a more accurate legal description.”

The fuel bunker on the exclusive Fisher Island has been the subject of several lawsuits and a high-profile dispute over its future.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the county’s goal is to ensure a reliable fuel supply for PortMiami’s operations.

As for the next steps in the related federal case, Coley said the county will now pursue eminent domain and Florida law “requires negotiations.”

“There’s a 30-day statutory negotiation period where we hope we can sit down with the new property owners, the developers, and negotiate out a final deal that the mayor can support,” he said.

Coley said he wouldn’t be able to say whether the plaintiffs who have filed suit will have a seat at the negotiating table.

“Well, Fisher Island has sued us, as you know, and they’ve also sued the developers,” he said. “And so, any negotiations would be confidential in nature, just like all the negotiations up to now that we’re talking about are confidential by requirement. So whether or not everyone’s willing to sit down at the table together, we’ll find out after we file our eminent domain.”

Roberto Perez, the CEO of HRP Group, released the following statement to Local 10 News on behalf of HRP Fisher Island, LLC:

“Today’s action to pursue the seizure of private property is the direct and entirely avoidable consequence of Miami-Dade County’s decades-long failure to plan. The County knew this property existed and were approached repeatedly by the former owner before it ever went to market and during the public sale. They proactively passed on the opportunity to purchase it again and again.

“The former owner provided extensive notice to the County and Port that the property would ultimately be sold to a developer given the highest and best use of the land in one of the country’s most expensive zip codes and provided alternatives for fuel supply location and financing. Moreover, the property was marketed to real estate developers in the public sale.

“HRP ultimately acquired the property through a fully transparent, publicly advertised process and made our intentions to build a world-class residential development clear from day one.

“When the County first threatened eminent domain - just weeks before the closing of our two years of development efforts to unlock the value of a $2.5 billion project - we came to the table and spent eight months participating in a confidential mediation process requested by the County. According to the County’s own public statements, that process resulted in a mediated resolution that would have allowed the County to secure the property immediately at no cost or risk to the taxpayers.

“HRP will aggressively fight this unconstitutional seizure of our property and we will build One Fisher Island. The only question now is how much of the public’s time and money the Mayor is willing to waste to obscure the numerous poor decisions her administration and the County have made for decades.”

Livano Comenencia had scored a goal for the smallest nation by population to ever qualify for the World Cup against four-time champion Germany.

At 1-1 in Houston a famous upset looked possible.

Then came the hydration break.

Curaçao lost the initiative, conceding two goals before halftime in what eventually became a 7-1 defeat to the Germans.

“I actually felt sorry for them,” former England striker Alan Shearer told The Rest is Football podcast. “They scored and then it was maybe 30 seconds after that it stopped. So it’s killed their momentum.”

FIFA’s new hydration breaks midway through each half — a novelty for this World Cup — were introduced to help players deal with the summer heat in the United States, Canada and Mexico. But critics say they’re having unintended consequences, ruining the flow of the game and giving coaches a chance to tactically shift momentum in their team’s favor.

While player welfare is a real concern with temperatures expected to exceed 90 F (32 C) in the hottest World Cup venues, some say the hydration breaks are just an excuse for broadcasters to go to commercials in the middle of the game.

“We’re in America, right? So, it’s like it is a timeout,” former Ireland international Roy Keane said on The Overlap, a podcast that he co-hosts with long-time Manchester United teammate Gary Neville. “We love football because of the pace of the game ... what it’s doing is stopping the flow of the game, the momentum.”

A chance for coaches to huddle with the players

Rather than players merely taking on fluids, coaches have been seizing the opportunity to pass on in-game tactical instructions that would normally not be possible. And early indications are that it is having an effect.

“You can use the break to tell the players what they need to improve or what is good or what they should do better,” Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said. “So you can use it in different ways to your advantage, and this is what we will be doing.”

In eight of the first 16 games there were goals scored within 10 minutes of the rehydration break.

Curaçao never recovered after the restart against Germany.

Morocco paid the price against Brazil in New Jersey, having dominated the game from the start and scored just before the first break. Less that 10 minutes after play resumed the game was level with Vinicius Junior equalizing.

Canada, the U.S., Australia, Scotland, Sweden and Iran have all benefited with goals soon after the break.

Momentum maps have shown how games have shifted after the new stoppages in play.

The hydration breaks also affect the experience of fans watching at stadiums. There were boos from the crowd for the first one in the game Tuesday between Iraq and Norway in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Breaks will be implemented regardless of the weather

Referees pause the games 22 minutes into each half, with players given three minutes to rehydrate.

FIFA stipulated that the breaks would occur regardless of the weather, venue or location, meaning the Spain vs. Cape Verde match in Atlanta on Monday was interrupted despite being under a roof and in an air conditioned stadium.

The governing body said it was to “ensure equal conditions for all teams, in all matches.”

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said the breaks make sense in “extreme” heat conditions but questioned whether they were necessary at every match.

“Pause, freshen up and continue. Tomorrow, when the temperature that we’ll have in this stadium is chill, maybe these breaks are not so needed, but we need to abide by the rules,” he said.

Norway coach Staale Solbakken agreed.

“I can understand it when it’s like it’s been in Greensboro (North Carolina), when it’s been 35 degrees (95 Fahrenheit) and a really hot climate and there’s a bit vibration in the air – then I think it’s fine. But I don’t like it otherwise. I think it’s unnecessary," he said.

Broadcasters cutting to commercials

Aside from the sporting impact on games, the stoppages have been criticized for damaging the spectacle for fans, with broadcasters using the opportunity to take commercial breaks.

In the United States, Fox immediately goes to commercials during the hydration breaks. Telemundo, a Spanish-language U.S. broadcaster, does not.

Unlike in U.S. professional sports like baseball, basketball and football, commercial breaks have not been a common feature in soccer except during the half-time break.

“Every time going to a commercial is a bit ... not really (something) that I like,” said Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk, who watched World Cup games on TV before the Dutch began their campaign with a 2-2 draw against Japan. “I think for the neutral watchers on TV it’s also not great.”

France coach Didier Deschamps, however, said this is the changing face of soccer.

“It’s not two half times, it is four quarter times basically that we’ve got. This is what’s been decided and so the players and the coaches adapt to this new reality,” he said.

It is not known if FIFA will implement hydration breaks at all future World Cups, but the English Football Association said it was unlikely to be in place for the European Championship, hosted by the U.K. and Ireland in 2028.

___

AP Sports Writers Kyle Hightower in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Ron Blum in New York, Maura Carey in Atlanta and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.

___

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

Three fans bicycled nearly 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers) from South America to Kansas City, Missouri — without tickets in hand. One group drove 20 hours, living off sandwiches to save money. Daniel Otero, a 73-year-old attending his seventh tournament, is shelling out around $100,000 so he and his two sons can watch the team play over the coming weeks.

“We are crazy for Argentina,” he said. “That’s why we spend so much money to see our country, our national team.”

The obsession was rewarded in Kansas City as the team made opened its World Cup defense, defeating Algeria 3-0. Scoring all three of those goals was the legendary Lionel Messi who, turning 39 next week, could be playing in his last World Cup.

“Argentina now is like the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan,” said Juan Martin, 43, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, before the match. “In his prime, he had fans around the world. Argentina has fans around the world with Messi.”

Martin plans to spend the next month following the team with his girlfriend, 31-year-old Agostina Gomez Uvia, a quest that he estimates will cost them $20,000 each. Similarly Otero is spending $40,000 on tickets alone.

Otero and his son, Franco Otero, 27, marveled that U.S. families also were wearing Argentina jerseys, emblazoned with Messi’s name.

“I can’t remember an Argentinian team without Messi,” Franco Otero said.

“He changed the game,” agreed Manuel Valdes, a 29-year-old engineer from Corrientes, Argentina, who traveled to the match with his father and younger brother. “There’s a before and after in football.”

In the parking lot outside the stadium, 11-year-old Andre Cornuz, of Miami, joined his father as he set up a flag atop a van before the game. In front, members of the band Los Sin Entradas (translation: Those Without Tickets) lined up drums. Passersby stopped to pose for photos in front of the display, which included a giant banner that read, “Lio Te Quiero” — “I love you, Lio” — and a photo of Messi.

“I have been raised with Messi,” said Andre, whose father is from Argentina and who often travels back to visit his family. “I am very connected to the land.”

The band’s next stop is Dallas, where Argentina is playing next, and then “wherever it takes us,” Andre said.

Pam Kramer, the chief executive of the Kansas City organizing committee, has marveled over the past week at the lengths that Argentina fans have gone to support the three-time World Cup champions, including the trio that cycled their way to Kansas City in time for the opening match.

“We had those three Argentine cyclists come here, and they came here without tickets. And the people in Johnson County (Kansas) were like, ‘You know what? We’re fans too. We’re going to make sure you get to a match,’” Kramer said, “and that’s genuine. Nobody is doing it for show. We want people to see what we see, that this place is pretty special.”

Three hours before kickoff, fans already were lining up to get into the stadium. Jorgelina Skorput, 34, of New York City, waited with her friends as police officers on horseback patrolled the crowd. They drove two days to get here, munching on sandwiches and staying at an Airbnb an hour out of town because it was cheaper.

All told, she figures the trip cost her $2,000, including the $800 game ticket.

“I felt like this is the only time, the only opportunity I’m going to get to see the World Cup,” said Skorput, who was born in Rosario, Argentina, and moved to the U.S. when she was 9. “We’re the last champions.”

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AP Sports Writer David Skretta contributed to this report.

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

Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes on a nice feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second on a rebound early in the second half. Shortly after he got his third on a strike from the top of the penalty box, he subbed out to a standing ovation from a heavily pro-Argentina crowd.

The trio of goals gave him 16 for his career, putting him in a tie with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the career record. They also allowed him to join Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to have scored in five World Cups.

“The first matches at the World Cup are always tough,” Messi said after playing in the tournament for a record-setting sixth time, “and we’re seeing that nobody’s giving anything away.”

Well, almost nothing. Algeria made some crucial mistakes on the first two of Messi’s goals, which came 20 years to the day that he made his World Cup debut for Argentina in a match against Serbia and Montenegro — he scored in that one, too.

“We’re not talking about any old footballer,” Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic said. “Unfortunately we also afford him the opportunity with the first and second goal, and we actually made it easier for him. But Messi, with his clear thinking in crucial stages of the game, is able to do things that much more easily.”

Messi’s brilliant hat trick helped Argentina get off to a much better start than its last World Cup. Four years ago, La Albiceleste were beaten by Saudi Arabia in their opening match in Qatar, only to rally from there to win their third world title.

“The first match is always tricky,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “We had stumbled in the last World Cup and we needed to have a good debut today.”

Messi, who turns 39 next week, nearly had two other goals against Algeria, never once looking like the mild hamstring injury that worried fans in the run-up to the tournament was a problem. One found the back of the net but was called back because he was ever-so-slightly offside, and another strike in the second half just cleared the crossbar.

He was a pest on defense, too, helping Argentina lock down the overmatched Les Fennecs.

“Argentina have a special player who can change a game on his own,” Algeria star Riyad Mahrez said.

Algeria’s best chance came in the opening minutes, when Fares Chaibi’s would-be goal was taken away by a VAR review that showed he was offside. Messi scored moments later, and the rest of the night belonged to him and Argentina.

“I like playing soccer. It’s been my passion since I was little,” Messi said. “When I’m in good shape, I give it my all.”

The game played at Arrowhead Stadium fulfilled the longtime dream of the late Lamar Hunt, who not only founded the NFL franchise that calls it home, but who was instrumental in the growth of soccer in the U.S. from the 1960s through the early 2000s.

Hunt played a big role in the U.S. hosting the 1994 World Cup. His sons, Clark and Dan, are doing likewise with this edition.

Among those in the crowd on a picture-perfect night in the Heartland were Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who traded in his usual red-and-yellow football uniform for a blue sweatsuit and white shirt, and his wife, Brittany.

Argentina will continue its pursuit of back-to-back titles in Arlington, Texas, when it plays Austria on Monday and Jordan on June 27. Algeria plays Jordan on Monday in Santa Clara, California, before facing Austria in its Group J finale on June 27 in Kansas City.

“The goal,” De Paul said, “is always to arrive on the first day and leave on the last.”

___

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

The Mombasa Declaration, named after the Kenyan city hosting the 11th Our Ocean Conference, calls on governments to improve access to information on fishing vessels, ownership and licensing, and to strengthen data sharing to better track fishing activities and enforce regulations.

Out of the more than 30 countries represented in the summit, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, the Dominican Republic, France, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Republic of the Congo, Somalia and South Korea signed the agreement.

The signatories said in a statement the measures are intended to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, also known as IUU fishing, which threatens marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on fisheries.

“In my country, our very existence depends on fish,” said Ghana’s fisheries minister, Emelia Arthur. “Over 60% of our animal protein comes from fish, and 10% of our population depends on the fisheries value chain for livelihood.”

Arthur added that fisheries are a matter of culture and national security for Ghana, noting that the declaration gives governments a platform to “fight together for transparency in the fisheries sector.”

Illegal fishing disproportionately affects coastal communities and small-scale fishers, particularly in developing countries, by depleting fish stocks, undermining food security and distorting markets. Experts also link it to human rights abuses, including forced labor and unsafe working conditions aboard fishing vessels.

The declaration builds support for the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, a set of 10 policy principles aimed at improving governance through low-cost reforms, including modernizing vessel registries and publishing fishing authorizations.

French Minister Delegate for the Sea and Fisheries Catherine Chabaud said international cooperation was essential, with her country leading European nations in supporting the agreement.

“We will not be able to effectively combat illegal fishing without greater transparency and international cooperation,” she said. “Limited transparency in vessel ownership, tracking, and fishing activity and supply chains allow these illegal practices to thrive, making stronger access to reliable fisheries data and accountability mechanisms essential to protecting marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.”

Conservation groups welcomed the agreement, saying it reflects growing global momentum for greater accountability at sea.

“For too long, illegal fishing has thrived in the dark,” said Tony Long, CEO of nonprofit Global Fishing Watch. “When governments commit to transparency, they create an interconnected network where bad actors have nowhere left to hide.”

Beth Lowell, vice president of the environmental advocacy group Oceana, said the declaration signals that governments are “ready to act against illegal fishing and work together for a more transparent, equitable and sustainable ocean.”

The countries that signed the declaration are expected to begin implementing their commitments immediately. More governments are expected to join the initiative before the next Our Ocean Conference in 2027, a major annual event focused on addressing critical ocean issues.

—

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

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France vs. Senegal, a Group I match, is at 3 p.m. at the New York New Jersey Stadium.

Iraq vs. Norway, a Group I match, is at 6 p.m. at the Boston Stadium.

Argentina vs. Algeria, a Group J match, is at 9 p.m. at the Kansas City Stadium.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Groups’ stage progress

Group H: Every team sits at 1 point

Group G: Every team sits at 1 point

Group F: Sweden gets 3 points

Group E: Germany and Ivory Coast each get 3 points

Group D: Australia and United States each get 3 points

Group C: Brazil and Morocco each get 1 point; Scotland gets 3 points

Group B: Qatar and Switzerland each get 1 point

Group A: Mexico and South Korea each get 3 points

Tournament’s schedule

June 17: There are five matches: The Group J, Austria vs. Jordan, game is at midnight. The Group K, Portugal vs. Congo, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Croatia, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Ghana vs. Panama, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 18: There are four matches: The Group A match, The Czech Republic vs. South Africa, is at Noon. The Group B, Switzerland vs. Bosnia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Canada vs. Qatar, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A match, Mexico vs. South Korea, is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 19: There are four matches: The Group D, U.S. vs. Australia, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Morocco, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Brazil vs. Haiti, game is at 8:30 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. Paraguay, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 20: There are three matches: The Group F, Netherlands vs. Sweden, game is at 1 p.m. The Group E, Germany vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Curaçao, game is at 8 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach fan party: Doors open at 6 p.m. on June 20 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for an event for Uruguayan fans co-hosted by the Consulate General of Uruguay.

June 21: There are five matches: The Group F, Tunisia vs. Japan, game is at midnight. The Group H, Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at Noon. The Group G, Belgium vs. Iran, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Cape Verde, game is at 6 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Egypt, game is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 22: There are four matches: The Group J, Argentina vs. Austria, game is at 1 p.m. The Group I, France vs. Iraq, game is at 5 p.m. The Group I, Norway vs. Senegal, game is at 8 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Algeria, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 8 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 11 a.m. on June 22 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 1 p.m. Argentina vs. Austria match.

June 23: There are four matches: The Group K, Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 1 p.m. The Group L, England vs. Ghana, game is at 4 p.m. The Group L, Panama vs. Croatia, game is at 7 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Congo, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 24: There are six matches: The Group B, Switzerland vs. Canada, game is at 3 p.m. The Group B, Bosnia vs. Qatar, game is at 3 p.m. The Group C, Morocco vs. Haiti, game is at 6 p.m. The Group C, Scotland vs. Brazil, game is at 6 p.m. The Group A, South Africa vs. South Korea, game is at 9 p.m. The Group A, Czech Republic vs. Mexico, game is at 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 4 p.m. on June 24 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 6 p.m. Scotland vs. Brazil match.

June 25: There are six matches: The Group E, Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast, game is at 4 p.m. The Group E, Ecuador vs. Germany, game is at 4 p.m. The Group F, Tunisia vs. Netherlands, game is at 7 p.m. The Group F, Japan vs. Sweden, game is at 7 p.m. The Group D, Turkey vs. U.S., game is at 10 p.m. The Group D, Paraguay vs. Australia, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 26: There are six matcuphes: The Group I, Norway vs. France, game is at 3 p.m. The Group I, Senegal vs. Iraq, game is at 3 p.m. The Group H, Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, game is at 8 p.m. The Group H, Uruguay vs. Spain, game is at 8 p.m. The Group G, New Zealand vs. Belgium, game is at 11 p.m. The Group G, Egypt vs. Iran, game is at 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 27: There are six matches: The Group L, Panama vs. England, game is at 5 p.m. The Group L, Croatia vs. Ghana, game is at 5 p.m. The Group K, Colombia vs. Portugal, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group K, Congo vs. Uzbekistan, game is at 7:30 p.m. The Group J, Algeria vs. Austria, game is at 10 p.m. The Group J, Jordan vs. Argentina, game is at 10 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 7:30 p.m. on June 27. Parking is free. Broward County is offering free Express bus transportation from the arena to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens, to FIFA World Cup ticket holders.

Round of 32 begins

June 28: There is a match at 3 p.m.

Miami watch party: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 29: There are three matches at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

June 30: There are three matches at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 1: There are three matches at noon, 4 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 2: There are three matches at 3 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 3: There are three matches at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from 1 p.m to 9 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

Round of 16 begins

July 4: There are two matches at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens from noon to midnight at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 5: There are two matches at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Miami watch parties: The fan festival opens for the last day from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Boulevard.

July 6: There are two matches at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

July 7: There are two matches at Noon and 4 p.m.

Quarterfinals begin

July 9: There is a quarter-final match at 4 p.m.

July 10: There is a quarter-final match at 3 p.m.

July 11: There are two quarter-final matches at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders at 5 p.m. on July 11. Parking is free.

Semifinals begin

July 14: The fan festival is closed. There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 14 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

July 15: There is a semi-final match at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 15 at The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the semifinal match.

Finals begin

July 18: The third-place play-off match is at 5 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 3 p.m. on July 18 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 5 p.m. bronze final.

Sunrise ride to stadium: The Amerant Bank Arena has free parking for FIFA World Cup ticket holders who ride Broward County’s free Express bus transportation to the Miami Stadium, also known as Hard Rock, in Miami Gardens.

July 19: The final match is at 3 p.m.

Miami Beach watch party: Doors open at 1 p.m. on July 19 at The Sandbowl, behind The Bandshell, at 7275 Collins Ave., for the 3 p.m. final.

Sunrise watch party: The indoor Amerant Bank Arena is hosting a free watch party for ticket holders for the final on July 19. Parking is free.

Related stories

• Key information for fans attending matches at Miami Stadium
• Security guard accused of stealing FIFA referee uniform from Miami Beach hotel

Track FIFA World Cup groups

• Group A
• Group B
• Group C
• Group D
• Group E
• Group F
• Group G
• Group H
• Group I
• Group J
• Group K
• Group L

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A jury that accepts such a defense would be obligated to convict Mangione of manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, instead of murder, which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. An emotional disturbance defense isn't available in Mangione's federal case, where he also faces a possible life sentence.

New York Judge Gregory Carro announced the defense's decision in court two weeks after holding a secret hearing on the matter. He said he will unseal a transcript and other records from that hearing once redactions are made.

Carro said Mangione’s lawyers first raised the possibility of a psychiatric defense last year in a letter that was filed under seal and confirmed their decision at the June 3 hearing, which the judge said was held in secret at the defense's request.

“The reasons for the sealing was to give the defense an opportunity to determine whether they were going forth with that defense and the nature of that defense,” Carro said.

Carro said he didn't expect the development to delay Mangione's trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Sept. 8. His next pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 11.

Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said he wants Mangione evaluated by a prosecution psychiatrist. To facilitate that, Carro said, Mangione could soon be moved to New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex from a federal jail in Brooklyn, where he has been held since shortly after his December 2024 arrest.

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. His federal trial, which involves stalking charges, is set to begin on Oct. 13.

Mangione, sitting between his lawyers and wearing a blue suit, didn't appear to react as Carro spoke. At a February at a hearing, Mangione railed against the prospect of two trials, telling Carro: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

An extreme emotional disturbance defense wouldn't absolve Mangione of responsibility for Thompson's killing. It is not the same as a not guilty by reason of insanity defense, which would allow a defendant to go to a psychiatric facility instead of prison.

Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said unsealing the transcript of the secret hearing and materials related to his psychiatric defense will harm him in his federal case.

“The reason why we asked for the sealing is that this defense is not available federally and Mr. Mangione is being prosecuted federally and this is prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

The judge had been set to rule on the matter Tuesday, but was forced to delay it a day because prosecutors failed to let Mangione's jail know that he was needed in court.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

At a May 18 hearing, Carro ruled that a gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Mangione to the killing can be used as evidence against him. The gun, a 3D-printed pistol, matches the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said. The notebook describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

On Wednesday, Carro dismissed a charge related to a gun magazine that he had ruled inadmissible because it was found during an initial search of Mangione’s backpack at the McDonald’s.

To establish an emotional disturbance defense, Mangione's lawyers must show that the disturbance was so extreme it robbed him of self-control; that, in his mind, he had a reasonable explanation or excuse for the disturbance; and that he killed Thompson while “under the influence” of that disturbance.

__

This story has been corrected to show that Mangione could receive less prison time as a result of a conviction using this defense, not be sent to a psychiatric facility.

A Heat Advisory is in effect for the 3^rd day in a row with a heat index up to 108° again today. We will have this heat for the rest of the week and into the weekend. A few showers and thunderstorms will develop late this afternoon to cool us down, but not everyone gets the rain. It will be very spotty. Higher chances for more widespread rains don’t move in until we get closer to the weekend.

NATO’s supreme allied commander, an American, is working on backup plans to defend Europe after the U.S. signaled on June 3 that it would no longer supply an aircraft carrier and support ships, aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets, among other military assets, in a crisis.

But Rutte said the U.S. is not withdrawing more troops from Europe. “This is not about where forces and assets are currently located,” he said on the eve of a meeting of NATO defense ministers that he will chair in Brussels.

“It’s about who would do what if our defense plans were activated. So, let’s say in case of an Article 5 situation,” Rutte told reporters.

Under NATO’s collective security guarantee – Article 5 of its founding treaty – the 32 allies pledge that an attack on one of them will be considered an attack on all. It does not oblige them to provide military support, although many likely would.

In essence, the United States is scaling back how it might help should an ally trigger Article 5. The U.S. has by far NATO's biggest armed forces. It does not intend to withdraw its nuclear weapons in Europe, which are key to NATO's deterrence.

Allies are ordered to address U.S. gaps

The so-called NATO Force Model is the alliance's Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets that commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon informed its NATO allies that it would no longer provide as much as it focuses on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Rutte said NATO’s top commander, U.S. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, believes that “there are largely capabilities available that other allies already have, or will have in the near future,” to fill the U.S. shortfall.

“The overall picture is looking good,” Rutte said.

But some of the equipment being held back has surprised U.S. allies. Much of it is in short supply in Europe. Still, the U.S. wants to know how they intend to replace these assets, or make do without them, by the time President Donald Trump and his counterparts meet for a NATO summit on July 7-8.

Before then, European allies and Canada want to hear more from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the Trump administration’s plans for the summit in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. Hegseth skipped their last meeting in February.

Trump bewildered the allies last month with plans to send 5,000 additional U.S. troops to Poland, sowing confusion as his administration continued to insist on reducing — not increasing — the U.S. military footprint in Europe.

Cutbacks are occurring in Kosovo

Cutbacks are happening. On Friday, NATO military headquarters announced that it will reduce the size of its security force in Kosovo. U.S. forces are expected to be among those to leave.

The U.S. currently has 590 troops deployed with KFOR there, second only among the 31 contributing nations to Italy with its 907 personnel. U.S. Black Hawk helicopters are also stationed at the sprawling U.S. base there, Camp Bondsteel.

KFOR began deploying in 1999 to keep the peace between Kosovo and Serbia.

Once composed of 50,000 personnel, KFOR has been routinely scaled back over the years as tensions eased, although 1,000 additional troops were deployed in 2023 after fresh violence erupted.

Rutte confirmed on Wednesday that more than 1,000 personnel would leave. Grynkewich has said he believes Kosovo is calm enough now to “optimize” the size of KFOR.

Es una comunidad de creativos que intenta construir algo real.

“Tener experiencia de vida es lo que hace a un gran actor”, dijo el reconocido coach de actuación y director galardonado, Ralph Kinnard, de Miami Acting Studio. “Toda la estructura está orientada a ayudarte a conectar con otras personas”.

En el estudio, los estudiantes llegan para aprender el oficio de la actuación para cine y televisión, construyendo más que solo desempeño.

Están construyendo confianza, conexiones y comunidad, cuadro a cuadro.

Cada martes, el estudio abre sus puertas a nuevos interesados dispuestos a intentarlo gratis. No se requiere experiencia.

“Tienes que ser lanzado con los lobos, no hay teoría sobre esto. No hay nada que puedas hacer”, dijo Kinnard.

Haga clic aquí para ver videos de Miami Acting Studio.

Los estudiantes comienzan con varios ejercicios, prácticas de improvisación y meditación antes de pasar al trabajo de escenas. Los compañeros trabajan alrededor del set de filmación y se preparan para actuar frente a cámara.

“Es un ambiente seguro y todos tenemos miedo escénico. Así que hacer un programa como este donde no hay riesgo involucrado, te va a quitar el miedo escénico”, dijo Kinnard.

Para Kuno Van Der Post, el estudio ofreció una oportunidad de retomar un sueño que nunca lo dejó por completo.

Después de construir un negocio exitoso, criar una familia y encontrar éxito en el mundo corporativo, decidió que era momento de volver a una pasión que había dejado en pausa.

Semana tras semana, los miembros de esta comunidad intercambian consejos, ensayan escenas y se ayudan mutuamente a crecer.

“Es emocionante y realmente me ha dado un impulso extra de energía”, dijo.

Actores y entusiastas por igual se nutren de sus propias experiencias de vida y las comparten libremente entre sí.

Cada persona está tomando una oportunidad consigo misma, persiguiendo la posibilidad de crear algo significativo y real.

Según el sitio web:

“Vas a aprender todo lo que necesitas para comenzar en la industria del cine sin los dolores y dificultades de no saber por dónde empezar, cómo ganar confianza o cómo actuar.

“ESTE es el mejor momento para actuar con miles de trabajos disponibles en NETFLIX, APPLE TV, HBO + todas las cadenas + todas las redes sociales, y nuestros estudiantes están en TODAS ellas”.

Para enviar una idea para What Connects Us, envíe un correo electrónico a whatconnectsus@wplg.com.

It’s a community of creatives, trying to build on something real.

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“Having life experience is what makes a great actor,” said renowned acting coach and award winning director, Ralph Kinnard of Miami Acting Studio. “The whole structure is around helping you connect with other people.”

At the studio, students come to learn the craft of film and TV acting, building more than just performance.

They’re building confidence, connections and community, frame by frame.

Every Tuesday, the studio opens its doors to newcomers willing to give it a try for free. No experience is required.

“You have to be thrown in with the wolves … there’s no theory about this. There’s nothing you can do,” said Kinnard.

Click here to see videos from Miami Acting Studio.

Students start with several exercises, improv drills and meditation before moving into scene work. Partners work around the film set and prepare to act on camera.

“It is a safe environment and we all have stage fright. So doing a program like this where there’s no risk involved — you’re going to get rid of your stage fright,” said Kinnard.

For Kuno Van Der Post, the studio offered a chance to revisit a dream that never fully left him.

After building a successful business, raising a family and finding success in the corporate world, he decided it was time to return to a passion he had put on hold.

Week after week, members of this community swap advice, run scenes and help each other grow.

“It’s exciting and it’s really given me a whole extra energy boost,” he said.

Actors and enthusiasts alike draw from their own life experiences — and share them freely with one another.

Each person is taking a chance on themselves, chasing the possibility of creating something meaningful and real.

According to the website:

“You are going to learn everything you need to get started in the movie industry without the pains and struggles of not knowing where to start, how to gain confidence or how to act.

“THIS is the best time to act with 1000’s of jobs available on NETFLIX, APPLE TV, HBO + all the networks + all Social Media -> and our students are on ALL of them."

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

El lunes, la fiscalía concluyó la presentación de su caso tras llamar a sus últimos testigos, mientras que la defensa solicitó a la jueza del condado Miami-Dade, Marisa Tinkler Méndez, que desestimara el caso, argumentando que la fiscalía no cumplió con su carga de la prueba.

Tinkler Méndez indicó que emitirá un fallo sobre la solicitud el martes por la mañana.

Pino, de 55 años, enfrenta cargos de homicidio involuntario y homicidio náutico por la muerte de Lucy Fernández, de 17 años.

Los fiscales acusan a Pino, entonces de 52 años, de actuar de manera imprudente cuando perdió el control de una embarcación Robalo de 29 pies durante las primeras horas de la noche del 4 de septiembre de 2022 y se estrelló contra una baliza de canal cerca de Boca Chita Key, causando la muerte de Fernández. Otras dos adolescentes resultaron gravemente heridas, incluida Katerina Puig, de 17 años, quien quedó con una discapacidad permanente.

El equipo de defensa de Pino sostiene que el accidente fue simplemente un hecho accidental y no el resultado de negligencia.

Un portavoz del DHS informó el martes por la tarde que la medida se tomó como precaución ante la temporada de huracanes.

Funcionarios de la agencia señalaron que la “estructura temporal” de la instalación podría poner en riesgo a los detenidos en caso de que una tormenta impacte el área.

Según los informes, todos los migrantes fueron trasladados a otras instalaciones.

No estaba claro exactamente a dónde fueron reubicados.

Era voluntario, consejero, entrenador de fútbol y “Mr. Homecoming” en la Universidad Florida Memorial.

Roshell Williams ahora busca respuestas después de que el cuerpo de su hijo fue recuperado en Biscayne Bay el domingo tras ser visto por última vez en una embarcación de alquiler la noche anterior. La policía cree que cayó por la borda.

Williams dijo que aún no tiene respuestas claras de las autoridades. Recordó lo que le dijo a su hijo la última vez que lo vio.

“Le dije: ‘Por favor no me dejes, quédate un rato más’. Eso fue lo que le dije a mi hijo. Él dijo: ‘No te preocupes, regreso enseguida’”, dijo Williams.

Agregó: “Es una leyenda viviente a los 23 años. Eso es lo que quiero que les digan.

“Un joven afroamericano del condado Miami-Dade, no, no estaba en pandillas, no estaba fumando droga, no estaba vendiendo droga. Quiero que les digan, y no quiero que editen esta parte, él no lo estaba”, dijo Williams. “Y es posible venir de la nada y ser alguien”.

También tuvo un mensaje para quien publicó en línea un video del cuerpo de su hijo.

“Quiten eso. Facebook, cualquier plataforma, lo que sea que alguien tenga, es totalmente irrespetuoso”, dijo Williams. “Y lo que deben entender y saber: yo aprendí a respetar la privacidad de las personas. Porque un día puede ser usted, quien sea que lo publicó. Sí, puede ser usted. Un buen día, sea consciente”.

Las agencias del orden califican la investigación como en curso y activa.

“¿Por qué le está tomando tanto tiempo a las autoridades confirmar su identidad? ¿Y por qué está tomando tanto tiempo obtener respuestas?”, preguntó el abogado de la familia, Nixon LaRoche. “Quiero decir, fue visto por última vez el viernes. Hoy es martes. Aún no tenemos respuestas”.

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He was a volunteer, counselor, a football coach and “Mr. Homecoming” at Florida Memorial University.

Roshell Williams now wants answers after her son’s body was recovered in Biscayne Bay on Sunday after last being seen on a charter boat the night before. Police believe he fell overboard.

Williams said she doesn’t have clear answers yet from authorities. She recounted what she told her son the last time she saw him.

“I (said), ‘Please don’t leave me, just stay a little while.’ That’s what I told my son. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m coming right back,’” Williams said.

She added, “He is a living legend at 23 years old. That’s what I want you to tell them.

“A young Black male from Miami-Dade County ― no, he was not gang banging, he wasn’t smoking no dope, he wasn’t selling no dope. I want you to tell them ― and I don’t want you to edit this part ― He was not," Williams said. “And it is possible for you to come from nowhere and be something.”

She also had a message for whoever posted video of her son’s body online.

“Take that down. Facebook, whoever-book, whatever anybody got going on, it’s utterly disrespectful,” Williams said. “And what they need to understand and know: I learned how to respect people’s privacy. Because one day it just may be you, whoever posted it. Yeah, it may be you. One good day, be mindful.”

Law enforcement agencies call the investigation ongoing and active.

“Why is it taking law enforcement so long to confirm his identity? And why is it taking so long to get answers?” family attorney Nixon LaRoche asked. “I mean, he was last seen on Friday. Today is now Tuesday. We still don’t have answers.”

Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot and killed at close range near his home in the eastern Polish city of Biala Podlaska on Monday, prosecutors said Tuesday.

“Everything points to this being a political murder," Tusk said at a news briefing in Warsaw. “But we must wait for evidence or more concrete indications. Because if that was the case — if it was ordered by Russia — then it is an extremely serious matter internationally. It would constitute state terrorism.”

Polish investigators initially detained two Belarusian citizens but Tusk said Tuesday that they had been released because authorities had no evidence that they were directly involved in the killing.

Tusk stressed that law enforcement authorities are still collecting evidence.

“The case is difficult. If there’s a hired killer involved, it’s unfortunately not easy to identify such a person,” Tusk said, adding that Skrepetsky had been offered protection by Polish authorities but he had refused it.

Through his art, Skrepetsky “expressed criticism of the current policies of the Russian authorities,” Polish prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.

He painted unflattering portraits of Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and other high-ranking Russian officials. One depicts Putin being cradled in the arms of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

On Sunday, he posted a video on his YouTube channel showing him in Berlin putting a Russian flag in a trash can on June 12, the holiday marking Russia’s sovereignty.

Prosecutors said the artist was approached near his home around 9:45 a.m. Monday by an unidentified man who fired two shots at him, then shot him three more times at close range before fleeing. Prosecutors said the victim died at the scene of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and back.

Since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been accused of trying to assassinate its opponents abroad, including targeting exiled activists in France and Lithuania.

Officials in Germany have also broken up plots targeting the head of a German weapons supplier to Ukraine and a Ukrainian military official.

Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain, with Russian operatives as the prime suspects.

The two left the Rwampara Treatment Center on Tuesday, near Bunia, in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, along with five other people who also recovered from Ebola.

“The joy is immense given the state he was in at first,” Kahindo Mireille Pierrette said of her infant. “If you had seen him before, you wouldn’t believe he could have this strength now,” she added.

Pierrette said she brought her child to the treatment center at the end of May, after he started bleeding from the mouth and nose and could barely move.

Modet Camara, a doctor at the center, said the baby was treated with antibiotics after a PCR test came back positive for Ebola on his second day at the hospital.

Congo's Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 837 cases of the virus have been confirmed so far, including 196 confirmed deaths. However, the number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun.

Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, 49 have recovered, the ministry said.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. The more common Zaire virus, which now has a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

More than 90% of the cases in the current outbreak are concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda.

The head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that the outbreak could become the worst on record, noting that tens of thousands of contacts of infected patients have yet to be traced.

“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it will ​be worse than what ​we had in West Africa and eastern ‌DRC,” ⁠Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said during a virtual meeting of African heads of ​state.

An outbreak a decade ago across several countries in West Africa was the worst on record, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.

Nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.

Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of miners who regularly move among remote sites in the mineral-rich region.

Retail sales rose 0.9%, up from a revised 0.4% gain in April, according to Commerce Department data released Wednesday. Sales got a boost from generous government tax refunds in both April and May, though economists say that cash cushion is starting to fade.

Excluding sales at gas stations, retail sales in May rose 0.7%.

The figures aren't inflation-adjusted so higher prices likely helped boost sales. But economists point to healthy spending with increases that were broad-based. Business at clothing, accessory and furniture stores all posted sales gains. Online sales rose 1.5%.

There were a few weak spots. Electronics and appliance stores and department stores both registered slight sales declines.

The data offers only a snapshot of consumer spending and doesn’t include activities like travel and hotel stays. The lone services category – restaurants – registered a 0.1% decline. That might have reflected how high gas prices forced shoppers to cut back on driving to eating establishments, according to Sam Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macro.

But the so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth—rose 0.7%. That suggests solid spending, economists said.

Consumers are the engine of the American economy, driving most of the nation’s economic growth. And the latest retail sales report underscores that spending has remained resilient so far this year despite rising prices. Solid increases in hiring have also buoyed spending, economists said.

"The stronger-than-forecast and broad-based gains in May retail sales show that consumers continued to spend strongly despite higher gasoline prices in the month,” Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic writes. “The large tax refunds and overall tax reductions for households this year and the recent strengthening in employment growth helped buffer the negative drag from higher gasoline prices.”

Tombs was more cautious about the spending outlook.

“Consumption regained some momentum over the spring, but the sugar rush from bigger-than-usual tax refunds will wear off soon,” Tombs wrote in a report.

Rising gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years, U.S. data showed last week, with consumer prices rising 4.2% in May, compared with last year. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.5% last month, after big gains of 0.6% in April and 0.9% in March.

There is a tentative deal to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but even after oil starts flowing again from the Middle East it could take awhile for the supply crunch to ease.

Gas prices fell about a penny overnight to $4.02, down 11% from a month ago, according to motor club AAA. The national average for a gallon of gasoline has not been below $4 since March, according to AAA.

“While the deal is encouraging, our industry is still holding its breath,” said Steve Lamar, the CEO of trade group American Apparel & Footwear Association. ”Our question now is, will this agreement be strong enough for our global industry to begin recovering?”

Lamar noted that unplanned costs continue to squeeze profit margins, with companies facing higher expenses for ocean freight, air cargo and packaging. He said that even under the best-case scenario, it will take time to stabilize.

The spike in gas prices this year due to the Iran war may alter some behavior, peace deal or not.

Even as gas prices continue to retreat, analysts say some shoppers will stick to habits they picked up as prices soared, like filling up the car at big box stores where they can get discounts.

Visits to gas stations operated by big box chains like BJ’s, Costco and Sam’s Club, which offer discounts to members, began to accelerate in early March, aligning with a sharp rise in fuel prices, said R.J. Hottovy, the head of analytical research at Placer.ai, which tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

Hamilton led FEMA briefly last year until he was fired after defending its existence. His nomination comes as the Republican administration has increasingly signaled it is backing away from promises to dismantle an agency that has been heavily criticized by the president.

Hamilton was named temporary head in January 2025, just days before the president floated the idea of “getting rid” of FEMA. Hamilton had never been a state or local emergency management director and had himself publicly criticized FEMA in the past.

Once on the job, he said he was concerned about threats to abolish the agency. At a House hearing last year, he said he did not “believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate” FEMA. He was fired the next day.

“My focus will be to ensure that FEMA is objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent" in how it reviews disaster declaration requests, Hamilton told Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Peters had asked about partisanship in granting major disaster declarations.

Hamilton, who did not give an opening statement, was one of 10 nominees being considering by the committee. Among the others were Trump's pick for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, Hal Duncan, and administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, David Cummins.

Peters criticized the committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for scheduling so many nominees at once, saying that made it more difficult for senators to properly screen them.

“The lineup today severely limits our ability to have transparency for the American public,” Peters said. He noted that Hamilton was among two nominees whose FBI background investigations were not yet complete, and that two others had not submitted their financial disclosure reports.

Paul said the committee would only vote on the nominees when their financial and background checks were complete.

If confirmed, Hamilton would be the principal adviser to Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on emergency management. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

He would be FEMA’s first permanent administrator in Trump’s second term. The agency has gone through four temporary leaders, including Hamilton’s brief tenure from in 2025 from January to May.

Hamilton would take over an agency still reeling from Kristi Noem’s turbulent leadership at DHS. FEMA’s workforce has been worn down by mass staff departures, policies that hamstrung operations and a protracted DHS shutdown.

Hamilton will need to ensure that FEMA is prepared for summer disaster season, while answering to Trump, who is likely to expect major changes after a council he appointed recommended sweeping moves at the agency.

Now that the U.S. and Iran have reached an agreement to stop the war, can President Donald Trump politically afford another conflict? This time it will be with Cuba -- a nation that will offer little military resistance to the U.S., but can also be a political trap for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s future run for the U.S. presidency.

June 11 update: Rubio announces sanctioning of CUPET:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday afternoon the sanctioning of Cuba’s oil and gas company, Union Cuba Petroleo (CUPET). This company had been confiscated from American owners at the start of the revolution.

This is a sign that Cuba’s government has not shown any willingness to negotiate with the U.S. This action further chokes the regime who is running out of options as the socio-economic problems get worse each day that passes.

June 10 update: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visits Guantanamo Bay for operational briefings

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on Wednesday to receive updates and operational briefings on the base’s mission, according to the Pentagon.

According to Reuters, Hegseth flew into the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, marking the latest visit by a senior American official to the communist-led island as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to increase pressure on the Cuban government.

His trip comes less than two weeks after General Francis Donovan, the top U.S. military commander for Latin America, visited Guantanamo Bay and held discussions with a senior Cuban military official near the base’s perimeter.

Hegseth is the third high-ranking U.S. official to visit Cuba in recent months, highlighting Washington’s continued focus on the island amid ongoing tensions between the two countries.

June 8 update: What will be brought up during any future negotiations?

One of the issues that will certainly come up during any future negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba will be the 5,913 American companies, as well as Cuban-American properties, that were confiscated by the Cuban Revolution in the early 1960’s.

According to Mauricio Tamargo, former chairman of the Foreign Claims Office in the U.S. Department of Justice, the estimated values of these properties are in the billions.

June 3 update: Raúl Castro turns 95

Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba, turns 95 years old Wednesday under the shadow of a criminal indictment from the U.S. and an uncertain future for Cuba with the legacy of his brother, Fidel Castro, on his shoulders.

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June 1 update: Looking to the future: Should Cuban Americans invest in Cuba?

A few months ago, Cuba’s Vice Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, who is the grand-nephew of Raúl Castro, invited Cuban Americans in exile to invest in Cuba.

In 2019, the Cuban government amended their constitution to allow foreign investment. However, they did not change their laws to protect the investments.

Therefore, the risks to invest in Cuba remain greater than the opportunities.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

Norton, who served 18 terms as the District of Columbia’s nonvoting representative in Congress, chose not to run for reelection after mounting concerns that, at 89 years old, she was no longer capable of forcefully combating a Republican-led Congress and presidential administration constantly overriding the heavily Democratic city's leadership. Voters choose their local leaders, but Congress has final say on the laws the city passes and its budget.

Council member Robert White Jr. won the Democratic primary to replace Norton and is expected to win the general election in November. He will face Republican Denise Rosado, an immigration attorney who ran unopposed.

A D.C. native and lifelong resident, White is a lawyer and worked as Norton's legislative counsel for five years, as well as serving at the attorney general's office for the District of Columbia before winning the special election in 2016 for an at-large seat on the D.C. Council.

“Our turn will never come unless we demand it. Eleanor Holmes Norton understood that. The generations before us understood that. And before this night is over, I hope every Washingtonian understands it, too: We will not yield,” White told a cheering crowd of supporters after polls closed Tuesday.

A new era for DC politics

The D.C. delegate position is a nonvoting one, but it grants the nearly 700,000 people of the district, who have no other representation in Congress, a voice through speechmaking on the House floor and bill introduction.

In Congress, Norton championed education, including securing a grant program that provided up to $10,000 annually to D.C. high school graduates to assist with out-of-state tuition. She also pushed for federal legislation that helped save the city from financial ruin.

Calls for her to step aside grew in the aftermath of a surge of federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops into the city last year by President Donald Trump. Critics, including her former chief of staff, argued that she was diminished and no longer capable of providing the energy and presence the moment called for against Trump.

The pressure on Norton to drop out came as questions of generational change gripped the Democratic Party after President Joe Biden, also in his 80s, tried to run for reelection despite concerns about his age. He eventually dropped out and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, but she lost to Trump, sparking ongoing recriminations.

Before running for office, Norton was a fixture of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, she split her time between Yale Law School and Mississippi, where she volunteered for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. One day during the Freedom Summer, civil rights activist Medgar Evers picked her up at the Jackson airport. He was assassinated that night. Norton also helped organize and attended the 1963 March on Washington.

Norton went on to become the first woman to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helps enforce anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.

Political historian Matt Dallek said her credentials bring a certain gravitas and moral standing that “I think a lot of residents in the district could respond to and did respond to. It resonated with them.”

“That kind of generational moral clarity and moral gravitas that she and others brought to the political arena is being lost. That’s not to say that others can’t pick up that mantle” he said, but White will have different concerns and experiences in a city changing demographically.

Different challenges and priorities for a changing city

White would become only the third Washington delegate to Congress since 1971, when Walter Fauntroy Jr. was elected as the nonvoting delegate. The position was created in 1970 under the District of Columbia Delegate Act.

George Derek Musgrove, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, said no candidates seeking the office have the national stature of their predecessors, “which is, for me, one of the biggest changes in the city.” Both Fauntroy and Norton, Musgrove said, “leveraged their national political contacts to do the work of the delegate.”

White made D.C. statehood and pushing back on federal interference in local affairs priorities in the campaign.

He will need to build relationships quickly, said Amanda Huron, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia who teaches courses on D.C. history and politics. It is especially critical with a Congress that intervenes in local affairs.

“One of the real challenges of governing D.C. locally is that you’ve got these people in Congress who we don’t elect so these decisions are being made at a congressional level where we don't even have any representation effectively,” Huron said.

Maurice Jackson, a historian at Georgetown University, said Norton is also a brilliant constitutional lawyer along with being a civil rights legend and EEOC trailblazer. That said, he added, change is not always a bad thing.

The question, he said, is whether White will fight for the rights of all the city’s residents and work to stop the Black population from leaving a city that is changing demographically.

When Martin Luther King Jr. died “everybody knew there would never be another King,” he said. "So there's no need to worry about whether there'll be another Norton. There are people who can step forward.”

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the District of Columbia at https://apnews.com/hub/district-of-columbia.

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On Monday, the state rested its case after calling its final witnesses.

On Tuesday, the defense called its witnesses, including passengers who were onboard the boat at the time. Pino’s wife, Cecilia Pino, later took the stand.

Pino, 55, is facing manslaughter and vessel homicide charges in the death of Lucy Fernandez.

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

Claudia Portocarrero was one of the passengers aboard the boat that day who testified Tuesday.

She said she and a group of friends were on Pino’s boat to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday.

Both Portocarrero and another passenger who testified Tuesday said the crash happened suddenly and they didn’t see it coming.

“I just remember opening my eyes after the impact and seeing like a lot of white,” Portocarrero said. “And the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was George, and I thought he was dead. I just saw a lot of blood gushing and then my friends were telling me that I had to get out of the boat … by the time I was going to get off the boat it was kind of almost like turned, flipped, so instead of jumping from the boat, I practically like stepped into the water because of how tilted it was.”

Portocarrero said she assisted one of her friends in helping to keep Puig afloat in the water before a rescue boat arrived.

Both she and another passenger who testified Tuesday said that while they each had a couple of alcoholic beverages, they didn’t see Pino drinking and said the speed of the boat did not feel excessive at the time of the crash.

Pino’s defense team claims the crash was merely an accident and not the result of negligence. Their witnesses also said the girls on the boat had their hands up at the time of the crash, potentially blocking Pino’s view of the channel marker.

Cecilia Pino was emotional retaking the stand on Tuesday.

Asked by defense attorney Howard Srebnick whether she was thinking about her husband while in the water in the immediate aftermath, she said, through tears, “I was just thinking of the girls.”

“We’ve loved those girls since they were little,” she testified.

Cecilia Pino also testified about a questionnaire filled out by her attorney as part of a civil suit against her and her husband

“Were all the answers in this true and correct to the best of your knowledge?” an attorney asked. Cecilia Pino answered affirmatively.

Prosecutor Laura Adams asked Cecilia Pino, “You signed a document under the penalty of perjury that the crash happened because of the wake of another vessel, correct?”

“Correct,” Cecilia Pino replied.

Adams tried to paint her statement about a second vessel as a lie.

“You didn’t answer saying ‘My husband told me that this is what happened,’ did you?” Adams asked.

Cecilia Pino replied, “No, but the answer ― the question ― doesn’t say that I saw anything."

The defense expects to call its final witnesses and then rest its case on Wednesday. It’s unclear whether George Pino will take the stand.

Angered by Bores' legislation regulating artificial intelligence, a political group underwritten by investors in OpenAI spent more than $7 million on ads designed to crush the former computer engineer, who's running in the ultracompetitive June 23 Democratic primary for a Manhattan-based U.S. House district. That group, Leading the Future, counts titans of Silicon Valley, major venture capitalists and alumni of President Donald Trump's Republican administration among its donors.

Bores complained about the spending, warning that it would deter other state lawmakers and members of Congress from trying to rein in the fast-growing industry. He swiftly became a nationally recognized cautionary tale of an underdog politician battling against an overwhelming tide of tech money.

But then another wing of Silicon Valley rode to Bores' rescue. Political groups partly funded by Anthropic, the maker of the chatbot Claude, have spent more than $10 million boosting Bores' campaign. Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, an Anthropic investor, has pledged another $3.5 million.

Bores' race is now a proxy battle for two competing visions of how government should treat the technology industry and artificial intelligence. Adding to the tension is Bores' past working for Palantir, which he quit during Trump's first term over what he said were concerns about the tech company's work on immigration enforcement.

“The lines are being drawn, and this primary is very much an expression of that,” said Morten Bay, a research fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. “The core divide is regulation — whether you're for or against it.”

Tech industry is at odds over regulation

The schism mirrors a similar one running through Silicon Valley. Some tech titans, like Elon Musk, have embraced Trump and his movement, as well as the idea of limiting or eliminating most government regulations. But a large chunk of the industry remains traditionally Democratic, in favor of some government safeguards.

Leading the Future — funded by major Trump donors like OpenAI President Greg Brockman, venture capitalist Marc Andreesen and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale — has spent $7.6 million through a subsidiary against Bores.

The political action committee, formed last year as the artificial intelligence industry's main political muscle, says that it supports AI regulation but that Congress should take the lead. The group contends that Bores is the only candidate who is bought and paid for.

“As we have said from day one, Anthropic, its investors and the dark-money groups it funds would spend millions to send Alex Bores to Congress, and that is exactly what has happened,” said Josh Vlasto, a co-lead of Leading the Future.

Bores points to his own record crafting AI safety legislation for how he'd tackle the issue at the federal level. The regulation he spearheaded, known as the RAISE Act, is considered among the most sweeping attempts by a state to control the new technology. It requires major AI companies to file reports about safeguards against “catastrophic” risks that could injure more than 50 people, like the previously only-in-science-fiction scenario of AI melting down nuclear power plants or engineering new viruses.

Leading the Future opposed Bores' original proposal but acceded to a modified version that was signed into law. But the PAC has made clear it hasn't forgiven Bores and describes his views as extreme.

Bores pushed strict rules in New York

The RAISE Act is the sort of regulation that would be nullified by Trump's proposed AI framework, which would bar states from enacting their own AI rules so Congress could create a national standard. However, there's been little movement in Washington to do that, which has left the industry essentially unregulated at the federal level.

Leading the Future's refrain that Bores is a tool of OpenAI's business competitor has been taken up by Bores' many rivals in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler. His 12th Congressional District stretches across upper and midtown Manhattan and is one of the wealthiest and most Democratic districts in the country. At recent debates, Bores' opponents have claimed he's simply a pawn in a corporate battle.

“You’re in the middle of a civil war between OpenAI and Anthropic. It has nothing to do with standing up to Trump’s mega donors," said Jack Schlossberg, the Kennedy family heir and social media personality also running for the seat.

Bores and his allies contend his opponents are simply trying to confuse voters.

“This race started with AI megadonors pledging $10 million to stop me because they were afraid after I passed the strongest AI safety law in the country," Bores said in a statement. "Since then, everyone who supports AI regulation and safety — from teachers to tech workers, from AI safety advocates to progressive activists — has united to take the other side. This isn’t one company versus another, this is one ideology versus another: regulate the powerful and protect people, or don’t.”

Some tech groups are backing Bores

Brad Carson, a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma, runs the political action committee Public First, which has spent more than $6 million to back Bores through a subsidiary. The committee was created explicitly to counter Leading the Future and was an outgrowth of a nonprofit Carson helped fund to push for AI regulation.

In an interview, Carson bristled at the suggestion that the enterprise was simply an Anthropic tool and said it had raised $30 million from nongovernmental organizations before Anthropic made a $20 million contribution. “It's not like two billionaires fighting it out,” Carson said. “It's two philosophical movements fighting it out. All of them have wealthy supporters.”

Chris Larsen, a cryptocurrency billionaire who's pledged about $3.5 million on Bores' behalf, said in a statement that his decision to get involved "resulted directly from OpenAI’s threats to make examples of candidates who seek common-sense regulation.”

Bay, the research fellow, noted that the district is an odd one for the more Trump-friendly groups to invest in because it's so liberal. Indeed, Bores' main rival for the nomination, Assemblyman Micah Lasher, supported Bores' RAISE Act. Carson said his group wants Bores to win but is comfortable with Lasher.

“He's very good on AI issues too,” Carson said. “We win either way.”

To help people considering a used plug-in hybrid, the car experts at Edmunds have identified five models across different vehicle categories that are among the best used plug-in hybrids you can buy. They’re all less than 8 years old, and many will have less than 50,000 miles. Pricing will vary depending on vehicle condition, but we’ve estimated what you can expect to pay at nationwide retailers such as CarMax and Carvana.

Small car: 2023-2024 Toyota Prius Prime

Toyota redesigned the Prius for the 2023 model year, giving the thrifty little hatchback a stylish design, improved performance and fresh technology. The Prius Prime is the plug-in hybrid version of the car, capable of traveling up to an EPA-estimated 45 miles on electricity before the gas engine fires up and provides up to 52 mpg for the rest of the trip. Available in SE, XSE and XSE Premium trim levels, the Prius Prime offers 220 horsepower for zippy acceleration. Add its hatchback design, which provides more cargo space than a sedan, and a used 2023-2024 Prius Prime is an excellent daily commuter and weekend errand-runner.

2023 Prius Prime estimated price: $30,000

Compact SUV: 2022-2025 Hyundai Tucson Plug-in Hybrid

Choosing a plug-in hybrid SUV gives you more interior room than a Prius for passengers and cargo, but it comes at the cost of driving range and efficiency. Nevertheless, a 2022-2025 Hyundai Tucson Plug-in Hybrid provides up to an EPA-estimated 33 miles of electric range while offering 35 mpg in combined city and highway driving. All-wheel drive is standard, and the turbocharged powertrain supplies a robust 261 horsepower for quick acceleration. Cargo space is generous at 66.3 cubic feet, and the Tucson Plug-in Hybrid offers impressive infotainment, safety and convenience technologies.

Average 2022 Tucson Plug-in Hybrid estimated price: $29,000

Three-row SUV: 2022-2025 Kia Sorento Plug-in Hybrid

Sometimes, you need a third-row seat. If that requirement crops up infrequently and you want a plug-in hybrid SUV, consider the 2022-2025 Kia Sorento Plug-in Hybrid. It’s not as big as a typical family-size three-row SUV, but its small third-row seat accommodates kids and shorter adults for quick trips when necessary. Leave it folded down, and a Sorento Plug-in offers up to 45 cubic feet of cargo space. Its turbocharged 261-horsepower powertrain gets up to an EPA-estimated 32 miles of electric range and up to 34 mpg when driven as a hybrid. If your budget allows, get a 2025 model for its updated styling, interior and technology.

2022 Kia Sorento Plug-in Hybrid estimated price: $30,000

Luxury SUV: 2021-2025 BMW X5

Most used X5s have a regular gas engine, but BMW also sells a plug-in hybrid version. Notably, steep depreciation puts a BMW X5 within budget range for many shoppers looking for a used plug-in hybrid. The 2021-2023 X5 plug-in hybrid’s powertrain provides an EPA-estimated 31 miles of electric range and 20 mpg in hybrid mode. BMW updated the powertrain for the 2024 and 2025 X5s to get 39 miles of range and 22 mpg. All X5s have roomy seating for up to five people in a practical and luxurious midsize package.

2021 X5 plug-in hybrid estimated price: $35,000

Performance car: 2018-2020 Porsche Panamera

When you think of Porsche, you probably think of its iconic 911 sports car. But strange as it sounds, you can also get a plug-in hybrid. The Panamera is the brand’s flagship luxury sedan and its available 4 E-Hybrid trim level has a plug-in powertrain. These cars are a rare find, but it’s possible to get one for less than $50,000. The 4 E-Hybrid clocks a Porsche-estimated 0-60 mph acceleration time of 4.4 seconds. At an estimated 14-16 miles, the electric range isn’t impressive, but it can return up to 23 mpg while providing a more thrilling driving experience than most other plug-in hybrids.

2018 Porsche Panamera plug-in hybrid estimated price: $44,000

Edmunds says

Plug-in hybrids may come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common: They’re a great way to dip your toes into the electric vehicle pool without completely giving up the convenience of gasoline. Charge them each night when energy rates are low, and they will undoubtedly reduce your fueling bills over time.

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

Christian Wardlaw is a contributor at Edmunds.

Canadian leaders typically get a bilateral meeting with American presidents at summits of the world's leading industrialized democracies, but Carney dismissed any notion of a snub.

“I wouldn’t take a big message from that,” Carney said. “I had seven or eight discussions with President Trump over the course of last 36 hours. I’ll have more today, a wide range of subjects from the economy, relations, his birthday, artificial intelligence, Ukraine, obviously Iran.”

Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January helped make him an international political star, when he declared the global rules-based order over and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks and upstaged Trump at the gathering.

Talks on the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact have reached a crucial moment. The agreement, which has intertwined the economies of Canada, the United States and Mexico since the early 1990s, is up for renewal on July 1. Trump said last week he may not renew the deal.

Preserving the accord is critical for Canada, which sends about 75% of its exports to the U.S.

Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the U.S., and Janice Charette, Canada’s chief negotiator, met with U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer at the summit. LeBlanc said they made progress.

LeBlanc has previously said he believes the U.S. might want to have the trade agreement subject to annual reviews, and that the Trump administration might seek to cause uncertainty about its permanence.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, is the only G7 leader to get a bilateral meeting thus far. Trump also met one on one with the leaders of non-G7 countries of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and India.

Carney noted the host country always meets with the American president.

Carney used humor to engage with Trump in at least one of their interactions about trade. In a lighter moment, a microphone caught Carney and Trump joking about stealing Macron’s watch.

Carney then moved to a serious exchange about allowing Chinese electric vehicles into Canada. A microphone recorded Carney telling Trump about how less than 3% of Canada’s market, 49,000 cars, will be allowed to enter from China after he made a deal with Beijing.

“It’s a cap, we capped, a hard line,” Carney said. “I thought you’d actually like that.”

“That’s good, I like it,” Trump responded.

Breaking with the United States, Canada agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars earlier this year in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products. Carney said he spoke to Trump about it twice.

“I’m not surprised that the president of the United States doesn’t follow every detail of every agreement that Canada has, and he likes the structure. Actually, we had a follow-up conversation about it as well,” Carney said.

Peter Boehm, a member of the Canadian Senate who led a number of G7 summits for Canada, said Carney would have had a lot of time for conversations with Trump.

“I wouldn’t see it as a snub,” he said. “It’s amazing how much time leaders can actually have to have conversations.”

TRT said in a statement late on Tuesday that the commentator, identified by Turkish media as Murat Ekrem Çimen, had been withdrawn from the World Cup broadcast team in the U.S. pending investigation. It added that he would not continue to comment on matches during the tournament.

According to reports in Turkish media, Cimen referred to Iran’s attacks as New Zealand’s and described New Zealand’s moves as Iran’s during the opening minutes of the broadcast. The teams shared a 2-2 draw on Monday night in Group G.

TRT said the mistake was “unacceptable” under its broadcasting standards.

“We apologize to our viewers and the public for this error,” it said. “It is unacceptable for TRT that someone with over 30 years of experience in sports broadcasting would make such a mistake.”

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

Musket balls and other artifacts from one of the American Revolution’s most consequential battles were buried just below their feet the whole time.

Inspired by a centuries-old map, archaeologists have been digging in the park that sits on the site where American patriots hastily constructed an earthen fort to slow advancing British forces at what became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Ground-penetrating radar identified potential locations for the fort in Boston's Charlestown section. Soon after digging the first trench, the team led by Joe Bagley, the city of Boston's archaeologist, found definitive signs of a ditch constructed hours before the battle on June 17, 1775, one of the first of the American Revolution.

“The part that’s really crazy to me is that we get to stand in the same ditch,” said Bagley, standing over one of the two dig sites, where soil is removed about 4 inches (10 centimeters) at a time, put in buckets and filtered through screens. Any items found are bagged up and identified.

Tea cups and wig curlers

So far, the dig has uncovered musket balls and parts of a musket from the battle. They also found objects likely left behind by British troops who occupied the area after the battle — including tea cups, tobacco pipes, sleeve buttons and a wig curler. There were nearly 150 combatants who died there but no human remains have been found, though a forensic archaeologist is on site to identify any bones.

“Everything about the ditch is from 1775. You’ve got musket balls, gun flints. It’s what you would expect to see,” Bagley said. “It’s pretty powerful because these things are being dropped in the middle of the battle.”

The start of the American Revolution is often associated with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, skirmishes fought on April 19, 1775. But many scholars cite Bunker Hill and June 17 as the war's first significant battle.

Historic battle

Rebels intended to hold off a possible British attack by fortifying Bunker Hill, a 110-foot-high (34-meter-high) slope in Charlestown across the Charles River from British-occupied Boston. But for reasons still unclear, they instead took a position on a smaller and more vulnerable ridge known as Breed’s Hill, where most of the fighting took place.

The battle ended with the rebels in retreat, but not before the British had sustained more than 1,000 casualties. Bunker Hill is often portrayed as an American victory, since the British failed to win decisively and it served to galvanize the colonies against the British.

Today, a 221-foot (67-meter) white obelisk atop Breed's Hill memorializes the battle.

On Wednesday, a church service in Charlestown will be followed by a procession that makes its way to the Bunker Hill Monument. A remembrance ceremony will be held there that includes a wreath-laying, moment of silence and musket firing demonstration. The dig also ends Wednesday.

Musket balls tell stories

At the dig site, Joel Bohy, a battlefield archaeologist who specializes in identifying American Revolution weaponry, marveled at what had been pulled from the dirt. One volunteer held in her hand two jagged stones — the gray one was an English gun flint while a beige one was a French gun flint. When the trigger on the musket was pulled, flint struck the steel, producing sparks that ignited the gunpowder.

They also found eight marble-sized musket balls from both sides in the battle. The markings and shape of some bullets showed they had been fired from a distance but didn't hit anyone. If they had, the balls would have been deformed.

“You can see the ramrod mark from when the soldier rammed it down. You can the little ring on the top where it was pushed down,” Bohy said, adding that “marks on the edge of the ball” show that it had been fired.

Where was the fort?

Using pick axes and shovels, more than 1,000 provincials and residents dug through the night to construct a ditch that was 3 feet (1 meter) deep and over 6 feet (2 meters) wide. They shoveled the soil in front of the ditch to make a 6-foot-high wall or parapet that reached 150 feet (46 meters) long on each of the four sides.

A map drawn by Henry Pelham two months after the battle showed a square redoubt on Breed's Hill. But it wasn't until the dig that anyone had confirmed the shape in the map was accurate. Previous digs in the 1990s had found items related to the battle and some evidence of the ditches.

“If you come to the site, we have the monument, we have a lot of maps on display, and the landscape is beautiful. But you can’t really see the fort, the fortifications that were built,” Bagley said. “Very little of what’s here visibly is from 1775. So, this trench is the reason why all of this is here.”

History comes alive

Beyond locating the fort, the dig also provides visitors a chance to hold “a piece of the battle in their hand,” Bohy said. “In a way, it makes the history more dimensional when you look at these objects from the battle itself.”

Several tourists from Colorado stopped by to watch the dig. One visitor, Greg Nockleby, who had spent a week in Boston learning about American history, said watching the archaeologists at work was a “wonderful surprise.”

“A live dig happening right now to uncover our nation’s history is amazing,” he said. “To see that there has been people here who have died for our freedom and our nation is very immersive.”

Such an signing ceremony would represent a major step for the two countries, which saw diplomatic relations break off in 1980 over the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to read the the draft, which Iran has not released, ahead of formal signing ceremony set for Friday.

According to the officials, the draft agreement includes a new “minimum” standard for downblending of highly enriched Iranian uranium and has provisions to ensure the “territorial integrity” of Lebanon after Israel’s latest attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanese territory.

In return, the U.S. will move to waive, but not eliminate, some wide-ranging sanctions against Iran once the deal is signed.

The U.S. draft of the agreement also secures toll-free passage of the Strait of Hormuz for only 60 days, and it does not preclude fees in future, the officials said.

Meanwhile in Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei was quoted by Iranian state television talking about the potential for the two presidents to sign the pact.

Pezeshkian became president on a promise of seeking better relations with the West. However, he’s been sidelined for months after Iran’s mass killing of protesters in January and in the war as hard-liners have taken over the levers of the country’s theocracy.

Trump casts uncertainty on signing plans

Trump cast some uncertainty on whether the signing would happen as planned. Asked how confident he was that the ceremony would take place, Trump remarked on the unpredictability of deals.

“You never know with deals, do you? But you’re going to find out pretty soon,” he said.

The U.S. and Israel went to war on Feb. 28 in part to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon, although Trump's goals in the conflict have repeatedly shifted. The interim deal stops the war before that aim is secured. Instead, it opens a two-month period for nuclear negotiations and appears to offer Iran several benefits up front while extracting little in return.

The U.S. agreement to immediately allow Iran to sell its oil freely and the offer to eventually lift all sanctions, for instance, represent major concessions that go beyond the terms of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Trump withdrew America from that pact in his first term, declaring it the “worst deal ever.”

The accord likely will draw intense opposition in Washington, and it appears to be a major setback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come under criticism at home from the media, his opponents and even some allies as details emerge.

The deal will stop the fighting and start more negotiations

Much of the agreement would restore the status quo before the war, including ending hostilities, restarting negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, and reopening the strait, which is a crucial passage for the world’s oil and natural gas and whose closure created a historic energy crisis.

The deal includes an end to the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah. That is one of the most delicate parts of the agreement because Israel has maintained it will continue to defend itself and to occupy vast swaths of Lebanon. Iran has said Israel must withdraw under the deal, although the leaked versions make no mention of withdrawal.

A person who was briefed on the memorandum of understanding after it was signed and another who viewed a copy beforehand said it largely matched the text of what was published by the Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya, which reported details of the deal Tuesday. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Another two officials in the Mideast, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, also said the versions published by Al Arabiya and Bloomberg broadly matched the final agreement.

The White House and other American officials have not published the terms and did not immediately respond to questions. However, White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote online Wednesday after CNN published a leaked version of the deal that it “does not reflect the language of the actual" agreement, without elaborating.

Iran also has not published an official version of the deal. The country's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed Wednesday that Bloomberg's version had missing portions, without offering a full accounting.

Trump has cited various goals for the war, including at times vowing it would end Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and its support for Hezbollah and other proxy groups in the region. He also suggested it could lead to toppling the Iranian government.

The interim deal falls short of all of these goals, but Trump hailed it Wednesday.

“Nobody knows what it is, but it’s very strong,” Trump said in France, where he is attending a Group of Seven summit.

But he also opened the door to abandoning it: “It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs.”

Major concessions have been offered to Iran

Some concessions to Iran — including the full lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets — would happen gradually and be linked to progress in the nuclear talks, according to officials from Pakistan, a key mediator. They outlined some of the deal’s major points on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

But in the meantime, the U.S. will issue waivers to sanctions that allow Iran to sell oil freely.

The Islamic Republic's oil export revenues in 2024 were more than $46 billion. Its main buyer of oil, China, is believed to have bought at below-market prices because of its willingness to ignore the sanctions.

Granting oil waivers at the start of the 60-day talks strips the U.S. of a major point of leverage. Only at the conclusion of the overall deal in 2015 were sanctions on Iran's oil lifted.

The interim deal also opens the door to ending all sanctions Iran faces from the U.S. and at the U.N. — including those over Tehran’s weapons programs and human rights abuses — though it says the schedule for that will be worked out later. Still, that far surpasses the 2015 deal, which only lifted some sanctions in exchange for Iran drastically reducing its enrichment and stockpile of uranium.

The accord would also provide Iran with at least $300 billion to rebuild after an intense U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign — an extraordinary figure and another major benefit for Iran. The money also appears dependent on the progress of further negotiations.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount. But Gulf countries would likely be reluctant to help Iran after Iranian attacks in the war destroyed oil facilities and other sites in their territory.

Trump reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. would not contribute and said it was up to other countries if they wanted to invest.

The pact would provide relief to the global economy

The deal provides a major win for the global economy — the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed before the war began. Since then, Iranian attacks on shipping and the threat to vessels effectively shut the strait.

The strait's closure drove up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive. Iran let out some vessels that paid tolls, something never done before in the strait, which has long been considered an international waterway. The U.S. later provided military support to get other tankers out, but traffic was nowhere near levels before the war.

The deal also says the U.S. will lift a blockade imposed on Iranian ports and that the strait will return to its prewar traffic levels in 30 days, while acknowledging Iranian mines may need to be destroyed.

Many issues would have to be resolved in future talks

The interim deal sets a 60-day window, which can be extended, to negotiate over limiting Iran's nuclear program, which has been discussed at multiple rounds of talks during Trump's second administration without success. The U.S. promises not to make threats of military action under the current deal after two rounds of talks were interrupted by attacks.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, though it has enough highly enriched uranium to build multiple atomic bombs, should it choose to do so, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In the interim deal, Iran reiterates that it will never build a nuclear weapon — a promise it also made in the 2015 nuclear accord.

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Miller and Price reported from Washington, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Evian-les-Bains, France, Darlene Superville in Geneva and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story.

Leaders attending the Group of Seven summit in France promised to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and ensure its energy supply, as well as step up international economic pressure on Moscow.

“The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelenskyy, who attended the gathering, said on X.

“Our partners will ensure support for our defense and energy resilience,” he said, adding they will also introduce new sanctions on Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the summit at the lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains produced “unprecedented convergence” among G7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on maintaining support for Ukraine. Trump and Zelenskyy have had a sometimes strained relationship.

Zelenskyy has spent a lot of time since the war began in 2022 trying to secure international support and isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin diplomatically.

Zelenskyy was expected at a European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday. Ukraine on Monday officially started its EU membership negotiations, launching a process that could take years even as it fights Russia.

The Iran war has distracted Washington from its largely fruitless effort to end the fighting in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy sought to engage with Trump at the G7 gathering where key European leaders were also present.

Putin has tried to cut out Europe and Kyiv and negotiate Ukraine’s future directly with Washington.

G7 leaders praise Ukraine's battlefield progress

The leaders of Japan, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.S. threw their support behind Ukraine in a joint statement published overnight.

“We commend Ukraine for its resilience and progress on the battlefield in recent months and emphasize there is now a new momentum” in Kyiv’s resistance, it said.

Ukraine’s performance against Russia’s bigger army has improved markedly in recent months, Western officials and analysts say.

High-tech Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil production deep inside Russia that provides vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.

But Ukraine is short of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, in part because of American stocks being depleted by the Middle East conflict, leaving it vulnerable to Russia's ballistic missiles.

The G7 statement promised Ukraine more air defense capabilities, without specifying what type of weapons.

The leaders also said they would consider granting Ukraine licenses for it to manufacture Western weapons. Kyiv has asked for permits to make Patriot missiles itself.

The summit outcome shows that G7 backing for Ukraine is “as strong as seldom before” and sends a clear signal to Moscow, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

Russia says Ukraine attacked a children’s bus but Kyiv denies it

In Russia's Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, Gov. Egor Kovalchuk said a Ukrainian drone struck a bus carrying a children’s soccer team. A woman among the 44 passengers, which authorities said included 28 children, was killed, according to Kovalchuk. Eight people, including six children, were wounded as the bus traveled to Russia from Belarus, he said.

But Ukraine’s General Staff dismissed the Russian allegation, calling it a “fabrication,” and saying its forces did not conduct drone operations in the Bryansk region at the time. Its statement reiterated that soldiers aim only at military targets.

In other attacks reported Wednesday, a Russian drone struck an equestrian sports school for children in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, hitting a stable and killing horses, a regional official said.

Staff at the school were not hurt in the nighttime attack, according to preliminary information, said Oleh Hryhorov of the Sumy regional military administration.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 157 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday until early Wednesday.

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AP reporters Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Sylvie Corbet in Evian-les-Bains, France, contributed.

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

The two-day meeting, being held in Kazan, is set to consider ways to expand Russia’s “strategic partnership” with ASEAN nations that include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam, according to Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov.

The regional bloc has maintained relations with Moscow as a “dialogue partner” and engaged Russian officials in annual top-level meetings, he said. The summit in Kazan, on the Volga River, marks the 35th anniversary of Russia-ASEAN relations.

In a message greeting participants in a business forum held on the sidelines of the summit, Putin said he was confident that it will “create new opportunities for expanding mutually beneficial trade, investment, and industrial cooperation, while also strengthening direct dialogue between our business communities.”

Ushakov said the agenda includes exchanging views on global and regional issues and reviewing efforts to develop Russia-ASEAN ties. He emphasized that the participants are set to underline their adherence to “forming a just and democratic multipolar world order based on the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter.”

Ushakov praised what he described as “fruitful, equal and constructive dialogue” between Russia and ASEAN.

He told reporters that Putin would have bilateral meetings with ASEAN leaders during the summit, which he will co-chair with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose country holds the association’s rotating presidency.

Opening a bilateral meeting with Marcos, Putin noted their countries' “mutually beneficial cooperation built on good traditions, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s legitimate interests.”

Marcos thanked Putin for organizing the Russia-ASEAN meeting in Kazan and invited him to the ASEAN summit in Manila in November.

Putin also met with Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Russia and ASEAN nations "jointly stand for forming a just world order, defend the principles of sovereign equality of states, (of) non-interference into internal affairs,” Putin said later at a formal reception.

“All our states follow their own models of development and don't impose their views on anyone. And this is, indeed, our strength," he said. “Russia is ready for continuing active joint work with ASEAN member states with the goal of strengthening strategic partnership, in the interests of ensuring security, well-being and prosperity of our countries and peoples, as well as the Eurasian region as a whole.”

Some of ASEAN’s diverse member countries, including the Philippines, are seen to be aligned with the United States, while others have heavy trade and security engagements with China and Russia.

Several ASEAN members, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, have either imported Russian crude oil or expressed interest in purchasing it after global fuel prices soared in the wake of the war in Iran.

Thursday's ticker-tape parade for the new NBA champions will be a first. When the team won the title before, in 1970 and ‘73, they weren't honored with New York's signature procession.

Why not? There's no one definitive explanation. But there is some informative context: The '70s wins came at a time when then-Mayor John Lindsay had reined in the confetti-tossing spectacles. He celebrated the Knicks at the mayoral mansion and then City Hall — august settings, for sure, but not the fabled trip through lower Broadway’s “Canyon of Heroes.”

If there's pent-up demand for a Knicks parade, current Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems determined to meet it. He has predicted that Thursday’s celebration might be “the largest parade in New York City history.”

“There will be performances, there will be New Yorkers, there will be the team and there will be history,” the mayor, a Democrat, said Monday while visiting a city facility that prepared temporary “Champions Way” signs for the parade route. The event is set to start at 10 a.m. Thursday near Battery Park and end at City Hall.

New York's ticker-tape tradition began in the late 19th century, when brokerage firm workers watched parades from office windows and — apparently to add decoration — flung out the narrow paper used by telegraph-era “stock ticker” machines, according to the Downtown Alliance, a lower Manhattan advocacy group. It joined with the private Museum of the City of New York to research and list the parades.

The organizations say the ticker-tape tradition began with an 1886 event honoring the dedication of the Statue of Liberty and became city-organized in 1919 to welcome returning World War I soldiers. The first ticker-tape celebration of athletes was a tribute to the 1924 U.S. Olympic team.

The parades proliferated, celebrating various feats in aviation, war, sports, music, space travel and more, according to the museum and the Downtown Alliance.

Processions honored historical anniversaries, firefighters, the Red Cross, ship rescues, an attempted ship rescue and even a ship replica (the Mayflower II, in 1957). There were a handful of parades for U.S. presidents and dozens for visiting foreign leaders, some notorious. For example, French Marshal Henri Petain was showered with ticker tape in 1931 and later convicted of treason for heading the Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

By the time Lindsay took office in 1966, not everyone loved a parade.

Lower Manhattan businesses resented the frequent disruptions, and some New Yorkers saw the celebrations as rote and manufactured. Lindsay and his public events commissioner — former Knicks captain and jump-shot ace John “Bud” Palmer — eschewed ticker-tape extravaganzas for visiting dignitaries, instead favoring more personal and inexpensive gatherings, according to news stories by The Associated Press and other outlets at the time.

By 1970, the nation was in a recession. The city events budget had been cut, and Palmer — whose salary was a symbolic $1 — was peeved about the rejection of a $372 bill (about $3,300 today) for some materials for a 1969 ticker-tape parade celebrating the New York Mets' World Series win, according to memos unearthed by the city Department of Records & Information Services.

There was no ticker-tape bash for the New York Jets' 1970 Super Bowl win, which came days after such a parade honored the Apollo 8 astronauts ' historic orbit around the moon.

The Knicks topped the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA championship later that year. Lindsay, a liberal Republican, sent a congratulatory telegram and hosted the Knicks for a reception at the official mayoral residence, according to news coverage at the time.

When the Knicks bested the Lakers again to win the 1973 title, Lindsay scheduled a celebration in front of City Hall and urged “every New Yorker who can to come.”

Officials apparently were startled when more than 2,000 mostly young fans did just that. Police struggled to keep the speakers' stand clear, according to a New York Times article from the day.

But the ceremony went ahead as planned, and Lindsay bestowed the team with a distinctly municipal honor: medals commemorating the 75th anniversary of the unification of New York's five boroughs into one city.

Parades for championship sports teams picked up in subsequent decades. The city's most recent ticker-tape festivities honored the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2024.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation announced Wednesday that Patchett is this year's recipient of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award for “a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission of fostering peace, social justice, and global understanding.”

The award is named for the late diplomat who served under President Bill Clinton among others and is credited with helping to broker the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. Previous winners include former President Jimmy Carter,Elie Wiesel and Margaret Atwood.

Patchett, 62, is known for such novels as “Bel Canto,” “The Dutch House” and “State of Wonder.” She also owns the Nashville-based bookstore Parnassus and advocates often for fellow writers, her efforts leading PEN America to present her its PEN/Audible Literary Service Award at a gala last month in Manhattan.

In a statement issued Wednesday through the Dayton foundation, Patchett advised setting realistic goals for how to make meaningful contributions.

“If you wait to find a way to bring peace to the world there’s a good chance that nothing will be accomplished,” she said. “Instead, I recommend bringing about peace in any small way that is available to you. Live as peacefully and as generously as possible. Invite others to stand with you or, better yet, go and stand with them.”

The foundation also announced that Amanda Knox’s memoir “Free: My Search for Meaning” is among the 12 finalists for Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards for fiction and nonfiction from 2025 that demonstrate “the power of the written word to foster peace.” Knox's book recounts her life after being imprisoned in Italy on murder charges and eventually being exonerated.

Nonfiction contenders besides “Free” include Danielle Leavitt's Ukraine chronicle “By the Second Spring,” Jack Fairweather's “The Prosecutor: One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice” and Eve L. Ewing's “Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.” Gish Jen's “Bad Bad Girl,” Karen Russell's “The Antidote” and Sam Wachman's “The Sunflower Boys” are among the fiction finalists.

Winners, to be announced in September, each receive $10,000.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans across demographics believe the right to vote, the right to free speech and freedom of religion are integral to the country. But they were more divided on the importance of the right to bear arms, and few — about one-third or less — saw those rights as safe from threats.

The survey, which was conducted April 16-20 — before the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that winnowed a section of the Voting Rights Act — highlights an enduring consensus among Americans that personal freedoms are vital to the country's national identity. But it also reveals deep anxieties about the nation’s trajectory on the cusp of a summer filled with celebrations of the country's semi-quincentennial birthday.

“Our idea of rights has been very consistent in this country until the last few years,” said Louise Rochon, 85, of Connecticut. “Now, they’re all under threat. Every single last one of them.”

Americans see rights as vital, but threatened

About 9 in 10 Americans say the right to vote is “extremely” or “very” important to the United States’ identity, the poll found. About the same proportion of Americans consider freedom of speech to be highly important to the country’s identity. Meanwhile, about 8 in 10 Americans consider freedom of religion to be core to the national identity, while about 6 in 10 Americans consider the right to keep or bear arms as highly important to the nation’s identity.

But many in the country see those same principles as imperiled today. About two-thirds of Americans view the right to vote as under some threat, with about one-third saying voting rights are under “major threat” while about 3 in 10 said they faced a “minor threat.” Only about one-third of Americans said voting rights faced “no threat at all.”

Additionally, nearly half of Americans say freedom of speech is under major threat, followed by about 3 in 10 who said the same about gun rights and religious freedom.

The country is going “down the drain,” said Tracy Gonzales, an independent from San Antonio, Texas. Americans of all stripes, she said, have “thrown religion to the side at the moment” and allowed for other civil liberties to be eroded amid fierce debates over immigration and the economy.

“Given everything going on with our president, you really don’t have time to think of anything else,” said Gonzales, 37, of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdowns. “There are so many other crimes that are being committed and people that actually need help, and you’re focused on the ones that are trying to get it together.”

Vast majority of Black Americans see threat to voting rights

The poll's results also surfaced complicated opinions about democracy and identity among Black Americans. Those are likely rooted, at least in part, in the country's history of denying voting rights and full citizenship to people of African descent for centuries.

Black Americans are less likely than white Americans to say the right to vote is “extremely” or “very important” to American identity, with about three-quarters agreeing with the sentiment compared to about 9 in 10 white Americans.

But about 4 in 10 Black Americans say that the right to vote is facing a “major” threat in the country today, higher than any other racial group.

“You cannot feel like you are a total and full part of the American experiment unless you have the right to vote,” said Antonio Williams, a school administrator in Dallas, Texas, who is Black. “And African Americans didn’t fully get to enjoy the right to vote until about 60 years ago, and I feel like it’s under threat right now."

Younger adults see the right to vote as less important

Independents and younger adults are less likely than Americans overall to say voting and freedom of speech are central to American identity.

“My age group has grown up a lot more with social media as part of their existence in life and the microcosms that that creates in politics,” said Julian Goodwin-Ferris, 28, a professional dancer from New Jersey.

“I think we feel more like our voice doesn’t matter as much because it feels like we’ve grown up with our rights sort of being more ignored,” said Goodwin-Ferris.

Democrats and Republicans are divided on magnitude of threat

Americans at times diverged along partisan lines in their view of the threats to rights, with Democrats seeing a greater threat to freedom of speech, while Republicans were more worried about the right to keep and bear arms.

While Democrats and Republicans are similarly likely to say freedom of speech is at least “very important" to the nation's identity, about 6 in 10 Democrats say freedom of speech is facing a “major threat” compared to about 4 in 10 independents and roughly one-third of Republicans.

Similarly, while most Americans believe the right to bear arms is at least “very” important to the nation's identity, about 8 in 10 Republicans agree with that sentiment, compared to only about 4 in 10 Democrats. About half of independents shared that view. And about 4 in 10 Republicans found that the right to bear firearms was under threat, an increase from October 2025 not reflected among either Democrats or independents.

"We have the Bill of Rights for a reason," said Nuri Simmons, a warehouse worker in New York and a registered Democrat. Simmons, 31, said that threats to different rights “bleed into each other” and that while he was most concerned about threats to voting rights today, he understood that others may feel differently.

“Like when people try to bring some gun control into it, I think some people look at that as an attack on their rights. I guess that all depends on your politics," he said.

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

Gane finished off Pereira in the second round to win the title on Sunday after sending him stumbling with a right jab followed by a hammer fist. The referee then stopped the fight 1:27 into the round after a left to the chin.

After hitting Pereira with a jab, Gane launched a brutal floor sequence that included elbows to the back of the head.

Pereira said on his social media it was difficult for him to recover from those “illegal shots.”

“I believe that if it wasn’t for those shots I'd be in that situation, and I could have possibly recovered," he said. “Maybe not, but they were very hard shots, and illegal.”

Pereira criticized referee Herb Dean, saying he should not have been picked for their fight. Dean explained his decisions in a video, saying “the rule we’re talking about is the back of the head, and that's confusing because it's different in boxing."

Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary with an unusual UFC show featuring seven fights within an eight-sided, wire-mesh cage on the White House South Lawn.

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AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

In an overnight social media post from the Group of Seven summit in France, Trump declared he was delaying the nomination of federal prosecutor Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence just hours ahead of his scheduled hearing, despite bipartisan praise for the nominee and Republican efforts to speed him through the confirmation process this week.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Republicans would go ahead with the Clayton hearing anyway, “unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination," but later he postponed it, saying it was “regrettable” that Trump had directed Clayton not to appear.

“Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly,” Cotton said. “While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”

Trump's attempt to delay Clayton makes it more likely that his temporary pick for the intelligence job, top housing official Bill Pulte, will take over when outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard leaves office on Friday to spend time with her husband as he fights cancer. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have sharply criticized Pulte, a Trump loyalist who has no known national security experience and has used his current administration perch to target perceived adversaries of the president.

That resistance that last week forced Trump to turn to Clayton, but he has continued to defend Pulte, calling him “fair” and “talented” in his social media post.

Caught in the middle is the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, bipartisan legislation that aims to prevent terrorist attacks by monitoring the communications of targeted foreigners located outside the United States. Democrats had said they would not provide the necessary votes to pass the bill unless Pulte's temporary appointment was withdrawn, and the current authority expired last week.

Further complicating matters, Trump said in his social media post that he would not sign the FISA renewal without his legislation to require proof of citizenship for all voters — which does not have enough votes to pass the Senate — and that he does not want to remove Clayton from his current position as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York until his replacement, James McDonald, is approved.

Trump's post sent Senate Republicans scrambling, and it was unclear if they would challenge Trump's attempt to push back Clayton's nomination or try move it forward.

“We’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday morning. He said he didn't know why Trump was holding up the effort.

“Good question,” he said.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Trump’s post an “extraordinary display of dysfunction from a president who seems determined to turn America’s national security into a political bargaining chip.”

“The biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans,” Warner said. “It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House itself.”

Key surveillance program could be affected

Hanging in the balance is not only the identity of the nominee but also Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

National security officials across both major political parties have for years described Section 702 as vital for gathering intelligence that can disrupt terror attacks and espionage operations, though some lawmakers and civil liberties advocates have raised concerns over the government's use of information about Americans that is incidentally collected through the program.

Trump's post suggested that debate to revive Section 702 could be indefinitely postponed. As Democrats pushed back on Pulte, Republicans have sounded the alarm about the government operating without congressional authorization of the powerful spy tool.

A court order from March certified that the program could continue for another 12 months, though it's possible that communications companies could challenge the government's authority to force them to cooperate and share data.

Trump's delay of Clayton “shows he has no interest in getting FISA done,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "He has pulled the rug out from under his own Republican colleagues, and he’s doing everything he can to thwart it.”

Who is Clayton?

Clayton, a chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, has spent the last 14 months as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, one of the Justice Department’s premier posts.

His office during that time facilitated the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, documents that were made public as part of the Justice Department’s release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.

Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein but insists she's innocent. Maduro and his wife have protested their capture and said they're not guilty.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Aamer Madhani in Evian-les-Bains, France, and Darlene Superville in Geneva contributed to this report.

The wars in Iran and Ukraine have dominated discussions at the Group of Seven summit of major industrialized nations this week but AI will have its moment on the meeting's final day.

In a rare huddle of AI industry figures, leaders of three of the most powerful AI companies — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — are due to attend a working lunch on the theme of “Ensuring a safe, rapid and effective deployment of artificial intelligence.”

Also attending are the heads of smaller AI labs, including Canada’s Cohere AI, France’s Mistral, Germany’s Black Forest Labs, Italy’s Domyn, Sakana AI of Japan and U.K.-based Synthesia.

In Europe the distrust of American companies dominating AI and other tech ecosystems has shown up at the European Commission, which unveiled a tech sovereignty package this month with plans to boost homegrown AI, and the Vatican, where the pope last month called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence.

Many outside the United States also took notice last week when Anthropic took down its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, to comply with a Trump administration order citing an unspecified national security concern. The U.S government barred any non-Americans, either inside or outside the United States, from accessing the models, which forced the company to suspend access to all customers.

The episode highlighted how Europe, Canada or other countries “can be put in an extremely vulnerable position” if they get cut off from advanced AI models, said Zach Meyers, director of research at CERRE, a Brussels-based think tank.

“There is a general anxiety about the state of Europe, the fact that we’re relying on other countries for quite important strategic infrastructure and a desire to do something about it, whatever that is,” Meyers said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched on the Anthropic development on his way to the G7 meeting, telling reporters during a stop in Ireland that it highlights a need to “build out and diversify.”

Sovereignty requires “unhindered access to AI,” he said in a speech in Dublin.

Earlier this month, Canada announced a plan to help middle powers or like-minded countries develop an alternative to the big AI players. A few days earlier, Trump signed an executive order sketching out a framework for oversight of advanced AI systems.

The G7 is a chance for business and political leaders to engage with each other on the risks and benefits of AI, as countries seek to harness the technology to boost their economies and advance their geopolitical aims.

Digital sovereignty has been a longtime cause for the G7 meeting's host, French President Emmanuel Macron. His government has even started requiring civil servants to ditch Zoom and Microsoft Teams for a homegrown video conference system.

Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere, which bought German AI startup Aleph Alpha earlier this year, said the company's focus at the G7 was “to expand our sovereign AI ecosystem partnerships beyond Canada and Germany to include all G7 nations — and companies — establishing a global standard that guarantees ownership of models, data, and local compute.”

The G7 comprises France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were among guest nations invited to participate in some discussions.

Executives of leading AI companies, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, attended discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of industrial nations in the lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains. French President Emmanuel Macron will now host Trump at a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles before Trump jets back to Washington on Wednesday.

The G7 leaders spent the bulk of the meetings discussing the war between Russia and Ukraine and a tentative deal to end the Iran war. Trump did not reveal details of the agreement expected to be signed ceremonially by the United States and Iran on Friday in Switzerland, saying “nobody knows what it is, but it’s very strong."

The G7 includes France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Guest nations at this summit include Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, South Korea, Qatar, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates.

Here is the latest:

If Iran violates agreement, Trump says US will ‘bomb the hell out of them’

Asked how the terms of an agreement would be enforced, Trump said the threat of further bombings would be enough.

“What else am I going to do? Am I going to say, ‘I’m going to take you to court?’” Trump said. “You know, we’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.”

Trump said he doesn’t think Iran will veer from the deal and said he does not want to resume attacks. But he added that “bad things happen in war — war is a nasty place.”

Trump indicates he doesn’t plan to hold US officials accountable for bombing of Iran school

Asked whether he’d hold anyone in his administration accountable for the deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed over 165 people, the president suggested that no, he would not.

Trump said it was an odd question given that the bombing had happened so long ago, during the opening days of the war in Iran.

He also said that all war is nasty and that, in this case, mistakes might have been made, but that “Nobody did it on purpose.”

Trump also said, though, that the Department of Defense is still investigating the bombing.

During a subsequent question, he returned to the school bombing, repeating the sentiment that war was nasty: “Bad things happen in war.”

Trump hints at diplomatic visit from Lebanon, offers sympathy amid Israeli strikes

It wasn’t immediately clear who would be visiting from Lebanon — Trump first said the president and then the prime minister would be coming to Washington “over the next week or two.”

Trump repeatedly expressed sympathy for Lebanon while criticizing Israel, calling it a source of tension with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah,’” Trump said.

Trump said he feels bad for Lebanon, adding that it was “a great culture.”

“It was an incredible culture, maybe the highest in the Middle East, for years and years, centuries,” Trump said. “And for the last 50, 60 years, they have been just trashed.”

Trump offers lengthy – and very meandering – opening comments

The president began the press conference by speaking for around 40 straight minutes – offering a steady, stream-of-consciousness-style monologue that covered everything from Iran and Ukraine to drug dealers hiding fentanyl in hubcaps.

Trump talked about not wanting to crash the U.S. economy during the Iran war and said he thought Russia and Ukraine might make a deal to end that war.

He boasted about securing the U.S.-Mexico border but said that Mexico “has lost control of that country” and suggested that smuggling cartels – which he said hid drugs in cars and car parts to move them over the U.S.-Mexico border – had Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “scared.”

Trump also talked about reaching a possible nuclear accord internationally, even as he suggested that he’d avoided “a nuclear holocaust.” And he said he was looking forward to admiring the golden finishes of the Palace of Versailles when he went to dinner there later Wednesday.

Trump thanks China, Russia for staying ‘neutral’

As he wrapped up his meandering opener during his press conference, the president noted that the leaders of China and Russia - often allies with Iran - largely stayed out of the conflict.

“They could’ve made it much more difficult for us,” Trump said.

China, in particular, had weapons that could “knock down airplanes,” he said.

“I said. ‘I would really appreciate your not giving or selling any of that stuff to Iran,’” Trump continued. “And you know what? For the most part, he didn’t.”

Trump again denies $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, traces it to Vance statement

“JD made a statement. It was a perfect statement, and they reported it in a very strange way. But that’s because that’s why it’s fake news, I guess,” Trump said.

He emphasized that the U.S. is “not investing any money” even though he said Tehran will need aid to recover.

Trump says an Iran deal will be signed ‘shortly’ and that a copy has been sent to Israel

Amid conflicting messages from Trump and top administration officials about whether an initial deal to end the war in Iran had already been signed, Trump said the agreement could be signed “maybe tomorrow” or the next day, meaning Thursday or Friday.

Trump recalled his years as a developer and said, “My whole life is all about deals,” and that sometimes “Crazy things happen with deals.”

But he added, “We are going to most likely sign a deal.” He said Iran wants “to sign a deal, and they’ve been acting very appropriately.”

Exactly what the deal entails is a matter of confusion since Trump and his administration have refuted publicly reported details without providing concrete details, they say are correct.

Trump also said a copy of the deal would be released and that the U.S. sent a copy to Israel.

Trump shifts tone on US allies, praises their support for Iran agreement

After complaining for months that U.S. allies were doing too little to help the U.S. in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Trump on Wednesday quickly shifted to praise for their support of a deal.

“The past two days have provided a chance to discuss the details of this historic agreement with many of our closest friends and allies, including the G7 nations and many presidents and prime ministers,” Trump said in remarks at the summit.

It comes after U.S. allies issued a statement welcoming the framework of a deal to extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said, “They all put out statements saying they love this deal, because they want to see it over.”

Trump says negotiating an end to the Iran war buoyed the stock market

The president suggested that fears of a weakening U.S. economy were a big driver for the administration’s work to negotiate an initial deal to end the Iran war.

“Every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship,” Trump said. “The stock market is more brilliant than anybody there is.”

Trump also said that the “one thing I didn’t want to see is, I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe.” He said that “could have happened” if the war had continued.

“The one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover,” Trump said, referring to the president whose policies helped exacerbate the Great Depression.

Macron defends red carpet treatment for Trump

French President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to roll out the red carpet for Trump, including a dinner at the Palace of Versailles later Wednesday.

“Versailles is a diplomatic tool and an instrument of influence,” Macron said.

Using a soccer analogy, Macron said he approaches diplomacy like the French national team: “Whether I’m playing at home or away, my goal is to score goals. And when I host other teams, I try to give them a nice welcome.”

Macron says he has always trusted Trump

Macron said he has “always trusted President Trump” because they both have “always spoken frankly.”

That applies on U.S. tariffs issues, Macron said, after Trump threatened 100% tariff on French wines unless a European digital tax is dropped. Macron is still seeking a compromise that would avoid U.S. tariffs from taking effect.

“Partners should never impose tariffs on one another or create instability,” Macron said.

Macron says US limit on cutting-edge Anthropic AI is a ‘bad thing’

The French leader is taking aim at a Trump administration directive preventing the use of Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence models by foreign nationals.

He said it is “a good thing” that U.S. officials recognize that cutting-edge AI models could be dangerous. “What do they fear? That these models could be used by others to attack them or attack us,” he said.

But the “very strong decision” from the Trump administration is also “a bad thing,” he said. “The reaction is in some regards strictly nationalist.”

Anthropic said it has taken its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with the directive. The AI giant said it did not believe the steps taken by the government were warranted by the concern it flagged about a potential security issue.

Macron describes ‘an Evian moment’ on Ukraine

Macron said the summit, attended by Zelenskyy, helped convince Trump that Russia currently has no serious intention of negotiating peace.

It’s too early to say whether there would be a clear “before” and “after” the Evian summit, Macron said — future developments will determine its impact.

“But there was an Evian moment, certainly on Ukraine,” he said.

Macron warns of the risks of artificial intelligence

G7 leaders discussed the revolutionary technology on Wednesday, the summit’s last day.

The French leader, the summit host, called for regulation.

“No one — neither political leaders nor business leaders — can any longer ignore the impact of AI on our democracies, on our societies. That is why the possibility and the necessity of regulation have now become imperative,” he said.

Italy’s leader says the US-Iran deal created a positive atmosphere at the summit

Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni said the existence of a deal gave leaders an opportunity to show unity among Western allies on major global crises.

“The U.S.-Iran agreement … clearly had a positive influence” on the summit’s climate, and all the leaders congratulated Trump, she said.

Talking to reporters at the end of the meetings, she said discussions were dominated by the war in Ukraine and developments in the Middle East and Gulf, adding that G7 leaders agreed on the need to sustain support for Kyiv and “maintain high pressure on Moscow.”

Meloni said Western unity is “one of the most effective tools” to create conditions for negotiations, with the goal of direct talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She said Zelenskyy had shown a “sincere attitude” toward a solution, while “no serious signals have arrived from Moscow.”

Thune on why Trump is derailing Jay Clayton hearing: ‘Good question’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that Republicans still plan to move forward with a confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, the president’s nominee for director of national intelligence, despite Trump saying in an early morning social media post that he wanted to cancel it.

“Chairman Cotton is planning to proceed, as you all know, with the hearing,” Thune told reporters. “And then from there on, we’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this.”

Senate Republicans had hoped Clayton’s nomination would help break the impasse over renewing a key national security surveillance authority that lapsed last week amid Democratic opposition to Trump’s temporary DNI pick, Bill Pulte.

Asked Wednesday why Trump was now holding up the effort, Thune offered a blunt response: “Good question.”

Macron says China is key source of global economic imbalances

Macron cited what he described as China’s industrial overcapacity, excessive subsidies and weak domestic consumption.

The French president said Europe needs to invest more and modernize its economies, while the United States must address its fiscal and trade deficits.

Macron hails initial US-Iran deal

The French president says it’s a “very good deal” and that U.S. allies in the G7 support it “because it’s an agreement that puts a stop to a situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies.”

It’s due to be signed Friday.

At his news conference, Macron is detailing the statements — nine in all — that the summit produced, on cancer, rare earths, the Ebola outbreak in Congo and other topics.

Macron hails G7 convergence on Ukraine, says Trump backed defense support

Macron said the Evian summit produced an “unprecedented convergence” among G7 leaders, including Trump, in supporting Ukraine, after he invited Zelenskyy to take part in the gathering.

Macron said “we all agreed to increase the supply of air defense capabilities, additional systems and interceptors, as well as long-range capabilities.”

Trump “emphasized the mobilization of the American defense industry and its ability to provide such equipment,” Macron told a news conference.

Macron also praised the leaders’ agreement to increase pressure on Russia, including through stronger sanctions, as “extremely important.”

Macron hails G7 summit as a success

At his news conference closing out the 3-day summit that he hosted, the French president is detailing the progress he says was made.

“It was a moment of unity, of high-quality discussions and of real cooperation between the leaders,” Macron said.

Trump not certain on whether Friday signing ceremony of potential Iran deal will happen

When asked how confident he is that Friday’s ceremonial signing will take place, Trump remarked on the unpredictability of deals.

“You never know with deals, do you? But you’re going to find out pretty soon,” Trump said.

He added: “I think it’ll be done. They want to sign. They want to get back to a normal life.”

Trump said the memorandum of understanding that he signed with Tehran is “a very strong one” and “a long and, you know, pretty detailed memorandum that goes into a regular contract.”

India’s Modi tells Trump safety of Indian mariners is of ‘utmost importance’

Earlier this month, the U.S. military said an American aircraft fired “precision munitions” into the engine room of the Palau-flagged vessel M/T Settebello. The incident in the Gulf of Oman killed three Indian sailors, Indian officials said.

“Mr. President, you are aware, across the world, Indian seafarers in hundreds of thousands are working, and they’re performing their duties across global maritime trade routes, including the Strait of Hormuz. And their safety is of utmost importance to us,” Modi told Trump as they met on the sidelines of the summit.

Modi said he’s “confident” the issue of seafarers will be a top priority during implementation of the agreement between the United States and Iran.

Asked for words of condolence for the families, Trump said, “It’s a tough profession. There’s no question about it. And we work together on it.”

“This has been happening throughout time, but we work together on it,” he added. “We love all of those people. They’re great people.”

Trump again defends Pulte as acting DNI

The president told reporters that Pulte, who is poised to take over as acting director of national intelligence on Friday, will be in the job “as long as it takes to get everybody else approved.”

As he sat alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said the speedy process to get Clayton formally installed is a “rush act by the Democrats,” although Republicans control the Senate and worked expeditiously to move Clayton’s nomination.

“Why are they afraid of this guy? They’re so afraid of him,” Trump said, referring to Pulte. “They’ll do anything not to have Pulte go in there.”

Trump praises Modi’s looks and negotiating skills

Trump said the U.S. is “very close” to reaching a trade deal with India and then lavished lavish praise on Modi as “a very tough negotiator.”

“He’s the most beautiful looking man. He looks so nice. He’s like an angel. But actually, he’s as tough as he’s a killer,” Trump said.

Trump again remarks on G7 dropping Russia

The president told reporters after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he was having “great meetings” with a “group of people used to be the G8.”

“Now it’s the G7. I don’t know, that was a good deal or not,” Trump remarked.

Trump has previously said removing Russia from the G8 in 2014 after it annexed Crimea was a “mistake.”

G7 leaders add their voices to global push for online child safety

Their joint statement says they are committed to providing a “safe digital space” for minors, and urges governments, tech companies and public authorities to prioritize protecting their physical and mental health, privacy and online safety.

It calls for tech companies to develop “age assurance” systems to protect kids from inappropriate online experiences and make AI chatbots safer for them to use, among other things.

It also says parents should be empowered to guide their children’s online experiences, including through the use of parental control tools.

Trump delays Clayton’s nomination for intelligence director, but committee chairman promises hearing

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was delaying federal prosecutor Jay Clayton’s nomination to lead the U.S. intelligence community in a bid to force Congress to act on a voter ID bill that currently lacks enough support for passage, but a key senator said he’d push forward with a hearing.

The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, said he planned to proceed with Wednesday’s confirmation hearing unless Trump orders Clayton to not appear or withdraws the nomination.

The Republican president said in a social media post just hours before the hearing that he will keep Bill Pulte, a top U.S. housing official, as acting director of national intelligence. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have opposed Pulte for this role, citing his lack of known experience in intelligence and his use of his current administration perch to target Trump’s perceived adversaries.

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G7 leaders form critical minerals alliance against ‘economic coercion’

In a joint statement after the summit, the leaders said they have “grave concerns” about “practices and economic coercion, including arbitrary export restrictions and retaliatory measures on critical minerals.” It’s a clear reference to China’s throttling of rare earth exports that rattled industries across the world.

“We will work together with partners to reduce critical dependencies and ensure that attempts or threats to weaponize economic dependencies fail. We seek to deter and stand ready to take actions, where necessary in a coordinated manner, against economic coercion,” their statement said.

The new G7 Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance promises actions including the use of financial instruments, stockpiling, and recycling.

The EU has sought advice from Japan on how it reduced its reliance on Chinese critical minerals, and the U.S. has broadly pursued partnerships to weaken China’s domination on the mining and refinement of rare earth metals so crucial to modern technology from semiconductors to AI, drones and phones.

Tourists at Versailles are out of luck: It’s shut down for Trump-Macron dinner

The vast, glittering palace built for France’s ″Sun King’’ Louis XIV closed its gates for Wednesday’s dinner, which was just confirmed four days ago.

A helicopter is flying now over the vast grounds of the chateau as security tightens.

It took 25-year-old Ben Olson and his girlfriend, Amanda Gruell, both from Minnesota, an hour to get from Paris to Versailles, only to learn they wouldn’t be able to enter.

“I don’t know what they’re going to talk about,” Olson said. The disappointed couple decided to walk around the town instead.

The golf course, a links-style masterpiece that was one of the USGA's five founding clubs in the 1890s, lies across ancient burial grounds that once belonged to the Shinnecock Nation, whose own people built the course.

On Thursday, 156 players from around the world will tee it up for the sixth U.S. Open held on the site. Among those playing back in 1896 — the first time the USGA brought the Open to the outer reaches of Long Island — was John Shippen, the African-American golf teacher and club maker at the club who, as a 16-year-old, joined Shinnecock tribe member Oscar Bunn on the tee sheet.

Shippen was the first Black player to play in the U.S. Open; he and Bunn are believed to be the first two American-born players to play in America's national championship.

Before the tournament, pros from Britain told USGA management they refused to play against the Black and Native American players. The USGA president, Theodore Havemeyer, told those pros the tournament would go on with or without them.

Though the decision flew beneath the radar during a fledgling time for golf in the U.S. and for professional golf anywhere — in that era, the amateur game, not the pro game, drew the best players — the precedent Havemeyer set looks better as the years pass in a sport with a checkered record of inclusion.

“You think of the word ‘pioneer,’ and it's probably overused a little bit," USGA historian Mike Trostel said. “But I think in the case of Shippen, his pioneering spirit as the first African-American professional” stands out.

Shinnecock shares history with a tribal land and its people

While there's little debate about Shippen's role as a largely unheralded pioneer, the history between the Shinnecock people and their surroundings is more complicated, and it involves much more than golf.

As detailed in a documentary, “The Land We Share,” that came out in the weeks leading up to this week's Open, New York's state legislature forced the Shinnecock to cede most of its territory to the village of Southampton in 1859. The nation's boundaries now consist of about 800 acres located south of Montauk Highway — a short drive from the entrypoint to one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the country.

But it was members of the Shinnecock tribe who were brought over by the landowners to build this course and who, for decades, maintained it. Tribal member Peter Smith was the third generation from his family to serve as head of the Shinnecock grounds crew. He was widely praised for his setup of the layout when the U.S. Open returned here in 1986, then again in 1995.

Smith's firing in 1999 — the reasons aren't well laid out in the documentary and contemporaneous media reports say it was simply because the club was looking to take things in a new direction — created a rift with the Shinnecock that only recently has started to heal.

Smith's nephew, Matthew, is an assistant on the grounds crew now and was a central figure in the documentary.

“My ancestors built that course, my ancestors died on that course,” Smith says in the movie. “There's blood, sweat and tears on that course.”

The president of Shinnecock Hills, Brian Pickett, acknowledged in the movie that the course and the Shinnecock Nation share “a part of American history that you can't hide from." Tribal council chair Lisa Goree spoke about the realities of a poor tribe situated in the middle of “all this wealth and opulence.”

“There are so many people who pass right through the golf club, they have no idea where that name came from,” Goree said.

As first Black player in the US Open, Shippen made history quietly

Pretty much every telling of Shippen's story acknowledges he wasn't focused on the history he made when he played Shinnecock in 1896. The short version is that once he started working at the club and took up golf, he quickly became Shinnecock's best player.

Members recognized that and paid his entry fee to the U.S. Open. He was part of a field of 35 and was tied for the lead after the first round of the two-round event. He got stuck in the sand on the 13th hole during the second round. He made an 11 there en route to a fifth-place finish and a $10 paycheck.

“I've wished 100 times I could've played that little par-4 again,” Shippen recounted in a 1969 interview with Tuesday magazine.

Were it not for that mishap, he might not only have been the first Black player in a U.S. Open but the first Black winner, as well.

It took 90 years for the USGA to return to Shinnecock — largely a product of its remote location on the south fork of Long Island. In between, the sport's struggle with diversity has been a well-documented part of its story.

Players like Charlie Sifford (first Black player to earn a PGA Tour card), Lee Elder (first Black player in the Masters) and Calvin Peete (12 wins on the PGA Tour) are on the short list of African-Americans who pierced golf's racial barrier.

Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997 to make the most pronounced breakthrough in the white-dominated culture of this country club sport.

Shippen's contribution 101 years earlier — much like Shinnecock's Native American heritage — still remains a footnote. Both, however, are revisited whenever golf returns to one of the more special and complex landscapes from its past.

“It's complicated,” Pickett said. “To us, having had those relationships and talking about the complications is far better than not having the conversation at all.”

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

However, following the dayslong police operation, several of the cats died because of the harsh conditions they were found in, animal welfare groups said. They didn't elaborate or provide an exact number on the cats who didn't make it.

Since the operation, veterinarians and volunteers have flocked to care for the cats at a temporary rescue center set up at a facility run by the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division.

“People who lost their cats can come to the police station to identify their pets and help the police with the investigation,” police official Nguyen The Bao told the state-owned Tuoi Tre newspaper.

This operation is “a sobering reminder of the enormous scale of Viet Nam’s cat meat trade,” according to Karanvir Kukreja, who leads a campaign against dog and cat meat consumption for the international nonprofit Humane World for Animals.

Local media also reported that the Ho Chi Minh City police investigation into a spate of pet thefts resulted in the arrest of nine people

During the operation, police raided a yard and uncovered 45 cages containing around 400 live cats and four ice-filled foam containers holding approximately 80 dead cats. About 20 live cats were also recovered at a separate location, according to police, who said a kilogram of cat meat sold for around 70,000 Vietnamese dong (around $2.70).

The operation, with a total of more than 500 cats seized, was one of Vietnam's largest cat welfare cases in recent years, media reports also said.

The suspects admitted to trapping and collecting cats across south Vietnam over the past three years — in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city, as well as in the cities of Tay Ninh and An Giang, police said.

“The sad truth about this trade is that thousands of cats every month are being stolen, trafficked and slaughtered for meat across the country,” said Phuong Pham, the country director of the Humane World for Animals in Vietnam. “Thankfully, these survivors escaped.”

Several of the rescued cats were pregnant, leading to kittens being born in police custody this week, she said.

Chris Gindelhumer with the nonprofit Vietnam Cat Welfare, who is helping care for the rescued animals, said he “saw quite a lot of tears in the last few days.”

“It’s really beautiful to see how many Vietnamese families are coming, looking for their cats,” he said. “But it’s also heartbreaking because many families were looking for their cats and didn’t find them.”

Many veterinarians and volunteers are working around the clock for the cats, Gindelhumer said.

Consumption of dog and cat meat is legal in Vietnam. Vendors must have permits to validate the animals' origins. But certain cities like Hoi An in central Vietnam are working with global animal welfare groups to stop dog and cat meat consumption in the city.

Not long after South Korea's 2024 ban on dog meat, Vietnamese officials said the government plans to rebuild parts of the legal system to better protect pets and the rights of their owners.

“This event surprised a lot of people and has raised awareness among many to stop consuming cat meat,” said An Pham, a master's degree student and avid cat lover in Ho Chi Minh City.

El llamado de acción se emitió en la 11ma Conferencia Nuestro Océano en Mombasa, la primera vez que se organiza en África el importante evento anual, que se centra en abordar cuestiones oceánicas críticas, entre ellas el cambio climático, la biodiversidad y la contaminación.

Cientos de delegados de África, Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea y naciones insulares del Caribe y del Pacífico vulnerables al clima participan en la conferencia, donde los líderes han tratado de posicionar a África como una fuerza impulsora en la gobernanza oceánica mundial.

John Kerry, exsecretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, afirmó en su discurso inicial en la Mesa Redonda de Ministros de Océanos de la Commonwealth que el Tratado de Alta Mar, que entró en vigor en enero tras ser ratificado por 60 países, marcó un punto de inflexión histórico al crear, por primera vez, un mecanismo legal para establecer áreas protegidas en aguas internacionales.

Pero advirtió que los avances seguían siendo demasiado lentos.

“Tenemos el 10% del océano bajo protección este año”, señaló Kerry. “Eso vale la pena destacarlo. Pero solo el 3% está alta o plenamente protegido, y el resto de las protecciones son, lamentablemente, solo líneas en un mapa”.

Kerry señaló que las flotas pesqueras industriales continúan explotando los océanos, con algunas embarcaciones operando a miles de millas de su base y utilizando redes de gran tamaño que capturan indiscriminadamente la vida marina.

“Ratifiquen el tratado si aún no lo han hecho y pasen de inmediato a su aplicación”, pidió a los países, señalando que el próximo año se tomarán decisiones clave sobre el futuro del pacto.

El tratado, conocido formalmente como Acuerdo sobre la Biodiversidad Fuera de la Jurisdicción Nacional, busca ayudar a los países a alcanzar el objetivo global de proteger el 30% de la superficie terrestre y los océanos del mundo para 2030.

El secretario del gobierno de Kenia para asuntos marítimos, Hassan Joho, dijo que los gobiernos deben pasar ahora de las promesas a la acción tangible.

“El propósito de esta mesa redonda no es reiterar la ambición, sino convertir esos compromisos en resultados medibles para nuestras comunidades, nuestras economías y nuestros océanos”, manifestó.

Joho indicó que, desde 2014, la conferencia One Ocean ha generado más de 2.900 compromisos por un valor superior a 169.000 millones de dólares. El desafío, apuntó, es convertirlos en una gestión efectiva de los ecosistemas marinos.

Los 56 estados miembro de la Commonwealth representan en conjunto el 36% de la jurisdicción oceánica mundial y casi la mitad de sus arrecifes de coral, lo que otorga al bloque una responsabilidad única en la protección de los recursos marinos.

África, por su parte, se está consolidando cada vez más como líder en la conservación oceánica.

Kerry elogió a los países del continente por impulsar la protección marina transfronteriza y señaló los compromisos de ocho naciones del golfo de Guinea para gestionar de manera sostenible todas sus aguas para 2030.

“Una región descrita durante mucho tiempo como víctima de la explotación oceánica ahora está optando por liderar”, afirmó.

La nación de África oriental adoptó planes integrados de gestión costera, amplió las áreas marinas protegidas e intensificó los esfuerzos para combatir la pesca ilegal, no declarada y no reglamentada. Su costa de 640 kilómetros (400 millas) y su vasta zona económica exclusiva sostienen la pesca, el turismo y otros sectores que son el sustento de millones de personas.

Mientras las negociaciones continúan en Mombasa, los delegados dicen que los próximos meses serán cruciales para determinar si el nuevo tratado se convierte en una herramienta transformadora para la conservación oceánica o en otro conjunto de promesas internacionales que no llegan a materializarse.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Consulte las normas de AP para trabajar con filantropías, una lista de patrocinadores y las áreas de cobertura financiadas en AP.org.

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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.

Many view the onset of hemorrhagic fever as a spiritual affliction and seek out herbs and prayers instead of going to the hospital. This is the case now in Congo, which is suffering its seventeenth outbreak of Ebola since 1976, when the virus was first identified in the rich Congo Basin ecosystem.

Five decades later, the virus continues to mystify many of the sick in Africa while turning religious leaders into first responders in a deadly emergency. The current outbreak’s victims include health workers without protective gear as well as pastors and worshippers who gathered while Ebola was spreading, according to humanitarian workers and others who spoke to The Associated Press.

Ebola spreads through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. The current outbreak is particularly worrisome in a region where many are distrustful of health workers and refuse to seek medical care.

In Bunia, a town in Ituri province that is the outbreak's epicenter, misinformation about Ebola has made it harder for health workers to respond to the outbreak that has so far killed at least 181 people. One rumor suggests that Ebola is spread by malicious people who drop magical charms tied to dollar bills down pit latrines.

“Some people still describe Ebola as something mysterious, spiritual, or brought by outsiders, rather than a disease that needs medical care,” said Onesphore Bangenza of the aid group Mercy Corps, speaking from Bunia. “When people do not trust the health system, they often go first to traditional healers, faith leaders, or people they already know. The danger is that many only reach the hospital when they are already very sick.”

Uncommon type of Ebola causing the outbreak

The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola that has no approved medicines or vaccines to combat it. It is occurring in a remote area of Congo that also faces armed violence by rebel groups as well as displacement. Ebola intensifies the suffering, with its terrifying symptoms that evoke a modern-day plague.

The outbreak was confirmed on May 15. Some experts believe infections may have been occurring in February, but health officials initially tested for a different kind of virus that causes Ebola disease.

The World Health Organization quickly declared the event a public health emergency of international concern. The U.S. government has imposed a temporary ban on the entry of people without U.S. passports who have recently visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan.

With so many people in afflicted communities seeking spiritual answers to the outbreak, humanitarian workers are urging religious leaders to get involved in combating Ebola.

In a video widely shared among people in Ituri, a catechist leader recently cured of the disease in the Ebola hot spot of Mongbwalu spoke candidly of the mistake that could have cost him his life.

“I don’t usually rush to the hospital, so I decided to go to the fields,” Deogratias Kasereka said, before explaining how his children compelled him to seek medical treatment.

His symptoms had included muscle weakness and headaches, and he “felt very hot.” Ebola in later stages also can bring about internal and external bleeding.

The symptoms are so disturbing — and sometimes shameful — that some victims prefer the privacy of a traditional healer’s shrine, said Vincent Isimbwa, an elder among Seventh-day Adventists in a remote community of Ugandans that faced the first-ever outbreak of Bundibugyo in 2007.

“They faced it so rough,” said Isimbwa. “The challenge with Ebola is that it is so bad that some people can believe that there are supernatural powers behind it.”

That outbreak of Ebola killed at least 36 people and left the community terribly scarred. Many here also regret that the Bundibugyo virus is named for their district, the mountainous homeland of roughly 200,000 people mostly living as farmers.

Mistrust and medical limitations drive sick people to healers

In Bundibugyo two decades later, the Ugandan nurse whose sample of blood confirmed the 2007 outbreak said his symptoms confused those who examined him in the early days of the outbreak. Some thought Samuel Kuule had a case of food poisoning. While others afflicted may have gone to see healers, described pejoratively as witch doctors, he was nursed in a narrow hospital room by caregivers including his pregnant wife, who was never infected.

Kuule recalled that his symptoms — peeling skin, bloodshot eyes and severe headache — terrified him without shaking his Seventh-day Adventist faith, unlike some others who may have felt they were being bewitched.

“For those who are weak in faith, they may (think) that they are being bewitched,” he said. “Maybe they can believe it.”

Some locals recalled that an early victim of the 2007 outbreak was a woman stretchered down the mountains and into the shrine of a traditional healer, an older man who survived but lost three sons to Ebola. Speaking through his presumptive heir, Amon Balinda, the healer said he switched his service from benediction and prayer to the prescription of herbs after he was told Ebola was spreading.

“For us in African traditional societies, in most cases when you fall sick and you go to the hospitals and they give you some injections and there is no improvement, there and then you switch to your neighbor, or anybody, and say maybe he is the one bewitching you,” he said. “Then you decide to go to the witch doctor.”

In fact, Ebola outbreaks are believed to start with the virus spilling over into humans from an infected animal such as a fruit bat. These cross-species infections often happen when people handle and eat wild meat, experts say.

The WHO is urging early testing for Ebola, in addition to isolating contacts in the current outbreak.

That's challenging in communities with deep religious faith, Christian but especially traditional. People insist on burying the dead according to established custom, because to do otherwise may deprive the dead of an afterlife. Pastors who stake their authority on the ability to heal the sick are expected to perform. Traditional healers face similar hopes.

This is why Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni rebuked religious leaders in a recent televised speech, saying there was no need to touch the sick in the time of Ebola. He said that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, told him while visiting Uganda that many victims in Congo are religious people.

“The pastors, the pastors, the pastors,” Museveni said, squinting in apparent disappointment. “The people of God — they are the ones who touch patients. … God is not deaf. You can pray without touching.”

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

The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, coming off a mixed day where falling tech stocks weighed on the index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 125 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:27 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged.

Several stocks involved in the artificial-intelligence business headed back up their roller-coaster ride, supporting the market. Jabil rose 1.9% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected, as CEO Mike Dastoor said that “AI infrastructure demand remains extremely strong.”

Broadcom climbed 5.4%, and Applied Materials rose 7.4%.

Such AI stocks have veered up and down in recent weeks and yanked the rest of the market behind them on worries that their prices shot too high because of the mania around AI.

SpaceX, meanwhile, erased an early gain and dropped 1.8%. It's potentially on track for its first loss since its ballyhooed debut on the U.S. stock market last week.

Outside of tech, La-Z-Boy jumped 19.1% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It benefited from revenue made at newly opened stores, though Chief Financial Officer Taylor Luebke said the company continues to have “a measured view” of the broad sales environment.

A report released Wednesday said retailers across the country saw their revenue grow at a faster pace in May than economists expected, offering hope that solid spending by consumers can support the economy. But high inflation has also made U.S. shoppers feel more discouraged about their finances.

The day’s main event will come in the afternoon, when the Fed will announce its latest decision on what to do with interest rates. The widespread expectation is that it will leave its main interest rate alone, as it has throughout this year.

Investors are more interested in the projections that Fed officials will give about where they see interest rates heading in upcoming years and what Kevin Warsh will say after his first meeting as the Fed’s chair.

Traders had been building bets that the Fed may have to raise its federal funds rate this year in order to keep a lid on inflation, which has accelerated because of expensive oil caused by the war with Iran. But oil prices have pulled back to $80 per barrel after the United States and Iran reached a tentative agreement on their war.

Iran is set to immediately take steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once the deal is signed, and that would allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf once again and deliver crude to customers worldwide. The hope is that will take pressure off inflation.

As a result, traders are split on where the Fed could take interest rates through the end of the year. Some are betting on a cut to rates, which is something that President Donald Trump has angrily been calling for. But the most popular bet is for no move on rates, while some traders still see a hike as the most likely outcome, according to data from CME Group.

Oil prices ticked higher Wednesday following their sharp slides on optimism about the tentative U.S.-Iran deal to get the global flow of oil going again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 0.3% to $79.23. It’s still above its roughly $70 price from before the war, but it’s well below its $100-plus price from a few weeks ago.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.43%, where it was late Tuesday.

High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by worries about inflation have been threatening to slow economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 was virtually unchanged after a report showed U.K. inflation remained at 2.8% in May.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.6%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him, Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Yet when they took the field at Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, they marked Sudan’s first appearance in international women’s soccer since a civil war erupted in a country where women’s participation in sports has long been controversial.

“My goal is to lift up soccer in my country,” Nura Mohamed, the 17-year-old team captain, told The Associated Press.

“It’s a beautiful, unique feeling because, at the end of the day, I just love playing.”

With the men's World Cup unfolding on the other side of the planet, Sudan’s under-17 women’s national team traveled to Morocco last week for qualifying matches on the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The inexperienced squad suffered heavy defeats against Comoros, conceding 30 goals in two matches. Many of the players broke down in tears after the final whistle in front of a dozen cheering fans.

They faced an older, fitter, and more experienced opponent. Unable to assemble a senior women’s squad in time, Sudan’s soccer federation entered a younger team to avoid forfeiting its place in the qualifiers. They only started training weeks ago.

“The difference between us and the others is huge. We cannot yet compete at the highest level," Burhan Tia, a veteran Sudanese soccer coach who oversees all of Sudan’s women’s national teams, said after the first match, a 17–0 defeat.

“Comoros has many players competing in Europe, our team is mainly made up of schoolgirls."

This team represents hope for Sudan's future

Sudan’s women’s soccer collapsed when civil war erupted in 2023. For federation officials, debuting this young squad in Casablanca after years of conflict marks an important step in keeping women's soccer alive in Sudan.

“Some traveled long distances just to attend training. Many are separated from their families, yet they continue to work hard and pursue their dream," Manal Ali Bushra, a businesswoman who heads the women’s soccer committee, told the AP.

To support that vision, Ali Bushra said the federation is working on infrastructure projects, including a planned sports city and the renovation of key stadiums in safer parts of the country. She declined to answer questions about the women’s program budget and funds.

Tia knew the magnitude of the challenge when he accepted the job of rebuilding a shattered team.

“First, I had to find girls who played soccer. Then, once I found girls who played, I had to make sure they were the right age,” he said. “Then I needed to convince their parents to let them miss classes for training.”

With the league suspended, his scouting trips took him to schools across Sudan and to neighboring Egypt, where many families had fled the war. He recruited 10 players from teams and academies in Cairo, with the rest drawn from Sudanese cities.

Tia would have liked to recruit from conflict-hit areas like Darfur or Kordofan, a region known for producing Sudan’s top athletes. But many girls had lost their identification documents, making it impossible to verify their ages under international regulations. The war has also shattered transportation, turning journeys between cities that once took hours into perilous trips lasting days.

On the field, the players’ lack of experience was evident. Several struggled with basic positioning, failing to hold the offside line or maintain tactical discipline. Throughout the matches, they repeatedly looked to the sidelines for instructions from the coach and his assistant.

Facing war, fatwas and conservatism

The United Nations has described the war in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It began in 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into fighting marked by mass killings, rape and ethnic violence. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to U.N. figures, and over 14 million have been displaced, with famine and disease spreading across parts of the country.

The war halted every sports activity, including the women’s soccer league, which was officially established after the 2019 progressive revolution that ousted President Omar al-Bashir. His three-decade Islamist rule was marked by Public Order Laws that rights groups said restricted women’s freedoms. Even after the revolution, prominent Sudanese preacher Abdulhay Yousif said the establishment of a women’s football league was aimed at undermining religion.

“The idea of women running, jumping, sweating, and even something as simple as their bodies being visible in motion, was seen by Bashir’s Islamist regime as producing fitna, which in a Sudanese context was understood as sexual or moral chaos,” Liv Tønnessen, a political scientist researching gender politics in Sudan, told the AP.

“So when women step onto a soccer pitch, they are directly confronting that entire logic. They are not just present in a male-dominated sports arena, they are moving freely in it, on their own terms,” Tønnessen, a former guest researcher in a women-only university in Sudan, added.

Beyond institutional hurdles, players also faced a wave of sexist abuse online. On the national team’s social media accounts, many commenters mocked them for big defeats. Others posted the phrase “go back to the kitchen,” in multiple languages.

A team caught in politics

While Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s military government has allowed international soccer trips for teenage girls, the U.N. has documented sexual and gender-based violence by the Sudanese Armed Forces, which he commands.

Tønnessen sees the state backing as a calculated effort by the military to project legitimacy. By sponsoring the team, she said, the army attempts to signal that the state is functioning normally and to align itself with the spirit of the 2019 revolution.

Hala Al-Karib, a prominent Sudanese women’s rights activist, dismissed critics who say the team is being used to portray a more progressive image on women’s rights.

“The main challenge for me is a reform of the federation,” she told the AP, citing a lack of investment in and support for women’s soccer in Sudan.

Back on the field in Casablanca, the politics, war and debate faded away, leaving only a group of teenagers chasing a ball.

Held at the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest, the exhibition is called “A.REST 1989.” The Securitate Video Archive uses video footage to reconstruct how detentions and interrogations worked under the Securitate, the sprawling network of spies that enforced Nicolae Ceausescu’s rule, until he was overthrown and executed in December 1989.

The exhibition features original videotaped recordings of interrogations of four detainees investigated by the secret police, shown on grainy, wall-mounted monitors in the museum’s central hall. All were recorded in 1989 by the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Securitate.

In the middle of the exhibition space is a reconstructed cell furnished with a small bed, an empty metal bowl and cup, which evokes the isolation that detainees might have felt. It also highlights the Securitate’s extensive reach and power under communism and the investigation techniques they used on suspects.

Many of the recordings reveal coercive questioning and intimidation tactics that often drift into the absurd, as detainees are ground down or left bewildered. During one such back-and-forth, a woman whose husband had allegedly defected tells her questioner: “I no longer have the strength to fight. I need logical arguments, not this nonsense.”

A memorial to the victims

“In the world of Securitate ‘justice,’ detainees or those under arrest were merely prisoners, captives in the operational labyrinth of manufactured guilt,” the organizers say, adding that the exhibition can serve as a belated “memorial plaque” to victims. “The victims, thus, gain a voice and a place."

The exhibition runs until mid-September and is a collaboration between the National History Museum, Romania’s National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives, or CNSAS, and the Ministry of Culture.

The organizers said the 26 videotapes held by CNSAS are “a remnant, the accidental result of the disorderly and violent end” of socialist Romania, recorded by the criminal investigations technical department in 1989.

Oana Demetriade, a historian at CNSAS and exhibition curator, told The Associated Press that she initially wanted to use the videotapes to make a documentary for students and school kids, but decided to pursue an exhibition instead.

“The project grew organically through the discussions I had with architects and designers,” she said. “From the very beginning, the first discussions I had with my husband who works at CNSAS and everything I found in these tapes made me go ‘wow!’ … They were being watched in cells non-stop.”

“That’s what this whole archive brings new,” she added. “How it gets here and how people, those who are arrested, in the end, are repeatedly threatened, yelled at, threatened with beatings, threatened with the family suffering, and so on.”

The power of words

Also exhibited are artifacts such as a printing press that belonged to journalist Petre Mihai Bacanu, which was confiscated by the secret police in early 1989. Bacanu and several associates used the press to print an anti-Ceausescu and anti-government newspaper.

“How could we, after 45 years of socialism, still be afraid of people’s opinions, even of their thoughts?” Bacanu says during an interrogation in February 1989.

Another item exhibited is a pair of glasses that were used to stop detainees from “seeing where they were going or identifying” other persons.

The detention facility had spaces for two different types of detention, says Mihai Demetriade, also a historian at CNSAS and an exhibition curator along with his wife.

While “preventative detention” was used in political cases alleging crimes against the state, “operational detention” units were used to lock people up in what he described as a form of kidnapping — to imprison and silence potential dissenters during sensitive moments like a congress or visiting foreign dignitary.

“We are not talking about the testimonies of victims after the fall of communism, nor about documents, nor about books, nor about manuscripts,” he said. “We have something not open to manipulation … a live recording of events that occur in interrogation rooms or cells. It’s hard to fight against something like that as a denialist.”

“This space is important because it proves how rapacious, tough, aggressive the communist dictatorship remained even in the last moments of the communist system," he added.

Communist nostalgia

In recent years, as nationalism has risen in Romania, so too has a nostalgia for life under communism during the Ceausescu years, especially among young people who typically have limited or no memories of life in the country before 1989.

Cornel Constantin Ilie, manager of the National History Museum of Romania, says the new exhibition can help expose the realities of that period in Romania’s history and “reach the minds and, why not, the souls” of visitors.

“It is an exhibition that puts you in front of facts that cannot be ignored,” he said. “It’s very important because we must not forget and we must not repeat. … What we see in this exhibition is an ugly face of history, it is a story in which human freedom, human dignity were suppressed.”

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

In a letter to Kemp, Republican House leaders said changes to Georgia’s maps should take place only after a deliberative process providing the public ample opportunity for input. They also noted that legal challenges are still ongoing against some of their current districts.

The decision marked a setback for both Kemp and President Donald Trump, who has urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to their advantage.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is the next Southern state where Republicans are convening to redraw voting districts in ways that could diminish the political power of Black and other nonwhite voters after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted Voting Rights Act provisions that helped shape existing boundaries in racially diverse states.

The General Assembly convenes Wednesday in a special session called by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp in response to the court's Louisiana v. Callais decision, which struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Kemp, who is in the final months of his second term, deviated from other governors who fast-tracked new congressional maps for the November midterms partly in response to President Donald Trump's pleas to shore up the party's chances at maintaining control of Congress. Kemp instead wants Georgia lawmakers to draw districts for the 2028 elections. Yet the governor moved ahead of his Southern counterparts by asking the Republican-controlled Assembly to redraw its own boundaries, as well.

That would make Georgia the first state to apply Callais to its legislature and demonstrate the cascading effect of the high court's decision across Southern states with the nation’s highest proportions of Black voters and Black lawmakers.

The issue is especially salient in Georgia, where the Capitol complex includes a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and sits blocks from where the slain civil rights icon lived, preached and led the movement that yielded the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Still, neither Kemp nor Republican legislative leaders had unveiled proposed changes as of Wednesday morning, frustrating Democrats and activists who plan daily demonstrations throughout the session.

“They have not been transparent,” said state Rep. Tanya Miller, a Black legislator from Atlanta who is the Democratic nominee for attorney general. “Something as fundamental as voters getting to choose their leaders ought not to be done in the dark, ought not happen in back rooms.”

Several Republican lawmakers said Wednesday morning they still had not seen proposed districts, and Kemp’s office had not scheduled any public remarks from the governor.

House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, a veteran of earlier redistricting efforts, said Tuesday that the outcome “will be a legislative prerogative” — a notion Kemp aides confirmed. But Jones said that even as a top-ranking Republican on the committee that would consider new maps, she hasn't “been in any room creating maps.”

Asked directly who is drawing new districts, she replied: “I don't know.”

Conservative justices gave the green light

Before Callais, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was understood to require maps — for Congress, state legislatures and local legislative bodies — that gave historically marginalized minorities a reasonable chance to select candidates of their choice. Nationally and in Georgia, those so-called “opportunity districts” have disproportionately elected Black and other nonwhite representatives.

For example, about a third of Georgia's 180 state representatives are Black. Latino, Asian and other minorities bring the total nonwhite share to about 40% — roughly reflecting the state's overall population. Georgia's U.S. House delegation has five districts out of 14 total where the electorate is majority or plurality nonwhite. All elected Black Democrats in 2024.

With the Callais ruling, issued earlier this spring, a conservative majority of justices concluded that jurisdictions drawn with racial makeup in mind are discriminatory and violate the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause. The justices declared that apportionment should be “race neutral.”

Their stated reasoning did not hinge on party interests, and federal courts have said partisan gerrymandering is constitutionally permissible. But in Southern states, especially, party loyalty dovetails considerably with race and ethnicity. So the decision has allowed Republicans — a party dominated by white people — to redraw maps to goose likely GOP districts by redistributing nonwhite voters who tend to support Democrats.

That, many civil rights activists and experts argue, makes it impossible for Southern legislatures to be genuinely “race neutral” when drawing boundaries.

Emory University professor Carol Anderson compared Callais and the resulting redistricting push to poll taxes and literacy tests imposed by white Southern conservatives — and blessed by the Supreme Court — during the Jim Crow era.

“They used racially neutral language for policies that were clearly racially targeted,” said Anderson, who is also a board member of Fair Fight Action, a group organizing against the Georgia redistricting.

There are risks for Kemp and Republicans

It's not guaranteed that Georgia Republicans can get what they want from new maps.

Partisan gerrymandering involves redistributing voters — packing certain citizens into fewer districts or dividing them across more districts. Around metro Atlanta, spreading nonwhite, Democratic-leaning voters across more districts could make more seats seem to lean Republican. The risk, however, is that more battleground districts emerge because white metropolitan voters are trending less conservative, which could give Democratic candidates of any race or ethnicity more chances to win.

That's perhaps not a major factor in the Georgia state Senate, which already is considered gerrymandered for Republicans. But it could be a consideration when drawing state House and U.S. House maps.

Kemp is effectively asking Republicans, especially in metro Atlanta, to redraw their own boundaries and take on new, unfamiliar territory.

Trump started the fight before the Supreme Court decision

Nationally, a partisan redistricting battle started last year when Trump urged Republican-controlled states to redraw congressional boundaries to shore up the GOP's narrow House majority in Washington this November. Texas answered the call first.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in Sacramento answered with their own gerrymander that voters later approved. A succession of states followed. The outcome would have been close to even had the Virginia Supreme Court, controlled by conservatives, not struck down new Democratic-drawn maps approved by the state’s voters. All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 16 seats from their redistricting efforts while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

That still may not be enough for the GOP to hold a congressional majority, given Trump's lagging approval ratings. But it could mitigate Democratic gains and set Republicans up well for 2028 and beyond.

“The words I would say would have no meaning,” added Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women.

The sentencing capped an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries. The seemingly unconnected and largely overlooked disappearances of young women became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims’ skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.

Heuermann, 62, will have no possibility of parole.

But “a million years isn’t enough,” Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, said. “Nothing will ever make this right.”

“You fill me with so much repugnance, I can’t stand it,” Robinson said.

Judge calls Heuermann ‘despicable’

As a series of victims' kin spoke, Heuermann sat with his hands on the defense table, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers. Then Amanda Funderburg, victim Melissa Barthelemy's sister, urged Heuermann to look at her.

He glanced in her direction, but his eyes were slightly downcast.

“I hope you suffer,” said Funderburg, who recounted getting a taunting phone call from him days after Barthelemy disappeared, when Funderburg was 15 years old.

JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, told the killer that her daughter "had dreams, and you took them all away from her.”

“Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken,” Mack said.

Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.

Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies.

“Are you at least a little sorry?” Judge Timothy Mazzei asked him Wednesday in a loud, indignant voice.

Heuermann nodded and appeared to mouth “yes.”

“You are disgusting — a despicable man, if you are a man at all,” the judge said, his voice rising. “And you are a coward.”

As Heuermann was led away in handcuffs, spectators in the packed courtroom seemed to jeer.

Victims' children recount a confounding loss

Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found on a parkway not far from Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manhattan.

Costilla’s remains were found in 1993, more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons, while Vergata’s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Gilgo Beach.

Brainard-Barnes’ two children, who were 7 and 1 when she disappeared in 2007, underscored Wednesday how her absence shaped their lives and how she never got to know the adults they grew up to be. Her sister, Melissa Cann, said she lived with “survivor’s guilt” for decades, wondering whether she could have done something more to protect Brainard-Barnes.

“It was a weight I carried everywhere,” Cann said, sobbing deeply. But, she said, that guilt is “not mine to carry. It is for Rex and Rex alone.”

Liliana Waterman was 3 when her mother, Megan Waterman, vanished. The daughter said she didn’t fully understand what had happened until she was about 9.

“In an instant, my world was shattered,” she said. “Was she in pain? Was she scared?”

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer was caught

The case spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.

The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

Eventually, they matched DNA from a pizza crust Heuermann discarded in a Manhattan trash can to genetic material extracted from highly degraded hair fragments found on the women’s remains.

Investigators amassed other evidence, including cellphone and tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some victims shortly before their disappearances.

After Heuermann's 2023 arrest, prosecutors recovered what they described as a “blueprint” for the killings from his computer files. Among the documents was a series of checklists with reminders to limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.

Calling the man “a monster,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declared there was nothing Heuermann could say to mitigate his deeds.

As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.

Heuermann spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell at the Suffolk County jail, reading crime novels, occasionally being visited by his lawyers or family, and striking up a brief correspondence with the infamous “Happy Face Killer,” according to Sheriff Errol Toulon.

Through their lawyers, Heuermann's ex-wife and two grown children said they did not attend the sentencing out of respect for the victim’s families.

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Peltz reported from New York.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo.

The 57-year-old Frenchman had four days to get the team prepared for its second Group F game against Japan on Saturday.

“At the moment we need to be focused on ourselves,” Renard told reporters at the team’s training ground just hours after flying into Monterrey. “We still have a few days to be ready.”

Renard led Saudi Arabia at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the Green Falcons earned a shocking 2-1 victory over favorite and eventual champion Argentina. In the 2018 tournament, his Moroccan side earned a draw against Spain but failed to reach the knockout stage.

Renard said he was eager to experience the trill of the tournament again.

“It’s a World Cup,” he said. “I know the passion around this event. That’s what motivated me to come and it’s a challenge which isn’t easy.”

It’s not the first time Renard has replaced Lamouchi. The two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner succeeded his French counterpart in 2014 as head coach of Ivory Coast following its group stage exit at the World Cup.

It would be a tough ask for Renard to guide Tunisia out of the group stage for the first time in seven World Cup appearances. After their loss to Sweden on Sunday, the Eagles of Carthage need results against Japan and group favorites Netherlands if they are to advance.

“I’ve told them they have to keep their heads up, you’re here to represent your country,” Renard said.

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Maya Koluder-Ramirez and Ethan Wilcox are students in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

"It feels like you're stepping back into his world," Ward said of the grounds in Hyde Park, New York, that once were home to the Roosevelt family. “The library and home collections reflect all his many interests — stamps, coins, birds he shot and had stuffed as a boy, model ships, children’s books, books about naval history, the pony-drawn sleigh he rode in as a child, and on and on.”

Since FDR helped launch the modern system of presidential sites in the late 1930s, a network of museums and research facilities has grown nationwide, overseen in part by the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, but otherwise as varied as the men they honor. They are set everywhere from the scenic Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in California's Simi Valley to the small-town setting of the Herbert Hoover Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, to the vast Barack Obama Presidential Center that opens to the public on Friday, Juneteenth, in Chicago.

Historian Douglas Brinkley, who says he has visited all of the post-FDR libraries, calls them vital hubs for lectures, research, school tours and tourists.

“Each of the libraries have their own aura," Brinkley says. “Roosevelt came up with a perfect idea by gifting his home in Hyde Park to the people of America, instead of having his papers stored in a warehouse in Virginia or Maryland. He started a tradition of having them go where the president lived.”

A little presidential spin

Libraries carry with them a given president's personality and legacy. Brinkley and others note that while the library archives are managed by NARA, the museum is funded by private donors who are likely to prefer a given president's more favorable moments be emphasized or less favorable ones softened.

On the Hoover website, a page dedicated to the Great Depression emphasizes that some of the policies enacted by Roosevelt, who easily defeated Hoover for reelection, were first proposed by Hoover. The Richard Nixon library in Yorba Linda, California, was for years at the heart of a battle between museum administrators and the former president and his supporters over everything from control of his archives to how much space should be dedicated to the Watergate scandal that helped lead to his resignation.

Max Boot, author of a 2024 biography of Reagan, contrasted his access to the Reagan archives with the museum itself. The late president's records were “administered by federal employees in an entirely professional and apolitical fashion. There is no attempt to hide anything,” he said. The museum “naturally focuses on Reagan’s achievements and shortchanges his failures.”

“It’s designed to present a positive portrait. Thus, volumes critical of Reagan are not sold in the library bookstore,” Boot said.

Historian Ted Widmer, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, said, “While it’s inevitable that the presidential libraries will present the highlights of a presidency, there has been some progress toward transparency in recent years.”

He praised the Lyndon Johnson library, located in Austin, Texas, for its willingness to take on LBJ's widely criticized handling of the Vietnam War. In 2023, the library helped revive interest in one of Johnson's most notorious campaigns — the 1948 Senate campaign now widely believed to have been stolen — by posting recordings on its website of interviews by Associated Press reporter James W. Mangan with a former Texas election judge who acknowledged certifying false votes that helped LBJ win.

“It is hard to know if future libraries will continue that trend, in an era in which history is increasingly politicized and polarized,” Widmer says. "But it’s healthy for our democracy to encourage the study of history as it really happened — not a sanitized version.”

The Obama experience

Obama officials have faced criticism for the center's size and aesthetic — “The building has an ominous presence, its mostly windowless heft recalling a menacing sci-fi headquarters,” wrote The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright — and for their decision not to have a NARA facility on site. A substantial amount of the former president's records are digital, a trend Brinkley expects to continue with future libraries.

As many as 1 million people are expected to visit the center's 20-acre campus each year, with highlights including a public library branch, an NBA-grade basketball court, a fruit and vegetable garden and a playground. Obama tested out one of the high metal slides in May.

“That was fantastic,” he said after zipping down, according to a video posted to the Obama Foundation’s social media. “I was a little tall for it.”

Obama also decided many of the center's details and features, from textured stone on the museum’s 225-foot tower to a pair of high-backed reading chairs inside the library. Among his favorite items, though, are charcoal grills that will be available for public use. He floated the idea to the public at a 2017 community meeting and was met with warm laughs from the hometown crowd.

“We don’t have any folks who grill here?” Obama said at the time. “I thought this was the South Side of Chicago.”

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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

The plane went down late Tuesday in Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican border after its crew radioed the local airport seeking to make an emergency landing. Police said six people were on board and one of them died in the crash. The jet barreled into a car, sending one motorist to a hospital in stable condition.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

The pilot radioing air traffic controllers “mentioned low fuel and a power outage,” said Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez.

“They had mechanical issues and they lost communication with the tower,” Sanchez said Wednesday, “and that’s when the accident happened.”

Cellphone video from the chaotic scene showed motorists rushing to rescue those inside the jet. One swung a sledgehammer to try to smash open the cockpit glass. Others used makeshift levers to pry open the plane’s door as the fuselage burned.

Dashcam video posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway, knocking down a light post before coming to a stop near the Laredo International Airport.

The plane, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound to Austin, Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement it was cooperating with authorities.

The plane crashed on the Loop 20 highway in Laredo shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.

Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier with the tail ripped from the fuselage.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” said Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash.

Garza, who shot video of the scene as her husband ran to help, saw motorists leave their cars to try to help smash the cockpit glass. She said the plane’s door opened and three people who looked like teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another crew member tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.

Smoke billowed from the plane as a firefighter climbed into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger. Police officers helping prop open the door had to back away as they doubled over coughing because of the intense smoke. Police said five officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.

“What was worrying me was the fire,” Garza said. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

This was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

Closing the three-day summit, French President Emmanuel Macron called it a “very good deal,” adding that U.S. allies in the G7 support it “because it’s an agreement that puts a stop to a situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies.”

At his own press conference after Macron spoke, Trump hailed the deal as “historic” and said other G7 leaders say “they love this deal because they want to see it over.”

U.S. officials dictated the text of the deal to journalists on Wednesday.

The accord, due to be formally signed in Switzerland on Friday, lays out that the U.S. would work to end all U.S. and United Nations sanctions imposed on Tehran if a final agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program is reached.

“I think it’ll be done. They want to sign. They want to get back to a normal life,” Trump said earlier Wednesday.

The final day of G7 talks at a lakeside resort in the French Alps started late with Trump, the last to arrive, saying “I’m the boss” as he entered and sat next to Macron. The assembled leaders laughed, and Trump grinned.

The formal talks of the leading industrial democracies closed with sessions on the future of artificial intelligence and fostering economic growth. They discussed concerns that China is flooding export markets with subsidized products, unfairly out-competing their own industries and destroying jobs. Leaders of India, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil joined the meeting.

Trump later was having a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris before he jets back to Washington.

Resuming traffic on the strait is key

Trump still has to sell the deal to some members of his own Republican party who doubt it will defang Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, he faces an anxious international community looking for him to follow through on his promise that the deal will reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic and keep it open.

The G7 leaders said an international maritime mission led by France and the U.K. “can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by protecting merchant vessels, reassuring commercial shipping operators, and supporting verification that all mines are removed.”

Iran effectively closed the strait early in the war that began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Isreali attacks.

The deal also calls for an immediate end to all fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah. That is one of the most delicate parts of the agreement because Israel has maintained it will continue to defend itself and to occupy vast swaths of Lebanon.

The agreement that U.S. officials dictated to journalists on Wednesday also has provisions to ensure “territorial integrity” of Lebanon after Israel’s latest attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanese territory.

In their declaration, G7 leaders said they supported “through an immediate robust ceasefire” Lebanese efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and protect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed nearly 4,000 people and displaced more than 1 million since fighting there began on March 2.

“Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed,” Trump said.

Leaders vow to support Ukraine, tackle global drug gangs

In a flurry of unanimously agreed declarations, the G7 leaders stressed their support for Ukraine as it battles Russia's invasion and agreed to increase deliveries of air defense systems. They also said they would bolster sanctions on Moscow, including on Russia's oil and gas industries.

Trump called the conversations on ending the war in Ukraine “productive” and said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy want to “do something."

“They just don't know how,” he said.

Leaders also pledged to step up the fight against the multibillion-dollar international drug trade.

Trump has been waging his own battle against drug traffickers. United States military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats transiting in Latin America have killed more than 200 people since September, when the Trump administration began an operation it has justified as necessary to stem the flow of drugs.

Critics have questioned the legality of the strikes.

In a separate declaration, the G7 leaders reaffirmed their efforts to halt migrant smuggling and human trafficking, which they said “constitute serious transnational crimes that erode the sovereign right of States to control their borders and expose smuggled and trafficked persons to life-threatening risks.”

Trump lauds ‘most beautiful-looking man’ Modi

Trump said Wednesday after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the U.S. is “very close” to reaching a trade deal with India, and then went on to lavish praise on Modi as “a very tough negotiator.”

“He’s the most beautiful-looking man. He looks so nice. He’s like an angel. But actually, he’s as tough as he’s a killer,” Trump said.

The meeting with Modi came at a choppy moment in the U.S.-India relationship, in part because of the war in the Middle East. On June 10 three Indian sailors were killed in a U.S. military strike on a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in the midst of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

Modi alluded to the incident at their meeting, saying the safety of Indian mariners "is of utmost importance to us.” He added he was “confident” the issue of seafarers” will be a top priority during implementation of the agreement between the United States and Iran.

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Superville reported from Geneva. AP writers John Leicester in Evian-les-Bains, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Seung Min Kim and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed reporting.

Preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb is a key reason that President Donald Trump said he launched the war alongside Israel in February, but the tentative agreement he has trumpeted leaves little runway to negotiate the long-running sticking point. The previous nuclear pact between Iran and world powers, from which Trump pulled the U.S. in his first term, took many months to negotiate.

Under terms of the initial deal, Iran would immediately take steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to global oil shipments and would be allowed to sell its oil without restrictions, U.S. and regional officials say.

The accord, due to be officially signed Friday in Switzerland, also envisions Iran receiving at least $300 billion to rebuild after the war and says the U.S. would work to end all American and U.N. sanctions imposed on Tehran. That is if a final agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program is reached after the opening of a 60-day period for talks.

There is deep skepticism among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, pro-Israel advocates and Israel itself that the deal is realistic, workable or would have any effect on nuclear talks.

“My skepticism is Iran itself. What would a good deal look like? No enrichment. And we’ll see if we can get there,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally and longtime Iran hawk, said Tuesday. “But whether or not we can get phase 2, I don’t know.”

A nuclear deal takes commitment to the details

David Schenker, director of the Arab Politics Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said “this administration has proven that it has a hard time keeping its attention on these issues.”

Schenker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs in the first Trump administration, questioned whether the current administration would have the wherewithal to reach a nuclear deal even if the agreement is signed Friday.

“This is the kind of thing that requires dogged attention, attention to detail and numerous technical experts involved,” he said. “Trump loses his attention, moves on, and so does the administration. It’s like they don’t understand Iran’s strategy. They didn’t get it the first time, or the second.”

The Republican administration has maintained its confidence. Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that much of the technical details must be negotiated but that the U.S. must see action for Iran to receive incentives such as sanctions relief.

“Our plan under this deal is, again, the Iranians are getting a lot of benefits so long as they dismantle that nuclear weapons program," Vance told Megyn Kelly on her podcast.

“People always ask me, ‘Why do you believe it this time?’ I don’t believe them,” he added. “I don’t trust anything that anybody says. I trust what people do. And the way this deal is structured is that as they do more, they receive more. As they do less, they receive less.”

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

It took over a year and a half to get the previous nuclear deal

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, took more than 18 months to negotiate, starting with secret talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Oman at the end of Democratic President Barack Obama’s first term.

They required dozens of direct high-level interventions from Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, not to mention a team of dozens of technical experts traveling to Europe and elsewhere before the conclusion of the negotiations in Vienna.

Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 before most of its more contentious concessions had come into effect, and there is no indication now that Iran is willing to offer much more.

The JCPOA relied on very technical language and understandings, including limits on uranium enrichment, advanced centrifuges and heavy water production. In exchange, Iran was granted significant sanctions relief, amounting to billions of dollars.

As unhappy as critics were about the JCPOA — Trump called it the “worst deal ever negotiated,” while all Republicans and a number of prominent Democrats voted against it — all sides acknowledge it took more than 18 months to get to an even imperfect agreement.

Republicans say Congress must approve any deal

Republicans say any nuclear deal with Iran should be brought to Congress, as required by law. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he “would certainly anticipate that” the Senate will get the final say.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he had little confidence Iran would abide by any agreement.

But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., one of a handful of senators who has spoken to Vance about the agreement, said the shortened timeline could be an advantage.

“Iran’s modus operandi is to negotiate for the purpose of delaying, so they can rearm themselves,” Marshall said. “I think the president has to give them some type of a finite amount of time, or there’s going to be consequences. So I think it can be done.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., noted that what could help Trump’s negotiators to hammer out a nuclear agreement in such a truncated timeline is that there is “a base" to work from following the Obama-era talks.

Still, the JCPOA "took years to put together. You had allies and even adversaries — China and Russia — around the table, you had the IAEA at the table, the Obama chief negotiator had a Nobel Prize in physics, Ernie Moniz,” Kaine said. “I don’t know that either Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff have a Nobel Prize. So it’s going to be hard.”

Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner, neither of whom had any prior experience in nuclear negotiations, made numerous but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement under Omani mediation during the first months of Trump’s second term.

Those tapered off after the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, after which Pakistan emerged as the main facilitator.

There also is uncertainty about other issues besides nuclear that have been of concern to Arab countries, Israel, Europe and the United States.

Those issues, including Iran’s ballistic missile program, its support for militant proxies in the region or repression of its own people, do not appear in copies of an interim agreement that officials say broadly matches the document. The deal has not been publicly released.

It includes major concessions, such as Iran selling its oil freely, beyond the terms of the JCPOA. Only at the conclusion of the overall deal in 2015 were sanctions on Iran’s oil lifted.

“A deal is better than more fighting, but the war America and Israel prosecuted against Iran has fallen short of achieving its stated objectives,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “This agreement is mostly about cleaning up an unnecessary mess and putting the best face on it.”

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

With the constant threat of being cast out, survival becomes as much about strategy as endurance.

In a game where no one can win alone, only those who hold their team together can outlast and claim the $1 million prize.

Local 10 News sat down with contestant Wes Saunders.

The former NFL athlete, who lives in South Florida, is ready to play the greatest game of all.

Watch the video above to see his interview with Local 10’s Jason Carter.

So far, more than 2,200 fires have burned—not even halfway through 2026. The yearly average is just 2,400.

Brush fires affect every taxpayer, and being careless costs money. The total budget for the Florida Forest Service is more than $181 million, and another $5 million has been spent so far in 2026 combatting brush fires.

“This fire season has been the busiest in 15 years, approximately,” Kevin MacEwen, with the FFS, said. “(The) number of fires, (the) size of fires has increased our need to be ready.”

The agency is armed with 10 helicopters and nearly 100 bulldozers, but a powerful new tool is now helping firefighters stay ahead of the flames. It’s a drone.

It is capable of targeting certain areas and sees hot spots the naked eye can’t. It can also drop balls — about the size of a paintball — filled with chemicals that ignite fires to be used as flame barriers, stopping bigger fires in their tracks.

“(It) keep(s) it within a certain area to where it’s not hopping these levees and endangering a neighborhood,” Pete Donahue, with the FFS, said.

With this extremely active fire season, state officials are urging the public to pay attention to burn bans.

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According to an arrest report, Jorden Stephen Perozo, of Miami Beach, was arrested on a criminal mischief charge.

Police said the Uruguay FIFA ball was on display at 71^st Street and Rue Vendome as Miami began hosting some of the World Cup matches on Monday, including Uruguay vs. Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, a witness told officers that he saw a man slashing the inflatable ball and then quickly leaving on an electric scooter.

Police said city cameras helped officers locate Perozo as he was sitting inside a parked Nissan sedan at 81^st Street and Hawthorne Avenue.

A “show up” was conducted with the witness and he identified Perozo as the man who destroyed the inflatable ball, authorities said.

Police said Perozo was transported to the police station where he initially told detectives that he was intoxicated and didn’t remember anything, but then shortly afterward, provided detectives with “a full confession.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Perozo was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,500 bond. Online jail records show he was out on felony bond at the time of his arrest for charges of fleeing/eluding police, resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct/breach of the peace.

Mystikal, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in March with a sentencing cap of 20 years, five years less than the maximum punishment for the crime. His plea deal reduced the charge from first-degree rape, which carries an automatic life sentence.

Days before his Tuesday sentencing hearing, he asked a judge to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he “did not have sufficient opportunity to fully consider the consequences," according to ABC affiliate WBRZ.

The victim spoke in court before sentencing and asked the judge to give Mystikal the maximum sentence, WBRZ reported. She reportedly said the rapper had punched her, choked her, pulled out her braids and forcibly raped her at his home in Prairieville, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) from Baton Rouge.

“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said in response, according to the local TV station.

A lawyer for the rapper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mystikal has been held without bond at the Ascension Parish Jail since his arrest in 2022.

The Louisiana rapper rose to national recognition in the 1990s and is known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya A(asterisk)(asterisk),” which was nominated for a Grammy in the best rap solo performance category.

In 2003, he pleaded guilty to sexual battery and was sentenced to six years in prison. That same year he was a Grammy nominee in two categories: best rap album for “Tarantula” and best male rap solo performance for his single “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall).”